Object storage · October 2026 Edition
Amazon S3 vs DigitalOcean Spaces
Three of fourteen models named Amazon S3 first on the direct prompt; zero named DigitalOcean Spaces. Amazon S3 was named by fourteen of the fourteen models and DigitalOcean Spaces by twelve and Amazon S3 carries 67 labels and DigitalOcean Spaces 26, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in four categories this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
First-choice share12%2%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate34%8%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#3#6A position in a field of 9; printed, not drawn.
Labels6726A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Amazon S3 reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Backblaze B2 was named alongside these two in ten of the fourteen direct answers. Backblaze B2 vs Amazon S3 · Backblaze B2 vs DigitalOcean Spaces · Cloudflare R2 vs Amazon S3
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all fourteen models, for a mid-market B2B company; rank is within the category; every quote names the model and the prompt it came from. Both figures come from the object storage page.
By framing
How many of the fourteen models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Amazon S3First choices, of fourteen modelsDigitalOcean Spaces
Direct304 against Amazon S3
Paraphrase105 against Amazon S3
Comparative110
Budget-constrained015 against Amazon S3
Scale-constrained20
Negative109 against Amazon S3 · 2 against DigitalOcean Spaces
Bars are first choices, 0 to 14 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to fourteen.
Across every category in the October 2026 Edition, Amazon S3 and DigitalOcean Spaces were named in the same answer fifty-six times, of the 215 answers naming Amazon S3 and the 73 naming DigitalOcean Spaces. In those answers DigitalOcean Spaces took the first choice four times and Amazon S3 eleven.
Every model, every framing
The eighty-four answers behind the chart above, one cell each: where Amazon S3 and DigitalOcean Spaces stood in it.
| Model | Direct | Paraphrase | Comparative | Budget-constrained | Scale-constrained | Negative |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claude Haiku 4.5 | ||||||
| GPT-5.4 mini | | | | |||
| Gemini 3.5 Flash | | | | | | |
| Perplexity Sonar | | | | | | |
| Grok 4.1 Fast | | | | | | |
| Mistral Small | | | | | | |
| DeepSeek V4 Flash | | | | | ||
| Llama 4 Maverick | | | | |||
| Qwen 3.7 Flash | | | | | | |
| Kimi K2 | | | | | | |
| GLM 4.7 FlashX | | | | |||
| MiniMax M2.5 | | | | | ||
| GPT-6 Luna | | | | | ||
| Muse Glimmer 30B | | | | |
Amazon S3 DigitalOcean Spaces first choice named as an alternative argued againstblank: not namedEach cell is one answer, Amazon S3 on the left and DigitalOcean Spaces on the right.The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Amazon S3 and DigitalOcean Spaces stood in it.
Amazon S3 first, DigitalOcean Spaces not the choice
3 of 14 modelsDigitalOcean Spaces was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.GPT-5.4 miniAmazon S3 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
MiniMax M2.5Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage alternatives: Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi Object Storage
GPT-6 LunaAmazon S3 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
Neither was the first choice, one was named
5 of 14 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.Perplexity SonarGoogle Cloud Storage alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
Mistral SmallBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudian HyperStore
DeepSeek V4 FlashBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
GLM 4.7 FlashXBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, MinIO AIStor, Wasabi Object Storage
Muse Glimmer 30Bno first choice alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
Neither was named
6 of 14 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Claude Haiku 4.5no first choice
Gemini 3.5 FlashCloudflare R2 alternatives: Backblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
Grok 4.1 FastBackblaze B2 alternatives: Cloudflare R2, Wasabi Object Storage
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Qwen 3.7 FlashBackblaze B2, Wasabi Object Storage
Kimi K2Cloudflare R2 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage
Bold names in an answer are the products the judge labeled a first choice; a model naming several gives each of them that label. The full answer text for every row is in the record.
By buyer segment
The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment and they are never added together. The figures above are the mid-market standing, which is the one the category orders by.
Small business
Level: the same share of first choices.
Amazon S35%#5 of 9DigitalOcean Spaces5%#4 of 9Mid-marketThe figures above
Amazon S3 leads by ten points.
Amazon S312%#3 of 9DigitalOcean Spaces2%#6 of 9Enterprise
Amazon S3 leads by forty-four points.
Amazon S344%#1 of 12DigitalOcean Spaces0%#– of 12What the models said about Amazon S3
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of eight in this category shown.
“Avoid hyperscalers (AWS/GCP/Azure) on tight budgets due to egress/API add-ons.” Grok 4.1 Fast · budget prompt · hard negative
“Traditional hyperscalers like AWS S3 are incredibly powerful but often punish growing mid-sized companies with unpredictable API transaction fees and steep "egress taxes"” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · soft negative
“Be cautious if… You're comparing only the per-GB storage price. Requests, retrievals, transfers, replication, and archive-tier rules can also affect the bill” GPT-6 Luna · negative prompt · soft negative
“Best for: Enterprise workloads, S3-native applications... AWS S3, Azure Blob, and GCS offer the most comprehensive feature sets” GLM 4.7 FlashX · comparative prompt · first choice
“If you want one answer without more context: choose Amazon S3 unless your company is already standardized on Azure or GCP.” GPT-5.4 mini · direct prompt · first choice
“The industry standard. Most third-party tools default to S3 compatibility because it has the largest ecosystem” Qwen 3.7 Flash · comparative prompt · first choice
What the models said about DigitalOcean Spaces
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.
“Reported 5 GB object caps on some providers, and lack of object lock/WORM support on some of these services.” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · soft negative
“DigitalOcean Spaces: Watch Out for Size Limits & Concurrency” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“the best choice is usually Backblaze B2 or DigitalOcean Spaces” Perplexity Sonar · budget prompt · first choice
“If the company is looking for a cost-effective solution with good performance, providers like DigitalOcean Spaces, B2, or Hetzner could be considered.” Llama 4 Maverick · paraphrase prompt · alternative
“Very small fixed budget: DigitalOcean Spaces starts at $5/month for 250GB storage + 1TB outbound transfer” Muse Glimmer 30B · budget prompt · alternative
Also compared
Backblaze B2 vs Amazon S3Backblaze B2 vs DigitalOcean SpacesCloudflare R2 vs Amazon S3Cloudflare R2 vs DigitalOcean SpacesAmazon S3 vs Wasabi Object StorageAmazon S3 vs Azure Blob StorageAmazon S3 vs Google Cloud StorageAmazon S3 vs Cloudian HyperStoreWasabi Object Storage vs DigitalOcean SpacesAzure Blob Storage vs DigitalOcean SpacesDigitalOcean Spaces vs Google Cloud StorageDigitalOcean Spaces vs Cloudian HyperStoreAll twenty-eight head-to-head pages and the full object storage standing
Comparisons are drawn for the top eight products in each category, each against each. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.