Backblaze B2 Review
Backblaze B2 is a hot cloud object storage service used for storing unstructured data. It offers low storage rates alongside a free tier that includes free egress and application programming interface (API) calls. Read the rest of our Backblaze B2 review for the details.
Key Takeaways: What Is Backblaze B2 & Is It Good to Use?
- Backblaze B2 is an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) tool that offers hot cloud object storage.
- B2 is affordable and offers one of the lowest storage rates compared to other hot object storage services, like Amazon S3, Wasabi or Azure Blob Storage.
- While you can use B2 for infrequently accessed, long-term storage and archiving, you’ll get cheaper rates if you use an actual cold storage service, like Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
Top Use Cases for Backblaze B2
- Media storage: Media storage and distribution is a prime use case for Backblaze B2, as it offers unlimited storage for images, videos and other media files. For faster end-user access, you can use content delivery network (CDN) integrations like bunny.net, Fastly and Cloudflare.
- Data analytics: Since B2 stores massive volumes of unstructured data, it can serve as a cost-effective option for data lakes.
- Backup and archiving: Backblaze has a separate service for computer backups (Backblaze Computer Backup), but if you need an offsite backup for your data, you can use Backblaze B2. You can also use it as a data archive.
Backblaze B2 is a budget-friendly alternative to object storage services like Amazon S3 and Azure Blob Storage. Though relatively affordable, it offers remarkable performance, keeping up with leading alternatives in the industry. However, its features are limited, so it isn’t suitable for all object storage use cases.
In this Backblaze B2 review, we put its features, pros, cons, pricing, security and privacy under the microscope. We evaluate the ease of use, support accessibility and performance, then evaluate some user reviews. Finally, we take a look at how B2 compares to other more holistic cloud computing platforms.
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11/04/2021 Facts checked
Updated information, conducted new performance tests and replaced images.
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09/24/2023 Facts checked
This article was rewritten to include updated features and current pricing.
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04/30/2025 Facts checked
We rewrote this review with updated information about Backblaze B2’s pricing, features, performance and alternatives.
What Is Backblaze B2 & Who Is It For?
Backblaze B2 is a hot cloud object storage service, meaning it allows rapid and frequent data access and stores data in an unstructured format. One of Backblaze B2’s major selling points is its S3 compatibility, which allows for a seamless switch from Amazon S3.
- Release date: September 2015 (beta release), June 2016 (non-beta release announced)
- Developer: Backblaze
- Platforms: Cloud, NAS
- Operating systems: Mac, Windows, Linux
- Notable features: Affordable rates, diverse integration, free egress within certain limits
- Pricing: Pay as you go, commitment-based rates
Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage vs Backblaze Computer Backup
Though both Backblaze B2 and Backblaze Computer Backup can be considered online backup services, they are not the same.
Backblaze B2 is object storage that allows you to store all kinds of data in the cloud; it’s a flexible cloud storage service that you can use as a cloud backup.
Meanwhile, Backblaze Computer Backup is a backup solution that mirrors data from a computer or storage hardware for recovery on the same computer — it’s strictly a local backup service. If this sounds more like what you’re looking for, check out our Backblaze review for all the details.
The Cloudwards Expert Opinion
The Cloudwards Expert Opinion
Backblaze B2’s user interface is nearly faultless, and the navigation is easy. I also like its pricing; the rates are cheap and the structure is uncomplicated — particularly for B2 Reserve, the long-term plan. Its security, integration catalog and download speeds are impressive, too. The upload speeds are average, but the option to increase thread counts for enhanced upload speeds is laudable.
That said, Backblaze B2 probably wouldn’t be my first choice if I needed frequent access to object storage outside of North America or Western Europe because of the increased latency that comes with distance.
Backblaze B2 Pros & Cons
Backblaze B2 Alternatives
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Features: What Can Backblaze B2 Do?
Backblaze B2 has various features that ensure the security, accessibility and durability of your storage while offering the flexibility to extend its capabilities with third-party integrations. Its features are on par with close alternatives like Wasabi, but it falls short of hyperscalers like Amazon S3. Let’s explore what you can do with Backblaze B2.
Diverse Integration
Many tools readily integrate with Backblaze, which greatly expands its use cases. For instance, you can transfer files between your device and Backblaze B2 via FTP, FTPS or SFTP using the FileZilla Pro integration. Furthermore, you can use the ExpanDrive integration to enhance B2’s I/O performance to make it a fast network drive for a Windows or Mac device.
Backblaze B2 has integrations for data syncing, content delivery networks (CDNs), media and entertainment, and backups and archives.
B2 account using application keys.
Cloud Replication
When using B2 storage, you have the option to replicate data stored across different locations, ensuring you have no single point of failure. Cloud replication may also contribute low latency and faster access, as the replicas may be closer to you.
Using cloud replication rules, Backblaze B2 allows you to define how your data is replicated. You can choose from the source bucket, destination bucket, destination region and destination account (if you’re replicating data to a bucket in another account).
You can check the status of your replication in the source bucket by clicking on the info icon beside an object. In the destination bucket, replicated objects will be labeled “replica.”
Sync
Backblaze B2 allows you to synchronize a directory or folder on your computer with your B2 bucket and synchronize objects between buckets. When using B2 Sync, you can upload a new version of an object while retaining the old version, replace the old version with the new one, or upload the new version and keep the old one temporarily.
If you’re synchronizing two buckets and the destination bucket contains files that are not in the source bucket, you can choose to delete those files. That said, deleting those files will also remove older versions from the destination bucket.
You can replace the latest file versions in the destination with older versions from the source if you prefer. However, by default, old file versions from the source bucket will not replace the updated version in the destination, and you’ll get an error unless you skip those files.
File Sharing
You can share files from your Backblaze B2 bucket if the bucket is public. All you have to do is share the object’s “friendly URL,” which you’ll find in the details when you click on the info icon beside the object.
User-Friendliness & Hands-On Testing
Like many cloud object storage services, Backblaze B2 uses an object and bucket system. Therefore, if you’ve used services like Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi or Amazon S3, using Backblaze B2 will be a smooth experience.
left-side menu on the home screen.
B2 has a very simple interface; the links on the left-side menu are descriptive, making navigation easy. Furthermore, each bucket in the “buckets” section has an overview with links to adjust the settings. You don’t have to go too far to make configuration changes.
We were able to access the account management and billing areas in two clicks, and the ease of controlling our active Backblaze services and the types of emails Backblaze sends us was a plus.
- Install the B2 CLI
To install the Backblaze B2 CLI on Windows or Linux, download the corresponding executable, then go to your computer’s command-line interface (CLI). For Backblaze B2 CLI installation on Mac, you can run “brew install b2-tools” to install it from Homebre
- List the Commands
Once in the command line, list the commands using “b2 –help.” Note that on Windows and Linux, you’ll have to use “b2-windows” and “b2-linux,” respectively, instead of “b2.” Alternatively, you can rename the executables on either operating system to “b2.”
How to Set Up & Use Backblaze B2
To use Backblaze B2 from the console, sign in and follow the steps below to upload objects to your storage.
- Create a Bucket
Once signed in to the B2 console, click on the “create a bucket” link at the center of the page. In the pop-up, enter a unique bucket name and adjust the bucket configurations. Then, scroll down and click on “create a bucket.”
- Upload an Object
After creating the bucket, click on “upload/download” in the bucket overview to go to the “browse files” page. Alternatively, click on “browse files” from the left-hand menu.
On the “browse files” page, click on “upload,” then select a file or drag and drop one from your computer. The file will upload automatically to your bucket after you select it.
Backblaze B2 API Transaction Classes
Backblaze B2 groups its API calls into three classes: class A, class B and class C. The calls in class A primarily alter the state of objects or buckets, while those in class B perform retrieval operations. In class C, you’ll find calls that alter the state and those that read the state.
Backblaze B2 Pricing: How Much Does Backblaze B2 Cost?
Backblaze B2 has one of the most affordable pricing structures in the cloud object storage market. It charges less than many of the top cloud providers (like Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage) for the same storage volume, and is even slightly cheaper than other services, like Wasabi.
The free egress within 300% of your monthly average further highlights Backblaze B2’s affordability: you do not pay to move data out as long as the volume of data does not exceed three times your average monthly storage. We share an overview of Backblaze B2’s pricing below.
 | Storage | Egress | API Calls | Premium Support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pay as You Go | $6 per TB per month | Free for data storage volume below three times the average monthly usage* | Class A: Free Class B: First 2,500 calls/day free, then $0.0004/1,000 calls/day Class C: First 2,500 calls/day free, then $0.004/1,000 calls/day | Paid |
| B2 Reserve | $19,500 for every 250TB per year ($6.50 per TB per month) | Free | Comes with B2 Reserve |
Backblaze B2 Server Network & Speed
Backblaze B2’s speed is not one of its best features, particularly for uploads. It doesn’t even come close to hyperscalers like Amazon S3 or Microsoft Azure Blob Storage. Its download speeds are comparable to those of alternatives like Wasabi, but its upload speeds are far off.
That said, Backblaze B2 offers a workaround for its slow upload speeds. We discuss that and more below.
Backblaze B2 Speed Test Results
When it comes to uploads, Backblaze B2 is just OK, but its download speeds are pretty impressive.
We tested its upload and download speeds using a 5GB folder containing various file types, including text documents, images and videos, on a Windows virtual machine in Dublin. We ran the test once with a 1 Gbps connection and twice with the speed throttled to 100 Mbps. Check out our results below.
Upload Speeds
| Test 1* | Test 2* | Average Speed* | Test 3 (1 Gbps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 13 minutes 14 seconds | 13 minutes 10 seconds | 13 minutes 12 seconds | 12 minutes 50 seconds |
Download Speeds
| Test 1* | Test 2* | Average Speed* | Test 3 (1 Gbps) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 minutes 21 seconds | 8 minutes 3 seconds | 7 minutes 42 seconds | 6 minutes 45 seconds |
Notes From the Lab: Our Detailed Speed Analysis
Backblaze B2’s download speeds were acceptable, performing about the same as in our previous test, albeit slightly slower. However, its upload speeds were still not impressive, despite having improved since our previous tests.
The web console limited us to a maximum file size of 500MB, and we had to use the CLI to get around this restriction. In addition, there was little difference between the 100 Mbps test and the 1 Gbps test, which shows that there are diminished returns for connections faster than 100 Mbps.
When using integrations like Veeam and Rclone with B2, you can increase the number of threads executing the file transfer process to enhance upload speed. Essentially, by increasing the thread count, you can upload multiple files or file parts at the same time, speeding up the process. We ran our tests using a single thread, so you may see better performance using one of these integrations.
data protection and disaster recovery.
Security: Is Backblaze B2 Safe?
Backblaze B2 is safe. It offers many of the security features you’d expect of a leading cloud object storage provider, including encryption at rest and in transit, access control and immutability.
Backblaze B2 Security Features
Backblaze B2 combines multiple security layers for robust data protection. It uses server-side encryption (SSE) for encryption at rest and Transport Layer Security (TLS) for encryption in transit. Apart from encryption, it has an “object lock” feature, which ensures data integrity by making sure objects cannot be deleted or altered.
to external applications and devices.
Backblaze B2 also has rules to control preflight approvals for cross-origin resource sharing (CORS), ensuring authorized access to the bucket. Furthermore, it offers access management using API key controls, single sign-on (SSO) and two-factor authentication (2FA). We discuss these features in detail below.
Detailed Security Analysis: Encryption & Cloud Security
| Encryption in Transit | Encryption at Rest* |
|---|---|
| -TLS/SSL encryption -Encryption with OpenSSL using AES-256 | -Server-side encryption with Backblaze-managed keys (SSE-B2) -Server-side encryption with customer-managed keys (SSE-C) |
Backblaze B2 uses encryption in transit to protect data being transmitted from threats like man-in-the-middle (MITM) attacks. On the other hand, encryption at rest ensures that even if someone were to access your B2 bucket, your data would be unreadable.
B2’s object lock feature offers data security, ensuring no one can change or delete your data. You can enable and disable it from each bucket’s overview in the B2 console.
With B2’s cloud replication, you can enhance data security by preventing a situation in which the failure of one device leads to permanent data loss. Cloud replication gives you the option to create copies of a bucket’s objects in other buckets within the same region, in a different region or in a different account.
With access management controls like single sign-on (SSO), application keys and multi-factor authentication (MFA), B2 ensures only authorized personnel have access to your storage and makes certain that they have only as much access as they need.
B2’s CORS controls are also a form of access control, as they block all preflight requests from browsers except those that pass the conditions you define in your CORS rules. This way, only authorized requests can be approved.
Privacy: Is Backblaze B2 Private?
Considering Backblaze’s SOC 2 certification and compliance with HIPAA, NIST 800-53, the GDPR and the CCPA, Backblaze offers an acceptable level of privacy. That said, you and Backblaze jointly share the responsibility for privacy and security. For the best results, you have to play your part as well.
Private Encryption
Backblaze offers the option to encrypt your files using OpenSSL before uploading them to Backblaze B2. This way, you can retrieve your files while they’re still encrypted and decrypt them with your encryption keys. Your decryption key remains with you throughout this process, ensuring only you can read your data.
data privately before uploading it to your bucket.
Backblaze B2 Privacy Policy
Backblaze collects personal information when you sign up and when you access B2 services from your device. Though it does indicate the types of data it collects, how it uses that information is less clear. Backblaze mentions only that it will not sell or share your address or email; it doesn’t say the same about your IP address or other information.
Though Backblaze retains data for security, communication and financial record-keeping, among other purposes, it doesn’t specify how long it keeps that data. It even mentions that it may retain data for extended periods if needed, but those periods are also not defined.
If you’re looking to enhance your internet privacy by sending a “do not track” request from your browser, the request may not work when accessing Backblaze as the platform currently doesn’t honor them. Read the full Backblaze privacy policy here.
Though it mentions using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer technology), among other measures, to ensure sensitive data (like card details) in transit is encrypted, it adds a disclaimer that it cannot guarantee absolute security.
When completing your Backblaze B2 signup, you can choose a storage region from one of four Backblaze regions: U.S. East, U.S. West, CA East and EU Central. Since the region is defined at the account level, all data you store in your account will be in that region. This is different from platforms like Wasabi and Amazon S3, where the region is defined at the bucket level.
Backblaze B2 Customer Support
Backblaze B2’s support options include Slack, email and live chat. The email and live chat support options are available to all users, whereas phone support and the Slack channels are restricted to users who pay for Peta (the highest level of Backblaze support).
Live Chat & Email Support Speed & Quality
Backblaze’s live chat connects you to a virtual assistant by default, but you can talk to a live agent. That said, we received a message saying that live chat support is unavailable during Backblaze’s chat hours. The email support response time indication of one business day for non-premium support was not far off, though.
Apart from email and live chat, you have the option to fill out a webform and wait for feedback from an agent. You can also consult the technical documentation for a resolution.
Backblaze B2 vs Other Cloud Storage Services
From Wasabi to Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage and Azure Blob Storage, there are many cloud storage services that can function as alternatives to Backblaze B2. We discuss how Backblaze B2 compares to a few of them below.
Backblaze B2 vs Wasabi
egress exceeds your monthly storage.
Backblaze B2 and Wasabi are both hot cloud object storage services with Amazon S3 compatibility. Therefore, with either provider you can readily integrate with or migrate from Amazon S3. However, when it comes to general third-party integrations, Wasabi offers more options to work with.
B2 is easier to navigate than Wasabi, with many of its processes — like bucket creation and object uploads — requiring fewer clicks. Wasabi does have a similar set of security measures in place, though — particularly, encryption, access control and redundancy.
Backblaze B2 is slightly cheaper than Wasabi, and while both offer free egress and API calls, B2’s limits are relatively more flexible. Furthermore, Backblaze B2’s pricing for long-term storage commitments is better defined. Check out our full Wasabi review for more information about this B2 competitor.
Backblaze B2 vs Amazon S3 Glacier
Backblaze B2 and Amazon S3 Glacier aren’t direct substitutes for each other — S3 Glacier is cold object storage, while B2 is hot object storage. That said, both offer features like replication, file sharing, encryption and event notifications.
However, B2 has no equivalents to S3 Glacier features like double-layer server-side encryption or S3 tables for analytics. In addition, S3 Glacier’s pricing is tiered and complex, while B2’s pricing is straightforward.
S3 Glacier is more suited for storing infrequently accessed data for long periods, while B2 is ideal for storing frequently accessed data for any duration. However, storing data in Amazon S3 Glacier is generally cheaper (S3 Glacier charges between $0.004 and $0.00099 per GB, compared to B2’s $0.006 per GB) because it is cold storage.
Amazon S3 Glacier also scales better than Backblaze B2 because it has a larger, global architecture.
Backblaze vs Cloudflare R2
Like Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2 has an S3-compatible API. However, neither provider offers full S3 compatibility via its S3 API. Therefore, you should read through the S3 API documentation to decide which provider would work better for you.
Data transfer speeds in Cloudflare R2 are markedly faster than in Backblaze B2, mostly due to R2 having a larger global network. Thankfully, you can integrate your B2 bucket with Cloudflare CDN for lower latency. Moreover, if you want to serve content publicly from your object storage, Cloudflare offers some of the best DDoS protection, giving R2 an edge.
Unlike Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2 offers both hot and cold storage tiers. However, B2’s storage rates are markedly cheaper than Cloudflare R2’s hot storage rate. At the same time, Cloudflare R2 offers more free API requests than Backblaze B2 and limitless free egress.
Community Feedback: Backblaze B2 Reviews on Reddit & Social Media
Like us, many users on Reddit consider Backblaze B2’s pricing one of its best features:
- “… Personally, I prefer the upfront pricing of B2 to worrying about retention and storage but YMMV…”
- “Reason why I prefer Backblaze: cheaper. (More expensive on retrieval, but it’s a backup…)”
However, their experience with transfer speeds, particularly upload speeds, is contrasting:
- “B2 has, practically, no limit on upload speed…”
- “Then there’s the obvious things we all deal with daily. B2 is slow. The online interface looks like it was designed in 1999…”
However, the user who wasn’t impressed with the speed and user interface agreed that it is affordable:
- “B2 is inexpensive but is it also just simply cheap?…”
The Verdict: Is Backblaze B2 Worth It?
Backblaze B2 is worth it if you’re looking to store and access data often, particularly when on a budget. Its storage rates are markedly lower than those of its competitors, and while it has some limits on its free egress and API requests, you probably won’t incur many extra costs outside the free tier’s limits.
That said, for data stored and accessed once in a while — say, once or twice a year — you’ll be better off with cold storage like Amazon S3 Glacier’s or Azure Blob’s cold tiers, as they’d be more cost-effective.
Now that you’ve read our review of Backblaze B2, do you think the service suits your needs right now? Will you be trying it out? Do you prefer another storage service that we haven’t reviewed yet? Let us know in the comments below. Thanks for reading.
FAQ: Backblaze B2 Cloud Storage
Backblaze B2 is quite reliable, boasting the same level of durability as Amazon S3.
One of the main disadvantages of Backblaze is its limited global coverage; Backblaze’s data centers are in Europe and North America only.
Backblaze B2 is reasonably secure, with in-transit and at-rest encryption, access management, data replication and CORS included among its top security features.
No, Backblaze does not use Amazon; it has its own data centers.
