File Storage · alternatives
Alternatives to MinIO
20 file storage tools sit alongside MinIO in this directory. Below is what separates each from MinIO 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
- -
- MinIO starts at
- Free
Why people look past MinIO
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. MinIO has a free tier. 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.
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
- 1 tier to MinIO's 2.
Unlimited cloud backup at an affordable price
- No free tier, where MinIO has one.
- Publishes an entry price of $9/month, where MinIO does not.
Command line sync and mount tool for around 70 cloud storage providers
- 1 tier to MinIO'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 Open source, no licence fee.
- 3 tiers to MinIO's 2.
Low cost S3-compatible object storage with egress included up to a multiple of what you store
- Publishes an entry price of $4/month, where MinIO does not.
- Sold on a Per terabyte per month model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
S3-compatible object storage that charges nothing for egress to the internet
- Publishes an entry price of $0.015/month, where MinIO does not.
- Sold on a Per gigabyte stored per month model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 3 tiers to MinIO's 2.
Every MinIO 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MinIO (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | |
| CephIf you need block and file alongside object from one cluster, and can staff the operational complexity | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs MinIO |
| BackblazeIf the reason for self hosting was cost rather than data boundary, a managed bucket is usually cheaper than the staff time | $9/month | - | 2 | vs MinIO |
| RcloneIf you only need an S3 compatible interface in front of storage you already have, rather than a storage server | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Google Drive | Free | Free tier plus paid storage add-on | 3 | vs MinIO |
| IDrive e2 | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs MinIO |
| Cloudflare R2 | Free, then $0.015/month | Per gigabyte stored per month | 3 | vs MinIO |
| Storj | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs MinIO |
| Tigris | Free, then $0.004/GB/month | Usage-based tiered storage with per-request fees | 4 | vs MinIO |
| Box | Free, then $5/month | Subscription | 4 | vs MinIO |
| Nextcloud | Free | Freemium | 4 | vs MinIO |
| LucidLink | $7/month | Per member per month plus storage | 3 | vs MinIO |
| VAST Data | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Panzura | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Scality RING | On request | Quote | 2 | vs MinIO |
| Cloudian | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Nasuni | On request | Quote | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Veritas NetBackup | $100/month | Subscription | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Zerto | $5/month | Subscription | 1 | vs MinIO |
| Microsoft OneDrive | $1.99/month | Subscription | 4 | vs MinIO |
| IDrive | $2.5/month | Subscription | 7 | vs MinIO |
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 MinIO 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.
- Ceph , Free
- Rclone , Free
- Google Drive , Free
- IDrive e2 , Free, then $4/month
- Cloudflare R2 , Free, then $0.015/month
- Storj , Free, then $4/month
- Tigris , Free, then $0.004/GB/month
- Box , Free, then $5/month
What you would be giving up
MinIO is most often brought in for providing an s3 endpoint inside an air gapped or regulated network where a cloud bucket is not permitted, backing a kubernetes platform with object storage that lives on the same hardware as the cluster, standing up s3 semantics in ci so tests exercise the same api path as production, fronting local disk shelves with an s3 interface so applications only ever learn one storage api. 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 MinIO is broadly right and the question is cost, the MinIO 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.
MinIO runs on linux, macos, windows, kubernetes, docker. 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 MinIO alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to MinIO?
- 20 other file storage tools are listed in this directory, led by Ceph, Backblaze, Rclone, 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 MinIO?
- 9 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Ceph, Rclone, Google Drive, IDrive e2, Cloudflare R2.
- Is there a reason to switch away from MinIO?
- Nothing in the data flags one. MinIO has a free tier. 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 MinIO?
- MinIO is most often brought in for providing an s3 endpoint inside an air gapped or regulated network where a cloud bucket is not permitted, backing a kubernetes platform with object storage that lives on the same hardware as the cluster, standing up s3 semantics in ci so tests exercise the same api path as production, fronting local disk shelves with an s3 interface so applications only ever learn one storage api. 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 MinIO?
- 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 MinIO 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 MinIO against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against MinIO 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 MinIO. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.