egress fees

2 posts with the tag "egress fees"

How to Move Data from Azure Blob Storage to Cloudflare R2

May 11, 2026

The Egress Problem

Azure Blob Storage charges $0.087 per GB for data leaving their network. If you serve 1 TB of files per month to users or external systems, that is $87/month in egress alone, on top of storage costs.

Cloudflare R2 charges $0 for egress. Zero. Nothing. You pay for storage ($0.015/GB/month) and operations, but downloading data from R2 is free. For applications that serve files to users, APIs, CDNs, or other services, switching to R2 can cut your cloud bill significantly.

Why People Make This Move

The most common reason is cost. If your Azure Blob account is mostly used for serving static assets, media files, backups that get restored frequently, or API responses, the egress fees can dwarf your storage costs. R2 removes that variable entirely.

Another reason is simplicity. R2 is S3-compatible, meaning any tool or SDK that works with S3 works with R2. If your application already uses the S3 API (many do, even on Azure), the migration is mostly about moving data and updating the endpoint.

How to Transfer with Blober

Blober supports both Azure Blob Storage and Cloudflare R2 as native providers. The transfer works like any other Blober workflow: connect both accounts, select files, run.

Step 1: Connect Azure Blob Storage

Add Azure Blob as a provider with your connection string. Blober lists your containers and their contents.

Step 2: Connect Cloudflare R2

Add Cloudflare R2 as a provider. You will need your Account ID along with an S3-compatible Access Key ID and Secret Access Key from the Cloudflare dashboard. If you also provide a Cloudflare API token, Blober can list your buckets through Cloudflare's native API with server-side pagination, which is more efficient for accounts with many buckets.

Step 3: Create a Workflow

Set Azure Blob as the source and Cloudflare R2 as the destination. Browse your Azure containers, select the files or containers you want to migrate, and choose the destination bucket in R2.

Step 4: Run

Blober streams data from Azure through your machine to R2. It uses parallel uploads on both ends, so large files move efficiently. If the transfer is interrupted, Blober resumes from where it stopped.

What About Azure Egress Fees During Migration?

This is the unavoidable part. Moving data out of Azure means paying egress. For the initial migration, you will pay $0.087/GB to get your data from Azure to your machine (where Blober runs), and from there to R2.

For 1 TB, that is about $87 in egress fees. That is a one-time cost. After the migration, your ongoing egress from R2 is $0.

If you were paying $87/month in Azure egress, the migration pays for itself in the first month.

Migration Cost Estimate

Data Size	Azure Egress Cost (one-time)	Monthly Savings on R2
500 GB	~$43	Depends on egress pattern
1 TB	~$87	Up to $87/month
5 TB	~$435	Up to $435/month
10 TB	~$870	Up to $870/month

R2 Is S3-Compatible

This matters because your application code likely uses the AWS SDK or an S3-compatible client. After migrating data to R2, updating your app is often as simple as changing the endpoint URL and credentials. No SDK changes, no API rewrites.

Blober connects to R2 using the same S3 protocol, so the transfer is seamless.

When Azure Is Still the Right Choice

R2 is excellent for serving files and eliminating egress. But Azure has features that R2 does not:

Storage tiers (Hot, Cool, Cold, Archive) for lifecycle cost optimization
Geo-redundant replication built into the platform
Azure Functions and event triggers tied to blob operations
Enterprise compliance certifications that some industries require

If you need those features, Azure is worth the egress premium. Many teams keep some data on Azure (for processing and compliance) and move the served/public data to R2 (for cost savings).

Get Blober

One-time purchase. Transfer as much data as you need.

Download Blober at blober.io

Stop Paying Rent to Move Your Own Files

Mar 9, 2026

The Trap

You uploaded 2 TB of photos, videos, and backups to the cloud. Life was good - until you wanted to move them somewhere else.

Suddenly, you're hit with egress fees, per-GB migration charges, and the realization that your cloud provider has been counting on you never leaving. It's your data. But moving it costs real money - every single time.

AWS charges ~$0.09/GB for egress. That's $184 just to download 2 TB of your own files. Want to use a SaaS migration tool? That's another $10-20/month, with transfer caps. Prefer the open-source CLI route? Clear your afternoon - you'll need it for YAML configs, credential files, and provider-specific quirks.

The trap: cloud providers charge you egress fees, SaaS tools charge subscriptions, and CLI tools cost you hours of setup time

The Math

Let's talk real numbers. Over three years, here's what you'll pay using common approaches:

Approach	3-Year Cost	Catch
SaaS Migration Tool	~$360	Monthly sub + data caps
Per-GB Service	~$720+	$0.03/GB, billed every transfer
DIY with CLI	40+ hours	Config per provider, no UI, breaks silently
Blober	One payment	Unlimited transfers. Forever.

The subscription model is designed to extract value from you month after month. The per-GB model punishes you for having more data. The CLI path trades money for your time.

Blober breaks the cycle. Pay once. Transfer as much as you want, as many times as you want. No meter running. No renewal emails. No "upgrade to unlock more."

$Cost comparison over 3 years: SaaS tools cost $360, per-GB services cost $720+, DIY CLI costs 40+ hours, Blober costs one single payment$

The Escape

Blober is a desktop app - not a SaaS, not a CLI tool, not a cloud service. It runs on your Mac, Windows, or Linux machine and connects directly to your cloud providers:

AWS S3 - buckets and objects, any region
Azure Blob Storage - containers and blobs
Google Drive - files and folders, including shared drives
GoPro Cloud - back up your action footage locally or to any cloud
Backblaze B2 - the affordable S3 alternative
Dropbox - personal and business accounts
Cloudflare R2 - zero-egress object storage
Wasabi - hot storage without the cold fees
DigitalOcean Spaces - all regions, auto-detected
Local Disk - any folder on your machine

Your files never touch a middleman server. Blober streams directly between your machine and the provider APIs. Browse your cloud storage visually, select what you want, pick a destination - done.

If a transfer gets interrupted (bad WiFi, laptop closed, provider hiccup), Blober picks up where it left off. No re-uploading. No duplicate files.

Blober connects 10+ cloud providers in one app: AWS S3, Azure Blob, Google Drive, GoPro Cloud, Backblaze B2, Dropbox, Cloudflare R2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces, and local disk

The Move

Here's what switching to Blober actually looks like:

Before: You're juggling browser tabs, CLI sessions, and a spreadsheet tracking which files went where. A SaaS tool emails you that you've hit your 1.2 TB monthly cap. You Google "rclone config azure" for the third time.

After: You open Blober. Connect your accounts. Drag from source to destination. Walk away. It just works.

No internet needed for local-to-local moves. No data ever leaves your machine unless you're sending it to a cloud provider you chose.

Before and after comparison: monthly subscriptions, data caps, and files routed through servers vs. one-time payment, unlimited transfers, and 100% local execution with Blober

Who Is This For?

Photographers & videographers moving terabytes of footage from GoPro Cloud or Google Drive to cheaper archival storage
Developers & DevOps engineers migrating between S3-compatible providers without writing scripts
Small businesses consolidating cloud storage without paying an enterprise migration service
Privacy-conscious users who want their files transferred directly, not through a third-party cloud
Anyone tired of paying monthly fees to tools that move files you already own

Get Blober

Your data. Your machine. Your rules.

One payment. Unlimited transfers. No expiration.

Download Blober => blober.io