Cloudinary vs OneSignal (2026): Pricing, Features & Verdict
Cloudinary is our pick, scoring 7.3/10 against 7.1/10 for OneSignal on our Marketing criteria. Its biggest advantage: higher Customization score (9/10 vs 6/10). Both Cloudinary and OneSignal have a free plan.
Last updated: November 2026
Cloudinary
7.3/10
Cloudinary is a cloud media platform that stores, transforms, optimizes and delivers images and video through a CDN for developers and marketing teams.
OneSignal
7.1/10
OneSignal is a customer messaging platform for sending mobile push, web push, in-app messages, email and SMS to app and website users.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7.3/10 | 7.1/10 |
| Scalability | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 7/10 | 8/10 |
| Customization | 9/10 | 6/10 |
| Security | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Cost | 4/10 | 7/10 |
| Integration | 9/10 | 8/10 |
| Analytics | 6/10 | 6/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $99/mo Plus | $19/mo Growth |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Contact for pricing | Free Free |
| Features | ||
| A/B Testing | Not listed | |
| Email Marketing | Not listed | |
| Segmentation | Not listed | |
| SMS Marketing | Not listed | |
| More features | ||
| API and CLI | Not listed | |
| Managed Databases | Not listed | |
| Managed WordPress | Not listed | |
| Multiple Regions | Not listed | |
| Uptime SLA | Not listed | |
| Managed Kubernetes | Not listed | |
| Dedicated Servers | Not listed | |
| VPS Hosting | Not listed | |
| Content Delivery Network | Not listed | |
| Shared Hosting | Not listed | |
| Automatic Backups | Not listed | |
Cloudinary vs OneSignal cost by team size
Cloudinary and OneSignal cost the same at 1 user; OneSignal costs less at 5 users.
| Team size | Cloudinary | OneSignal |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree | FreeFree |
| 5 users | $249/moAdvanced | FreeFree |
| 10 users | Contact for pricing | FreeFree |
| 25 users | Contact for pricing | FreeFree |
| 50 users | Contact for pricing | FreeFree |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Who Cloudinary and OneSignal suit
Cloudinary fits e-commerce and developers better; OneSignal fits startups better.
| Audience | Cloudinary | OneSignal |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | 9/10It optimizes and resizes product imagery at scale, and retailers such as adidas and Neiman Marcus are named customers. | 5/10Push and email messaging are available, though it lacks store integrations. |
| Startups | 6/10The free 25-credit plan helps early projects, but the jump to the 99 USD Plus plan is steep. | 9/10The free tier covers up to 1,000 MAU, and Growth starts at $19 a month with usage-based charges. |
| Developers | 9/10It has broad official SDK coverage, REST APIs and URL-based transformations, all aimed at engineers. | 7/10Developers wire up the SDKs and API for push and in-app messaging. |
| Enterprise | 8/10The Enterprise plan adds SSO, multi-CDN delivery, SLAs, EEA data residency and security reviews. | 7/10Enterprise offers unlimited segments and journeys, a custom SLA, audit logs, and a dedicated success manager. |
| SaaS Companies | 8/10The Upload API and widget handle images and video that users upload inside an app. | 7/10The vendor names subscription businesses, and it integrates with RevenueCat. |
| Marketing Teams | 7/10The DAM product and AI tagging help content teams organize and reuse brand assets. | 7/10Reviewers say non-technical marketers can use the dashboard, though building flows could be simpler. |
| Content Creators | Not rated | 3/10Media publishers are named, but not individual creators. |
| Mid-Market | Not rated | 7/10Professional adds 20 journeys, 10 test variants, all integrations, and one year of reporting. |
| Small Business | Not rated | 7/10Unlimited sends and contacts on Free and Growth, but segment and journey caps are tight. |
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Cloudinary
- Higher Customization score (9/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Scalability score (9/10 vs 8/10)
- Better fit for e-commerce (9/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for developers (9/10 vs 7/10)
Why choose OneSignal
- Higher Cost score (7/10 vs 4/10)
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 7/10)
- Better fit for startups (9/10 vs 6/10)
Pros & Cons
Cloudinary
Pros
- One credit pool covers storage, bandwidth and transformations, so a spike in one resource can be absorbed without changing plans.
- Images and video can be resized, cropped and reformatted just by changing URL parameters, which saves developers from building their own image pipelines.
- Official SDKs cover backend, frontend and mobile platforms, including Next.js, Flutter and Go.
- Integrated storage, an upload widget and video transcoding cover the whole path from upload to delivery, which imgix does not offer.
- The trust page lists SOC 2 Type II reports audited by Deloitte, a 99.9% uptime commitment and an EEA data residency option for Enterprise.
Cons
- Reviewers often describe the credit pricing as confusing, and some report unexpected overage charges.
- There is no plan between Free and the 99 USD Plus plan, a gap reviewers on Trustpilot and G2 complain about.
- Storage counts against credits every month, so costs rise steadily as the asset library grows.
- Multi-CDN delivery, SSO and formal SLAs are limited to custom-priced Enterprise contracts.
- Unused credits do not roll over, and file-size and seat caps can force an upgrade even when credits remain.
OneSignal
Pros
- A free plan with unlimited push up to 1,000 MAU and 10,000 emails a month makes it cheap to start.
- Push, in-app, email and SMS run from one platform with cross-channel journeys.
- Reviewers on G2 and PeerSpot say the dashboard is easy for non-technical marketers to use.
- A broad integration catalog covers CDPs such as Segment, RudderStack and Hightouch, data warehouses, and analytics tools.
Cons
- PeerSpot reviewers call it expensive for large subscriber bases.
- Free and Growth plans cap segments at 6 and 10, and reporting history at 30 and 90 days.
- SMS pricing is not published and requires a sales conversation.
- Reviewers mention unclear documentation for advanced cases and limited in-app design options.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Cloudinary scores higher on our Marketing criteria: 7.3/10 against 7.1/10 for OneSignal. The largest gap is in Cost: 4/10 for Cloudinary and 7/10 for OneSignal.
Yes, both Cloudinary and OneSignal have a free plan.
Cloudinary is the better fit for e-commerce: we rate it 9/10 for them, against 5/10 for OneSignal.
