6 free alternatives to Cloudflare R2

Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage gives you a perpetual free tier with the first 10 GB of storage always free, plus free egress up to 3x average monthly storage. It also includes no minimum file size fees, no minimum storage duration fees, and free Class A, B, and C API calls with no daily limit. That makes it a better fit if your main concern is keeping storage overhead and request charges low while still using S3-compatible object storage. It is less aligned with Cloudflare's edge-first workflow, but it is very forgiving on baseline storage use and request volume. Switch if you want more practical free room for backup or archive-style object storage.

• Beats Cloudflare R2: More forgiving free storage and API call allowances
• Falls short: Less edge-native integration than R2
• Who should switch: Switch here if you want straightforward S3-compatible storage with a more generous perpetual free allowance.

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Amazon S3 offers up to $200 in AWS Free Tier credits for eligible services, with a free plan available for 6 months after account creation and credits that must be used within 12 months. That is not a monthly storage allowance, but it can cover a broad AWS-based prototype if you are already building around the AWS ecosystem. The free value is broader in scope than R2's fixed quotas because it can be spent across services, but it is also time-limited and not a permanent storage pool. Choose it if you need AWS compatibility and are fine with a starter credit rather than ongoing free usage.

• Beats Cloudflare R2: Broader AWS credit coverage across services
• Falls short: Not a recurring free object-storage allowance
• Who should switch: Switch here if your project is already AWS-centered and you want a temporary starter credit rather than a permanent free tier.

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Tigris includes 5 GB of standard storage per month, 10,000 PUT, COPY, POST, and LIST requests, 100,000 GET, SELECT, and other requests, and zero egress fees for data transfer out, regional transfer, and region-to-region transfer. It is S3-compatible and aimed at developers who want globally distributed object storage without egress surprises. Compared with R2, the free storage allowance is smaller, but the request model is more explicit and the zero-egress stance is easy to understand for traffic-heavy apps. If your workload is small on storage but active on downloads or multi-region movement, Tigris can be a cleaner fit.

• Beats Cloudflare R2: Zero egress for more transfer types
• Falls short: Smaller free storage allowance than R2
• Who should switch: Switch here if transfer costs matter more than storage capacity and you want S3 compatibility.

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Uploadcare's free plan includes 1,000 operations per month, 5 GB of traffic per month, 1 GB of storage, a 500 MB maximum file size, and access to the uploading widget, API, basic image transformations, adaptive bitrate streaming, CDN delivery, signed uploads, and webhooks. It is more of a file handling and delivery platform than plain object storage, so you get built-in media workflow features alongside storage. It falls short of R2 on raw storage and general-purpose object storage scale, but it beats R2 when you need upload UX, image processing, and CDN delivery in one package. It is a good switch for media apps and content-heavy front ends.

• Beats Cloudflare R2: Built-in upload, image, and CDN features
• Falls short: Much smaller storage and usage limits than R2
• Who should switch: Switch here if your storage need is tied to media delivery and upload workflows, not just buckets.

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Storj starts with free trial access to Distributed Storage, Object Mount, and Cloud Compute. That makes it more of an evaluation path than a perpetual free tier, but it can be useful if you need to test distributed storage plus adjacent compute or mount features before committing. Unlike R2, the free access is framed as a trial rather than a monthly allowance, so it is not the right place for an always-free baseline. It is, however, a sensible choice if you want to validate Storj's distributed architecture or object mounting workflow without paying first. Switch if you are comparing vendors and want a short no-cost test window.

• Beats Cloudflare R2: Free access spans storage, mounting, and compute
• Falls short: Trial access, not a perpetual free allowance
• Who should switch: Switch here if you want a short evaluation period for a distributed storage platform.

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Pinata's free plan includes 1 GB storage, 1 gateway, 500 files maximum, 10 GB bandwidth, and 10K requests, along with features like file groups, folder uploads, resumable uploads, presigned URLs, image optimization, the web dashboard, custom gateway domains, API access, IPFS pinning, and gateway access controls. It is much more feature-rich around IPFS workflows than R2, especially if you need gateway management and pinning rather than plain object storage. The tradeoff is that it is capped more tightly on storage and file count. Choose it if your app is built around IPFS or gated media delivery and you want those tools free.

• Beats Cloudflare R2: IPFS pinning, gateway, and file workflow features
• Falls short: Lower storage capacity and file count limits than R2
• Who should switch: Switch here if your workload is IPFS-centered or needs gateway and pinning features out of the box.

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