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Cloudinary Pros and Cons: Top Advantages and Disadvantages

Quick AI Summary Based on G2 Reviews

Generated from real user reviews

Users find Cloudinary's media management incredibly easy, streamlining image and video handling with minimal effort. (40 mentions)
Users value the user-friendly asset management and appreciate consistent updates enhancing its integration and scalability. (28 mentions)
Users love the effortless media management with Cloudinary, appreciating its ease of uploading and transforming images. (25 mentions)
Users value the easy integrations of Cloudinary, enhancing asset management and simplifying development processes in their applications. (16 mentions)
Users appreciate the efficiency of Cloudinary for seamless asset management and automatic image optimization. (15 mentions)
Users appreciate the helpful customer support of Cloudinary, aiding in quick integration and setup processes. (13 mentions)
Users appreciate the user-friendly interface of Cloudinary, enhancing their image and video optimization experience seamlessly. (13 mentions)
Users find the navigation challenging, making it difficult to manage assets and transformations effectively. (17 mentions)
Users find the pricing model complicated and lack transparency, making cost management a challenge with scaling. (13 mentions)
Users find the complex UI of Cloudinary difficult to navigate, especially with various assets and settings adjustments. (11 mentions)
Users find the learning curve steep, particularly for beginners without a technical background, complicating initial experiences. (9 mentions)
Users find cost limitations with Cloudinary, experiencing unexpected bill increases related to large files and traffic spikes. (8 mentions)
Users find difficult navigation in Cloudinary, struggling with complex UI and searching for basic features. (8 mentions)

Top Pros or Advantages of Cloudinary

1. Ease of Use
Users find Cloudinary's media management incredibly easy, streamlining image and video handling with minimal effort.
See 40 mentions

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Kimberly J.
KJ

Kimberly J.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Very easy to use with great compatibility"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

It's very easy to use. I can drop my image in and the link is instantly ready for me to use as needed.

DH

David H.

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5.0/5

"Super useful and reliable tool"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

The upload widget combined with their transformation API makes user generated images super easy to manage on our app.

2. Features
Users value the user-friendly asset management and appreciate consistent updates enhancing its integration and scalability.
See 28 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
U

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Works great for our team"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

It is a helpful way to upload and manage assets. I appreciate the frequent updates and enhancements to keep it working well. Our team uses it on a wee

Verified User
A

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.5/5

"Swiss Army Knive"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

We especially like using the API, metadata features, and inline URL parameters.

3. Image Management
Users love the effortless media management with Cloudinary, appreciating its ease of uploading and transforming images.
See 25 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Kimberly J.
KJ

Kimberly J.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Very easy to use with great compatibility"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

It's very easy to use. I can drop my image in and the link is instantly ready for me to use as needed.

DH

David H.

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5.0/5

"Super useful and reliable tool"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

The upload widget combined with their transformation API makes user generated images super easy to manage on our app.

4. Easy Integrations
Users value the easy integrations of Cloudinary, enhancing asset management and simplifying development processes in their applications.
See 16 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
U

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Works great for our team"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

It is a helpful way to upload and manage assets. I appreciate the frequent updates and enhancements to keep it working well. Our team uses it on a wee

Mateus C.
MC

Mateus C.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Great experience with cloudinary"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

For me, the genAI image correction and simple integration with python

5. Efficiency
Users appreciate the efficiency of Cloudinary for seamless asset management and automatic image optimization.
See 15 mentions

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Verified User
U

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Works great for our team"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

It is a helpful way to upload and manage assets. I appreciate the frequent updates and enhancements to keep it working well. Our team uses it on a wee

Verified User
A

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Automatic Image Optimization"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

The best thing for me is that Cloudinary automatically optimizes images for different devices. It reduces file size without losing quality, which save

6. Customer Support
Users appreciate the helpful customer support of Cloudinary, aiding in quick integration and setup processes.
See 13 mentions

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Upadesh S.
US

Upadesh S.

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5.0/5

"Best CDN to implement on your site."

What do you like about Cloudinary?

I've been working in the digital marketing field for over a year now and I can confidently say that Cloudinary is the best CDN to implement on your si

Verified User
A

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

5.0/5

"One of the easiest SDKs to integrate for on-the-fly image transformations"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

This was so easy to setup, install, and load the SDK into my software. We were able to scale our application to accept millions of user images very qu

7. User Interface
Users appreciate the user-friendly interface of Cloudinary, enhancing their image and video optimization experience seamlessly.
See 13 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
U

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4.5/5

"Media storage for website images"

What do you like about Cloudinary?

Easy user interface, good storage options, best for hi-res image download packages for our website

Verified User
U

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"It makes sharing images easy."

What do you like about Cloudinary?

I love how user friendly it is and the layout. It's easy to navigate and customer service responds quickly to any questions or concerns.

Top Cons or Disadvantages of Cloudinary

1. Poor Navigation
Users find the navigation challenging, making it difficult to manage assets and transformations effectively.
See 17 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
A

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2.5/5

"Steady CDN with quirks"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Very complicated navigation on the site. Hard to figure out transformations taking place. Pricing model for transformations in videos is not transpare

Verified User
A

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.0/5

"Powerful and easy to get started with"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

The UI is going through some modernisation and difficult to navigate.

2. Expensive
Users find the pricing model complicated and lack transparency, making cost management a challenge with scaling.
See 13 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
A

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2.5/5

"Steady CDN with quirks"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Very complicated navigation on the site. Hard to figure out transformations taking place. Pricing model for transformations in videos is not transpare

Verified User
U

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Cloudinary makes my digital asset management easier"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Sometimes the pricing can get a little tricky, especially when you scale up or have a lot of transformations happening behind the scenes. Also, the UI

3. Complex UI
Users find the complex UI of Cloudinary difficult to navigate, especially with various assets and settings adjustments.
See 11 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
U

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Cloudinary makes my digital asset management easier"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Sometimes the pricing can get a little tricky, especially when you scale up or have a lot of transformations happening behind the scenes. Also, the UI

Verified User
U

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.5/5

"The free tier for cloudinary is very generous in terms of image upload"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Not much, the UI was a bit confusing at first.

4. Learning Curve
Users find the learning curve steep, particularly for beginners without a technical background, complicating initial experiences.
See 9 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
U

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Works great for our team"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Sometimes the enhancements cause changes in the interface that make workflows a bit confusing temporarily - we could use better support to explain new

Verified User
A

Verified User

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

4.0/5

"Automatic Image Optimization"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Learning curve is steep for beginners without technical background.API responses can be slow during peak usage times.

5. Cost Limitations
Users find cost limitations with Cloudinary, experiencing unexpected bill increases related to large files and traffic spikes.
See 8 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
A

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Cloudinary review after 3 years of usage"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

I wish cost management was more transparent.

Verified User
A

Verified User

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

5.0/5

"Outstanding technology & support"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Costs are tied to consumption metrics and therefore costs are therefore increasing in case the amount of content / website traffic increases

6. Difficult Navigation
Users find difficult navigation in Cloudinary, struggling with complex UI and searching for basic features.
See 8 mentions

See Related User Reviews

Verified User
A

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

2.5/5

"Steady CDN with quirks"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Very complicated navigation on the site. Hard to figure out transformations taking place. Pricing model for transformations in videos is not transpare

Verified User
A

Verified User

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

4.0/5

"Powerful and easy to get started with"

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

The UI is going through some modernisation and difficult to navigate.

Cloudinary Reviews (158)

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Cloudinary Reviews (158)

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SO
Marketing Manager
Insurance
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"I love using Cloudinary, it's very easy to use"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

Cloudinary is very easy to use and I use it very regularly. I use Cloudinary to store images, which are then uploaded to my website via a URL.

I use Cloudinary to compress images, which helps to reduce the file size and takes up less space on our website, which saves us more money by reducing the website bandwidth usage. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

I have not seen any downsides to using Cloudinary. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Jon H.
JH
UI/UX Designer
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
"Effortless Image Management, But Needs Better Team Controls"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

I’ve been using Cloudinary for some time now, and what I really appreciate is how much it simplifies my workflow. I can upload an image and Cloudinary automatically handles all the complex tasks—optimisation, resizing, format conversion, and more—without any need for complicated setup or extra effort on my part.

The URL-based transformations are a standout feature for me. Adjusting quality, aspect ratios, dimensions, and formats is as easy as adding a few parameters, which is incredibly convenient. This not only saves me time but also keeps my workflow organised, eliminating the need to create or maintain cumbersome image pipelines myself.

In terms of performance, Cloudinary is very reliable. Their CDN delivers images quickly, and I’ve noticed that pages on our website load faster and feel lighter because of the optimised images they provide.

All in all, Cloudinary makes managing images effortless, allowing me to concentrate on designing and building rather than dealing with asset management. It’s efficient, dependable, and truly valuable for anyone who works with visuals, even occasionally. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

One of my main frustrations with Cloudinary is how disorganized things can become when several people share the same account. When designers, developers, and content editors are all uploading and modifying assets, the situation can quickly spiral out of control. Naming conventions are often ignored, folders become cluttered, duplicate files accumulate, and it’s all too easy for someone to accidentally overwrite something important.

Cloudinary doesn’t provide many safeguards to prevent these issues, either. If your team lacks strong organization, the platform simply mirrors that disorder, turning the asset library into a bit of a jungle. With strict processes, it’s possible to keep things under control, but without them, managing assets can be quite a headache. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Entertainment
UE
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"A powerful and reliable solution for managing digital assets at scale"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

Cloudinary makes it incredibly easy to manage and deliver digital assets at scale. I especially appreciate how intuitive the interface is and how quickly I can upload, organize, and transform images. The automatic image optimization and built-in CDN significantly improve performance without requiring extra development time. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

While Cloudinary is powerful, the pricing can get expensive quickly, especially for small teams or startups. Some advanced features require a learning curve, and documentation, although extensive, can be overwhelming for beginners. The UI could also benefit from a modern refresh. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

CC
VP of Technology
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Cloudinary Makes Media Management Effortless and Boosts ROI"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

Cloudinary is not just a CDN, but the de facto standard platform for images and video on the web. It is easy to use for developers, marketers and creatives and has dramatically reduced complications with delivering the right media to the right device at the right time. As a small business, media management will never be a profit center for us, so ease of implementation and integration are key for us and Cloudinary delivers. Additionally, new features and functionality only serve to increase our ROI as our adoption continues. The value for our teams and our business is undeniable. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Cost and sticker shock is definitely a concern, but overall value outweighs cost completely for us. A portion of the AI features are not relevant to our business. Mass update of image paths is not a trivial, so initial setup is critical. Stock Wordpress integration leaves something to be desired. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Manuel M.
MM
Head of Content
Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)
"Powerful, User-Friendly Asset Management"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

Cloudinary offers dynamic image manipulation and a robust API, supported by comprehensive public documentation. Its user-friendly interface makes it accessible to everyone in the company, and it serves as a single source of truth for all digital assets. I also appreciate Cloudinary’s commitment to keeping up with the evolving technology landscape. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

I wouldn't say I dislike it, but I do wish it were more affordable for us, given that the base product includes plenty of features that are certainly valuable but that I haven't gotten to take advantage of due to my specific business needs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

BM
Developer / DevOps
Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)
"Cloudinary makes asset management easy!"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

The digital DAM makes it easy for us to share assets across our company. The API is very robust and feature-rich, allowing us to carry out all of the dev work that's needed.

The developer support and customer support team are very knowledgable and quick to respond to any issues we have had.

The SDKs allow us to quickly and easy implement uploads into our existing system with ease. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

There is no S3-compliant APIs that allow us to modify existing credentials, we had to completely refresh our integrations which involved an element of dev time.

We have experienced a few bugs with misleading errors from the edge and CDN, which have involved a few developer support team members. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Victor T.
VT
Web developer
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Great option to store images and showcase them transformed on a website"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

The ease of use, its very easy to create a transformation thats used often (named transformation) and apply it to all assets, then I can just tweak the transformation and I dont have to manually change each asset.

Documentation is clear so its easy to implement and integrate with my current React app Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

Only the price and pricing model, the storage would never go down (makes sense) but for it to be bundled on the same credits as the bandwidth and transformations it makes it more difficult to manage every month.

Customer Support answers quick whenever there are issues, however for the same issue I could be in contact with more than 5 different agents, and sometimes they dont have the same response, so I just give up.

I still dont know exactly how their caching works, since in theory once an asset and its transformation are cached on cloudflare, any request should just pick from the cache and not count towards my spending, however the daily usage is still up and down, meaning there are still calls going to cloudinary and not through the cache. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Eugene Musebe of Cloudinary

We appreciate your positive feedback on the ease of use and documentation of Cloudinary. We understand your concerns about the pricing model and the consistency of customer support. Your feedback is important to us and we will use it to enhance our services for a better customer experience.

"Effortless Image Management, Minor UI Challenges"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

I really appreciate how Cloudinary allows me to store images on the cloud with ease and retrieve them without needing to compress or edit them beforehand. The ability to store images using their API and then request them simply by calling the URL with appropriate parameters is incredibly convenient. Cloudinary handles transformations and other tasks in the background, which saves me a lot of time and effort. Furthermore, setting up Cloudinary was quite straightforward, and its integration through API calls is greatly simplified, especially with the assistance of AI. Overall, I enjoy the service a lot because it performs exceptionally well, even though I have mentioned some minor concerns. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

I find the UI of Cloudinary to be somewhat complicated and feel that it could be more modern and user-friendly. Additionally, I feel that the pricing can become quite high once a certain threshold is reached. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

FD
Full-time Freelancer
Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)
"Satisfied Cloudinary User Since 2013"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

Eight months ago when I did initial review, I was using Cloudinary almost daily but not as much as I started using it about six months ago. I've been using Cloudinary much, much more these days. I'm transitioning away from creating websites for other people and building out my own websites for my own domains, which means my use of Cloudinary has skyrocketed over the last 8 - 10 months, and there are more things I can do with Cloudinary that I could have always done with Cloudinary if I'd been using as much as I'm using it now. My next big project on Cloudinary will be doing a great deal more with video hosting. I've always used it mainly with images, but Cloudinary is not limited to just working with images. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

I would love to see Cloudinary add more tiers to their plans. They go from a free plan to a Plus plan, and the Plus plan is $99 a month. Many of my clients are very small business owners and/or individual bloggers not making money from their websites. Asking them to pay $99 a month to manage 10 to 100 images is too much. I always pitch the free tier of Cloudinary to my clients, but I'd love to be able to also send paying subscribers Cloudinary's way, also. The Free plan provides 25 credits per month. The Plus plan provides 225 credits per month. What if there was a 25/month plan with 75 or 100 credits and/or $45/month plan with 180 credits? I have more confidence that I could promote those types of plaid plans to my clients than the $99. As for Cloudinary itself and what it offers, there's still nothing I dislike about the service. Everything I want to do, it does and I'm discovering other things I can do now that I'm using it a great deal more. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Response from Eugene Musebe of Cloudinary

Twelve years of trust—that’s incredible. We’re thrilled Cloudinary continues to give you the control, flexibility, and simplicity you rely on, and it’s great to hear our support team has had your back along the way. Thanks for being such a loyal part of the Cloudinary community!

"Effortless Media Management and Optimization"
What do you like best about Cloudinary?

I use Cloudinary for hosting my images and videos for my website, which makes managing my content really easy and efficient. I love how I can simply upload a photo or video and grab the URL to seamlessly integrate it onto my website. It significantly optimizes my images for fast loading times, thereby improving my page speed, which is very important for user experience and SEO. What I find remarkable about Cloudinary is its ease of use, with a straightforward setup process that is frictionless and user-friendly. The image transformations are a fantastic feature, providing high versatility and customization options right out of the box. I used to use Cloudflare before, but I found Cloudinary much easier to understand and use, which I greatly appreciate. The entire experience with Cloudinary has been positive and hassle-free for my particular use case. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about Cloudinary?

I don't really dislike anything. Evertything I've wanted to use Cloudinary for I've been easily able to do. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.