# Backblaze B2 Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/backblaze-b2/ 39 people recommended Backblaze B2 in Hacker News comments, 10 had mixed feelings and 11 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 27 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule. **Verdict:** Cheap, S3-compatible object storage that pairs well with backup tools like restic. Critics report evening slowdowns and say it suits cold storage better than active use. Summary written by Claude from 52 comments. It was written before the November 2026 recount, and 50 of those comments still count. ## Why people recommend it - Cheaper per GB than S3 (5 comments in the sample): "There are actually a lot of cheaper S3-compatible services out there, (like Backblaze B2, or Cloudflare R2" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47773299)) "still way more affordable than S3 or many of the other alternatives out there" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47414880)) "You can store 2TB for $14 per month; to fill that with photos you'd have to shoot 0.5GB/day for 10 years." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49329391)) - Simple setup with backup tools (4 comments in the sample): "I sync my own backups to B2 and would set that up over installing linux any day of the week! It’s extremely easy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47763992)) "We have it backing up to Backblaze B2 (S3 like). Was relatively easy to setup and no problems really." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49008288)) "pgdumpall to Backblaze B2 on a nightly crontab, that is it" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45947976)) - S3-compatible API works with existing tools (3 comments in the sample): "For personal projects I end up avoiding AWS and instead prefer things like the Backblaze S3-compatible object storage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45940144)) "This is the main reason I use them for their S3 compatible storage service over their competitors." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45928192)) "It as a s3 compatible api so works using the s3 feature." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47199422)) - Free egress through Cloudflare (2 comments in the sample): "Backblaze B2 + Cloudflare has free egress which is huge" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46375777)) "with these two you can host a static site for free" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47422652)) ## What people warn about - Performance and throttling problems at times (3 comments in the sample): "B2 has serious performance problems on the US West Coast (and possibly other regions too) in the evenings." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47417803)) "Wonky bandwidth limits and throttling are my main problem, but also had some issues with login at one point" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45940837)) "the reliability and throughput of both of them isn't as consistent as AWS and this has been a constant headache" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46198443)) - Expensive at larger data volumes (3 comments in the sample): "Its expensive per gig compared to the cost of a working personal unlimited desktop account" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47765175)) "That is a lot more expensive if you have more than a small amount of data." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47768172)) "B2's downloading costs means verifying remote snapshots could get expensive" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46040716)) - Better as cold storage than active use (2 comments in the sample): "B2 isn't really great as an active file store, it's better as cold storage." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48294871)) "But it very much breaks down for B2 where they're now storing original data." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49739552)) ## Other object storage people recommend - [Amazon S3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-s3/): 122 recommend, 38 mixed, 80 criticize - [Cloudflare R2](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cloudflare-r2/): 64 recommend, 8 mixed, 14 criticize - [AWS S3](https://hackerapproved.com/p/aws-s3/): 11 recommend, 5 mixed, 6 criticize - [Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amazon-s3-glacier-deep-archive/): 9 recommend, 7 mixed, 10 criticize ## Where to get it - [Visit the official site](https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage) ## The badge A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged. ## Cite as Hacker Approved, "Backblaze B2", https://hackerapproved.com/p/backblaze-b2/ (39 recommend, 10 mixed, 11 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026). Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.