Buying & comparison
Cloud Backup: Backblaze vs Wasabi vs S3
A source-backed comparison of cloud backup for a home or NAS: Backblaze Personal, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive — egress, immutability, and restore.
Who this is for
Cloud is the off-site copy in a 3-2-1 plan — the one that survives fire, theft, and ransomware. But the services split into three different things: a backup product for one computer, an S3 bucket for a NAS, and a cold archive you rarely touch. This guide compares the four most relevant options on the factors that actually decide cost and recoverability — egress fees, minimum storage duration, immutability, and restore speed. Build the plan with the backup plan builder.
Bottom line
Match the tool to the job. Backblaze Personal Backup is the simplest set-and-forget for one computer — but it can't back up a NAS. For a NAS off-site copy you want an S3-compatible bucket: Backblaze B2 (free egress up to 3× stored data, no minimum duration) or Wasabi (no egress fee under fair-use, but a 90-day minimum). S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the cheapest cold storage, but restores are slow and fee-laden — use it only as a deep outer-ring archive. Whichever bucket you pick, turn on Object Lock so a ransomware attack can't delete your backups.
How to choose
- Backup product vs storage bucket vs cold archive
- Backblaze Personal is an agent that backs up one computer (no NAS, no S3 API). B2 and Wasabi are S3-compatible buckets you point a NAS at. Glacier Deep Archive is a cold storage class inside AWS S3. Pick the category first, then the provider.
- Egress fees vs minimum storage duration
- B2 gives free egress up to 3× your average stored data, then charges per-GB, with no minimum storage duration. Wasabi advertises no egress fee (under a reasonable-use cap) but enforces a 90-day minimum duration on Pay-Go plus a 1 TB monthly minimum. Restore often → Wasabi; churn/delete freely → B2.
- Immutability for ransomware
- All three buckets support S3 Object Lock (WORM) — a retention lock that even the account owner can't delete before it expires. This is the single most important setting for a ransomware-resilient off-site copy. See immutable, air-gapped backups.
- Restore speed and region
- B2 and Wasabi are always-hot (instant restore, no thaw). Glacier Deep Archive must be thawed first (~12h Standard, ~48h Bulk) and charges retrieval fees. Wasabi has the widest region footprint (incl. Asia-Pacific); B2 has the US and EU but no APAC.
The options
No dollar amounts are listed — pricing models are stable but the rates change, so each option links to its official pricing page for the current number.
Backblaze Personal Backup
BackblazeThe simplest set-and-forget continuous backup for a single computer (plus its attached USB drives) on a flat-rate unlimited plan. It's a backup product, not a storage bucket — no S3 API, and you can't point a NAS at it.
Best for
One laptop or desktop protected automatically with zero capacity planning — best when the data lives on the computer itself, not a NAS.
Watch-outs
One license per computer; a NAS/network share is not a supported source. External drives detached for more than 30 days are permanently purged. Default version history is only 30 days unless you enable the free 1-year extension.
| Spec | Value | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat-rate unlimited per computer — unlimited data, file size, and upload speed, no per-GB metering. NAS/network drives are not a supported source. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Egress / restore fees | Restores are included (no per-GB download charge) as a downloadable zip; a shipped Restore-by-Mail USB drive is an optional refundable extra. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Versioning / retention | 30-day version history by default; free upgrade to one year, paid Forever option. External drives detached more than 30 days are dropped and deleted. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| S3-compatible API | None — it's an agent-based backup service, not object storage, so it cannot be a NAS off-site sync target. Use Backblaze B2 for that. | Researchedsource |
| Restore model | On-demand: a prepared zip is available for 7 days, or order a shipped USB restore drive. No cold-storage thaw wait. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
BackblazeS3-compatible, always-hot object storage positioned as a low-cost NAS off-site target. Point Synology Hyper Backup, Cloud Sync, rclone, or Veeam at the S3 endpoint; per-TB billing with a generous free-egress allowance and Object Lock immutability.
Best for
A NAS or home-server owner who wants a true off-site copy over the S3 API, with predictable per-TB billing, immutable backups, and fast restores without Glacier-style waits.
Watch-outs
Free egress is capped at 3× your average stored data; beyond that it's per-GB. Regions are limited to four data centers (three US, one EU) — no Asia-Pacific. It's metered, so a runaway sync or many versions grows the bill.
| Spec | Value | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Per-TB/month metered object storage; no minimum storage duration and no minimum file size. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Egress / download fees | Free egress up to 3× average monthly stored data, then per-GB; egress through partner CDNs/compute (Fastly, Cloudflare) is free. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Immutability / Object Lock | Yes — Object Lock via both the Native and S3-compatible APIs locks files for a retention period that not even the account root user can delete early. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| S3-compatible API | Yes — a drop-in S3 target for standard NAS and backup tools; no minimum storage duration trap. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Regions | Four regions across two countries (US ×3, EU ×1 in Amsterdam). No Asia-Pacific region. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage
WasabiFlat-priced, S3-compatible hot object storage marketed on a no-egress-fee, no-API-fee model — a direct B2 competitor as a NAS off-site target, with free Object Lock and a wider global region footprint.
Best for
A NAS owner who restores or downloads relatively often and wants egress to be a non-issue, or who needs a region (e.g. Asia-Pacific) that Backblaze doesn't offer.
Watch-outs
No egress fee applies only under a reasonable-use policy (monthly egress shouldn't exceed stored volume) — not for high-bandwidth distribution. There's a 90-day minimum storage duration on Pay-Go (30 on reserved) and a 1 TB monthly minimum.
| Spec | Value | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Flat per-TB/month with no tiers; Pay-as-You-Go has a 1 TB monthly minimum. No separate egress or API/request charges. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Egress / download fees | No egress or API fees under a reasonable-use cap (egress should stay within your stored volume); heavy distribution egress can be throttled. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Minimum storage duration | 90 days on Pay-as-You-Go (30 days on reserved capacity); deleting an object early still bills the remaining days. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Immutability / Object Lock | Yes — S3 Object Lock immutability is included at no extra charge for ransomware-resistant retention. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Regions | Multiple global regions across North America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific — a wider footprint than B2. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Amazon Web ServicesAmazon S3's lowest-cost storage class, built for cold long-term archival of data you almost never read — the cheapest place to park a final off-site copy, at the cost of slow, fee-laden retrievals.
Best for
Operators already in AWS who want the cheapest long-term cold archive for data unlikely to be restored — a compliance copy or an outer-ring backup behind a faster hot copy.
Watch-outs
Restores are slow and not free: ~12h Standard, up to ~48h Bulk, plus per-GB retrieval fees and egress. There's a 180-day minimum storage duration and ~40 KB metadata overhead per object, so many tiny files are inefficient.
| Spec | Value | Verification |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | The lowest-cost S3 storage class — pay for storage plus separate retrieval and request charges; managed via S3 lifecycle rules, not a turnkey backup app. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Retrieval / egress fees | Per-GB retrieval fees (varying by tier) on top of standard S3 egress — cold-archive retrieval is explicitly fee-laden. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Minimum storage duration | 180-day minimum; objects deleted earlier are billed for the remaining days. Each object carries ~40 KB of extra metadata. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
| Immutability / Object Lock | Yes — S3 Object Lock (WORM) is supported for Glacier storage classes, enabling retention-locked archives. | Researchedsource |
| Restore model | Cold — data is not immediately readable; it must be restored/thawed (Standard ~12h, Bulk ~48h) before download. | Manufacturer-confirmedsource |
Pick by use case
One laptop or desktop, you just want it protected with zero fuss
→ Backblaze Personal Backup. Flat unlimited, the agent does everything, restores are included — no capacity math and no S3 setup. (It can't back up a NAS, though.)
A NAS off-site copy where you churn/delete data freely and want no minimum-duration trap
→ Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage. S3-compatible with Object Lock, free egress up to 3× stored data, and no minimum storage duration — clean for a frequently-changing backup set.
A NAS off-site copy you restore from often, or you need an Asia-Pacific region
→ Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage. No egress fee under fair-use and a wider region footprint — best when downloads are frequent and you can live with the 90-day minimum duration.
A cheap, deep archive you expect to almost never restore
→ AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive. The lowest storage cost for a final outer-ring copy — accepting slow, fee-laden restores and a 180-day minimum, and that you'll manage S3 lifecycle rules.
Run the numbers
Turn the decision into a calculation before you buy — size the capacity, the backup, and the UPS for your exact setup.
Related runbooks
How we verified this guide
2026-06-16 · Reviewed by HomeTechOps. Pricing models and features were verified against each provider's official pricing and docs pages on 2026-06-16; no dollar amounts are stored because prices change — click the linked pricing page for the current rate. Wasabi's no-egress claim is governed by a reasonable-use policy, and Glacier Object Lock/region availability is labeled researched. This is operational guidance, not financial advice.
Source-backed checks
HomeTechOps turns official docs and conservative safety rules into a shorter runbook. These links are the source trail for the page direction.