Comparison
MinIO vs Ceph
Overview
MinIO is a high-performance, S3-compatible object storage system designed for private clouds and on-prem deployments. It is lightweight, Kubernetes-native and used for AI/ML data, backups and data lakes where teams want full control of their storage.
Ceph is an open-source, software-defined storage platform that provides object, block and file storage from a single cluster. Highly scalable and self-healing, it is widely used for private clouds and large-scale infrastructure, with an S3-compatible object gateway (RGW).
Which should you choose?
MinIO is open-source, S3-compatible object storage optimized for high throughput and Kubernetes-native deployment, with a paid Enterprise support tier, fitting startups through enterprise. Ceph is unified distributed storage — object, block, and file in one system — self-healing and scalable to exabytes, but aimed more at SMB/enterprise given its operational complexity. Choose MinIO if you specifically need fast, S3-compatible object storage; choose Ceph if you need a single system covering object, block, and file storage at very large scale.
TLDR
- —If you specifically need fast, S3-compatible object storage, choose MinIO.
- —If you need one system covering object, block, and file storage at very large scale, choose Ceph.
Features
- —Full Amazon S3 API compatibility
- —High-throughput performance
- —Kubernetes-native deployment
- —Erasure coding and bitrot protection
- —Encryption and identity management
- —Multi-site active-active replication
- —Unified object, block and file storage
- —S3-compatible RADOS Gateway
- —Self-healing and self-managing
- —Massively scalable (exabyte)
- —No single point of failure
- —CRUSH data placement algorithm
Pricing
MinIO
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open Source | Free | Self-hosted AGPL. |
| Enterprise | Contact sales | Commercial license and support. |
Ceph
| Plan | Price | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Open Source | Free | Self-hosted. |
Company Fit
MinIO
Ceph
Alternatives
MinIO alternatives