Storjvs
Backblaze
Backblaze: A conventional centralised bucket with lower latency and simpler billing, without the per segment charge
Storj
S3-compatible object storage distributed in encrypted pieces across independently operated nodes
As of 31 August 2026, Storj has a free plan and paid plans start at $4/month. Object storage that erasure codes every file across thousands of unrelated node operators rather than a datacentre, at four dollars per terabyte stored and seven per terabyte out. Softwr lists it under File Storage. Storj is made by Storj Labs, available on Web, API, Linux, macOS.
Overview
What Storj does
Storj is a distributed object storage service run by Storj Labs. A file uploaded to it is encrypted client side, split with erasure coding into eighty pieces and spread across independent storage node operators, of which twenty nine are enough to reconstruct the object. It is reachable through an S3-compatible gateway or through native client libraries, and it is billed at four dollars per terabyte stored per month and seven per terabyte of egress. What distinguishes it is that there is no datacentre. Durability comes from spreading pieces across operators who fail independently, and because no single operator holds a readable copy, the encryption is structural rather than a checkbox. Commercially this shows up as egress at seven dollars per terabyte against roughly ninety on the large clouds, and as a genuinely different threat model for anyone whose objection to hyperscalers is jurisdiction rather than price. Buyers are media and backup workloads with large objects and steady reads, and teams who want an S3 target that is not owned by one of three companies. The trade-off is latency and shape: assembling an object means talking to dozens of nodes, so time to first byte is worse than a centralised bucket, and the per segment charge means the economics reward a small number of large files and punish millions of small ones.
What people use it for
- An offsite backup or archive target where the data is large, written once and occasionally restored
- Serving large media files internationally without paying hyperscaler egress rates
- Storing data where the objection to AWS, Azure or Google is jurisdiction and concentration rather than cost
- A second, independent copy of a dataset that already lives in a hyperscaler bucket
Related searches
The honest half
Where it falls short
Concrete and checkable, so you can decide whether any of them matter to you. This is the half of a review a vendor will not write about Storj.
- Billing includes a per segment charge and every object consumes at least one segment, so a bucket holding millions of small files can cost several times what the four dollar per terabyte headline implies.
- Reconstructing an object requires responses from dozens of independent nodes, so time to first byte is noticeably higher than a centralised bucket and it is a poor fit behind a latency sensitive read path.
- Performance depends on the mix of node operators serving you at that moment rather than on a datacentre you can raise a ticket against, so slow reads are diagnosed statistically rather than fixed.
- The hosted S3 gateway terminates encryption on Storj infrastructure, so using the convenient access path gives up the end to end encryption that is the main architectural argument for the service.
- The S3 gateway is compatible rather than identical, so tools that lean on less common API calls, multipart edge cases or unusual header behaviour need testing before you commit a workload to it.
Cross-shopped
What people choose instead of Storj
Each pairing was judged by two reviewers asking whether a buyer would genuinely weigh the two against each other. The ones that failed were deleted rather than published.
- StorjvsWasabi
Wasabi: Flat pricing with no egress or operation fees, if you can live with the ninety day minimum retention
- StorjvsCloudflare R2
Cloudflare R2: Zero egress rather than cheap egress, and much better time to first byte for public downloads
Pricing
What Storj costs
Taken from the vendor's own pricing page. Prices move, so check before you buy.
Free trial
Free
- 25 GB stored
- 25 GB egress per month
- No card required to start
Storj
$4 /mo
- 4 USD per terabyte stored per month
- 7 USD per terabyte of egress
- Per segment fee on top of stored volume
- No minimum retention period
Capabilities
Features
Erasure coded distribution
Each object is split into eighty pieces across independent operators, twenty nine of which reconstruct it
Client side encryption
Data and metadata are encrypted before leaving the client, with keys the service does not hold
S3-compatible gateway
Existing S3 tooling works against a hosted or self hosted gateway endpoint
Native uplink access
A client library that talks to nodes in parallel for higher throughput than the gateway
Object Lock and versioning
Write once retention settings for backup targets that need immutability
Storj Select
A variant restricted to vetted, compliance audited node operators at a higher rate
Answered, with sources
Questions people ask
Each answer names the page it came from, so you can check it rather than take our word for it.
Why is my bill higher than four dollars per terabyte?
Almost always the per segment fee. Objects are split into segments and small files each consume one, so a few million tiny objects generate a segment charge that dwarfs the storage line.
Can node operators read my data?
No. Files are encrypted client side and each operator holds only an erasure coded fragment, which is not a readable portion of the file.
Is there a minimum retention period?
No. You are billed for what you store while you store it, unlike several competitors that bill a ninety day minimum whatever you delete.
Is it fast enough to serve a website from?
For large files with parallel reads, yes. For many small objects where time to first byte matters, put a CDN in front of it or use something centralised.
Keep looking
Where to go from Storj
- Storj alternativesEvery product people weigh against it
- Storj pricingPlans, floors and what the tiers exclude
- Storj badgesWhich rules it meets, and the figure behind each
- All File Storage softwareThe full category
- Best File Storage softwareThe shortlist, and how it was cut
Best File Storage software for
Compare Storj with
- Cloudflare R2
- Backblaze
- Scality RING
- IDrive e2
- Cloudian
- MinIO
- Tigris
- Ceph
- Panzura
- TrueNAS
- VAST Data
- Duplicati
- LucidLink
- pCloud
- Sync.com
- Scality RING
- Tigris
- Panzura
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Softwr does not host reviews and shows no star rating for Storj, because a rating we did not collect is not ours to publish. What is here is the pricing and platform detail from the vendor’s own pages, limitations we could state concretely, and alternatives a reviewer confirmed people weigh against it. Tell us if any of it is wrong.
More on Storj
Storj alternatives
What people switch to, and what they give up
Storj pricing
Every tier, and where the cost actually lands
Compare Storj
Put it head to head with anything we hold
Storj badge
Its rating, and an embed for your own site
Best File Storage software alternatives
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