File Storage · alternatives
Alternatives to Cloudian
20 file storage tools sit alongside Cloudian in this directory. Below is what separates each from Cloudian on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 20
- With a free tier
- 9
- Cheaper to start
- -
- Cloudian starts at
- On request
Why people look past Cloudian
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the Cloudian entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for Cloudian carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 9 of the 20 alternatives below can be used without paying.
There is only one tier
Cloudian publishes a single plan, Cloudian HyperStore at On request. There is no smaller tier to drop to if the fit is wrong or the budget moves.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
S3-compatible object storage server you run yourself, now under AGPL with a stripped community edition
- Can be used without paying; Cloudian cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Cloudian's 1.
Hot cloud storage without egress fees
- Publishes an entry price of $7.99/month, where Cloudian does not.
Unlimited cloud backup at an affordable price
- Publishes an entry price of $9/month, where Cloudian does not.
- 2 tiers to Cloudian's 1.
Google's consumer cloud storage app, sharing the same 15GB quota as Gmail and Google Photos
- Can be used without paying; Cloudian cannot.
- Sold on a Free tier plus paid storage add-on model rather than quote.
- 3 tiers to Cloudian's 1.
Low cost S3-compatible object storage with egress included up to a multiple of what you store
- Can be used without paying; Cloudian cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $4/month, where Cloudian does not.
- Sold on a Per terabyte per month model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Cloudian's 1.
S3-compatible object storage that charges nothing for egress to the internet
- Can be used without paying; Cloudian cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $0.015/month, where Cloudian does not.
- Sold on a Per gigabyte stored per month model rather than quote.
- 3 tiers to Cloudian's 1.
Every Cloudian alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cloudian (this page) | On request | Quote | 1 | |
| MinIOOpen source S3-compatible object storage with no licence fee, if you can carry the operational burden yourself | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Cloudian |
| WasabiCloud object storage with no egress fees, if you are willing to place the data off site | $7.99/month | - | - | vs Cloudian |
| BackblazeCheaper cloud storage per terabyte for archive use where on-premises operation is not required | $9/month | - | 2 | vs Cloudian |
| Google Drive | Free | Free tier plus paid storage add-on | 3 | vs Cloudian |
| IDrive e2 | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs Cloudian |
| Cloudflare R2 | Free, then $0.015/month | Per gigabyte stored per month | 3 | vs Cloudian |
| Ceph | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Cloudian |
| Storj | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs Cloudian |
| Tigris | Free, then $0.004/GB/month | Usage-based tiered storage with per-request fees | 4 | vs Cloudian |
| Box | Free, then $5/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Cloudian |
| Nextcloud | Free | Freemium | 4 | vs Cloudian |
| LucidLink | $7/month | Per member per month plus storage | 3 | vs Cloudian |
| VAST Data | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Cloudian |
| Panzura | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Cloudian |
| Scality RING | On request | Quote | 2 | vs Cloudian |
| Nasuni | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Cloudian |
| Veritas NetBackup | $100/month | Subscription | 1 | vs Cloudian |
| Zerto | $5/month | Subscription | 1 | vs Cloudian |
| Microsoft OneDrive | $1.99/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Cloudian |
| IDrive | $2.5/month | Subscription | 7 | vs Cloudian |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Cloudian badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (9)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- MinIO , Free
- Google Drive , Free
- IDrive e2 , Free, then $4/month
- Cloudflare R2 , Free, then $0.015/month
- Ceph , Free
- Storj , Free, then $4/month
- Tigris , Free, then $0.004/GB/month
- Box , Free, then $5/month
What you would be giving up
Cloudian is most often brought in for a backup team needing an immutable target so a compromised administrator account cannot delete the backups, an organisation restoring hundreds of terabytes regularly where public cloud egress charges make cloud storage untenable, a university or government body with data residency rules preventing use of public cloud object storage, a media archive holding petabytes of finished content where per-terabyte capital cost beats per-gigabyte monthly cloud fees. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Cloudian is broadly right and the question is cost, the Cloudian pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the File Storage category lists everything the directory holds, and best file storage tools ranks them.
Cloudian runs on linux. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Cloudian alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Cloudian?
- 20 other file storage tools are listed in this directory, led by MinIO, Wasabi, Backblaze, Google Drive. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Cloudian?
- 9 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: MinIO, Google Drive, IDrive e2, Cloudflare R2, Ceph.
- Why do people look for an alternative to Cloudian?
- On the figures on record, 2 things stand out: there is no free tier; there is only one tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from Cloudian?
- Cloudian is most often brought in for a backup team needing an immutable target so a compromised administrator account cannot delete the backups, an organisation restoring hundreds of terabytes regularly where public cloud egress charges make cloud storage untenable, a university or government body with data residency rules preventing use of public cloud object storage, a media archive holding petabytes of finished content where per-terabyte capital cost beats per-gigabyte monthly cloud fees. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Cloudian?
- None of the file storage tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Cloudian alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, File Storage, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Cloudian against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Cloudian covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every file storage tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the File Storage category, 20 tools beside Cloudian. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.