Same $9. 2.5x the bandwidth. 6x cheaper overage.
ImageKit bills the honest way — on bandwidth — and we respect that. Keenpix just charges a lot less per GB, caps your spend by default instead of hard-stopping your images, and lets you self-host the entire engine under AGPL.
The honest verdict
If you want an all-in-one media platform — upload widgets, a media library your marketing team can browse, video streaming, and a genuinely free tier under 20 GB/month — ImageKit is the better product, full stop. Keenpix deliberately does none of that. Pick Keenpix if your images already live on origins you control (S3, R2, your own server) and what you actually need is fast optimization and delivery with predictable costs: the same $9 entry buys 100 GB instead of 40 GB, overage runs $0.05–0.08/GB instead of $0.45–0.50/GB, a spend cap is on by default so a traffic spike pauses delivery instead of inflating your bill, and the AGPL engine means you can walk away to your own Docker host any time. Keenpix is also younger and solo-built — weigh that honestly against ImageKit's maturity.
Pricing compared
| Scenario | ImageKit | Keenpix |
|---|---|---|
| 20 GB delivered / month | $0 (Free — stops serving past 20 GB) | $9 (Basic; no free cloud tier) |
| 40 GB delivered / month | $9 (Lite — quota fully used) | $9 (Basic — 60 GB headroom left) |
| 100 GB delivered / month | $39 (Lite + 60 GB × $0.50) | $9 (Basic — included) |
| 400 GB delivered / month | ~$168 (Pro $89 + 175 GB × $0.45) | $19 (Pro — included) |
| 1 TB delivered / month | ~$438 (Pro $89 + 775 GB × $0.45) | $29 (Business — included) |
Pricing as of July 2026. Numbers come from vendor pricing pages, which may change.
Feature by feature
| Feature | ImageKit | Keenpix |
|---|---|---|
| Entry paid plan | $9/mo · 40 GB bandwidth | $9/mo · 100 GB delivered |
| Overage rate | $0.45–0.50/GB | $0.05–0.08/GB |
| Free tier | 20 GB/mo — serving stops when exceeded | None — 14-day trial (card required) |
| Billing meters | Bandwidth + storage | Delivered bandwidth only — one meter |
| Transformations | Unlimited | Unlimited on every plan |
| When you hit the limit | Free plan: hard-stop mid-month | Pauses at your cap (~2x plan, adjustable, on by default) |
| Self-hosting | No | Yes — AGPL-3.0, one-command Docker/Coolify |
| Open source | No | Yes — AGPL, no CLA, no rug-pull |
| Storage / DAM | Yes — media library included | No — serves from origins you already have |
| Video | Yes — video API included | No — images only |
| Delivery analytics | Usage dashboard | Every tier — cache hits, bandwidth saved, latency, live logs |
| URL security | Signed URLs | No public keys — origin allowlists, SSRF-hardened, optional HMAC signing |
| Works behind your CDN | Ships its own CDN | Yes — designed to sit behind Cloudflare etc. |
| Custom delivery domain | Yes (paid plans) | Not yet |
Why teams switch
2.5x the bandwidth for the same $9
ImageKit Lite and Keenpix Basic both cost $9/month, but Lite includes 40 GB while Basic includes 100 GB delivered. If your site pushes more than 40 GB of images a month, the identical sticker price stops being identical very quickly. Annual billing adds two free months on top.
Overage at $0.08/GB, not $0.50/GB
Past your quota, ImageKit charges $0.45–0.50 per GB — roughly 50x the wholesale cost of bandwidth. Keenpix charges $0.08/GB on Basic, dropping to $0.05/GB on Business. A 60 GB overrun costs $30 on ImageKit Lite and $4.80 on Keenpix Basic.
A cap you set instead of a meter you fear
ImageKit's free tier silently stops serving images mid-month when you cross 20 GB — your visitors see broken pages before you see a warning. Keenpix ships a hard spend cap, on by default at roughly 2x your plan price: delivery pauses at a number you chose, and payment hiccups never instantly cut you off.
One meter, no storage bill
Keenpix transforms and delivers straight from the origins you already run — S3, R2, your own server — so there is nothing to upload and no storage line item. You pay for delivered bandwidth, period. That also means no vendor holds your master images hostage.
Self-hosting is the exit ramp
The exact engine behind keenpix.com is AGPL-3.0 and installs with one Docker or Coolify command. If the managed cloud ever stops making sense, you move to your own hardware and pay nothing — a guarantee no closed platform, ImageKit included, can offer.
When ImageKit is the better choice
An honest comparison lists both columns. Stay with ImageKit if any of these describe you:
- You want a media library / DAM: uploading, organizing, tagging, and letting non-developers browse assets. Keenpix has no storage at all — that is a deliberate omission, but it is an omission.
- You need video. ImageKit ships video transformation and streaming; Keenpix is images only.
- You stay under 20 GB/month and want genuinely free managed hosting. ImageKit's free tier costs $0 forever; Keenpix cloud starts at $9 after a 14-day trial (self-hosting is the free option).
- You need a custom delivery domain today. ImageKit offers it on paid plans; Keenpix does not yet.
- You want a mature product with a full team behind it. ImageKit has years of production polish; Keenpix is a young, solo-founder product (though it serves every image on joodlab.com in production).
How to migrate from ImageKit
- 1
Create a Keenpix project and allowlist your origin hosts (the S3 bucket, R2 bucket, or server your images live on). There are no public API keys to embed or rotate — the allowlist is the security boundary.
- 2
If your images exist only inside ImageKit's media library, copy them to an origin you control first. Keenpix delivers from your origins; it does not store files.
- 3
Map the URL grammar: ImageKit's path transforms like ik.imagekit.io/<id>/tr:w-400,q-80,f-auto/hero.jpg become keenpix query params: /img/<origin-url>?project=<id>&w=400&q=80. Format selection (AVIF/WebP) is negotiated automatically — add &fmt= only to force one.
- 4
Swap your image helper or component to emit Keenpix URLs behind a flag, and run both services side by side during the 14-day trial. The analytics dashboard shows output sizes, format mix, and cache hit rate to compare against your ImageKit bill.
- 5
Keep (or add) your CDN in front — Keenpix is designed to sit behind Cloudflare or any edge cache, so repeat hits never touch the meter.
- 6
Set your spend cap (it defaults to ~2x plan price) and, if your transforms should not be publicly enumerable, enable HMAC signed URLs.
- 7
After a week of clean analytics, remove the ImageKit URLs — or take the AGPL engine and self-host if the numbers say the $0 route wins.
Frequently asked questions
Is Keenpix actually cheaper than ImageKit?
For paid delivery, yes, and it compounds with volume: $9 buys 100 GB vs 40 GB, and overage is $0.05–0.08/GB vs $0.45–0.50/GB (as of July 2026). At 400 GB/month that is $19 vs roughly $168. But if you deliver under 20 GB/month and can tolerate the hard-stop, ImageKit's free tier costs $0 and Keenpix cloud does not have a free tier.
Does Keenpix include storage or a media library like ImageKit?
No, and it never will by design. Keenpix optimizes and delivers from origins you already have — your bucket, your server. If you need upload pipelines, tagging, and a browsable asset library, ImageKit is the better fit.
Can Keenpix handle video?
No. Keenpix is images only — resize, crop, AVIF/WebP negotiation, the full IPX modifier set. If video is core to your product, keep ImageKit or a dedicated video service alongside.
What happens when I exceed my bandwidth quota?
Overage bills at your plan's per-GB rate ($0.08 on Basic down to $0.05 on Business) until you hit your spend cap, which is on by default at roughly 2x your plan price — then delivery pauses. You choose the cap, and payment issues never instantly cut delivery. Compare ImageKit's free tier, which stops serving images mid-month with no cap to raise.
Can I self-host Keenpix?
Yes. The engine is AGPL-3.0 — the same code that runs keenpix.com — with a one-command Docker or Coolify install, free forever, no CLA. Start on cloud and migrate to your own hardware whenever you like.
Do I have to re-upload my images to migrate?
Only if they live exclusively in ImageKit's media library — then copy them to storage you control first. If your images are already on your own origin, migration is a URL rewrite: tr:w-400,f-auto path segments become ?w=400 query params, and format negotiation happens automatically.