Imgix Alternatives for Craft CMS Developers

Small Pics, Bunny Optimizer, ImageKit, Cloudinary, Cloudflare Images, Gumlet, and ImageBoss are all viable Imgix alternatives. For Craft CMS developers specifically, Small Pics is the strongest option: it has a dedicated Imager X transformer plugin, built-in Imgix parameter compatibility, and flat pricing starting at $9/mo.

Why are Craft CMS developers looking for Imgix alternatives?

Imgix works, but the pricing changed. In 2025, Imgix moved to a credit-based model where credits are consumed by storage, delivery, and transforms in one opaque bucket. The per-transform credit rate is not publicly documented, which makes it hard to predict monthly bills. Overages are charged at 120% of the standard per-credit rate, and service can be blocked if you hit your cap.

The other pain point is migration effort. Most Craft developers use Imager X as the bridge to external image services. Both Imgix and Small Pics have Imager X transformer support, but Small Pics also offers built-in Imgix parameter compatibility, so many sites can switch without changing any URLs.

Agencies managing multiple client sites feel the pricing pressure the most. Per-site costs stack up, and the time spent configuring each project’s image pipeline eats into margins.

What are the best Imgix alternatives for Craft CMS?

Here is how the main options compare for Craft CMS specifically.

Service	Imager X Transformer	Starting Price	Pricing Model	AVIF	JPEG XL	Imgix Param Compat
Small Pics	Yes (third-party)	$9/mo	Flat tiers	Yes (default)	Yes	Yes (built-in)
Imgix	Yes (first-party)	$25/mo	Credits	Yes	No	N/A
Bunny Optimizer	Yes (first-party)	$9.50/mo per site	Flat per site	No	No	No
ImageKit	Yes (first-party)	$9/mo (Lite)	Bandwidth	Yes	No	No
Cloudinary	No	$89/mo (Plus)	Credits	Yes	No	No
Cloudflare Images	No	~$5/mo	Per-image + per-transform	Yes	No	No
Gumlet	No	$39/mo	Bandwidth	Yes	No	Yes (partial)
ImageBoss	Yes (first-party)	$5/mo	Per-origin-image	Yes	No	No

Small Pics has an Imager X transformer plugin (like several services on this list) plus built-in Imgix parameter compatibility, which is unique to Small Pics. Enable it on your image source and existing Imgix URLs work without parameter changes. This combination means you can migrate from Imgix with minimal effort: the Imager X transformer handles your transformImage calls, and the Imgix compat mode handles any raw URLs. Pricing is flat: $9/mo for Lite, $19/mo for Starter. Small Pics is a newer, smaller service with a focused feature set: no video, no DAM, no AI. If you need image transforms with predictable billing, it is purpose-built for that.

Bunny Optimizer is $9.50/mo per site with unlimited transforms. Has a first-party Imager X transformer. Great value for a single high-traffic site, but the per-site model gets expensive for agencies (5 sites = $47.50/mo before bandwidth). CDN bandwidth is billed separately. No AVIF support.

ImageKit has a free tier (20 GB bandwidth, 3 GB storage) and a Lite plan at $9/mo (40 GB bandwidth). The Pro plan at $89/mo is a big jump. Has a first-party Imager X transformer. Bandwidth-based pricing, unlimited transforms. Good feature set including video and DAM.

Cloudinary is the most feature-rich platform overall, with video, DAM, AI features, and a broad CMS ecosystem. Pricing is credit-based starting at $89/mo and can be opaque. Overkill for teams that just need image transforms. Cloudinary suspends accounts that exceed quota. No Imager X transformer.

Cloudflare Images is the cheapest entry point at roughly $5/mo, but charges per stored image and per unique transform. Tightly coupled to the Cloudflare ecosystem. Less flexible URL API than Imgix-style services. No Imager X transformer.

Gumlet uses bandwidth-based pricing starting at $39/mo for 300 GB (free tier offers 30 GB but limits you to 2 image sources). Has video and DAM. Competitive at moderate scale. Gumlet has partial Imgix parameter compatibility, which makes migration from Imgix straightforward. No Imager X transformer.

ImageBoss is the most similar to Small Pics in philosophy: per-origin-image pricing, unlimited transforms, developer-focused URL API. Has a first-party Imager X transformer. Starts at $5/mo for 4,200 images, but custom domains are $20/mo each and bandwidth beyond the base is $0.10/GB. Uses path-based URL syntax rather than query parameters, which is a different convention than Imgix.

How do you switch from Imgix to Small Pics with Imager X?

The migration is a four-step process.

1. Install the transformer: composer require smallpics/imagerx-smallpics -w && php craft plugin/install imagerx-smallpics
2. Add SMALLPICS_BASE_URL and optionally SMALLPICS_SECRET to your .env
3. Update config/imager-x.php to use the smallpics transformer
4. Rename Imgix-specific parameters in your Twig templates (e.g. jpegQuality becomes q in transformerParams)

The full walkthrough is in our migration guide. Most migrations take under an hour.

Can you keep your Imgix URLs when switching to Small Pics?

Yes. Small Pics has built-in Imgix parameter compatibility that can be enabled per image source in the dashboard. When enabled, Small Pics translates Imgix query parameters to their Small Pics equivalents server-side.

Most core Imgix parameters are supported: w, h, fit, crop, dpr, fm, q, sharp, bri, con, gam, flip, orient, bg, border, pad, and the full set of watermark parameters (mark, mark-alpha, mark-pad, mark-align, mark-h, mark-w, mark-x, mark-y, mark-fit).

This means many sites can switch from Imgix to Small Pics without changing a single URL. Point your DNS at Small Pics, enable Imgix compatibility on the image source, and your existing URLs keep working.

No other Imgix alternative offers this level of compatibility. Gumlet has partial Imgix API support, but Small Pics’ compatibility covers a broader set of parameters. See the full Imgix parameter mapping for details.

If you are evaluating a switch and URL rewriting is the thing holding you back, this removes that barrier.

How does Small Pics pricing compare to Imgix?

Imgix uses a credit-based model starting at $25/mo for 100 credits. Credits are consumed across image management (2 per GB cached), delivery (1 per GB bandwidth), and transforms (rate not published). The opaque credit system makes it difficult to predict what you will actually pay. Overages are billed at 120% of the standard per-credit rate, and service can be blocked at the cap.

Small Pics uses flat tiers:

Plan	Price	Origin Images	Transforms
Lite	$9/mo	2,500	17,500
Starter	$19/mo	5,000	35,000
Standard	$59/mo	16,000	112,000
Extended	$189/mo	52,000	364,000

No per-request fees. No bandwidth charges. No credits to track. For the full comparison, see our pricing page or the detailed pricing breakdown.

What image formats does Small Pics support?

Small Pics supports AVIF, WebP, JPEG, Progressive JPEG, PNG, GIF, and JPEG XL. AVIF is the default output format, which typically produces files 30-50% smaller than WebP at equivalent quality.

Small Pics is one of very few image transform services that supports JPEG XL output. JPEG XL offers excellent compression and quality, and is gaining browser support.

You control the format with the fm parameter:

https://your-domain.smallpics.io/photo.jpg?w=800&fm=avif

For a full list of parameters, see the URL API guide.

Can you use Small Pics without Imager X?

Yes. Small Pics is a URL-first API. You can build image URLs directly in Twig, PHP, or any other template language. No SDK or plugin required.

<img src="https://media.yoursite.com/photo.jpg?w=800&h=600&fit=cover&fm=avif&q=80" />

The Imager X plugin is a convenience for teams already using Imager X. If you are starting fresh or using a different CMS, you can use Small Pics directly with query parameters. There is also a standalone PHP package for generating signed URLs.