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ImageKit vs Uploadcare

SEPT 2026 audit

A comparison of ImageKit and Uploadcare built from values read directly from each provider's own documentation, with the source recorded against every figure.

Reviewed by Palash BagchiUpdated 17 criteria comparedSources last checked

The short answer

Choose ImageKit if…

Costs you can predict per resource, at the cheapest paid entry here. Bandwidth, storage, video units and extension units are four separate meters with published rates, so a workload heavy on one is not charged against the others — and the bandwidth overage falls from $0.50 to $0.45 a GB as the plan grows.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Choose Uploadcare if…

Upload-heavy products where the work is done TO files rather than served from them. An operation is every upload, API request, transformation, video job and document conversion, so the meter follows the pipeline — and traffic and storage are billed on their own meters rather than drawn from it.

Editorial · Palash Bagchi · approved

Consider something else if…

  • ImageKit: You are running the free plan in production. Its limits are hard stops in ImageKit's own words: media delivery stops at 20 GB and new uploads stop at 3 GB. The failure is images not loading rather than a larger bill, and overage only becomes possible from Lite at $9 a month.
  • Uploadcare: You serve a lot and process little. Three meters run at once and Pro is $66 a month for 5,000 operations, 25 GB of traffic and 10 GB of storage, with $1.60 per further thousand operations. The free plan is personal use only, and SOC 2 and HIPAA appear only on Enterprise.

Neither quite fits? Every other option, ranked by iScore: ImageKit alternatives · Uploadcare alternatives

8 sourced criteria separate them — see where, with sources, below.

Visit ImageKit documentationVisit Uploadcare documentation

No affiliate links, sponsored placements or paid rankings appear on this site. Ordering follows the sourced data and the stated criteria.

01.

At a glance.

CriterionImageKitUploadcare
Pricing
Free tierYesYes
Kind of free offerFree tierFree tier
What the free plan includes20 GB bandwidth, 3 GB of DAM storage, 500 video units and 650 extension units a month. Both of the first two are hard stops, not overages.1,000 operations, 5 GB of traffic and 1 GB of storage a month, with a 500 MB file ceiling — and marked personal use only, which is a licence restriction the other three do not place on their free plans.
Entry paid plan
$9 a month for Lite, plus pay-as-you-go on every meter above its allowance.
$66 a month for Pro, which includes 5,000 operations, 25 GB of traffic and 10 GB of storage.
Pricing modelFour separate meters rather than one. Bandwidth, DAM storage, video units and extension units each carry their own monthly allowance and their own overage rate, so a workload heavy on one is unaffected by the others. The video unit is itself two rates: one unit is a second of SD or half a second of HD.Operations, plus traffic and storage on their own meters. An operation is any action taken on a file — uploading, an API request, an image transformation, video processing, document conversion — so the count tracks how much you do to the media rather than how much of it you serve.
Egress over allowance
$0.50 per GB above the 40 GB on Lite, and $0.45 per GB above the 225 GB on Pro — the rate falls as the plan rises.
$0.35 per GB of traffic above the 25 GB on Pro, and $0.25 above the 125 GB on Business.
When you exceed a capOn the free plan there is no overage — media delivery stops when the bandwidth limit is hit and uploads stop at the storage limit. From Lite upward, overage is allowed on bandwidth and storage and billed per GB.Every meter continues past its allowance at a published per-unit rate rather than stopping — operations, traffic and storage alike.
Limits
Included bandwidth
40 GB a month on Lite, rising to 225 GB on Pro. ImageKit puts a figure on what that buys: roughly 2 million images, or 2,000 minutes of HD video.
25 GB of traffic a month on Pro, and 125 GB on Business.
Storage
Storage price
$0.10 per GB above the 10 GB of DAM storage included with Lite.
$0.35 per GB above the 10 GB included on Pro, and $0.25 above the 50 GB on Business.
Compliance
SOC 2
Plug into your existing CDN and storage, then optimize, transform, and deliver media at scale — with signed URLs, WAF, and ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications keeping it secure.
SOC 2 is listed among the Enterprise plan's options, alongside HIPAA. Nothing is claimed for Free, Pro or Business.

Only criteria both providers publish appear here; a tinted cell marks a real difference. Criteria only one of them documents are listed below, and an absence there means we found no source — not that the feature is missing. How we source this.

The small bar above a value is inetGeek's own lean toward that side — computed from the same facts shown, never a number the provider published. See the picker below "The short answer" to weigh only the criteria you care about.

02.

Where they differ.

What the free plan includes

ImageKit
20 GB bandwidth, 3 GB of DAM storage, 500 video units and 650 extension units a month. Both of the first two are hard stops, not overages.
Uploadcare
1,000 operations, 5 GB of traffic and 1 GB of storage a month, with a 500 MB file ceiling — and marked personal use only, which is a licence restriction the other three do not place on their free plans.
Sources (2) →
  • ImageKit Pricing ↗

    “20 GB bandwidth monthly limit [...] 3 GB DAM storage fixed limit [...] 500 video units monthly limit”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Uploadcare Pricing ↗

    “1,000 operations per month [...] 500 MB max file size uploading widget, api basic image transformations adaptive bitrate streaming delivery through a cdn signed uploads webhooks personal use only”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

Entry paid plan

ImageKit
$9 a month for Lite, plus pay-as-you-go on every meter above its allowance.
Uploadcare
$66 a month for Pro, which includes 5,000 operations, 25 GB of traffic and 10 GB of storage.
Sources (2) →

Pricing model

ImageKit
Four separate meters rather than one. Bandwidth, DAM storage, video units and extension units each carry their own monthly allowance and their own overage rate, so a workload heavy on one is unaffected by the others. The video unit is itself two rates: one unit is a second of SD or half a second of HD.
Uploadcare
Operations, plus traffic and storage on their own meters. An operation is any action taken on a file — uploading, an API request, an image transformation, video processing, document conversion — so the count tracks how much you do to the media rather than how much of it you serve.
Sources (2) →
  • ImageKit Pricing ↗

    “500 video units monthly limit required for only new video processing. this can process 500 seconds of SD video or 250 seconds of HD video every month.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Uploadcare Pricing ↗

    “operations total number of actions performed with your files through uploadcare apis, including everything from file uploading, image optimization, and transformations to video processing, document conversion, and more.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

Egress over allowance

ImageKit
$0.50 per GB above the 40 GB on Lite, and $0.45 per GB above the 225 GB on Pro — the rate falls as the plan rises.
Uploadcare
$0.35 per GB of traffic above the 25 GB on Pro, and $0.25 above the 125 GB on Business.
Sources (2) →

When you exceed a cap

ImageKit
On the free plan there is no overage — media delivery stops when the bandwidth limit is hit and uploads stop at the storage limit. From Lite upward, overage is allowed on bandwidth and storage and billed per GB.
Uploadcare
Every meter continues past its allowance at a published per-unit rate rather than stopping — operations, traffic and storage alike.
Sources (2) →
  • ImageKit Pricing ↗

    “media delivery stops when you hit this limit. [...] new file uploads stop when you hit this limit. [...] everything in forever free, plus: overage allowed for bandwidth and storage”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Uploadcare Pricing ↗

    “5,000 / mo included then $ 1.6 per 1000 [...] 25 gb / mo included then $ 0.35 per gb [...] 10 gb included then $ 0.35 per gb”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

Included bandwidth

ImageKit

40 GB a month on Lite, rising to 225 GB on Pro. ImageKit puts a figure on what that buys: roughly 2 million images, or 2,000 minutes of HD video.

Uploadcare

25 GB of traffic a month on Pro, and 125 GB on Business.

Sources (2) →
  • ImageKit Pricing ↗

    “40 GB bandwidth $0.5/gb after that this base inclusion is sufficient for delivering approximately 2 million images per month, or streaming 2000 minutes of HD video per month”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Uploadcare Pricing ↗

    “5 gb / mo 25 gb / mo included then $ 0.35 per gb 125 gb / mo included then $ 0.25 per gb”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

Storage price

ImageKit
$0.10 per GB above the 10 GB of DAM storage included with Lite.
Uploadcare
$0.35 per GB above the 10 GB included on Pro, and $0.25 above the 50 GB on Business.
Sources (2) →
  • ImageKit Pricing ↗

    “10 GB DAM storage $0.1/gb after that this base inclusion should be sufficient for storing approximately 30000 files. excess storage beyond the base inclusion is charged at $0.1 per gb.”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

  • Uploadcare Pricing ↗

    “storage fast and secure integrated storage that just works. 1 gb 10 gb included then $ 0.35 per gb 50 gb included then $ 0.25 per gb”

    Read 2026-09-15 · official pricing · Report a correction

SOC 2

ImageKit
Plug into your existing CDN and storage, then optimize, transform, and deliver media at scale — with signed URLs, WAF, and ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications keeping it secure.
Uploadcare
SOC 2 is listed among the Enterprise plan's options, alongside HIPAA. Nothing is claimed for Free, Pro or Business.
Sources (2) →

When these numbers change, hear about it. Sources are re-checked monthly; a repricing goes out as a short note.

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03.

Documented by only one.

These criteria are published by one provider and not the other. An absence here means we have not found a source, not that the feature is missing — except where we say we read the other provider's own page on a given date and it does not state it. Those rows lean, and the provider can correct them with a link.

Storage (entry plan)Uploadcare: 10 GB included with Pro, then billed per GB. Storage is its own meter here rather than a draw on a shared pool.
Operations priceUploadcare: $1.60 per 1,000 operations above the 5,000 included on Pro, falling to $0.80 per 1,000 on Business and as low as $0.10 on Enterprise.
Audit logsImageKit: Folder-level path policies, audit logs, role-based access controls, and AI-powered moderation ensure your media stays compliant and organized at scale.Uploadcare: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Uploadcare.
Support on entry paid planImageKit: Email support on Lite, the entry paid plan. The free plan gets community support only.
ISO 27001ImageKit: Plug into your existing CDN and storage, then optimize, transform, and deliver media at scale — with signed URLs, WAF, and ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications keeping it secure.Uploadcare: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about Uploadcare.
HIPAAUploadcare: HIPAA is listed among the Enterprise plan's options. Nothing is claimed for the plans below it.
GDPR / data residencyUploadcare: data safe and secure: SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR.ImageKit: not stated on its own page when read on 2026-09-21 — corrections welcome · every such claim about ImageKit.
04.

Questions this comparison answers.

Entry paid plan: ImageKit or Uploadcare?

ImageKit: $9 a month for Lite, plus pay-as-you-go on every meter above its allowance.

Uploadcare: $66 a month for Pro, which includes 5,000 operations, 25 GB of traffic and 10 GB of storage.

Egress over allowance: ImageKit or Uploadcare?

ImageKit: $0.50 per GB above the 40 GB on Lite, and $0.45 per GB above the 225 GB on Pro — the rate falls as the plan rises.

Uploadcare: $0.35 per GB of traffic above the 25 GB on Pro, and $0.25 above the 125 GB on Business.

When you exceed a cap: ImageKit or Uploadcare?

ImageKit: On the free plan there is no overage — media delivery stops when the bandwidth limit is hit and uploads stop at the storage limit. From Lite upward, overage is allowed on bandwidth and storage and billed per GB.

Uploadcare: Every meter continues past its allowance at a published per-unit rate rather than stopping — operations, traffic and storage alike.

Should I choose ImageKit or Uploadcare?

Pick ImageKit if Costs you can predict per resource, at the cheapest paid entry here. Bandwidth, storage, video units and extension units are four separate meters with published rates, so a workload heavy on one is not charged against the others — and the bandwidth overage falls from $0.50 to $0.45 a GB as the plan grows.

Pick Uploadcare if Upload-heavy products where the work is done TO files rather than served from them. An operation is every upload, API request, transformation, video job and document conversion, so the meter follows the pipeline — and traffic and storage are billed on their own meters rather than drawn from it.

Provider pages

ImageKitAn image and video CDN with a digital asset manager, billed on four separate meters — bandwidth, storage, video units and extension units — each with its own allowance and overage rate.UploadcareA file uploader and media CDN billed on operations, where every upload, request and transformation counts as one action against a monthly total.

Comments

Every page here is sourced and dated.