Object storage · September 2026 Edition
Backblaze B2 vs Cloudflare R2
Four of twelve models named Backblaze B2 first on the direct prompt; two named Cloudflare R2. Both were named by all twelve models and Backblaze B2 carries 52 labels and Cloudflare R2 43, so the shares are not directly comparable.
Named in two categories this edition.
Named in one category this edition.
First-choice share46%21%Of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, 0 to 100.
Negative rate4%7%Negative labels as a share of the product's labels, 0 to 100.
Rank in category#1#2A position in a field of 10; printed, not drawn.
Labels5243A count; the two differ.
The two percentage rows are drawn on one 0 to 100 track, Backblaze B2 reading right to left. Rank and label count are printed, not drawn.Amazon S3 was named alongside these two in nine of the twelve direct answers. Backblaze B2 vs Amazon S3 · Cloudflare R2 vs Amazon S3
Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts over all twelve 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 twelve models made each the first choice, per way of asking, and how many argued against it.
Backblaze B2First choices, of twelve modelsCloudflare R2
Direct42
Paraphrase72
Comparative13
Budget-constrained74
Scale-constrained00
Negative022 against Backblaze B2 · 3 against Cloudflare R2
Bars are first choices, 0 to 12 each sideModels that argued againstA model can name both, so the two sides of a row do not sum to twelve.
The direct prompt
The plain question, one answer per model, grouped by where Backblaze B2 and Cloudflare R2 stood in it.
Both were the first choice
1 of 12 modelsThe answer named them together, and the judge labeled each a first choice.DeepSeek V4 FlashBackblaze B2, Cloudflare R2 alternatives: Wasabi
Backblaze B2 first, Cloudflare R2 an alternative
3 of 12 modelsCloudflare R2 was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Gemini 3.5 FlashBackblaze B2 alternatives: Cloudflare R2, Wasabi
Grok 4.1 FastBackblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2
GLM 4.7 FlashXAzure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Google Cloud Storage
Cloudflare R2 first, Backblaze B2 an alternative
1 of 12 modelsBackblaze B2 was named in the answer but not as the choice, or not at all.Kimi K2Cloudflare R2 alternatives: Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, MinIO, Wasabi
Neither was the first choice, one was named
2 of 12 modelsThe answer put something else first and named one of the two as an alternative.GPT-5.4 miniAmazon S3 alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, Backblaze B2, Google Cloud Storage, Wasabi
Perplexity SonarAmazon S3 alternatives: Backblaze B2, Cloudflare R2, DigitalOcean Spaces, IBM Cloud Object Storage
Neither was named
5 of 12 modelsThe answer made no first choice from these two in this category.Claude Haiku 4.5Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage
Mistral SmallAmazon S3, Azure Blob Storage alternatives: Google Cloud Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage, Scality
Llama 4 Maverickno first choice
Qwen 3.7 FlashWasabi alternatives: Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage
MiniMax M2.5Amazon S3, Wasabi alternatives: Azure Blob Storage, DigitalOcean Spaces, 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
Backblaze B2 leads by thirty-eight points.
Backblaze B260%#1 of 9Cloudflare R221%#2 of 9Mid-marketThe figures above
Backblaze B2 leads by twenty-six points.
Backblaze B246%#1 of 10Cloudflare R221%#2 of 10Enterprise
The order flips: Cloudflare R2 leads at enterprise.
Cloudflare R212%#3 of 11Backblaze B210%#4 of 11What the models said about Backblaze B2
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Five of six in this category shown.
“Backblaze has historically had fewer enterprise-grade uptime guarantees compared to AWS or Azure. Their SLA ... is less robust for mission-critical business applications.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“many users report that Backblaze B2 experiences intermittent speed and latency bottlenecks when handling heavy, concurrent production traffic” Gemini 3.5 Flash · negative prompt · soft negative
“For 90% of mid-sized IT departments looking to back up servers or archive corporate data, Backblaze B2 is the safest, most flexible entry point” Gemini 3.5 Flash · paraphrase prompt · first choice
“Backblaze B2 is widely considered the safest, most reliable, and most predictable budget-friendly storage option for general use.” Gemini 3.5 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
“For most mid-sized B2B companies, Backblaze B2 is the most straightforward and cost-effective S3-compatible option.” Mistral Small · paraphrase prompt · first choice
What the models said about Cloudflare R2
Every negative label with a quote, up to three, then the highest-weighted positives, up to three. Six of seven in this category shown.
“avoid if you need versioning, object lock/WORM, S3 Select, or batch operations” Perplexity Sonar · negative prompt · hard negative
“Excellent economics for serving assets, but many engineers treat it as a CDN/cache layer rather than a primary, durable system of record” Kimi K2 · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cloudflare R2 (newer ecosystem and evolving tooling)” GLM 4.7 FlashX · negative prompt · soft negative
“Cloudflare R2 if you're serving data to customers or apps (zero egress, great for read-heavy workloads).” DeepSeek V4 Flash · direct prompt · first choice
“For most new projects, alternatives like Cloudflare R2 or Backblaze B2 offer compelling cost savings” Kimi K2 · comparative prompt · first choice
“The Best Overall Value: Cloudflare R2 ... Cloudflare R2 is often considered the best choice.” Qwen 3.7 Flash · budget prompt · first choice
Comparisons are drawn for the top three products in each category. The output is the models' output; nothing here is a recommendation by the index.