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File Storage · head to head

Ceph vs LucidLink

Ceph logo

Ceph

File Storage

Open source distributed storage providing object, block and file from one cluster

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
LucidLink logo

LucidLink

File Storage

Cloud filesystem that streams large media files on demand instead of syncing them

From
$7/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Ceph has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Ceph ceph assumes an operator who understands placement groups, CRUSH rules and recovery tuning, so organisations without dedicated storage staff routinely end up with a cluster that works until the first failure and then does not.; LucidLink additional storage at $7 to $8 per 100GB per month is roughly three to four times raw S3 pricing, so teams with large cold archives pay a heavy premium for data they rarely touch.
  • They diverge on capability: Ceph covers RADOS object store, LucidLink covers Filespaces.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Ceph and LucidLink actually diverge.

Attributes where Ceph and LucidLink differ
AttributeCephLucidLink
Starting priceFree$7/month
Pricing modelOpen source, no licence feePer member per month plus storage
Free tierYesNo
PlatformsLinuxmacOS, Windows, Linux, iOS

Identical on both: 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 Ceph

  • RADOS object store
  • RADOS Gateway
  • RBD block devices
  • CephFS
  • CRUSH placement
  • Erasure coded pools

Only in LucidLink

  • Filespaces
  • On-demand streaming
  • Client-side encryption
  • Customer-managed keys
  • Bring your own storage
  • Snapshots

What people use each for

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

Ceph

  • Backing a private cloud where virtual machine disks, shared filesystems and an S3 endpoint all need the same hardwarenot LucidLink
  • Growing past the point where a proprietary array upgrade costs more than a rack of commodity serversnot LucidLink
  • Research and media environments with petabytes of data and staff who can operate storagenot LucidLink
  • Providing an S3 endpoint on premises with multi site replication under your own controlnot LucidLink

LucidLink

  • A post house with editors in three countries cutting from one shared 4K rush library without shipping drivesnot Ceph
  • A broadcaster giving freelancers access to a project for a fortnight without provisioning VPN and a NAS mountnot Ceph
  • A game studio sharing multi-gigabyte asset builds where syncing every file to every workstation is impracticalnot Ceph
  • An architecture practice opening large point cloud and BIM files from a laptop on a hotel connectionnot Ceph

Where each one falls short

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

Ceph

  • Ceph assumes an operator who understands placement groups, CRUSH rules and recovery tuning, so organisations without dedicated storage staff routinely end up with a cluster that works until the first failure and then does not.
  • Small clusters are inefficient: three way replication means a third of raw capacity is usable, and erasure coding needs enough failure domains to be safe, so the economics only work above a certain size.
  • Recovery and rebalancing generate heavy internal traffic, so a failed disk can degrade client latency across the cluster unless backfill is throttled correctly beforehand.
  • Upgrades must follow a strict daemon order across monitors, managers, OSDs and gateways, and a mistake in that order on a live cluster is difficult to reverse.
  • Because it is self hosted, every byte served to the internet is transit you pay for on your own links, so the free licence does not mean free egress and bandwidth planning becomes your problem rather than the providers.

LucidLink

  • Additional storage at $7 to $8 per 100GB per month is roughly three to four times raw S3 pricing, so teams with large cold archives pay a heavy premium for data they rarely touch.
  • Included storage is pooled per member, so adding a seat is also how you buy capacity, and teams with a few heavy users and many light ones buy seats purely for the gigabytes.
  • Performance is bounded by the network link and local cache size, so a workstation with a small cache on a poor connection performs far worse than the demonstrations suggest.
  • Small-file and metadata-heavy workloads such as code repositories, node modules trees or build outputs perform badly, so it is not a general-purpose file server replacement.
  • Customer-managed keys and bring your own storage are Enterprise-tier options, so organisations that cannot let a vendor hold their keys cannot use the published pricing at all.

Pricing, plan by plan

Ceph

Free
  • CephFree
    • Full functionality, no capacity limit
    • Object, block and file interfaces
    • Community support via mailing list and Slack

LucidLink

$7/month
  • Starter$7/month
    • 100GB included per member, pooled across the team
    • Additional storage $7 per 100GB per month
    • Client-side encryption
  • Business$32/month
    • $27 per member per month billed annually
    • 400GB included per member, pooled across the team
    • Additional storage $8 per 100GB per month
  • Enterprise$undefined/year
    • Custom pricing and storage terms
    • Customer-managed encryption keys
    • Bring your own object storage bucket

Which should you pick?

Choose Ceph if

  • You need rados object store.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Linux.
  • You also want rados gateway.
Ceph review

Choose LucidLink if

  • You need filespaces.
  • You work on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS.
  • You also want on-demand streaming.
LucidLink review

Questions people ask

Is Ceph or LucidLink better?
Neither clearly leads. Ceph starts at Free and LucidLink at $7/month, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Ceph or LucidLink?
Ceph has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at Free for Ceph and $7/month for LucidLink.
Does Ceph or LucidLink run on more platforms?
Ceph runs on Linux. LucidLink runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS.
Can I use Ceph for free?
Yes. Ceph has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. LucidLink starts at $7/month.
What is Ceph best used for?
Ceph is most often used for backing a private cloud where virtual machine disks, shared filesystems and an s3 endpoint all need the same hardware, growing past the point where a proprietary array upgrade costs more than a rack of commodity servers, research and media environments with petabytes of data and staff who can operate storage, providing an s3 endpoint on premises with multi site replication under your own control. Of those, backing a private cloud where virtual machine disks, shared filesystems and an s3 endpoint all need the same hardware and growing past the point where a proprietary array upgrade costs more than a rack of commodity servers are not what LucidLink is typically brought in for.
What can Ceph do that LucidLink cannot?
Ceph covers RADOS object store, RADOS Gateway, RBD block devices, CephFS. LucidLink covers Filespaces, On-demand streaming, Client-side encryption, Customer-managed keys.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Ceph: How many nodes do I need to start?

Three is the practical minimum for a replicated cluster with real fault tolerance, and most production advice starts at five once you account for maintenance windows.

LucidLink: What does storage actually cost?

$7 per 100GB per month on Starter and $8 per 100GB per month on Business, above the pooled allowance. Model this separately from the seat cost.

Ceph: Is it faster than a SAN?

Not on single stream latency. It wins on aggregate throughput and on growing without a forklift upgrade, which is a different property from raw speed.

LucidLink: Can we hold our own encryption keys?

On the Enterprise tier, yes, along with pointing the filespace at your own S3 or Azure bucket. Not on Starter or Business.

Ceph: Can I buy support?

Yes. IBM sells IBM Storage Ceph and SUSE and others have offered supported builds; the upstream project itself is free.

LucidLink: Does it work for source code?

Not well. It is built for large sequential reads. Many small files is the workload it handles worst.

Ceph: Should I use it just for S3?

If object is all you need, a dedicated object store is simpler to run. Ceph earns its complexity when you need block and file as well.

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