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Transcodely vs Cloudflare Stream

Dead-simple hosting with free encoding on Cloudflare’s network. Features and cost side by side, including the workloads where Cloudflare Stream wins.

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

Where Cloudflare Stream wins

  • The simplest possible "just host my videos" flow with zero encoding cost.
  • Predictable per-minute pricing that is independent of resolution — high-bitrate 4K is cheap to deliver.
  • One vendor if you already live on Cloudflare’s edge.

Where Transcodely fits better

  • You need to choose the codec, profile and ladder — Stream gives you a fixed, automatic ladder with no codec choice.
  • Low-bitrate or long-tail catalogues: per-GB billing is cheaper than per-minute when your bitrates are modest.
  • You want to own the output — encode into your bucket, template the paths, or run transcode-only.

What each platform can do

CapabilityTranscodelyCloudflare Stream
Encoding control
Codec choice Pick the video codec explicitly, per output.
H.264 · HEVC · VP9 · AV1 — explicit per-output
H.264-only VOD; AV1 = live-only beta
CRF, bitrate & profile control Set CRF, bitrate/VBV and encoder profile — not just a preset tier.
CRF · bitrate/VBV · profiles · 3 quality tiers
No encoder knobs
Custom ABR ladders Define exactly which renditions to produce.
Arbitrary rungs per output
Fixed ladder
Max output resolution Highest output resolution the encoder will produce.
Up to 8K (4320p)
1080p output cap
HDR HDR transfer functions on the output, or SDR-only.
HDR10 / HLG on 10-bit HEVC (Main 10) — Dolby Vision in validation
HDR input downconverted to SDR
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; uploaded profile, 5 positions, relative scale + opacity; PNG ≤2 MiB
Formats & packaging
HLS · DASH · CMAF Adaptive-streaming container and manifest formats.
HLS (CMAF fMP4 + TS) · DASH · dual-format
HLS + DASH
DRM Widevine, PlayReady and FairPlay encryption.
Widevine + PlayReady on DASH · FairPlay on HLS (cbcs) — BYOK or key-server, no add-on tier
No DRM at any tier
Signed / private playback Signed URLs or tokens for private playback.
Signed CDN URLs + authenticated private videos
Tokens + IP/geo/domain rules
Subtitles & captions
Subtitle operations Passthrough, convert, burn-in and extract caption tracks.
Passthrough · convert · burn-in · extract — SRT ⇄ WebVTT, into HLS or DASH
WebVTT only; no SRT; 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
12 languages, free
Thumbnails & previews
Thumbnails & sprites Poster frames, sprite sheets and animated previews.
Single · interval · sprite sheets · timestamps · animated previews (WebP + MP4) · smart poster frame selection
Timestamp + GIF; no sprite/storyboard documented
Delivery & hosting
Hosting, CDN & player Managed CDN delivery and an embeddable player.
Optional managed hosting — CDN + embeddable player
335+ locations + player
Bring-your-own storage Read from and write to your own object storage.
GCS · S3 · R2 · HTTP · any S3-compatible, in and out
Cloudflare-hosted
Direct MP4 outputs Progressive MP4/WebM files, not just streaming manifests.
MP4/WebM/MKV are first-class outputs
Opt-in downloads, billed as delivery
Live streaming Real-time RTMP/SRT ingest and live playback.
VOD pipeline only
RTMPS/SRT + WebRTC beta, simulcast to 50
Platform & developer experience
Signed webhooks Signed, retried event delivery.
HMAC-signed · 15 events · 15-attempt/3-day retries · secret rotation · SSRF defense
Signed but ready/error only; one subscription per account
First-party SDKs Maintained client libraries for the API.
Go · TypeScript · Python, synced with every API release
Cloudflare-wide Go/TS/Python; nothing Stream-specific
Playback analytics Viewer-side playback and engagement metrics.
Plays, watch time, unique viewers per video; no heatmaps, geo or QoE
Minutes + country, native player only
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

Cloudflare Stream

Encoding is free; you pay $5 per 1,000 minutes stored and $1 per 1,000 minutes delivered — priced per minute of video, not per GB.

Cloudflare Stream pricing

Cost calculator

Transcodely, Cloudflare 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