Storage networks evaluated across verified cost per TB-year, contractual durability, retrieval cost, and what happens when you stop paying.
Ranked here: decentralised storage networks that sell storage capacity, for a reader whose data has to outlive their subscription. Not ranked here: protocols with no storage capacity to buy, front ends to a network already ranked, networks ranked under data availability, and products retired, pre-mainnet or not verifiably operating.
#1 of 7 · published ranking
Filecoin
80ChainChoice Score
4199
Why it leads
Filecoin scores higher than everything else in this ranking on its durability enforceability.
Show the arithmetic
Best in this ranking on durability enforceability (8/10; next 7/10)
Cost
$301 your cost/yr · Usage per month: 10
ReviewedNext review by Published Methodology v2026.11.1
How this page is reviewed
Reviewed means every product ranked on this page was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.
No provider can pay for a position in this table. The code that computes this order cannot read which links carry a referral code, and every build proves it. Every score below rebuilds from the published criteria.Ranking v2026.11.1 · 4 criteria · 7 products · same inputs, same order
How we review · 7 ranked of 15 assessed · 4 criteria · 0 sponsor weight
How we review
7ranked
15assessed
4criteria
0sponsor weight
Recommendation first, comparison only if needed.
Reviewed and rechecked on the current cycle.
Commercial relationships disclosed before clickout.
Personal comparison
What decentralised storage cost you
Your inputs update the cost column. The independent ranking stays fixed.
Metered usage beyond whatever the plan includes, for a year. Excludes egress, support tiers and enterprise minimums.
Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 9/10Trade-off: Nothing here is permanent and the billing docs quietly redefine time - 'month' means...
80score
your cost/yr
Check availability for your country
Filecoin · filecoin.io. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
2
SiaBlockchain-enforced storage contracts b...
Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 10/10Trade-off: There is no managed S3 endpoint any more - Filebase sunset its Sia integration in 202...
75score
your cost/yr
Check availability for your country
Sia · sia.tech. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
3
StorjS3-compatible object storage erasure-co...
Retrieval cost and read path — 8/10Trade-off: You are buying from a company that filed Chapter 11 on 26 July 2026, under a pricing...
67score
your cost/yr
Check availability for your country
Storj · storj.io. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
4
ARArweaveOne-time-fee blockchain storing data vi...
What happens when you stop paying (or they do) — 8/10Trade-off: 'Pay once, store forever' is a 200-year prepayment quoted in AR, and the practical on...
63score
-Not published
Check availability for your country
Arweave · arweave.org. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
5
WalrusErasure-coded blob storage on Sui, USD-...
Durability: contractual or aspirational — 6/10Trade-off: The advertised $0.023/GB/month is charged on a 4.5x-expanded encoded blob plus a fixe...
62score
Lowest at your inputs
Check availability for your country
Walrus · walrus.xyz. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
6
PIPinataIPFS pinning and gateway service with m...
Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 5/10Trade-off: A pin is a hosting relationship, not storage: unpinning queues your file for garbage...
52score
your cost/yr
Check availability for your country
Pinata · pinata.cloud. Provider links appear once we know which country you are browsing from: ChainChoice links to providers only where it serves in full.
Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure
Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.
1 more assessed and ranked below — none of them hidden for commercial reasons.
Ranked on 4 published criteria weighted 30/30/20/20, which set goal alignment — 30 of the 86 points. The rest: regional access 20 (constant here), evidence depth 18 (constant here), ease of use 10 (constant here), institutional trust 8 (constant here). Profile match is shown in breakdowns but carries no weight.
How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores
Liveness failure: the operator stops, censors you or loses data.
Scored by Durability: contractual or aspirational · 30% (Filecoin 8/10, Sia 7/10, Storj 5/10)
Exit failure: you cannot get out at par, on time, or with what is yours.
Scored by What happens when you stop paying (or they do) · 20% (Filecoin 6/10, Sia 4/10, Storj 1/10)
Every failure family that applies to this category is scored.
Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: Verified cost per TB-year (normalised) (30%), Retrieval cost and read path (20%).
Audit
Infrastructure
Methodology
2026.11.1
published 10 November 2026
Providers tracked
860+
across 121 categories
Last verified
22 October 2026
newest dated pricing or sentiment read
Named on the roster
2 people
managing directors · 6 automated processes
Decision guide
What matters most before choosing in this category
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.
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?
Proof-based storage marketplace; Onchain Cloud adds pay-per-epoch warm storage. Strongest on verified cost per TB-year (normalised) (9/10): Filecoin Onchain Cloud charges 2.50 USD per TiB per month per copy, plus 0.12 USD per data set per month for proving. The default two-copy setup comes to about 60 USD per TiB-year (about 55 USD per TB-year), among the lowest normalised rates in this comparison. Weakest on retrieval cost and read path (6/10): Direct HTTP retrieval from the storage provider carries no egress charge but takes seconds; the optional Filecoin Beam CDN costs up to 14 USD per TiB downloaded. There is no S3-compatible endpoint. Published price: Filecoin Onchain Cloud storage-costs page (docs.filecoin.cloud, "Last updated: Oct 16, 2026", read 22 October 2026): "Storage | $2.50/TiB/month per copy | Charged only while pieces exist.
Best forVerified cost per TB-year (normalised) — 9/10
Main tradeoffNothing 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 signupFilecoin Onchain Cloud storage-costs page (docs.filecoin.cloud, "Last updated: Oct 16, 2026", read 22 October 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 lifecycle reserve (~$0.50): create data set $0.025; add pieces $0.008 + $0.003 per piece; schedule piece removals $0.007 per call; terminate service "$0.006 for client-authorized, provider-relayed termination; no fee for direct payer or provider termination". "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. Arithmetic, labelled: 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.
Weighted criteria
Verified cost per TB-year (normalised)30%
Durability: contractual or aspirational30%
Retrieval cost and read path20%
What happens when you stop paying (or they do)20%
Methodology
How this category is reviewed
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).
The order on this page is the published ranking for this category. Every criterion, weight and source behind it is on the methodology page.
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.
Reviewed22 October 2026Method4 criteriaCategorydecentralised_storage
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
