Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage vs. Amazon S3

Who Should You Choose, and Why?

✋ Only choose Amazon S3 if

• Your object storage is already deeply embedded with the rest of the AWS services, like Amazon Athena or AWS Lambda. If you are planning to use many AWS services, the same rule applies.
• You need data cross-region replication factors greater than 3 (Backblaze has a limited number of regions).
• You require HIPAA-compliant storage (although Backblaze is happy to enter into a Business Associate agreement with you).

🤔 Strongly consider Amazon S3 over Backblaze B2 if

• You are doing a lot of data analytics off your stored data (e.g., S3 to Snowflake).
• There is a lot of intra-regional data traffic between storage buckets and other cloud services on the same provider.
• AWS's Glacier and Glacier Deep Archive tiers of storage are actually cheaper than Backblaze B2, although neither tier provides fast access to files.
• You need some of the more management-oriented native features on Amazon S3, like the ability to tag resources.

🤔 Strongly consider Backblaze B2 over S3 if

• You are looking to store a backup of your data on another provider, or have to store data over long periods of time for archival and compliance purposes.
• You want cheap storage pricing but need fast and frequent access to your files.
• You want a much simpler pricing structure to work with.

📝 Other Notes

If you are storing data with very little intent to ever retrieve it, AWS's Glacier and Glacier Deep Archive tiers of storage are actually cheaper than Backblaze B2. Neither tier provides fast access to files.

• If you migrate to Backblaze B2 from Amazon S3, you will incur charges related to intra-regional data transfer that AWS was not charging for. Note: These will likely be ongoing monthly charges, not one-time.
• Backblaze B2’s S3-compatible API does not completely match every feature available when using Amazon S3 natively.
• Backblaze B2 has a weekly 2-hour maintenance window.

Product Information

• Backblaze is part of the Bandwidth Alliance which provides free egress to CDNs like Cloudflare CDN for approved use cases.

Pricing Pages

• Amazon S3 Pricing Page
• Backblaze B2 Pricing Page
• Backblaze B2 Pricing Organized by API Calls

Other

• Backblaze B2 Customer Case Studies
• Amazon S3 Customer Case Studies
• Backblaze B2 Documentation
• Amazon S3 Documentation

Louis-Victor Jadavji (or "LV") is a recognized leader in the cloud services industry. He's helped 50+ digital native companies like ModusBox, Later, and NS1 choose the right cloud stack for their applications. His work has been featured in Forbes (30 Under 30 All-Star), HuffPost, The New York Times, The Globe and Mail, and Inc. Magazine.