S3 vs Azure Blob
Cloud object storage pricing comparison. For a mid-size SaaS workload, Azure Blob is cheaper.
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Personal site, small app, or hobby project: 10GB storage, 50GB egress, 10,000 writes, 100,000 reads per month.
| Cost Component | S3 | Azure Blob |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.23 | $0.18 |
| Egress | $4.50 | $4.35 |
| API Requests | $0.09 | $0.10 |
| Monthly Total | $4.82 | $4.63 |
| Annual Total | $58 | $56 |
Azure Blob is 4% cheaper for this scenario, saving $0.19/mo ($2/year).
Feature Comparison
| Feature | S3 | Azure Blob |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Compatible | Yes | No |
| Zero Egress Cost | No | No |
| Free Tier | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption at Rest | Yes | Yes |
| Customer-Managed Keys | Yes | Yes |
| Sensitive Data | full | full |
| Data Residency | US, EU, AP, SA, AF | US, EU, AP, SA, AF |
| CDN Integration | cloudfront, cloudflare, fastly | azure-cdn, cloudflare, fastly |
Strengths & Weaknesses
S3
Pros
- +Most feature-rich storage service
- +Largest ecosystem and tooling support
- +Granular lifecycle and tiering policies
- +Global availability with 30+ regions
Cons
- −Complex tiered pricing
- −Expensive egress fees
- −Free tier expires after 12 months
Azure Blob
Pros
- +Deep Microsoft ecosystem integration
- +Most compliance certifications
- +Immutable storage for regulatory needs
- +Competitive storage pricing
Cons
- −Complex pricing tiers
- −High egress costs
- −S3 compatibility requires extra config
When to Choose Which
Choose S3 if you need:
- Enterprise workloads
- Complex data lifecycle needs
- Multi-service AWS integration
Choose Azure Blob if you need:
- Microsoft/Azure-heavy orgs
- Regulatory compliance workloads
- Enterprise hybrid cloud