Apache 2.0 license — no AGPL complexity, use freely in commercial products Written in Go — easy to build and operate, good performance S3-compatible gateway built-in — point your aws-sdk at it and it just works Scales horizontally — add volume servers as storage grows Handles both small and large files efficiently (a MinIO weakness) Active development — not going into maintenance mode

Designed for 3+ nodes across multiple sites — this is Garage's killer feature Extremely lightweight — runs on 1 GB RAM, 16 GB disk Built with partition tolerance — works across flaky inter-datacenter links No single point of failure — any node can be down and the cluster continues

Battle-tested at petabyte scale — the most proven distributed storage system in existence Excellent S3 compatibility — closest to full AWS S3 feature parity LGPL 2.1 license — permissive, widely used in commercial deployments CNCF project — no single-vendor license risk

Operationally complex — Ceph is not a weekend project. Plan for a week to set up properly and ongoing time to maintain Heavyweight — minimum 3 nodes, 4+ GB RAM per node, complex networking Learning curve — the documentation is extensive and the mental model is different from simpler tools For small teams and self-hosters, SeaweedFS or Garage are better fits. Ceph is for teams with dedicated infrastructure engineers. ---

Best Open Source Alternatives to AWS S3

TL;DR

MinIO entered maintenance mode in late 2025 after removing its web UI from the community edition and restricting core features to enterprise licenses. The best replacements depend on your use case: SeaweedFS for most production workloads (Apache 2.0, 30K stars, S3-compatible), Garage for geo-distributed multi-site setups (Rust, minimal resources), and Ceph RGW for enterprise-scale infrastructure (battle-tested, complex). AWS S3 itself remains the easiest option — this guide is for teams committed to self-hosting.

Key Takeaways

MinIO went into maintenance mode (Dec 2025) after removing the web UI and key features from the community edition
SeaweedFS is the top open source alternative for most teams — Apache 2.0, Go, ~30K stars, proven at scale
Garage is purpose-built for geo-distributed self-hosting on modest hardware — ideal for 3+ nodes across locations
Ceph RGW is the enterprise choice — battle-tested at petabyte scale, but operationally complex
RustFS is an emerging Rust-based MinIO replacement — promising but newer
All support the S3 API — your existing aws-sdk code, Boto3, or @aws-sdk/client-s3 works without modification

What Happened to MinIO?

MinIO was the undisputed leader in self-hosted S3-compatible storage from 2016 to 2024. Then a series of decisions eroded its open source standing:

2021: Switched from Apache 2.0 to AGPLv3 license — commercial use now requires a paid license or code disclosure
June 2025: Removed the web console (admin UI) from community edition — bucket management, lifecycle policies, and account administration became enterprise-only
December 2025: GitHub repo entered maintenance mode — no new features, no pull requests, security fixes case-by-case only

This is a familiar pattern (HashiCorp, Elastic, MongoDB, Redis all followed the same trajectory). MinIO is still usable, but relying on it for new infrastructure is a risk.

Comparison Overview

Project	Language	License	Stars	S3 Compat.	Best For
SeaweedFS	Go	Apache 2.0	~23K	Good	Most production workloads
Garage	Rust	AGPL 3.0	~4K	Core ops	Geo-distributed, low-resource
Ceph RGW	C++	LGPL 2.1	~14K	Excellent	Enterprise / petabyte scale
RustFS	Rust	Apache 2.0	~4K	Good	MinIO drop-in (newer)
MinIO (legacy)	Go	AGPL 3.0	~53K	Excellent	(maintenance mode — avoid for new)

SeaweedFS: The Best All-Around Alternative

SeaweedFS is a distributed file system that was built from the ground up for scalable object storage. It predates much of the "S3-alternative" wave and has earned its ~23,000 GitHub stars through real production deployments.

Why SeaweedFS

Apache 2.0 license — no AGPL complexity, use freely in commercial products
Written in Go — easy to build and operate, good performance
S3-compatible gateway built-in — point your aws-sdk at it and it just works
Scales horizontally — add volume servers as storage grows
Handles both small and large files efficiently (a MinIO weakness)
Active development — not going into maintenance mode

Architecture

SeaweedFS has three components:

Master Server (metadata)  →  Volume Servers (data)  →  Filer (S3 gateway)

For most self-hosters, a single-server deployment works fine:

# Start SeaweedFS on a single server:
docker run -d \
  -p 9333:9333 \  # Master HTTP
  -p 9334:9334 \  # Master gRPC
  -p 8080:8080 \  # Volume server
  -p 8888:8888 \  # Filer (S3 gateway)
  -v /data/seaweedfs:/data \
  chrislusf/seaweedfs:latest server \
  -dir=/data \
  -s3 \
  -s3.port=8333 \
  -s3.allowEmptyFolder=false

S3 API Compatibility

// Works with standard AWS SDK — just change the endpoint:
import { S3Client, PutObjectCommand } from '@aws-sdk/client-s3';

const s3 = new S3Client({
  endpoint: 'http://your-server:8333',
  region: 'us-east-1',  // Required but unused
  credentials: {
    accessKeyId: 'your-access-key',
    secretAccessKey: 'your-secret-key',
  },
  forcePathStyle: true,  // Required for non-AWS S3
});

// Works exactly like AWS S3:
await s3.send(new PutObjectCommand({
  Bucket: 'my-bucket',
  Key: 'files/document.pdf',
  Body: fileBuffer,
  ContentType: 'application/pdf',
}));

Garage: Built for Geo-Distribution

Garage is a lightweight Rust-based object storage system designed specifically for scenarios that other S3 implementations handle poorly: multiple nodes across different geographic locations, unreliable network connections, and modest hardware.

Why Garage

Designed for 3+ nodes across multiple sites — this is Garage's killer feature
Extremely lightweight — runs on 1 GB RAM, 16 GB disk
Built with partition tolerance — works across flaky inter-datacenter links
No single point of failure — any node can be down and the cluster continues

Garage vs SeaweedFS

Garage is not a datacenter tool — it's a "real world" tool. If you want to run three nodes in three different cities (home lab + VPS + office), connected over regular internet, Garage handles this better than anything else.

SeaweedFS is better for single-datacenter or cloud deployments where network reliability is high. Garage is better for truly distributed setups.

Quick Start

# Three-node Garage cluster:
# Install on each node:
docker pull dxflrs/garage:v1.0.0

# Node 1 configuration:
cat > /etc/garage.toml << EOF
metadata_dir = "/var/lib/garage/meta"
data_dir = "/var/lib/garage/data"
db_engine = "lmdb"
replication_factor = 3

[rpc_secret]
secret = "$(openssl rand -hex 32)"

[rpc_bind_addr]
addr = "0.0.0.0:3901"

[s3_api]
s3_region = "garage"
api_bind_addr = "0.0.0.0:3900"
EOF

docker run -d --network host \
  -v /etc/garage.toml:/etc/garage/garage.toml \
  -v /var/lib/garage:/var/lib/garage \
  dxflrs/garage:v1.0.0

S3 API Compatibility

Garage supports core S3 operations: GET, PUT, DELETE, LIST, multipart upload, presigned URLs. It does not implement every S3 feature (lifecycle policies, object tagging, bucket notifications are partial). Check Garage's compatibility table before adopting.

Ceph RGW: Enterprise-Scale

Ceph is the enterprise-grade distributed storage system used at petabyte scale in production by organizations including CERN. Ceph RGW (RADOS Gateway) is its S3-compatible interface.

Why Ceph

Battle-tested at petabyte scale — the most proven distributed storage system in existence
Excellent S3 compatibility — closest to full AWS S3 feature parity
LGPL 2.1 license — permissive, widely used in commercial deployments
CNCF project — no single-vendor license risk

Why Not Ceph

Operationally complex — Ceph is not a weekend project. Plan for a week to set up properly and ongoing time to maintain
Heavyweight — minimum 3 nodes, 4+ GB RAM per node, complex networking
Learning curve — the documentation is extensive and the mental model is different from simpler tools

For small teams and self-hosters, SeaweedFS or Garage are better fits. Ceph is for teams with dedicated infrastructure engineers.

RustFS: The Emerging MinIO Drop-In

RustFS is a new Rust-based S3-compatible object store with an explicit goal of being a drop-in MinIO replacement. As of 2026 it has ~4K stars and is gaining traction post-MinIO maintenance mode announcement.

Why Consider RustFS

Apache 2.0 license — clean, commercial-friendly
Written in Rust — excellent memory safety and performance characteristics
Designed as MinIO drop-in — existing MinIO configurations should migrate easily
Active development — community is growing post-MinIO announcement

Caveat

RustFS is newer and less battle-tested than SeaweedFS. For new production deployments today, SeaweedFS has more production validation. Watch RustFS over the next 12 months.

Decision Guide

Choose SeaweedFS if:
  → Single datacenter or cloud VPS deployment
  → Apache 2.0 license required (no AGPL)
  → Need proven production track record
  → Mixed file sizes (small files + large objects)
  → Want Go-based tooling

Choose Garage if:
  → Multiple nodes across different geographic locations
  → Home lab / edge / low-resource nodes
  → Inter-node network is unreliable
  → Want minimal resource footprint

Choose Ceph RGW if:
  → Petabyte-scale storage requirements
  → Dedicated infrastructure team
  → Need maximum S3 feature parity
  → Enterprise environment with compliance requirements

Still use MinIO if:
  → Already deployed and working — no need to migrate immediately
  → Using enterprise license (supported going forward)
  → Limited operational capacity to migrate

Use AWS S3 / Cloudflare R2 if:
  → Don't want to manage storage infrastructure at all
  → R2 has zero egress fees and is very cost-competitive
  → Team prioritizes managed over self-hosted

Migration from MinIO to SeaweedFS

If you're currently on MinIO and want to migrate:

# Use rclone to copy between S3-compatible stores:
# First, configure both remotes in ~/.config/rclone/rclone.conf:

[minio-source]
type = s3
provider = Minio
endpoint = http://old-minio:9000
access_key_id = minioadmin
secret_access_key = minioadmin

[seaweedfs-dest]
type = s3
provider = Other
endpoint = http://new-seaweedfs:8333
access_key_id = your-key
secret_access_key = your-secret
force_path_style = true

# Copy all buckets:
rclone sync minio-source: seaweedfs-dest: --progress

Update your application's S3 endpoint environment variable and your existing code continues working without changes.

Methodology

MinIO maintenance mode: InfoQ report, community GitHub discussions (December 2025)
SeaweedFS: github.com/seaweedfs/seaweedfs, Apache 2.0, ~23K stars
Garage: garagehq.deuxfleurs.fr, active community, Rust
Benchmark data: repoflow.io/blog

See all open source cloud storage alternatives at OSSAlt.com/alternatives/aws-s3.

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