What's the Difference Between Amazon EFS and Amazon FSx for Windows?
Compare Amazon EFS and Amazon FSx for Windows side by side — features, pricing, and ideal use cases to help you choose the right product.
Compare side-by-side
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Comparisons
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Amazon EFS
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Amazon FSx for Windows
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Category
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Storage, File Storage |
Storage, Windows File Storage |
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Description
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Serverless, fully elastic file storage |
Fully managed Windows shared file systems with full SMB support |
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Best for
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Key features
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Pricing model
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Pay per GB stored; no provisioning required |
Pay per GB provisioned + throughput capacity |
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Free tier
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Yes |
No |
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Expert take
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“EFS is the answer when multiple EC2 instances or containers need concurrent read/write access to the same file system. It grows and shrinks automatically, so you never have to provision capacity or worry about running out of space.” |
“FSx for Windows provides fully managed Windows file shares with Active Directory, DFS, and shadow copies. It replaces on-premises Windows file servers with zero application changes.” |
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Product page
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When to use Amazon EFS or Amazon FSx for Windows
Use Amazon EFS when:
- Content management
- Web serving
- Home directories
- Machine learning
- Container storage
Use Amazon FSx for Windows when:
- Windows file shares
- Home directories
- CRM applications
- ERP workloads
- .NET applications
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