Why We Built Small Pics

Small Pics is an image transform and CDN service built for developers and agencies who need predictable pricing and zero infrastructure overhead. Plans start at $9/mo with a 14-day free trial.

We built it because we were tired of overpaying for something that should be simple.

Why did we leave Imgix?

At Foster Commerce, my web agency, we’ve been building Craft CMS sites since 2017. For most of that time, we used Imgix for on-the-fly image transforms and edge caching. It worked well until 2025 when their pricing model changed and overall costs shot up. Even before that, some clients were facing $300/mo bills just for having 5,000 origin images. We had to find an alternative.

We tried self-hosting ImgProxy with a custom Craft plugin. It worked on a couple of large client sites after some trial and error, but it wasn’t scalable. Too much config, too much maintenance, and we had to manage caching rules ourselves.

It solved the cost problem, but created an ops problem.

What does Small Pics do differently?

Ty Tudehope and I started a new company, separate from Foster Commerce, to build what we actually wanted: a focused, affordable image transform service with predictable pricing and zero ops overhead.

We called it Small Pics. Because size matters.

We had a clear list of requirements based on years of dealing with what was out there.

Predictable pricing. Flat tiers. Clear usage caps. No surprise overages. Our Starter plan is $19/mo ($228/yr), which saves over $500/yr compared to what some of our clients were paying Imgix for the same workload.

No infrastructure to manage. Small Pics runs on AWS Lambda (similar to how Craft Cloud works) with origin images cached in S3 and transformed images cached at the edge. You point your images at us and forget about it.

Fast by default. Automatic AVIF and WebP encoding based on browser support. Global edge caching with instant purge.

Built for Craft CMS. We built an Imager X transformer plugin so Craft developers already using Imager X can switch from Imgix with minimal code changes. Install the plugin, update your config, and rename a few parameters. We wrote a full migration guide if you want to see the details. There’s also a standalone PHP package if you want to integrate directly without Imager X.

Not just Craft. Small Pics is a URL-first API. Any platform, any framework. No SDK required. If you can build an image URL, you can use Small Pics.

Who is Small Pics for?

Small Pics is for developers and agencies who are tired of overpaying for image transforms. If you’re running client sites on Craft, WordPress, or any CMS with an external image origin, and your current provider is eating into your margins (or your client’s budget), we built this for you.

To be clear about what Small Pics is not: it is not a full media platform. There is no video processing, no DAM, no AI features. If you need those, Cloudinary or ImageKit are better fits. Small Pics is a focused tool for image transforms and edge delivery. That focus is what lets us keep the pricing simple.

What’s next for Small Pics?

Small Pics is live and production-ready, but we’re just getting started.

We recently shipped Imgix compatibility mode. You can enable it on any image source in the dashboard and Small Pics translates Imgix parameters to their Small Pics equivalents server-side. Most core params are supported: resize, crop, format, quality, watermarks, orientation, and more. This means many sites can switch from Imgix without changing a single URL.

Here’s what else we’re working on:

• Expanding the API. More transform options, including face detection.
• Dedicated Craft CMS plugin (beyond the current Imager X transformer)
• JavaScript/Node.js package
• WordPress plugin
• Framework packages for React/Next.js, Vue, and Nuxt
• Benchmark stats. We’re running performance comparisons against Imgix, ImageKit, Cloudinary, and Gumlet. We’ll publish the results when they’re ready.

We’re building based on what our users need, so if there’s something you’d like to see, let us know at support@smallpics.io.

How do I get started?

Plans start at $9/mo with a 14-day free trial. Sign up and see how it works. If you need help migrating, reach out at support@smallpics.io. We’ll walk through it with you.