Best decentralised storage in 2026

Storage networks evaluated across verified cost per TB-year, contractual durability, retrieval cost, and what happens when you stop paying.

Filecoin

#1 of 7 · published ranking

Filecoin

80ChainChoice Score

Why it leads

Best in the pool on durability enforceability (8/10; next 7/10)

Cost

Not priced · No comparable price is published

7 compared Ranking-blind · 392 modules checked 2026-09-18Scored under methodology v2026.09.15 (2026-09-16)

Filter decentralised storage7 in the published ranking

Filters change eligibility, not methodology. A requirement can rule a provider out; nothing here changes the order the published criteria produce.

Your setup

Your location

Pick a country to see which decentralised storage serve it. Nothing is hidden — any that does not is listed with that reason.

Cost

Verified cost per tb year

No requirement — nothing is ruled out on this.

Trust & control

Durability enforceability

No requirement — nothing is ruled out on this.

Retrieval economics

No requirement — nothing is ruled out on this.

Exit and continuity risk

No requirement — nothing is ruled out on this.

Whatever misses a requirement is listed under Excluded with the reason — nothing is hidden.

7 results

7decentralised storage · sorted by chainchoice score

ranked before any payout data is seen

#1 overallcomputed before any payout data is seenOverall

Filecoin

Proof-based storage marketplace; Onchain Cloud adds pay-per-epoch warm storage

Leads the pool on Durability: contractual or aspirational

80ChainChoice Score · first of 7

Catalog strengths

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised)Durability: contractual or aspirational

Why it leads

Best in the pool on durability enforceability (8/10; next 7/10)
5 points ahead of Sia: +2.5 pts exit and continuity risk, +2.5 pts retrieval economics
Provider states broad availability

Evidence

4/4

criteria scored · no receipt file

Margin

+5

over Sia, ranked #02

Rank stability

Firm

#1 holds when every published criterion is moved ±1

Tradeoff

−2

Retrieval cost and read path — behind this pool's best

Jurisdiction

Global

no restricted market on record

Score breakdowntick = pool best

Verified cost per tb year9/10

Durability enforceability8/10

Retrieval economics6/10

Exit and continuity risk6/10

Ranking-blind · a guided run tailors this to your size, custody & jurisdiction

#ProviderScoreEvidenceKey strengths

2−5

Sia

no receipt file

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised)Durability: contractual or aspirational

3−8

Storj

no receipt file

Retrieval cost and read pathVerified cost per TB-year (normalised)

4−4

Walrus

no receipt file

Retrieval cost and read pathDurability: contractual or aspirational

Same score, not joint · ordered by weighted total (39.70 against 39.50)

Arweave

no receipt file

What happens when you stop paying (or they do)Retrieval cost and read path

6−11

Pinata

no receipt file

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised)Retrieval cost and read path

7−5

4EVERLAND

no receipt file

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised)Retrieval cost and read path

Ranking-blind — order computed before any payout data is joined

Below the table

How this ranking works

Everything the table draws on continues here: how firm the #1 is, the per-criterion arithmetic behind each score, who pays ChainChoice, and the full guide to choosing.

Direct answer

What is the best decentralised storage in 2026?

Filecoin ranks #1 overall for decentralised storage on ChainChoice. Proof-based storage marketplace; Onchain Cloud adds pay-per-epoch warm storage. It holds that rank under an affiliate-blind methodology scored across 4 published, weighted criteria — the code that ranks providers physically cannot read affiliate payouts (CI-enforced), so a payout can't move a rank. The verdict re-computes on every fee change, incident, or regulatory action; full reasoning and the audit receipt are below.

Best picks

Best decentralised storage in 2026

The best storage network depends on how long the data must survive and how often you read it back. Durability carries equal top weight with cost because in this category the headline number and the binding contract routinely disagree — one provider markets eleven nines while its terms of service state in capitals that there is no guarantee anything stored will not be lost. Cost is normalised to what is actually billed rather than what is advertised, since at least one network quotes per gigabyte on encoded size several times larger than your file.

Best overall

Filecoin

Proof-based storage marketplace; Onchain Cloud adds pay-per-epoch warm storage

Data checked Sep 2026

Proof-based storage marketplace; Onchain Cloud adds pay-per-epoch warm storage. Strongest on verified cost per tb-year (normalised) (9/10): 2.50 USD/TiB per 30-day month per copy = approx 30 USD/TiB-year for one copy, plus a flat 0.12 USD/data set/month; even at two copies (approx 60 USD/TiB-year) it undercuts Storj's 84 USD/TB-year. Cross-checked against a live commercial Filecoin product: Fil One publishes "$4.99/ TB / month" with "$0" egress and "$0"… Weakest on what happens when you stop paying (or they do) (6/10): Nothing on Filecoin is permanent: FIP-0052 (status: Final) raised the maximum sector commitment from 540 days to 1,278 days (3.5 years), so every dataset needs a named owner responsible for renewal, and pay-per-epoch billing means an empty payment rail drops the data. Offsetting that, the network is not a single… Published price: Filecoin Onchain Cloud storage-costs page: "Storage $2.50/TiB/month per copy - Charged only while pieces exist.

Best for: Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 9/10

Why this score4 published criteria · leads 1 of 4

Published criterionWtScore, and the best hereGap/10Pts

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised)7.2−198.6

Durability: contractual or aspirational7.2·87.7

Retrieval cost and read path4.8−263.8

What happens when you stop paying (or they do)4.8−263.8

Σ methodology points24.0/32

Each bar is the score on that criterion’s own 0–10 scale, never rescaled to the pool. The dark line is the best any product here reached on that axis. Wt is the most the criterion can add to the 86-point weighted total. Pts is weight × score × 32; the sum is the methodology score, and each weighted point behind the leader costs 2.6 on the displayed score. how these are weighted

Considered and not ranked

8 products we looked at and left out

A shortlist is only honest if it says who it turned away. Each of these was assessed against the same published criteria as the ranked table and excluded for a stated reason — not overlooked.

We assessed 12 products here and rank 4 — 33% of what we looked at. That share is of the products we assessed, not of the category: how many exist is not something we can count, so we do not claim a number for it.

IPFS· Ranked elsewhereCodex (renamed Logos Storage)· Evidence incompleteNFT.Storage· Ranked elsewhereBundlr Network (now Irys)· No longer operatingArDriveShdwDrive / GenesysGoFleek· No longer operating0G Storage· Ranked elsewhere

Why it ranks first

Why Filecoin leads this category right now

Best for

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 9/10

Main tradeoff

Nothing here is permanent and the billing docs quietly redefine time - 'month' means 30 days (86,400 epochs), not a calendar month, and the maximum sector commitment is 1,278 days, so every dataset needs an owner whose standing job is renewing it.

Verify before signup

Filecoin Onchain Cloud storage-costs page (last updated Sep 3, 2026): "Storage | $2.50/TiB/month per copy | Charged only while pieces exist. Empty data sets have no recurring cost." "Proving Service | $0.12/data set/month | Flat per-data-set fee, added on top of the storage rate." "CDN egress | up to $14/TiB (≈ $0.014/GiB) downloaded | Optional, via Filecoin Beam. About half this when served from cache." One-time fees are paid from a refundable ~$0.50 lifecycle reserve: create data set $0.025; add pieces $0.008 + $0.003 per piece; schedule piece removals $0.007 per call. "Month" means 30 days here (86,400 epochs), not a calendar month. "The default 2-copy configuration roughly doubles the recurring cost" because each copy is its own data set. That comes to approx 60 USD/TiB-year of storage plus 2.88 USD/year of proving fees for the two data sets. Billing is in USDFC per ~30-second epoch against a 30-day lockup. Direct storage-provider /piece retrieval carries no egress charge.

Recommendation summary

What should decide this category

How long must this data survive — a year, a decade, or indefinitely?

How often will you read it back, and have you priced the egress?

What happens to the data if you stop paying, or if the operator does?

Quick picks

Strong options in this category

Start with the lead choice first, then use the shortlist only if you still need a challenger or stronger fit for a specific setup.

Best overall

Filecoin

Proof-based storage marketplace; Onchain Cloud adds pay-per-epoch warm storage

Best for: Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 9/10

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) · 30%

9/10

Durability: contractual or aspirational · 30%

8/10

Retrieval cost and read path · 20%

6/10

What happens when you stop paying (or they do) · 20%

6/10

Quick pick

Sia

Blockchain-enforced storage contracts between renters and hosts, self-operated

Blockchain-enforced storage contracts between renters and hosts, self-operated. Strongest on verified cost per tb-year (normalised) (10/10): Cheapest verifiable rate in the pool by a wide margin: the Foundation's docs state "around $3 per terabyte per month, including 3x redundancy" (36 USD/TB-year), corroborated by the live median host ask of 1.090 KS/TB/month on siascan, which at SC = 0.00092725 USD (api.siascan.com exchange-rate endpoint, read 2026-09-14) works out to approx 3.03 USD/TB/month after 3x redundancy, and by the hosted Sia Storage Pro plan at $14.99/mo for 5 TB, approx 3.00 USD/TB/month at full use. Weakest on what happens when you stop paying (or they do) (4/10): Contracts are finite; an indexer now "renews them before they expire, so your data stays available without manual intervention", while the hosted Sia Storage terms allow "immediate suspension or termination without notice" on non-payment.

Best for: Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 10/10

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) · 30%

10/10

Durability: contractual or aspirational · 30%

7/10

Retrieval cost and read path · 20%

4/10

What happens when you stop paying (or they do) · 20%

4/10

Quick pick

Storj

S3-compatible object storage erasure-coded across independent node operators

S3-compatible object storage erasure-coded across independent node operators. Strongest on retrieval cost and read path (8/10): Best read path in the pool: a genuine S3-compatible gateway, a global edge network, and a contractual 99.9% Edge Services SLA. Egress is 7 USD/TB - above Filecoin Beam's cached rate but backed by an actual service-credit remedy. Note downloads request extra pieces to avoid long-tail lag; Storj's own worked example… Weakest on what happens when you stop paying (or they do) (1/10): Storj Labs filed for Chapter 11 on 26 July 2026 (N.D. West Virginia, case 5:26-bk-00512), under a year after Inveniam acquired it, and its own blog post of that date reads "Today Storj Labs, Inc. voluntarily filed Chapter 11 in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of West Virginia, Case No. 5:26-bk-00512 (Bk N.D. W.Va.)". Simultaneously the pricing migration states "If you opt-out, your account will be frozen and data… Published price: Simplified pricing, "Effective Date: July 1, 2026": Standard "Storage cost $7/TB/month", "Egress cost $7/TB"; Advanced "$10/TB/month" storage, "$7/TB" egress. "Minimum storage duration 30 days", "Minimum object size 50 kB".

Best for: Retrieval cost and read path — 8/10

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) · 30%

7/10

Durability: contractual or aspirational · 30%

5/10

Retrieval cost and read path · 20%

8/10

What happens when you stop paying (or they do) · 20%

1/10

Quick pick

Walrus

Erasure-coded blob storage on Sui, USD-pegged, paid in WAL

Erasure-coded blob storage on Sui, USD-pegged, paid in WAL. Strongest on retrieval cost and read path (7/10): No per-byte egress charge is published at all - reads go over HTTP aggregators with a documented caching path for hot blobs - the second-best read economics after Arweave's zero-egress model. The offset is that every lifecycle operation (register, certify, extend) costs SUI gas across up to three on-chain… Weakest on verified cost per tb-year (normalised) (2/10): The advertised 0.023 USD/GB/month is charged on a 4.5x-expanded encoded blob, so real cost for user data is approx 0.1035 USD/GB/month = approx 1,242 USD/TB-year - confirmed by Walrus's own example of 50 GB for a year at roughly 62 USD. That is roughly 15x Storj, on the same page where the docs claim the price is "in… Published price: "Storage on Walrus is paid in WAL but priced at a fixed rate of $0.023/GB/month." Billing is on encoded not original size: "Walrus bills you on the blob's encoded size, not the size of your original file.

Best for: Retrieval cost and read path — 7/10

Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) · 30%

2/10

Durability: contractual or aspirational · 30%

6/10

Retrieval cost and read path · 20%

7/10

What happens when you stop paying (or they do) · 20%

5/10

Frequently asked

Questions people ask before choosing storage

Is 'permanent' storage really permanent?

It rests on a stated assumption, and the good ones publish it. A pay-once endowment is only as durable as the storage-cost decline it is priced against, so what is scored is whether that assumption is disclosed and falsifiable — not whether the word 'forever' appears.

Does a durability figure mean anything?

Only if it appears in the contract. Marketing durability claims here frequently have no counterpart in the terms of service, which is why the criterion is written as contractual versus aspirational.

Is IPFS pinning the same as storage?

No. Pinning keeps data available while someone pays to pin it; unpinned data disappears. That is a different product from a network with a stated durability commitment.

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How this ranking is built

Reviewed on verified cost per tb-year (normalised), durability: contractual or aspirational, retrieval cost and read path, and what happens when you stop paying (or they do).

Data checked Sep 2026 · Independent rankings · We show our work

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research