Top block storage compared

About Top block storage compared

Block storage is the layer databases and container volumes sit on, so what matters is rarely the headline rate. It is the monthly cost per gigabyte, the charge for reading that data back out, and how many places a replica can live. This ranking compares 93 providers on block storage, weighing price at entry and as volumes grow, what a plan includes, and where it runs. The central trade-off is plain: the cheapest storage is rarely the cheapest transfer. Across this category, storage runs €0.01 to €0.05 per gigabyte month while egress sits near €0.01 a gigabyte, so a volume written once and read often costs far more than its rate suggests. Most entries here sell object storage beside block, so the same rates cover both, and most speak the S3 API, which keeps a move between them a matter of pointing a client at a different endpoint. A minority set transfer free, and those tend to sit in the middle of the price range.

How we picked

Scores are built from three weighted signals: cost at 40%, offer at 40% and trust at 20%. Cost reads the published per gigabyte month rate and the per gigabyte egress rate together, so a low storage figure does not carry a ranking when reading data out is expensive. Offer weighs what a plan includes: bundled outbound transfer, the storage types on sale, and whether the service speaks the S3 API, which decides how much rework a move costs. Trust weighs the company behind the product, including when it was founded and the legal entity that signs the terms. Rates, allowances and support channels come from each provider's own storage, pricing and documentation pages. Where a rate is published as a range, the whole range is shown, because the top of a range is what a growing volume eventually pays. Partners are listed first, ahead of every other entry, and the order after that follows the score.

Our top picks

1. 2. Kamatera

   Kamatera is in this ranking as the block-only option, which is both its point and its limit. Storage runs $0.05 per gigabyte month and egress is $0.01 per gigabyte, with a monthly allowance of 5,000 gigabytes of internet traffic included per server. It is not S3 API compatible, so tooling built against the S3 API will not attach, and its storage covers block only. In its favour it runs in 21 regions and support covers email, chat and phone. Akamai Cloud (Linode), the member below, is S3 API compatible and serves both storage types.

   • Entry price: $4
   • Entry plan: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe SSD
   • Bandwidth allowance: 5 TB traffic included

   Pros

   • The entry plan is a usable starting size: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB NVMe SSD, enough for a small service or a staging box.
   • Billing is flexible: hourly and monthly billing lets a server run for a short test without a long commitment.
   • Traffic is generous, with 5 TB traffic included on the plan and 5 TB internet traffic included per server per month on each server.
   • DDoS protection is included, and the platform holds SOC 2 Type II.
   • Support covers email, chat and phone, so help does not rest on a single channel.

   Cons

   • Egress beyond the included traffic is billed at $0.01 per gigabyte, which adds up for data heavy services.
   • Block storage is priced at $0.05 per gigabyte, above the €0.01 across the site.
   • Block storage is not S3 compatible, so workloads built on object storage APIs do not transfer directly.
   • Hourly billing is the only model listed in hourly, so there is no reserved tier for steady long running capacity.

2. 5. Aruba: best for top-pick

   Aruba takes the top spot in this ranking because it pairs a low storage rate with a large monthly allowance of bundled outbound transfer. Storage runs €0.011 per gigabyte month, the entry package includes 40 TB per month with the entry package of egress, and traffic past that allowance is charged at €0.05 a gigabyte. Object and block volumes both sit in 7 regions, the service is S3 API compatible, and support covers phone, email and help centre, phone included, which few rivals in this ranking match. The trade-off is reach, since that footprint is modest next to the entry below.

   • Entry price: €1.99
   • Entry plan: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB storage
   • Bandwidth allowance: 2 TB/month

   Pros

   • The VPS entry plan costs €1.99, below the site median of €5.83 for the same field.
   • Object storage egress runs at €0.05 per GB, with 40 TB per month with the entry package included on the entry package.
   • The entry plan ships 2 TB/month, well above what most small plans carry.
   • Object storage is S3-compatible, so existing buckets and tooling can be pointed at it rather than rewritten.
   • Server types cover both vps and bare metal, so a team can move from virtual to dedicated hardware inside one account.

   Cons

   • Compute is listed for a single market: IT is the only region, so latency-sensitive users elsewhere pay for the trip.
   • Support runs on phone, email and help centre, with live chat not among the listed channels alongside email, phone and the help centre.
   • The entry plan is small at 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB storage, which leaves little room for a database and a build pipeline on the same box.

3. 6. Aruba Cloud

   Aruba Cloud lands in this ranking on the same strength as the member above, with a difference in how the allowance is attached. Storage is €0.011 per gigabyte month, and the free egress allowance is bundled into subscription packages rather than tied to an entry tier: Bundled outgoing traffic in subscription packages: 40 TB per month with the 4 TB plan. Egress past the bundle is €0.05 a gigabyte. Object and block storage are both offered and the service is S3 API compatible, with support on help centre and chat, which adds chat but not phone. Its footprint of 7 regions is well short of the leaders, and the member below covers more ground and charges nothing for outbound transfer.

   • Entry price: €1.99
   • Entry plan: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 20 GB storage
   • Bandwidth allowance: 2 TB/month

   Pros

   • Entry plans start at €1.99 with 2 TB/month included, below the site median of €5.83.
   • Bare-metal alongside VPS, so vps and bare metal cover both virtual and dedicated use.
   • Object storage priced at €0.011 per GB per month with egress at €0.05 per GB.
   • DDoS protection is included, which most providers in the comparison charge for separately.
   • A free control plane means managed Kubernetes carries no platform fee of its own.

   Cons

   • Billing runs on monthly terms only, so short projects pay for a full month.
   • Support reaches you through help centre and chat, with no phone line listed.
   • Nine locations sit well below the site median of 4 for providers of this size.
   • Egress free allowance of 40,960 is tied to subscription packages rather than offered on every storage tier.

4. 9. UpCloud

   UpCloud is the answer in this ranking for teams that move data out of block volumes rather than sit on it. Its free egress allowance is among the broadest here, with no charges for outbound transfer on any service or region, subject to its Fair Transfer Policy, and CDN traffic through its partner network excluded. Storage runs €0.02 per gigabyte month, it covers 15 regions, and both object and block storage are S3 API compatible. Support is the widest of any entry at email, chat and phone. Against Kamatera, the member below, UpCloud gives transfer away and speaks the S3 API, while Kamatera charges more per gigabyte and is not S3 API compatible.

   • Entry price: €3
   • Entry plan: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM, 10 GB SSD
   • Bandwidth allowance: 250 Mbit/s

   Pros

   • Outbound data costs €0 per GB on every plan, subject to the Fair Transfer Policy, so serving downloads does not add a line to the bill.
   • The entry plan at €3 comes in below Aruba at €1.99 and UCloud at $5.34.
   • Billing runs hourly and monthly with hourly metering, so a test server can be released in the same hour it was created.
   • Servers sit in 15 locations spanning FI, NO and DK, which leaves room to place a box close to its users.
   • The managed Kubernetes control plane is free, and nodes start at €3.

   Cons

   • The highly available control plane option is priced at €60, so a cluster that needs it pays well past the free default.
   • Clusters stop at 120 nodes, a low ceiling for large estates.
   • Server types cover vps only, so dedicated hardware requirements sit outside the range.
   • Object storage at €0.02 per GB per month sits above the site median of €0.01.

5. V10. Vultr

   Vultr earns its place in this ranking by being easy to budget. Storage is a single rate of $0.018 per gigabyte month, a monthly outbound allowance of 1,000 gigabytes comes with inbound traffic included, and egress beyond that runs $0 to $0.01 a gigabyte. That shape suits workloads that read a moderate amount back out and want the total to stay predictable. The service is S3 API compatible, both storage types are available, and volumes sit in 33 regions. The weak point is help, since support runs on help centre and community and the member below adds live chat and unmetered bandwidth.

   • Entry price: $2.50
   • Billing models: Hourly, Monthly, Reserved
   • Locations: 33

   Pros

   • Cloud Compute plans start at $2.50 and bill at hourly granularity, which suits game servers and other jobs that stop without warning.
   • A footprint of 33 locations across AU, BR and CA lets one account place workloads near several different audiences.
   • Object Storage is S3-compatible at $0.018 per GB per month, with 1,000 GB of monthly egress included and the remainder at $0 to $0.01.
   • Kubernetes runs on a free control plane at $0 with nodes from $10, and the GPU range covers NVIDIA GB300 NVL72, AMD Instinct MI455X and NVIDIA HGX B300.
   • The trust centre lists SOC 2+ Type II (HIPAA), ISO 27001 and ISO 27017, and DDoS protection comes with the compute range.

   Cons

   • Support runs on help centre and community only, with no phone or live chat channel listed.
   • Egress past the free 1,000 GB bills at $0 to $0.01 per GB, so transfer-heavy workloads keep a running charge.
   • Billing granularity stops at hourly, so a job that runs for minutes is still metered by the hour.

What to look for

Cost per gigabyte each month

Category medians sit at €0.02 a gigabyte month, the middle of the spread runs €0.01 to €0.05, and the top of the spread reaches €207. Read the rate exactly as published, including any range.

What outbound transfer costs

Egress medians in this category are €0.01 a gigabyte, the upper quartile €0.02 and the top of the range €0.22. For a volume that moves, this line matters more than the storage rate.

Price at entry

Advertised entry prices cluster around €6.26, running from €0 at the bottom to €207 at the top, with the middle of the range between €3.12 and €12. Entry price is the starting figure, not what a growing volume costs.

Where the volume can sit

Region counts run from 1 to 67, with a median of 5 and an upper quartile of 9. Replication and failover plans depend on this line before they depend on price.

Fit with existing tooling

Most providers here are S3-compatible, a pattern covering 91.9% of the category, and object storage appears alongside block for 77.4%, while block alone covers 100%. What matters is whether the API matches the client libraries in use.

Frequently asked questions

Top block storage compared by country

• Brazil
• Canada
• China
• France
• Germany
• India
• Indonesia
• Italy
• Japan
• Mexico
• South Korea
• Spain
• United Kingdom
• United States
• Vietnam

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