File Storage · alternatives
Alternatives to IDrive e2
20 file storage tools sit alongside IDrive e2 in this directory. Below is what separates each from IDrive e2 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
- 8
- Cheaper to start
- 5
- IDrive e2 starts at
- Free, then $4/month
Why people look past IDrive e2
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. IDrive e2 has a free tier, and starts at $4/month against a category median of $5/month. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
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.
Unlimited cloud backup at an affordable price
- No free tier, where IDrive e2 has one.
- Starts $5 a month dearer, at $9/month.
Hot cloud storage without egress fees
- No free tier, where IDrive e2 has one.
- Starts $3.99 a month dearer, at $7.99/month.
Affordable online backup with multiple device support
- No free tier, where IDrive e2 has one.
- Starts $1.5 a month cheaper, at $2.5/month.
- Sold on a subscription model rather than Per terabyte per month.
- 7 tiers to IDrive e2's 2.
Google's consumer cloud storage app, sharing the same 15GB quota as Gmail and Google Photos
- Sold on a Free tier plus paid storage add-on model rather than Per terabyte per month.
- 3 tiers to IDrive e2's 2.
S3-compatible object storage that charges nothing for egress to the internet
- Starts $3.985 a month cheaper, at $0.015/month.
- Sold on a Per gigabyte stored per month model rather than Per terabyte per month.
- 3 tiers to IDrive e2's 2.
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than Per terabyte per month.
- 1 tier to IDrive e2's 2.
Every IDrive e2 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDrive e2 (this page) | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | |
| BackblazeBetter documented, more widely integrated, and a closer match if your tooling assumes B2 | $9/month | - | 2 | vs IDrive e2 |
| WasabiFlat per terabyte pricing with no egress charge at all, at the cost of a ninety day minimum retention | $7.99/month | - | - | vs IDrive e2 |
| IDriveIf what you actually want is a managed backup product rather than a raw S3 endpoint to point tools at | $2.5/month | Subscription | 7 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Google Drive | Free | Free tier plus paid storage add-on | 3 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Cloudflare R2 | Free, then $0.015/month | Per gigabyte stored per month | 3 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Ceph | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| MinIO | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Storj | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Tigris | Free, then $0.004/GB/month | Usage-based tiered storage with per-request fees | 4 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Box | Free, then $5/month | Subscription | 4 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Nextcloud | Free | Freemium | 4 | vs IDrive e2 |
| LucidLink | $7/month | Per member per month plus storage | 3 | vs IDrive e2 |
| VAST Data | On request | Quote | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Panzura | On request | Quote | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Scality RING | On request | Quote | 2 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Cloudian | On request | Quote | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Nasuni | On request | Quote | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Veritas NetBackup | $100/month | Subscription | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Zerto | $5/month | Subscription | 1 | vs IDrive e2 |
| Microsoft OneDrive | $1.99/month | Subscription | 4 | vs IDrive e2 |
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 IDrive e2 badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
Free to start (8)
These publish a tier that costs nothing, so they can be evaluated before any money changes hands.
- Google Drive , Free
- Cloudflare R2 , Free, then $0.015/month
- Ceph , Free
- MinIO , Free
- Storj , Free, then $4/month
- Tigris , Free, then $0.004/GB/month
- Box , Free, then $5/month
- Nextcloud , Free
Cheaper than IDrive e2 (5)
Entry price under IDrive e2's $4/month. The record does not say what unit that price is charged in, so confirm per-seat versus flat rate before comparing budgets.
- IDrive , $2.5/month
- Cloudflare R2 , Free, then $0.015/month
- Tigris , Free, then $0.004/GB/month
- Nextcloud , Free
- Microsoft OneDrive , $1.99/month
What you would be giving up
IDrive e2 is most often brought in for the offsite copy in a three two one backup chain driven by veeam, restic or a nas backup client, replacing an s3 bucket whose cost is dominated by storage rather than by requests, small teams who want predictable monthly object storage billing with no request line items, archiving media or logs that must stay accessible without a retrieval delay. 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 IDrive e2 is broadly right and the question is cost, the IDrive e2 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.
IDrive e2 runs on web, api. 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 IDrive e2 alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to IDrive e2?
- 20 other file storage tools are listed in this directory, led by Backblaze, Wasabi, IDrive, 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 IDrive e2?
- 8 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Google Drive, Cloudflare R2, Ceph, MinIO, Storj.
- Is there a cheaper alternative to IDrive e2?
- Yes. 5 of the alternatives below start under IDrive e2's $4/month: IDrive at $2.5/month, Cloudflare R2 at Free, then $0.015/month, Tigris at Free, then $0.004/GB/month, Nextcloud at Free.
- Is there a reason to switch away from IDrive e2?
- Nothing in the data flags one. IDrive e2 has a free tier, and starts at $4/month against a category median of $5/month. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from IDrive e2?
- IDrive e2 is most often brought in for the offsite copy in a three two one backup chain driven by veeam, restic or a nas backup client, replacing an s3 bucket whose cost is dominated by storage rather than by requests, small teams who want predictable monthly object storage billing with no request line items, archiving media or logs that must stay accessible without a retrieval delay. 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 IDrive e2?
- 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 IDrive e2 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 IDrive e2 against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against IDrive e2 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 IDrive e2. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.