Is Cloudian or Panzura better?

Neither clearly leads. Cloudian starts at On request and Panzura at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.

Which is cheaper, Cloudian or Panzura?

Cloudian starts at On request and Panzura at On request.

Does Cloudian or Panzura run on more platforms?

Cloudian runs on Linux. Panzura runs on Linux, Windows, Web.

What is Cloudian best used for?

Cloudian is most often used 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. Of those, a backup team needing an immutable target so a compromised administrator account cannot delete the backups and an organisation restoring hundreds of terabytes regularly where public cloud egress charges make cloud storage untenable are not what Panzura is typically brought in for.

What can Cloudian do that Panzura cannot?

Cloudian covers S3 API compatibility, Object Lock, Erasure coding, Multi-tenancy. Panzura covers Global file system, Global file locking, Local caching filers, Deduplication.

File Storage · head to head

Cloudian vs Panzura

Cloudian

File Storage

S3-compatible on-premises object storage with object lock immutability

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

Panzura

File Storage

Global file system putting one namespace over object storage across sites

From: On request
Rated: -

Full review Website

The short version

Each has a real cost: Cloudian you operate the hardware, so capacity planning, firmware, node failures and a refresh cycle every five years return as costs that a public cloud bill hides.; Panzura cloud egress charges apply whenever data is read from the object store into a site that has not cached it, and organisations routinely discover this during a restore or a new site rollout rather than during procurement.
They diverge on capability: Cloudian covers S3 API compatibility, Panzura covers Global file system.
Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Cloudian and Panzura actually diverge.

Attributes where Cloudian and Panzura differ
Attribute	Cloudian	Panzura
Platforms	Linux	Linux, Windows, Web

Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), user rating (Not yet rated), category (File Storage).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Cloudian

S3 API compatibility
Object Lock
Erasure coding
Multi-tenancy
Hybrid tiering
HyperStore appliances

Only in Panzura

Global file system
Global file locking
Local caching filers
Deduplication
Immutable snapshots
Cloud mirroring
Symphony data services

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Cloudian

A backup team needing an immutable target so a compromised administrator account cannot delete the backupsnot Panzura
An organisation restoring hundreds of terabytes regularly where public cloud egress charges make cloud storage untenablenot Panzura
A university or government body with data residency rules preventing use of public cloud object storagenot Panzura
A media archive holding petabytes of finished content where per-terabyte capital cost beats per-gigabyte monthly cloud feesnot Panzura

Panzura

An architecture firm with offices in three cities working on the same Revit models without copy conflictsnot Cloudian
A media company consolidating project storage into object storage while keeping editors on a normal SMB sharenot Cloudian
A manufacturer replacing per-site NAS filers and the backup estate that came with themnot Cloudian
An organisation that needs immutable snapshots of unstructured file data as a ransomware recovery positionnot Cloudian

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Cloudian

You operate the hardware, so capacity planning, firmware, node failures and a refresh cycle every five years return as costs that a public cloud bill hides.
Per-terabyte licensing plus servers means high upfront cost, and the crossover point against public cloud only arrives at meaningful scale, typically hundreds of terabytes and up.
S3 compatibility is high but not identical to Amazon, so occasional applications depending on newer or less common S3 features need testing rather than assumption.
Small deployments need a minimum node count for erasure coding to be meaningful, which sets a practical floor on entry cost regardless of how little data you have.
Performance is object storage performance, so it is not a substitute for block or high-throughput file storage and buyers occasionally deploy it for the wrong workload.

Panzura

Cloud egress charges apply whenever data is read from the object store into a site that has not cached it, and organisations routinely discover this during a restore or a new site rollout rather than during procurement.
Performance depends entirely on cache hit rates, so a team that works across the whole dataset rather than a hot subset sees latency that a local NAS would not have produced.
Licence cost is only part of total cost; object storage capacity, per-site filer nodes and egress all sit outside the vendor quote and can exceed it.
Recovery of a very large dataset is bounded by your internet link and by egress cost, so the practical recovery time after a site loss is often much longer than the snapshot policy implies.
Encryption keys can be held by the customer, but organisations that accept vendor-managed defaults give up the ability to render the object store unreadable independently, which some regulators now ask about explicitly.

Pricing, plan by plan

Cloudian

On request

Cloudian HyperStore$undefined/year
- Licensed per usable terabyte, subscription or perpetual
- Software-only on your hardware or as Cloudian appliances
- No egress or API request charges

Panzura

On request

Panzura CloudFS$undefined/year
- Priced by usable capacity under management
- Filer nodes licensed per site, physical or virtual
- Object storage and cloud egress billed by your cloud provider separately

Which should you pick?

Choose Cloudian if

You need s3 api compatibility.
You work on Linux.
You also want object lock.

Cloudian review

Choose Panzura if

You need global file system.
You work on Linux, Windows, Web.
You also want global file locking.

Panzura review

Questions people ask

Is Cloudian or Panzura better?: Neither clearly leads. Cloudian starts at On request and Panzura at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Cloudian or Panzura?: Cloudian starts at On request and Panzura at On request.
Does Cloudian or Panzura run on more platforms?: Cloudian runs on Linux. Panzura runs on Linux, Windows, Web.
What is Cloudian best used for?: Cloudian is most often used 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. Of those, a backup team needing an immutable target so a compromised administrator account cannot delete the backups and an organisation restoring hundreds of terabytes regularly where public cloud egress charges make cloud storage untenable are not what Panzura is typically brought in for.
What can Cloudian do that Panzura cannot?: Cloudian covers S3 API compatibility, Object Lock, Erasure coding, Multi-tenancy. Panzura covers Global file system, Global file locking, Local caching filers, Deduplication.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Cloudian: Does object lock really stop ransomware deleting backups?

Within the retention period, yes, provided the lock is set in compliance mode. That is precisely why it is the common answer to backup-targeting ransomware.

Panzura: Who holds the encryption keys?

Customer-managed keys are supported. Insist on them if you need the ability to revoke access to the object store independently of the vendor, and confirm the key custody model in writing.

Cloudian: Are there egress charges?

No. That is the central cost argument against public cloud object storage, and it only becomes visible when you have to restore at volume.

Panzura: What does it actually cost to run?

Model three things: the Panzura subscription, the object storage capacity, and cloud egress. The third is the one that catches buyers out during restores and site bring-ups.

Cloudian: Can we use our own servers?

Yes, HyperStore is software-defined and runs on qualified commodity hardware, or you can buy Cloudian appliances if you would rather not certify your own.

Panzura: Does it replace backup?

Immutable snapshots cover many recovery scenarios, but confirm your retention and compliance requirements before removing an existing backup product.

Cloudian vs Panzura

Cloudian

Panzura

The short version

Where they differ

What each one covers

Only in Cloudian

Only in Panzura

What people use each for

Cloudian

Panzura

Where each one falls short

Cloudian

Panzura

Pricing, plan by plan

Cloudian

Panzura

Which should you pick?

Choose Cloudian if

Choose Panzura if

Questions people ask

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Related pages

More on Cloudian

More on Panzura

Keep looking

Other head to heads