MinIO vs SeaweedFS: which one to choose in 2026?
Both are open source alternatives to Amazon S3. We compare license, tech stack and features to help you decide which fits your team best.
Quick answer: Before comparing features: MinIO's community edition no longer has a reliable public Docker image — its repo was archived, the image was pulled from Docker Hub, and the last free version still circulating has an unpatched critical vulnerability. SeaweedFS keeps shipping binaries, with 3.99 as the latest pinnable Docker tag. If you need S3-compatible storage today, SeaweedFS (or Garage) is the safer of the two to deploy.
| MinIO | SeaweedFS | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Storage | Storage |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| GitHub stars | ~48k | ~23k |
| Tech stack | Go | Go |
| Replaces | Amazon S3 | Amazon S3 |
MinIO has more GitHub stars, which usually indicates a larger community (not necessarily that it's the best option for your use case).
MinIO
S3-compatible object storage, self-hosted.
ℹ️ MinIO's community edition is no longer published as a public Docker image: the official repository was archived and the image was pulled from Docker Hub (and from its quay.io mirror too). The last free version still floating around has an unpatched critical authentication vulnerability. We don't recommend deploying MinIO this way until the project offers an official path again — consider another Amazon S3 alternative from this catalog in the meantime.
Pros
- Drop-in S3 replacement, near-frictionless migration
Things to consider
- Real high availability requires several nodes to configure
- Public Docker image pulled (see note above) — not deployable today without an official path
SeaweedFS
Distributed storage for millions of files, an alternative to Amazon S3.
ℹ️ chrislusf/seaweedfs hasn't published a new version tag on Docker Hub since 3.99 (October 2025) — recent registry activity is only cosign signatures, not new consumable releases. 3.99 is the latest real version you can pin to today.
Pros
- Excellent performance with massive volumes of small files
Things to consider
- Less polished documentation than MinIO to get started
- No new version tags since 3.99 on Docker Hub (see note above)
Key features
MinIO
- 100% S3-compatible API
- Encryption at rest and object versioning
- Multi-site replication
SeaweedFS
- Optimized for small files at scale
- Included S3 compatibility layer
- Configurable replication and erasure coding
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Go to Stack BuilderFrequently asked questions
Is it safe to deploy MinIO today?
We don't currently recommend it: its community edition is no longer published as a public Docker image (the repo was archived and the image pulled from Docker Hub and its quay.io mirror), and the last free version still circulating has an unpatched critical authentication vulnerability (CVSS 8.8). Consider SeaweedFS or Garage until MinIO offers an official path again.
Is SeaweedFS still getting Docker updates?
It's still under active development, but its Docker image hasn't published a new version tag since 3.99 (October 2025) — recent registry activity is just cosign signatures, not new consumable versions. 3.99 is the latest real version you can pin today.
Are both compatible with the Amazon S3 API?
Yes, both include an S3 compatibility layer, regardless of the image-availability issue affecting MinIO.
What license does each use?
MinIO is AGPL-3.0 (Open-Core: some advanced features are reserved for an enterprise plan). SeaweedFS is Apache-2.0, fully FOSS with no such model.