Although we would want everyone to use ImageKit but we understand that one size doesn't fit all. Let us help you know the difference between ImageKit and Cloudinary so that you can make an informed decision based on your present and future requirements.

In case you want to migrate the storage to ImageKit, checkout ImageKit CLI tool.

Comparison overview

Before you buy a solution, here is what matters:

Features Skip to detailed comparison	ImageKit	Cloudinary
Real-time image resizing
WebP and animated WebP support
Image & text overlay
DPR transformation
Border, background, radius, rotate
Smart cropping
Automatic format conversion		Requires URL change. Using f-auto parameter.
Automatic PNG to JPG optimization
Custom domain name	Included in $49 plan	Included in $249 plan
Performance monitoring
Performance alerts
Option to use query parameters for transformations
Media library
Video storage
Video delivery
Real-time video resizing & optimization
Conditional transformations
Integrations Skip to detailed comparison	ImageKit	Cloudinary
No URL change integration
Same account for multiple websites
Remote URL fetch
Custom CDN integration
Multiple object storage like S3, Azure, Google Cloud, Firebase, Wasabi and other S3 compatible
HTTP server like Shopify, Magento, WordPress		Requires URL change
CDN and infrastructure Skip to detailed comparison	ImageKit	Cloudinary
CDN	CloudFront	Akamai/Fastly
Core processing regions	6 regions available on all plans (North California, North Virginia, Singapore, Frankfurt, Sydney, Mumbai)	US by default Enterprise accounts can request different location i.e. Europe and Asia Pacific.
Custom CDN integration	Akamai, CloudFlare, Fastly, Azure, Google CDN, Alibaba Cloud CDN, Zenedge or Limelight. Minimal billing $300.	List of CDN support is unknown. Feature is available for enterprise accounts.
Costing Skip to detailed comparison	ImageKit	Cloudinary
Free plan
First paid plan	$49 per month	$99 per month
Bandwidth Overage	$9 per 20GB viewing bandwidth	Next plan $249 per month
Custom domain name on the first paid plan
Pay as you go pricing for video transformations
Unlimited image transformations
Unlimited master images
Unlimited image thumbnail storage
Technical support Skip to detailed comparison	ImageKit	Cloudinary
Most of the time, you won't have to speak with us, but you will be impressed with ImageKit support, when you do. Skip to detailed comparison. Here is a screenshot of our Intercom's conversation ratings. Here is what our customer has to say:
Uptime Skip to detailed comparison	ImageKit	Cloudinary
Both services have exceptional uptime and process millions of images every hour. Uptime won't be a problem for you, no matter which of these two solutions you choose. Skip to detailed comparison.

Top reasons to choose ImageKit

1. Quick integration

You can complete the integration within 10 minutes by plugging ImageKit with existing storage instead of moving images to our storage. Integrate with Amazon S3, Firebase, Azure, Wasabi, Google Cloud, WordPress, or Magento to instantly get all real-time resizing and automatic optimization.

2. No need to change image URL

Setup the same custom domain and start delivering optimized images. You don't have to add any parameter in the image URL to get quality & format optimization.

3. Easy to use media library

ImageKit provides a simple interface to upload, manage, search, and tag resources for efficient digital asset management in the cloud. Your marketing team will love it.

4. Scalable pricing

Pricing should be simple to understand and predictable. ImageKit charges based on these factors:

• Viewing bandwidth
• Video manipulations operations
• Media library storage
• Advanced usage of extensions

All plans include unlimited image manipulations, and thumbnail storage is not charged.

In most cases, you will only manipulate media and delivery through our CDN. You pay more when your site traffic increases. Your cost doesn't depend on how many images you process per month. For example, if you implement lazy-loading using a low-quality placeholder, the increased number of image transformations won't impact your cost in Imagekit.io. But it will double your transformation in Cloudinary.

5. Superior technical support

Most of the time, you won't have to speak with us, but you will be impressed when you do.

6. Faster processing timings

ImageKit has a multi-region image processing network that comes with every plan. It means, no matter where your original images are stored, first fetch timings will be minimal.

7 Performance monitoring

ImageKit has in-built automatic performance monitoring and alerting for key business pages.

8. Single account for multiple websites

You can use a single account for many websites and leverage volume discounts—no fuss about where and how you use it.

Top reasons to choose Cloudinary

1. Advanced DAM solution

In Cloudinary, you have the option to set folder level permissions to share and edit media assets. The DAM solution is advanced and could be more suitable if you want to move and manage all media assets from Cloudinary.

Still not convinced? Let's get into the details.

Feature comparison

Both products have been around for a long time and have all the features you need to store, resize, and deliver optimized images and videos within milliseconds. However, each has certain unique advantages that could make your life easy, depending upon your use-cases.

Media manipulation

ImageKit has more than 40 URL parameters for image and video manipulation. You can dynamically adapt media as you want to fit the layout. Cloudinary has unique features like injecting a custom function into the image transformation pipeline.

Here, ImageKit has a unique advantage. You can add transformation string as part of the query parameter in addition to the URL param. This is useful when you don't want to change URL structure.

For example:

<!-- In Imagekit.io, both will work-->
<img src="https://ik.imgkit.net/demo/image.jpg?tr=w-300"></img>
<img src="https://ik.imgkit.net/demo/tr:w-300/image.jpg"></img>

<!-- In Cloudinary, only one will work -->
<img src="https://res.cloudinary.com/demo/image/upload/w_300/image.jpg"></img>

Let's see how media manipulation works in ImageKit:

Media optimization

Both offer the same level of compression as both solutions leverage tried and tested industry standard encoding algorithms.

However, ImageKit is more developer friendly. It will always compress images and videos by default. You don't have to change the URL to leverage automatic media optimization.

In Cloudinary, you will have to add f_auto parameter in every URL to make it work. Otherwise, the format is not changed based on browser support.

Let's see how automatic media optimization works in ImageKit:

Performance monitoring & alerting

This feature is unique to ImageKit. You will get an in-depth image optimization report for key business pages delivered to your inbox. This allows your team to proactively fix issues without having to check generic web-performance reports in third party tools manually.

• Get actionable advice that will fix performance issues immediately.
• Automatic daily analysis on desktop and mobile devices.
• Performance insights delivered to your inbox.

Media library

ImageKit has a simple interface to upload, manage, search, and tag resources for efficient digital asset management in the cloud. Your marketing team will love it.

Cloudinary's media library has many advanced features like folder level permission for sharing & editing media assets. It might be overwhelming in the beginning, but you will get used to it over some time. It has everything you need.

ImageKit unique advantage is that it has co-located storages in all 6 geographic regions. It has two benefits:

• It will improve your first fetch timings. The processing server is in the same AWS region where the image is stored. The download timings are minimal, and your data doesn't even leave AWS datacenter.
• It will help you with GDPR compliance. For example, if you choose the Frankfurt region, your assets will be stored in only the Frankfort region.

Here is how the media library works in ImageKit:

Analytics

ImageKit has powerful analytics that allows you to track everything necessary from one place. You will get the following reports in ImageKit:

• Top 404 URLs - Proactively identify and fix image URLs that return 404 errors before your users report them.
• Daily bandwidth and request usage graph (with and without imagekit)
• Top images based on request & bandwidth
• Top image transformations
• Country reports
• Referral reports

Cloudinary also has all the necessary reports. You also have the option to export the CSV.

Integration comparison

ImageKit is built to integrate with the existing setup in minutes.

A few advantages of ImageKit are:

• No URL change required - setup the same custom domain and start delivering optimized images. It comes with a paid plan, which is $49 per month.
• Connect with any object storage - Native integration with Amazon S3, DigitalOcean Spaces, Google Cloud Storage, Akeneo, Firebase, Ali storage, Wasabi, and other S3-compatible storages. Available on all plans.
• Integrate with any web server - Attach any public server or load balancer e.g. Magento, WordPress, Shopify, AWS EC2 or ELBs. Available on all plans.
• Fetch any remote URL - Optimize & transform any public image through ImageKit using Web Proxy origin. Available on all plans.
• Manage multiple websites in the same account - Add multiple external storage and access them on unique URL endpoints. Available on all plans.
• Use in-built AWS CloudFront or your CDN - Integrate with Akamai, CloudFlare, Fastly, Azure, Google CDN, Alibaba Cloud CDN or Limelight. It comes with a minimum monthly billing of $300.

In Cloudinary, enterprise customers can choose to store their raw assets on their own cloud storage. It does not offer native integration with object storage. You will have to upload raw assets to Cloudinary to start using image manipulation and optimization.

Infrastructure comparison

Both solutions use established Global CDN and can serve cached images in sub-milliseconds.

However, ImageKit has the advantage of a multi-region core processing network, which decreases the response time for new transformations and increases overall uptime.

ImageKit was the first one to offer multi-region co-located storage.

Pricing comparison

ImageKit has a predictable and simple to understand pricing model. In most cases, your monthly cost depends on viewing bandwidth. If you use advanced features such as video manipulation or extensions, you pay as per actual usage.

Few good points about ImageKit pricing:

• Free plan option.
• Small overage unit. It means your cost increases proportionally to your site traffic.
• Unlimited master images.
• Unlimited image transformations.
• Unlimited thumbnail storage.

Apart from bandwidth inclusions, the difference between free and paid plan is:

• One custom domain name e.g. images.example.com.
• One time 30 min consultation call where we will cover how you can improve website performance and user experience.
• Media library backup.
• Automated performance monitoring and alerting.
• Live chat support.
• User management.

Cloudinary also has a free plan. The first paid plan starts at $99, and the next plan is $249 per month. You get a fixed amount of credits which will be used against:

• Monthly Transformations - Number of all newly processed assets, including original uploads and derivatives (images and video-frames) within the last 30 days.
• Managed Storage - The accumulated size of all of your assets, which are stored on your Cloudinary account.
• Monthly Net Viewing Bandwidth - Total bandwidth of content delivered from your account within the last 30 days.

Understanding how credits will be used can quickly become confusing.

Here ImageKit has a clear advantage. Not only in terms of simplicity and staring cost but also how the cost will grow in the future. Let's understand that with examples.

How will your cost increase in the future?

It is crucial to understand how the costing will grow in the future when your team starts using a service for different use-cases. You should avoid being in a situation where you are stuck with a third party solution and paying more than a reasonable amount of money every month.

To understand how cost will grow, let’s compare the free plan limits:

In ImageKit, the first paid plan starts at $49, which includes 40GB. When you cross 40GB per month, your cost increases at $9 per 20GB extra. The volume discount starts once your monthly billing reaches $300.

In Cloudinary, the first paid plan starts at $99, which includes 225 credits. The next plan starts at $249 per month. Credits are used against monthly transformations, managed storage, and viewing bandwidth.

Now let's consider different scenarios to understand how various components change monthly costing.

Your team implemented responsive images

Your page views increased

You decided to use low quality placeholders

Uptime comparison

Both services have exceptional uptime and process millions of images every hour. Uptime won't be a problem for you, no matter which of these two solutions you choose.

However, ImageKit has a unique advantage here. 6 image processing regions act as a failover for each other if one region goes down. This type of distributed architecture not only improves the TTFB for first image fetch but also make ImageKit more available. ImageKit is committed to expanding its infrastructure in other regions in the future.

Also, based on the status pages, ImageKit seems to be more transparent about past incidents. You will be able to see recent uptime reports for different regions from a single view without further digging.

Support comparison

ImageKit offers live chat support. You can initiate a conversation with us from the dashboard, docs, or any page on the website. You will get expert advice from actual engineers.

Here is a screenshot of our Intercom's conversation ratings.

ImageKit SDKs

ImageKit offers SDKs for all popular programming languages.

You can quickly implement URL generation and file upload with a few lines of code.

// In order to use the SDK, you need to provide it with a few configuration parameters. 
// The configuration parameters can be applied directly to the IKImage component or using 
// an IKContext component.

<IKContext
	publicKey="your_public_key"
	urlEndpoint="your_url_endpoint"
	transformationPosition="path"
	authenticationEndpoint="http://www.yourserver.com/auth"
>

	// Image component
	<IKImage path="/default-image.jpg" transformation={[{
		"height": "300",
		"width": "400"
	}]} />

	// Image upload
	<IKUpload fileName="my-upload" />
</IKContext>

// In order to use the SDK, you need to provide it with a few configuration parameters. 
// The configuration parameters must be passed to the ImagekitioAngularModule module 
// in your app.module.ts file.

@NgModule({
    declarations: [
        AppComponent
    ],
    imports: [
        BrowserModule,
        AppRoutingModule,
        ImagekitioAngularModule.forRoot({
            publicKey: "your_public_key", // or environment.publicKey
            urlEndpoint: "your_url_endpoint", // or environment.urlEndpoint
            authenticationEndpoint: "http://www.yourserver.com/auth" // or environment.authenticationEndpoint
        })
    ],
    providers: [],
    bootstrap: [AppComponent]
})

// Image render using path
<ik-image path="/default-image.jpg" transformation={[{
	"height": "300",
	"width": "400"
}]}></ik-image>

// Simple upload
<ik-upload fileName="my-upload" /></ik-upload>

// Upload using callbacks and other parameters of upload API
<ik-upload 
	fileName="test_new" 
	[useUniqueFileName]="false" 
	[isPrivateFile]="true"
	(onSuccess)="handleUploadSuccess($event)"
	(onError)="handleUploadError($event)"
></ik-upload>

// In order to use the SDK, you need to provide it with a few configuration parameters. 
// The configuration parameters can be applied directly to the IKImage component or using an IKContext component.

<IKContext
	publicKey="your_public_key"
	urlEndpoint="your_url_endpoint"
	transformationPosition="path"
	authenticationEndpoint="http://www.yourserver.com/auth"
>

	// Image component
	<IKImage path="/default-image.jpg" transformation={[{
		"height": "300",
		"width": "400"
	}]} />

	// Image upload
	<IKUpload fileName="my-upload" />
</IKContext>

import com.imagekit.android.ImageKit;

ImageKit.init(
	context = applicationContext,
	publicKey = "your_public_key",
	urlEndpoint = "your_url_endpoint",
	transformationPosition = TransformationPosition.PATH,
	authenticationEndpoint = "http://www.yourserver.com/auth"
)

// your_url_endpoint/default-image.jpg?tr=h-400.00,ar-3-2
ImageKit.getInstance()
        .url(
            path = "default-image.jpg",
            transformationPosition = TransformationPosition.QUERY
        )
        .height(400f)
        .aspectRatio(3, 2)
        .create()

// File upload
ImageKit.getInstance().uploader().uploadImage(
    file = bitmap!!
    , fileName = filename
    , useUniqueFilename = false
    , tags = arrayOf("nice", "copy", "books")
    , folder = "/dummy/folder/"
    , imageKitCallback = this
)

import com.imagekit.android.ImageKit;

ImageKit.Companion.init(
    getApplicationContext(),
    "your_public_key",
    "your_url_endpoint",
    TransformationPosition.PATH,
    "http://www.yourserver.com/auth"
);

// your_url_endpoint/default-image.jpg?tr=h-400.00,ar-3-2
ImageKit.Companion.getInstance()
        .url(
            "default-image.jpg",
            TransformationPosition.QUERY
        )
        .height(400f)
        .aspectRatio(3, 2)
        .create()

// File upload
ImageKit.Companion.getInstance().uploader().uploadImage(
    bitmap,
    filename,
    false, // useUniqueFilename
    new String[]{"nice", "copy", "books"}, // tags, 
    "/dummy/folder/", 
    imageKitCallback
)

// SDK initialization

var imagekit = new ImageKit({
    publicKey : "your_public_key",
    urlEndpoint : "your_url_endpoint",
    authenticationEndpoint : "http://www.yourserver.com/auth",
});

// URL generation
var imageURL = imagekit.url({
    path : "/default-image.jpg",
    transformation : [{
        "height" : "300",
        "width" : "400"
    }]
});

// Upload function internally uses the ImageKit.io javascript SDK
function upload(data) {
    var file = document.getElementById("file1");
    imagekit.upload({
        file : file.files[0],
        fileName : "abc1.jpg",
        tags : ["tag1"]
    }, function(err, result) {
        console.log(arguments);
        console.log(imagekit.url({
            src: result.url,
            transformation : [{ height: 300, width: 400}]
        }));
    })
}

# SDK initialization

from imagekitio import ImageKit
imagekit = ImageKit(
	private_key='your_private_key',
	public_key='your_public_key',
	url_endpoint='your_url_endpoint'
)

// SDK initialization

var ImageKit = require("imagekit");

var imagekit = new ImageKit({
    publicKey : "your_public_key",
    privateKey : "your_private_key",
    urlEndpoint : "your_url_endpoint"
});

# Add this code to config/initializers/imagekitio.rb

ImageKitIo.configure do |config|
  if Rails.env.development?
    config.public_key = 'your_public_key'
    config.private_key = 'your_private_key'
    config.url_endpoint = 'your_url_endpoint' # https://ik.imagekit.io/your_imagekit_id
  end
  config.service = :carrierwave # replace with ':active_storage' if using ActiveStorage for uploads
  # config.constants.MISSING_PRIVATE_KEY = 'custom error message'
end
#make sure to replace the your_public_key, your_private_key and your_url_endpoint with actual values


# following sections only apply if you're  using the ActiveStorage functionality

# run the following commands on terminal in your project directory
rails active_storage:install
rails db:migrate

# add the following to config/storage.yml
imagekitio:
    service: ImageKitIo

# add the following to config/environments/development.rb
config.active_storage.service = :imagekitio

// Create a config.properties file inside src/main/resources of your project. 
// And put essential values of keys (UrlEndpoint, PrivateKey, PublicKey), no need to use quote
// in values. Then you need to initialize ImageKit with that configuration.

// UrlEndpoint=your_url_endpoint
// PrivateKey=your_private_key
// PublicKey=your_public_key

import io.imagekit.sdk.ImageKit;
import io.imagekit.sdk.config.Configuration;
import io.imagekit.sdk.utils.Utils;

class App {
   public static void main(String[] args) {
       ImageKit imageKit=ImageKit.getInstance();
       Configuration config=Utils.getSystemConfig(App.class);
       imageKit.setConfig(config);
   }
}

// SDK initialization

use ImageKit\ImageKit;

$imageKit = new ImageKit(
    "your_public_key",
    "your_private_key",
    "your_url_endpoint"
);

// SDK initialization

using Imagekit;

Imagekit.Imagekit imagekit = new Imagekit.Imagekit("your_public_key", "your_private_key", "your_url_endpoint", "path");

Here is what our customers have to say:

Conclusion

If you scrolled too quickly, here is what you need to know:

• Choose ImageKit for image and video manipulation, optimization, storage & delivery.
• Choose Cloudinary if you need advanced DAM features like folder level access control.

Please reach out to us at support@imagekit.io, in case you have any questions.