File Storage · alternatives
Alternatives to Panzura
19 file storage tools sit alongside Panzura in this directory. Below is what separates each from Panzura on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 19
- With a free tier
- 9
- Cheaper to start
- -
- Panzura starts at
- On request
Why people look past Panzura
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the Panzura entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for Panzura carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 9 of the 19 alternatives below can be used without paying.
There is only one tier
Panzura publishes a single plan, Panzura CloudFS 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.
Cloud file storage that keeps the authoritative copy in object storage and caches it at each site
Priced and rated the same as Panzura on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster
- Can be used without paying; Panzura cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than quote.
S3-compatible object storage server you run yourself, now under AGPL with a stripped community edition
- Can be used without paying; Panzura cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Panzura's 1.
Google's consumer cloud storage app, sharing the same 15GB quota as Gmail and Google Photos
- Can be used without paying; Panzura cannot.
- Sold on a Free tier plus paid storage add-on model rather than quote.
- 3 tiers to Panzura's 1.
Low cost S3-compatible object storage with egress included up to a multiple of what you store
- Can be used without paying; Panzura cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $4/month, where Panzura does not.
- Sold on a Per terabyte per month model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Panzura's 1.
S3-compatible object storage that charges nothing for egress to the internet
- Can be used without paying; Panzura cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $0.015/month, where Panzura does not.
- Sold on a Per gigabyte stored per month model rather than quote.
- 3 tiers to Panzura's 1.
Every Panzura 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panzura (this page) | On request | Quote | 1 | |
| NasuniNasuni is the closest direct competitor with a similar caching and object storage model | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Panzura |
| CephCeph if you have the engineering capacity to run distributed storage yourself with no licence fee | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 1 | vs Panzura |
| MinIOMinIO where the requirement is object storage itself rather than a file system layer over it | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Panzura |
| Google Drive | Free | Free tier plus paid storage add-on | 3 | vs Panzura |
| IDrive e2 | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs Panzura |
| Cloudflare R2 | Free, then $0.015/month | Per gigabyte stored per month | 3 | vs Panzura |
| Storj | Free, then $4/month | Per terabyte per month | 2 | vs Panzura |
| Tigris | Free, then $0.004/GB/month | Usage-based tiered storage with per-request fees | 4 | vs Panzura |
| Box | Free, then $5/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Panzura |
| Nextcloud | Free | Freemium | 4 | vs Panzura |
| LucidLink | $7/month | Per member per month plus storage | 3 | vs Panzura |
| VAST Data | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Panzura |
| Scality RING | On request | Quote | 2 | vs Panzura |
| Cloudian | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Panzura |
| Veritas NetBackup | $100/month | Subscription | 1 | vs Panzura |
| Zerto | $5/month | Subscription | 1 | vs Panzura |
| Microsoft OneDrive | $1.99/month | Subscription | 4 | vs Panzura |
| Backblaze | $9/month | - | 2 | vs Panzura |
| IDrive | $2.5/month | Subscription | 7 | vs Panzura |
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 Panzura 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
- MinIO , 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
Panzura is most often brought in for an architecture firm with offices in three cities working on the same revit models without copy conflicts, a media company consolidating project storage into object storage while keeping editors on a normal smb share, a manufacturer replacing per-site nas filers and the backup estate that came with them, an organisation that needs immutable snapshots of unstructured file data as a ransomware recovery position. 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 Panzura is broadly right and the question is cost, the Panzura 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.
Panzura runs on linux, windows, web. 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 Panzura alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Panzura?
- 19 other file storage tools are listed in this directory, led by Nasuni, Ceph, MinIO, 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 Panzura?
- 9 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Ceph, MinIO, Google Drive, IDrive e2, Cloudflare R2.
- Why do people look for an alternative to Panzura?
- 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 Panzura?
- Panzura is most often brought in for an architecture firm with offices in three cities working on the same revit models without copy conflicts, a media company consolidating project storage into object storage while keeping editors on a normal smb share, a manufacturer replacing per-site nas filers and the backup estate that came with them, an organisation that needs immutable snapshots of unstructured file data as a ransomware recovery position. 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 Panzura?
- 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 Panzura 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 Panzura against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Panzura 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, 19 tools beside Panzura. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.