Best forFiles that get downloaded often — the S3 API without egress fees.
Trade-offFewer storage tiers and event features than S3.
Used by 4 makers' products for this
Vercel Blob alternatives
Not a ranking: each option is described by the situation it fits, with its trade-off, whether it's open source or free to start, whether AI coding agents can work with it, and how many makers' products use it for this job.
5 open source or self-hostable9 with a free tier5 ready for AI agents
For file storage
The whole decision →Raw object storage or an upload service. Buckets (S3 and the S3-compatible clones) are cheap and portable but leave uploads, validation and access rules to you; upload services and platform-bundled storage hand you a working upload flow and pick the bucket for you.
Vercel Blob (Bundled with your platform): Next.js apps hosted on Vercel that need simple uploads with no extra account. Trade-off: Ties storage to your Vercel bill; usage-based transfer costs grow with traffic.
Best forApps already on Supabase — storage access follows the same row-level security policies as your data.
Trade-offOnly worth it if the rest of your backend is on Supabase.
Used by 3 makers' products for this · Vercel Blob vs Supabase →
From Pay as you goIn Lovable
Best forApps already on AWS, or ones that need lifecycle rules, storage tiers and event triggers.
Trade-offEgress fees add up when files are downloaded a lot, and IAM setup is fiddly for one person.
No maker product tracked for this yet
Free tierFrom $10/mo
Best forTypeScript apps that want typed upload endpoints and drop-in upload components instead of wiring presigned URLs.
Trade-offFiles live in UploadThing's storage; moving away means migrating them.
No maker product tracked for this yet
Best forAn open-source upload widget with drag-and-drop, progress, resumable uploads and direct-to-S3, in front of whatever bucket you choose.
Trade-offYou still set up presigned URLs or a companion server, and the bucket rules, yourself.
Used by 2 makers' products for this
Open sourceFree tierFrom Contact sales (AIStor Enterprise)
Best forThe long-standing S3-compatible server for self-hosting, with many existing guides, Docker setups and client SDKs.
Trade-offThe open-source community edition is AGPL, ships as source only, and its repository was archived in 2026; new features go into the commercial AIStor editions.
Used by 1 makers' products for this
Backblaze B2
Object storageBest forLarge volumes of files kept for a long time — backups, archives, media libraries — at low storage cost.
Trade-offFree egress is capped relative to what you store; fewer regions and integrations than the big clouds.
No maker product tracked for this yet
Open sourceFree tierFrom $2/TB/mo
Best forRunning your own S3-compatible storage for lots of files, from one server up to a cluster.
Trade-offSeveral components (master, volume, filer, S3 gateway) to learn; durability and backups are yours to get right.
No maker product tracked for this yet
Open sourceFree tier
Best forA small, single-binary S3-compatible store for a few self-hosted machines, even in different locations.
Trade-offImplements the common S3 calls but not every feature (such as versioning or object lock); built for small deployments rather than huge throughput.
No maker product tracked for this yet
Best forMobile and web apps on Firebase — Cloud Storage uploads straight from the client SDK, guarded by security rules.
Trade-offAccess rules are written in Firebase's own rules language; storage and download bandwidth follow Google Cloud pricing.
No maker product tracked for this yet