DO Spaces 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 | DO Spaces | MinIO |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.20 | $0.00 |
| Egress | $0.50 | $0.00 |
| API Requests | $0.00 | $0.00 |
| Monthly Total | $0.70 | $0.00 |
| Annual Total | $8 | $0 |
MinIO is 0% cheaper for this scenario, saving $0.70/mo ($8/year).
Feature Comparison
| Feature | DO Spaces | MinIO |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Compatible | Yes | Yes |
| Zero Egress Cost | No | Yes |
| Free Tier | No | 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 | built-in, cloudflare | cloudflare, nginx, any-reverse-proxy |
Strengths & Weaknesses
DO Spaces
Pros
- +Built-in CDN included
- +Simple $5/mo base (250GB storage + 1TB egress)
- +S3-compatible API
- +Developer-friendly dashboard
Cons
- −No free tier
- −No HIPAA
- −No customer-managed encryption keys
- −Fewer regions than hyperscalers
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 DO Spaces if you need:
- Small to mid-size projects needing built-in CDN
- DigitalOcean Droplet users
- Simple static asset hosting
Choose MinIO if you need:
- Organizations needing full data control
- Air-gapped environments
- On-premise requirements
- Avoiding cloud vendor lock-in