Transloadit
Comparisons/Kaltura

Transloadit vsKaltura

A source-backed, feature-by-feature comparison of Transloadit and Kaltura. Kaltura is an open-core video platform focused on enterprise video management, hosting, live streaming, and player technology with extensive API coverage.

Switching Notes

If you are evaluating a switch from Kaltura, 90% of its features are available in Transloadit, including Video encoding, Adaptive streaming, and Video concatenation, with 54 additional capabilities. However, Kaltura currently offers 4 features not yet available in Transloadit, such as DRM encryption, Live streaming, and Video player.
Transloadit's free tier (5GB processing/mo) makes it easy to evaluate the platform hands-on before committing to a switch.
Kaltura uses "flavor params" for encoding presets; Transloadit uses Assembly Instructions with Steps and Robots for more flexible file processing pipelines.
Kaltura bundles hosting, player, and CDN delivery; Transloadit focuses on file processing and can export to any storage backend.
Kaltura Reach provides speech transcription and captioning; Transloadit offers similar AI capabilities via dedicated Robots.

Key Differentiators

Only in Transloadit54

Show 44 more features

Only in Kaltura4

Feature Coverage by Category

TransloaditKaltura
8/11
9/11
Video
6/6
1/6
Audio
6/6
2/6
Image
9/10
0/10
Document
16/16
4/16
AI
17/18
10/18
File Mgmt
9/11
7/11
Security
5/6
2/6
Compliance
10/10
4/10
Infra
6/6
3/6
Dev Tools

Overview

Across the 96 capabilities we compare, Transloadit offers 92 while Kaltura offers 42. The two platforms share 38 features in common (90% of Kaltura's set), while Transloadit offers 54 additional features that Kaltura does not, including Audio concatenation, Audio waveform, and Audio looping.

Transloadit leads in Audio (6/6) and Image (6/6), while Kaltura shows particular strength in Video (9/11) and Security (7/11).

Deep Dive Analysis

Transloadit covers the Document category where Kaltura has no comparable features yet, including Document conversion, Document merging, and Document thumbnails.

Transloadit uses an open-stack ingestion model built on tus, Uppy, Companion, and tusd. You can self-host uploads and keep that ingestion layer independent of processing vendor choice.

Transloadit offers a free tier (5GB processing/mo), while Kaltura does not. Transloadit uses tier-based pricing while Kaltura uses custom pricing.

Transloadit advertises a 99.9% uptime SLA, compared to Kaltura's 99.995%.

Transloadit offers official SDKs for Go, Android, Kotlin, and iOS that Kaltura does not.

Need help comparing?

Our engineering team can help you map your specific Kaltura workflow to Transloadit's architecture.

Contact Support

Full Feature Comparison

FeatureTransloaditKaltura
Company
Years active17
20
Source Availability
Starting price$9/mocustom
Uptime SLA99.9%99.995%
SDKs11
7
Supported formats688
24
Employees11–50
501–1K
Fundingbootstrapped$166M
Free tier5GB processing/moNo
Pricing modeltier basedcustom
GitHub stars41K
530
npm downloads/wk9.7M
500
Video
Adaptive streamingSupportedSupported
Live streamingNot supportedSupported
On-demand video processingSupportedSupported
Picture-in-pictureSupportedNot supported
Video concatenationSupportedSupported
Video encodingSupportedSupported
Video overlaysSupportedSupported
Video playerNot supportedSupported
Video subtitlesSupportedSupported
Video thumbnailsSupportedSupported
Audio
Audio artworkSupportedNot supported
Audio concatenationSupportedNot supported
Audio encodingSupportedSupported
Audio loopingSupportedNot supported
Audio mixingSupportedNot supported
Audio waveformSupportedNot supported
Image
AI image descriptionSupportedNot supported
Image analysisSupportedNot supported
Image optimizationSupportedNot supported
Image resizingSupportedSupported
Spritesheet generationSupportedNot supported
WatermarkingSupportedSupported
Document
Document analysisSupportedNot supported
Document auto-rotationSupportedNot supported
Document conversionSupportedNot supported
Document mergingSupportedNot supported
Document thumbnailsSupportedNot supported
PDF optimizationSupportedNot supported
PDF splittingSupportedNot supported
Webpage screenshotsSupportedNot supported
Webpage to PDFSupportedNot supported
Artificial Intelligence
AI chatSupportedNot supported
AI image generationSupportedNot supported
AI recognitionSupportedSupported
AI-powered automationSupportedNot supported
Background removalSupportedNot supported
Content moderationSupportedSupported
Document data extractionSupportedNot supported
Face detectionSupportedNot supported
MCP serverSupportedNot supported
Object recognitionSupportedNot supported
Speech analysisSupportedNot supported
Speech transcriptionSupportedSupported
Speech translationSupportedNot supported
Text recognition (OCR)SupportedSupported
Text to speechSupportedNot supported
Text translationSupportedNot supported
File Management
Automated file deletionSupportedNot supported
Custom metadataSupportedSupported
Digital asset managementNot supportedSupported
File access controlSupportedSupported
File compressionSupportedNot supported
File decompressionSupportedNot supported
File exportingSupportedSupported
File filteringSupportedNot supported
File hashingSupportedNot supported
File importingSupportedSupported
File previewSupportedNot supported
File type verificationSupportedNot supported
File upload handlingSupportedSupported
Media catalogingSupportedSupported
Metadata extractionSupportedSupported
Metadata writingSupportedNot supported
Resumable uploadsSupportedSupported
Thumbnail generationSupportedSupported
Security
Custom security policiesSupportedNot supported
DRM encryptionNot supportedSupported
Encrypted storageSupportedSupported
File encryptionSupportedSupported
File virus scanningSupportedNot supported
Sandboxed encodingSupportedNot supported
Secure API accessSupportedSupported
Secure file handlingSupportedSupported
Signature authenticationSupportedSupported
Two-factor authenticationSupportedSupported
Compliance
CCPA complianceSupportedNot supported
GDPR complianceSupportedSupported
HIPAA complianceSupportedNot supported
PCI DSS complianceSupportedNot supported
SOC 2 complianceSupportedSupported
Infrastructure
Adaptive file deliverySupportedNot supported
Disaster recoverySupportedNot supported
Global file deliverySupportedSupported
High uptimeSupportedSupported
Multi-cloud supportSupportedNot supported
Multi-region supportSupportedSupported
Rate limitingSupportedNot supported
Real-time monitoringSupportedNot supported
Region-specific processingSupportedNot supported
Scalable infrastructureSupportedSupported
Developer Tools
Custom encoding presetsSupportedSupported
Custom workflowsSupportedNot supported
Developer APISupportedSupported
Media analysisSupportedSupported
Playlist generationSupportedNot supported
Script executionSupportedNot supported
Overall Score94%
49%

The right choice depends on your needs

Kaltura and Transloadit were built to solve real production problems. Both are used in serious systems, and both have strengths.

Choose based on your workload: file types, delivery targets, and how much control you need over upload and processing. If you need broad file processing with a self-hostable upload stack and an API that has been stable for 17 years, Transloadit is worth a trial. If your needs are narrower, Kaltura may be the better fit.

Best for

  • ✓Enterprise video management and hosting with full API control
  • ✓Organizations needing live streaming, VOD, and player infrastructure in one platform
  • ✓Teams requiring DRM, access control, and multi-CDN delivery

Not ideal for

  • •Lightweight image or document processing without video needs
  • •Teams needing simple file conversion without enterprise video infrastructure

This page is maintained and updated over time. If you spot something wrong or missing, let us know and we actively welcome feedback from competitors and users alike.

View full comparison matrix with all competitors

Kaltura's Perspective

As far as we know, Kaltura does not currently publish a first-party comparison page against Transloadit. If they add one and we miss it, please let us know and we will link to it here.

Testimonials

Loved by Developers Worldwide

Transloadit is used by developers all over the world to handle file processing. Don't take our word for it, see what they have to say.
Dave Perrett
Dave PerrettCTO / Shuttlerock
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.
Mike ReidDirector of Engineering / Signed
Top notch support — better than top notch.
Elio CapellaHead of Development / Filestage
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.
Jon Wong
Jon WongStaff Software Engineer / Coursera
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.
Braden SchaefferLead Engineer / Biginterview
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.
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Enterprise-grade security
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Supporting all file formats
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