4.4/5
G2 rating
219 reviews
Report
Should I Use Cloudinary?
Streamline media management and improve user experience by automatically delivering images and videos, enhanced and optimized for every user.
Depends
DependsBuy if you run a media-heavy site with developers to wire up the API and budget that scales with traffic.
Powerful image/video API teams love — but credit pricing bites at scale; overkill for simple image hosting.
Confidence: Medium
$89/mo
Starting paid plan
Plus plan; free tier exists
Yes
Free tier
For light, testing-scale usage
$2B
Valuation
Per Blackstone secondary investment
Value for money
2
Paid tiers called expensive; credit metering hard to predict
Ease of use
5
Repeatedly praised as easy and intuitive
Feature depth
4
Image + video DAM, AI transforms, deep APIs
Security posture
3
Bug bounty and pen tests; one recent auth CVE
Pros
Cons
Gotchas
- highOne credit meter covers storage, bandwidth and transforms — costs spike as traffic grows⁵
- mediumFree tier runs out fast; Reddit users bailed once usage scaled⁷
- mediumAdvanced and enterprise tiers are pricing-on-request; negotiate or overpay⁶
- mediumKeep the WordPress plugin updated: CVE-2026-24560 is a missing-authorization bypass⁸
Best for
- Media-heavy e-commerce
- Developer-led product teams
- Marketing/DAM teams
- High-traffic image delivery
Not for
- Simple blogs or portfolios with a handful of images
- Indie devs who outgrow free credits fast
- Non-technical teams with no developer resource
- Buyers wanting flat, predictable monthly bills
Pricing
Free
$0
- Limited credits for testing and tiny sites
- Community support
Plus
$89/mo
- Higher credit allowance
- For small teams and growing sites
Advanced / Enterprise
Not disclosed
- Pricing on request via sales
- Larger usage limits and DAM features
Security
Bug bounty, third-party pen tests and trust program; one 2026 missing-authorization CVE tied to its WordPress plugin.
- CVE-2026-24560 — Missing AuthorizationAuthorization bypass disclosed January 2026; WPScan lists the Cloudinary WordPress plugin (≤3.3.0) as affected. Update the plugin immediately.⁸
What users say
Reviewers love the ease of use and transformation API; complaints center on cost as usage scales.
“What I like best about Cloudinary is how easy it…”
“I really like how organized Cloudinary is. It makes ma…”
“We used Cloudinary as long as we could on the fre…”
Alternatives
Compare Cloudinary with each alternative.
ImageKit
Claims 40% cheaper for similar image CDN and transforms.
Cloudinary vs ImageKitUploadcare
Simpler, cost-effective file uploads and delivery.
Cloudinary vs UploadcareBytescale
Straightforward alternative for file hosting at scale.
Cloudinary vs BytescaleAppwrite Storage
Self-hostable open-source storage for full control.
Full analysis
Based on 20+ public sources: G2, Capterra, Gartner, Reddit threads, NVD/CVE, WPScan, and vendor comparison pages.
Sources
review
review
- Capterra — Cloudinary pricing and reviewscapterra.comreview
- The Digital Project Manager — Cloudinary pricing tiersthedigitalprojectmanager.comofficial
- TheImageCDN — Cloudinary credit meter explainedtheimagecdn.comreview
- PicaJet — Cloudinary DAM reviewpicajet.comreview
review
- SentinelOne — CVE-2026-24560 authorization bypasssentinelone.comsecurity
security
- Bugcrowd — Cloudinary bug bountybugcrowd.comsecurity
- Cloudinary — $2B valuation announcementcloudinary.comnews
- InfoClutch — companies using Cloudinaryinfoclutch.comnews
- ImageKit — Cloudinary alternative comparisonimagekit.ioofficial
- Uploadcare — Cloudinary alternative comparisonuploadcare.comofficial
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