Amazon S3 Files
Ranked 2 of 3 object storage filesystems by recommenders
Lets AWS users treat S3 buckets as file systems, with a shared EFS cache and simpler workflows; critics note it is not POSIX and lacks atomic rename.
Lets AWS users treat S3 buckets as file systems, with a shared EFS cache and simpler workflows; critics note it is not POSIX and lacks atomic rename.
19 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 9
- criticize it
- 10
- approval share
- 47%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 9 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 0.9 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Simplifies file-based workflows
“their life greatly simplified today”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “this sounds really useful”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” Shared EFS cache layer for durability
“S3 files does have the advantage of having a "shared" cache via EFS, but then that would probably also make the cache slower.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “using EFS as the middle layer means that there's a safe, durable place for your file system operations”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” Good design compromise, well launched
“It's a good compromise and kudos to whoever managed to push through the design.”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “good to see something get launched but the sausage making her was brutal”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
No atomic rename support
“doesn't support atomic rename and has no prospect of supporting atomic rename”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “you can't rename a directory without a full copy of all its contents”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “S3 Files was launched today without support for atomic rename.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” Not POSIX; object semantics mismatch
“The problem with using S3 as a filesystem is that it’s immutable, and that hasn’t changed with S3 Files.”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “the mismatch between object store semantics and file semantics mean you will probably Have A Bad Time”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “S3 Files is not POSIX compliant and doesn’t claim to be so.”
Comment from 7 May 2026 in “Show HN: Tilde.run – Agent Sandbox with a Transactional, Versioned Filesystem” Design seen as a hack
“let's put a fresh coat on top of it and pretend it's something that fundamentally is not”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “I have trouble seeing this as something other than a giant "hack."”
Comment from 7 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” Cache latency and design tradeoffs
“If the S3 Files sync logic ran client-side, we could almost entirely avoid file access latency for cached files”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3” “it might have been better (and cheaper) to send all files to S3 and only use EFS for the metadata layer”
Comment from 8 Apr 2026 in “S3 Files and the changing face of S3”
Other object storage filesystems people recommend
The two most recommended other object storage filesystems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
See all 3 object storage filesystems, rankedWhat people said
All 23 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“S3 Files is not POSIX compliant and doesn’t claim to be so.”
“The only downside is that it only works within AWS.”
“Would be really useful pre-compaction and to deal with small files issue without latency penalties”
“doesn't support atomic rename and has no prospect of supporting atomic rename”
“it might have been better (and cheaper) to send all files to S3 and only use EFS for the metadata layer”
“good to see something get launched but the sausage making her was brutal”
“you can't rename a directory without a full copy of all its contents”
“Don't forget the locking semantics. That was fun and caused Sage to fail.”
“S3 Files was launched today without support for atomic rename.”
“I don't really see why I would use this instead of s3fs”
“If the S3 Files sync logic ran client-side, we could almost entirely avoid file access latency for cached files”
“The problem with using S3 as a filesystem is that it’s immutable, and that hasn’t changed with S3 Files.”
“I agree, it's an oddly low threshold.”
“let's put a fresh coat on top of it and pretend it's something that fundamentally is not”
“seems it would be of limited benefit”
“this sounds really useful”
“the mismatch between object store semantics and file semantics mean you will probably Have A Bad Time”
“comes with some of EFS's eye-watering pricing”
“using EFS as the middle layer means that there's a safe, durable place for your file system operations”
“S3 files does have the advantage of having a "shared" cache via EFS, but then that would probably also make the cache slower.”
“It's a good compromise and kudos to whoever managed to push through the design.”
“their life greatly simplified today”
“I have trouble seeing this as something other than a giant "hack."”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.