If you’re running apps on a VPS and debating cloudflare r2 vs s3, you’re really choosing between two philosophies: “pay for requests + ecosystem” vs “pay for storage + predictable egress.” Both can power backups, user uploads, and static assets—but the best choice depends on your traffic patterns and where your VPS lives.
1) What changes for object storage on a VPS?
On paper, object storage is object storage: buckets, keys, HTTP. In practice, VPS hosting adds constraints that make the decision less academic:
- Egress is the silent budget killer. Many VPS workloads serve assets out of object storage (images, downloads, video segments). If egress is billed per GB, your “cheap storage” becomes expensive.
- Latency depends on routing, not just distance. Your VPS provider’s network and peering matter. A bucket in the “closest region” isn’t always the fastest path.
- Operational simplicity matters more than features. On a VPS you’re often small-team (or solo). The best storage is the one you can automate, monitor, and forget.
If you host on providers like digitalocean or hetzner, you’ll typically care about: predictable monthly cost, decent latency to your server, and a simple migration story if you later move providers.
2) Cloudflare R2: the egress-first alternative
Cloudflare R2’s core pitch is simple: no egress fees (with caveats in the real world, like how you deliver content). For many VPS-hosted apps, that’s not a nice-to-have—it’s the whole game.
Where R2 tends to win:
- Serving public assets at scale. If your app turns object storage into a CDN origin for lots of downloads, egress pricing matters more than storage pricing.
- Spiky traffic. Request-heavy workloads can still cost money, but removing egress fees reduces the “viral post” fear.
- When you already use cloudflare at the edge. If your DNS, WAF, or caching is there, R2 fits naturally into the same operational footprint.
Trade-offs to be honest about:
- Ecosystem maturity. AWS S3 has a decade+ head start in tooling, IAM patterns, and third-party integrations.
- Region/placement nuance. R2 isn’t “a region next door” in the same way S3 is. Depending on where your VPS sits, you may see higher origin latency than expected.
Opinionated take: if your VPS app is internet-facing and bandwidth-heavy, R2’s egress model is hard to ignore.
3) Amazon S3: the default for a reason (and the bill for a reason)
S3 is the industry baseline: it’s everywhere, integrates with everything, and has mature features like lifecycle policies, event notifications, and tight IAM control.
Where S3 is typically strongest:
- Enterprise-grade workflows. Cross-account access, KMS encryption patterns, audit trails, and a huge ecosystem of best practices.
- Data gravity in AWS. If your compute is already on AWS, S3 is often the simplest and cheapest overall path.
- Advanced storage tiers. If you’re archiving backups, S3’s lifecycle to infrequent access or archival tiers can be compelling.
But for VPS hosting, the pain point shows up fast:
- Egress charges add up. If your VPS is outside AWS, every GB pulled from S3 can be billable egress.
- Request costs are real. Lots of small objects (thumbnails, segments) can create a meaningful per-request line item.
Opinionated take: S3 is “safe,” but it’s easy to accidentally pay premium pricing for a simple VPS use case.
4) Practical decision framework (pick in 5 minutes)
Use this checklist to decide without overthinking:
Pick Cloudflare R2 if:
- You serve lots of public assets (downloads/media) and egress could dominate costs.
- You already rely on cloudflare for DNS/CDN/WAF and want fewer moving parts.
- You want a simpler “VPS anywhere” posture without AWS-centric networking.
Pick Amazon S3 if:
- Your compute is in AWS now (or likely soon).
- You need deep IAM controls and mature compliance workflows.
- You’re archiving/backing up and will rarely read data back.
VPS provider angle (often missed):
- If your server is on hetzner, cross-cloud egress from S3 can sting.
- If your server is on digitalocean, you might prefer minimizing external transfer costs and complexity—especially for user uploads and static assets.
There’s no universal winner; there’s only “what you’re paying for.”
5) Actionable example: migrate with rclone (works for R2 and S3)
For VPS operators, the most practical tool is rclone because it’s easy to automate with cron/systemd and supports both backends.
Example: copy a bucket/prefix from S3 to R2 (or vice versa) from your VPS:
# 1) Configure remotes interactively
rclone config
# Create two remotes, e.g.:
# - s3remote (provider=AWS)
# - r2remote (provider=Cloudflare)
# 2) Copy objects (preserves timestamps/metadata where possible)
rclone copy s3remote:my-bucket/uploads r2remote:my-bucket/uploads \
--progress \
--transfers 16 \
--checkers 32
# 3) Validate with a dry run of sync (no changes)
rclone sync s3remote:my-bucket/uploads r2remote:my-bucket/uploads --dry-run
This is the kind of migration story you want on a VPS: boring, scriptable, reversible.
In practice, teams often start with S3 because it’s the default, then move hot/public assets to R2 when egress surprises them. Or they do the reverse: keep compliance-heavy backups on S3, and put user-facing downloads on R2.
In the end, cloudflare r2 vs s3 isn’t a religious debate—it’s cost model + network path + operational comfort. If you’re already operating on a VPS and optimizing for predictable monthly spend, it’s worth testing both with a real traffic sample before you commit.
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