S3 Provider Comparison

niks3 works with any S3-compatible storage provider, but different providers have varying characteristics that may affect your deployment.

Tested Providers

These providers have been tested in production for binary cache workloads:

Provider	Performance	Content-Encoding	CDN	Storage	Egress/Bandwidth	Notes
Cloudflare R2	✅ Excellent	✅ Native	✅ Built-in	$0.015/GB	$0/GB (free!)	Recommended: Built-in CDN, zero egress fees, works out of the box. Free tier: 10GB storage, 10M reads, 1M writes/month.
Backblaze B2	✅ Good	⚠️ Workaround	✅ Required	$0.006/GB	First 3× storage free, then $0.01/GB (or $0 with Cloudflare)	Very affordable storage. Requires CDN for Content-Encoding headers. Zero egress via Bandwidth Alliance. See clan-infra config.
Hetzner Object Storage	❌ Poor	✅ Native	⚠️ Doesn't help	€4.99/mo (1TB)	1TB included, then €1.00/TB	Not recommended: 10s+ response times for .narinfo lookups persist even with CDN.
AWS S3	✅ Excellent	✅ Native	❌ Optional	$0.023/GB	$0.09/GB	Enterprise-grade, extensive features. Higher egress costs make it expensive for binary caches. Can use CloudFront CDN.

Pricing Analysis for Binary Cache Workloads

Binary caches are read-heavy with significant download traffic. For a typical scenario (1TB storage + 10TB downloads/month):

• Cloudflare R2: $15/month (storage only, zero egress fees)
• Backblaze B2 + Cloudflare: $6/month (storage only, zero egress via Bandwidth Alliance)
• Backblaze B2 (without Cloudflare): $76/month ($6 storage + $70 egress beyond 3TB free allowance)
• AWS S3 (direct): $923/month ($23 storage + $900 egress to internet)
• AWS S3 + CloudFront: $873/month ($23 storage + $0 S3→CloudFront transfer + $850 CloudFront egress)
• Hetzner: €14/month (~$15/month, but poor performance makes it unsuitable)

Note: AWS S3 transfers to CloudFront (and other AWS services in the same region) are free, but CloudFront still charges $0.085/GB for egress to the internet, only marginally cheaper than direct S3 egress.

Winner: Cloudflare R2 and Hetzner offer ~98% cost savings vs AWS S3. However, Hetzner's poor performance (10s+ latency) makes Cloudflare R2 the clear choice, combining excellent performance with the lowest viable cost.

Content-Encoding Requirements

Nix binary caches compress files with zstd (.narinfo, .nar.zst, .ls, build logs, realisations). HTTP clients need the Content-Encoding: zstd header to automatically decompress these files.

Providers that don't set this header (like Backblaze B2) require a CDN or reverse proxy to inject the header. See the clan-infra Fastly configuration for a complete working example with Backblaze B2 + Fastly.

Cloudflare Bandwidth Alliance

The Bandwidth Alliance is a partnership between Cloudflare and various cloud providers that eliminates egress fees when Cloudflare is used as a reverse proxy.

S3-compatible providers with zero egress via Bandwidth Alliance: Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Linode Object Storage, Scaleway Object Storage.

Not in the alliance: AWS S3.

Caveats:

• Requires configuring Cloudflare as a reverse proxy
• Backblaze B2 requires Content-Encoding header injection rules on Cloudflare for zstd decompression
• Performance untested for providers other than Backblaze B2

If you've configured this setup, please contribute your Cloudflare rules!

Recommendations

1. Cloudflare R2 (best for most users): Zero egress fees, built-in CDN, excellent performance, works out of the box
2. Backblaze B2 (budget alternative): Very cheap storage if you keep downloads under 3× storage, but requires Fastly/CDN setup
3. AWS S3 (enterprise only): Only if you need AWS ecosystem integration and can afford high egress costs
4. Hetzner (avoid): Poor performance makes it unsuitable for binary caches regardless of cost

Pricing Sources: Cloudflare R2, Backblaze B2, AWS S3, AWS CloudFront, Hetzner Object Storage

Other (Untested) S3-Compatible Providers

Additional providers with pricing for the same scenario (1TB storage + 10TB egress/month):

Provider	Monthly Cost	Notes
OVH Standard 3-AZ	€14 (~$15)	Zero egress fees, multi-AZ resiliency. European provider. Untested for binary cache performance.
OVH High Performance	$20	Zero egress fees, single AZ. High-performance tier with better IOPS.
Wasabi	$7*	Not suitable: "Free egress" only if egress ≤ storage. Binary caches violate this (10TB egress > 1TB storage). Would likely be rejected or charged penalty fees.
Vultr Object Storage	$108	$18 base (1TB+1TB) + $90 egress overage. Includes 2TB free egress account-wide.
DigitalOcean Spaces	$110	$5 base (250GB+1TB) + $15 storage + $90 egress. Built-in CDN included.
Linode Object Storage	$110	$5 base (250GB+1TB) + $15 storage + $90 egress. Now owned by Akamai.
Scaleway Object Storage	€114 (~$120)	€15 storage + €99 egress (75GB free). Multi-AZ available. European provider.

Performance notes: Only Cloudflare R2, AWS S3, and Backblaze B2 (with Fastly) have been tested in production for binary cache workloads. Other providers are untested and may have performance issues similar to Hetzner.

Help wanted! If you test niks3 with any of these providers, please expand this wiki with your performance results (.narinfo lookup latency, download speeds, reliability). Your real-world experience helps the community make informed decisions.

Pricing Sources: Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, Linode Object Storage, Vultr Object Storage, OVHcloud, Scaleway Storage