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File Storage · head to head

LucidLink vs Scality RING

LucidLink logo

LucidLink

File Storage

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

From
$7/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Scality RING logo

Scality RING

File Storage

Petabyte-scale object storage software on your own hardware

From
On request
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Each has a real cost: 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.; Scality RING hardware is bought separately, so the software quote understates total cost and the buyer carries the sizing risk if the drive and server specification is wrong.
  • They diverge on capability: LucidLink covers Filespaces, Scality RING covers S3-compatible object storage.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which LucidLink and Scality RING actually diverge.

Attributes where LucidLink and Scality RING differ
AttributeLucidLinkScality RING
Starting price$7/monthOn request
Pricing modelPer member per month plus storagequote
PlatformsmacOS, Windows, Linux, iOSLinux

Identical on both: 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 LucidLink

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

Only in Scality RING

  • S3-compatible object storage
  • File and object access
  • Erasure coding
  • Object lock
  • Multi-site geodistribution
  • Hardware independence
  • ARTESCA

What people use each for

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

LucidLink

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

Scality RING

  • A broadcaster archiving decades of video where hyperscaler storage and egress costs would be prohibitivenot LucidLink
  • A hospital group holding medical imaging on premises for data residency and retention reasonsnot LucidLink
  • An enterprise building an immutable on premises backup target for Veeam or Commvault with object locknot LucidLink
  • A service provider offering S3-compatible storage to its own customers on hardware it controlsnot LucidLink

Where each one falls short

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

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.

Scality RING

  • Hardware is bought separately, so the software quote understates total cost and the buyer carries the sizing risk if the drive and server specification is wrong.
  • Running distributed erasure coded storage requires operations skills, and organisations that expected appliance simplicity end up staffing a storage team they had not budgeted.
  • Rebuild times after a drive failure on large capacity disks are measured in hours or days, and capacity planning has to leave headroom for that degraded window.
  • Pricing is per usable terabyte and quoted, so cost comparisons against cloud object storage require modelling your own retrieval patterns rather than reading a rate card.
  • Small deployments carry a minimum viable node count for erasure coding to work sensibly, which makes the entry footprint larger and less economic than the per-terabyte price implies.

Pricing, plan by plan

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

Scality RING

On request
  • Scality RING$undefined/year
    • Priced per usable terabyte, subscription or perpetual
    • Server hardware purchased separately by the customer
    • Support tiers quoted separately
  • Scality ARTESCA$undefined/year
    • Lighter object store for smaller footprints
    • Priced per usable terabyte
    • Commonly deployed as an immutable backup target

Which should you pick?

Choose LucidLink if

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

Choose Scality RING if

  • You need s3-compatible object storage.
  • You work on Linux.
  • You also want file and object access.
Scality RING review

Questions people ask

Is LucidLink or Scality RING better?
Neither clearly leads. LucidLink starts at $7/month and Scality RING at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, LucidLink or Scality RING?
LucidLink starts at $7/month and Scality RING at On request.
Does LucidLink or Scality RING run on more platforms?
LucidLink runs on macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS. Scality RING runs on Linux.
What is LucidLink best used for?
LucidLink is most often used for a post house with editors in three countries cutting from one shared 4k rush library without shipping drives, a broadcaster giving freelancers access to a project for a fortnight without provisioning vpn and a nas mount, a game studio sharing multi-gigabyte asset builds where syncing every file to every workstation is impractical, an architecture practice opening large point cloud and bim files from a laptop on a hotel connection. Of those, a post house with editors in three countries cutting from one shared 4k rush library without shipping drives and a broadcaster giving freelancers access to a project for a fortnight without provisioning vpn and a nas mount are not what Scality RING is typically brought in for.
What can LucidLink do that Scality RING cannot?
LucidLink covers Filespaces, On-demand streaming, Client-side encryption, Customer-managed keys. Scality RING covers S3-compatible object storage, File and object access, Erasure coding, Object lock.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

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.

Scality RING: Do we buy hardware from Scality?

No. RING is software; you buy commodity servers and drives yourself, which is the point for buyers who want to rebid hardware at each refresh.

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.

Scality RING: Is it S3-compatible enough for backup software?

Yes, it is a common object lock target for Veeam, Commvault and Rubrik. Verify the specific S3 features your backup product needs during a proof of concept.

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.

Scality RING: What is ARTESCA?

A lighter object store from the same company, aimed at smaller footprints and backup targets rather than multi-petabyte archives.

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