Free hosting — object storage (R2, B2, IDrive, Filebase, Storj, Wasabi)
Object storage — free tiers (2026-06-22)
The R2 vs B2 split. R2 has unbeatable economics (zero egress!) but Cloudflare gates the R2 service behind a card requirement. B2 is genuinely no-card. The family uses B2 for backups and would use R2 for product if the no-card rule ever relaxes.
The table
| # | Provider | Free tier | Card@signup | Card to use free | KYC | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Cloudflare R2 | 10 GB storage, 1M Class A ops, 10M Class B ops/mo, zero egress | YES (card or PayPal to activate R2 specifically) | YES | NO | EVALUATE — best free tier but card-gated |
| 2 | Backblaze B2 ⭐ | 10 GB storage, 1 GB/day download, 2,500 Class B + 2,500 Class C tx/day | NO | NO | NO | KEEP (family default) |
| 3 | Storj DCS ⭐ | 25 GB storage + 25 GB egress/mo (was 150 GB pre-Apr 2023) | NO | NO | NO | KEEP (decentralized) |
| 4 | Filebase IPFS | 5 GB storage, 1,000 pinned files, IPFS pinning included | NO | NO | NO | KEEP (IPFS niche) |
| 5 | GitHub Releases ⭐ | Per-asset cap 2 GB; soft repo cap ~5 GB; unlimited public repos. Cold storage. Not CDN-fast. | NO | NO | NO | KEEP (cold storage + image durability rail) |
| 6 | IDrive E2 | 10 GB free discontinued (~2023); trial-only now | — | — | — | DROP (killed) |
| 7 | Wasabi | Trial only: ~1 TB for 30 days, no perma-free | NO trial / YES post-trial | YES | NO | DROP |
How the family uses object storage
- Backups (restic → B2) — already wired per
restic-backup-setup.md. 10 GB free covers the family's restic snapshots with room. - Static assets (images, fonts) on app sites — co-located with Cloudflare Pages; assets ship from
public/, no separate object store needed. - Large media (videos, downloadables) — none of the apps host these yet. If/when they do, Storj DCS gets the slot (25 GB + 25 GB egress free).
- IPFS archive / web3 — Filebase, only if explicitly needed.
The R2 trap
Cloudflare R2's free tier (10 GB + zero egress + 1M Class A + 10M Class B ops/mo) is the most generous in the table. The economics are unmatched.
But: activating the R2 service in the Cloudflare dashboard requires linking a payment method (credit card or PayPal), even if you stay entirely within the 10 GB free tier. This is a one-time gate, not a charge, but it's still card-on-file.
Per the no-card-on-file rule: don't activate R2. Use B2 instead. Re-evaluate if Cloudflare drops the card-gate or if the family adopts a single managed billing relationship with Cloudflare.
Quirks per provider
- R2 card-gate. Cards / PayPal required to enable R2. The rest of Cloudflare (Pages, Workers, D1, KV, Queues, Workers AI) is no-card.
- B2 daily download cap (1 GB/day). Fine for backup restores (rare); not fine for serving public assets. If you need to serve images, use Cloudinary / ImageKit (see
image-cdn.md), not B2. - B2 transaction caps. 2,500 Class B (downloads) + 2,500 Class C (delete/list) per day. Restic typically does <100 ops per backup run, so weekly backups are well under the cap.
- GitHub Releases as cold storage. Each release asset is capped at 2 GB; total per-repo cap is soft (~5 GB is typical before GitHub raises eyebrows). Unlimited public repos = unlimited durability rails if you spread across multiple repos. Not CDN-fast (GH Releases edge is fine but not transform-aware), so use it as the durability rail in the image replication strategy (see
image-cdn.md) — not as a primary serving CDN. - Storj DCS had 150 GB free pre-April 2023. Cut to 25 GB. Still generous compared to B2.
- Filebase IPFS is the only no-card option for IPFS pinning. 5 GB + 1,000 pinned files. Niche.
- IDrive E2 killed their 10 GB free tier (~2023). Now it's trial-only.
- Wasabi has only ever offered a 30-day trial; no perma-free.
Recommendation for the family
- Backups: Backblaze B2 (already wired via restic).
- Large media (when needed): Storj DCS — 25 GB + 25 GB egress is plenty for one or two video-hosting apps.
- IPFS archive (when needed): Filebase — 5 GB + 1,000 pins.
- Image durability rail (cold): GitHub Releases — part of the 4-host image replication strategy in
image-cdn.md. - Do not activate R2 until the no-card rule changes.
Image-only object hosts (cross-link)
For image-only assets, two no-card hosts live in this category but are documented in image-cdn.md because their value proposition is image-specific (transforms, on-the-fly resize, image-only API):
- imgbb — 32 MB/image cap, no expiry, no signup. Image-only, no general object support.
- GitHub Releases — listed in this file's table above; also a node in the image replication strategy.
See image-cdn.md for the 4-host replicate-everywhere pattern.
Sources
- Cloudflare R2 pricing — 10 GB free
- Cloudflare R2 signup card requirement (payment method required to enable)
- Backblaze B2 pricing — 10 GB free
- Storj DCS pricing — 25 GB free
- Filebase pricing — 5 GB IPFS free
- GitHub Releases asset size limits
- IDrive E2 pricing (trial-only now)
- Wasabi pricing