Comparing Media Processing APIs
This page is our best effort at a fair, source-backed comparison of file processing and media APIs. In this dataset, Transloadit currently offers 92 of 100 features tracked below.
| Feature | Transloadit | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Company | |||||||||||
| Years active | 17 | 14 | 20 | 10 | 15 | 8 | 7 | 13 | 9 | 14 | 14 |
| Source Availability | |||||||||||
| Starting price | $9/mo | $89/mo | custom | $89/mo | $79/mo | $5/mo per 1K min stored | $25/mo | custom | $0.0075/min | $69/mo | $8/mo |
| Uptime SLA | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.995% | 99.9% | 99.9% | 100% | 99.95% | 99.9% | 99.9% | - | 99.9% |
| SDKs | 11 | 10 | 7 | 7 | 9 | 3 | 5 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 6 |
| Supported formats | 688 | 58 | 24 | 18 | 76 | 14 | 24 | 21 | 28 | 35 | 108 |
| Employees | 11–50 | 201–500 | 501–1K | 11–50 | 11–50 | 5K–10K | 11–50 | 151–200 | 10K+ | 11–50 | 1–10 |
| Funding | bootstrapped | $295M | $166M | bootstrapped | $2.2M | public | $1.6M | $100M | public | $1.9M | bootstrapped |
| Free tier | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | No | Yes |
| Pricing model | tier based | usage based | custom | tier based | usage based | usage based | tier based | usage based | usage based | tier based | usage based |
| GitHub stars | 41K | 2.8K | 530 | 1.2K | 720 | 50K | 1.2K | 1.9K | n/a | 860 | 900 |
| npm downloads/wk | 9.7M | 621K | 500 | 35K | 85K | 4.3M | 1.8K | 30K | 155K | 94K | 44K |
| Video | |||||||||||
| Adaptive streaming | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Live streaming | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| On-demand video processing | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Picture-in-picture | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Video analysis | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Video concatenation | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Video encoding | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Video overlays | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Video player | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Video subtitles | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Video thumbnails | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Audio | |||||||||||
| Audio artwork | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Audio concatenation | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Audio encoding | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Audio looping | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Audio mixing | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Audio waveform | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Image | |||||||||||
| AI image description | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Image analysis | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Image optimization | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Image resizing | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Spritesheet generation | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Watermarking | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Document | |||||||||||
| Document analysis | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Document auto-rotation | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Document conversion | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Document merging | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Document thumbnails | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Document viewer | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| PDF optimization | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| PDF splitting | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Webpage screenshots | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Webpage to PDF | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Artificial Intelligence | |||||||||||
| AI chat | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| AI image generation | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| AI recognition | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| AI-powered automation | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Background removal | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Content moderation | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Document data extraction | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Face detection | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| MCP server | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Object recognition | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Speech analysis | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Speech transcription | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Speech translation | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Text recognition (OCR) | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Text to speech | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Text translation | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File Management | |||||||||||
| Automated file deletion | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Custom metadata | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Digital asset management | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| File access control | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File compression | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| File decompression | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| File exporting | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| File filtering | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| File hashing | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File importing | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| File preview | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File type verification | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File upload handling | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Media cataloging | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Metadata extraction | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Metadata writing | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Resumable uploads | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Thumbnail generation | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Security | |||||||||||
| Custom security policies | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| DRM encryption | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Encrypted storage | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File encryption | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| File virus scanning | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Sandboxed encoding | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Secure API access | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Secure file handling | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Signature authentication | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Single sign-on (SSO) | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Two-factor authentication | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Compliance | |||||||||||
| Audit logs | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| CCPA compliance | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| GDPR compliance | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| HIPAA compliance | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| PCI DSS compliance | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| SOC 2 compliance | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Infrastructure | |||||||||||
| Adaptive file delivery | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Disaster recovery | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Global file delivery | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| High uptime | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Multi-cloud support | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
| Multi-region support | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Rate limiting | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Real-time monitoring | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
| Region-specific processing | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Scalable infrastructure | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Developer Tools | |||||||||||
| Custom encoding presets | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Custom workflows | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Not supported |
| Developer API | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported |
| Media analysis | Supported | Supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Playlist generation | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Script execution | Supported | Supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported | Not supported |
| Overall Score | 90% | 71% | 47% | 40% | 35% | 34% | 36% | 37% | 29% | 35% | 33% |
| Akamai Image & Video Manager | 18% | 13 | 13 | $500+/mo * | No |
| api.video | 25% | 18 | 16 | $0.00285/min | Yes |
| AWS Elemental MediaConvert | 29% | 28 | 25 | $0.0075/min | No |
| Bitmovin | 37% | 31 | 26 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Brightcove | 30% | 27 | 24 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Bunny.net | 29% | 30 | 27 | $0.005/GB | Yes |
| Bytescale | 30% | 26 | 26 | $7/mo | No |
| CloudConvert | 33% | 26 | 26 | $8/mo | Yes |
| Cloudflare Images | 27% | 13 | 13 | $5/100K images stored | Yes |
| Cloudflare Stream | 34% | 22 | 20 | $5/mo per 1K min stored | No |
| Cloudimage | 20% | 12 | 12 | €49/month | No |
| Cloudinary | 71% | 77 | 71 | $89/mo | Yes |
| Coconut Video Transcoding | 25% | 15 | 14 | $0.0075/min (SD) | Yes |
| ConvertAPI | 30% | 22 | 22 | $30/mo | Yes |
| Creatomate | 19% | 12 | 12 | $54/mo | Yes |
| Dolby.io | 13% | 4 | 1 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Encoding.com | 21% | 21 | 19 | $199/mo | Yes |
| Fastly Image Optimizer | 24% | 14 | 14 | $0.50/10K requests | Yes |
| FastPix | 23% | 21 | 18 | $10/mo | Yes |
| Filestack | 35% | 29 | 27 | $69/mo | No |
| Framebase | 9% | 4 | 4 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Google Cloud Transcoder API | 19% | 16 | 15 | $0.005/min (audio-only) | No |
| Gotenberg | 28% | 10 | 10 | $500+/mo * | Yes |
| GridVid.me | 7% | 3 | 3 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Gumlet | 36% | 35 | 31 | $25/mo | Yes |
| image4.io | 9% | 5 | 5 | $500+/mo * | No |
| ImageKit | 40% | 37 | 36 | $89/mo | Yes |
| Imaginary | 22% | 7 | 7 | $500+/mo * | Yes |
| IMG.LY | 22% | 9 | 9 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Imgix | 27% | 15 | 14 | $75/mo | Yes |
| imgproxy | 22% | 12 | 12 | $49/mo (Pro) | Yes |
| Kaltura | 47% | 42 | 38 | $500+/mo * | No |
| KeyCDN | 16% | 11 | 11 | $0.04/GB ($4/mo minimum) | No |
| Kraken.io | 17% | 7 | 7 | $5/mo | Yes |
| LibPixel | 10% | 4 | 4 | $15/mo | Yes |
| Livepeer | 27% | 9 | 7 | $100/mo minimum | Yes |
| Mux | 31% | 20 | 16 | $20/mo | Yes |
| Nutrient | 19% | 20 | 19 | $75/mo | Yes |
| Optimole | 16% | 9 | 8 | $19/mo | Yes |
| Piio | 9% | 4 | 4 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Pixboost | 18% | 5 | 5 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Qencode | 24% | 21 | 19 | $0.005/min | Yes |
| Rendi | 19% | 16 | 16 | $500+/mo * | Yes |
| S3Bubble | 15% | 10 | 8 | $0.001/view | No |
| Scaleworks Inc | 4% | 0 | 0 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Shotstack | 27% | 23 | 23 | $39/mo | Yes |
| shubox.io | 11% | 5 | 5 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Sirv | 19% | 18 | 18 | $19/month | Yes |
| SVT Encore | 19% | 6 | 6 | $500+/mo * | Yes |
| SYNQ | 10% | 8 | 8 | $500+/mo * | No |
| Telestream Cloud | 25% | 20 | 18 | $500+/mo * | Yes |
| Thumbor | 24% | 7 | 7 | $500+/mo * | Yes |
| Transloadit | 90% | 92 | 92 | $9/mo | Yes |
| TwicPics | 18% | 9 | 9 | $19/month | Yes |
| Uploadcare | 35% | 29 | 29 | $79/mo | Yes |
| Uploadjoy | 14% | 4 | 4 | $500+/mo * | No |
| UploadThing | 22% | 7 | 7 | $10/mo | Yes |
| Weavy | 14% | 6 | 6 | $249/mo | Yes |
| Wistia | 26% | 17 | 16 | $79/mo | Yes |
| Zamzar | 12% | 8 | 8 | $25/mo | Yes |
| Zencoder | 19% | 13 | 12 | $0.05/min | No |
| Ziggeo | 24% | 18 | 17 | $99/mo | No |
* Custom or undisclosed starting prices are normalized to a $500/mo floor estimate for sorting.
The right choice depends on your needs
Choosing a file processing platform is usually a long-term decision with real switching cost. Every product listed here solves real problems, and we respect the teams behind them.
Transloadit has been running since 2009. We think our feature breadth, open-source upload stack, and reliability are meaningful advantages. Still, some projects should choose a different tool, and that is completely reasonable.
We keep this data under active review. If you spot something wrong or missing, please let us know. We actively welcome feedback from competitors and users alike.
Loved by Developers Worldwide
I'm not usually one for fanboy-ism but Transloadit is one service I would recommend without hesitation. Their product and customer support is outstanding.
Top notch support — better than top notch.
We wouldn't be able to be here without your support. Your service is the best video transcoding service out there and I'm happy about the reliability.
Having a solution for both uploading and transcoding has been a godsend for the current scale that we are at five years after first choosing Transloadit.
I absolutely love you people. From the support to the technology, performance and APIs... you've taken what could have been the most painful process of my entire development career and turned it into an absolute joy. I cannot thank or recommend you enough.
I love it. Very easy, lots of options, everything works really well.
Using Transloadit saves development and maintenance. Being able to focus on our product instead of reinventing the wheel cannot be understated.
Superbly simple and one of the most popular features on Gitter. Even supports cat gifs!
After nearly a week of testing various AI image processing tools, Transloadit stood out as the clear winner. Its well-designed API is both intuitive and powerful, making integration seamless. The speed and performance exceeded expectations.
It was very pleasant, and the docs are great! For the rest amazing, I love the service.
I'm not usually one for fanboy-ism but Transloadit is one service I would recommend without hesitation. Their product and customer support is outstanding.
We wouldn't be able to be here without your support. Your service is the best video transcoding service out there and I'm happy about the reliability.
I absolutely love you people. From the support to the technology, performance and APIs... you've taken what could have been the most painful process of my entire development career and turned it into an absolute joy. I cannot thank or recommend you enough.
Using Transloadit saves development and maintenance. Being able to focus on our product instead of reinventing the wheel cannot be understated.
After nearly a week of testing various AI image processing tools, Transloadit stood out as the clear winner. Its well-designed API is both intuitive and powerful, making integration seamless. The speed and performance exceeded expectations.
Top notch support — better than top notch.
Having a solution for both uploading and transcoding has been a godsend for the current scale that we are at five years after first choosing Transloadit.
I love it. Very easy, lots of options, everything works really well.
Superbly simple and one of the most popular features on Gitter. Even supports cat gifs!
It was very pleasant, and the docs are great! For the rest amazing, I love the service.
I'm not usually one for fanboy-ism but Transloadit is one service I would recommend without hesitation. Their product and customer support is outstanding.
Top notch support — better than top notch.
We wouldn't be able to be here without your support. Your service is the best video transcoding service out there and I'm happy about the reliability.
Having a solution for both uploading and transcoding has been a godsend for the current scale that we are at five years after first choosing Transloadit.
I absolutely love you people. From the support to the technology, performance and APIs... you've taken what could have been the most painful process of my entire development career and turned it into an absolute joy. I cannot thank or recommend you enough.