# Digitalocean block storage VS amazon S3
**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290
**Category:** Self-hosting
**Tags:** hosting
**Created:** [July 20, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290 "2020-07-20T16:54:33Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Bill](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bill)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2020, 4:54pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290/1 "2020-07-20T16:54:33Z")
I had got a warning in my command line about disc space before rebuilding my container while installing a Discourse plugin. I had to run some commands to remove some older versions of linux on my digitalocean droplet, but I’m still over 50% ssd capacity.
As my Discourse website has grown, I started looking at storage solutions. I’m currently on a 5$ digitalocean droplet and have read around about digitalocean block storage and amazon s3. I see the S3 settings built into the Discourse settings, so I’m guessing its easier to setup.
What do you use for your website? Which has better loading speeds, s3 vs digiocean blocks? What option is cheaper? Wouldn’t the free tier of s3 make it cheaper than digiocean blocks? Do you store your images AND backups? Or do you recommend another option outside of digiocean and amazon?
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### Author:  [@itsbhanusharma](https://meta.discourse.org/u/itsbhanusharma)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2020, 5:11pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290/2 "2020-07-20T17:11:38Z")
Hi,
There are a lot of Providers that offer S3 compatible storage solutions. You can use either of those. I’ve used a few and can recommend that Digital Ocean Spaces works great.
If You’re already hosting on DO, I’d recommend going with spaces as it’s fast and reliable.
However, there are some concerns relating to their CDN so you may have to consider a 3rd party CDN.
Check this topic for more information:
> [@Configure an S3 compatible object storage provider for uploads](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-object-storage-for-uploads-s3-clones/148916):
>
> information_source This topic covers how to configure some common S3 compatible Object Storage providers (S3 clones). See [Set up file and image uploads to S3](https://meta.discourse.org/t/setting-up-file-and-image-uploads-to-s3/7229) for more details about Amazon AWS S3 configuration, which is officially supported and used internally by Discourse for our hosting services. Provider Service Name Works with Discourse? [Amazon AWS](#aws-s3-2) S3 Yes [Digital Ocean](#digital-ocean-spaces-3) Spaces Yes [Linode](#linode-object-storage-4) Object Storage Yes [Google Cloud](#google-cloud-platform-storage-5) Storage Yes [Scaleway](#scaleway-object-storage-6) Object Storage Yes [Vultr](#vultr-object-storage-7) Obj…
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2020, 8:03pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290/3 "2020-07-20T20:03:22Z")
S3 is obviously the more mature and more tested solution, but price wise DO offering may make sense for your community.
No matter what you pick, you **must** put a CDN in front of the bucket, so don’t forget that.
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### Author:  [@Bill](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Bill)
#### Post date: [July 20, 2020, 8:57pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290/4 "2020-07-20T20:57:25Z")
Would the free tier of Cloudflare work as the CDN in front of the bucket? I already use them with my domain settings for the free DDOS protection.
I noticed DigitalOcean advertises their Spaces service is cheaper than the other well known providers. So that’s definitely a plus.
Because the CDN that comes with DigitalOcean Spaces doesn’t work correctly with Discourse, I’m thinking I should just go with one of the other providers on your list. That way I don’t have to pay for DigitalOcean Spaces and a separate CDN service.
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### Author:  [@md-misko](https://meta.discourse.org/u/md-misko)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2020, 8:06am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290/5 "2020-07-21T08:06:02Z")
> [@Bill](#):
>
> Because the CDN that comes with DigitalOcean Spaces doesn’t work correctly with Discourse, I’m thinking I should just go with one of the other providers on your list. That way I don’t have to pay for DigitalOcean Spaces and a separate CDN service.
I’ll post this here, because the [Configure an S3 compatible object storage provider for uploads](https://meta.discourse.org/t/using-object-storage-for-uploads-s3-clones/148916) is set to delete all replies after a month.
> [@Configure an S3 compatible object storage provider for uploads](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configure-an-s3-compatible-object-storage-provider-for-uploads/148916/75):
>
> > [@Configure an S3 compatible object storage provider for uploads](https://meta.discourse.org/t/configure-an-s3-compatible-object-storage-provider-for-uploads/148916/74):
> >
> > @Falco can you share any specifics on this CDN brokenness?
>
> It’s what is documented [here](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/spaces/how-to/set-file-metadata/):
>
> > Warning
> >
> > Due to a known issue, file metadata headers like `Content-Encoding` are not passed through the CDN. Metadata headers are correctly set when fetching content directly from the origin.
>
> A missing content-encoding means all our brotli encoded assets are broken.
>
> That means you can use their Object Storage offering, but must shop for a caching CDN in another provider.
A missing content-encoding in the DO CDN implementation definitely is a bummer, but it only happens when setting _all_ the S3 parameters inside `app.yml`. If those parameters are set in the site settings via web admin console, the DO only serves the S3 uploads via CDN, and the site assets are still served from the source.
It seems that this is by design, because the `DISCOURSE_S3_CDN_URL` env variable, if set in the `app.yml`, overrides the CDN setting for assets too, while this same setting, when declared in site settings only, doesn’t?
This is a bit inconsistent, but it allows the DO CDN to be used for S3 uploads only, without breaking the site:
There are two ways to do this:
- declare _all_ S3 settings in site settings only
```plaintext
rails c
SiteSetting.s3_upload_bucket="/"
SiteSetting.s3_backup_bucket="/"
SiteSetting.enable_s3_uploads=true
SiteSetting.s3_access_key_id=""
SiteSetting.s3_secret_access_key=""
SiteSetting.s3_endpoint="https://.digitaloceanspaces.com"
SiteSetting.s3_cdn_url="https://..cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/"
SiteSetting.backup_location="s3"
```
- shadow all S3 settings _except_ `DISCOURSE_S3_CDN_URL` in the `app.yml`, and declare DO CDN in `SiteSetting.s3_cdn_url`
```plaintext
DISCOURSE_USE_S3: true
DISCOURSE_S3_REGION:
DISCOURSE_S3_ENDPOINT: https://.digitaloceanspaces.com
DISCOURSE_S3_ACCESS_KEY_ID:
DISCOURSE_S3_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY:
# DISCOURSE_S3_CDN_URL: https://..cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/
DISCOURSE_S3_BUCKET: /
DISCOURSE_S3_BACKUP_BUCKET: /
DISCOURSE_BACKUP_LOCATION: s3
```
```plaintext
rails c
SiteSetting.s3_cdn_url="https://..cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/"
```
@falco if you agree with this I can update the original wiki topic
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### Author:  [@Falco](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Falco)
#### Post date: [July 21, 2020, 6:25pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/digitalocean-block-storage-vs-amazon-s3/158290/6 "2020-07-21T18:25:56Z")
> [@md-misko](#):
>
> @falco if you agree with this I can update the original wiki topic
I don’t think that is a good idea.
1. All other providers, even AWS, require a CDN. DO offering a free one, that is broken, is just a a quirk we can ignore it and treat it like a standard Object Storage service.
2. I’m not sure that the implementation detail of setting `S3 CDN URL` in the yml and on the site setting resulting in different behaviors is something we want to promote, as it can be fixed anytime.
> [@Bill](#):
>
> Would the free tier of Cloudflare work as the CDN in front of the bucket?
I have not tested it, but I can assure it works with real CDN services, like KeyCDN, Cloudfront, StackPath, etc.