Compare / MinIO vs Garage
MinIO vs Garage
Pick Garage if you want a maintained AGPLv3 S3 store for geo-distributed disks (the Deuxfleurs project). Pick MinIO only if you already run it and accept that github.com/minio/minio is archived; new MinIO work is AIStor (Free is a commercial single-node download).
Facts checked 18 Oct 2026. License, language, and GitHub activity come from the catalog or the project's own repo. "Not in the catalog row" means the public catalog dump does not store that number.
MinIO in the catalog Garage in the catalogStart on Railway
How they compare
| MinIO | Garage | |
|---|---|---|
| License | AGPLv3 on the archived community repo; AIStor Free is a separate commercial download source | AGPLv3 (Deuxfleurs/garage) source |
| Language | Go (minio/minio) | Not listed as a programming language in the catalog row |
| GitHub activity | 61,317 stars in the catalog; repository archived source | GitHub mirror deuxfleurs-org/garage: 4,724 stars on 18 Oct 2026 (not in the catalog row) source |
| Self-host | Community binaries stopped. AIStor Free is standalone; distributed needs a paid tier. | You run it on your own disks. Designed for geo-distributed clusters. |
| Best for | An existing MinIO install you are not ready to leave. | A maintained AGPL S3 API on disks you own. |
Self-hosting and resource needs
Garage is AGPLv3 (git.deuxfleurs.fr/Deuxfleurs/garage; GitHub mirror deuxfleurs-org/garage). MinIO's AGPLv3 community repo is archived (GitHub: THIS REPOSITORY IS NO LONGER MAINTAINED; last push 24 Apr 2026). MinIO did not relicense the frozen tree — it stopped maintaining it. AIStor Free/Enterprise were announced 23 Dec 2025 (min.io blog): Free is a no-cost standalone commercial download with redistribution limits; distributed tiers are paid. The catalog row already says the AGPL community edition is frozen. Published combo: /stacks/minio-object.
FAQ
- Did MinIO relicense?
- The archived community tree is still AGPLv3. What ended was maintenance and official community distribution (repo README + min.io AIStor posts, Dec 2025 / archive 2026).
- MinIO or Garage?
- Garage if you want a maintained AGPL store. MinIO community is frozen. That is the stack FAQ, updated with the archive.
- Why not Nextcloud?
- Nextcloud is the Drive UI. This page is the S3 API apps already speak.
- How do I deploy Garage?
- Open /stacks/minio-object. Persist blobs, create one bucket, put and get one object.
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