How to Migrate from DigitalOcean Spaces to AWS S3
Growing Out of DigitalOcean Spaces
Section titled “Growing Out of DigitalOcean Spaces”DigitalOcean Spaces is a good starting point for object storage. It is simple, affordable ($5/month for 250 GB + 1 TB transfer), and S3-compatible. For small to mid-size projects, it does the job.
But as your storage needs grow, you run into limitations:
- Region constraints. Spaces are region-scoped. Each region only sees its own Spaces. Cross-region replication is not available.
- No storage tiers. Everything is stored at the same tier. There is no equivalent to S3’s Glacier or Intelligent-Tiering for cost optimization.
- Limited ecosystem. AWS S3 integrates with hundreds of services: Lambda, CloudFront, Athena, Step Functions, SageMaker. DigitalOcean’s ecosystem is smaller.
- Bandwidth limits. The included 1 TB transfer can be burned through quickly on busy applications.
When a project outgrows Spaces, AWS S3 is the most common destination.
Multi-Region Complexity
Section titled “Multi-Region Complexity”DigitalOcean runs Spaces across 7 regions: NYC3, SFO3, AMS3, SGP1, FRA1, SYD1, and BLR1. If you have Spaces in multiple regions, you need to handle each region separately.
Blober detects all your Spaces across all DigitalOcean regions automatically. When you connect your DigitalOcean account, Blober probes all 7 regions in parallel and presents a unified view of all your Spaces. You do not need to configure each region separately.
Tier Detection
Section titled “Tier Detection”DigitalOcean recently introduced cold storage tiers for Spaces. Blober detects whether a Space is using Standard or Cold storage and flags it accordingly. This helps you make informed decisions about which S3 storage class to target.
How to Transfer
Section titled “How to Transfer”Step 1: Connect DigitalOcean Spaces
Section titled “Step 1: Connect DigitalOcean Spaces”Add DigitalOcean Spaces as a provider in Blober. You can use either:
- S3-compatible credentials (Access Key + Secret Key) for basic access
- Personal Access Token for richer bucket listing with project metadata
Blober discovers all your Spaces across all regions.
Step 2: Connect AWS S3
Section titled “Step 2: Connect AWS S3”Add AWS S3 with your Access Key ID, Secret Access Key, and preferred region. Blober lists your S3 buckets.
Step 3: Map and Transfer
Section titled “Step 3: Map and Transfer”Create a workflow with DigitalOcean as the source and S3 as the destination. Browse your Spaces, select files or entire Spaces, and choose the target S3 bucket and storage class.
Options for the destination:
- Storage class: Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, Glacier, or Deep Archive
- Target bucket: Any existing S3 bucket (or create one in the AWS console first)
Step 4: Run
Section titled “Step 4: Run”Blober handles the transfer with parallel multipart uploads on both sides. S3-to-S3-compatible transfers are efficient because both services speak the same protocol.
Cost Comparison
Section titled “Cost Comparison”| DigitalOcean Spaces | AWS S3 Standard | AWS S3 Standard-IA | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Storage (1 TB) | $5/mo (250 GB included) + $20/mo extra | $23/mo | $12.50/mo |
| Bandwidth (1 TB) | Included | $90/mo | $90/mo |
| PUT requests (100K) | $0.50 | $0.50 | $1.00 |
DigitalOcean is cheaper for simple, low-traffic use cases. S3 is more cost-effective at scale with its tiering options, especially if you use Intelligent-Tiering or Glacier for archival data.
Get Blober
Section titled “Get Blober”One-time purchase. Transfer as much as you need.
