OpenStack Cinder
OpenStack Cinder: A broad, driver-based block-storage service for self-hosted OpenStack clouds. Ranked #4 of 28 in Block Storage Services by our editors (9.0/10); pricing: Open source; best for openStack private clouds.
At a glance
- Editor score9.0 / 10
- PricingOpen source
- Best forOpenStack private clouds
- Free planNo
- Paid fromFree
- Facts checked21 Sep 2026
Where it wins
- Manages volumes, snapshots, backups, encryption, and volume types
- Supports multiple back ends through pluggable storage drivers
- Integrates with Nova, Horizon, Keystone, and Barbican
Where it doesn't
- Requires self-hosted deployment rather than a vendor-hosted service
- Capacity and performance depend on the deployment and storage driver
- Multi-attach and replication behavior depend on back-end support
Our verdict on OpenStack Cinder
OpenStack Cinder is the Block Storage service for creating and managing persistent volumes across Nova virtual machines, Ironic bare-metal hosts, containers, and other workloads. It suits teams operating OpenStack private clouds that need block-storage lifecycle management through a REST API, Horizon, or OpenStack command-line clients. As open-source, self-hosted infrastructure software, Cinder is aimed at operators who manage the surrounding OpenStack and storage environment rather than buyers seeking a hosted storage product.
Its strongest fit is the OpenStack ecosystem. Cinder integrates with Nova for virtual-machine storage, Horizon for web-based management, Keystone for identity, and Barbican for key management. The service supports default and custom volume types, snapshots, backups to a backup storage provider, encryption of volume data at rest, and attachment to multiple hosts when the back end supports it. Pluggable drivers connect deployments to storage systems including LVM, Ceph, NFS, iSCSI, and vendor systems.
Cinder covers a wide range of block-storage operations, but its practical behavior depends on configuration. Capacity, supported volume features, performance limits, replication, and failover vary by storage driver and deployment. Multi-attach is available when supported by the back end, while replication and failover are driver-dependent capabilities. Choose Cinder when OpenStack integration, self-hosting, and storage-back-end flexibility matter; consider a different option if you need a vendor-hosted service with standardized operational limits and a managed storage experience.
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OpenStack Cinder pricing
OpenStack Cinder fact sheet
| Free plan | No |
|---|---|
| Paid from | Free |
| Max volume size | Not verified |
| Volume types | __DEFAULT__; custom volume types |
| Snapshots | Yes |
| Multi-attach | Yes |
| Encryption | Yes |
| Cross-region replication | Not verified |
| Maximum IOPS | Not verified |
| Deployment | Self-hosted, Cloud |
| Support | Docs, Community |
| Built for | Mid-market, Enterprise (editorial estimate) |
| Integrations | 4 integrations: OpenStack Nova, OpenStack Horizon, OpenStack Keystone, OpenStack Barbican |
| Pricing | Open source |
| Website | docs.openstack.org |
| Facts checked | 21 Sep 2026 |
OpenStack Cinder integrations
OpenStack Cinder lists 4 integrations on its own site.
- OpenStack Nova
- OpenStack Horizon
- OpenStack Keystone
- OpenStack Barbican
Alternatives to OpenStack Cinder
- Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)A broad AWS-native block storage service with flexible volume and snapshot options.9.4
- Google Persistent DiskA flexible Compute Engine storage service with free capacity, snapshots, encryption, and replication.9.3
- Google Cloud HyperdiskA performance-tunable block storage service for demanding Google Cloud workloads.9.2
See all OpenStack Cinder alternatives →
OpenStack Cinder vs the competition
- OpenStack Cinder vs Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)
- OpenStack Cinder vs Google Persistent Disk
- OpenStack Cinder vs Google Cloud Hyperdisk
- OpenStack Cinder vs Huawei Cloud Elastic Volume Service (EVS)
- OpenStack Cinder vs IBM Cloud Block Storage
- OpenStack Cinder vs Alibaba Cloud Cloud Disk
Compare OpenStack Cinder with any tool side by side →
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Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
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