MinIO vs Storj (2026): which should you pick?

Pick MinIO if

• Fits if you run your own infrastructure and need S3-style storage
• Works for data teams that want a single test node for free

Look elsewhere if

• Not for you if you want a file-sync or sharing app
• Not for you if you want a managed service, as it runs on your own servers
• Watch out: the pricing page says the original AGPLv3 edition is end of life with no fixes or security patches
• Watch out: clusters need a paid subscription whose price is not published

Pick Storj if

• Fits if you're a developer who wants S3 storage and is fine with a trial first
• Works for teams that store a lot and read it back rarely

Look elsewhere if

• Skip it if you want a drive that syncs, as this is object storage
• Watch out: a $5 monthly minimum applies after the trial and is a floor, not a credit
• Pricey if you read data often: egress is another $7 per TB
• Watch out: Standard bills a 30-day minimum retention, and Object Mount licenses are $29 or $39 a month

MinIO

• Clustered, highly available deployments need a paid Enterprise Lite or Enterprise subscription; the free tier is single-node only.
• No Enterprise Lite or Enterprise prices are published; both are quoted on request.
• The pricing page says the original open-source MinIO edition (AGPLv3) is end of life with no fixes or security patches.
• This is infrastructure software for operators, not a consumer file-sync or sharing app.

Storj

• A $5 monthly minimum fee applies after the trial; it is a floor, not a usage credit, and USDC payers are exempt.
• Standard bills a 30-day minimum retention and rounds objects under 50 KB up to 50 KB.
• Paid Object Mount licenses are $29 per license per month (500 GB of Storj storage included) or $39 for use with other S3 storage.
• Standard and Advanced are bought through sales contact on the pricing page.

MinIO

S3-compatible object storage

AIStor is described as fully S3-compatible, with S3 Express, an Iceberg catalog and SFTP also listed among its protocols.

Replication

The feature list names active-active, synchronous and asynchronous, multi-site, bucket and batch replication.

Security

Encryption, a key management server, a data firewall and immutability are listed, and the page shows FIPS 140-3, SOC 2 and ISO 27001 badges.

Management

An admin console, quality-of-service controls, lifecycle management, audit trail and Prometheus metrics are listed.

Sized by usable capacity

Subscription pricing follows usable storage capacity after erasure-code overhead, not raw disk.

Storj

Distributed storage

Data is stored across tens of thousands of locations and designed for 11 nines of durability using erasure coding.

S3-compatible access

The pricing page calls it a drop-in replacement for AWS S3 that works with S3-compatible apps; segment and API fees are not charged on new tiers.

Object Mount

A desktop client for Mac, Windows and Linux that streams cloud files as if they were local, working with Storj or any S3 storage.

Regional option

The Advanced tier keeps data in U.S. SOC 2 Type 2 compliant data centers for buyers who need to control where data lives.

MinIO

• Free$0

  Single-node deployment with community Slack and documentation support; no resiliency beyond one node.

• Enterprise LiteCustom

  Multi-node, horizontally scalable, for capacity under 400 TiB. Priced on request; optional direct-to-engineer support with a sub-5-day SLA.

• EnterpriseCustom

  Multi-node with 24/7/365 direct-to-engineer support, a sub-4-hour SLA and dedicated onboarding. Priced on request.

Storj

• Free trial$0

  for 30 days

  S3-compatible storage with 25 GB for 30 days and 2 free Object Mount licenses. No credit card needed.

• Standard$7

  per TB / month stored, plus $7 per TB egress

  Globally distributed storage. 30-day minimum retention, 50 KB minimum object size and a $5 monthly minimum fee.

• Advanced$10

  per TB / month stored, plus $7 per TB egress

  Storage kept in U.S. SOC 2 Type 2 compliant data centers. $5 monthly minimum fee.