Cost Comparison Between Amazon S3 Standalone and S3 + CloudFront Configuration

Tadashi Shigeoka ·  Tue, June 15, 2021

I’ll introduce information comparing the costs of Amazon S3 standalone usage and S3 + CloudFront configuration.

AWS

Background: Use S3 Standalone or S3 + CloudFront Configuration?

When considering whether to use S3 standalone or through S3 + CloudFront configuration, I researched cost comparison information.

S3 Standalone vs S3 + CloudFront

There are two approaches for direct S3 access or accessing through CloudFront, each with their pros and cons:

Direct Access to S3

Advantages:

  • Complete with just S3

Disadvantages:

  • Cannot provide access through name resolution

Access Through CloudFront

Advantages:

  • Can provide access through name resolution (domain assignment)

Disadvantages:

  • CloudFront's default configuration restricts access, so unexpected access drops may occur

Cost Comparison

In terms of cost, S3 standalone configuration seems to be cheaper until you exceed 5PB.

Here are the reference articles:

20191129 s3 CloudFront料金 from yamamotomsc

Impressions

  • For services used domestically in Japan, especially around the Kanto region, a simple S3 standalone configuration seems fine
  • For large traffic volumes, use S3 + CloudFront configuration
  • For access from around the world, use S3 + CloudFront configuration

That’s all from the Gemba about cost comparison information between Amazon S3 standalone usage and S3 + CloudFront configuration.