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Object Storage 2 alternatives tracked

Open-source alternatives to Cloudflare R2

Cloudflare R2 is S3-compatible object storage with no egress fees, positioned as an alternative to AWS S3 for applications where data transfer out costs are significant. It integrates with Cloudflare's CDN, Workers, and Cache for edge delivery. Developers use it for storing static assets, user uploads, and ML model artifacts where the no-egress pricing model reduces cloud bills.

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The alternatives

minio

★ 60,865 Go AGPL-3.0

MinIO is a high-performance, S3 compatible object store, open sourced under GNU AGPLv3 license.

minio/minio Updated 2026-04-24

seaweedfs

★ 32,095 Go Apache-2.0

SeaweedFS is a distributed storage system for object storage (S3), file systems, and Iceberg tables, designed to handle billions of files with O(1) disk access and effortless horizontal scaling.

seaweedfs/seaweedfs Updated 2026-05-06

Comparison notes

MinIO is the primary OSS S3-compatible object storage that can be self-hosted on any infrastructure. SeaweedFS and Ceph also provide S3-compatible APIs at scale. The key tradeoff: MinIO self-hosted eliminates per-GB storage costs but adds operational burden for replication, availability, and hardware. Cloudflare R2 specifically targets egress-heavy workloads — if your use case is primarily PUT/GET with minimal external traffic, the no-egress advantage shrinks. OSS self-hosted storage can achieve lower per-GB costs but requires engineering time to maintain. Garage (Rust-based) is a lighter S3-compatible option for distributed storage.

Migration tips

  • Use rclone (rclone copy r2:bucket minio:bucket) to migrate objects between S3-compatible endpoints without downloading locally
  • Update application S3 endpoint URLs, access keys, and region settings — R2 uses account-specific endpoints
  • Audit any Cloudflare Workers that read from R2 directly — Workers integration does not transfer to a self-hosted setup
  • Replicate bucket CORS policies and lifecycle rules in the target system before cutover
  • Test large object (multipart upload) behavior in the target system — MinIO compatibility is generally good but edge cases exist

FAQ

Can I fully replace Cloudflare R2 with an OSS tool?

Feature parity varies. Most OSS alternatives cover 70-90% of core workflows, but may lack polish, integrations, or specialized features. Pilot the alternative with a subset of your team before fully committing.

What's the cost of self-hosting?

Plan for ~$5-50/month in VPS costs (DigitalOcean, Hetzner, etc.) plus 2-8 hours/month in maintenance. For a team of 20+, self-hosting usually breaks even against SaaS pricing within 6-12 months.

Which alternative should I pick?

Sort by GitHub stars (a proxy for community health), check the last-pushed date (avoid unmaintained projects), and read recent issues to gauge responsiveness.