Benchmarking Self-Hosted S3-Compatible Storage

Self-hosted object storage is a strong choice for developers and teams who want full control over how their data is stored and accessed. Whether you are replacing Amazon S3, hosting internal files, building a CI pipeline, or serving package repositories, the storage layer can significantly affect speed and stability.

We tested five popular open source object storage solutions that support the S3 protocol. The goal was to compare their performance under identical conditions using real upload and download operations.

Each of the following was deployed using Docker on the same server with no volume mounting and no special tuning:

For each solution, we:

All tests were executed on the same machine using the default Docker container for each storage system. No external volumes, mounts, or caches were used.

MinIO delivered the most stable performance across all tests, making it a solid choice if you want predictable results. SeaweedFS stood out with the fastest download speeds, especially for larger files, making it a strong option for read-heavy workloads. For uploads, the differences between most solutions were smaller, but it’s worth noting that both SeaweedFS and Zenko were noticeably slower on small files, while the other solutions handled uploads more consistently.

These results provide a baseline comparison of out-of-the-box performance. Your own results may vary depending on hardware, network, and configuration. We encourage you to benchmark any solution in your actual environment before deploying to production.

If you want us to benchmark additional storage solutions or have other scenarios you would like to see tested, contact us and we will be happy to expand this article based on your needs.