Buyer's Guide · Backup & Archive · September 2026
Best S3 Storage for Backup in 2026: Price, Egress, Retention and Object Lock Compared
Backup storage is bought on four numbers, and the headline price is the least important one. This guide takes the 14 backup-class products from the s3compare.io table, adds a verified Object Lock column, and prices one realistic scenario: 10 TB stored, one full restore per year.
The Four Numbers That Matter
- Restore egressBackups are written once and read in an emergency. The price per TB to get data out decides what the emergency costs, and it ranges from $0 to $90 per TB in this table.
- Object Lock in compliance modeThe only setting that survives stolen admin credentials. Governance mode can be bypassed with one permission. Check the mode, not just the checkbox.
- Minimum retentionSome providers bill every object for 30 or 90 days even if you delete it earlier. With short backup chains that is a hidden surcharge.
- Request feesBackup software writes millions of small objects. A per-request price that looks like rounding noise turns into real money at 1 MB block size.
All 14 Backup-Class Products, Ranked by Yearly Cost
Scenario: 10 TB stored for a year, one full 10 TB restore. Yearly cost = storage for 12 months + egress for the restore. Egress counts as free where the provider includes a free-egress multiple of stored data or charges nothing. Request fees and minimum retention are not in this figure, see the next two sections.
| Provider | Storage $/TB/month | Egress $/TB | Minimum retention | Object Lock | 10 TB, 1 restore, per year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MEGA S4 Object Storage | $2.63 | Free within 5x stored, fair use | none | Not verified Documentation not accessible to us | $316 |
| Rabata.io S3 Backup | $4.90 | $0 | 30 days | Claimed Immutability advertised, modes not documented | $588 |
| iDrive E2 Pay-As-You-Go | $4.95 | $10.00 beyond 3x stored | none | Yes Governance + Compliance | $594 |
| Exoscale Simple Object Storage Archival | $4.20 | $18.63 | none | Yes Object Lock + legal hold, modes not documented | $690 |
| Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage | $6.00 | $10.00 beyond 3x stored | 30 days | Yes Governance + Compliance | $720 |
| Telnyx Cloud Storage | $6.14 | $0 | none | Yes Listed as a feature, modes not documented | $737 |
| Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage | $6.99 | $0, fair-use policy | 90 days | Yes Governance + Compliance | $839 |
| Storj Distributed Storage | $7.00 | $7.00 | none | Yes Governance + Compliance | $910 |
| ZERO Z3 (STANDARD_IA) | $8.80 | $5.40 | 30 days | Yes Governance + Compliance | $1,110 |
| Contabo Object Storage | $10.96 | $0, fair-use policy | 30 days | Yes Governance documented, Compliance not documented | $1,315 |
| Ionos S3 Object Storage | $8.00 | $36.00 | none | Yes Governance + Compliance | $1,320 |
| AWS S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval | $4.00 | $90.00 | 90 days | Yes Governance + Compliance | $1,380 |
| Hetzner Object Storage | $12.30 | $1.20 | none | Yes Governance + Compliance | $1,488 |
| Cloudflare R2 | $15.00 | $0, fair-use policy | none | No Not implemented in the R2 S3 API | $1,800 |
Prices from the s3compare.io dataset (USD, list prices, no discounts). "Fair-use policy" means egress is free as long as it stays within the provider's ratio to stored data. Object Lock as documented by each provider on 7 September 2026.
Object Lock Support, Verified
Every vendor says "immutable". We checked what the documentation actually says. "Not documented" means we could not find it in the public docs, not that the feature is missing. Ask the provider before you rely on it, and insist on compliance mode if the threat you plan for is a compromised account.
| Provider | Object Lock | Source |
|---|---|---|
| AWS S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| Contabo Object Storage | Yes Governance documented, Compliance not documented | docs |
| Exoscale Simple Object Storage Archival | Yes Object Lock + legal hold, modes not documented | docs |
| Hetzner Object Storage | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| iDrive E2 Pay-As-You-Go | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| Ionos S3 Object Storage | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| Storj Distributed Storage | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| Telnyx Cloud Storage | Yes Listed as a feature, modes not documented | docs |
| Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| ZERO Z3 (STANDARD_IA) | Yes Governance + Compliance | docs |
| Cloudflare R2 | No Not implemented in the R2 S3 API | docs |
| MEGA S4 Object Storage | Not verified Documentation not accessible to us | n/a |
| Rabata.io S3 Backup | Claimed Immutability advertised, modes not documented | docs |
Request Fees: The Line Item Backup Software Triggers
Veeam, Commvault and friends upload backups as objects of about 1 MB. 10 TB becomes roughly 10 million PUT requests on the first full upload. Most providers in this class charge nothing per request. The ones that do:
| Provider | First full upload of 10 TB at 1 MB objects |
|---|---|
| AWS S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval | $1,000 |
| Cloudflare R2 | $45 |
| Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage | $40 |
| Telnyx Cloud Storage | $5 |
Write request price from the dataset times 10,000 (10 million requests). Incremental backups repeat a fraction of this every day. Archive tiers may add per-GB retrieval fees on top of egress that our dataset does not carry.
Minimum Retention and Minimum Size
A 30-day minimum means an object deleted after 7 days is still billed for 30. For backup chains with daily restore points and short retention this adds up to a permanent surcharge. A 90-day minimum, as with AWS Glacier Instant Retrieval and Wasabi, makes short chains expensive and is one reason those tiers only pay off for long retention.
Minimum billable size is the other quiet line: some products bill at least 1 TB, 3 TB or 10 TB whether you use it or not. For a 10 TB scenario that is irrelevant. For a 2 TB office it is the whole decision.
Shortlists
Immutable backups with Veeam or Commvault. Providers with documented compliance mode: AWS, Backblaze, Hetzner, Ionos, Storj, Wasabi, ZERO, iDrive E2. Enable Object Lock when you create the bucket, it cannot be added later anywhere.
Cheapest yearly bill for 10 TB with a restore. The top three rows of the main table. Read the egress column before you choose: "$0" with a fair-use policy is not the same as a contract price.
No request fees at all. Contabo, Exoscale, Hetzner, Ionos, MEGA, Rabata.io, Storj, Wasabi, ZERO, iDrive E2. Relevant for small-object workloads and for anyone who wants a bill with two lines.
Data that must stay in the EU. Providers with documented compliance mode and EU regions: AWS, Backblaze, Hetzner, Ionos, Storj, Wasabi, ZERO, iDrive E2. Region is not jurisdiction: a US-owned provider with an EU region is still subject to US law. If that matters to you, check the operator's parent company, not the map.
Method
Prices and terms come from the s3compare.io dataset, list prices in USD. Object Lock support was checked against each provider's public documentation on 7 September 2026, sources linked above. The yearly figure is arithmetic on the dataset, not a quote. s3compare.io is run by Zero Services GmbH; ZERO-Z3 is listed and treated like every other row.