UploadThing alternatives: 8 apps ranked by verified data

Facts checked Nov 8, 2026AppBreakup editorialHow we rank All image and video CDNs and APIs

Top picks

Best overall
Uploadcare
Starting price: $79/month (Pro, monthly billing)
Best free option
Cloudinary
Starting price: $99/month, or $89/month billed yearly (Plus)
Best open source
Supabase
Free plan: Yes, $0/month with 50,000 monthly active users

Common reasons people leave UploadThing: built for the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem only, and no image resizing or transformation pipeline. We ranked 8 alternatives by how directly each one replaces UploadThing, then by reviews, real visits and how recently each app's facts were checked against its own website. Uploadcare currently ranks first.

Quick comparison

#	App	Pricing	Verified price	Open source	Platforms	Verified facts	Score
1	Uploadcare	Free plan + paid	$79/month (Pro, monthly billing)	No	Web	4 of 4	68.8
2	Cloudinary	Free plan + paid	$99/month, or $89/month billed yearly (Plus)	No	Web	5 of 5	64.8
3	Firebase	Free plan + paid	—	No	Web, iOS, Android	8 of 8	63.2
4	ImageKit	Free plan + paid	$9 a month plus usage (Lite)	No	Web	6 of 6	61.8
5	Amazon S3	Free plan + paid	Up to $200 in credits for new AWS customers	No	Web	7 of 7	51.2
6	Cloudflare R2	Free plan + paid	$0.015 per GB-month	No	Web	6 of 6	50.0
7	Supabase	Free plan + paid	From $25/month	Yes	Web, Self-hosted	5 of 5	49.0
8	FiFilestack	Free plan + paid	$69/month	No	Web, iOS, Android	5 of 5	42.3

1. UploadcareTop pick
Best for: Apps that accept user uploads and need a drop-in uploader plus image and video delivery
Free plan + paidWeb
68.8
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Hosted uploader with a ready widget plus on-the-fly image processing and a CDN, and SDKs beyond JavaScript.
Pros
Polished upload widget with many file sources
Malware and NSFW checks on uploaded files
Free plan for personal projects
Cons
Free plan is for personal use only
HIPAA and own-S3 storage are enterprise-only
Fewer AI editing features than Cloudinary
Visit Uploadcare Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.3100
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Uploadcare a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
4 of 4 verified
Free plan
Yes, 1,000 operations/month
Checked Nov 8, 2026uploadcare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Starting price
$79/month (Pro, monthly billing)
Checked Nov 8, 2026uploadcare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Compliance
HIPAA and SOC 2 (Enterprise)
Checked Nov 8, 2026uploadcare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Upload sources
Device, camera, Dropbox, Google Drive, link
Checked Nov 8, 2026uploadcare.com(opens source in a new tab)
2. Cloudinary
Best for: Teams that want one hosted service for media uploads, transformations, delivery and asset management
Free plan + paidWeb
64.8
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Full media platform with uploads, transformations and video delivery, for apps where media is central.
Pros
URL-based transformations for both images and video
SDKs for most popular web and mobile frameworks
Includes a full DAM for non-developers
Free plan with no credit card required
Cons
Credit-based pricing is hard to predict as traffic grows
Paid plans start far above simpler image CDNs
Cloud only, with no self-hosted option
Visit Cloudinary Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.387
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Cloudinary a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
5 of 5 verified
Free plan
Yes, $0 forever, no credit card
Checked Nov 8, 2026cloudinary.com(opens source in a new tab)
Starting price
$99/month, or $89/month billed yearly (Plus)
Checked Nov 8, 2026cloudinary.com(opens source in a new tab)
Video
Transcoding and adaptive streaming
Checked Nov 8, 2026cloudinary.com(opens source in a new tab)
SDKs
Node.js, React, Next.js, Python, Java and more
Checked Nov 8, 2026cloudinary.com(opens source in a new tab)
Advanced plan
$249/month, or $224/month billed yearly
Checked Nov 8, 2026cloudinary.com(opens source in a new tab)
3. Firebase
Best for: Mobile and web teams who want realtime sync, auth and push messaging from one vendor
Free plan + paidWeb, iOS, Android
63.2
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Cloud Storage for Firebase gives client SDK uploads guarded by security rules, a fit for mobile and web apps.
Pros
Mature SDKs for Android, iOS, Flutter and web
Realtime sync and offline support built into the client libraries
Wide set of mobile services such as crash reporting and push messaging
Cons
Ties your app closely to Google Cloud
NoSQL query limits often force data duplication
Pay-as-you-go bills can spike with heavy reads
Visit Firebase Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.332
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.15100
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Firebase a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
8 of 8 verified
Free plan
Yes, Spark plan
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Paid plan
Blaze, pay as you go
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Database
Firestore, a NoSQL document database
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
SQL option
PostgreSQL via Firebase SQL Connect
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Blaze plan
Pay as you go, with Spark free usage included
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Cloud Functions
Free up to 2M invocations/month, then $0.40 per million
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Cloud Storage
Free up to 5 GB, then $0.026 per GB
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free credit
$300 for eligible Blaze users
Checked Nov 8, 2026firebase.google.com(opens source in a new tab)
4. ImageKit
Best for: Startups and agencies wanting Cloudinary-like features with simpler, cheaper pricing
Free plan + paidWeb
61.8
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Adds real-time image and video optimisation and a CDN on top of file uploads, with a free tier.
Pros
Forever-free plan with 20 GB monthly bandwidth
Can serve files from your own S3, GCS or Azure storage
Built-in DAM included with the API
Cons
Free plan is capped and has no overage
Custom domains need a higher plan
No self-hosted option
Visit ImageKit Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.377
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is ImageKit a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
6 of 6 verified
Free plan
Yes, 20 GB bandwidth a month
Checked Nov 8, 2026imagekit.io(opens source in a new tab)
Starting price
$9 a month plus usage (Lite)
Checked Nov 8, 2026imagekit.io(opens source in a new tab)
External storage
S3, GCS or Azure Blob
Checked Nov 8, 2026imagekit.io(opens source in a new tab)
Compliance
ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR
Checked Nov 8, 2026imagekit.io(opens source in a new tab)
Node.js SDK license
Apache-2.0
Checked Nov 2, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Pro plan
$89 a month plus usage
Checked Nov 8, 2026imagekit.io(opens source in a new tab)
5. Amazon S3
Best for: Teams building on AWS that need archive tiers, lifecycle rules and deep service integrations
Free plan + paidWeb
51.2
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Raw object storage with full control and the widest ecosystem, if you can handle signed URLs yourself.
Pros
Many storage classes, including automatic tiering and Glacier archives
Integrates with nearly every AWS service
Designed for 11 nines of durability
Available in AWS regions worldwide
Cons
Charges for data transfer out and per request, which makes bills hard to predict
Pricing tables are complex across classes and regions
More expensive per gigabyte than budget S3-compatible providers
Visit Amazon S3 Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.341
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Amazon S3 a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
7 of 7 verified
Durability
99.999999999% (11 nines)
Checked Nov 1, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
Automatic tiering
S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Checked Nov 8, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
Archive storage
S3 Glacier classes
Checked Nov 1, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
Storage classes
Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Infrequent Access, Express One Zone, Glacier
Checked Nov 8, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
Glacier Deep Archive
From $0.00099 per GB a month
Checked Nov 8, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
Intelligent-Tiering Deep Archive
From $1 per TB a month
Checked Nov 8, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free Tier
Up to $200 in credits for new AWS customers
Checked Nov 8, 2026aws.amazon.com(opens source in a new tab)
6. Cloudflare R2
Best for: Developers serving files to the web who want to avoid egress fees, especially on Cloudflare Workers
Free plan + paidWeb
50.0
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
S3-compatible storage with no egress fees, a cheap base if you build the upload flow yourself.
Pros
No egress charges for any storage class
Free tier of 10 GB storage and millions of operations a month
Native Workers API alongside S3 compatibility
Built-in tools to migrate data from other providers
Cons
Write operations cost more per million than on some rivals
Infrequent Access class has retrieval fees and no free tier
Fewer storage tiers and data management features than Amazon S3
Visit Cloudflare R2 Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.338
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Cloudflare R2 a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
6 of 6 verified
Egress fees
None
Checked Nov 8, 2026developers.cloudflare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Standard storage price
$0.015 per GB-month
Checked Nov 8, 2026developers.cloudflare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free tier
10 GB storage per month
Checked Nov 8, 2026developers.cloudflare.com(opens source in a new tab)
S3 compatible
Yes
Checked Nov 8, 2026cloudflare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Infrequent Access storage
$0.01 per GB-month
Checked Nov 8, 2026developers.cloudflare.com(opens source in a new tab)
Class A operations
$4.50 per million requests (Standard)
Checked Nov 8, 2026developers.cloudflare.com(opens source in a new tab)
7. Supabase
Best for: Developers who want Postgres plus auth, storage and realtime without running servers
Free plan + paidOpen sourceSelf-hostableWeb, Self-hosted
49.0
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Postgres backend with built-in file storage, access rules and image transforms, so uploads live next to your data.
Pros
Real Postgres underneath, so SQL, extensions and standard tooling all work
Auth, storage, realtime and functions in one dashboard
Open source and self-hostable with Docker
Large community and many framework guides
Cons
Free projects pause after a week of inactivity
Usage charges for compute and egress can be hard to predict
Self-hosting the full stack takes real operations work
Visit Supabase Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.334
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Supabase a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
5 of 5 verified
Free plan
Yes, $0/month with 50,000 monthly active users
Checked Nov 8, 2026supabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Pro plan
From $25/month
Checked Nov 8, 2026supabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free project pausing
After 1 week of inactivity
Checked Nov 8, 2026supabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
License
Apache-2.0
Checked Nov 8, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab)
Team plan
From $599/month
Checked Nov 8, 2026supabase.com(opens source in a new tab)
Fi
8. Filestack
Best for: Developers who need a ready-made upload widget plus file processing and delivery
Free plan + paidWeb, iOS, Android
42.3
score / 100
Why switch from UploadThing
Mature upload API with a hosted picker, transformations and many SDKs.
Pros
Drop-in picker with 20+ cloud and social upload sources
Can store files in your own S3, Google Cloud or Azure bucket
SDKs for most major languages and frameworks
Cons
Paid plans start fairly high compared with image-only CDNs
Many features (OCR extras, tagging, moderation, custom CNAME) are paid add-ons
Free plan limits files to 20 MB and has small monthly quotas
Visit Filestack Details and reviews
How this score is calculated
Editorial fit ×0.312
Reviews ×0.363
Clicks (90 days) ×0.150
Freshness ×0.15100
Votes ×0.150
0 counted reviews, 0 up and 0 down votes. Full formula
Is Filestack a good UploadThing alternative?
Verified facts
5 of 5 verified
Free plan
Yes
Checked Nov 8, 2026filestack.com(opens source in a new tab)
Starting price
$69/month
Checked Nov 8, 2026filestack.com(opens source in a new tab)
Upload sources
20+
Checked Nov 8, 2026filestack.com(opens source in a new tab)
SDKs
JS, React, Angular, Python, Ruby, PHP and more
Checked Nov 8, 2026filestack.com(opens source in a new tab)
Free plan file size
20 MB max
Checked Nov 8, 2026filestack.com(opens source in a new tab)

The best UploadThing alternative for…

The highest-ranked app in this list for each need.

Best UploadThing alternative for most people

Uploadcare

Hosted uploader with a ready widget plus on-the-fly image processing and a CDN, and SDKs beyond JavaScript.

Best UploadThing alternative for a free plan you can upgrade

Cloudinary

Full media platform with uploads, transformations and video delivery, for apps where media is central.

Best UploadThing alternative for open source

Supabase

Postgres backend with built-in file storage, access rules and image transforms, so uploads live next to your data.

Best UploadThing alternative for self-hosting

Supabase

Postgres backend with built-in file storage, access rules and image transforms, so uploads live next to your data.

Best UploadThing alternative for iPhone and Android

Firebase

Cloud Storage for Firebase gives client SDK uploads guarded by security rules, a fit for mobile and web apps.

Best UploadThing alternative for working in the browser

ImageKit

Adds real-time image and video optimisation and a CDN on top of file uploads, with a free tier.

UploadThing alternatives: common questions

What is the best alternative to UploadThing?

Uploadcare ranks first right now. Hosted uploader with a ready widget plus on-the-fly image processing and a CDN, and SDKs beyond JavaScript. Cloudinary and Firebase follow it in our ranking.

UploadThing vs Uploadcare: what's the difference?

Both UploadThing and Uploadcare are free with paid plans. Verified prices: UploadThing $10/month for 100GB, Uploadcare $79/month (Pro, monthly billing). Both run on Web.

Is UploadThing free?

UploadThing is free with paid plans. Free plan: 2GB of storage; Starting price: $10/month for 100GB; Usage-based plan: From $25/month, 250GB included. Checked on UploadThing's own site, November 2026.

How much do UploadThing alternatives cost?

Verified prices for the top-ranked UploadThing alternatives: Uploadcare, $79/month (Pro, monthly billing); Cloudinary, $99/month, or $89/month billed yearly (Plus); ImageKit, $9 a month plus usage (Lite); Amazon S3, Up to $200 in credits for new AWS customers; Cloudflare R2, $0.015 per GB-month. Each price was checked on the app's own site; see each card below for the date and source.

Is there a free alternative to UploadThing?

Yes. Uploadcare (free plan + paid), Cloudinary (free plan + paid), Firebase (free plan + paid) and ImageKit (free plan + paid) have a free option. Check each app's verified facts for current plan limits.

Is there an open-source alternative to UploadThing?

Yes: Supabase. Supabase can also be self-hosted.

Why do people switch from UploadThing?

The complaints we hear most: built for the JavaScript and TypeScript ecosystem only; no image resizing or transformation pipeline; storage is hosted only; you can't self-host the service.

How is this list ranked?

Every app is scored with the same published formula: how directly it replaces UploadThing, reviews (weighted by verification), visits from AppBreakup, how recently its facts were checked against its own website, and reader votes.

Top picks

Quick comparison

1. UploadcareTop pick

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

2. Cloudinary

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

3. Firebase

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

4. ImageKit

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

5. Amazon S3

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

6. Cloudflare R2

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

7. Supabase

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

8. Filestack

Pros

Cons

Verified facts

The best UploadThing alternative for…

Best UploadThing alternative for most people

Best UploadThing alternative for a free plan you can upgrade

Best UploadThing alternative for open source

Best UploadThing alternative for self-hosting

Best UploadThing alternative for iPhone and Android

Best UploadThing alternative for working in the browser

UploadThing alternatives: common questions

What is the best alternative to UploadThing?

UploadThing vs Uploadcare: what's the difference?

Is UploadThing free?

How much do UploadThing alternatives cost?

Is there a free alternative to UploadThing?

Is there an open-source alternative to UploadThing?

Why do people switch from UploadThing?

How is this list ranked?