AWS S3 is the default cloud object store, but it is not the cheapest. Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and Cloudflare R2 all offer S3-compatible storage at 1/5 to 1/4 the price, with a small set of trade-offs the team needs to understand before switching.
Table of contents
- What you actually pay for
- The S3 alternatives
- The trade-offs
- When to switch
- When to keep S3
- How to migrate
- FAQ
What you actually pay for
Cloud object storage has three cost components:
- Storage per GB per month. The cost of keeping data at rest.
- Operations per request. The cost of GET, PUT, LIST, and DELETE requests.
- Egress per GB. The cost of data leaving the storage provider’s network.
AWS S3 Standard is roughly $0.023/GB/month for storage, $0.0004 per 1000 GET requests, and $0.09/GB for egress to the internet. The egress is the biggest line item for most teams.
The S3 alternatives
The S3-compatible alternatives in 2026, ordered by storage cost:
- Backblaze B2. $0.006/GB/month for storage, $0.01/GB for egress. The cheapest for storage-heavy workloads with light egress.
- Wasabi. $0.0069/GB/month for storage, free egress. The cheapest for storage-heavy workloads with heavy egress.
- Cloudflare R2. $0.015/GB/month for storage, free egress. The cheapest for workloads that benefit from Cloudflare’s CDN.
- MinIO (self-hosted). The cost is the cost of the host. The cheapest for very large workloads, but the team is on the hook for the operational complexity.
The trade-offs
The trade-offs the team needs to understand:
- Durability and availability. S3 Standard is 99.999999999% (11 9s) durability. The alternatives are typically 99.9% or 99.99% durability, with replicas in fewer regions.
- Feature set. S3 has the largest feature set - lifecycle policies, replication, intelligent-tiering, S3 Glacier, S3 Glacier Deep Archive. The alternatives have a smaller subset, focused on the common cases.
- Latency. S3 has a global edge network. The alternatives have regional or single-region footprints.
- Vendor lock-in. S3 is the default. Switching away is a migration project. Switching back is a migration project.
When to switch
The team that should switch to a budget alternative:
- The workload is storage-heavy and egress-light. Backups, archives, log storage, media files that are served via a CDN.
- The team is willing to give up some features (lifecycle policies, intelligent-tiering) in exchange for cost.
- The team is willing to operate a multi-region setup themselves if global availability is required.
When to keep S3
The team that should keep S3:
- The workload is request-heavy. S3’s request pricing is competitive with the alternatives for high-request workloads.
- The workload needs the global edge network. S3 + CloudFront is the default for a reason.
- The workload needs the full feature set. Lifecycle policies, replication, Glacier, intelligent-tiering are the features the team uses to manage cost at scale.
- The team does not want to operate multi-region themselves.
How to migrate
The migration that works for most teams: keep S3 as the primary, replicate to a budget alternative for the storage-heavy and egress-light workloads, and serve the budget alternative via a CDN. The team gets the cost savings on the storage-heavy workloads and keeps S3’s edge network for the latency-sensitive ones.
The migration that does not work: switch entirely, without testing. The S3 API is mostly compatible, but the feature gaps show up in the long tail. A small migration, with a fallback, is the safe path.
FAQ
What is the cheapest S3-compatible object storage in 2026?
Backblaze B2 at $0.006/GB/month and Wasabi at $0.0069/GB/month are the cheapest. Cloudflare R2 at $0.015/GB/month is competitive when paired with the CDN.
Can I use S3 APIs with Backblaze B2 or Wasabi?
Yes. Both are S3-compatible; the team can use the AWS SDK and the standard S3 client tools.
What is the catch with budget object storage?
The trade-offs are durability, feature set, and latency. The budget alternatives have lower durability guarantees, fewer features, and regional footprints. The team that is willing to operate around the gaps can save 50-80% on the storage bill.
How do I migrate from S3 to a budget alternative?
Keep S3 as the primary, replicate to a budget alternative for the storage-heavy workloads, and serve the budget alternative via a CDN. A small migration, with a fallback, is the safe path.
If you are sizing the storage tier for a new project, the RunxBuild hosting calculator is the place to model the line items. The storage, the I/O, the egress, the CDN - each one is a separate number, and the team’s mental model for the platform is the sum of those numbers. The RunxBuild dashboard is where the team sees the actual storage usage in one place.