Start with egress-friendly providers (model bandwidth first)
If egress cost is your primary concern — because you're serving large files, video, or assets directly to users — Cloudflare R2's zero-egress pricing offers significant savings over S3. R2's S3-compatible API means most existing S3 tooling works with minimal changes. The reason to still choose S3 over R2 is ecosystem depth: lifecycle policies, Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Select, and AWS service integrations that R2 doesn't fully replicate. Run the cost math at your expected traffic volume — for egress-heavy workloads, R2 typically wins above 100GB/mo of outbound traffic.
- Recommendation: Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2
Recommended starting points
Based on your constraints, these products typically fit best. Read each decision brief to confirm pricing behavior and limits match your reality.
Cloudflare R2
S3-compatible object storage often evaluated to reduce egress-driven spend and support edge-adjacent workflows. Fit depends on access pattern, request pricing, and Cloudflare ecosystem alignment.
Backblaze B2
Cost-driven object storage for backups and media libraries, often evaluated versus Wasabi and S3 when the decision is pricing mechanics (egress + requests) rather than raw storage price.
Why this recommendation
If egress cost is your primary concern — because you're serving large files, video, or assets directly to users — Cloudflare R2's zero-egress pricing offers significant savings over S3. R2's S3-compatible API means most existing S3 tooling works with minimal changes. The reason to still choose S3 over R2 is ecosystem depth: lifecycle policies, Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Select, and AWS service integrations that R2 doesn't fully replicate. Run the cost math at your expected traffic volume — for egress-heavy workloads, R2 typically wins above 100GB/mo of outbound traffic.