MinIO vs Tigris (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, MinIO grades higher than Tigris: 2.2 against 2.0 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
MinIO grades higher on the free plan and platforms. Tigris grades higher on features. They get the same grade on value for money and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Which one is for you
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 Tigris if
- Fits if you read the same data from many regions and want no egress bill
- Works for developers who already use S3 tools and want a swap-in endpoint
Look elsewhere if
- Not for you if you want a folder to drop files into, as it is infrastructure with no sharing app
- Tight if you stay free, because 5 GB is the whole free storage
- Watch out: Infrequent Access and Archive objects carry 30 to 90 day minimum storage charges and retrieval fees
- Watch out: Dropbox plans to acquire Tigris, and the company says pricing and product stay the same
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAMinIOFair | 2.0GPATigrisFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | CThe free tier is single-node and Enterprise Lite and Enterprise are quoted on request, so there is no price to compare. | CStandard is $0.02 per GB a month, with requests billed beyond the free allowance. It is metered rather than a subscription, so it cannot be lined up against the category's $7 middle, and egress is free. |
| Free plan and trial | BFree single-node deployment with the full feature set and community support. Redistribution is prohibited, and there is a 60-day trial of the paid tiers. | CEvery month gives 5 GB of Standard storage, 10,000 write and list requests and 100,000 reads, with no card. A real project goes past that fast. |
| Features | CS3 API, replication, security and management for object storage. It is not a file-sync app, and clustering is paid. | BS3 API, global distribution, storage tiers, bucket forking, soft deletes and object notifications. Nothing in the listing is missing from object storage's job. |
| Ease of use | DDeployed on your own servers or cloud and run by operators. No store rating on record. | DYou work through the S3 API, access keys and a command line, as it is a developer service with no end-user app. No store rating is on record. |
| Platforms and integrations | BWeb console, S3 API and Kubernetes, Prometheus, NVIDIA and Databricks listed. | CWeb console and API only, with no desktop or phone app. It lists Amazon S3 compatibility and nothing else. |
| Best for | S3-compatible object storage for engineers | S3-style object storage without egress fees |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: MinIO and Tigris. How we grade
Where they differ
- MinIO is self-hostable, according to its own site.
In commonFree planWebPublic APIFile management
At a glance
| MinIO | Tigris | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | Not published | Not published |
| Free plan | AIStor Free: the full AIStor feature set on a single-node deployment, with community Slack and documentation support. Redistribution is prohibited. | Every month: 5 GB of Standard storage, 10,000 write and list requests and 100,000 read requests. |
| Free trial | 60-day free trial of Enterprise Lite and Enterprise | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Made by | MinIO, Inc. | Tigris Data |
| Price read from | min.io | tigrisdata.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 13, 2026 |
Worth knowing
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.
Tigris
- Standard storage is $0.02 per GB per month; Infrequent Access is $0.01 and Archive tiers $0.004.
- Requests are billed: $0.005 per 1,000 Class A and $0.0005 per 1,000 Class B, beyond the free allowance.
- Infrequent Access and Archive objects carry 30 to 90 day minimum storage charges and retrieval fees.
- Dropbox plans to acquire Tigris; the company says pricing and the product stay the same.
Key features
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.
Tigris
- S3-compatible API
- Applications talk to one S3-compatible endpoint, so existing S3 tools and libraries can point at Tigris.
- Global distribution
- The default bucket type distributes data globally and follows access patterns, with single-region, multi-region and dual-region options.
- Storage tiers
- Standard, Infrequent Access, Archive and Archive Instant Retrieval tiers, with minimum retention of 30 to 90 days on the colder ones.
- Bucket forking and soft deletes
- Bucket forking, lifecycle rules and soft deletes carry no separate charge; you pay for stored data at its tier's rate.
- Object notifications
- Changes to objects in a bucket can trigger webhook events, charged per event.
- No egress fees
- Reads from any region, any cloud or the open internet cost nothing for data transfer.
Plans
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.
Tigris
Free tier$0
Monthly allowance of 5 GB Standard storage, 10,000 Class A and 100,000 Class B requests; no card needed.
EnterpriseCustom
Custom pricing and service contract for larger workloads; contact the company.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, MinIO or Tigris?
As of Nov 13, 2026, MinIO publishes no starting price, and Tigris publishes no starting price.
Which has a free plan, MinIO or Tigris?
As of Nov 13, 2026, both MinIO and Tigris have a free plan.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.