Cloud Parts

MinIOArchived

A self-hosted object store that speaks the S3 API. The open-source edition is archived and its images are gone from Docker Hub; MinIO now sells AIStor.

What it is
Object storage
Type
Open source
Made by
MinIO, Inc.
License
AGPLv3 (community edition, now archived); AIStor is proprietary
Status
Archived since 25 April 2026
Facts checked
5 October 2026
Website Source code (archived)

What it is

MinIO is an object storage server you run on your own machines or Kubernetes cluster. Applications talk to it with the S3 API, so the AWS SDKs, the aws CLI, Spark, Trino and backup tools work by changing only the endpoint URL. A deployment spreads each object across many drives and servers with erasure coding, so it survives lost disks or nodes without keeping full copies. Admins use the mc command-line client for buckets, users, policies, lifecycle rules and event notifications.

The open-source edition has been licensed under the AGPLv3 since 2021, and the company has steadily pulled back from it. In 2025 the community build lost its web admin console, keeping only a basic object browser. In October 2025 it switched to source-only releases with no pre-built binaries, and in December it went into maintenance mode. On 25 April 2026 the minio/minio GitHub repository was archived and marked “no longer maintained”, and in September 2026 the minio/minio and minio/mc images vanished from Docker Hub. The README now points users to AIStor, MinIO’s commercial S3-compatible product, which comes as AIStor Free or AIStor Enterprise.

Why teams pick it

  • S3-compatible, so the same code runs against AWS and your own hardware
  • Runs anywhere: bare metal, VMs, Kubernetes, air-gapped sites
  • Erasure coding tolerates failed drives and nodes without full replicas
  • Bucket notifications can publish to Kafka, AMQP, Redis, PostgreSQL, webhooks and more

Watch out for

  • Archived: no maintained builds or security fixes, and docker pull minio/minio and minio/mc fail because the images are gone from Docker Hub
  • Building from the archived source still works, but you own every patch from then on; the mc client repository is archived too
  • You run the hardware, capacity planning, upgrades and durability yourself

Alternatives, recommended first

What all object storage have in common →
PGSTY SiloOpen sourceA community-maintained fork of the open-source MinIO server, with builds, images, security fixes and the full web console.RustFSOpen sourceA young Rust reimplementation of MinIO’s design: S3-compatible, erasure-coded, Apache 2.0, and generally available since September 2026.SeaweedFSOpen sourceA distributed blob store with an S3 gateway and a file system layer, built to store and serve billions of small files.CephOpen sourceA distributed storage cluster that serves S3 buckets, block devices and a file system from the same pool of disks.GarageOpen sourceA lightweight S3 object store that keeps copies of your data in several sites linked by ordinary Internet connections.Versity S3 GatewayOpen sourceA stateless S3 server that exposes an existing file system, or another object store, through the S3 API.Apache OzoneOpen sourceA Hadoop-born object store that serves the same buckets over S3 and as a Hadoop file system.Zenko CloudServerOpen sourceScality’s open-source Node.js S3 server: a light S3 endpoint for development and tests, and a front end that can store objects in other clouds.Amazon S3AWSAWS’s object storage, and the de facto API most object stores copy.Apache OpenDALOpen sourceA Rust library, with bindings for Python, Java, Node.js, Go and more, that gives one API (read, write, stat, list, delete) over 50-plus storage backends: S3 and other object stores, local and HDFS file systems, Google Drive and Dropbox, and key-value stores.Azure Blob StorageAzureAzure’s object storage, with three blob types and an optional real directory tree for analytics.Backblaze B2 Cloud StorageCommercialLow-cost object storage on Backblaze’s own hardware, with its own API and an S3-compatible one.Cloudflare R2CommercialS3-compatible object storage from Cloudflare that charges nothing for data going out.Google Cloud StorageGoogle CloudGoogle Cloud’s object storage, where even the archive class answers in milliseconds.TigrisCommercialGlobally distributed S3-compatible object storage that moves data to where it’s read, with no egress fees.Wasabi Hot Cloud StorageCommercialS3-compatible object storage sold at one flat price per TB, with no egress or request fees.

How it fits with other technologies

Manage a MinIO deployment with mc, then use any S3 client · bash

mc alias set lab https://minio.internal:9000 "$MINIO_ACCESS_KEY" "$MINIO_SECRET_KEY"

mc mb lab/backups
mc cp --recursive ./exports/ lab/backups/2026-10-05/
mc ilm rule add --expire-days 90 lab/backups
mc event add lab/backups arn:minio:sqs::primary:kafka --event put

# any S3 client works by pointing it at MinIO
aws s3 ls s3://backups/2026-10-05/ --endpoint-url https://minio.internal:9000

Where to go from MinIO#

Every option below is maintained. Pick by what you used MinIO for; each has its own page with a “Moving from MinIO” section where it applies.

PGSTY Silo

drop-in fork

The open-source MinIO server, still maintained by the Pigsty community. Same S3 API, MINIO_* settings and data on disk; the binary is silo and the image is pgsty/silo on Docker Hub. Switch every node at once. AGPLv3.

RustFS

drop-in rewrite

A Rust reimplementation of MinIO’s design, with the same ports and storage model and tools to import MinIO’s bucket metadata and IAM. Apache 2.0, but 1.0 only shipped in September 2026, and running on MinIO’s existing drives is still a preview.

SeaweedFS

many small files

Mature and fast with billions of small files, and serves the same data over S3 and a FUSE file system. More components to run than MinIO, and no S3 bucket notifications or replication API. Apache 2.0.

Ceph (RADOS Gateway)

large clusters

The heavyweight: S3 buckets, block devices and a file system from one pool of disks, with versioning, Object Lock and multisite replication. Needs at least three hosts and real operations skill. Runs on Kubernetes through Rook.

Garage

small, multi-site

A light server for a few nodes spread across sites on ordinary internet links. Covers plain bucket storage only: no versioning, Object Lock, bucket policies or notifications. AGPLv3.

Versity S3 Gateway

S3 on storage you have

Puts an S3 API in front of an existing file system or object store and keeps objects as plain files. The replacement for MinIO’s gateway mode, which MinIO removed in 2022, rather than for a MinIO cluster. Apache 2.0.

Apache Ozone

Hadoop and Spark

Serves the same buckets over S3 and as a Hadoop file system, for teams whose MinIO fed Spark, Hive or Trino. Heavier to run, and its S3 gateway lacks versioning, Object Lock and bucket policies. Apache 2.0.

Zenko CloudServer

tests and CI

Scality’s Node.js S3 server, a light single-container stand-in for MinIO in tests and Compose files. Not for production clusters: one node, no replication. Current images are at ghcr.io/scality/cloudserver.

AIStor

MinIO’s own

MinIO’s commercial product and the path its README recommends: AIStor Free is a standalone edition under a free licence, and AIStor Enterprise is the distributed edition with commercial support. Proprietary licence.

A managed service

no servers

If you only self-hosted to get an S3 endpoint, Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage or Azure Blob Storage remove the servers entirely. R2 has no egress fees.

Build the archived code

stopgap

go install github.com/minio/minio@latest or the repository’s Dockerfile still produce a working server, but nobody publishes fixes any more, so you take on every security patch yourself.

See it in a real stack

No architecture uses MinIO yet. Drop it into the playground and wire it up yourself.Open playground →
Where it came from2014–2026

MinIO’s idea was a small server that speaks Amazon’s S3 API on your own hardware, so software written for S3 could run anywhere. AB Periasamy, who had earlier co-founded Gluster (a distributed file system Red Hat agreed to buy for about $136 million in 2011), started MinIO in 2014 with Garima Kapoor and Harshavardhana. The first commit to minio/minio landed on 31 October 2014, and the first official release in June 2015 was billed as “Minimalist Object Storage”.

Written in Go and released under the Apache License 2.0, it became one of the most popular self-hosted object stores, with more than 60,000 GitHub stars. In April 2021 MinIO relicensed it under the AGPLv3, which obliges anyone who modifies it and offers it over a network to publish their changes, and pointed commercial users at a paid licence.

From 2025 the company pulled back from the open-source edition. A change opened in February 2025 cut the community console down to an object browser; in October the project went source-only, with no more binaries; in December it entered maintenance mode; and on 25 April 2026 the repository was archived with a README pointing users to AIStor. In September 2026 the minio/minio and minio/mc images disappeared from Docker Hub, breaking the many Compose files and CI jobs that pulled them. Community forks such as Silo now carry the open-source server forward.

Why it’s built this way

Speak the S3 API, not a new one
Code written for AWS, from SDKs and the aws CLI to Spark and backup tools, runs against MinIO by changing only the endpoint, so moving data on-premises needs no rewrite.
Erasure coding instead of full copies
Splitting each object into data and parity pieces across drives and servers survives lost disks or nodes while using less raw capacity than keeping several full replicas.
AGPLv3 instead of Apache 2.0
Under Apache 2.0 anyone could repackage MinIO without contributing back. The AGPL requires releasing modified code to network users, which pushed companies that wanted proprietary use towards a commercial licence.

Timeline

  1. 2014

    First commit to minio/minio on 31 October

  2. 2015

    First official release, “Minimalist Object Storage”, on 17 June

  3. 2021

    Licence changes from Apache 2.0 to AGPLv3 (April)

  4. 2025

    Console cut to an object browser; source-only in October; maintenance mode in December

  5. 2026

    GitHub repository archived on 25 April; users pointed to AIStor

  6. 2026

    minio/minio and minio/mc images gone from Docker Hub (September)

Sources15 · facts checked 5 October 2026

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