IMG.LY vs. Banuba
If you are looking for advanced video composition, deep customization and video automation IMG.LY is the best alternative to Banuba.
What makes IMG.LY the best Banuba alternative?
Video automation & server-side mode
Scale content production with programmatic video generation, dynamic templates, and automated editing.
Extensibility & plugin system
Supports custom plugins and extensibility, allowing businesses to tailor the editor to specific use cases.
Deeply customizable
A fully customizable, white-label solution where you control the UI, branding, and functionality.
Advanced video composition
Mix videos, images, overlays, animations, and voice-overs with full creative control.
Trusted by 100+
industry leaders
What our clients say about us
Integrating IMG.LY’s editor meant we didn’t have to build or maintain a complex editing layer ourselves. That kept our team focused on our core AI ad engine and saved us countless development hours — while still giving our customers the ability to polish and customize creatives at scale.
Hikari Senju
CEO, Omneky
With IMG.LY we built a central creative portal that now powers over 140 dealer campaigns across multiple automotive brands. Before this, asset creation was slow and inconsistent.
Martin Röhr
Product Owner, Digitas
By embedding IMG.LY’s editor we were able to hit key RFP requirements and deliver a template-based creative experience that now serves 1,000+ customers. It helped us win more deals and exceed enterprise expectations without needing to hire dedicated design teams.
Rob Driscoll
Director of PM, Optimizely
Since integrating IMG.LY’s editor, we now deliver 30,000+ ad creatives per month, dramatically shorten time-to-launch, and help our clients cut design spend by up to $10,000 per month.
Logan Welbaum
Founder, Plai
Our customers create over a million personalized postcards each year choosing from over hundreds of templates with IMG.LY’s SDK. It’s the only solution that allows us to build our own specialized, on-brand UI that integrates seamlessly with our platform.
Jeanine Zaalberg
Product Manager, SwissPost
From a developer’s perspective, the most powerful feature of the photo editor is the integration process. It was completely flawless, quick, and easy to integrate.
Stefano Fornari
CTO, Funambol
We compared IMG.LY SDK with other solutions and found that it would be the best fit for us since it provides all the features that are crucial for our use case.
Carem Pereira
SCRUM Manager, HP
IMG.LY vs. Banuba at a glance
| Feature | IMG.LY | Banuba | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Use Case | Comprehensive creative editing platform for photo, video, and design with focus on template-based workflows, creative automation, and cross-platform deployment. Enables social media content tools, web-to-print solutions with CMYK support, and digital asset management. All-in-one solution for enterprises requiring production-ready editing with headless automation. | Mobile-first short-form video editing for social media and UGC platforms. Optimized for TikTok-style video creation with built-in AR effects and face tracking. | IMG.LY offers comprehensive creative workflows across multiple mediums. Banuba focuses on mobile social video editing with AR-enhanced features. |
| Target Audience | Enterprise development teams, product builders, and businesses requiring fully white-labeled, production-ready editing solutions. | Mobile app developers building social media platforms, content creation apps, and viral video applications. | Enterprise-grade professional applications vs. consumer-facing mobile social apps and UGC platforms. |
| Technical Approach | Custom cross-platform C++ rendering engine ensures consistent output across all platforms. Architecture separates core engine from UI layer, allowing integrated editor interfaces and fully headless operation. Operates client-side in browsers with optional server-side rendering via Node.js. | Native iOS and Android modules, wrapped by official Flutter and React Native plugins. | IMG.LY runs one custom C++ rendering engine across all platforms. Banuba ships native iOS and Android modules, wrapped by Flutter and React Native plugins. |
| Advanced Video Editing | Comprehensive multi-track editing for video, images, audio, and overlays with frame-accurate timeline control. Enables editing and saving MP4 files in browsers using modern web codecs. Advanced capabilities include complex media compositions, video templating with adaptive layouts, and programmatic editing via headless APIs. Supports scene-based workflows, multiple export formats across web, iOS, Android, and server-side environments. | Trimming, merging, transitions and a timeline for visual effects. Picture-in-picture (Duet) offers floating, stacked and side-by-side layouts, among others, and is enabled only when the license includes it. Audio can be trimmed and merged. A multi-track video timeline is not documented. | IMG.LY offers multi-track editing with frame-accurate timeline control. Banuba offers trimming, merging, transitions, a timeline for visual effects and picture-in-picture. |
| Social Media Features | Includes features tailored for social content creation: animated text captions with customizable styles and timing, video speed controls (slow motion and time-lapse), dual camera/picture-in-picture support, transitions and effects, stickers and overlays, audio mixing, and aspect ratio presets for different platforms. Combines social media editing capabilities with broader creative tools in a single SDK. | Focus on social media video creation with AR effects, face filters and masks, beauty filters, color grading (LUTs), music integration, text overlays, and GIF support. Designed specifically for TikTok-style short-form content. | Both offer comprehensive social media features; IMG.LY combines them with broader creative capabilities while Banuba's Video Editor SDK adds short-form video editing with AR filters and effects to mobile apps. |
| Advanced Design Editing | Excels in advanced design editing with vector graphics, text manipulation, layout systems, and print-ready output including CMYK and Pantone. Enables customizable collage editors with configurable layout templates, cutout shapes for web-to-print, and advanced typography. Includes smart layouts, role-based templates, pixel-perfect print designs, and flexible canvas management. Export options include PNG, JPEG, TGA, binary, PDF, IDML, and PSD (on the server). | Video Editor SDK adds text with custom fonts, picture and GIF overlays, and GIPHY stickers over video. Banuba's separate Photo Editor SDK adds photo editing and effects to mobile apps. Vector editing, page layout and print output are not documented. | IMG.LY offers full-featured design editor supporting print and web design workflows. Banuba focuses on photo and video editing for mobile apps. |
| Templating & Dynamic Editing | Comprehensive template-based workflows with adaptive layouts that automatically adjust to content variations. Templates support variable placeholders for text, images, and media populated programmatically or by end users. Enables easily customizable templates with role-based permissions. Dynamic editing enhanced through smart layouts, automated content fitting, and reusable template variations. Templates work consistently across all platforms in UI mode or via headless APIs. | Video templates, available on request, bundle preset effects, transitions and music with placeholders that users change to make their own video. How developers create or edit templates is not documented. | IMG.LY provides fully customizable templates with programmatic control and adaptive layouts, Banuba offers preset placeholder templates. |
| Creative Automation | Industry-leading creative automation with full headless mode support for programmatic editing without UI. Engine runs in Node.js for server-side automation, enabling mass personalization and automated content generation from any data source. Automation workflows support video generation, design scaling, and batch processing. Integrates with marketing automation platforms, asset libraries, and data sources. | The Video Editor API gives apps playback and export modules that run on the device, so they can edit and render video from their own code, including effects created without UI. Data-driven batch generation is not documented. | IMG.LY leads with comprehensive headless automation for enterprise workflows. Banuba automates on the device through its Video Editor API. |
| AI Capabilities | Integrates AI features for image, video, text, and voice generation. AI capabilities include AI-assisted design editing, smart layouts that automatically adapt to content, and AI-powered creative suggestions. Supports integration with third-party AI services and generative AI workflows. Architecture allows extending AI capabilities through custom integrations and plugins. | AI Captions (generated by AWS Transcribe, a cloud service), AI Clipping and background replacement are available on request. Face AR masks and face and hand tracking come from Banuba's separate Face AR SDK when the license includes it. | Design assistance and content generation vs. AR effects, captions, clipping and background replacement for mobile video. |
| Asset Management | Comprehensive asset management with built-in libraries of stickers, icons, overlays, and fonts, plus integration with third-party providers like Getty Images, Unsplash, and Pexels. Users can tailor the library to app-specific needs by adding custom asset sources. Uniquely designed to handle both video and static designs, suitable for DAM integration. All assets and data remain under user control with fully on-premise browser operation. | Supports various asset types including color filters (LUT), Face AR masks, video effects, transition effects, GIFs, text overlays, stickers, and audio tracks. Users can add soundtracks from phone storage to clips. Developers can add or remove effects or change their appearance order in the UI. | IMG.LY offers enterprise-grade DAM integration with third-party providers and custom sources, Banuba provides mobile-focused asset libraries for video enhancement. |
| User Interface | Provides a complete, production-ready video editing interface with timeline-based editing, adjustment tools, filters, effects, blur functionality, and audio track integration. Interface includes intuitive controls for adding videos, photos, stickers, text, and shapes to canvas. Highly customizable component-based architecture allows developers to reposition elements, change icons, adjust complexity, and theme the entire interface. Extensive theming with built-in dark/light modes and CSS customization. Developers can also build entirely custom UIs using the headless API on top of the core editing functionality. | Built-in mobile UI for TikTok-style apps, with camera, gallery, trimmer, editor and drafts screens and an optional screen for sharing exported videos. | |
| White-labeling | Complete white-labeling capabilities allowing fully branded editing experiences with no IMG.LY branding visible. Supports custom theming, complete UI reorganization, custom icons and text, internationalization, and fully custom UI implementations via headless mode. Enterprises can match the editor precisely to brand guidelines with customized color libraries. | The SDK lets you change icons, colors, text styles, fonts and localization to match your brand. | IMG.LY supports custom theming, UI reorganization and fully custom UIs through headless mode. Banuba lets teams change icons, colors, text styles, fonts and localization. |
| Component Architecture | Modular component-based architecture separating Engine (core rendering and logic) from Editor (UI layer). Components include Canvas, Dock, Canvas Menu, Inspector Bar, Navigation Bar, and Canvas Bar, each configurable via dedicated Order APIs. Supports custom component registration using builder components. Architecture allows using the engine headlessly or with integrated UI, and supports extending functionality through a plugin system. | On Android it ships as separate modules (camera, editor UI, gallery, effects, playback, export and audio browser, among others) wired through dependency injection. | IMG.LY supports highly modular component architecture with granular customization; Banuba splits its native SDK into separate modules. |
| Cross-Platform Support | Comprehensive cross-platform support spanning Web (JavaScript, React, Angular, Vue.js, Svelte, Next.js), Mobile (Android, iOS, React Native, Flutter), Desktop (Electron, MacCatalyst, macOS), and Server (Node.js). Custom C++ rendering engine ensures consistent output quality across all platforms. Architecture enables "design once, deploy anywhere" workflows. | Supports iOS and Android natively, plus Flutter and React Native apps and an Expo example project. Web and desktop versions of the Video Editor SDK are not documented. | IMG.LY supports web, mobile, desktop, and server environments; Banuba's Video Editor SDK targets mobile apps. |
| Complete Customizability | Fully customizable with ability to customize UI, theming, toolbar elements, asset libraries, editing workflows, and build entirely custom UIs via headless APIs. Customization extends to internationalization, role-based permissions, export configurations, color spaces (CMYK, Pantone), and component ordering. Can be flexibly adjusted to fit any use case with granular control. Plugin system allows extending core functionality. Configuration is code-based allowing developers full programmatic control. | Beyond theming, teams can configure the camera, recording duration, allowed video resolutions and a watermark. Changing the layout or order of screens is not available; Banuba offers custom UI work under a separate contract, or teams can build their own UI on the Video Editor API, which has fewer features out of the box. | IMG.LY offers customization down to the architecture; Banuba offers theming in its SDK and structural changes through custom work or its Video Editor API. |
| Extensibility | Comprehensive plugin system enabling developers to add custom functionality beyond built-in features. Fully extensible via a plugin system for additional features allowing third-party extensions and custom capabilities. Headless engine API enables building entirely custom editing experiences and integrating with external systems. Developers can register custom components, integrate third-party AI services, connect to custom asset sources, and extend export capabilities. | A plugin system is not documented. Teams can replace the gallery and the audio picker with their own screens, add their own LUT color filters, and add AR effects to the app. | IMG.LY exposes a plugin system for extending the editor with code. Banuba extends through replaceable gallery and audio screens, custom filters and AR effects. |
| Ease of Integration | Offers free trials with comprehensive documentation including in-depth guides, tutorials, sample code, and API references for all supported platforms. Documentation organized by platform with quickstart guides and pre-built solutions for common use cases. Demo repositories available for React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, React Native, Flutter, iOS, and Android. | Emphasizes quick integration. Offers a free trial with integration samples on GitHub for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter. Documentation includes installation guides, configuration instructions, and platform-specific integration examples. | IMG.LY offers comprehensive documentation for deeper integration across more platforms. Banuba provides integration focused mobile SDKs. |
| Flexible Rendering Approach | Custom cross-platform C++ rendering engine supports both client-side and server-side rendering. Client-side mode operates in web browsers, iOS, Android, and desktop apps with all processing on user devices. Server-side mode runs CreativeEngine in Node.js environments for headless automation, batch processing, and programmatic content generation without UI. Unified engine ensures consistent output quality whether rendering happens client-side or server-side. | Rendering and export run on the device, and export time depends on the device hardware. Server-side rendering is not documented. | IMG.LY supports both client-side and server-side rendering with unified engine; Banuba works with on-device rendering optimized for mobile performance. |
| Mobile Performance | Delivers mobile performance across native iOS, native Android, React Native, and Flutter implementations using the same C++ rendering engine used on web. Optimized for modern mobile devices with responsive editing and smooth preview across all mobile platforms. Video editing relies on modern codecs and device capabilities. | By default, the camera lowers recording quality to hold its frame rate while heavy AR effects run, and export detects device performance to pick an automatic video quality. | IMG.LY provides consistent cross-platform performance across native iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter; Banuba offers device-specific optimization in its native SDKs. |
| Production Readiness | Production-ready, having matured in demanding environments, currently powering 500M+ creative productions monthly. Targets teams demanding fully white-labeled, production-ready editing solutions for enterprise deployment. Regular feature updates maintain production stability and compatibility. Deployed in high-volume commercial applications across web-to-print, martech, DAM, and content creation platforms. | Social video apps run the Video Editor SDK in production, and Banuba ships it in regular releases for Android and iOS. Banuba's support team handles technical questions and investigates crash reports. | IMG.LY supports enterprise-scale deployments (500M+ monthly productions). |
| Scalability | Server-side rendering via Node.js supports automation workflows at scale for mass personalization and batch processing. Architecture handles high-volume creative production (500M+ monthly) without performance degradation. Creative automation capabilities enable generating thousands of content variations from templates. | Rendering runs on each user's device, so the SDK needs no server. Batch rendering is not documented. | IMG.LY scales through server-side rendering via Node.js for batch processing. Banuba renders on each user's device and needs no server. |
| Storage & Data Ownership | Operates with full user data ownership. Editor works client-side so all assets, images, and data remain under user control. Fully on-premise running in the browser with no required data transmission to servers. Permanent internet connection is not necessary after SDK load, enabling offline editing and exporting. Server solutions run on user-controlled infrastructure (Node.js deployments). | Exported videos are saved to the device's storage. The Video Editor SDK does not collect users' videos, images or personal data, but it does collect software usage analytics, such as the device model and an anonymous user ID. | IMG.LY keeps assets, images and data under user control with no required transmission to servers. Banuba saves exported videos to the device and collects software usage analytics, not users' videos or images. |
| Offline Capabilities | Provides full offline editing and exporting capabilities after initial SDK load, permanent internet connection is not necessary for the editor to run properly. Editor works client-side without server dependencies for core editing operations. Asset libraries may require connectivity if using third-party integrations (Getty, Unsplash) but custom local asset libraries work offline. | Core recording, editing, effects and export work offline on the device. Features that rely on online services are the exception: effects loaded from Banuba's separate AR Cloud service (cached on the device after download), GIPHY stickers, the Banuba Music and Soundstripe audio providers, and AI Captions. | Both support editing, processing, and export work without internet connectivity. |
| Clear Pricing Model | Enterprise licensing determined by usage, magnitude, platforms, and capability requirements. Free evaluation accessible for assessment. | Sold under a commercial license. | IMG.LY licenses by usage, platforms and capabilities, with a free evaluation. Banuba sells under a commercial license. |
| Community & Enterprise Support | Provides comprehensive documentation with in-depth guides, tutorials, sample code, and API references for all platforms; dedicated enterprise support with SLA-backed response times. | Offers a dedicated Community Portal, documentation, sample code, and technical support. | IMG.LY provides comprehensive documentation and direct support channels based on license tier. |
Key capabilities
Learn more about some of the functionalities of IMG.LY’s SDK.
Editing
Printing
Templating
Text variables.
Enable mass personalization and creative automation by embedding variables.
Placeholders & lockable designs.
Constrain templates to guide your users’ design and ensure brand consistency.
Configurable presets.
Enforce a consistent aesthetic across all creations by using preset filters, adjustments, fonts, and crop ratios.
Customizability
Build custom UIs.
Use the headless API powering all creative operations to implement an entirely custom UI.
Theming.
Theme the editor to match your app.
Media libraries.
Set up custom libraries that are easily sortable.
Toolbar customization.
Reposition toolbar elements, change icons, or rename tools to fit your use case.
Internationalization.
Add support for additional languages, and customize any button label.
Export options.
Export designs in JPG, PNG, or PDF with custom quality, page ranges, and dimensions.
Check out other use cases
Learn more about other solutions.
Apparel Designer
Whether t-shirts, hoodies or caps, build for any use case, deploy on any platform.
Get in touch
Contact our sales team to learn more about licensing options and get access to our AI plugins for CE.SDK.
FAQs
A strong alternative to Banuba is IMG.LY, which offers an extensive suite of tools for in-browser video and image editing. IMG.LY focuses on providing customizable video editing and design tools, including real-time video editing, layering, animation, and media compositing. IMG.LY also offers AI-powered features like background removal and automated content generation, making it a versatile solution for industries ranging from social media to e-commerce.
IMG.LY provides a versatile SDK for creative design and media editing across images and videos while Banuba specializes in AR-powered effects, face filters, and video editing. Banuba focuses more on AI-driven augmented reality, whereas IMG.LY is built for white-label customization of design and editing experiences.
IMG.LY offers deep customization with a fully white-label solution, customizable UI, and configurable editing workflows. In contrast, Banuba's Video Editor SDK lets you change icons, colors, text styles and fonts. The layout and order of its screens stay fixed unless you contract Banuba for custom UI work or build your own UI on its Video Editor API.
IMG.LY is the better choice for enterprises seeking a white-label editor because it allows full branding and UI customization. Banuba's built-in options cover icons, colors, text styles, fonts and localization, and changes to its screen layout are available as custom work on request.
Yes, IMG.LY is optimized for handling complex design elements, providing advanced media compositions, video collages, and image-in-video capabilities, while Banuba offers picture-in-picture for two videos, photo slideshows, and picture, text and GIF overlays on a timeline.
IMG.LY comes with an intuitive UI and extensive customization options, making it accessible to non-developers. Banuba's Video Editor SDK also comes with a built-in editing UI.
Banuba focuses on AR filters and virtual backgrounds, plus AI Captions and AI Clipping, which its Video Editor SDK makes available on request. IMG.LY, on the other hand, offers features such as AI-assisted design editing, smart layouts, and automation tools for image and video content.
IMG.LY follows a flexible licensing model, allowing developers to integrate a white-label creative editor into their platforms. Pricing varies based on usage, features, and customization needs.
IMG.LY is stronger in providing a fully customizable video editor that allows users to trim, cut, and add overlays, making it ideal for content creation platforms. Banuba is better for AI-powered video effects like face tracking and AR overlays.
Banuba provides native SDKs for mobile apps, especially for AR applications. IMG.LY also supports mobile platforms but is more focused on web-based and cross-platform creative tools.