The 3 Best Amazon S3 Alternatives in 2026
Amazon S3 is for anyone building on AWS, and data teams whose tools all expect an S3 bucket. If that isn’t you, these 3 Object Storage tools are the closest alternatives. A common reason to look elsewhere: your users download a lot of what you store. Cloudflare R2 charges no egress.
Category
Object Storage
Amazon S3 pricing
From $0.023/mo
Free tier
No
Alternatives
3 compared
Choose Amazon S3 if…
- Your stack already runs on AWS.
- You need lifecycle rules and cheaper classes for ageing data.
- You want the bucket every data tool supports out of the box.
Look at an alternative if…
- Your users download a lot of what you store. Cloudflare R2 charges no egress.
- You want a smaller bill for bulk backups. Backblaze B2 is $6.95 per TB-month.
Amazon S3 vs Alternatives: Quick Comparison
| Tool | Pricing | Free tier | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3You searched | From $0.023/mo | — | 4.7 |
| 1.Cloudflare R2 | Free · paid from $0.015/mo | 4.6 | |
| 2.Google Cloud Storage | Free · then usage-based | 4.5 | |
| 3.Backblaze B2 | From $6.95/mo | — | 4.5 |
Ratings are App Stack Builder’s editorial score out of 5, not an average of user reviews.
Top Amazon S3 Alternatives, Explained
1. Cloudflare R2
Free tier4.6· Free · paid from $0.015/moR2 speaks the S3 API but charges nothing for data downloaded to the internet, which changes the maths for public assets, user uploads and datasets other people read. Standard storage is $0.015 per GB-month and Infrequent Access $0.01 plus $0.01 per GB retrieved. Class A operations (writes, lists) cost $4.50 per million and Class B (reads) $0.36 per million. Each month the free tier covers 10 GB of storage, 1 million Class A and 10 million Class B operations.
Best for: zero egress, S3-compatible, public assets
- Zero egress fees
- S3-compatible API
- Free monthly allowance
2. Google Cloud Storage
Free tier4.5· Free · then usage-basedCloud Storage holds objects in regional, dual-region or multi-region buckets and is the natural lake for BigQuery and Dataproc. Storage is priced per GB-month by class and location. In a single region, Standard Class A operations cost $0.005 per 1,000 and Class B $0.0004 per 1,000. Always Free covers 5 GB-months of Standard storage in us-west1, us-central1 or us-east1, 5,000 Class A and 50,000 Class B operations, and 100 GB of data transfer from North America each month. Internet egress starts at $0.12 per GiB for the first 10 TiB to most destinations.
Best for: Google Cloud, BigQuery, storage classes
- Integrates directly with BigQuery
- Four storage classes
- Always Free tier
3. Backblaze B2
4.5· From $6.95/moB2 is low-cost S3-compatible storage for backups, media and data that gets downloaded. It starts at $6.95 per TB-month, billed by the byte-hour. Egress is free up to three times your average monthly stored data, then $0.01 per GB, and free through many CDN and compute partners. Class A, B and C API calls are free on pay-as-you-go; Class D calls cost $0.004 per 10,000 after 2,500 free a day. The first 10 GB is always free.
Best for: backups, low cost, S3-compatible
- Low per-TB storage price
- Generous free egress
- S3-compatible
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best alternatives to Amazon S3 in 2026?⌄
The best Amazon S3 alternatives in 2026 are Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage, Backblaze B2. Each is a object storage option you can compare on pricing, free tiers, and features in the table above.
Is there a free alternative to Amazon S3?⌄
Yes. Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage offer free tiers, making them strong free Amazon S3 alternatives for bootstrapped startups.
When should I choose Amazon S3, and when an alternative?⌄
Choose Amazon S3 when: Your stack already runs on AWS. You need lifecycle rules and cheaper classes for ageing data. You want the bucket every data tool supports out of the box. Look at an alternative when: Your users download a lot of what you store. Cloudflare R2 charges no egress. You want a smaller bill for bulk backups. Backblaze B2 is $6.95 per TB-month.
What is the cheapest Amazon S3 alternative?⌄
Cloudflare R2 is among the most affordable Amazon S3 alternatives: free · paid from $0.015/mo. Check the comparison table above for the full pricing breakdown.
Which Amazon S3 alternative is rated highest?⌄
Cloudflare R2 has the highest editorial score among the Amazon S3 alternatives here, at 4.6 out of 5. That is our own score, not an average of user reviews, so check it against your budget and stack before you pick.
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