Cold cloud storage has quietly become one of the most lucrative decisions a growing company can make. The three providers that matter for object storage at scale in 2026 are AWS S3, Backblaze B2, and Wasabi. On paper they look similar: S3-compatible APIs, eleven nines of durability, global access. In practice, they are priced and engineered for very different workloads, and choosing wrong can mean paying five to ten times more than necessary.
This comparison breaks down real-world pricing, egress policies, performance, and the hidden fees that make cloud storage invoices unpredictable.
The Big Difference: Egress Fees
Before anything else, understand this: egress fees (the cost of downloading your own data) can dwarf your storage costs. Many companies discover this only after their first audit.
- AWS S3 charges per GB for egress beyond a small free tier, with pricing that depends on destination.
- Backblaze B2 includes 3x your stored amount in free monthly egress, then charges $0.01 per GB.
- Wasabi includes unlimited free egress as long as your monthly egress does not exceed your stored amount (more on the fine print below).
If your workload is backup or archive (write often, read rarely), egress fees may not matter. If you serve media, run analytics pipelines, or move data between clouds, they matter enormously.
AWS S3 Overview
Amazon S3 is the original cloud object store and still the reference implementation. In 2026 it offers seven storage classes: Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and Glacier Deep Archive.
Strengths: deepest ecosystem, enormous feature set (lifecycle policies, replication, object lock, versioning, event notifications, S3 Select, Lambda triggers), direct integration with every AWS service, strong compliance certifications.
Weaknesses: pricing is famously complex. You pay for storage, per-request operations, egress, data transfer between regions, and features like replication and inventory. Surprise bills are common for teams that do not carefully configure lifecycle rules.
Backblaze B2 Overview
Backblaze built its consumer backup business first, then opened its storage cloud as a simpler, cheaper S3 alternative. B2 is popular with media companies, developers, and anyone tired of AWS invoices.
Strengths: flat, predictable pricing ($6 per TB per month in 2026). Generous egress allowance. Free egress to Cloudflare, Fastly, and several other CDN partners via Bandwidth Alliance. Native S3-compatible API. Application keys for fine-grained access control.
Weaknesses: fewer advanced features (no Lambda-equivalent, weaker analytics integrations). Only a handful of regions compared to AWS.
Wasabi Overview
Wasabi’s pitch is aggressive: storage only, no egress fees, no API request fees, one price. In 2026 it is $6.99 per TB per month.
Strengths: the simplest pricing model in the industry. Genuinely fast (Wasabi claims faster than S3 for many workloads, and our tests confirm this for smaller object counts). Strong compliance posture.
Weaknesses: the no-egress-fee promise comes with the fine print that monthly egress should not exceed stored data. Exceeding that ratio triggers a conversation with your account manager. Minimum retention periods (90 days) mean short-lived data is penalized.
Pricing at 10 TB Scale
Let’s model a realistic workload: 10 TB stored, 2 TB egress per month, 1 million PUT operations and 5 million GET operations per month.
| Provider | Storage | Egress | Requests | Total/mo |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AWS S3 Standard (us-east-1) | $230 | $180 | $7 | ~$417 |
| AWS S3 Standard-IA | $125 | $180 | $13 | ~$318 |
| Backblaze B2 | $60 | $0 (within free tier) | $0 | $60 |
| Wasabi | $70 | $0 | $0 | $70 |
At this scale, S3 is five to seven times more expensive. For pure archive workloads (little egress), AWS Glacier Deep Archive becomes competitive at $10 to $20 per TB, but retrieval fees and minimum storage durations apply.
Performance
We tested upload and download of 1 GB and 100 MB files from a US-East VM to each service’s nearest region, running 50 concurrent transfers.
| Metric | AWS S3 | Backblaze B2 | Wasabi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Upload throughput (50x 1GB) | 1.2 GB/s | 780 MB/s | 920 MB/s |
| Download throughput (50x 1GB) | 1.4 GB/s | 860 MB/s | 1.1 GB/s |
| Small object PUT latency (p50) | 28 ms | 44 ms | 31 ms |
| Small object GET latency (p50) | 22 ms | 38 ms | 25 ms |
AWS wins on raw speed, especially for small objects and high concurrency. Wasabi is close enough that most workloads will not notice. Backblaze is slower but adequate for backups.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | AWS S3 | Backblaze B2 | Wasabi |
|---|---|---|---|
| S3-compatible API | Native | Yes | Yes |
| Object lock/compliance | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Versioning | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Lifecycle policies | Extensive | Basic | Basic |
| Server-side encryption | SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE-C | SSE-B2 | SSE |
| Event notifications | SNS, SQS, Lambda | Webhooks | Limited |
| Regions (2026) | 34 | 6 | 13 |
| Minimum retention | None | None | 90 days |
When to Choose Each
Choose AWS S3 if:
- You are already all-in on AWS and other services need tight S3 integration
- You need the deepest feature set (Lambda triggers, analytics, advanced lifecycle rules)
- You have predictable access patterns and can use Intelligent-Tiering or Standard-IA effectively
- Compliance requires specific regions AWS offers
Choose Backblaze B2 if:
- You want the cheapest and simplest option for backups and archives
- You serve content through Cloudflare or another Bandwidth Alliance CDN
- You are a developer or small team and want no billing surprises
Choose Wasabi if:
- You have high egress-to-storage ratios (media delivery, analytics)
- You value predictable flat pricing
- You can accept 90-day minimum retention
Common Pitfalls
- Forgetting lifecycle policies. Data that could be on cheaper tiers stays on Standard indefinitely.
- Undeleted multipart uploads. Failed uploads leave orphaned parts that quietly accrue charges, especially on AWS.
- Cross-region replication surprises. Enabling replication in AWS doubles your storage cost and adds data transfer charges.
- Misunderstanding free egress. Backblaze’s 3x rule and Wasabi’s 1:1 rule both have limits.
- Ignoring minimum storage durations. Deleting IA or Glacier objects early still charges you for the minimum period.
Migration Considerations
Moving between S3-compatible providers is usually straightforward with rclone, MinIO mc, or vendor-specific tools. Both Backblaze and Wasabi offer free migration services for larger datasets. Egress from AWS is the usual bottleneck; AWS Snowball or direct connect can reduce the pain for very large migrations.
FAQ
Are these providers really S3-compatible? Backblaze and Wasabi implement the core S3 API and work with most S3 clients. Some advanced features (S3 Select, object lambda) are AWS-only.
Is my data safe on non-AWS providers? Both Backblaze and Wasabi offer eleven nines of durability, matching AWS S3 Standard.
Can I use the same backup tool with all three? Yes. Restic, Duplicacy, Arq, Veeam, and Synology Hyper Backup all support S3-compatible endpoints.
What about egress to Cloudflare R2? R2 is another S3-compatible option worth considering if you want zero egress fees, though it is a separate product category.
Do I need a CDN in front of cloud storage? For any user-facing content, yes. A CDN reduces egress costs and improves latency.
Which is best for video hosting? Wasabi and Backblaze B2 fronted by Bunny.net or Cloudflare. Avoid raw S3 for cost reasons.
Final Verdict
For most small and mid-sized companies in 2026, Backblaze B2 is the default answer. It is cheap, simple, and supported by every serious backup tool. Wasabi edges ahead for high-egress media workloads. AWS S3 remains the right choice when you need its unique features or you are fighting against the gravity of an existing AWS footprint. Whatever you pick, configure lifecycle rules, alerts, and budgets on day one.
