MediaLit vs Cloudinary: a simpler, cheaper alternative
Pricing checked October 2026.
Cloudinary is one of the most capable media platforms around. If you need on-the-fly image transformations, video transcoding and a full DAM, it's hard to beat. But a lot of indie hackers and small SaaS teams sign up for it just to store user uploads and serve them from a CDN, then end up working out credits every month.
MediaLit is a smaller tool with a narrower job: file storage for AI agents, apps and teams. You get uploads, public and private files, thumbnails, a dashboard, an MCP server and a CLI, at a flat price. It's open source, so you can self-host it if you ever need to. Here's how the two compare.
MediaLit vs Cloudinary at a glance
MediaLit | Cloudinary | |
|---|---|---|
Pricing | Basic: free. Pro: $10/mo or $100/yr | Free: $0. Plus: $89/mo. Advanced: $249/mo ($224/mo billed yearly). Enterprise: custom |
Free tier | 1 GB storage, unlimited uploads and downloads | 25 credits/month, shared across storage, bandwidth and transformations (1 credit = 1 GB storage, 1 GB bandwidth or 1,000 transformations) |
Max file size | 50 MB (Basic), 2 GB (Pro) | Free: 10 MB images and raw files, 100 MB video. Plus: 20 MB images, 2 GB video |
Storage | 1 GB (Basic), 100 GB (Pro) | Counted in credits. Plus has 225 credits/month for everything |
Open source / self-host | Yes. AGPL server, MIT client packages. Self-host on S3, R2, MinIO or any S3-compatible storage | No self-hosted version |
Private files | Yes. Private files are served through signed URLs that expire | Yes. Private and authenticated assets with signed URLs. Token/cookie auth on Advanced and up |
AI-agent access (MCP/CLI) | Hosted MCP server with OAuth sign-in, plus the | MCP server access on all plans, plus a CLI |
Versioning | No | Yes, through Backup. It's off by default, and backups count toward your storage unless you use your own bucket (paid plans) |
Transforms | Thumbnails for images and videos on upload, plus optional WebP conversion. No on-the-fly transforms | Extensive on-the-fly image and video transformations, transcoding and adaptive streaming |
Where Cloudinary is stronger
Credit where it's due:
Transformations. Cloudinary resizes, crops, changes formats and optimizes media from URL parameters. MediaLit only creates a thumbnail at upload and can optionally convert images to WebP.
Video. Cloudinary has transcoding and adaptive streaming. MediaLit stores video and makes a thumbnail, and that's it.
DAM and version history. Cloudinary offers asset management, auto-tagging and Backup-based revision history. MediaLit has no file versioning.
Where MediaLit is stronger
Predictable pricing. You pay for storage and maximum file size, and that's all. Pro is $10/month for 100 GB, and you don't have to convert storage, bandwidth and transformations into credits.
Bigger files on a budget. Pro accepts files up to 2 GB, including PDFs, zips and other non-media files. On Cloudinary's Free and Plus plans, raw files top out at 10 MB and 20 MB.
Built for agents. Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor or any other MCP client can connect to
https://api.medialit.cloud/mcp, sign in with OAuth and save files to your account. MediaLit is also an official connector in the Claude directory, so Claude users can add it in a couple of clicks. Coding agents like Claude Code or Codex can runmedialit upload report.pdf --public. The files an agent saves show up in your dashboard and are available to your app through the API.No orphaned files. Uploads stay temporary until your app "seals" them, and anything left unsealed is deleted after 24 hours. Abandoned form uploads don't build up in your storage.
No lock-in. Everything that runs medialit.cloud is open source (codelitdev/medialit). If you outgrow the hosted service, run the same API on your own S3-compatible storage and point
MEDIALIT_ENDPOINTat it.
When to pick Cloudinary
Your product depends on responsive images, on-the-fly crops or format negotiation.
You serve a lot of video and need transcoding or adaptive streaming.
You need version history and restore for assets, or a full DAM for a marketing team.
When to pick MediaLit
You mostly need to store user uploads, documents and generated files, then serve them publicly or privately.
You want a flat monthly bill you can predict.
You're building AI agents or agentic features that need somewhere to save files and get a shareable link.
You want the option to self-host later without rewriting your upload code.
Migrating from Cloudinary
Create an app in MediaLit and get its API key (or run
medialit login).Export your originals from Cloudinary and re-upload them. The CLI works for bulk uploads (
medialit upload ./export/* --public), and the Node.js SDK works from scripts (medialit.upload(path, { access: "public" })).Store the returned
mediaIdor URL in your database in place of the Cloudinary public ID.For new uploads, swap the Cloudinary widget for
@medialit/react(or@medialit/uploaderoutside React). Your server gives out a short-lived upload signature, so the API key never reaches the browser.If you rely on transformation URLs, plan a replacement first. MediaLit gives you a thumbnail and optional WebP conversion, not URL-based transforms.
FAQ
Is MediaLit a full Cloudinary replacement?
Only if you use Cloudinary mainly for storage and delivery. For heavy image or video transformation, Cloudinary does more.
Does MediaLit keep old versions of a file?
No. MediaLit doesn't have file versioning. If you need it, keep your own copies or use a service that offers it.
Can AI agents use MediaLit?
Yes. Any MCP client can connect to the hosted MCP server and sign in with OAuth. Agents that can run shell commands can use the CLI, which also handles large files in resumable chunks.
Can I self-host MediaLit?
Yes. It needs PostgreSQL and two S3-compatible buckets (one public, one private). The self-hosting guide covers AWS S3, Cloudflare R2 and MinIO.
Try MediaLit
If you mainly use Cloudinary as a place to put files, MediaLit costs less and is easier to reason about. Start on the free Basic plan, and move to Pro ($10/month or $100/year) when you need 100 GB and 2 GB uploads.