WD, Seagate, and Samsung between them produce most of the storage devices sold in the United States. But they don't compete in every category the same way, and the cheapest brand shifts significantly depending on whether you're shopping for a desktop hard drive, a portable drive, an NVMe SSD, or a SATA SSD.
This guide compares all three brands on price per gigabyte — the only metric that makes storage comparison honest — across each major category. Prices reflect current street prices from Amazon, Best Buy, and Newegg as of early 2026.
BuyPerUnit tracks prices for all three brands daily and ranks every drive by price per GB. You can filter by brand directly on the category pages to see live rankings. Browse storage by price per GB.
First: What These Companies Actually Are
Understanding the company structure explains a lot about why the pricing works the way it does.
Western Digital (WD) is a storage conglomerate that owns multiple brands: WD, SanDisk, HGST. They make both hard drives and SSDs, and they manufacture their own NAND flash at some facilities. WD's hard drive market share and production volume give them genuine cost advantages in HDDs. Their SSDs use a mix of in-house and partner NAND.
Seagate is a hard drive specialist. They are the world's largest HDD manufacturer by volume, which means their per-unit production costs are lower than anyone else for spinning drives. Seagate entered the SSD market but it's not their core business — their SSD lineup is limited and not their most competitive product category.
Samsung is a semiconductor company that happens to also make consumer storage. They manufacture their own NAND flash, DRAM, and controllers entirely in-house — the most vertically integrated of the three. This gives Samsung a structural cost and quality advantage in SSDs. Their hard drives exist but are not sold in the US consumer market. Samsung's storage game is entirely SSDs and memory cards.
The implication: for hard drives, WD and Seagate compete directly while Samsung is absent. For SSDs, Samsung competes directly while Seagate is limited. Choosing a brand is partly choosing a category.
Desktop Hard Drives: Seagate vs WD
| Drive | Capacity | Typical Price | Price Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seagate Barracuda | 4TB | ~$65 | ~$0.016/GB |
| WD Blue | 4TB | ~$70 | ~$0.018/GB |
| Seagate Barracuda | 8TB | ~$110 | ~$0.014/GB |
| WD Blue | 8TB | ~$120 | ~$0.015/GB |
| Seagate IronWolf (NAS) | 8TB | ~$145 | ~$0.018/GB |
| WD Red Plus (NAS) | 8TB | ~$150 | ~$0.019/GB |
Verdict: Seagate is consistently cheaper per GB for desktop HDDs, typically by $0.001–$0.003/GB. The gap is small in absolute dollars but persistent across capacities and tiers. Both brands are at the "excellent" tier in price per GB terms — under $0.022/GB is good, under $0.018/GB is great — so you're not making a bad choice with either. For NAS drives, WD Red and Seagate IronWolf trade places depending on sales, but Seagate edges out WD at list prices.
The practical rule: check both brands at the time of purchase. The one on sale usually wins because prices move frequently in this category.
For a deeper look at which hard drive categories are actually worth buying, see best price per GB hard drive in 2026.
Portable Hard Drives: Seagate vs WD
| Drive | Capacity | Typical Price | Price Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seagate Expansion | 1TB | ~$50 | ~$0.050/GB |
| WD Elements Portable | 1TB | ~$50 | ~$0.050/GB |
| Seagate Expansion | 2TB | ~$65 | ~$0.033/GB |
| WD Elements Portable | 2TB | ~$63 | ~$0.032/GB |
| Seagate Backup Plus | 4TB | ~$90 | ~$0.023/GB |
| WD My Passport | 4TB | ~$90 | ~$0.023/GB |
Verdict: Price parity. WD and Seagate match almost exactly across the entire portable hard drive lineup. The 1TB tier runs $50 from both, 2TB runs $63–$65, 4TB runs $90. Neither brand has a structural advantage here — they've converged to the same price points. Buy whichever is on sale; or whichever has the color and form factor you prefer.
Portable HDDs are significantly more expensive per GB than desktop drives (roughly $0.023–$0.050/GB vs $0.014–$0.018/GB for desktop). The portability premium is real and consistent.
NVMe SSDs: Samsung vs WD (Seagate Is Limited)
This is where Samsung's vertical integration shows up clearly — and where the comparison gets more interesting.
| Drive | Capacity | Typical Price | Price Per GB | Positioning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WD Blue SN5000 | 1TB | ~$65 | ~$0.065/GB | Budget NVMe |
| Samsung 980 | 1TB | ~$70 | ~$0.070/GB | Mid NVMe |
| WD Blue SN5000 | 2TB | ~$91 | ~$0.046/GB | Budget NVMe |
| Samsung 870 EVO (SATA) | 2TB | ~$100 | ~$0.050/GB | SATA flagship |
| WD Black SN850X | 2TB | ~$130 | ~$0.065/GB | Performance NVMe |
| Samsung 990 Pro | 2TB | ~$149 | ~$0.075/GB | Performance NVMe |
Seagate's consumer NVMe lineup (the Barracuda 510/520) exists but is limited in availability and rarely competitive on price per GB. For NVMe shopping, the real competition is WD vs Samsung vs value brands like Kingston and Crucial.
Verdict: WD beats Samsung on price per GB in the budget and mid tiers. The WD Blue SN5000 2TB at $0.046/GB is the current budget NVMe sweet spot. Samsung's equivalent at the same capacity costs $0.050–$0.075/GB depending on the product line.
Samsung earns the premium in two specific scenarios:
Samsung 990 Pro: Legitimately the fastest consumer NVMe drive available. If you're running workloads that saturate sequential throughput (large video file editing, 3D asset rendering), the performance premium is defensible. For gaming and everyday use, you'll never notice the difference.
Samsung 870 EVO (SATA): Samsung's most reliable SATA SSD, with better TLC NAND and consistency than WD's SATA line. If reliability matters more than price and you need SATA, Samsung is worth the small premium.
For most buyers at the budget and mid tier — including most gamers and home users — WD delivers better per-GB cost for equivalent real-world performance.
See how to calculate price per GB for worked examples using current prices from all three brands.
Value Brands: Where Kingston and Crucial Fit In
WD, Seagate, and Samsung dominate shelf space but not price per GB at the budget end. Two brands consistently undercut them:
| Drive | Capacity | Typical Price | Price Per GB |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kingston NV3 | 2TB | ~$78 | ~$0.039/GB |
| Crucial P3 Plus | 2TB | ~$84 | ~$0.042/GB |
| WD Blue SN5000 | 2TB | ~$91 | ~$0.046/GB |
| Samsung 980 | 2TB | ~$95 | ~$0.048/GB |
Kingston's NV3 at $0.039/GB is the current price-per-GB leader in the 2TB NVMe category. Crucial's P3 Plus at $0.042/GB is the runner-up. Both use QLC NAND (vs the TLC in Samsung's lineup), which means slightly lower sustained write performance and shorter write endurance ratings — but for typical consumer workloads like gaming and document work, neither limitation is practically relevant.
If your priority is lowest cost per gigabyte and you're not doing sustained heavy writes, Kingston and Crucial will save you $10–$20 on a 2TB drive. If you want TLC reliability with strong firmware, WD Blue SN5000 is the next tier up. Samsung is the premium option.
Summary: Which Brand Wins Each Category
| Category | Cheapest Per GB | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop HDD (standard) | Seagate | Consistently $0.001–$0.003/GB cheaper than WD |
| Desktop HDD (NAS) | Seagate IronWolf (slight) | Prices fluctuate — check both |
| Portable HDD | Tie (WD ≈ Seagate) | Same price across the lineup |
| NVMe SSD (budget) | Kingston > Crucial > WD | Samsung is most expensive |
| NVMe SSD (performance) | WD Black SN850X | Better $/GB than Samsung 990 Pro |
| SATA SSD | WD Blue | Samsung 870 EVO commands small premium |
These rankings reflect early 2026 prices. Storage pricing shifts constantly as NAND and HDD spot prices change. The fastest way to see the current rankings is to check BuyPerUnit's live price-per-GB rankings — every drive is recalculated daily.
The Decision Framework
Buying a desktop hard drive? Compare Seagate Barracuda vs WD Blue at the time of purchase and pick whichever is cheaper per GB that day. Either is excellent.
Buying a portable hard drive? Buy whichever WD or Seagate is on sale. They're priced identically at list.
Buying a budget NVMe SSD? Check Kingston NV3 and Crucial P3 Plus before WD or Samsung. The big names cost more per GB at this tier without meaningful real-world performance gains.
Buying a performance NVMe SSD? WD Black SN850X gives better per-GB cost than Samsung 990 Pro with competitive performance. Samsung earns its premium only for the fastest sequential workloads.
Reliability concerns? All three brands use warranty periods as a proxy for confidence: 5 years for WD Black, 5 years for Samsung 990 Pro, 3 years for WD Blue/Kingston/Crucial budget drives. For HDDs, both WD and Seagate have similar real-world reliability at the consumer level — enterprise data supports rough parity between the two.
Compare All Storage Brands by Price Per GB →Frequently Asked Questions
Is WD or Seagate better for hard drives?
On price per GB, Seagate Barracuda drives are consistently $0.001–$0.003/GB cheaper than WD Blue at comparable capacities. Both are reliable, both are widely supported, and both offer similar warranty terms (2 years on most consumer drives). Seagate has a slight price edge; WD has marginally stronger brand perception. The practical answer: check current prices and buy whichever is cheaper that day.
Is Samsung worth the premium for SSDs?
For NVMe SSDs, Samsung's budget and mid-range drives (980, 870 EVO) cost more per GB than WD Blue and Kingston/Crucial equivalents without meaningful real-world performance advantages for typical users. The Samsung 990 Pro earns its premium for sustained heavy-write workloads. For gaming, everyday use, and most home office tasks, WD or Kingston delivers the same experience at lower per-GB cost.
What is the cheapest NVMe SSD per GB in 2026?
Kingston NV3 and Crucial P3 Plus consistently hit the lowest per-GB costs in the 2TB NVMe category — typically $0.039–$0.042/GB vs $0.045–$0.075/GB for WD and Samsung. They use QLC NAND, which has lower endurance ratings, but for typical consumer workloads this is not a practical limitation. See what is a good price per GB for an SSD for the full tier breakdown.
Does brand matter for hard drive reliability?
Consumer reliability data for WD and Seagate is roughly comparable. Backblaze, which operates tens of thousands of drives, has published annual failure rate data showing that both brands have models with good and poor reliability records — reliability varies more by model than by brand. The key is checking current reliability data for the specific model you're considering, not making a blanket brand judgment.