Is Cloudflare R2 or IDrive e2 cheaper in 2026?

Cloudflare R2 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.

What is the difference in egress cost between Cloudflare R2 and IDrive e2?

Cloudflare R2 does not charge for data transfer out at all, while IDrive e2 charges $0.010 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.

What do these estimates not include?

Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.

Cloudflare R2 vs IDrive e2

Cloudflare R2 is cheaper across every workload modelled here.

List prices checked May 2026

Rate cards side by side

Only the axes at least one of them bills on. A dash means that provider does not charge for it.

Billing axis	Cloudflare R2	IDrive e2	Difference
Storage	$0.015/GB-mo	$0.0060/GB-mo	2.5× IDrive e2
Data transfer out	Free	$0.010/GB	—
Free tier	Yes	Yes	—

Source: Cloudflare pricing (May 2026) · IDrive pricing (August 2026). Published list prices only — committed-use discounts, regional variation, and per-request charges are not included. Not yet independently re-checked against the vendor’s page.

Monthly cost for three real workloads

The rate cards applied to identical usage. This is where the winner changes.

Workload	Cloudflare R2	IDrive e2	Cheaper
Side projectA personal site or small app with modest traffic, a few gigabytes of assets, and one small always-on process.	$0.30	$1.12	Cloudflare R2saves $0.82/mo (73%)
Growing SaaSA funded product serving a few thousand daily users, with an image-heavy frontend and two application servers.	$7.50	$13	Cloudflare R2saves $5.50/mo (42%)
Media-heavy siteA publisher or video product where delivery dominates the bill and compute is almost an afterthought.	$30	$112	Cloudflare R2saves $82/mo (73%)

Workload definitions are identical on every comparison page, so figures here can be read against any other pair in the same category.

What each one is for

Cloudflare R2

by Cloudflare

S3-compatible storage with no egress charge at all, at any volume, permanently. For read-heavy workloads it is not marginally cheaper than S3 but cheaper by an order of magnitude.

Free tier: 10 GB-month of storage, plus zero egress fees at any volume

IDrive e2

by IDrive

Among the lowest published storage rates of any S3-compatible service, with egress free up to three times stored volume and $0.01/GB beyond it. A newer platform with a shorter durability track record than its rivals.

Free tier: 10 GB free, with egress included up to 3x stored data

Common questions

Is Cloudflare R2 or IDrive e2 cheaper in 2026?: Cloudflare R2 is cheaper in all 3 modelled workloads.
What is the difference in egress cost between Cloudflare R2 and IDrive e2?: Cloudflare R2 does not charge for data transfer out at all, while IDrive e2 charges $0.010 per GB. On a read-heavy workload that difference is the entire comparison.
Which has the better free tier, Cloudflare R2 or IDrive e2?: Both publish one. Cloudflare R2: 10 GB-month of storage, plus zero egress fees at any volume. IDrive e2: 10 GB free, with egress included up to 3x stored data.
What do these estimates not include?: Committed-use and reserved discounts, regional price variation, per-request API charges, support plans, and minimum retention periods. All of those move real invoices, sometimes by a lot. These figures compare published list prices for the same workload, which is the comparison the rate cards alone cannot give you.