Side by side

ArDrive vs Lighthouse

Both stand on decentralized storage services. Which one you can start free with, which one lets you read the code, and what each costs once you pay.

ArDrive

Free plan APIWeb

Choose ArDrive if you want permanent Arweave storage with one-time file payments, no account storage quota and options for private or public drives. Look elsewhere if you need to remove confirmed uploads later, since they cannot be deleted.

Visit ArDrive

Lighthouse

Free plan APIWeb

Lighthouse pairs decentralized file storage with agent memory, offering web and API access and several documented storage choices. Check the add-on status and deletion limits if encryption or erasure is important.

Visit Lighthouse

The facts

	ArDrive	Lighthouse
Free plan	Yes	Yes
Open source	Not published	Not published
Runs on	API, Web	API, Web
Lowest paid plan	Free or on request	Lite: $12 a month
Plans published	1	3
Maker	Not published	Not published
Website	ardrive.io	lighthouse.storage
On decentralized storage services	#4 of 25	#8 of 25

ArDrive: what it does well

Files are stored on Arweave and remain available if ArDrive stops operating.
Private-drive files are encrypted on the user's device before upload.
Uploads under 100 KB are free.
No subscription or account storage quota is required.
CLI, APIs and SDKs support developer workflows.

What to know first

Confirmed uploads cannot be removed by anyone.
Turbo uploads in Safari and Firefox are limited to 500 MiB.
Paid upload costs depend on file size and live Turbo rates.

Lighthouse: what it does well

Free plan includes 5 GB of storage.
Supports IPFS, Filecoin, and Walrus.
SDK and CLI are available.
Memory retrieval supports embeddings and keyword or tag matching.

What to know first

Encryption is an add-on on listed plans.
Forgetting a memory may not erase its stored blob.
Content identifiers do not establish whether content is true.

Alternatives to ArDrive Alternatives to Lighthouse The whole list