Amazon S3 vs Backblaze B2
Why people compare these: Buyers compare them when cost becomes primary for backups/media and they’re weighing hyperscaler depth versus cost-driven storage economics
The real trade-off: Hyperscaler governance and integrations vs cost-driven storage economics for backups and large footprints
Common mistake: Comparing storage rates while ignoring how egress, requests, and restore frequency change total cost
At-a-glance comparison
Amazon S3 ↗
Hyperscaler object storage standard for unstructured data with deep AWS integrations, broad tooling support, and multiple storage classes. Total cost is often driven by egress and requests, not…
- ✓ Market-standard API and ecosystem compatibility across tools and vendors
- ✓ Deep AWS integration (IAM, networking, lifecycle controls, eventing) for enterprise patterns
- ✓ Multiple storage classes to tune durability/cost for different access patterns
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.
- ✓ Often chosen for cost-driven storage economics in backup and media use cases
- ✓ S3-compatible API option supports many common tools and workflows
- ✓ Good fit when storage footprint is large and hyperscaler complexity is unnecessary
Where each product pulls ahead
These are the distinctive advantages that matter most in this comparison.
Amazon S3 advantages
- ✓ Deep AWS ecosystem integration and enterprise governance controls
- ✓ Market-standard S3 ecosystem and broad tooling compatibility
- ✓ Flexible storage-class and lifecycle strategy for retention
Backblaze B2 advantages
- ✓ Often shortlisted for cost-driven economics on large footprints
- ✓ Simpler operational surface area than hyperscaler governance models
- ✓ Good fit for backup/archive and media library use cases
Pros & Cons
Amazon S3
Pros
- + You’re AWS-first and need enterprise governance and service adjacency
- + You rely on AWS-native eventing, analytics, or pipeline patterns
- + You need broad S3 ecosystem compatibility and tooling assumptions
- + You can sustain cost governance around egress, requests, and lifecycle
- + Your org standardizes on AWS operations and security patterns
Cons
- − Total cost can be dominated by egress and request pricing for data-heavy access patterns
- − Cost optimization requires ongoing governance (tagging, budgets, lifecycle policies)
- − Complexity is higher than SMB-focused providers for simple file hosting needs
- − Data transfer and cross-service interactions can create hard-to-forecast spend
- − Switching costs increase as you adopt AWS-adjacent tooling and patterns
Backblaze B2
Pros
- + Your primary use case is backups, archives, or a large media library
- + You’re optimizing for cost-driven object storage economics over ecosystem depth
- + You don’t need hyperscaler governance breadth for this workload
- + You can model requests and restore frequency to predict total cost
- + You want a simpler operational surface area than hyperscaler governance
Cons
- − Not a hyperscaler ecosystem; governance and integrations can be narrower
- − Request-heavy or restore-heavy access patterns can change economics materially
- − Region footprint and latency/performance expectations must be validated
- − Advanced features and integrations may not match hyperscaler parity
Which one tends to fit which buyer?
These are conditional guidelines only — not rankings. Your specific situation determines fit.
- → Pick Amazon S3 if: You need AWS ecosystem depth and enterprise controls and can manage egress/request-driven cost governance
- → Pick Backblaze B2 if: You’re storage-heavy (backups/media) and you’re optimizing for cost-driven economics over hyperscaler integrations
- → Model restore frequency and request volume—those can flip economics more than storage $/GB
- → The trade-off: hyperscaler governance and adjacency vs simpler cost-driven storage mechanics
Sources & verification
We prefer to link primary references (official pricing, documentation, and public product pages). If links are missing, treat this as a seeded brief until verification is completed.