Muhammad Bin Naeem

Title:​ Libpixel vs. Imgix vs. Cloudinary: Which Image Processing Solution is the Best Primary Keyword​: image processing Secondary Keywords: ● digital image processing ● image enhancement ● image processing applications ● Crop ● web page speed test ● Cdn ● image optimization ● content delivery network Word Count:​ None Instructions:​ An idea for a technical post was a speed test against our competitors, many of our customers have unofficially run these tests to see which provider is the best. We have seen a few of these articles dotted around but were not sure exactly if they are accurate. SEO space for 'image processing' type keywords. A well written technical and SEO focused article to bring in more organic traffic. Client:​ Chris Moore Libpixel vs. Imgix vs. Cloudinary: Which Image Processing Solution is the Best Each Libpixel, Imgix, and Cloudinary provide nearly the same service with a few key differences. These key differences impact the service they offer immensely, and that is exactly what this article is about. In this article, you will get an answer to the following questions: ● ● What are the key differences between the three CDN service providers? How much of the impact these differences can have on digital image processing? Let’s start by first hearing what Libpixel, Imgix, and Cloudinary say about themselves: Libpixel According to ​Libpixel’s​ official website, they portray their service as: ​“The only image processing solution that is dead simple and saves you hundreds of hours of engineering time.” The core strength of Libpixel is that it is simple, easy to use, fast, reliable, and saves the precious time of its customers. Libpixle provides an easy to understand documentation of how to use their image processing application with: ● ● Two methods of adding image sources: with only one step and three steps for setting up each respectively. 15+ image optimization and image enhancement options, with hundreds of sub-options in each: including width, height, crop, DPR, blur, brightness, and more. To make sure Libpixel is a good fit for your product, a two-week trial is available to test out the image processing and delivery functionality. In the trial period, you'll have up to 10,000 image requests and 10GB bandwidth, enough to test and see if it's a good fit. No credit card required is required and support is on hand to get you set up correctly. Key Features: Speed. Reliability. Simplicity. An image processing pipeline built as close to ​cloud metal​ as possible focused on lightning-fast processing and delivery. Following the same method of introducing the service, now let’s move on to Imgix. Imgix According to their official website: ​“Imgix transforms, optimizes, and intelligently caches your entire image library for fast websites and apps using simple and robust URL parameters.” Imagix is a content delivery network with a major focus on image optimization. Imagix and Libpixel are both similar, as in both focus exclusively on digital image processing, their prices are fairly similar, even image optimization options provided by both are nearly the same. The only major key difference in both is simplicity and ease of use. Whereas Libpixel comes in with a 4 page 5 step documentation to set up their entire system, Imagix comes with documentation the size of a dictionary. Key Features: Speed. Significantly decreased loading time for end-users. Imgix does not provide a trial period. Cloudinary Cloudinary portray their services as: ​“Use Cloudinary to efficiently create, manage, and deliver images, videos, and other media, personalized and optimized for every device and channel.” With Cloudinary, it is not about the price, it is not about the documentation, and it is not about being the best in the CDN market. It is about providing all services under one umbrella. Cloudinary does it well, but with a hefty price of 99$ USD for their lowest tier plan. As or the optimization and enhancement options Cloudinary without a doubt has many more options as compared to others. The only downside is the cost of their service. Cloudinary has a free tier only for developers. Speed Test: Libpixel vs. Imgix vs. Cloudinary A good caching delivery architecture is essential for: ● Make images load faster ● Keeping the size as small as possible All the above-mentioned services use a ​CDN​ for image processing, delivery, and enhancements. So the caching and delivery part is solved. You will always get the image from a server closest to your location reducing the delivery time by providing a cached version of the image. Each service is with its advantages and disadvantages. As for a simple speed test, there are just too many variables involved. The results change for every location. Still, we performed a test on the loading speed of images. For the same image, the loading time was: ● ● ● Libipixel: 0.52s Imgix 0.95s Cloudinary: It was too expensive for us to run the test. In this test, Libipixel came out on top with 2 times faster loading speed as compared to Imgix. Including speed there are many other factors to look at when comparing these image processing services: ● ● ● Their reach to target geographies. Key features of each service. The effects of traffic spikes. Final Verdict It wasn’t easy to reach a decisive conclusion. Here are the results of the research into the best image processing solutions in the market: Libpixel Libpixel offers a two-week trial to test out the image processing and delivery functionality. In the trial period, you'll have up to 10,000 image requests and 10GB bandwidth, enough to test and see if it's a good fit. No credit card required is required and support is on hand to get you set up correctly. You can also use any tool providing web page speed test functionality to test you web page before and after optimizing your images using Libpixel. Imgix Taking benefit from the pricing plan of Imgix, if you have a personal blog you can use Imgix at a bargain price. For professorial needs, Imagix is fairly close to Libipixel but with a steeper learning curve. Cloudinary If your needs lie beyond the domain of images then Cloudinary is the best option. Be ready to pay the price of convenience for it.