Open-source alternative
Replace Cloudinary with imgproxy / Thumbor / Imagor
The best open-source alternative to Cloudinary is imgproxy (or Imagor) with Thumbor, self-hosted on Railway. Image transforms you host. imgproxy OSS is MIT; Thumbor is MIT; Imagor is Apache-2.0 — Cloudinary without the credit pack.
Estimated save $2,400 a year.
Open the stackStart on Railway
How Cloudinary compares
| Cloudinary | imgproxy / Thumbor / Imagor | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Credit-metered media platform | Open-source or fair-code license; you pay the host |
| Hosting | Vendor cloud | Self-hosted on Railway or any VPS |
| Rough monthly cost | Plus $89/mo (225 credits); Advanced $224/mo billed yearly ($249 monthly) source | Hosting only — no SaaS seat meter in this repo |
- imgproxy
MIT on-the-fly image proxy (Pro edition is paid)
- Imagor
Apache-2.0 image server
- Thumbor
MIT image transform service
FAQ
- Is it free?
- The imgproxy / Thumbor / Imagor licenses are open source or fair-code. You still pay hosting (Railway or any VPS) and any APIs the stack calls. There is no Cloudinary seat or task bill on this path.
- Can I migrate from Cloudinary?
- Yes. Start with the workflows or data you actually use, then cut over. The imgproxy / Thumbor / Imagor stack page has the agent prompt and the cost table; most teams rebuild the slice that matters and leave old Cloudinary links until they expire.
- How do I deploy it?
- Open the imgproxy / Thumbor / Imagor stack, copy the agent prompt, and deploy on Railway (one service, PORT, and a volume when the app needs disk). Placeholder: imgproxy (or Imagor/Thumbor) in front of S3/MinIO or a volume. Put Cloudflare in front. No DAM UI on day one.
- What does this replace?
- Cloudinary. The published small-team estimate on this stack is $2,400 a year.
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