ImageKit is a media CDN that optimizes and transforms images and videos. It lets you deliver any other file type, including JS, CSS, or Fonts, through a global CDN. In addition to optimizations and transformations, ImageKit offers some other standard media delivery features.
- CDN caching and purging - ImageKit caches all files on a global CDN and allows you to purge the cache instantly. Learn more.
- SEO-friendly URLs - ImageKit lets you create SEO-friendly URLs without changing the resource location. Learn more.
- Basic security features - ImageKit provides basic security features like signed URLs with expiry and limitations on using unnamed transformations. Learn more.
- Advanced WAF and DDoS protection - ImageKit provides advanced WAF and DDoS protection to protect your account from abuse and malicious attacks. Learn more.
Deliver original file as is - (orig-true)
If you keep the default optimization and compression turned on ImageKit for images and videos, any image or video delivered via ImageKit.io always gets optimized. While this automatic optimization is great for web and apps, there might be certain cases where you want the original file as is.
You can do so by using the parameter orig and setting its value to true. If any other transformation parameters are specified along with orig-true, then those are ignored.
Example - https://ik.imagekit.io/ikmedia/tr:orig-true/docs_images/examples/example_food_3.jpg
Create download link - (ik-attachment)
Set ik-attachment=true query param in the URL to download the file as an attachment rather than viewing it inline in the web browser.
By specifying this parameter in the file URL, ImageKit sets the content-disposition header in the response with the value attachment along with the file name.
Using custom domain name
Let's say your website is loading at https://www.example.com. Now, you can configure ImageKit.io to serve your assets via a custom domain, for example, https://assets.example.com.
A custom domain only works on ImageKit.io's paid plans. ImageKit handles SSL verification, certificate procurement, certificate deployment, and renewals. Once you are ready, tell us the custom domain you want to configure via support chat or by emailing us at support@imagekit.io. Our team will provide you with the next steps.
Automatic SSL certificate procurement
Depending on the method of procuring an SSL certificate, you might be informed about certain requirements, like maintaining a DNS entry, to ensure correct certificate renewal.
Once the custom domain name is configured, you can fetch files using this domain apart from the ImageKit.io URL endpoint https://ik.imagekit.io/your_imagekit_id.
Suppose the old URL was - https://ik.imagekit.io/your_imagekit_id/rest-of-the-path.jpg
The new URL would become - https://assets.example.com/rest-of-the-path.jpg.
You can optionally associate a custom domain name with a specific URL endpoint. This is useful when using a custom domain name for a specific origin.
Using with your CDN
By default, ImageKit.io offers a global CDN Amazon CloudFront. This means that not only are your images optimized for size and you can transform them as per your requirements, but you also get a superfast delivery network with ImageKit.io that helps deliver images to your end users in milliseconds. You can use ImageKit.io's integrated CDN to deliver not only images but also JS/CSS/fonts or any other static asset.
However, you can integrate ImageKit.io with your CDN as well. This could be useful if you are in a long-term contract with any existing CDN vendor.
Custom Enterprise Paid plan feature
This setup is only available for enterprise plan users and requires a minimum billing. If you want to use ImageKit.io with your CDN, please contact the support team.
Feature support on custom CDNs with ImageKit
Not all features will work with a custom CDN. This is mostly because of limitations in the CDN and how they don't work with how ImageKit automatically optimizes or transforms media assets. Additionally, ImageKit cannot deliver detailed usage analytics when a custom CDN is used.
Supported CDNs
We have integrated and tested ImageKit.io with the following CDNs so far:
✅ Akamai
✅ Azure
✅ Alibaba Cloud CDN
✅ CloudFlare (only on Enterprise plan in CloudFlare)
✅ CloudFront
✅ Fastly
✅ Google CDN
✅ Zenedge
Features availability
| Feature | Available |
|---|---|
| Image transformation | Yes |
| Automatic image optimization | Yes |
| Automatic format conversion | Yes |
| Network-based media optimization | Yes |
| Data Saver | No |
| Security | Yes |
Integration steps for custom CDN
- Write to us at support@imagekit.io or contact your Customer Success Manager.
- Our team will work with you to make the necessary configuration changes in your CDN to support optimization and transformation features. Depending on your CDN, certain features might not be available at all. Our team will also inform you about that.
- Test the configuration of your CDN and go live.