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Transcodely vs Bunny Stream

Rock-bottom per-GB hosting with free H.264 encoding. Features and cost side by side, including the workloads where Bunny Stream wins.

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No card needed · 30-second test encodes free · pay per output minute after

Where Bunny Stream wins

  • Plain H.264 up to 1080p: free encoding plus ~$0.01/GB delivery is about as cheap as hosting gets.
  • Straightforward, low per-GB storage and egress with a global CDN.
  • Great value if the universal codec at standard resolutions is all you need.

Where Transcodely fits better

  • Efficient codecs and higher resolutions: HEVC/AV1 and QHD/4K avoid Bunny’s premium per-minute encoding surcharge.
  • Full encoding control — CRF, profiles, custom ladders, HDR, path templates.
  • DRM on DASH and HLS is included configuration, not an enterprise add-on.

What each platform can do

CapabilityTranscodelyBunny Stream
Encoding control
Codec choice Pick the video codec explicitly, per output.
H.264 · HEVC · VP9 · AV1 — explicit per-output
H.264 free; HEVC/VP9/AV1 metered Premium
CRF, bitrate & profile control Set CRF, bitrate/VBV and encoder profile — not just a preset tier.
CRF · bitrate/VBV · profiles · 3 quality tiers
Per-preset bitrate only; no CRF
Custom ABR ladders Define exactly which renditions to produce.
Arbitrary rungs per output
Toggle preset rungs + tune bitrate; no custom rungs
Max output resolution Highest output resolution the encoder will produce.
Up to 8K (4320p)
4K — Premium encoding only
HDR HDR transfer functions on the output, or SDR-only.
HDR10 / HLG on 10-bit HEVC (Main 10) — Dolby Vision in validation
Marketing mention; no published HDR spec
Per-title (content-aware) encoding Bitrate ladders auto-tuned to each source clip.
VMAF-targeted CRF search per output on the ladder you declared; 1.5x, charged only when a search actually chose the CRF
Watermarking Burn a logo / image overlay into the encoded video.
Per-output overlay: 9-anchor ABR-consistent scaling, % width/margin, opacity, raw-pixel mode; PNG/WebP (alpha)
Burned-in but library-wide, not per-video; % offset + size; opacity undocumented
Formats & packaging
HLS · DASH · CMAF Adaptive-streaming container and manifest formats.
HLS (CMAF fMP4 + TS) · DASH · dual-format
HLS only — no DASH
DRM Widevine, PlayReady and FairPlay encryption.
Widevine + PlayReady on DASH · FairPlay on HLS (cbcs) — BYOK or key-server, no add-on tier
Enterprise ($99/mo+): Widevine + FairPlay; no PlayReady; Basic = clear-key
Signed / private playback Signed URLs or tokens for private playback.
Signed CDN URLs + authenticated private videos
Token auth + geo/referrer blocks
Subtitles & captions
Subtitle operations Passthrough, convert, burn-in and extract caption tracks.
Passthrough · convert · burn-in · extract — SRT ⇄ WebVTT, into HLS or DASH
VTT/SRT upload; no burn-in
AI auto-captions Machine-generated captions from the audio track.
€0.05/source-min · auto language detect · WebVTT/SRT sidecar + transcript, HLS subtitle rendition — generated during the encode job
56 languages + translation, $0.10/lang-min
Thumbnails & previews
Thumbnails & sprites Poster frames, sprite sheets and animated previews.
Single · interval · sprite sheets · timestamps · animated previews (WebP + MP4) · smart poster frame selection
6 candidates + sprites + 4 animated preview formats
Delivery & hosting
Hosting, CDN & player Managed CDN delivery and an embeddable player.
Optional managed hosting — CDN + embeddable player
CDN (119 PoPs) + player
Bring-your-own storage Read from and write to your own object storage.
GCS · S3 · R2 · HTTP · any S3-compatible, in and out
Bunny library storage
Direct MP4 outputs Progressive MP4/WebM files, not just streaming manifests.
MP4/WebM/MKV are first-class outputs
Fallback capped at 1080p; not retroactive
Platform & developer experience
Signed webhooks Signed, retried event delivery.
HMAC-signed · 15 events · 15-attempt/3-day retries · secret rotation · SSRF defense
Signed · 11 events · retry policy undocumented
First-party SDKs Maintained client libraries for the API.
Go · TypeScript · Python, synced with every API release
Mobile SDKs + PHP/C#; no Python/Node/Java for Stream API
Playback analytics Viewer-side playback and engagement metrics.
Plays, watch time, unique viewers per video; no heatmaps, geo or QoE
Engagement, heatmaps, geography
AI video tools AI features like chapters, moderation or summaries.
None — deliberate: encoding controls over AI features
Auto chapters/titles via Transcribe AI
Published validation matrix A public, testable capability matrix.
168-case live-infrastructure test catalog, published at /conformance with its 3 tracked gaps
Not published
Supported Partial / paid add-on In final validation Not offered

Every cell verified against official vendor documentation on . Spot something out of date? Corrections welcome.

Two pricing models

Transcodely

Encoding at €0.010/min (H.264 1080p base, per rendition), storage at €0.020/GB·month, and CDN egress at €0.010/GB. No monthly fee — every add-on is a transparent multiplier.

Full rate card

Bunny Stream

H.264 up to 1080p encodes free; storage and delivery are ~$0.01/GB. HEVC/AV1 and >1080p use premium encoding at $0.025–$0.15/min.

Bunny Stream pricing

Cost calculator

Transcodely, Bunny Stream, and the rest of the market — priced side by side on your workload.

Scenario

A growing library on the universal codec with real delivery.

Currency

What does your workload need? Price is only half the question — vendors that can’t run it are ruled out below.

Bunny Stream is cheapest here — $110.00/mo. That is on price alone. Capability needs — AV1, DRM, bring-your-own storage, 4K — can rule a vendor out entirely; add what your workload needs above to see who can actually run it.
  • Bunny Stream Cheapest
    $110.00/mo
    1.0×
  • Transcodely
    $178.20/mo
    1.6×
  • Mux
    $220.15/mo
    2.0×
  • Cloudflare Stream
    $351.53/mo
    3.2×
  • Coconut transcode only
    $90.00/mo
Line-item breakdown & pricing sources

Bunny Stream

Encoding
$0.00
Storage
$10.00
Delivery
$100.00
  • H.264 up to 1080p encodes free
  • HEVC/AV1, VP9 & >1080p need premium encoding (extra $/min)
  • ≈$0.01/GB storage & delivery (EU/NA rate; other regions higher)
  • DRM (MediaCage) is an enterprise add-on
Pricing source

Transcodely

Encoding
$48.60
Storage
$21.60
Delivery
$108.00
  • Full codec, profile, CRF & ladder control
  • Encoding billed per rendition (3-rung ladder)
  • Storage & egress metered per GB — no per-request fees
  • Each job gets an encoding machine to itself while it runs; starting one carries a flat processing fee (€0.05–€0.50 by size class) added to every job an encoder picks up — negligible at monthly volumes like these
  • Failed jobs bill nothing at all; a canceled job bills the processing fee plus whatever outputs finished first
Pricing source

Mux

Encoding
$0.00
Storage
$47.08
Delivery
$173.07
  • Basic-quality encoding is free (fixed ladder, no codec choice)
  • First 100k delivered minutes/month are free (3,662 GB here)
  • Per minute of video: $0.0010/delivered, $0.0030/stored·mo at this resolution
  • Cold-storage discount up to 60% after 30d inactivity (not modelled)
Pricing source

Cloudflare Stream

Encoding
$0.00
Storage
$78.47
Delivery
$273.07
  • Free encoding — but a fixed ladder, no codec/profile choice
  • Billed per minute of video, not per GB
  • High-bitrate content is cheap here; low-bitrate is relatively pricey
Pricing source

Coconut

Encoding
$90.00
Storage
—
Delivery
—
  • Transcode only — no hosting, storage or CDN
  • $0.015 per output minute (3 renditions here)
  • Bring your own storage + CDN (added cost, not shown)
Pricing source

How this is calculated

Ladder 480p · 720p · 1080p (3 renditions). Cloudflare and Mux free tiers are per minute of video, converted at an assumed 5.0 Mbps delivered (1080p (Full HD) / H.264 / AVC) — so Mux’s free allowance is ≈ 3,662 GB here. Capability filtering comes from our verified feature matrix; DRM add-ons ($100/mo Mux, $99/mo Bunny Enterprise) are the vendors’ own list prices (per-license fees excluded). Transcodely bills in EUR; converted at €1 = $1.08 (as of July 2026). Competitor list prices verified July 2026; negotiated/committed volume discounts are not modelled. Estimates, not quotes — every meter bills on actual bytes.

Frequently asked questions

Try it on your own footage

No monthly fee, pay only for what you use. Point Transcodely at a URL and see the output — the codec control is yours.

Create free account View pricing

No card needed · 30-second test encodes free · pay per output minute after