s3 storage provider comparison guide 2026
RemixedCat’s Quick & Dirty S3 Storage Showdown
(Testing: iDrive E2, Wasabi, Backblaze B2, Seagate Lyve Cloud, Impossible Cloud)I went hands-on with five S3-compatible storage providers to see which ones actually feel good to use. Here’s the no-BS breakdown:
Onboarding
Backblaze B2 and iDrive E2 were tied for the win - super smooth and painless. Impossible Cloud was extremely easy too. Wasabi? Just okay, nothing special.
Access Key Creation
iDrive E2 and Seagate Lyve Cloud made it easiest to grab your keys and save them in a text file. iDrive’s interface looked the cleanest. Impossible Cloud was also ridiculously simple.
Backblaze B2 and Wasabi felt kinda clunky in comparison.
Bucket Creation
iDrive E2 and Seagate Lyve Cloud were the smoothest. Impossible Cloud was extremely easy again. Wasabi and Backblaze B2 were perfectly decent - nothing to complain about.
Bucket Features
Backblaze B2 and Seagate Lyve Cloud take the crown here: public buckets with zero extra requirements.
Wasabi and iDrive E2 were the worst - you have to request public buckets and wait for approval. Impossible Cloud is very basic and doesn’t offer public buckets at all.
Restrictions
Backblaze B2 is the clear winner - least restricted overall.
The others all have their quirks:
All of them are pretty affordable, but iDrive E2 was the cheapest by a noticeable margin.My Recommendations:
Onboarding
Backblaze B2 and iDrive E2 were tied for the win - super smooth and painless. Impossible Cloud was extremely easy too. Wasabi? Just okay, nothing special.
Access Key Creation
iDrive E2 and Seagate Lyve Cloud made it easiest to grab your keys and save them in a text file. iDrive’s interface looked the cleanest. Impossible Cloud was also ridiculously simple.
Backblaze B2 and Wasabi felt kinda clunky in comparison.
Bucket Creation
iDrive E2 and Seagate Lyve Cloud were the smoothest. Impossible Cloud was extremely easy again. Wasabi and Backblaze B2 were perfectly decent - nothing to complain about.
Bucket Features
Backblaze B2 and Seagate Lyve Cloud take the crown here: public buckets with zero extra requirements.
Wasabi and iDrive E2 were the worst - you have to request public buckets and wait for approval. Impossible Cloud is very basic and doesn’t offer public buckets at all.
Restrictions
Backblaze B2 is the clear winner - least restricted overall.
The others all have their quirks:
- Wasabi has steep requirements for public buckets
- iDrive E2 wants you on a 10TB+ plan + approval for public use
- Seagate Lyve Cloud is business-use only and doesn’t allow CDN use
- Impossible Cloud straight-up has no public bucket option
All of them are pretty affordable, but iDrive E2 was the cheapest by a noticeable margin.My Recommendations:
- For general use / most people: Go with Backblaze B2. Least restrictions, solid pricing, and great CDN integration. It just works without getting in your way.
- For serious enterprise stuff: Seagate Lyve Cloud. It’s built for big boys. Plus, if Seagate ever goes down… well, the whole tech world is probably on fire and you’ve got bigger problems anyway.
- For webdevs and cheap backups: iDrive E2 all the way. Stupid cheap (especially the first year), has a 10GB free plan that’s actually useful for a few website backups, and the experience is really smooth.
Comparison table:
Comments
Post a Comment
We are sorry we currently had to disable Disqus comments till further notice, as they currently have issues with this platform. For now feel free to use (but NOT ABUSE) this temporary comment system. We will be able to re-import into the previous comment system once the transition is complete. Thank you.
Please note: All comments are subject to moderation before appearance on this site.