Amazon S3 is one of the most widely used technologies for cloud computing, object storage, and file hosting.
The cloud infrastructure market is valued at a whopping $180 billion and Amazon is still leading the way with over 33% market share at the end of 2021.
It offers a solid range of features suitable for any sized operation, from small to medium-scale right through to enterprise-grade systems.
However, there are instances where Amazon S3 (also known as AWS S3) is not the right solution for your needs.
If you’re looking for a decent Amazon S3 alternative, then you’ve come to the right place. As seasoned SEO experts and affiliate marketers, we understand the importance of employing the most effective tools and strategies to optimize your online presence and maximize revenue generation.
Leveraging our in-depth knowledge and experience with various cloud storage providers, we have carefully curated this list of AWS S3 alternatives to help you find the most suitable option for your unique storage and file hosting requirements.
Table Of Contents
- The 7 Best Amazon S3 Alternatives for Object Storage
- What Is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)?
- When to Switch or Leave Amazon S3
- Advantages of AWS S3 Storage Services
- Disadvantages of AWS S3 Storage Services
- Need a Cheaper Option?
- Need Easier Built-in Security?
- Which Amazon S3 Alternative Do We Recommend?
The 7 Best Amazon S3 Alternatives for Object Storage
DigitalOcean
Cloud computing and file hosting
Google Cloud Platform
Cloud computing and Data analytics
Azure Blob Storage
DataBase Management system
1. Digital Ocean Spaces (Editor’s Choice)
If you’re looking to move completely away from any of the big three cloud storage providers (AWS, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage), Digital Ocean Spaces is a potential option worth looking into.
If you intend on keeping some of your AWS services and only moving away from Amazon S3’s storage, there are other specialized cloud and object storage providers (as above) which offer far better pricing. But are also S3 compatible.
Digital Ocean’s advantage compared to the cheap Amazon S3 alternatives we’ve listed so far is that it also offers a host of other services including managed cloud hosting and servers.
How It Beats Amazon S3
| Amazon S3 | Digital Ocean Spaces |
| Storage: $0.021 ($/GB/month) | $0.02 Storage ($/GB/month) |
| Bandwidth: $0.09 ($/GB) | Bandwidth: Included |
| GET Requests: $0.0004/1000 requests | GET Requests: Included |
| Free storage: 5GB for 12 months | Free storage: None. |
| Total price for 250 GB storage + 1000GB Bandwidth + 5000K GET Requests = $97.75 | Total price for 250 GB storage + 1000GB Bandwidth + 5000K GET Requests = $5 |
Predictable pricing- Overall cost of storage is lower than S3 (no additional charges for things like reads, writes or other API operations)
- Easier to integrate
- More intuitive and simpler to use than AWS
- Built-in CDN
- Reduced latency when serving static assets like website files
- S3 compatibility
- User-friendly UI
- Drag-and-drop dashboard
- Excellent documentation
Predictable pricing- There’s a minimum monthly charge of $5
- Spaces allows storage only in 5 locations
- Limited connected services to migrate rest of cloud to
- No intelligent tiering available
- No eventing to trigger functions
There’s a minimum monthly charge of $52. Google Cloud Platform
Google Cloud Platform is Google’s direct alternative to Amazon S3 cloud provider and Microsoft Azure. It is one of the “big 3” cloud storage providers and well suited for enterprise organizations.
As far as features, customizability and complexity are concerned, GC can hold its own against Amazon S3 and is a worthwhile consideration for your enterprise data storing needs.
If you’re stuck choosing between Google or Amazon but you need serious multi-region capabilities, Google is a better cloud provider for you.
With a presence in over 24 regions around the world, it is a full-spectrum AWS S3 alternative with global coverage.
Cloud is also better than S3 if you’re after hot storage , offering better prices than Amazon S3 Infrequent Access.
However, Google is generally not as good as S3 when it comes to cold archival storage with Amazon’s Glacier Deep Archive[2] being the better option between the two.
How It Beats Amazon S3
| Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
| Hot Storage: $0.023 ($/GB/month) | Hot Storage: $0.026 ($/GB/month) |
| Cool Storage: $0.0125 ($/GB/month) | Cool Storage: $0.007 ($/GB/month) |
| Cold storage: $0.004 (S3 Glacier) or $0.00099 (Glacier Deep) | Cold storage: $0.004 ($/GB/month) |
Hot storage = for frequently accessed data. Cool storage = for data accessed less frequently but needs rapid access. Cold storage = low-cost storage for data archiving.
- Better multi-region capabilities
- Presence in 24 regions, 140 locations & 40+ global data centers
- Better hot storage than S3
- Cheaper options to use than duplicating storage for redundancy
- Complete alternative to AWS (even beyond object storage)
- Like S3, Google Cloud Storage also offers 5GB free storage
- Cold archival storage is more expensive compared with Glacier Deep Archive
- Hot storage is only slightly more expensive
- Archive storage has a minimum duration of 365 days and will cost extra if you delete archived objects earlier
3. Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage is best suited to organizations that run on the Microsoft ecosystem.
It is exceptional at handling large file sizes and can also allow you to append existing files, which Amazon S3 does not allow.
However, if you’re looking for a solution that’s simpler to use than Amazon S3, Azure is not the best fit for you. In fact, it is on par with Amazon S3’s complexity and feature diversity.
It’s pricing is also just as complex and may not suit users with smaller projects.
How It Beats Amazon S3
| Amazon S3 | Google Cloud Storage |
| Hot Storage: $0.023 ($/GB/month) | Hot Storage: $0.0166 – $0.018 ($/GB/month) |
| Cool Storage: $0.0125 ($/GB/month) | Cool Storage: $0.01 ($/GB/month) |
| Cold storage: $0.004 (S3 Glacier) or $0.00099 (Glacier Deep) | Cold storage: $0.00099 ($/GB/month) |
Hot storage = for frequently accessed data. Cool storage = for data accessed less frequently but needs rapid access. Cold storage = low-cost storage for data archiving.
- Can store and retrieve large files quite well
- Allows you to append to existing files
- Has a broader range of storage related products
- Matches Amazon’s pricing for cold archive storage
- Cheaper than S3’s hot storage per GB
- Performance isn’t as great as Amazon’s
- Has a very complex pricing structure (including Amazon’s)
- Very different pricing schemes for every version of Azure storage services
4. Storj DCS
Storj DCS is another cheap cloud object storage provider.
However, Storj’s stand-out feature is its decentralized technology.
Storj DCS is built on a completely decentralized, trustless, and open-source architecture.
The decentralized technology allows Storj DCS to offer native geo-redundancy and cross-region replication benefits (i.e. it duplicates applications across geographic regions).
While Storj DCS does not offer free egress (migration of data to an external location), it’s still very affordable and doesn’t come with any caveats as other providers do.
The security features are also on par with centralized solutions like AWS and are trusted by developers for most applications.
How It Beats Amazon S3
| Amazon S3 | Storj DCS |
| $0.021 Storage ($/GB/month) | $0.004 Storage ($/GB/month) 80%+ lower cost |
| $0.05+ Download ($/GB) | $0.007 Download ($/GB) |
| Free storage: 5GB for 12 months | Free Storage: 150GB |
- 150 GB free object storage and bandwidth
- Low monthly object storage cost ($4/TB/mo)
- Decentralized object storage
- Multi-region & geo-redundant by default
- Simple pricing structure
- In-built security best practices
- Native replication across dozens of regions
- No minimum duration for storing files
- No data lock-in (move it freely)
- Does not offer intelligent price tiering
- Lack of connectedness with other AWS native services
- Lack of extensive access control
- No lifecycle, versioning and tagging features
- No eventing to trigger Lambda functions
- Not suitable for storing lots of very small files (<4KB)
Storj DCS charges a “per segment” fee that links to both the number and size of individual files.
If your project needs storage for lots of small files, Storj DCS will not be a cheaper alternative to Amazon S3.
5. Backblaze B2
Backblaze B2 is one of the cheapest object storage providers around today. But it doesn’t have the best key features.
Founded in 2007, Backblaze B2 has made waves in the market by advertising the fact it can cost as low as one quarter the price of Amazon S3. That’s up to 75% in savings folks!
It’s a great alternative if you’re looking for frequent (or occasional) access storage with limited connectivity to AWS.
It’s not well suited to cold archive cases (for infrequent data access) as Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive[1] is a cheaper option.
How It Beats Amazon S3’s Cloud Services
| Amazon S3 | Backblaze B2 |
| $0.021 Storage ($/GB/month) | $0.005 Storage ($/GB/month) 80%+ lower cost |
| $0.05+ Download ($/GB) | $0.01 Download ($/GB) |
| Free storage: 5GB for 12 months | Free Storage: 10GB |
- Lower storage costs (starting from $5/TB/mo)
- Lower bandwidth costs
- Simple pricing
- Free egress to Fastly or Cloudflare CDN
- The first 10GB of storage is free
- No minimum monthly charges
- Easy-to-use dashboard
- Quicker & easier setup
- Keys with limited permission (write-only or read-only)
- In-built CLI, if you prefer using the command line
- Streamlined connections to native services
- Only 3 regions between the US and Europe
- No tagging or versioning available
- Cannot create events to trigger functions
- No intelligent tiering
6. Wasabi
Wasabi Hot Storage was founded in 2017 and is a relatively new player in the cloud and object storage field.
Instead of competing in multiple aspects of cloud computing, Wasabi just focuses on providing excellent storage.
Wasabi hot storage differentiates itself against industry giants like Amazon S3 by offering storage that’s six times faster and up to 80% cheaper.
That’s a big claim and has single-handedly poached many developers away from the S3 and AWS ecosystem over recent years.
However, it’s also worth noting that if you need other services, like cloud servers, Wasabi is unlikely to be the right solution for your needs.
As far as being an alternative to S3, Wasabi can sure hold its own for personal projects, and small-to-medium use cases.
It’s also perfect for use cases where you need to access some files quickly and cheaply but only some of the time.
If you need to access many files regularly, a more robust solution will better fit your needs due to Wasabi’s fair use and download limitations.
How It Beats Amazon S3
| Amazon S3 | Wasabi |
| $0.021 Storage ($/GB/month) | $0.00599 Storage ($/GB/month) 80%+ lower cost |
| $0.05+ Download ($/GB) | No egress or API request fees |
| Free storage: 5GB for 12 months | Free Storage: None |
- Simpler pricing structure
- Cheaper pricing
- Free egress & API requests
- Up to six times faster than S3
- Neat and tidy interface
- Built-in security features
- Minimum monthly charge of $5.99 even if you don’t store any data
- Limited by fair use policy & download volumes
- Limited document access and egress
- Lack of connectedness with other AWS native services
- No lifecycle, versioning and tagging features
- No eventing to trigger functions
7. IBM Cloud Object Storage
Although it is not often considered among the “big 3” cloud storage providers, IBM’s cloud object storage solution deserves a spot on this list.
IBM is also a cloud VPS provider and its services are extremely scalable, flexible, simple and come with high-quality performance to boot!
You can store large amounts of data with ease and without missing out on any enterprise-level features from AWS, Google Cloud or Azure Blob Storage.
IBM’s easy-to-use (and highly interactive) dashboard makes it easy to migrate or access your data to and from system storage.
- Pay-as-you-go pricing
- Interactive and easy-to-use dashboard UI
- Scalability & high-quality performance
- Beats Amazon’s maximum files size of 5TB by allowing up to 10TB
- Like Google Cloud, IBM also offers cheaper multi-region options than S3
- More storage tiers to choose from
- Has S3 compatible API
- Intelligent tiering is available
- Offers eventing to trigger fucntions
- Versioning and tagging are also available
- Not really suited to small-scale users
- More complex pricing structures
- More intricate than S3 and may need more work to set up correctly for your needs
- Can end up being more expensive than Amazon, Google or Azure
What Is Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3)?
Amazon S3 is short for Amazon Simple Storage Service, a popular web hosting company among developers that also offers object storage service.
It’s a cloud and object storage service that allows you to store objects (like cloud files) and retrieve them using an API.
It’s well suited for developers and programmers who need more robust features (like scalable object storage, increased security and API integrations) than what most data and web hosting providers offer.
With industry-leading scalability at the forefront, Amazon S3 has carved a path of innovation in the world of cloud and object storage.
Organizations of any size and in any industry can use Amazon S3 to store data and files for a range of applications.
However, Amazon S3 is not always the perfect solution for everyone.
There’s a sense of complexity and overkill that make it difficult to integrate with other systems and tools.
There’s also the matter of pricing — Amazon’s pricing is cited as one of the top reasons why people consider an alternative.
When to Switch or Leave Amazon S3
Amazon S3 is still considered the safest choice due to its rapid innovation, unparalleled scalability and the volume of native integrations available.
However, as newer object storage providers continue to improve their services, Amazon S3 cannot remain best-in-class for everything.
So if you’re still debating whether an Amazon S3 alternative is the right solution for you, or whether it’s time to switch, let’s help you reach an answer today.
You Should Stick With Amazon S3 If you’re using any native AWS services, like Amazon Athena, and your tech stack is deeply embedded or connected to Amazon S3, you’re better off staying with S3.
You might also benefit by staying with Amazon S3 if you have a large amount of intra-regional data transfer. Other providers may not be able to offer any cost savings for these features.
In fact, moving to a new cloud object storage service provider on the basis of cheaper costs alone may not be worth it.
For instance, you may face penalties or be booted from other services altogether if you download more than you upload to your storage.
This isn’t the case with Amazon S3.
Many developers rely on AWS for other services and they all work very closely with S3 to offer faster and more streamlined development options.
In saying this, if you’re looking for a cheaper option or more robust in-built security, it may be worth considering an alternative.
Advantages of AWS S3 Storage Services
- Amazon Glacier Deep is the lowest cost method of storing data costing as little as $0.00099/GB/month
- Only pay for what you use
- Very fast performance and data retrieval
- It’s centralized and can act as a file store for many servers
- Very scalable and includes intelligent pricing to match your usage each month
- There’s a large number of libraries in just about any programming language
- Can seamlessly move and integrate into many other services
- Has a native open API standard
Disadvantages of AWS S3 Storage Services
- If all you need is storage, there are significantly cheaper options out there
- Lack of flexibility with things like server-side rendering with Next.js
- Difficult to do much for search engine optimization improvement if you’re hosting your websites through S3
Need a Cheaper Option?
It’s no secret that AWS cloud object storage service is expensive and S3 is no different.
While storing files is quite cheap, with Amazon’s Glacier Deep tier offering the cheapest storage around, accessing your files can rack up some big bills.
Until recently, Amazon S3 had seen little competition in the market.
With more object storage providers springing up and offering competitive prices, you can now find a number of cheaper alternatives to S3 storage.
It just depends on your use case and which features you actively use in S3.
As long as your storage solution doesn’t need to integrate directly with any AWS services, you can run your application outside the Amazon ecosystem and see up to 80% savings.
We recommend checking out Backblaze B2, Storj DCS or Wasabi for more cost-effective object storage services.
Need Easier Built-in Security?
Other than price, security is another reason many people consider switching from S3.
There’s quite a lot that goes into making cloud storage secure, even for base-level security cases.
Amazon S3 certainly doesn’t make it easy to achieve baseline security without huge overhead costs and significant development resources needed.
With all the various services you might need to connect to your cloud storage and the increased threats, vulnerabilities or potential development errors, in-built security is a nice add-on.
So, if you want to make things easier for yourself by opting for a solution with in-built security features, consider an S3 alternative like Storj.
Storj is a decentralized storage provider that also offers encrypted data chunked and distributed into multiple regions by default.
For most applications, the basic security benefits inherent in a decentralized storage solution generally meet best practice standards.
So with less effort and expense, you can benefit from the basic in-built security features.
Which Amazon S3 Alternative Do We Recommend?
If you are looking for the best Amazon S3 alternatives, then Digital Ocean is the right choice for you. With amazing load time and immaculate performance, it is easy to use and allows you to store a vast amount of information quickly.
Compared to its competition, Digital Ocean has more outstanding features, offers the best prices, and has as much disk space as you need.
If you need to find a replacement for your Amazon S3 tool, then Digital Ocean is the perfect cloud computing and file hosting solution.
Our #1 Recommendation: DigitalOcean
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