Cloudinary is the more capable product, and by a wide margin. If you use its AI editing, its asset management or its deep video tooling, Fileboy is not a replacement. If you mostly upload files, resize images with a URL and stream the odd video, Fileboy does that with less to learn and a bill you can predict.
A short comparison of the parts most people choose between. We have not quoted Cloudinary prices, because they change. Check their pricing page and compare with ours.
Check current prices: Cloudinary pricing · Fileboy pricing
| Fileboy | Cloudinary | |
|---|---|---|
| Uploads | Browser uploader, React component and Node, Ruby, Python and PHP SDKs. One ID returned per file. | Upload widget, many SDKs and an upload API with presets. |
| Image transformations | Resize, crop, content-aware smart crop, rotate, trim, rounded corners, padding, borders, colour and blur effects, logo and text overlays (including repeated watermarks), AVIF and WebP for browsers that take them, and image sizes as JSON, chained in the URL. | A much larger set, including generative AI editing, background removal, custom fonts and richer text styling, and overlays on video. |
| Colour palettes | Worked out for every image at upload: the dominant colour, up to 16 main colours with their share of the image, vibrant and muted swatches and a WCAG text colour for each. From the image URL as JSON or CSS, and from the management API. | Predominant colours and a 32 colour histogram with percentages, when asked for at upload or from the Admin API, and a colour-blindness accessibility analysis in beta. |
| Video | Adaptive HLS and DASH streaming up to 1080p, an automatic poster, seek-preview thumbnails, captions, a React player, an iframe embed and webhooks. No encoder of your own. | Extensive video transformation, adaptive streaming and player tooling. |
| Asset management | Nested folders you can browse in the dashboard and use from the API, plus your own key and value metadata and labels. Moving a file between folders never changes its URL. | A full media library with folders, collections, tagging and approval workflows. |
| Photo metadata (EXIF) | Camera, lens, exposure, date taken and GPS read from JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF and HEIC at upload, as typed fields and raw tags. Locations and serial numbers are only shown to your private key, and can be removed at upload. | EXIF, IPTC and XMP metadata returned on upload and from its Admin API when asked for. |
| Sending a file to someone | A share page per file, turned on in the dashboard or API, with a preview, a download button and link previews. It follows the file's read access, with signed share links for private files. | Public links to a page for an asset or a collection, made in the Assets media library. |
| Pricing model | Flat monthly price per app. Image transformations are unlimited on every plan. | A free tier, then usage-based credits that combine storage, transformations and bandwidth. |
| Storage reporting | Storage against your plan, split into images, other files, video originals, renditions, posters, captions and cached copies, with your biggest files and videos and a daily total. In the dashboard and the API. | Usage reports in the console and a usage method in the Admin API. Storage includes the cached copies of transformed assets. |
| Time to first upload | Create an app, paste a public key, upload. No presets or policies to configure. | Quick to start, but a larger surface to learn as your needs grow. |
| Private files | Public or signed-URL-only reads, per app or per file. Expiring URLs signed on your server, for files, images and video, and expiring links from the dashboard or API that you can turn off one at a time. | Several delivery types, including authenticated and signed delivery. |
| Company and support | Small UK company. You talk to the people who built it. | A large vendor with enterprise plans, SLAs and a wide partner ecosystem. |
Reviewed November 2026. Products change, so check Cloudinary's own documentation for current details. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.
No. The two use different URL formats and Fileboy covers a smaller feature set. Moving means uploading your files to Fileboy and changing the image URLs in your app. If you rely on features Fileboy does not have, stay where you are.
Yes. The free plan needs no card, and the try-it-now page lets you upload a file and transform it without signing up.
It depends on how you use it. Fileboy has a flat price per app with unlimited transformations, which is cheaper for simple, image-heavy use. Cloudinary's usage-based model can be cheaper if your usage is small and spiky. Compare your own numbers.
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