R2 vs MinIO
Cloud object storage pricing comparison. For a mid-size SaaS workload, MinIO is cheaper.
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Personal site, small app, or hobby project: 10GB storage, 50GB egress, 10,000 writes, 100,000 reads per month.
| Cost Component | R2 | MinIO |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.15 | $0.00 |
| Egress | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| API Requests | $0.08 | $0.00 |
| Monthly Total | $0.23 | $0.00 |
| Annual Total | $3 | $0 |
MinIO is 0% cheaper for this scenario, saving $0.23/mo ($3/year).
Feature Comparison
| Feature | R2 | MinIO |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Compatible | Yes | Yes |
| Zero Egress Cost | Yes | Yes |
| Free Tier | Yes | No |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | No | Yes |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption at Rest | Yes | Yes |
| Customer-Managed Keys | No | Yes |
| Sensitive Data | limited | full |
| Data Residency | US, EU, AP | US, EU, AP, SA, AF |
| CDN Integration | cloudflare | cloudflare, nginx, any-reverse-proxy |
Strengths & Weaknesses
R2
Pros
- +Zero egress fees
- +S3-compatible API
- +Generous free tier (no expiry)
- +Simple flat-rate pricing
Cons
- −No lifecycle policies
- −Limited region control
- −No HIPAA support
- −Smaller ecosystem than AWS
MinIO
Pros
- +Completely free (open source, AGPL v3)
- +Full data sovereignty — you control everything
- +S3-compatible API
- +All compliance possible (you manage it)
Cons
- −You manage infrastructure (servers, disks, networking)
- −Hardware and operational costs not included
- −Requires DevOps expertise
- −No managed support without enterprise license
When to Choose Which
Choose R2 if you need:
- High-egress workloads
- Static site assets
- CDN origin storage
- Budget-conscious projects
Choose MinIO if you need:
- Organizations needing full data control
- Air-gapped environments
- On-premise requirements
- Avoiding cloud vendor lock-in