--- title: MinIO: AWS S3, but free and open-source | daily.dev description: MinIO offers an open-source, high-performance alternative to AWS S3 for object storage, ideal for indie developers and small teams due to its cost-effective... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/1snxysriy twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: MinIO: AWS S3, but free and open-source | daily.dev og:description: MinIO offers an open-source, high-performance alternative to AWS S3 for object storage, ideal for indie developers and small teams due to its cost-effective... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/1snxysriy og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/1sNxysrIY.png og:image:alt: Post cover image og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # MinIO: AWS S3, but free and open-source **[DevJournal](https://daily.dev/sources/devjournal)** · [@pabllo](https://daily.dev/pabllo) · 350 upvotes · 11 comments ## Summary MinIO offers an open-source, high-performance alternative to AWS S3 for object storage, ideal for indie developers and small teams due to its cost-effective scalability and flexibility. With features like bucket organization, IAM policies, event hooks, and multi-platform hosting options, MinIO can operate across local machines, Docker, Kubernetes, and cloud VMs. While it eliminates vendor lock-in and incurs no direct usage fees, MinIO does require responsible management of infrastructure for backups and high availability. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@rob74** · 10 upvotes > Interesting but not free. Someone still has to pay for infrastructure costs for storage and compute (power, hvac, physical security) as well as the administrative costs to operate and maintain this architecture. This is what AWS offers, trading capex for opex offering fully managed services that scale to meet users needs. **@keyruu** · 3 upvotes > Pretty bad timing, because they just removed almost every feature from the open-source UI. **@vietkuong** · 2 upvotes > I checked the Price page on their website and there's no "free" section **@ankit\_8080** · 2 upvotes > I've been using MinIO as an alternative to S3 in my home lab for a while now, and it's proven to be incredibly reliable and efficient. **@ujevicigor** · 1 upvotes > Been there, done that. We ran a local cluster with petabytes of data — and honestly, maintaining it is no joke. Sure, self-hosting solutions like MinIO can make sense if you absolutely need GDPR compliance and everything in-house. But if you're aiming for production-level reliability, you’ll also need their support, which comes at a cost. > > And then there’s the operational side: disks fail, replacements aren’t cheap, and you need a few dedicated people just to keep it all running smoothly. Unless you really need full control, it's a lot of overhead for questionable gain. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Unveils Schedule for KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Europe 2026](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-unveils-schedule-for-kubecon-cloudnativecon-europe-2026-ikhcoa5cb) · CNCF · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [CNCF Debuts KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon Japan 2026 Schedule](https://daily.dev/posts/cncf-debuts-kubecon-cloudnativecon-japan-2026-schedule-xp5pyudub) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source), [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/1snxysriy) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"DiscussionForumPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https://daily.dev/posts/1snxysriy","headline":"MinIO: AWS S3, but free and open-source","text":"Shared: MinIO: AWS S3, but free and open-source","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1snxysriy","datePublished":"2025-05-15T13:02:17.183Z","dateModified":"2025-05-15T13:02:34.257Z","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Pawel","url":"https://daily.dev/pabllo","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--3eWxS47H--/f_auto/v1729542074/avatars/avatar_4YkXZuJNT1snNwgoR4ttR","interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"EndorseAction"},"userInteractionCount":775}},"image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ZrL_HSsR--/f_auto/v1722860399/public/Placeholder%2006","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":350},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":11}],"sharedContent":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/J2Lh8eHHE"},"comment":[{"@type":"Comment","text":"Interesting but not free. Someone still has to pay for infrastructure costs for storage and compute (power, hvac, physical security) as well as the administrative costs to operate and maintain this architecture. This is what AWS offers, trading capex for opex offering fully managed services that scale to meet users needs.","datePublished":"2025-05-16T12:21:22.220Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1sNxysrIY#c-tbivakkgG","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Rob","url":"https://daily.dev/rob74","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocJK3MAfcaHKKvI-tRre8lVgXDmWNWNkTrjW-dzHUEIFgfFdv-00=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":10}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Pretty bad timing, because they just removed almost every feature from the open-source UI.","datePublished":"2025-05-27T07:16:59.337Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1sNxysrIY#c-bgLU0iBCZ","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Lucas","url":"https://daily.dev/keyruu","image":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/53177682?v=4"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":3}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I checked the Price page on their website and there’s no “free” section","datePublished":"2025-05-17T01:38:24.461Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1sNxysrIY#c-IgKljqHrM","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Nguyen Viet Cuong","url":"https://daily.dev/vietkuong","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocI6Hz_btXhYTV4LP_8v5LV9XM-tBAhUz5SaKkB_7eY9mj5-GsSI=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"I’ve been using MinIO as an alternative to S3 in my home lab for a while now, and it’s proven to be incredibly reliable and efficient.","datePublished":"2025-05-30T01:22:00.663Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1sNxysrIY#c-XiwHwzQA3","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Ankit Kumar","url":"https://daily.dev/ankit_8080","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/AATXAJwvzfppuO4Iye1h_7VX_TimQoZb2-mjGGJOxz7x=s100"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Been there, done that. We ran a local cluster with petabytes of data — and honestly, maintaining it is no joke. Sure, self-hosting solutions like MinIO can make sense if you absolutely need GDPR compliance and everything in-house. But if you’re aiming for production-level reliability, you’ll also need their support, which comes at a cost.\nAnd then there’s the operational side: disks fail, replacements aren’t cheap, and you need a few dedicated people just to keep it all running smoothly. Unless you really need full control, it’s a lot of overhead for questionable gain.","datePublished":"2025-06-06T07:21:23.539Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/1sNxysrIY#c-SB226J5Hd","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Igor Ujević","url":"https://daily.dev/ujevicigor","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--ea-Yhxrs--/f_auto/v1775480567/avatars/avatar_e881883279e740acb0596f65d9875bb7?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":1}}],"isPartOf":{"@type":"WebPage","url":"https://daily.dev/squads/devjournal","name":"DevJournal"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DevJournal","item":"https://daily.dev/squads/devjournal"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"MinIO: AWS S3, but free and open-source"}]} ```