RustFS

S3-compatible distributed object storage written in Rust. Drop-in MinIO replacement with 2.3x better throughput on 4KB objects. Apache-2.0 (not AGPL like MinIO).

Why it matters

MinIO switched to AGPL. RustFS is Apache-2.0 – embed it, modify it, ship it commercially without license headaches.

Performance: 2.3x faster than MinIO for small objects (4KB) on the same hardware. Rust’s zero-GC advantage shows on high-throughput workloads.

Features

• S3 API (full compatibility)
• OpenStack Swift API
• Web console (port 9001)
• Versioning, replication, lifecycle management
• Bitrot protection
• Single-node and distributed modes
• Kubernetes Helm charts
• No telemetry (GDPR/CCPA compliant)

Quick start

# Docker
docker run -d -p 9000:9000 -p 9001:9001 rustfs/rustfs:latest

# Or one-liner
curl -O https://rustfs.com/install_rustfs.sh && bash install_rustfs.sh

Default credentials: rustfsadmin / rustfsadmin. Console at :9001.

Where it fits

• Self-hosted S3 for projects that need object storage without AWS
• Edge/IoT – lightweight enough for constrained environments
• AI/ML pipelines – data lake storage for training data
• Media storage – video/image assets for Life2Film, FaceAlarm, etc.

Fits the infra-two-tools approach: when CF R2 or Supabase Storage isn’t enough, RustFS is the self-hosted tier.

Links

• GitHub – 25.6k stars
• Docs
• Helm charts