Backblaze B2
Hacker ApprovedRanked 3 of 10 object storage by recommenders
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.
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.
64 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 50
- criticize it
- 14
- approval share
- 78%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 50 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.6 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Cheaper per GB than S3
“There are actually a lot of cheaper S3-compatible services out there, (like Backblaze B2, or Cloudflare R2).”
Comment from 15 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “still way more affordable than S3 or many of the other alternatives out there”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Backblaze Pricing and Product Updates” “You can store 2TB for $14 per month; to fill that with photos you'd have to shoot 0.5GB/day for 10 years.”
Comment from 17 Aug 2026 in “How do I permanently disable Google Photos pop-up prompt to backup my photos?” - Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data”
- Comment from 17 Jan 2026 in “Show HN: Streaming gigabyte medical images from S3 without downloading them”
S3-compatible API works with existing tools
“For personal projects I end up avoiding AWS and instead prefer things like the Backblaze S3-compatible object storage”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “AWS deprecates two dozen services (most of which you've never heard of)” “This is the main reason I use them for their S3 compatible storage service over their competitors.”
Comment from 14 Nov 2025 in “Backblaze Drive Stats for Q3 2025” “a free bucket from backblaze. It as a s3 compatible api so works using the s3 feature.”
Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Obsidian Sync now has a headless client” - Comment from 28 Feb 2026 in “Obsidian Sync now has a headless client”
Simple setup with backup tools
“I sync my own backups to B2 and would set that up over installing linux any day of the week! It's extremely easy.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “We have it backing up to Backblaze B2 (S3 like). Was relatively easy to setup and no problems really.”
Comment from 22 Jul 2026 in “The startup's Postgres survival guide” “pgdumpall to Backblaze B2 on a nightly crontab, that is it”
Comment from 16 Nov 2025 in “$5 PlanetScale is live” - Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “Apple has locked my Apple ID, and I have no recourse. A plea for help”
Free egress through Cloudflare
“Backblaze B2 + Cloudflare has free egress which is huge”
Comment from 24 Dec 2025 in “Cloudflare Stream + Backblaze vs. GCP for Short Form Video?” “with these two you can host a static site for free”
Comment from 18 Mar 2026 in “Have a Fucking Website”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Performance and throttling problems at times
“B2 has serious performance problems on the US West Coast (and possibly other regions too) in the evenings.”
Comment from 17 Mar 2026 in “Backblaze Pricing and Product Updates” “Wonky bandwidth limits and throttling are my main problem, but also had some issues with login at one point”
Comment from 15 Nov 2025 in “AWS deprecates two dozen services (most of which you've never heard of)” “the reliability and throughput of both of them isn't as consistent as AWS and this has been a constant headache”
Comment from 8 Dec 2025 in “Has the cost of building software dropped 90%?” Better as cold storage than active use
“B2 isn't really great as an active file store, it's better as cold storage.”
Comment from 27 May 2026 in “Dropbox CEO Drew Houston to step down” “But it very much breaks down for B2 where they're now storing original data.”
Comment from 17 Sep 2026 in “AWS says it can't restore some data from mideast facilities struck by Iran” Expensive at larger data volumes
“Its expensive per gig compared to the cost of a working personal unlimited desktop account”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “That is a lot more expensive if you have more than a small amount of data.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “Backblaze has stopped backing up your data” “B2's downloading costs means verifying remote snapshots could get expensive”
Comment from 24 Nov 2025 in “Unpowered SSDs slowly lose data”
Other object storage people recommend
The four most recommended other object storage, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 | 170 | 84 | 67% | 12 | 14 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Cloudflare R2 | 85 | 14 | 86% | 12 | — | Approved |
| Backblaze B2This page | 50 | 14 | 78% | 12 | — | Approved |
| AWS S3 | 17 | 7 | 71% | 11 | — | Approved |
| Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive | 16 | 11 | 59% | 7 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 69 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I use backblaze with restic. Got about 300GB up there, fully encrypted, keys in 1Password.”
“But it very much breaks down for B2 where they're now storing original data.”
“It doesn't have a proprietary client, and it launched 11 years ago”
“when I cancelled my Backblaze B2 account, I had to wait until the object locks expired before I could remove the remaining data”
“B2 gives 10gb free so I haven't paid for backups yet.”
“You can store 2TB for $14 per month; to fill that with photos you'd have to shoot 0.5GB/day for 10 years.”
“We have it backing up to Backblaze B2 (S3 like). Was relatively easy to setup and no problems really.”
“B2 isn't really great as an active file store, it's better as cold storage.”
“So far everything has been free and I have a snappy 'portfolio'”
“If you like the pricing of B2 but not the backup tool”
“There are actually a lot of cheaper S3-compatible services out there, (like Backblaze B2, or Cloudflare R2).”
“IIRC sync each way took three or four days, not really that bad.”
“Every night my laptop and homelab both back up to each other and to B2”
“That is a lot more expensive if you have more than a small amount of data.”
“Backblaze has a product for people who understand the limitations of their consumer product and don't find them acceptable: B2, which is priced by the gigabyte.”
“I'm using B2, but I haven't scrubbed my backup sets in a while.”
“It's cheaper if you have multiple computers with normal amounts of data though.”
“Its expensive per gig compared to the cost of a working personal unlimited desktop account”
“I sync my own backups to B2 and would set that up over installing linux any day of the week! It's extremely easy.”
“with these two you can host a static site for free”
“B2 has serious performance problems on the US West Coast (and possibly other regions too) in the evenings.”
“still way more affordable than S3 or many of the other alternatives out there”
“The free API changes are going to cut our bills in half.”
“a free bucket from backblaze. It as a s3 compatible api so works using the s3 feature.”
“It as a s3 compatible api so works using the s3 feature.”
“if you just want to dump some backups in the cloud backblaze and other alternatives is cheaper”
“storing raw files in B2 while also ingesting to Stream means you're paying for storage twice”
“Backblaze B2 + Cloudflare has free egress which is huge”
“I would use an app that backs up to their B2 service.”
“the reliability and throughput of both of them isn't as consistent as AWS and this has been a constant headache”
“BB seems to be pretty smart about managing their exposure, infrastructure overhead, etc.”
“B2's downloading costs means verifying remote snapshots could get expensive”
“Backblaze B2 is $6TB/mo, so if you have around 300GB”
“I run this setup for home and work and we’re doing this on 10tb+.”
“either a glacier-style s3 service (aws or backblaze/etc)”
“pgdumpall to Backblaze B2 on a nightly crontab, that is it”
“Wonky bandwidth limits and throttling are my main problem, but also had some issues with login at one point”
“For personal projects I end up avoiding AWS and instead prefer things like the Backblaze S3-compatible object storage”
“This is the main reason I use them for their S3 compatible storage service over their competitors.”
“In my experience even backblaze b2 performs (way) better.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.