status: active
timestamp: 2026-06-20
tags: [images, cdn, fallback]
Cloudinary
Image CDN fallback — 25 monthly credits free
Cloudinary
Role
Second image CDN behind ImageKit. The
never-hit-quotas rule requires a
documented swap target the moment the primary’s free tier looks
likely to tip — Cloudinary is that target for images. ImageKit’s 20
GB/month bandwidth covers the family at current scale; if a viral
post pushes us toward the cap, the family-wide image helper in
@chirag127/oriz-kit rewrites URLs to Cloudinary for the rest of
that month.
Free tier
- 25 monthly credits (one credit = 1,000 transformations OR 1 GB CDN bandwidth OR 1 GB managed storage)
- Unlimited requests
- All transformations (resize, format, quality, AI background removal)
- Custom domains on free tier
Card / subscription required?
NO. Free tier sign-up is email-only. No payment method requested, no trial expiry.
Alternatives
- ImageKit — primary
- imgix
- Cloudflare Images (paid)
- Sirv
- wsrv.nl (emergency open-proxy backup, no account needed)
Swap cost
Low — both Cloudinary and ImageKit speak <img src=...> URLs with
inline transform parameters. Switching means changing the rewrite
rule in the
image helper. No origin migration: both can pull from
Cloudflare R2.
Why this is our pick (as fallback)
Most generous no-card-required image CDN free tier after ImageKit. The credit model gives us flexible headroom: 25 GB of CDN bandwidth OR 25k transformations OR a mix. Plays well with the family preference for swap-cost-low alternatives.
Cross-refs
- ImageKit — primary image CDN
- Cloudflare R2 — origin
- Never hit quotas rule
- No card-on-file rule