Amazon S3 vs Ceph

Amazon S39.3Visit Ceph8.3Visit

Higher score Amazon S3 #2 in Object Storage Services 9.3/10 From $0.02/mo ✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Amazon S3

vs

Ceph #11 in Object Storage Services 8.3/10 Free plan Free plan✓ 4 of 4 features Visit Ceph

• Amazon S3 fits best

  Enterprise AWS-native object storage

• Ceph fits best

  Open-source self-hosted object storage

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Side by side

Feature	Amazon S3 9.3/10 Visit ↗	Ceph 8.3/10 Visit ↗
At a glance
Editor score	9.3	8.3
Ranking	#2 in Object Storage Services	#11 in Object Storage Services
Best for	Enterprise AWS-native object storage	Open-source self-hosted object storage
Pricing model	Paid	Free
Starting price	$0.02/mo	Free plan
Free plan	—	✓ (best)
Free trial	—	—
Deployment	Cloud	Self-hosted
Integrations	8 integrations	6 integrations
Features Amazon S3 4/4 · Ceph 4/4
S3 compatibility	✓	✓
Object versioning	✓	✓
Lifecycle rules	✓	✓
Object immutability	✓	✓
Specs
Max object size	50000 GB	Not checked yet
Replication scope	Cross-region	Cross-region
Our review
Pros	Cross-Region Replication, versioning, and Object Lock retention controls Storage classes and lifecycle rules support archiving and deletion workflows REST API, SDK, CLI, console, and broad AWS service integrations	S3 and OpenStack Swift-compatible object storage APIs Versioning, lifecycle controls, and Object Lock retention modes Object, block, and file interfaces from one cluster
Cons	No free plan is available Pricing varies by region, storage class, requests, and data transfer Its broad feature set is centered on AWS services and tooling	Self-hosted deployment requires ongoing operational responsibility Storage clusters require configurable infrastructure and administration Focused on infrastructure teams rather than hosted-storage simplicity
Our verdict	Amazon S3 is a cloud object storage service built around buckets for storing, organizing, protecting, and retrieving data. It suits organizations managing applications, data lakes, backups, archives, analytics workloads, and content… Read the review →	Ceph is an open-source distributed storage system for organizations that need object, block, and file storage from one cluster. It is deployed as self-hosted infrastructure and uses configurable storage clusters with commodity hardware.… Read the review →

Strengths and trade-offs

• Amazon S3 — where it wins

  • Cross-Region Replication, versioning, and Object Lock retention controls
  • Storage classes and lifecycle rules support archiving and deletion workflows
  • REST API, SDK, CLI, console, and broad AWS service integrations

  Where it doesn't

  • No free plan is available
  • Pricing varies by region, storage class, requests, and data transfer
  • Its broad feature set is centered on AWS services and tooling

• Ceph — where it wins

  • S3 and OpenStack Swift-compatible object storage APIs
  • Versioning, lifecycle controls, and Object Lock retention modes
  • Object, block, and file interfaces from one cluster

  Where it doesn't

  • Self-hosted deployment requires ongoing operational responsibility
  • Storage clusters require configurable infrastructure and administration
  • Focused on infrastructure teams rather than hosted-storage simplicity

• Amazon S39.3/10 · From $0.02/mo

  Deep AWS-native object storage with powerful controls, replication, and usage-based pricing.

  Visit Amazon S3Full verdict →
• Ceph8.3/10 · Free plan

  A flexible self-hosted storage cluster for teams that can manage infrastructure.

  Visit CephFull verdict →