Object storage is where the surprise bills live: per-request charges, and egress priced so that reading your own data costs more than storing it. MinIO speaks the same S3 API your tools already use, on a server whose price you know in advance, in an offshore jurisdiction with no KYC.
What you get
- A drop-in S3 API, so existing SDKs, CLIs and backup tools just work
- Predictable cost: the server price, not per-request and per-GB egress
- A web console for buckets, users and policies
- Offshore, no KYC, crypto billing
Get it running
Size the disk, not the CPU
MinIO itself is light on memory and CPU; what matters is disk. Pick an offshore VPS with the capacity you need, and remember object storage tends to grow.
Install it in one click
Install MinIO from the catalog with a hostname for the console. The root password is generated for you and shown in the panel. See how one-click installs work.
Save the root credentials, then stop using them
Move the generated root credentials into your password manager immediately. Then create a dedicated user and access key per application, scoped to the buckets it actually needs.
Point your tools at it
Configure your S3 client, SDK or backup tool with your endpoint and the scoped key. Anything that already writes to S3 will write here.
The generated root user has full control of every bucket and policy. Wiring an application, a script or a backup job to it means one leaked config file exposes everything. Create a scoped user per consumer, grant only the buckets and actions it needs, and keep root for administration.
MinIO serves the S3 API and the web console on separate ports. Decide deliberately what is reachable from where: a public console is an authentication surface you may not need, and an unrestricted API endpoint invites credential stuffing. Publish only what has to be public.
Because it is S3-compatible, most backup tools can write straight to it, including encrypted backups from your other servers. Encrypt before upload so the storage host, including us, holds nothing readable.
A single VPS is not a replicated storage cluster. Treat it as primary storage with a copy elsewhere, not as the only copy of anything you cannot lose.
Start now
Spin up an offshore VPS and install MinIO from the catalog, or read the documentation.