Object Storage for Home Users Explained: B2 vs Wasabi vs R2 for NAS Backups

Object storage is the most cost-effective way to add offsite backup to a home NAS setup. Unlike traditional cloud storage subscriptions, object storage services charge per gigabyte stored and per gigabyte transferred out, which typically works out far cheaper for large backup repositories that are written frequently but rarely restored. Backblaze B2, Wasabi, and Cloudflare R2 are the three services most commonly used by home NAS owners, and they differ enough in pricing structure and practical behaviour that the right choice depends on how you plan to use them.

What Is Object Storage and Why Does It Matter for NAS Backups?

Object storage is a flat storage architecture where files are stored as objects in buckets rather than in a traditional file hierarchy. Each object has a unique identifier and metadata, but there is no folder structure the way you see in a NAS or Windows file explorer. You interact with it via an API, typically the S3 API that Amazon pioneered and that most competing services now replicate.

This matters for NAS backup because nearly every modern NAS operating system can talk directly to S3-compatible object storage. Synology's Hyper Backup, QNAP's Hybrid Backup Sync, and similar tools have native object storage connectors. Once configured, they deduplicate and compress your backup data, encrypt it locally before it leaves the NAS, and push only changed blocks to the cloud. The result is efficient, encrypted offsite backup without a subscription service in the middle.

For home users, this model removes a major friction point: you are not locked into a specific vendor's ecosystem. Your backup data, properly encrypted with a key you control, is portable. If you switch NAS brands, the bucket stays the same.

How Object Storage Pricing Actually Works

Object storage pricing has three components. Understanding all three is essential before committing to a provider:

1. Storage cost: The per-GB-per-month fee for data sitting in your bucket. This is the most visible number in marketing materials.
2. Egress cost: The fee charged when data is downloaded out of the service to the public internet. This is where providers differ most dramatically and where costs can surprise you.
3. API call cost: The per-request fee for listing, reading, and writing objects. Usually negligible for typical backup workloads, but can add up with highly fragmented data sets.

The practical implication: if you plan to frequently download your backup data (for test restores, or because you use it as active storage), egress costs dominate. If you plan to write data regularly and rarely restore, storage cost dominates. Most home users are firmly in the second camp, which changes how you should evaluate these providers.

Backblaze B2: The Home User Default

Backblaze B2 is the most widely used object storage service among home NAS users and has been for years. Pricing as of 2026 is approximately USD $0.006 per GB per month for storage, with free egress to Cloudflare's network and charges for egress elsewhere. Download bandwidth has a daily free allowance before per-GB charges apply.

The key reason B2 dominates home use is ecosystem integration. Synology's Hyper Backup has a native Backblaze B2 connector that has been tested and documented extensively. QNAP's Hybrid Backup Sync also supports B2 via its S3-compatible API path. Setup is genuinely straightforward: create an account, create a bucket, generate application keys with appropriate permissions, enter them into your NAS backup app, and schedule your job. For most users, the initial configuration takes under 30 minutes.

Backblaze also offers object lock, versioning, and lifecycle rules that allow you to keep previous backup versions at minimal cost. These features are important: if ransomware encrypts your NAS and the backup job immediately overwrites your clean offsite copy with encrypted data, versioning gives you the ability to roll back to a known-good state. Set your bucket to keep at least 30 days of version history.

Wasabi: Flat-Rate Storage Without Egress Fees

Wasabi positions itself as a direct Amazon S3 alternative at roughly one-fifth the price, with no egress fees and no API call charges. Storage pricing is approximately USD $0.0069/GB/month. The no-egress model sounds compelling, but there is a catch that matters for backup workloads: Wasabi enforces a minimum storage duration of 90 days per object. If you delete or overwrite an object before it has been stored for 90 days, you are still charged for the full 90-day period.

For a daily incremental backup job that creates new objects frequently and has aggressive retention policies, this 90-day minimum can make Wasabi more expensive than it appears. The math works in Wasabi's favour when: your backup data is large, you store it for long periods without frequent churn, and you have a genuine need to download large amounts of data regularly. Video archives, long-term file storage, and infrequently accessed backups are good fits. Daily desktop backup jobs with short retention windows are not.

Wasabi supports the S3 API fully and is compatible with both Synology Hyper Backup and QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync via the S3 connection option. There is no proprietary connector but setup is well understood and documented. Note that Wasabi does not have a publisher affiliate program; this is editorial coverage only.

Cloudflare R2: Zero Egress, S3-Compatible, But More Setup Required

Cloudflare R2 is the newest of the three services and has the most aggressive pricing structure: storage at approximately USD $0.015/GB/month (slightly higher than the others), but with completely free egress and a generous free tier of 10GB storage and 1 million Class A API operations per month. The zero-egress model is permanent by design, not a temporary promotion.

The practical limitation for NAS users is that Cloudflare R2 requires more technical setup than B2 or Wasabi. There is no pre-built connector in Synology's Hyper Backup for R2. You connect via the S3-compatible API using a custom endpoint, and some users encounter issues with endpoint configuration in older NAS firmware versions. QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync handles the S3 path more flexibly and tends to work more smoothly.

R2 also lacks a configurable minimum storage duration, which makes it predictable for backup workloads with high object churn. For users on NBN connections with generous data plans who need to do test restores regularly, R2's zero-egress model eliminates a category of cost entirely.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Choosing the Right Provider for Your NAS

The decision comes down to how you use your backup and where you prioritise cost:

• If you are a typical home user with a Synology NAS and want the simplest setup, Backblaze B2 is the right choice. The native Hyper Backup connector is well tested, versioning protects against ransomware, and the free tier lets you test before committing.
• If you have a large archive (several TB or more) that you write incrementally and rarely restore, Wasabi's no-egress model combined with the Sydney region makes it compelling. Do the math on your expected retention period. If objects stay in the bucket more than 90 days on average, the 90-day minimum stops being a concern.
• If you are technically comfortable and do frequent test restores or treat the cloud bucket as a secondary access point, Cloudflare R2's permanent zero-egress model eliminates cost uncertainty. The lack of object lock is a meaningful limitation for ransomware scenarios, so pair R2 with versioning and test your rollback process.

NBN Upload Speeds and What That Means for Backup Jobs

Whatever service you choose, your initial seeding is constrained by your NBN upload speed. On a typical NBN 100 connection with around 20 Mbps upload, seeding 1TB of data to any object storage service takes approximately 4-5 days running continuously. NBN 250 and NBN 1000 tiers with higher upload caps improve this significantly, but even at 50 Mbps upload, 1TB takes over 44 hours.

The practical implication: plan your initial backup seed carefully. Schedule it during off-peak hours to avoid contention on your home network, and consider whether your internet plan's data allowance can absorb the upload. Most modern NBN plans are unmetered or have very high caps, but check yours before triggering a large initial sync. Subsequent incremental backups will be far smaller and faster.

If you are on a connection with CGNAT (common with some NBN providers and mobile broadband), outbound uploads to object storage are unaffected. CGNAT only blocks inbound connections, which is relevant for remote NAS access but not for backup upload jobs.

Setting Up NAS Backup to Object Storage

Synology Hyper Backup to B2:

1. In your Backblaze account, create a bucket. Note the bucket name, region, and endpoint URL.
2. Create an Application Key with Read and Write access to that bucket. Save the Key ID and Application Key.
3. In Hyper Backup on your Synology, create a new backup task. Select Backblaze B2 from the destination list.
4. Enter the Key ID, Application Key, and bucket name. Hyper Backup will verify the connection.
5. Select the folders to back up, set encryption passphrase (use a strong one and store it separately), and configure your schedule and retention policy.

Synology Hyper Backup to Wasabi or R2 (S3 path):

1. Create your bucket in Wasabi or R2. For Wasabi Sydney, select ap-southeast-2 as the region.
2. Generate access credentials. For Wasabi: create a user with programmatic access. For R2: create an API token from the Cloudflare dashboard.
3. In Hyper Backup, select S3 Storage as the destination type. Enter the custom endpoint URL (e.g., s3.ap-southeast-2.wasabisys.com for Wasabi Sydney), access key, secret key, and bucket name.
4. Configure backup task settings, encryption, schedule and retention as above.

Cost Estimates for Australian Users

All three providers price in USD. As of early 2026, with AUD/USD around 0.63, the following rough AUD monthly costs apply for a typical home user with 500GB of compressed backup data stored:

For most home users, the monthly cost of object storage backup is genuinely low. A 500GB backup repository on B2 costs less per month than a single coffee. The more important cost consideration is whether you have correctly estimated your data growth. A backup that starts at 500GB compressed today may reach 2TB in three years as your photo library grows, 4K video accumulates, and more devices get added to the backup scope. Build that growth into your planning.

The 3-2-1 Rule and Where Object Storage Fits

Object storage fills the offsite copy in the 3-2-1 backup strategy: 3 copies of data, on 2 different media types, with 1 copy offsite. Your NAS is one copy. An external drive or USB backup on a separate device is the second copy on different media. The object storage bucket is the third copy, offsite.

A NAS alone is not a backup. RAID protects against drive failure; it does not protect against ransomware, accidental deletion, fire, theft, or NAS hardware failure. The ACL protects your hardware purchase but not your data. Warranty coverage for a failed NAS runs through the full chain from retailer to distributor to vendor in Taiwan, taking 2-3 weeks minimum. If your only copy of data is on the NAS and it fails, that 2-3 week wait is catastrophic. Object storage backup means you can restore data to a replacement NAS before the failed unit is even back in your hands.

When evaluating NAS platforms from brands like Synology or QNAP for home backup use, the backup software capabilities matter as much as the hardware. Synology's Hyper Backup is one of the strongest backup tools in the NAS market, supporting deduplication, compression, encryption, versioning, and direct integration with B2. QNAP's Hybrid Backup Sync is comparably capable via S3 endpoints. Either platform is a solid foundation for a 3-2-1 strategy with object storage as the offsite tier.

Common Mistakes with Object Storage Backup

Three mistakes come up repeatedly with home NAS object storage backup setups:

1. Not enabling versioning or object lock. Without versioning, ransomware that encrypts your NAS and immediately syncs to the cloud overwrites your clean backup with encrypted data. Enable versioning with at least 30 days retention. If your provider supports object lock (immutability), consider using it for a dedicated ransomware-resistant bucket.
2. Losing the encryption passphrase. If you encrypt your backup in Hyper Backup or Hybrid Backup Sync and lose the passphrase, your data is permanently inaccessible. Store the passphrase in a password manager and, ideally, print a copy stored physically in a different location. The encryption key is as important as the backup itself.
3. Never testing a restore. A backup that has never been tested is a hypothesis, not a backup. Schedule a test restore every six months. Restore a sample folder to a different location, verify the files open, and confirm the process works end to end.

Can I use object storage as a primary storage destination for my NAS instead of backup?

Technically possible but not recommended. Object storage latency (typically 50-200ms per API call) makes it unsuitable for frequently accessed data. File operations that feel instant on a local NAS become noticeably slow over object storage. Use object storage as an offsite backup tier and keep your active data on the NAS itself. If you want cloud-accessible file storage, Synology Drive or QNAP Qsync on top of your NAS with a DDNS address is a better approach.

Does Synology Hyper Backup work with all three services?

Hyper Backup has a native Backblaze B2 connector that is the most straightforward to configure. Both Wasabi and Cloudflare R2 are accessible via the S3 Storage option in Hyper Backup by entering a custom endpoint URL. Wasabi generally works without issues on current DSM versions. Cloudflare R2 has occasionally required specific endpoint formatting and can have compatibility issues on older DSM releases. Check the Synology Knowledge Center for current R2 endpoint guidance if you encounter issues.

Is my data encrypted when stored in object storage?

It depends on whether you enable encryption in your backup application. Synology Hyper Backup and QNAP Hybrid Backup Sync both offer client-side encryption with a passphrase you set. When client-side encryption is enabled, data is encrypted on your NAS before being uploaded, meaning the storage provider cannot read your data even if they wanted to. This is strongly recommended. All three providers also offer server-side encryption at rest, but that only protects against physical drive theft from their data centres, not from the provider accessing your data. Client-side encryption is the correct approach.

How long does it take to upload a 1TB backup from an NBN connection?

On a typical NBN 100 plan with approximately 20 Mbps upload, expect 4-5 days to seed 1TB of compressed data. On NBN 250 with 25 Mbps upload, roughly 3-4 days. On higher-tier plans with 50+ Mbps upload, under 48 hours. These are continuous upload estimates; real-world times will be longer if you throttle uploads to avoid disrupting other network activity. After initial seeding, daily incremental backups are typically tens of gigabytes or less and complete within hours.

What happens to my bucket if the provider shuts down or changes pricing?

Object storage data is portable because the S3 API is a de facto standard. If a provider shuts down or raises prices unacceptably, you can migrate your bucket to another provider using tools like rclone. The migration process copies your objects from one provider to another without going through your NAS. For encrypted Hyper Backup repositories, you would typically restore your backup to a local volume on the NAS and then re-backup to the new destination, as the internal format is provider-agnostic at the NAS level but the repository structure is Hyper Backup-specific.

Is there any Australian government or tax consideration for cloud backup data stored offshore?

For home users with personal data, there are no regulatory requirements governing where your personal backup data is stored. Australian Privacy Act obligations around data residency apply to businesses handling other people's personal information, not to individuals backing up their own data. If you are using NAS for a small business and backing up customer data, consider whether storing it in a non-Australian data centre has implications for your privacy policy. For personal use, Wasabi's Sydney region is a good option if keeping data onshore matters to you, but it is not a regulatory requirement for home users.