Cloudinary review

Cloudinary approaches asset management from delivery: it stores images and videos once and generates every size, crop and format on the fly. The free plan includes the upload widget, API and search, auto-backup and revision tracking, transformations, video transcoding and CDN delivery for 3 users and 25 monthly credits. Plus costs $89 a month paid yearly, or $99 monthly, and adds backup to your own S3 bucket, auto-tagging based search, role-based administration and 225 credits. One credit buys 1,000 transformations, 1GB of storage or 1GB of image bandwidth, so cost scales with traffic. For marketing teams, the Cloudinary Assets DAM adds a visual interface with auto tagging, video support and presets for asset variations, sold on an Enterprise quote after a 30 day trial for 3 users with 25 GB. The one file, many variations approach avoids duplicate exports. Brand managers will find it more technical than Dash or Canto, and credits are harder to budget than a flat plan.

Who it is for

Companies whose images and videos feed websites and apps and need transformation and delivery as well as a library.

Price

Free plan for Image and Video APIs; Plus $89 per month paid yearly or $99 monthly; Advanced $224 yearly; Assets DAM Enterprise by quote.

Monthly Yearly $99 Per month $89 Per month 3 Users / 2 Accounts 225 monthly credits
Quoted from the vendor pricing page on November 9, 2026.

Key features

• Image and video transformations, transcoding and adaptive streaming
• High performance delivery through a CDN
• Auto-tagging based search and revision tracking
• Role-based multi-user administration on Plus
• Assets DAM with a one file, many variations approach

Strengths and weaknesses

• Strength: Permanent free plan with 25 monthly credits
• Strength: One master file serves many variations, which cuts duplicates
• Strength: REST API, SDKs and a widget library for developers
• Weakness: Credit-based pricing takes work to forecast
• Weakness: The full Assets DAM is an Enterprise quote; the trial lasts 30 days
• Weakness: Built for developers first, so brand users need training

Key facts

• Free plan: Yes, 3 users and 25 monthly credits
• Cheapest paid plan: Plus, $89 per month paid yearly
• Credit: 1 credit equals 1,000 transformations, 1GB storage or 1GB image bandwidth

Where it ranks

Cloudinary is No. 10 in our Best Digital Asset Management Software verdict.