MinIO, Inc.
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2014 |
| Legal Structure | Private |
| Industry | Software, Decentralized Cloud Storage, Cloud |
| Also known as | |
| Official website | https://www.min.io/ |
MinIO, Inc. is a privately held software company founded in 2014. It developed MinIO, a self-hosted, Amazon S3-compatible object storage server distributed under the GNU Affero General Public License (AGPL). MinIO announced a $103 million funding round at a $1 billion valuation in 2022. The company now develops AIStor as its active, commercially-licensed product line, while the original open-source MinIO server is no longer maintained.[1][2][3][4]
Consumer impact summary
[edit | edit source]
User freedom
[edit | edit source]Between 2025 and 2026, MinIO removed administration functions from the community web interface, stopped supplying ready-made community binaries, ended maintenance of the open-source server, archived its repository, and withdrew its server and client images from Docker Hub. Users could still obtain and fork the AGPL-licensed source code, but they lost the maintained upstream releases and distribution channels on which many deployments and test environments depended. MinIO's actively developed AIStor product uses a proprietary license.[5][3][6][7]
AIStor Free does NOT provide an equivalent migration path for users who depended on open-source licensing or a distributed deployment. Its license forbids modification and redistribution, and permits only a single-node installation. MinIO also reserves replication, lifecycle transitions, diagnostics and encryption at rest for paid tiers. The free tier therefore cannot replace a multi-node MinIO system with the same operating rights and capabilities.[7][8]
Incidents
[edit | edit source]Removal of web administration features (2025)
[edit | edit source]- Main article: MinIO Object Browser: removal of management features
In May 2025, MinIO replaced the community edition's graphical administration console with a simpler object browser. Administrators lost browser-based controls for users, access policies and other settings, although the server functions remained available through MinIO's mc command-line client. A MinIO maintainer confirmed that the administration interface had moved to AIStor and that the community release was limited to an object browser.[5][9]
MinIO cited the cost of maintaining separate consoles and potential security risks in the old administration interface. Users criticized the removal of existing functionality from an update because it made routine administration harder for teams that relied on the web interface.[9]
Discontinuation of the open-source server (2025—2026)
[edit | edit source]MinIO made the community edition source-only, ending its provision of pre-compiled community binaries and directing users to build their own. On 25 April 2026, MinIO archived the minio/minio GitHub repository, making it read-only. MinIO's current pricing page says that the original open-source server receives no new features, bug fixes or security patches; development continues in AIStor.[3][4][10]
The old AGPL code remains available to fork, but a source archive does not supply maintained releases or future security fixes. Users who wish to continue operating that code must maintain it themselves or rely on independent maintainers. MinIO's actively developed replacement is commercially licensed. AIStor Free permits single-node operation but prohibits modifying or redistributing the software; distributed deployments and several features available in the former open-source product require paid licenses.[3][4][7][8]
MinIO no longer publishes prices for AIStor Enterprise Lite or Enterprise; customers must request a quote. In May 2025, MinIO advertised AIStor at $0.02 USD per gigabyte per month. This historical rate is not a verified current price or a direct comparison with Amazon S3.[4][11]
Withdrawal of Docker Hub images (2026)
[edit | edit source]In September 2026, the minio/minio server and minio/mc client repositories disappeared from Docker Hub. XTDB documented that the repository endpoints returned errors, affecting its integration tests and local development setup. Milvus separately reported failed pulls for a pinned MinIO image. Existing installations could continue running, but fresh deployments and automated builds that pulled these images could fail. Older images remained available on Quay at the time; the documented withdrawal concerned Docker Hub.[6][12]
Products
[edit | edit source]- MinIO Object Store: the original AGPL-licensed storage server, now unmaintained by MinIO.[3][4]
- AIStor: MinIO's actively developed, commercially licensed storage product. Its no-cost tier is restricted to single-node use under a proprietary license.[4][7]
References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ "About MinIO | The Data Foundation for Enterprise AI". MinIO. Archived from the original on 2026-07-10. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ "MinIO Closes $103 Million Series B Round at $1 Billion Valuation". MinIO. 2022-01-26. Archived from the original on 2025-09-09. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 "MinIO". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2026-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 "AIStor Subscriptions & Pricing". MinIO. Archived from the original on 2026-09-15. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 harshavardhana (2025-05-25). "minio last update #21310". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2026-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 jarohen (2026-09-11). "MinIO's Docker Hub images have been withdrawn, breaking the integration tests". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2026-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 "AIStor Free Agreement". MinIO. 2026-01-30. Archived from the original on 2026-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 "Licenses". MinIO. Archived from the original on 2026-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Mellor, Chris (2025-06-19). "MinIO users complain after admin UI removed from Community Edition". Blocks and Files. Archived from the original on 2026-06-23. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ Periasamy, Anand Babu (2026-02-09). "MinIO AIStor vs MinIO OSS: Technical Comparison". MinIO. Archived from the original on 2026-02-13. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ Symonds, Jonathan (2025-05-29) [2024-03-12]. "MinIO AIStor Feature Set". MinIO. Archived from the original on 2026-07-10. Retrieved 2026-10-01.
- ↑ wushuangcoder (2026-09-14). "[Bug]: minio/minio image no longer available on Docker Hub - docker-compose.yml dev env fails to start". GitHub. Archived from the original on 2026-10-01. Retrieved 2026-10-01.