AWS S3 vs EBS vs EFS: Key Differences and When to Use Each
Amazon Web Services offers three distinct storage solutions — S3, EBS, and EFS — each designed for fundamentally different use cases. EBS functions as a virtual hard drive attached to a single EC2 instance, making it suitable for operating systems and databases requiring low-latency block access. EFS is a managed network file system that multiple instances can mount simultaneously, ideal for shared workloads across servers, though it costs more per GB than EBS. S3 is object storage accessed via HTTP API rather than a file system, best suited for backups, static assets, logs, and data lakes at a cheaper per-GB cost. Choosing the wrong service is a common beginner mistake that can result in inefficient architectures and higher-than-expected cloud bills.
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