{
 "meta": {
  "built": "2026-07-18",
  "tranches": 2,
  "providers_total": 25,
  "note": "Merged dataset: tranche1 + tranche2 + obsideo row. Per-tranche methodology in the tranche files. Re-verify all prices before publication refresh."
 },
 "providers": [
  {
   "name": "Backblaze B2",
   "website": "https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 6.95,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 10,
    "conditions": "First 10 GB storage always free (pay-as-you-go)"
   },
   "minimums": "No minimum storage duration fees; no minimum file size fees (stated on pricing page). Pay-as-you-go, no minimum monthly charge stated.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API plus a native B2 API. Pricing page lists 'starts at $6.95/TB/mo' -- up from the long-standing $6/TB. Class A/B/C API calls free for pay-as-you-go; Class D $0.004 per 10,000 calls (first 2,500/day free).",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption (SSE-B2, AES-256) available per bucket, not universal default; SSE-C supported; client-side optional via tools. (Encryption details from general knowledge, not re-verified on this fetch.)",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums (native B2 upload API requires per-file SHA-1; S3 API ETag). Durability (11 nines, Reed-Solomon 17+3) is an internal engineering claim, not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Reed-Solomon erasure coding (17+3 across 20 drives) within a region; 11-nines durability claim. Cross-region replication is an optional paid feature.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "invoicing (B2 Reserve/enterprise)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2015 (public beta), GA 2016",
   "status_notes": "Egress free up to 3x average monthly data stored, then $0.01/GB ($10/TB). B2 Overdrive (high-volume tier) includes unlimited free egress. Annual capacity plan (B2 Reserve) from $19,500 for 250 TB/yr.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-storage/pricing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "$6.95/TB/mo starting price; 10 GB free; free egress up to 3x monthly storage then $0.01/GB; no minimum duration/file-size fees; Class D $0.004/10k calls"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Cloudflare R2",
   "website": "https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/",
   "category": "hyperscaler",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 15,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 10,
    "conditions": "10 GB-month/month Standard storage, 1M Class A ops, 10M Class B ops per month; free tier does not apply to Infrequent Access class"
   },
   "minimums": "No account minimum. Infrequent Access class has a 30-day minimum storage duration (billed for full 30 days even if deleted earlier).",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API is the primary interface; also Workers binding. Standard $0.015/GB-mo ($15/TB); Infrequent Access $0.01/GB-mo ($10/TB) plus $0.01/GB retrieval fee. Operations billed per Class A/B request beyond free tier.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption at rest by default (Cloudflare-managed keys); SSE-C supported per Cloudflare docs (SSE-C support from general knowledge, not re-verified on this fetch).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via standard checksums/ETag on upload/download. Durability claims are internal and not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Redundant storage within a region/jurisdiction (implementation details not fully public); 11-nines durability claim (claim not verified on this fetch).",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal (Cloudflare billing)",
    "enterprise invoicing"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "announced 2021, GA September 2022",
   "status_notes": "Zero egress fees is the headline differentiator; no allowance cap on egress. Requests beyond free tier are billed (Class A $4.50/million, Class B $0.36/million per general knowledge -- request rates not re-verified on this fetch, storage/egress rates were).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://developers.cloudflare.com/r2/pricing/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Standard $0.015/GB-mo, IA $0.01/GB-mo, egress free, 10 GB + 1M/10M ops free tier, IA 30-day minimum, IA retrieval $0.01/GB"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Wasabi",
   "website": "https://wasabi.com",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 7.99,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "Free trial offered; size/duration not stated on the pricing page fetched (historically 1 TB/30 days, not re-verified)"
   },
   "minimums": "1 TB minimum monthly charge for object storage (10 TB for Cloud NAS). 90-day minimum storage duration on pay-as-you-go: objects deleted earlier incur a Timed Deleted Storage charge for the remaining days.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API only (no proprietary API). Pay-as-you-go 'starting at $7.99/TB/month' -- up from the long-standing $6.99. Reserved Capacity pricing available. No API request charges.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption at rest; SSE-C supported (encryption details from general knowledge, not re-verified on this fetch).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag. 11-nines durability is an internal claim, not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Erasure coding within a region; 11-nines durability claim. Cross-region replication optional/paid.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "invoice/PO",
    "channel partners/resellers"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2017",
   "status_notes": "Free egress is a fair-use policy, not unconditional: free only while monthly egress <= active storage volume; Wasabi 'reserves the right to limit or suspend' service for sustained excess (no metered overage billing -- enforcement is service action). Not suitable as a high-egress CDN origin.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://wasabi.com/pricing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Starting at $7.99 TB/month; no egress or API request fees"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://wasabi.com/pricing/faq",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "90-day minimum retention (PAYG) with Timed Deleted Storage charge; 1 TB minimum monthly charge; free egress conditional on egress <= active storage; right to limit/suspend"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Storj",
   "website": "https://www.storj.io",
   "category": "decentralized",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 7,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 7,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 25,
    "conditions": "30-day free trial, 25 GB storage, no credit card; minimum monthly fee waived during trial"
   },
   "minimums": "$5 minimum monthly fee (Standard and Advanced). 30-day minimum retention per object (early deletion billed for remaining GB-month). 50 KB minimum billable object size.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible via Storj-hosted gateway (gateway-mt) or self-hosted gateway; native 'uplink' protocol is the E2E path. Standard $7/TB storage + $7/TB egress (storage price has risen from the earlier $4/TB). Advanced tier $10/TB license pricing, US SOC2 data centers only. Segment fees eliminated on current tiers.",
   "encryption_model": "Client-side end-to-end encryption by default via native uplink/libuplink. Caveat: the hosted S3 gateway performs encryption server-side at the edge (gateway handles keys during operations), weakening the E2E property vs the native protocol.",
   "verification_method": "Satellite-run cryptographic audits: satellites continuously challenge nodes with proofs-of-retrievability over random erasure shares; audit failures hit node reputation and payout. Real possession auditing, but performed and attested by Storj-operated satellites -- customers trust the satellite, they do not verify independently.",
   "redundancy_model": "Reed-Solomon erasure coding across thousands of independent nodes worldwide (~29-of-80 scheme historically); automatic repair; 11-nines durability claim.",
   "self_host_option": true,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "STORJ token"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "network v3 GA March 2020 (company founded 2014)",
   "status_notes": "Node operation is open (anyone can run a storage node and earn). Self-hosting the full satellite plane is theoretically open-source but not practical; self_host_option=true refers to nodes/gateways. Egress is charged, unlike several centralized rivals.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.storj.io/pricing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "$7/TB storage, $7/TB egress, $5 min monthly fee, 25 GB/30-day trial, 50 KB min object, 30-day min retention, segment fees eliminated, 11-nines durability claim"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "AWS S3 (Standard)",
   "website": "https://aws.amazon.com/s3/",
   "category": "hyperscaler",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 23,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 90,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No permanent free S3 storage tier. New customers: $200 AWS credits. 100 GB/month data transfer out to internet free, aggregated across all AWS services/regions (except China/GovCloud)."
   },
   "minimums": "No minimum storage duration or minimum charge for S3 Standard (unlike IA/Glacier classes).",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "The reference implementation. US East (N. Virginia): Standard storage $0.023/GB-mo first 50 TB, $0.022 next 450 TB, $0.021 over 500 TB. PUT/COPY/POST/LIST $0.005/1,000 requests; GET $0.0004/1,000. Prices vary by region (some regions materially higher). $23/TB figure uses decimal conversion of the first-50TB rate.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption default (SSE-S3, AES-256, since Jan 2023); SSE-KMS, SSE-C, and client-side encryption optional.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via ETag/Content-MD5 and optional additional checksums (SHA-256/CRC family) computed on upload. 11-nines durability is an internal claim backed by AWS engineering, not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Objects stored redundantly across >=3 Availability Zones in-region; 11-nines durability design claim.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "bank/invoicing",
    "AWS Marketplace/credits"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "March 2006",
   "status_notes": "Egress tiered: $0.09/GB first 10 TB/mo, $0.085 next 40 TB, $0.07 next 100 TB, $0.05 over 150 TB (after the 100 GB/mo free allowance). Headline $90/TB is the first-tier rate. Request and management fees add materially for small-object workloads. Numbers taken from AWS's own pricing data feed (b0.p.awsstatic.com) because the pricing page tables are JS-rendered.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "100 GB/mo free aggregate data transfer out; $200 new-customer credits; egress from $0.09/GB"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://b0.p.awsstatic.com/pricing/2.0/meteredUnitMaps/s3/USD/current/s3.json",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "US East (N. Virginia): Standard $0.023/GB first 50 TB, $0.022 next 450 TB, $0.021 over 500 TB; PUT $0.000005/req; GET $0.0000004/req"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://b0.p.awsstatic.com/pricing/2.0/meteredUnitMaps/datatransfer/USD/current/datatransfer.json",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "US East (N. Virginia) internet egress tiers: $0.09 / $0.085 / $0.07 / $0.05 per GB"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Filebase",
   "website": "https://filebase.com",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 15,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 5,
    "conditions": "Free plan: 5 GB storage (pooled across Object Storage/IPFS), 1 GB IPFS gateway egress, 100K Class A + 1M Class B ops"
   },
   "minimums": "No minimum object size or duration stated. Pro plan flat $7.50/mo including 500 GB; overage $0.015/GB.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API fronting both plain object storage and IPFS pinning. Effective storage rate $0.015/GB (~$15/TB) beyond plan allowances; Pro base works out to $15/TB for the included 500 GB. Object storage egress free; IPFS gateway bandwidth 250 GB on Pro then $0.015/GB.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption at rest claimed for object storage. Anything pinned to IPFS is publicly retrievable by CID via gateways -- not private by design.",
   "verification_method": "For IPFS: content addressing (CIDs) makes every retrieval self-verifying, but there is no idle possession proof and pin redundancy is attested only by Filebase. For object storage: checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Provider-managed geo-redundancy claimed for object storage; IPFS pins replicated per Filebase's pinning policy. Details not published in verifiable form. (Filebase historically brokered to decentralized networks -- Sia/Storj backends were sunset; current backend is Filebase-operated infrastructure plus IPFS. Not re-verified on this fetch.)",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2019",
   "status_notes": "Positioning has shifted from 'S3 on decentralized networks' toward IPFS-centric infrastructure. Classified 'independent' rather than 'decentralized' because the customer contract and durability attestation are with Filebase alone.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://filebase.com/pricing/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Free 5 GB; Pro $7.50/mo with 500 GB + 250 GB IPFS egress; $0.015/GB additional storage and IPFS bandwidth; object storage egress free"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "IDrive e2",
   "website": "https://www.idrive.com/s3-storage-e2/",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 6,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 10,
    "conditions": "10 GB free trial (standard pay-as-you-go); 1 TB free trial for Veeam/MSP plan"
   },
   "minimums": "Standard PAYG: $6/month minimum (1 TB minimum billed). Veeam/MSP: $5/month minimum. 'No restrictions of minimum data retention' (no 90-day-style lock-in).",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API. PAYG $0.006/GB-mo ($6/TB). Annual plans cheaper: 1 TB $59.50/yr (~$4.96/TB-mo), 50% off first year. No API call charges. Regional availability varies; regional price differences not listed on the fetched page.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption at rest; SSE support per docs (details from general knowledge, not re-verified on this fetch).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Checksums/ETag only. Durability claims internal and not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Erasure coding / RAID within a single region per bucket (provider claim); no default cross-region redundancy.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2022",
   "status_notes": "Egress free up to 3x active storage volume per month, then $0.01/GB ($10/TB) -- same shape as Backblaze's allowance. Aggressive first-year discounts make list price and steady-state price differ; steady-state annual is the honest comparison number.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.idrive.com/s3-storage-e2/pricing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "$0.006/GB-mo ($6/TB); $6/mo minimum; egress free to 3x storage then $0.01/GB; no API charges; no minimum retention; 1 TB annual $59.50 ($29.75 first year); 10 GB trial"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Scaleway Object Storage",
   "website": "https://www.scaleway.com/en/object-storage/",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 18.3,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 11.4,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "75 GB/month free egress. No free storage allowance shown on the pricing page fetched (an earlier 75 GB free storage offer was not visible)."
   },
   "minimums": "No minimum duration or minimum charge listed for Standard/One Zone classes on the fetched page.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API. Native prices are EUR: Standard Multi-AZ EUR 0.01606/GB-mo (EUR 16.06/TB); One Zone EUR 0.00803/GB-mo (EUR 8.03/TB); egress EUR 0.01/GB after 75 GB free. USD figures here are conversions at ECB 1.1406 (2026-06-30): Multi-AZ ~$18.32/TB, One Zone ~$9.16/TB, egress ~$11.41/TB -- converted values, not provider-quoted USD.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption at rest (AES-256, provider-managed); SSE-C availability not verified on this fetch.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Standard class is Multi-AZ (replicated across 3 availability zones of a region, e.g. Paris); One Zone class is single-AZ at half the price.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "SEPA direct debit (EU customers; from general knowledge)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "circa 2017-2018 (exact GA date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "European (FR/NL/PL regions); GDPR-domiciled alternative. Billed hourly (EUR 0.000022/GB/h Multi-AZ). Headline USD numbers move with EUR/USD.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.scaleway.com/en/pricing/storage/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Multi-AZ EUR 0.01606/GB-mo, One Zone EUR 0.00803/GB-mo, egress 75 GB free then EUR 0.01/GB"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/eurofxref-graph-usd.en.html",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "ECB reference rate 1 EUR = 1.1406 USD (2026-06-30), used for all EUR->USD conversions"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Hetzner Object Storage",
   "website": "https://www.hetzner.com/storage/object-storage/",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 7.99,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 1.2,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier. Base fee is charged from the first active bucket, even if empty."
   },
   "minimums": "Base price $7.99/mo (EUR 6.49, ex-VAT) applies whenever at least one bucket exists; billed hourly, capped monthly. Includes 1 TB storage (744 TB-hours) and 1 TB egress/month. Unused quota does not roll over.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible (documented subset of S3 actions). Prices came from Hetzner's own website-price-api (the pricing page renders from it; static HTML shows blanks): base CLOUD_84 $7.99/EUR 6.49 monthly; storage overage CLOUD_85 $0.0123/EUR 0.0087 per TB-hour (~$9.15/EUR 6.47 per TB for a 744h month); egress overage CLOUD_86 $1.20/EUR 1.00 per TB. USD figures are Hetzner's native USD prices, not conversions.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption referenced on product page for backup use case; key management/SSE-C details not published on the fetched pages.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Data lives in a Ceph cluster with internal scrubbing; nothing customer-verifiable beyond checksums.",
   "redundancy_model": "Ceph cluster within a single location (NBG1/FSN1/HEL1); replication/EC parameters not published; no multi-location redundancy.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal",
    "SEPA direct debit",
    "bank transfer (from general knowledge)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2024",
   "status_notes": "Cheapest egress of the centralized providers here ($1.20/TB beyond the included 1 TB). Marginal storage beyond 1 TB is ~$9.15/TB-mo (744-hr month) -- higher than the $7.99 bundle suggests. Limits: 100 buckets, 100 TB and 50M objects per bucket. EU/FI locations only.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.hetzner.com/storage/object-storage/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Base includes 1 TB storage + 1 TB egress; billed hourly capped monthly; overage per TB-hour / per TB; ex-VAT; 100 buckets x 100 TB / 50M objects; page FAQ text (price digits render via JS)"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://website-price-api.hetzner.com/api/v1/products/CLOUD_84",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Base: $7.99 / EUR 6.49 monthly ($0.0128 / EUR 0.0104 hourly)"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://website-price-api.hetzner.com/api/v1/products/CLOUD_85",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Storage overage: $0.0123 / EUR 0.0087 per TB-hour"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://website-price-api.hetzner.com/api/v1/products/CLOUD_86",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Egress overage: $1.20 / EUR 1.00 per TB"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://docs.hetzner.com/storage/object-storage/overview",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "744 TB-hour / 1.116 TB egress included (31-day month); billed in 100 MB increments; Ceph cluster; charged while any bucket active"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Sia / renterd ecosystem",
   "website": "https://sia.tech",
   "category": "decentralized",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 1.1,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 1.2,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier; permissionless open market. Testnets (Zen) free for development."
   },
   "minimums": "No fixed minimums, but renters must lock siacoin into file contracts up front (contract funding + host collateral mechanics); contracts run for a period (typically weeks) and renew.",
   "s3_compatible": "partial",
   "s3_notes": "No hosted S3 endpoint from the network itself. renterd (the reference renter) ships an S3-compatible gateway you run yourself; boto3/aws_cli/rclone work against it. rclone also has a legacy native 'sia' backend (siad). Prices are market medians from SiaScan on 2026-07-18: storage 1,831 SC/TB-month, download 2,000 SC/TB, converted at SC = $0.0006007 (CoinGecko same day) => ~$1.10/TB-mo raw storage, ~$1.20/TB egress. DERIVED VALUES -- see status_notes.",
   "encryption_model": "Client-side end-to-end encryption always: renterd encrypts and erasure-codes locally before upload; hosts see only ciphertext shards.",
   "verification_method": "Strongest in this tranche: hosts must submit Merkle-proof storage proofs to the Sia blockchain to be paid at contract end; missing proofs forfeits payment and burns host collateral. Publicly verifiable on-chain. renterd additionally health-checks and migrates shards. Caveat: proofs cover contracted sectors at proof windows, not continuous per-object attestation to the end user.",
   "redundancy_model": "Renter-controlled erasure coding across independent hosts; renterd default historically 10-of-30 (3x expansion), user-tunable. Durability depends on renter maintenance (renewals, repair) staying online or being delegated.",
   "self_host_option": true,
   "payment_methods": [
    "siacoin (SC) only at protocol level; fiat on-ramps only via third-party exchanges or managed gateways"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "network mainnet 2015; renterd stable ~2024",
   "status_notes": "Both USD numbers are DERIVED (SiaScan median in SC x CoinGecko SC price) and volatile in both dimensions. Effective cost per usable TB is roughly 3x the raw host price under default 10-of-30 redundancy (~$3.30/TB-mo at today's numbers) plus contract fees -- comparisons using the raw $1.10 flatter the network. Network scale is small vs the rest of this tranche: SiaScan showed 2.12 PB used of 8.56 PB capacity. Active-host count on SiaScan rendered ambiguously (display artifact) and was not recorded.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://siascan.com/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Median storage 1,831 SC (displayed 1.831 KS)/TB/month, median download 2,000 SC/TB; 2.12 PB used / 8.56 PB capacity"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/siacoin",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "SC = $0.0006007"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Tarsnap",
   "website": "https://www.tarsnap.com",
   "category": "backup-focused",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 250,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 250,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier; prepaid account funded before use."
   },
   "minimums": "No minimum monthly fee; prepaid usage-based (picodollar accounting). Minimum deposit amount not stated on fetched pages.",
   "s3_compatible": "no",
   "s3_notes": "No S3 API; proprietary client (tarsnap CLI) only. Pricing is per byte of ENCODED data -- i.e. after client-side deduplication and compression -- so effective $/TB of logical backup data is typically far below the nominal $250/TB for compressible, incremental workloads. Bandwidth is billed BOTH directions at $0.25/GB (uploads too).",
   "encryption_model": "Client-side end-to-end, user-held keys: 'Tarsnap encrypts all data before it leaves a computer'; the key file holds the only decryption keys. Lost key = unrecoverable data.",
   "verification_method": "Cryptographic integrity on the client (archives verified via the client's crypto on restore). No possession proofs while stored; at-rest durability is delegated to Amazon S3 (Tarsnap stores ciphertext on S3 Standard).",
   "redundancy_model": "Inherits Amazon S3 Standard redundancy (Tarsnap FAQ states data is stored on S3, original version, not reduced-redundancy).",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "prepaid via credit card"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": false,
    "boto3": false,
    "aws_cli": false
   },
   "launched": "2008",
   "status_notes": "Nominal per-TB price is ~30x the commodity providers here; it is priced for small, high-value, deduplicated backups, not bulk storage. Single-operator service (Colin Percival) -- bus-factor consideration. Unix-like clients only.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.tarsnap.com/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "250 picodollars/byte-month storage ($0.25/GB-mo) and 250 picodollars/byte bandwidth ($0.25/GB), prepaid, encoded-data basis"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.tarsnap.com/faq.html",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Client-side encryption with user-held keys; data stored on Amazon S3 (original, not reduced-redundancy)"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "rsync.net",
   "website": "https://rsync.net",
   "category": "backup-focused",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 15,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier stated on pricing page."
   },
   "minimums": "800 GB minimum order (=> $12/mo minimum at the 1.5 cent tier).",
   "s3_compatible": "no",
   "s3_notes": "Not an object store: a ZFS filesystem accessed over SSH (SFTP/rsync/scp, borg/restic/rclone targets, git-annex). Tiered: 1.5 c/GB-mo 0-9 TB ($15/TB), 1.25 c/GB-mo 10-99 TB ($12.50/TB), 0.75 c/GB-mo 100+ TB ($7.50/TB). Historic cheaper borg-only plans no longer shown on the pricing page. No S3 API on standard accounts (not re-verified beyond the pricing page).",
   "encryption_model": "None by default -- data at rest is a plain ZFS filesystem readable by the provider; client-side encryption (borg/restic) optional and recommended by the provider.",
   "verification_method": "ZFS end-to-end block checksums and scheduled scrubs on the provider side; customers can hash/verify content themselves over SSH. No cryptographic possession proofs.",
   "redundancy_model": "ZFS with redundant drives (RAID-Z) plus daily immutable snapshots (retention per plan); geo-redundant second-location replication available as a paid option.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card (other methods such as PayPal/invoice historically offered; not re-verified)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": false,
    "aws_cli": false
   },
   "launched": "early 2000s (company cites ~2001 origins; exact date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "No egress charges, explicitly. Snapshots give ransomware-resistant immutability without object-lock semantics. rclone=true via the SFTP backend, not S3.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://rsync.net/pricing.html",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "1.5 c/GB-mo (0-9 TB), 1.25 c (10-99 TB), 0.75 c (100+ TB); 800 GB minimum order; no egress charges"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "OVHcloud Object Storage",
   "website": "https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/object-storage/",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 7.55,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No permanent free storage tier. New customers get US$200 credits."
   },
   "minimums": "No minimum for Standard class; billed on used space, 1 GB granularity, hourly (730-hour month convention). Infrequent Access has a 730-hour (30-day) minimum storage time with an early-deletion charge; Cold Archive has a 180-day minimum with an early-deletion charge.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API (plus a legacy OpenStack Swift class). Native USD prices from the rendered worldwide price list: Standard $0.00001111/GiB/hour (= ~$0.00811/GiB-mo, ~$7.55/TB-mo decimal, converted from GiB); Standard 3-AZ (Paris/Milan only) $0.00002152/GiB/h first 50 TiB (~$14.63/TB-mo); High Performance $0.00002778/GiB/h (~$18.89/TB-mo); Infrequent Access $0.00000597/GiB/h (~$4.06/TB-mo) + $0.0044/GiB retrieval; Active Archive $0.00000729/GiB/h + $0.0212/GiB retrieval; Cold Archive $0.0000027/GiB/h (~$1.84/TB-mo) + $0.011/GiB retrieval. No charges for API calls.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption available; key-management/SSE-C specifics not published on the pages fetched (not re-verified).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only. Durability claims are internal and not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Standard class is single-region (redundancy within one zone); a separate Standard 3-AZ class (Paris, Milan only) replicates across three availability zones at ~2x the price. Erasure-coding parameters not published on fetched pages.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "SEPA/bank options for EU customers (from general knowledge, not re-verified)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "object storage offered since mid-2010s (Swift-based); current S3-compatible classes circa 2021-2022 (exact GA dates not verified)",
   "status_notes": "Egress genuinely $0: incoming and outgoing public traffic 'Included' for all customers - with one caveat captured from the price list: for contracts with OVHcloud's APAC entities (India, Singapore, Asia [USD], Australia) free egress is only guaranteed until dates in 2026 (2026-06-01/2026-12-31 depending on class). Prices captured from the worldwide (USD) price list; EUR-subsidiary prices differ. Billed hourly on used space.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/prices/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Rendered price list (browser): Standard $0.00001111/GiB/h; 3-AZ $0.00002152-0.0000169/GiB/h tiered; High Perf $0.00002778; IA $0.00000597 + $0.0044/GiB retrieval, 730h minimum; Active Archive $0.00000729 + $0.0212/GiB retrieval; Cold Archive $0.0000027 + $0.011/GiB retrieval, 180-day minimum; Swift $0.000017; all traffic Included; APAC free-egress end dates; 1 GB granularity, 730-hour month"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.ovhcloud.com/en/public-cloud/object-storage/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "US$200 new-customer credits; 'no hidden fees for ingress/egress or API calls'; S3-compatible; class lineup (Standard/High Perf/IA/Active Archive/Cold Archive, Multi-Zone/Single-Zone/Local Zone)"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "DigitalOcean Spaces",
   "website": "https://www.digitalocean.com/products/spaces",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 18.63,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 9.31,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier for Spaces on the pages fetched (trial credits for new DO accounts exist but were not verified on this fetch)."
   },
   "minimums": "$5.00/month base subscription applies once Spaces is enabled, regardless of usage; includes 250 GiB storage and 1,024 GiB (1 TiB) outbound transfer. Docs mention a 128 KiB minimum-charge threshold for small objects (appears in the cold-storage context on the fetched page; exact scope not fully disambiguated).",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API with bundled CDN. Base $5/mo = 250 GiB + 1 TiB egress; overages $0.02/GiB-mo storage and $0.01/GiB egress. Headline USD/TB figures are decimal-TB conversions of GiB prices ($0.02/GiB = ~$18.63/TB-mo; $0.01/GiB = ~$9.31/TB). Cold storage class $0.007/GiB-mo with $0.01/GiB retrieval (waived up to average daily usage) and $0.007/GiB early-deletion charge (first 250 GiB/mo free). No per-request/API fees mentioned in the pricing docs.",
   "encryption_model": "Encryption at rest on provider infrastructure (provider claim); SSE-C support from general knowledge, not re-verified on this fetch.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Provider-managed redundancy within a region (Ceph-backed per general knowledge; replication/EC parameters not published on fetched pages). No default cross-region redundancy.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2017",
   "status_notes": "The $5 base is a floor, not pay-as-you-go: enabling Spaces bills $5/mo even when empty. Included transfer covers both CDN and origin bandwidth; some Spaces<->Droplet region pairs are free. Up to 100 buckets per subscription.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/spaces-object-storage",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "$5/mo incl. 250 GiB storage + 1 TiB outbound; $0.02/GiB additional storage; $0.01/GiB additional transfer; $0.007/GiB cold storage; 100-bucket allowance; S3-compatible with built-in CDN"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://docs.digitalocean.com/products/spaces/details/pricing/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Base subscription semantics; overage rates; no per-request fees mentioned; CDN included, transfer allowance covers CDN+origin; cold storage retrieval $0.01/GiB (waived up to average daily usage) and early-deletion $0.007/GiB with first 250 GiB/mo free; 128 KiB small-object minimum threshold"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Linode/Akamai Object Storage",
   "website": "https://www.akamai.com/products/object-storage",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 20,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 5,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier stated on fetched pages."
   },
   "minimums": "Flat $5/month once Object Storage is enabled (includes 250 GB storage), prorated for partial months but charged until the service is cancelled - even if unused. No minimum billable object size.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API. $5/mo flat includes 250 GB; overage $0.02/GB-mo at most data centers (Jakarta $0.024, Sao Paulo $0.028). Enabling Object Storage adds 1 TB to the account's pooled monthly network transfer; overage $0.005/GB at most DCs (Jakarta $0.015, Sao Paulo $0.007). Per-request billing announced but deferred: no earlier than 2026-10-01, Class A $0.005/1,000 (1M free/mo), Class B $0.0004/1,000 (12.5M free/mo), deletes free. Bucket limits: up to 5 PB / 10 billion objects / 20,000 req/s per bucket.",
   "encryption_model": "Data encrypted at rest (provider claim; details not re-verified on fetched pages).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Provider-managed redundancy within a region; replication/EC parameters not published on fetched pages. No default cross-region redundancy.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal (Linode billing, from general knowledge)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2019 (as Linode Object Storage); Akamai acquired Linode in 2022, product rebranded Akamai Cloud",
   "status_notes": "Egress economics are unusual: object-storage transfer draws from the account-wide pooled transfer allowance shared with Linodes, so light compute users effectively get extra free egress. Marketing pages (akamai.com) show no numbers; all figures come from Akamai's techdocs pricing page. The linode.com URLs now 301 to akamai.com.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://techdocs.akamai.com/cloud-computing/docs/object-storage-pricing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "$5/mo flat incl. 250 GB; $0.02/GB overage (Jakarta $0.024, Sao Paulo $0.028); +1 TB to global transfer pool; transfer overage $0.005/GB (Jakarta $0.015, SP $0.007); no minimum object size; prorated; request billing no earlier than 2026-10-01 with free allowances; charges continue until service cancelled"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.akamai.com/products/object-storage",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "S3-compatible; up to 5 PB and 10 billion objects per bucket; up to 20,000 requests/second per bucket"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Vultr Object Storage",
   "website": "https://www.vultr.com/products/object-storage/",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 18,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 10,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier stated in the fetched docs."
   },
   "minimums": "Subscription model: Standard tier $18/mo minimum (includes 1,000 GB storage + 1,000 GB transfer) once provisioned. Archival tier: minimum 1 GB billed per archival object regardless of actual size.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API. Four performance tiers, all including 1,000 GB storage + 1,000 GB outbound transfer + unlimited inbound: Standard $18/mo (+$0.018/GB), Premium $36/mo (+$0.036/GB), Performance $50/mo (+$0.050/GB), Accelerated $100/mo (+$0.100/GB); additional bandwidth $0.01/GB ($10/TB) on all tiers. Separate Archival Object Storage: $6/mo includes 1,000 GB archival + 1 TB bandwidth + 100 GB unarchived staging; overages $0.006/GB-mo archival, $0.018/GB-mo unarchived retention, $10/TB bandwidth.",
   "encryption_model": "Encryption at rest (provider claim; not re-verified - vultr.com product pages were not fetchable).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Provider-managed redundancy within a location; parameters not published in the fetched docs.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal",
    "crypto historically accepted (from general knowledge, not re-verified)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2019; tiered relaunch (Standard/Premium/Performance/Accelerated) circa 2023 (exact date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "vultr.com (marketing and pricing pages) sits behind a bot-verification wall that blocked both plain fetches and the browser session; the check was not bypassed. All numbers were taken from docs.vultr.com, Vultr's own documentation domain, which is fetchable and states the same tier table. Effective bundle price $18/TB-mo on Standard; marginal price identical ($0.018/GB).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://docs.vultr.com/support/platform/billing/how-is-object-storage-billed",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Tier table: Standard $18 (+$0.018/GB), Premium $36 (+$0.036/GB), Performance $50 (+$0.050/GB), Accelerated $100 (+$0.100/GB); all tiers 1000 GB storage + 1000 GB transfer included, unlimited inbound; additional bandwidth $0.01/GB"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://docs.vultr.com/support/products/storage/pricing-and-billing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Archival: $6/mo incl. 1000 GB archival + 1 TB bandwidth + 100 GB unarchived; overages $0.006/GB-mo archival, $0.018/GB-mo unarchived retention, $10/TB bandwidth; 1 GB minimum per archival object"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Contabo Object Storage",
   "website": "https://contabo.com/en/object-storage/order/",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 11.35,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier."
   },
   "minimums": "Minimum purchase 250 GB at EUR 2.49/month (order slider runs 250 GB to 25 TB, price scales linearly: EUR 9.96/mo at 1 TB, EUR 99.60/mo at 10 TB). Singapore region +EUR 0.50 per 250 GB unit as displayed on the order page.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API. Native pricing is EUR even on the en-us site (EUR 2.49 per 250 GB = EUR 9.96/TB-mo); USD figure here is a conversion at ECB 1.1394 (2026-06-30): ~$11.35/TB-mo - converted value, not provider-quoted USD. Regions: Europe, United States, Singapore (+EUR 0.50). No metered egress fees ('all-inclusive'), but see status_notes for the real transfer semantics.",
   "encryption_model": "At-rest encryption not confirmed on fetched pages (not published in the order flow or the limits article).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Provider-managed (Ceph-based per general knowledge); replication/EC parameters not published on fetched pages. Single-region per bucket.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal",
    "bank transfer (from general knowledge, not re-verified)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2022 (exact GA date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "'Unlimited traffic' is bandwidth-capped, not metered: the default transfer speed limit is 10 MByte/s (=80 Mbit/s) per customer, 'limited and regularly adjusted' per the official help article - i.e., you cannot be billed for egress but you also cannot move data fast. Other default limits: 3M objects/customer, 250 S3 API req/s, 100 buckets, 5 TB max object; privately-reshared public objects may stay cached publicly up to 1 hour. NOTE: the marketing pages contabo.com/en/object-storage/ and /en-us/object-storage/ now 301-redirect to the Storage VPS product page; the product remains orderable only via the direct order URL - possible de-emphasis or pending discontinuation worth re-checking before publishing.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://contabo.com/en-us/object-storage/order/?region=united-states&size=1000",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Rendered order page (browser): Monthly Base Price EUR 2.49; 1 TB US region = EUR 9.96/mo; slider 250 GB-25 TB; Singapore +EUR 0.50; 10 TB EU = EUR 99.60/mo (size=10000 variant)"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://help.contabo.com/en/support/solutions/articles/103000275478-what-limits-are-there-on-object-storage-",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Default bandwidth limit 10 MByte/s (=80 Mbit/s), 'limited and regularly adjusted'; 3M objects/customer; 250 S3 req/s; 100 buckets; 5 TB max file; 1-hour public cache note"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Impossible Cloud",
   "website": "https://www.impossiblecloud.com",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 9.1,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "30-day free trial, 'zero commitment, instant access'; trial size not stated on the fetched page."
   },
   "minimums": "Pay-as-you-go: no minimum monthly cost, no minimum file size fees, no minimum retention period (all stated on the pricing page). Reserved-capacity plans (partners only) require 1/3/5-year commitment starting at 25 TB.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "'Fully compatible with the AWS S3 API' (provider statement). Pay-as-you-go EUR 7.99/TB-month; USD figure is a conversion at ECB 1.1394 (2026-06-30): ~$9.10/TB-mo - converted, not provider-quoted USD (a native USD list price may exist for US customers but was not shown on the page fetched). No API/operation charges.",
   "encryption_model": "'Full data encryption at rest and in transit' (provider statement on pricing page); key-management details not published there.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only. (The affiliated 'Impossible Cloud Network' token project advertises node-level verification, but the commercial S3 product researched here is conventional data-center storage with no customer-verifiable proofs.)",
   "redundancy_model": "Data centers in Germany and other European regions (provider statement); redundancy/erasure-coding parameters not published on the fetched page.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "invoicing/partner channel (from general knowledge, not re-verified)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "company founded 2021; product GA circa 2022-2023 (exact date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "Egress and API free with no allowance formula stated on the pricing page - unlike Wasabi/Backblaze there was no visible fair-use ratio or suspension clause, but absence on the pricing page is not proof none exists in the ToS (not fetched). Object Lock (WORM) supported; ISO/IEC 27001 certified (provider claims).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.impossiblecloud.com/pricing",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "EUR 7.99/TB-mo PAYG; no egress charges; no API call charges; no minimum monthly cost/file size/retention; reserved capacity 1/3/5-yr from 25 TB (partners); 30-day trial; encryption at rest+transit; ISO 27001; German/EU data centers"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Synology C2 Object Storage (C2 OneStorage)",
   "website": "https://c2.synology.com/en-us/object-storage/overview",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 7.99,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "30-day free trial with a Synology account; no permanent free tier."
   },
   "minimums": "Sold in whole-TB units: minimum 1 TB ($7.99/mo or $79.99/yr), maximum 200 TB self-service (beyond that, sales). A 300 GB plan exists at $29.99/yr (yearly billing only). Prices exclude VAT.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible API with object immutability (WORM) and versioning. Object storage is now sold as part of the 'C2 OneStorage' bundle, which also includes C2 Storage for Hyper Backup and Hybrid Share under the same capacity. Pricing from Synology's own pricing API (country=us): $7.99/TB-month monthly or $79.99/TB-year (~$6.67/TB-mo effective annual); EU data center prices are the same numbers in EUR. Whether Synology's 'TB' is decimal or binary was not stated in the API response.",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption at rest (provider claim; details from general knowledge, not re-verified on fetched pages). Client-side encryption available when used via Hyper Backup.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "'Data-center resiliency' (provider wording); redundancy parameters not published on fetched pages. Region selectable (US or EU data center).",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card (Synology Account billing)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "C2 Object Storage launched 2021; OneStorage bundling later (exact date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "'No charge for egress or API requests' stated on the rendered pricing page - no allowance ratio or fair-use formula visible there (ToS not fetched). The bundle framing means the $7.99/TB also buys Hyper Backup/Hybrid Share targets, which is good value for Synology NAS owners and irrelevant for everyone else.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://c2.synology.com/api/pricing/onestorage?country=us",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "USD (US DC) / EUR (EU DC); $7.99/TB monthly, $79.99/TB yearly; TB tier min 1 max 200; 300 GB plan $29.99/yr yearly-only"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://c2.synology.com/en-us/pricing/onestorage",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Rendered page (browser): 'No charge for egress or API requests' (C2 Object Storage line); OneStorage bundle includes Hyper Backup + Hybrid Share + Object Storage; 30-day trial; VAT excluded; >200 TB contact sales"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "MEGA S4",
   "website": "https://mega.io/objectstorage",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 3.95,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "MEGA accounts have a free 20 GB cloud-drive tier (general knowledge); whether S4 buckets can use it was not verified on the fetched page, which only promotes paid Pro plans."
   },
   "minimums": "S4 is bought via MEGA Pro plans: Pro Flexi base (displayed CA$24.07/mo pre-tax, billed in EUR) includes 3 TB of storage AND 3 TB of transfer; additional storage/transfer at displayed CA$5.62/TB. Fixed plan Pro I: CA$16.03/mo for 3 TB storage + 3 TB transfer.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible object storage from MEGA. Pricing is only displayed localized ('Estimated price in your local currency. You will be charged in euros') - the browser session saw CAD. Converted via ECB 2026-06-30 cross rates (CAD->EUR->USD): additional storage/transfer CA$5.62/TB = ~EUR 3.46 = ~$3.95/TB-mo (the headline figure - a DERIVED double conversion); Pro Flexi base CA$24.07 = ~$16.91/mo incl. 3 TB (effective ~$5.64/TB-mo if fully used). Native EUR list prices were not directly capturable (mega.io blocks plain fetches; localization is IP-based).",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption by default - the S4 page's own wording is 'encrypted server-side by default'. This is NOT the end-to-end, user-keyed encryption of MEGA's classic cloud drive; do not conflate the two products.",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Stored across MEGA's data centers (EU-domiciled company); redundancy parameters not published on the fetched page.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal and crypto historically accepted by MEGA (from general knowledge, not re-verified)",
    "billed in EUR regardless of displayed currency"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "S4 beta 2024, GA circa 2025 (exact dates not verified); MEGA company 2013",
   "status_notes": "Egress is allowance-based, not unconditional: 'MEGA S4 includes up to 5x your average monthly stored data as free egress'; beyond that, transfer is bought at the same per-TB rate as storage (~$3.95/TB converted). Pro I's '15 TB free egress' = 5x its 3 TB. Cheapest per-TB marginal rate in this tranche among centralized providers, but the base-plan bundle and EUR billing make real costs plan-shaped rather than linear.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://mega.io/objectstorage",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Rendered page (browser, CAD localization): Pro Flexi CA$24.07/mo base incl. 3 TB storage + 3 TB transfer, additional CA$5.62/TB; Pro I CA$16.03/mo, 3 TB storage/transfer, 15 TB free egress; 'up to 5x your average monthly stored data as free egress'; 'charged in euros'; 'encrypted server-side by default'"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.ecb.europa.eu/stats/policy_and_exchange_rates/euro_reference_exchange_rates/html/eurofxref-graph-cad.en.html",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "ECB reference rate 1 EUR = 1.6220 CAD (2026-06-30), used for CAD->EUR->USD cross conversion"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Tigris",
   "website": "https://www.tigrisdata.com",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 20,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 5,
    "conditions": "5 GB standard-tier storage/month, 10,000 PUT/COPY/POST/LIST and 100,000 GET/SELECT/other requests free per month."
   },
   "minimums": "No monthly minimum stated. Minimum storage retention: Infrequent Access 30 days, Archive and Archive Instant Retrieval 90 days (early deletion billed for the remainder). Standard has none.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3-compatible, globally distributed object storage (originated on Fly.io). Standard $0.02/GB-mo ($20/TB); Infrequent Access $0.01/GB-mo; Archive and Archive Instant Retrieval $0.004/GB-mo. Requests: Class A $0.005/1,000, Class B $0.0005/1,000, DELETE/CANCEL free.",
   "encryption_model": "Encryption at rest by default (provider claim from general knowledge, not re-verified on the fetched pricing page).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums/ETag only.",
   "redundancy_model": "Globally distributed architecture that places/replicates objects near access patterns (provider design claim); durability parameters and replica counts not published on the fetched page.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "public beta 2024 (exact GA date not verified)",
   "status_notes": "Egress free by policy and broad: 'we don't charge for regional data transfer, region-to-region data transfer, or data transfer out to the internet' - no allowance ratio stated on the pricing page (ToS not fetched, so any fair-use backstop is unverified). Young company relative to the rest of this tranche; treat longevity accordingly.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.tigrisdata.com/pricing/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Standard $0.02/GB-mo, IA $0.01, Archive/AIR $0.004; Class A $0.005/1k, Class B $0.0005/1k, deletes free; free tier 5 GB + 10k + 100k requests; IA 30-day and Archive 90-day minimum retention; egress free incl. internet and region-to-region"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Object Storage",
   "website": "https://www.oracle.com/cloud/storage/object-storage/",
   "category": "hyperscaler",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 25.5,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 8.5,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 20,
    "conditions": "Always Free: 20 GB total across Standard + Infrequent Access + Archive, plus 50,000 API requests/month, plus 10 TB/month outbound data transfer (account-wide, itself Always Free). New accounts: US$300 credit for 30 days."
   },
   "minimums": "Standard: none. Infrequent Access: 31-day minimum retention (early deletion billed as prorated cost of full 31 days). Archive: 90-day minimum retention (same early-deletion mechanics); archived objects must be restored before access (first byte in at most 1 hour per docs).",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "Native OCI API plus an S3 Compatibility API (S3-compatible endpoint with separate credentials). Rendered price list: Standard $0.0255/GB-mo ($25.50/TB); Infrequent Access $0.01/GB-mo + $0.01/GB retrieval; Archive $0.0026/GB-mo ($2.60/TB); requests $0.0034 per 10,000. Prices are global (same in all commercial regions, per Oracle's single price-list model).",
   "encryption_model": "Server-side encryption by default (AES-256); customer-managed keys via OCI Vault and SSE-C supported (default-on encryption is Oracle's published posture; key-option details from general knowledge, not re-verified).",
   "verification_method": "No customer-facing possession proofs. Integrity via checksums (MD5/multipart ETag) only. Durability claims internal, not externally auditable.",
   "redundancy_model": "Redundant across fault domains / availability domains within a region; 11-nines durability design claim (claim not re-verified on this fetch). Cross-region replication is an optional configured feature.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "invoicing/Universal Credits",
    "Oracle sales agreements"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": true
   },
   "launched": "2016 (OCI, then Bare Metal Cloud Services)",
   "status_notes": "The standout number is egress: first 10 TB/month outbound free account-wide (NA/EU/UK origin), then $0.0085/GB ($8.50/TB) - an order of magnitude below AWS's first tier; APAC/Japan/South America origin $0.025/GB after the free 10 TB. Headline egress figure uses the NA/EU/UK rate. Storage price ($25.50/TB) is the highest of this tranche's S3-class providers. All numbers captured from the rendered oracle.com price list (page is JS-hydrated; plain fetches 403) and Oracle's own free-tier JSON feed.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.oracle.com/cloud/price-list/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Rendered price list (browser): Object Storage Standard $0.0255/GB-mo; IA $0.01 + $0.01/GB retrieval; Archive $0.0026; requests $0.0034/10,000; outbound transfer first 10 TB/mo free (NA/EU/UK), then $0.0085/GB (APAC/JP/SA $0.025/GB); inbound free"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.oracle.com/a/ocom/docs/oci-free-tier_v1.json",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Oracle's own free-tier feed: Always Free 'Up to 20GB total for standard, infrequent and archive'; 'Up to 50,000 Object Storage API requests per month'; Outbound Data Transfer 'Up to 10 TB per month'; trial 'Up to ... 11TB of Object storage'"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.oracle.com/cloud/free/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Rendered page (browser): US$300 credit / 30 days; Always Free services continue without upgrade"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://docs.oracle.com/en-us/iaas/Content/Object/Concepts/understandingstoragetiers.htm",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "IA 31-day minimum retention with prorated early-deletion charge; Archive 90-day minimum; restore first byte 'at most an hour'; IA has per-GiB retrieval fee; SLAs 99.9%/99%"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "BorgBase",
   "website": "https://www.borgbase.com",
   "category": "backup-focused",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 7.5,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 10,
    "conditions": "10 GB and 2 repositories free forever."
   },
   "minimums": "Plan-based, primarily annual: Small $24/yr (250 GB, 10 repos), Medium $90/yr (1 TB, unlimited repos), Large $165/yr or $17/mo (2 TB, unlimited repos). 30-day refund on annual plans. Prices USD ex-VAT.",
   "s3_compatible": "no",
   "s3_notes": "Not an object store: per-repository hosting for BorgBackup and Restic repositories (SSH/borg protocol and Restic endpoints). No S3 API. Headline $/TB-mo is DERIVED from plan math, not a posted unit price: Medium = $90/yr / 1 TB = $7.50/TB-mo (Small ~$8.00, Large ~$6.88). Overage beyond included storage: $0.01/GB-mo (Small), $7/TB-mo (Medium), $6/TB-mo (Large).",
   "encryption_model": "Client-side end-to-end encryption via borg/restic when the user enables it (the standard mode; keys never leave the client). BorgBase additionally offers append-only repo mode and 2FA. Encryption is client-tool-enforced, not provider-enforced - an unencrypted repo is possible if the user creates one.",
   "verification_method": "No provider-run possession proofs - but the customer can genuinely self-verify: 'borg check --verify-data' and 'restic check --read-data' read every block back from the server and verify cryptographic checksums client-side. Strongest customer-side verification path among the centralized providers in this tranche, at the cost of egress time (free) and compute.",
   "redundancy_model": "Provider-managed storage in EU or US region (selectable per repository); underlying redundancy parameters not published on the fetched page.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "credit card",
    "PayPal (from general knowledge, not re-verified)"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": false,
    "boto3": false,
    "aws_cli": false
   },
   "launched": "2018",
   "status_notes": "'No API- or data transfer charges' (stated). Economic model is per-plan backup hosting, not metered object storage - the schema's per-TB fields are derived equivalents for comparability only. Borg/restic deduplication+compression means logical backup data typically costs much less than the nominal rate. Small operator (bus-factor consideration similar to Tarsnap, though larger).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://www.borgbase.com/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Free 10 GB / 2 repos; Small $24/yr 250 GB 10 repos, overage $0.01/GB-mo; Medium $90/yr 1 TB unlimited repos, overage $7/TB-mo; Large $165/yr or $17/mo, 2 TB, overage $6/TB-mo; no API or transfer charges; Borg + Restic; EU and US regions; USD ex-VAT; 30-day refund"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Arweave",
   "website": "https://arweave.org",
   "category": "decentralized",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": null,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": null,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": null,
    "conditions": "No free tier at protocol level. (Some bundlers waive fees for tiny uploads; not verified on this fetch.)"
   },
   "minimums": "No minimums; pay per upload. The inverse gotcha applies: storage is PERMANENT - there is no delete, no retention control, and uploaded data is public.",
   "s3_compatible": "no",
   "s3_notes": "Not an S3 system and not rent-based - one-time payment for permanent storage, so $/TB-month is null by construction. Protocol base fee on 2026-07-18: 11,025,429,884,381 winston/GiB = ~11.0254 AR/GiB (linearity cross-checked at 1 MiB = 10,799,950,108 winston). At AR = $1.91 (CoinGecko, same day) that is ~$21.06/GiB one-time, ~$19,600/TB (decimal) one-time - DERIVED from two volatile inputs. Retail via the ArDrive Turbo bundler (card payments): $32.56/GiB one-time (~$30,300/TB) per Turbo's own rates API - Turbo's fiat rate embeds a ~55% premium over protocol-fee-times-spot at today's prices.",
   "encryption_model": "None - data on Arweave is public and permanent by design. Confidentiality requires client-side encryption before upload, and 'permanent ciphertext' carries its own risk profile (no rotation, no deletion, harvest-now-decrypt-later).",
   "verification_method": "Strongest in this tranche: miners must prove cryptographic access to random historical chunks of the weave (Succinct Proofs of Random Access) to mine blocks; proofs are publicly verifiable on-chain, and anyone can independently retrieve and hash their data via any gateway. Caveat: no per-customer contract or fixed replica count - persistence is a probabilistic, incentive-driven property of the whole network plus its endowment, not an SLA.",
   "redundancy_model": "Data replicated by independent miners worldwide; replica count is incentive-driven and variable, not contractual. Long-term persistence rests on the storage endowment model (upfront fee funds ~200 years of storage under assumed cost declines) - an economic design assumption, not a guarantee.",
   "self_host_option": true,
   "payment_methods": [
    "AR token at protocol level",
    "fiat (card) via bundler services such as ArDrive Turbo, which convert to credits"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": false,
    "boto3": false,
    "aws_cli": false
   },
   "launched": "mainnet June 2018",
   "status_notes": "Wrong tool for bulk backup: at ~$19,600-30,300/TB one-time (today's derived figures) it is 3-4 orders of magnitude above the monthly-rent providers here even amortized over decades, and data cannot be deleted. Its niche is small, high-value, permanently-public artifacts (proofs, archives, metadata). Both USD figures move with AR price and network fee; the AR-denominated fee itself has risen sharply as AR's USD price fell. Egress: no protocol-level charge; retrieval is via public gateways (fair-use, availability varies) or your own node - hence null rather than 0.",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://arweave.net/price/1073741824",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Protocol fee for 1 GiB: 11,025,429,884,381 winston (~11.0254 AR)"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://arweave.net/price/1048576",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Protocol fee for 1 MiB: 10,799,950,108 winston (linearity check)"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://www.coingecko.com/en/coins/arweave",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "AR = $1.91 (24h range $1.88-$1.93)"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://payment.ardrive.io/v1/rates",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "Turbo bundler retail: $32.560831672027 per GiB (USD); winc/GiB 11,023,198,222,301 (~protocol parity in AR terms)"
    }
   ]
  },
  {
   "name": "Obsideo",
   "website": "https://obsideo.io",
   "category": "independent",
   "price_usd_per_tb_month": 15,
   "egress_usd_per_tb": 0,
   "free_tier": {
    "size_gb": 12,
    "conditions": "No card, no CAPTCHA. Self-serve email-OTP signup at signup.obsideo.io; no expiry; one account per person or project (disposable email domains refused, rate limits labeled with Retry-After). Signup-to-verified-storage path verified end to end against production 2026-07-18."
   },
   "minimums": "None published. Billed on logical size per TB-day; storing 1 TB across 3 replicas bills as 1 TB.",
   "s3_compatible": "yes",
   "s3_notes": "S3 gateway (SigV4) at s3.obsideo.io. rclone and boto3 verified end to end against production, including concurrent ranged downloads (2.6 GB in 70 s, hash-exact, 2026-07-12). aws-cli untested, deliberately not advertised.",
   "encryption_model": "Client-side / E2E by design. Bring your own encryption (age, gpg, or an existing E2EE layer) through a zero-knowledge passthrough gateway that never holds keys, or use the TypeScript SDK's AES-256-GCM. The coordinator is architecturally incapable of reading customer plaintext.",
   "verification_method": "Cryptographic possession proofs, payment-gated: every stored object is challenged with chunk-level merkle proofs every 4 hours, and providers earn only for proofs they pass. 130,497 proofs passed across the four cycles of 2026-07-18.",
   "redundancy_model": "3 full replicas per object on independent providers (network-wide target); hybrid datacenter hot tier + distributed tier.",
   "self_host_option": false,
   "payment_methods": [
    "USDC",
    "fiat by arrangement"
   ],
   "tooling": {
    "rclone": true,
    "boto3": true,
    "aws_cli": false
   },
   "launched": "Production customers since May 2026",
   "status_notes": "DISCLOSURE: this directory is maintained by the Obsideo team; this row uses the same schema and sourcing standard as every other row. Open-source provider node (github.com/Regan-Milne/obsideo-provider).",
   "sources": [
    {
     "url": "https://obsideo.io/",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "pricing $0.50/TB-day, $15/TB-month egress included; 3x replication; merkle challenges every 4 h; client-side encryption"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://obsideo.io/llms.txt",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "S3 endpoint, verified restore numbers, proof volume 2026-07-18"
    },
    {
     "url": "https://github.com/Regan-Milne/obsideo-provider",
     "accessed": "2026-07-18",
     "claim": "open-source provider node"
    }
   ]
  }
 ]
}