1 Credit equals any ONE of:
Plus: different video qualities consume credits at different rates, storage and bandwidth are separate from transformations...
| Feature | xformmedia | Cloudinary |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $9/month | $89/month |
| Free Tier | 14-day trial | 25k transforms OR 25GB bandwidth (forever) |
| Pricing Model | Per source (simple) | Credit system (complex) |
| Resize & Crop | ✓ | ✓ |
| Smart Cropping | ✓ | ✓ |
| AVIF Support | ✓ | Limited (<30MP) |
| WebP Support | ✓ | ✓ |
| OG Image Generation | ✓ | ✓ |
| Color Palette Extraction | ✓ | ✗ |
| Metadata Access | ✓ | ✓ |
| SDK Required | ✗ | Recommended |
| Direct Uploads | ✗ | ✓ |
| S3-Compatible Sources | ✓ | ✓ |
| Public URL Sources | ✓ | ✓ |
| URL-Based Transformations | ✓ | ✓ |
| Video Support | From $9/mo | ✓ |
| AI Background Removal | ✗ | ✓ |
| Adaptive Streaming (HLS) | From $9/mo | ✓ |
| Signed URLs (Token authentication) | ✗ | ✓ |
Cloudinary is a full media management platform with AI features like background removal and generative fill. If you need a comprehensive DAM solution or advanced AI capabilities, Cloudinary's premium price may be justified.
However, xform now offers both image transformation and video hosting with HLS streaming-covering the needs of most projects at up to 10x less cost with simpler integration.