# Object storage for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "object storage service" and as "S3-compatible cloud storage", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/2026-11/smb

**Standing:** Backblaze B2 leads with 49% of first choices; verdict clear leader. 55 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Backblaze B2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/backblaze-b2/index.md) | 49% | 1% | 72 |
| 2 | [Cloudflare R2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-r2/index.md) | 22% | 7% | 58 |
| 3 | [Wasabi Object Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/wasabi-object-storage/index.md) | 16% | 20% | 66 |
| 4 | [Amazon S3](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-s3/index.md) | 7% | 58% | 66 |
| 5 | [DigitalOcean Spaces](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/digitalocean-spaces/index.md) | 4% | 12% | 34 |
| 11 | [MinIO AIStor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/minio-aistor/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 17 |
| 42 | [Google Cloud Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-storage/index.md) | 0% | 50% | 42 |
| 43 | [Azure Blob Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-blob-storage/index.md) | 0% | 53% | 43 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 43 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi Object Storage
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2; alternatives Wasabi Object Storage
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi Object Storage
- Perplexity Sonar: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces
- Grok 4.20: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi Object Storage
- Mistral Small: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Backblaze B2; alternatives Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi Object Storage
- Llama 4 Maverick: Amazon S3; alternatives Cloudflare R2
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Backblaze B2; alternatives Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
- Kimi K2: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Backblaze B2, DigitalOcean Spaces, Wasabi Object Storage
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Wasabi Object Storage
- MiniMax M2.5: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
- GPT-6 Luna: Amazon S3; alternatives Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Backblaze B2; alternatives Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage

## Sources the answers cite

69 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- g2.com: 39 answers, 45 citations
- github.com: 32 answers, 40 citations
- backblaze.com: 30 answers, 57 citations
- solved.scality.com: 30 answers, 35 citations
- cloudflare.com: 27 answers, 43 citations
- saasworthy.com: 18 answers, 18 citations
- dev.to: 15 answers, 16 citations
- aws.amazon.com: 14 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://g2.com/categories/object-storage-solutions/small-business (31 answers)
- https://github.com/mixpeek/awesome-object-storage (30 answers)
- https://solved.scality.com/object-storage-solutions-small-business (28 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/products/r2 (21 answers)
- https://saasworthy.com/list/object-storage (18 answers)
- https://backblaze.com/cloud-storage/pricing (17 answers)
- https://cloudflare.com/en-gb/developer-platform/products/r2 (16 answers)
- https://backblaze.com/cloud-storage (11 answers)
- https://mixpeek.com/curated-lists/best-s3-compatible-object-storage (9 answers)
- https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing (8 answers)

## Warned against

- Amazon S3: 38 of 66 labels negative. "What to Avoid - AWS S3, Google Cloud, and Azure are generally overkill for tight budgets." (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Wasabi Object Storage: 13 of 66 labels negative. "This service imposes a 90-day minimum retention policy per object, which can be problematic for businesses with highly volatile or temporary data." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Google Cloud Storage: 21 of 42 labels negative. "Users report that Google Cloud Storage is expensive... The complexity of management and pricing is also cited as a challenge" (Mistral Small, negative prompt)
- Azure Blob Storage: 23 of 43 labels negative. "Deep Archive Tiers for Active Data (e.g., AWS S3 Glacier Deep Archive, Azure Archive) — *Avoid for Daily Operations*" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Backblaze B2 at 49%.

- Cloudflare R2: 18% to 22%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 3 → 2 of 43.
- Wasabi Object Storage: 20% to 16%, −4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 2 → 3 of 43.
- Google Cloud Storage: 3% to 0%, −3. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 6 → 42 of 43.
- Backblaze B2: 47% to 49%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 1 of 43, unchanged.
- Amazon S3: 5% to 7%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 5 → 4 of 43.
- IDrive e2: 0% to 2%, +2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 8 → 6 of 43.
- DigitalOcean Spaces: 5% to 4%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 4 → 5 of 43.
- MinIO AIStor: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 11 of 43.
- Azure Blob Storage: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 43 of 43, unchanged.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.