Ultimate S3 Storage Providers
Performance Comparison

1. Rabata – Premium Performance Without the Complexity

Our top pick in this benchmark comparison is Rabata. It positions itself as a drop-in replacement for Amazon S3, allowing applications to migrate by simply updating the endpoint and access keys – no code changes or architectural redesign required. This minimizes friction during adoption and allows immediate compatibility with existing workflows.

The performance benchmarks underline Rabata's strengths. Using MinIO warp v1.0.7 under identical conditions (Debian 13 VM, 16 GB RAM, US-East-1), Rabata achieved the fastest upload speeds at 1,462 MB/s, slightly ahead of AWS S3. It led in mixed workload performance at 346 MB/s, a critical metric for real-world scenarios involving simultaneous reads, writes, and metadata operations. In small object handling, it sustained nearly 696 obj/s, second only to iDrive e2, while maintaining excellent stability under load.

From an integration standpoint, Rabata supports standard tools such as AWS CLI, Terraform, and SDKs for Python, Node.js, Go, Java, PHP, and Rust.

Another differentiator is the onboarding process. Unlike some competitors that enforce credit card requirements or strict rate limits, Rabata allows accounts to be created and tested without friction. The pricing is intentionally simple, built around two tiers – Hot Storage for frequently accessed data and Backup Storage for long-term archiving. Rabata emphasizes cost transparency, with no hidden fees or surprise charges, making it a lower-cost alternative to Amazon S3 for most workloads.

Finally, Rabata ensures compliance for sensitive workloads. It operates from EU regions (eu-west-1, eu-west-2) and aligns with GDPR, offering data residency guarantees that are mandatory for many European clients.

Key Performance Metrics:

• Upload: 1,462 MB/s ⭐
• Download: 1,107 MB/s
• Mixed Operations: 346 MB/s ⭐
• Small Objects: 696 obj/s

2. Amazon S3 – The Industry Standard

Amazon S3 is the original object storage service and still sets the benchmark for the entire market. Its API has become the industry's de facto standard, and every other provider competes by being "S3‑compatible." Enterprises rely on S3 for its durability, global presence, and unmatched ecosystem of integrations.

Performance remains premium-tier. In benchmarks, S3 delivered 1,444 MB/s uploads, 1,816 MB/s downloads, and 151 MB/s in mixed operations. Stability was excellent, on par with Rabata and DigitalOcean. But small object performance was weaker – only 319 obj/s, less than half of Rabata's 696 ops/sec and far behind iDrive e2. Large object handling was strong, ranking just behind DigitalOcean.

S3's true strength lies in its ecosystem: advanced features like replication, lifecycle rules, analytics, and enterprise-grade security. Yet this comes at a price. Storage and egress fees remain among the highest in the industry, and the platform's complexity often adds overhead for teams seeking simplicity.

In short, AWS S3 is the safe enterprise standard, but it falls behind Rabata in efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and ease of use.

Key Performance Metrics:

• Upload: 1,444 MB/s
• Download: 1,816 MB/s
• Mixed Operations: 151 MB/s
• Small Objects: 319 obj/s

3. DigitalOcean Spaces – The Balanced Performer

DigitalOcean Spaces ranks among the most balanced S3‑compatible providers in our benchmarks. Upload throughput reached 1,440 MB/s, and downloads hit 1,728 MB/s, securing its place in the premium performance tier. Mixed workloads came in at 179 MB/s, ahead of Amazon S3's 151 MB/s but still behind Rabata's 346 MB/s and Backblaze's 207 MB/s.

Where DigitalOcean truly stands out is large object handling. In 5MB tests, it achieved 536 MB/s – the best score across all providers. This makes it well-suited for media-heavy workloads like video archives, backups, or streaming platforms. However, weaknesses are clear. Small object throughput was just 328 ops/sec – less than half of Rabata's 696 ops/sec and far behind iDrive e2's 962 ops/sec.

For metadata-heavy applications or workloads with frequent small file interactions, this becomes a bottleneck. Integration with the broader DigitalOcean platform is smooth, though Spaces currently offers a more limited feature set compared to larger ecosystems like AWS S3.

Key Performance Metrics:

• Upload: 1,440 MB/s
• Download: 1,728 MB/s
• Mixed Operations: 179 MB/s
• Small Objects: 328 obj/s

4. Backblaze B2 – The Download Specialist

Backblaze B2 is often positioned as the budget option in the S3‑compatible space, with storage pricing at $0.006/GB/month. In performance tests, its biggest strength was clear: download throughput. At 2,075 MB/s, Backblaze outpaced every other provider, including Amazon S3, making it attractive for workloads dominated by outbound traffic such as streaming or bulk content distribution.

Outside of downloads, however, the picture is less balanced. Upload performance peaked at 1,054 MB/s – far below Rabata's 1,462 MB/s – and mixed workloads reached 207 MB/s, still well behind Rabata's 346 MB/s. Stability was also weaker. Timeouts appeared in large-object tests, raising concerns about reliability for sustained production use.

Onboarding is another limitation: even after adding a credit card, new accounts are subject to restrictions, which complicates evaluation and early adoption.

Key Performance Metrics:

• Upload: 1,054 MB/s
• Download: 2,075 MB/s ⭐
• Mixed Operations: 207 MB/s
• Small Objects: 507 obj/s

5. iDrive e2 – The Small Object Champion

iDrive e2 has gained attention for one clear strength: small object performance. In benchmarks it handled 962 obj/s, the best result of all providers tested. For use cases like IoT telemetry, logs, or thumbnail storage, this level of throughput is valuable.

But outside that niche iDrive e2 falls behind. Uploads peaked at 763 MB/s and downloads at 1,124 MB/s, keeping it in the mid-performance tier. Mixed workloads – a closer reflection of real-world application behavior – reached only 90 MB/s, less than one-third of Rabata's 346 MB/s. In the benchmarking tests, iDrive e2 received a "good" stability rating, without the consistency seen in premium-tier providers.

Adoption also comes with friction. iDrive enforces strict rate limits on new accounts, which complicates testing and early integration. For developers evaluating multiple providers, this slows down real-world benchmarking. iDrive e2 is a simple straightforward tool – well-suited for workloads dominated by small files, but offering fewer optimizations for broad, high-performance scenarios.

Key Performance Metrics:

• Upload: 763 MB/s
• Download: 1,124 MB/s
• Mixed Operations: 90 MB/s
• Small Objects: 962 obj/s ⭐

6. Cloudflare R2 – The Zero-Egress Experiment

Cloudflare R2 attracts attention with a headline feature: zero egress fees. For teams serving massive outbound traffic, that pricing model can look transformative. But performance benchmarks reveal a very different story.

Upload speeds reached only 436 MB/s and downloads 791 MB/s, both far behind premium-tier providers. In mixed workloads, R2 managed just 44 MB/s, the second-worst result overall. Small object throughput was the weakest of all tested – just 42 ops/sec compared to Rabata's 696.

Stability was rated "good," but again not on par with Rabata, DigitalOcean, or Amazon S3. Despite Cloudflare's strong global network, benchmarked storage performance came in lower than premium-tier competitors. For developers running real-world applications, this gap between marketing promise and performance reality is hard to ignore.

R2 works best as a cost-control strategy for workloads where outbound transfer fees dominate. Its performance characteristics make it more suitable for specific use cases than for broad, high-intensity workloads.

Key Performance Metrics:

• Upload: 436 MB/s
• Download: 791 MB/s
• Mixed Operations: 44 MB/s
• Small Objects: 42 obj/s

All benchmarks were conducted using MinIO warp v1.0.7, an industry-standard open-source benchmarking tool for S3‑compatible storage providers.

Test Environment

• Platform: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie)
• Kernel: 6.12.41+deb13-cloud-amd64
• RAM: 16GB
• Location: US-East-1 datacenter
• Network: High-bandwidth cloud connection

Test Parameters

• Duration: 30 seconds to 10 minutes per test
• Concurrent threads: 8 concurrent operations
• Object sizes: 64KB to 128MB
• Operations: PUT (upload), GET (download), DELETE, LIST, STAT, and mixed workloads

Reproducibility

Complete technical documentation, including exact commands, configurations, and raw results, is available for independent verification. View our complete benchmark methodology and replication guide with step-by-step instructions to run your own tests.