AWS EBS Alternatives in 2026: The Performance Engineer's Guide

An honest comparison of every serious EBS alternative - pricing, IOPS commitments, and the trade-offs vendors don't put on their pricing pages.

TL;DR

• The cost gap is 15×. Same workload — 1TB at 20,000 IOPS - costs $1,425/mo on AWS io2 Block Express, $1,220/mo on Azure Ultra Disk, $768/mo on GCP Hyperdisk Extreme, and $93.50/mo on Nirvana ABS.
• The "free IOPS" reveal. ABS includes 20,000 sustained IOPS in the storage price. AWS gp3 and GCP Hyperdisk Balanced include a flat 3,000 IOPS baseline. AWS io2 Block Express, GCP Hyperdisk Extreme, and Azure Ultra Disk include zero — every IOPS is paid for, every month.
• gp3 ceiling, io2 cliff. AWS gp3 caps at 80,000 IOPS per volume on a 3,000 IOPS baseline. io2 has no free IOPS but goes to 256,000 fully provisioned. Most teams hit the gp3 floor before io2's ceiling becomes relevant.
• If you're hitting the gp3 3K floor: ABS gives 20K guaranteed for $13.50/TB more than gp3 — 6.7× the included IOPS, no provisioned-IOPS line item.

Why Engineers and DevOps Teams Are Looking for EBS Alternatives

AWS EBS is the default block storage on EC2 — most teams land on it because it ships with the platform. For many workloads, it's enough. Two specific situations push teams to evaluate alternatives.

The performance floor. gp3 volumes deliver a flat 3,000 IOPS baseline at any volume size — no burst, no credit model. (The burst credit exhaustion model — where IOPS drops mid-load — is a property of the older gp2 volumes, which remain widely deployed.) For sustained workloads — vector index builds, ClickHouse ingestion, OLTP at scale, blockchain indexers — 3,000 IOPS saturates quickly.

The cost of higher IOPS. Provisioning above the gp3 baseline costs $0.005/IOPS-month. Moving to io2 Block Express adds $0.125/GB-month storage plus tiered per-IOPS charges ($0.065 / $0.046 / $0.032 per IOPS-month across IOPS bands). At 1TB and 20,000 IOPS, the math works out to $165/month on gp3 (provisioned) versus $1,425/month on io2 Block Express — an 8.6× step from default to high-IOPS.

This guide covers the alternatives — their performance models, pricing, and the workloads each one fits.

Quick Comparison: EBS Alternatives at a Glance

Performance tier - providers with published or guaranteed IOPS

This is where the head-to-head comparison happens. Every provider in this table either includes IOPS in the base price or sells them per-IOPS-month with a published rate.

How to read the IOPS columns.
The first column shows what you get without paying anything extra — Nirvana ABS includes 20,000 sustained IOPS in the storage price; AWS gp3 and GCP Hyperdisk Balanced include a flat 3,000 IOPS baseline; AWS io2 Block Express, GCP Hyperdisk Extreme, and Azure Ultra Disk include zero free IOPS — every IOPS is paid. The second column shows the per-volume ceiling: for Nirvana, that's a 600,000 IOPS burst (no credits, no time-limit throttling); for everyone else, it's the maximum you can provision (and pay for).

Other options — no published IOPS commitments

These providers don't publish baseline IOPS, configurable performance tiers, or latency SLAs. They're cheaper per TB but can't be ranked alongside the performance tier on a per-IOPS basis. Listed for reference only.

The Alternatives, Evaluated

1. Nirvana Accelerated Block Storage (ABS)

Category: High-performance managed block storage cloud

Nirvana ABS is purpose-built for workloads that need sustained high IOPS — not burst, not provisioned-at-premium, but 20,000 IOPS included as the baseline in the flat per-GB price.

The performance model: No burst credits. 20,000 sustained IOPS is the floor, available under continuous load indefinitely. Bursts to 600,000 IOPS for peak demand. 300 MB/s throughput is included in the base price — no separate throughput line item.

The benchmark numbers:

• 4K random write: ~20,000 IOPS at ~3.5ms latency (sustained, 60-minute test)
• Mixed 80/20 read/write: 20,000 IOPS at ~1.3ms average latency
• Cold-read analytical performance (ClickBench): 10–14× faster than gp3 on IO-heavy queries
• vs io2: within 1.5× on 77% of queries — io2-class performance at below-gp3-level pricing

Pricing:

• Storage: $0.0935/GB-month (~$93.50/TB)
• IOPS: 20,000 included, no extra charge
• Throughput: 300 MB/s included
• Egress: $0.02/GB flat — or $0 over Nirvana Connect (private networking)

Full workload cost (4 vCPU / 16 GB + 2TB storage + 10TB egress):

• Nirvana: $485/month
• AWS equivalent: $2,597/month
• Savings: 81%

Best for: Vector databases, ClickHouse, OLTP at scale, blockchain indexers, real-time analytics, and any workload where sustained IOPS under load is a requirement — not a nice-to-have.

Not ideal for: Teams deeply embedded in the AWS ecosystem who need Aurora, RDS, or dozens of managed AWS services alongside their storage. Teams needing multi-region redundancy beyond Nirvana's current availability (US Silicon Valley, expanding).

2. AWS EBS gp3

Category: Default AWS block storage

gp3 is not an alternative to itself, but it's worth including because many teams considering alternatives haven't exhausted gp3's options.

Important distinction from gp2: gp3 does not use a burst credit model. It delivers a flat 3,000 IOPS baseline at any volume size — always on, no credit bucket to deplete. You can provision additional IOPS up to 80,000 at $0.005/IOPS/month, independently of volume size.

(The burst credit exhaustion problem — where IOPS collapses after 7–10 minutes under load — applies to the older gp2 volumes. Many teams still run on gp2 and have not migrated. If you're on gp2 and hitting performance cliffs under sustained load, migrating to gp3 alone may help; if you're already on gp3, the floor is simply a fixed 3,000 IOPS.)

When gp3 with provisioned IOPS works: If you need 10,000–30,000 IOPS and your workload is mostly read-heavy with a warm cache, gp3 with provisioned IOPS is a reasonable AWS-native option.

When it falls short: The 3,000 IOPS baseline is insufficient for sustained database workloads at scale. Provisioned IOPS adds cost fast — at 20,000 IOPS, that's an extra $85/month on top of storage. gp3 caps at 80,000 IOPS. And you're still paying AWS egress on every byte out.

Pricing (1TB, 20K IOPS): $80 storage + $85 provisioned IOPS = $165/month

3. AWS EBS io2 Block Express

Category: High-performance provisioned IOPS (AWS-native)

io2 is AWS's answer to the gp3 performance ceiling. It delivers sustained IOPS without a burst model — but you pay for every IOPS you provision, every month.

As of April 2025, all new io2 volumes are io2 Block Express by default — up to 256,000 IOPS per volume and sub-millisecond latency. IOPS pricing is tiered: $0.065 per IOPS-month for the first 32K, $0.046 for 32K–64K, and $0.032 above 64K.

Where io2 wins:

• Multi-attach: share a volume across up to 16 EC2 instances (ABS does not currently support this)
• AWS-native integration: works seamlessly with EBS snapshots, AWS Backup, AWS services
• Higher IOPS ceiling than most alternatives (256,000/volume)
• Proven at massive enterprise scale

Where io2 loses:

• Price. At 20,000 IOPS on 1TB: $1,425/month
• At 50,000 IOPS on 1TB: $3,033/month
• You're still paying AWS egress on every byte out
• The pricing model incentivizes under-provisioning, which defeats the purpose

The honest take: io2 Block Express is genuinely excellent storage. The performance matches ABS across most workloads. The problem is not the product — it's the pricing model, which makes sustained high IOPS unaffordable for most startups and scaleups.

4. Google Cloud Hyperdisk (Balanced and Extreme)

Category: GCP block storage — general-purpose and high-performance tiers

GCP's modern block storage line. Two tiers are relevant for EBS comparison: Hyperdisk Balanced (gp3-equivalent) and Hyperdisk Extreme (io2-equivalent).

Hyperdisk Balanced

3,000 IOPS flat baseline. Provision additional IOPS at ~$0.005/IOPS-month and additional throughput at ~$0.04/MBps-month above the 140 MBps baseline. Storage is ~$0.08/GiB-month. Up to 160,000 IOPS per volume, 2,400 MiB/s throughput.

Cost at 1TB / 20K IOPS / 300 MBps:

• Storage: 1,024 GiB × $0.08 ≈ $80
• IOPS: 17,000 × $0.005 = $85
• Throughput: 160 MBps × $0.04 ≈ $6
• Total: ~$171/month

Roughly the same cost structure as AWS gp3, plus a separate throughput line item. Hyperdisk Balanced is the right comparison for teams currently on gp3 looking at GCP — and it lands at a similar price.

Hyperdisk Extreme

Google's competitive response to io2. Up to 350,000 IOPS per volume — fully provisioned, no burst model.

The billing model (from published GCP pricing):

• Provisioned space: ~$0.125/GiB-month
• Provisioned IOPS: ~$0.032/IOPS-month
• Throughput: scales with provisioned IOPS (not separately configurable)

Cost at 1TB, 20,000 IOPS:

• Storage: 1,024 GiB × $0.125 ≈ $128
• IOPS: 20,000 × $0.032 = $640
• Total: ~$768/month

Roughly half the cost of io2 at equivalent IOPS — but still 8× more expensive than ABS at $93.50/month. GCP egress charges apply on top.

Where GCP wins: If you're already on GCP using BigQuery, GKE, or Vertex AI, staying in-ecosystem has real operational benefits.

The storage-specific verdict: Hyperdisk Balanced is competitive with gp3 on price. Hyperdisk Extreme is cheaper than io2 at equivalent IOPS, but not cheaper than ABS. The provisioned model means high sustained IOPS is expensive, and GCP egress ($0.08–$0.23/GB depending on destination) compounds the cost for data-heavy workloads.

5. Microsoft Azure (Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk)

Category: Azure block storage — provisioned-IOPS general purpose and high-performance tiers

Azure's two relevant tiers for EBS comparison are Premium SSD v2 (gp3/io2-tier) and Ultra Disk (high-end). Both bill capacity, IOPS, and throughput as separate line items.

Premium SSD v2

3,000 IOPS flat baseline plus 125 MBps free throughput. Storage is ~$0.082/GiB-month. Provision additional IOPS at ~$0.05/IOPS-month and additional throughput at ~$0.04/MBps-month.

Cost at 1TB / 20K IOPS:

• Storage: 1,024 GiB × $0.082 ≈ $84
• IOPS: 17,000 × $0.05 = $850
• Throughput: depends on configuration
• Total: ~$932+/month

Premium SSD v2 sits between gp3 and io2 in pricing model: a small free baseline, then provisioned-IOPS pricing on top. The per-IOPS rate ($0.05) is 10× higher than AWS gp3's ($0.005).

Ultra Disk

Up to 400,000 IOPS per disk with sub-millisecond latency — fully provisioned, no free baseline. Designed for SAP HANA, SQL Server at scale, and enterprise database workloads inside the Azure ecosystem.

The billing model (Central US, LRS):

• Capacity: ~$0.1197/GiB-month
• Provisioned IOPS: ~$0.0496/IOPS-month
• Provisioned throughput: ~$0.3497/MBps-month

Cost at 1TB / 20K IOPS / 300 MBps:

• Capacity: 1,024 GiB × $0.1197 ≈ $122
• IOPS: 20,000 × $0.0496 ≈ $993
• Throughput: 300 MBps × $0.3497 ≈ $105
• Total: ~$1,220/month

Roughly comparable to io2 at the same configuration. 13× more expensive than ABS at $93.50/month for the same sustained 20K IOPS.

Where Azure wins: If your stack is Azure-first (Azure DevOps, AKS, Active Directory, M365 ecosystem), staying in-ecosystem has real operational benefits.

The storage-specific verdict: Both Premium SSD v2 and Ultra Disk follow the same pattern as io2 — the per-IOPS line item dominates total cost above the baseline. For workloads that need sustained IOPS without Azure-specific integration requirements, the pricing model is the barrier.

6. Commodity Cloud Block Storage: DigitalOcean, Akamai, Vultr, Hetzner

Category: Different product class — cheap per-TB block storage, no published IOPS commitments

These four vendors are not in the same product category as the performance-tier providers above. They sell flat per-TB block storage at $25–$100/TB, target general-purpose developer workloads, and don't publish baseline IOPS, configurable performance tiers, or latency SLAs. If your decision is "EBS gp3 vs io2 vs ABS," none of these is a serious comparison candidate. They're listed for completeness — and because some teams shopping for cheaper EBS look at them.

Pricing (1TB volume):

• DigitalOcean Volumes — $100/mo (NVMe-backed)
• Akamai Block Storage — $100/mo (NVMe-backed; up to 16 TB per volume; built-in erasure coding)
• Vultr NVMe Block Storage — $100/mo
• Vultr HDD Block Storage — $25/mo (HDD; backups, logs, archival)
• Hetzner Cloud Volumes — ~$48/mo (€0.044/GiB; SSD; up to 10 TB per volume; triple replication; primarily European regions)

The performance reality. DigitalOcean cites "up to 10,000 IOPS, burst 15,000" as a platform maximum that varies with Droplet type — not a committed contract. Akamai's marketing claims "up to 2,000× spinning-disk IOPS." Vultr and Hetzner publish nothing. For workloads where IOPS predictability matters — vector indexes, ClickHouse merges, OLTP under sustained load — none of these vendors gives you a number to plan against.

Where they fit: Developer infrastructure, web app backends, dev/staging, moderate databases. Hetzner is the cheapest managed option in this group ($48/TiB) and is most relevant for European teams with data sovereignty or GDPR requirements. Vultr HDD is the only HDD tier here — useful for archival, where it competes against S3 and Backblaze B2 more than against EBS.

Hetzner Dedicated Servers — bare-metal hardware with local NVMe — is a separate product. You can hit 100,000+ IOPS, but you manage everything: replication, snapshots, failover. Not a managed cloud product, not directly comparable to EBS or ABS, and outside the scope of this guide.

The verdict: Different product class from the performance-tier comparison. Useful for moderate workloads where simplicity and per-TB price are the priorities. Not a replacement for EBS on workloads that need 20,000+ sustained IOPS.

7. Simplyblock

Category: Software-defined block storage — not a managed cloud block storage service

Simplyblock markets itself as an "EBS alternative," but it's a different product category from EBS, ABS, Hyperdisk, or Ultra Disk. Two specifics worth knowing:

On AWS, Simplyblock doesn't replace EBS — it caches in front of it. Their AWS deployment uses local instance NVMe (ephemeral, attached to the physical EC2 host) as a hot read/write cache, with EBS underneath as the durable persistence layer and S3 for cold data. The IOPS improvement is real — local NVMe can deliver 100,000+ IOPS versus EBS gp3's 3,000 baseline — but EBS remains in the stack as the durable substrate, and you continue paying for it. Architecturally, it's a caching layer on top of EBS, not a replacement for it.

Their core product is block storage software you run yourself. Simplyblock's primary deployment is NVMe/TCP block storage software for Kubernetes, OpenShift, KubeVirt, and private cloud infrastructure — a software-defined SAN for teams that own their hardware. You provide the servers, NVMe drives, networking, data center, and operations team. Enterprise Edition starts at $200K/PB/year on annual contracts. Their own published cost example lands at ~$40/TB all-in (license + hardware + power), versus ABS at $93.50/TB fully managed.

Practical requirements (AWS deployment):

• NVMe-equipped EC2 instance types (i3, i3en, Im4gn, Is4gen) — different instance families and compute pricing
• Local NVMe is ephemeral; durability depends on the EBS layer below
• You operate the Simplyblock software yourself

Where Simplyblock fits:

• Kubernetes and private cloud teams needing a software-defined block storage foundation
• Teams standardizing storage across hybrid environments (same software on-prem and in cloud)
• AWS teams that must stay on EC2 and want to reduce IOPS pressure on EBS without migrating

vs ABS, factually. ABS is managed cloud block storage with 20,000 sustained IOPS included — you provision a volume and use it. Simplyblock is infrastructure software — you provision a cluster and operate it. On AWS specifically, Simplyblock layers local-NVMe caching on top of EBS rather than replacing it, which means it's not a like-for-like swap.

How to Choose: A Decision Framework

Choose ABS (Nirvana) if:

• You need 20,000+ sustained IOPS without paying per-IOPS pricing
• Your workload is storage-bound: vector databases, ClickHouse, OLTP at scale, blockchain infrastructure
• Egress costs are meaningful — 10TB/month on AWS costs $921; on Nirvana it's $204 (or $0 via private connect)
• You want io2-class performance without io2-class pricing
• You're open to running workloads outside AWS
• You want managed K8s (NKS) with tight compute-storage locality

Choose EBS io2 if:

• You need multi-attach across multiple EC2 instances
• Deep AWS service integration is non-negotiable (RDS, Aurora, AWS Backup)
• You need 80,000–256,000 IOPS per volume
• Enterprise compliance requires staying within AWS

Choose gp3 (with provisioned IOPS) if:

• You're not hitting the 3,000 IOPS baseline under load
• Your workload is mostly read-heavy with a warm cache
• You want to stay on AWS without moving to io2 pricing
• You need 10,000–30,000 IOPS and can accept the gp3 cap

Choose DigitalOcean, Akamai, Vultr, or Hetzner if:

• You're running web application backends or developer infrastructure
• Operational simplicity and per-TB price matter more than storage performance
• Your workload tolerates unspecified IOPS — none of these providers publishes guaranteed performance numbers
• Hetzner specifically: you're European and need data sovereignty / GDPR coverage at the lowest per-TB cost (~$48/TiB)
• Vultr HDD ($25/TB) specifically: you need cheap cold storage for backups, logs, or archival — not active databases

Choose Simplyblock if:

• You're standing up software-defined block storage in your own data center, on Kubernetes, or on hardware you own
• You want a unified storage layer across on-prem and AWS environments
• You're staying on EC2 and want a local-NVMe caching layer on top of EBS (note: this does not replace EBS — EBS remains in the stack)

The Workload-Specific Recommendations

Frequently Asked Questions

"Is migrating from AWS EBS to another cloud difficult?"

For stateless workloads: minimal. For stateful database workloads: it requires a data migration, but the standard approach (snapshot, restore, verify) is straightforward. Nirvana supports Terraform, CLI, and API provisioning — the same tooling patterns as AWS. Most teams complete a storage migration in hours.

"What about data durability and replication?"

ABS includes replication. Durability is comparable to EBS gp3/io2. Snapshots and backup integrations are available.

"Can I keep some workloads on AWS and move storage-heavy ones to Nirvana?"

Yes — this is the most common migration pattern. Keep AWS-native services (RDS, Lambda, S3 archival) on AWS. Move storage-bound workloads (ClickHouse, vector databases, analytics infrastructure) to Nirvana where EBS is the bottleneck and the cost driver. Goldsky did exactly this, and cut Elasticsearch latency from 15ms to under 5ms across 100TB.

"What's Nirvana's current region availability?"

US Silicon Valley (us-sva-2) is live. Additional regions are in progress. Check nirvanalabs.io for current availability.

"Is Nirvana SOC 2 compliant?"

Yes. Nirvana is SOC II Type 2 compliant.

The Bottom Line

In 2026, "EBS alternative" means different things depending on what's actually breaking.

If the problem is cost at sustained high IOPS, the math is clear: io2 at $1,425/month for 1TB at 20K IOPS vs ABS at $93.50/month for the same baseline. The 8× cost difference compounds across every volume in a production fleet.

If the problem is hitting the gp3 3,000 IOPS floor (or gp2 burst credit exhaustion if you haven't migrated), the fix is either provisioned IOPS on gp3 (staying on AWS, paying more) or storage where 20,000 IOPS is the included baseline.

If the problem is egress, Nirvana Connect provides zero-cost private networking. AWS charges $0.09/GB out of the gate.

If the problem is AWS ecosystem lock-in (the hardest constraint), Simplyblock or io2 are the options that don't require moving off EC2.

The engineers who benchmark their actual workload make this decision quickly. The numbers tell the story.

Run the benchmark. Deploy Nirvana in minutes → — run FIO against ABS, compare it against your current gp3 or io2 volume. No commitment required.

Read the head-to-head. Full ABS vs EBS benchmark report → — ClickBench and FIO results, complete methodology.

See the pricing math. Nirvana pricing → — including the cost calculator for your specific workload.

Related:

Google Hyperdisk Balanced, Hyperdisk Balanced HA vs Nirvana Accelerated Block Storage (ABS) | Nirvana Labs

Google Cloud (GCP) Hyperdisk Balanced: 160K IOPS is the provisioned max (baseline is 3,000), HA tier costs 2x, and VM-level caps add hidden compute cost. How Nirvana ABS compares.

Nirvana Labs

Block Storage Benchmarking : Nirvana ABS vs AWS EBS | Nirvana Labs

ABS is 10–14x faster than gp3 on cold reads, matches io2 performance, costs 8x less. Full ClickBench and FIO results inside.

Nirvana Labs

Nirvana Cloud Pricing | Nirvana Labs

Transparent, flat rates for compute, storage, and networking. No burst credits, no hidden fees. Performance included by default.

Nirvana Labs

Block Storage Price Comparison: Traditional Cloud (gp3/io2 style) vs ABS | Nirvana Labs

Compare block storage pricing: AWS gp3, io2, and Nirvana ABS side by side. ABS delivers 20K sustained IOPS at up to 90% lower cost than io2.

Nirvana Labs

Nirvana: Modern Cloud for Real-time Workloads

Ultra-fast Block Storage with High IOPS, powering blockchain, AI and real time systems.

Learn more at Nirvana Labs

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