IDrive e2
A budget-tier S3-compatible cloud object storage from IDrive (the established backup vendor), priced at **~$5/TB/month** with **zero egress and zero API request fees** under fair-use, and **zero minimum retention period** — buckets can delete data anytime without early-deletion penalties (unlike Wasabi's 90-day rule). 14+ regions globally including a **Tokyo region added May 5, 2026** as the first IDrive e2 footprint in Japan, explicitly positioned for AI workloads in Asia. Object Lock (Governance mode, Veeam-certified), Cloud Object Replication, and Bucket Event Notifications all shipped in 2025 — this was budget-tier-with-tradeoffs at launch, not anymore.
Definition
A budget-tier S3-compatible cloud object storage from IDrive (the established backup vendor), priced at **~$5/TB/month** with **zero egress and zero API request fees** under fair-use, and **zero minimum retention period** — buckets can delete data anytime without early-deletion penalties (unlike Wasabi's 90-day rule). 14+ regions globally including a **Tokyo region added May 5, 2026** as the first IDrive e2 footprint in Japan, explicitly positioned for AI workloads in Asia. Object Lock (Governance mode, Veeam-certified), Cloud Object Replication, and Bucket Event Notifications all shipped in 2025 — this was budget-tier-with-tradeoffs at launch, not anymore.
Wasabi's flat-pricing model is attractive but the 90-day minimum retention and per-storage-class quirks bite cost-sensitive iterative workloads. IDrive e2 strips the model further: the same egress-free shape with **no retention floor and lower per-TB pricing**, targeting backup, dev/test, and AI training-data staging where churn is high and the storage horizon is short. The Tokyo expansion (May 2026) is a deliberate response to Asian AI training operators choosing data-residency and latency over the US/EU defaults.
Budget S3-compatible storage for backup/restore cycles, AI training-data staging where datasets churn weekly, dev/test object storage, secondary storage for cost-minimizing multi-cloud architectures, low-cost archival without minimum-retention lock-in.
Recent developments
White-labeling for MSPs and resellers (March 30, 2026) — plus the retention-policy edge. Resellers get custom-domain login, their own SSL certs, full IDrive-branding removal, and multi-region provisioning — a channel play none of the budget-tier peers offer. And the differentiator that matters for churn-heavy workloads (backup rotation, CI artifacts): IDrive e2 has zero minimum retention, vs Wasabi's 90-day minimum billable duration — deleted data stops billing immediately. Per IDrive — white-labeling launch.
Tokyo region launch (April 24, 2026) — first IDrive e2 footprint in Japan. Per the IDrive e2 Tokyo region announcement, IDrive added a Tokyo region for AI workloads in Asia, reiterating pricing: $49.50/TB/year or $5/TB/month, no egress fees, no API request fees (under fair use). Tokyo is positioned explicitly for AI workloads — the broader strategic shape is that low-cost S3-compat providers continue to add APAC capacity as the Asian AI-training market matures past hyperscaler-only options.
Pricing positioning confirmed across multiple 2026 reviews. Per G2 (March 2026) and FitGap (May 2026), IDrive e2 pricing is stable at $0.005/GB/month ($5/TB/month) with a $5 minimum, $49.50/TB/year yearly prepaid, and a first-year promo at $24.75. For workloads that fit within fair-use thresholds, IDrive remains among the cheapest S3-compatible options on the index — competing directly with Wasabi and Backblaze B2 on the cost axis.
Cloud Object Replication, Bucket Event Notifications, and Bucket Logging shipped in March 2025 — e2 has had an events surface for over a year; the top-line "no event-notification surface" framing was corrected 2026-08-12. Per IDrive blog — IDrive e2 Object Storage Launches Cloud Replication, Event Notifications & Bucket Logging.
Veeam Ready Repository certification (updated March 2026) lists e2 as supporting immutability and Object Lock, tested in Governance mode across AMER and APAC regions. Per Veeam Ready Repository — IDrive e2.
MFA with Delete Protection (August 2025) requires TOTP confirmation for deletions issued via S3 clients, at no additional cost. Per IDrive blog — IDrive e2 Introduces Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) with Delete Protection.
Users report recurring "SlowDown" rate-limit errors causing backup failures across multiple e2 datacenters, an issue persisting from 2024 into 2025; the workaround is deleting and recreating the region bucket, with IDrive support issuing service credits. A reliability data point against the pricing-focused marketing. Per Cloudron Forum — iDrive E2 Backups Failing More Frequently.