Azure Blob vs MinIO
Cloud object storage pricing comparison. For a mid-size SaaS workload, MinIO is cheaper.
Cost Comparison by Scenario
Personal site, small app, or hobby project: 10GB storage, 50GB egress, 10,000 writes, 100,000 reads per month.
| Cost Component | Azure Blob | MinIO |
|---|---|---|
| Storage | $0.18 | $0.00 |
| Egress | $4.35 | $0.00 |
| API Requests | $0.10 | $0.00 |
| Monthly Total | $4.63 | $0.00 |
| Annual Total | $56 | $0 |
MinIO is 0% cheaper for this scenario, saving $4.63/mo ($56/year).
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Azure Blob | MinIO |
|---|---|---|
| S3 Compatible | No | Yes |
| Zero Egress Cost | No | Yes |
| Free Tier | Yes | No |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes |
| HIPAA | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 | Yes | Yes |
| Encryption at Rest | Yes | Yes |
| Customer-Managed Keys | Yes | Yes |
| Sensitive Data | full | full |
| Data Residency | US, EU, AP, SA, AF | US, EU, AP, SA, AF |
| CDN Integration | azure-cdn, cloudflare, fastly | cloudflare, nginx, any-reverse-proxy |
Strengths & Weaknesses
Azure Blob
Pros
- +Deep Microsoft ecosystem integration
- +Most compliance certifications
- +Immutable storage for regulatory needs
- +Competitive storage pricing
Cons
- −Complex pricing tiers
- −High egress costs
- −S3 compatibility requires extra config
MinIO
Pros
- +Completely free (open source, AGPL v3)
- +Full data sovereignty — you control everything
- +S3-compatible API
- +All compliance possible (you manage it)
Cons
- −You manage infrastructure (servers, disks, networking)
- −Hardware and operational costs not included
- −Requires DevOps expertise
- −No managed support without enterprise license
When to Choose Which
Choose Azure Blob if you need:
- Microsoft/Azure-heavy orgs
- Regulatory compliance workloads
- Enterprise hybrid cloud
Choose MinIO if you need:
- Organizations needing full data control
- Air-gapped environments
- On-premise requirements
- Avoiding cloud vendor lock-in