---
title: "Remotion Editor Starter vs. CE.SDK: Which Video Editor Fits Your Product?"
description: "Remotion's Editor Starter is React source code you copy into your app and maintain. CE.SDK is an SDK you install, with a configurable video editor and an engine API for web, iOS, Android and server."
url: "https://img.ly/blog/remotion-editor-starter-vs-cesdk/"
type: "blog"
date: "2026-10-12"
author: "Klaudia"
tags: ["Insights","Video Editing","Video Editor"]
---
> This is the markdown version of [Remotion Editor Starter vs. CE.SDK: Which Video Editor Fits Your Product?](https://img.ly/blog/remotion-editor-starter-vs-cesdk/). For all pages in one file, see [llms-full.txt](https://img.ly/llms-full.txt). For an index of all available pages, see [llms.txt](https://img.ly/llms.txt).
---
The Remotion Editor Starter is a paid React template that gives you the source code of a video editor. You buy it once per project, copy it from a private GitHub repository into your app, and extend and maintain it from there. Remotion itself calls it "a boilerplate for building your own video editor".
IMG.LY's CreativeEditor SDK (CE.SDK) works the other way round. You add it to your web, iOS or Android app as a dependency, then configure its ready-made [video editor](https://img.ly/demos/video-ui.md) or build your own interface on its engine.
Below, we compare the two feature by feature. Since we make CE.SDK, the Remotion details come from Remotion's own documentation, checked in October 2026.
## What's Included and What Your Team Builds
Both options put a working video editor in your app, and the difference is how much of it arrives finished. The table lists what each one ships with and what is left for your team.
| Feature | Remotion Editor Starter | CE.SDK |
| ------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Multi-track timeline** | Included, with trimming, splitting, snapping, fades and speeds from 0.25x to 5x | Included, with trimming, splitting and speed changes |
| **Transitions** | Not included, so your team builds them with Remotion's transitions package | Included on web, iOS and Android |
| **Animations** | Opacity fades only, and keyframes or other motion are yours to build | Entrance, exit and loop presets such as slide, fade, zoom and spin, with adjustable duration and easing |
| **iOS and Android editors** | Not included, and React Native support for Remotion isn't planned | Native iOS and Android editors, with no video editing in mobile browsers |
| **Video export** | MP4 or WebM, rendered on AWS Lambda by default or in the browser | MP4 only, exported in desktop Chrome, Edge or Safari 26+, or on your own servers |
| **Locked brand templates** | Not included, so your team builds them on the JSON project state | Placeholders, text variables and locked elements on web, iOS, Android and server |
| **Custom fonts** | Google Fonts, and other fonts need changes to how the preview and the render load them | Your TTF, OTF, WOFF or WOFF2 files, including variable fonts, added as an asset source next to the built-in font library, on web, iOS, Android and server |
| **Editor theming** | One dark theme and no light mode, though the source is yours to restyle | Light, dark or system themes, in your product's colors |
| **Automatic captions** | Included through OpenAI's Whisper API, for audio files up to 25 MB | Auto Caption plugin with a speech-to-text provider you choose |
| **Upload storage** | An S3 bucket and IAM user in your AWS account, plus your own cleanup of deleted files | Your upload handler and storage, since the default handler is for development only |
| **Project list and auto-save** | Your team builds them, since the Starter saves projects to the browser's local storage | Your team builds them on scene saving and the editor's history updates |
| **Login and route protection** | Backend routes ship without authentication or rate limits, so your team adds both | The editor runs behind your app's login, with no backend route needed to edit or export |
| **Data protection** | Media stays in your AWS account, with the routes and bucket access for your team to secure | Content stays on the device or your servers and never reaches IMG.LY, from a SOC 2 Type II certified, GDPR-compliant vendor |
| **Updates** | Your team merges Remotion's changes into its fork | New SDK versions with upgrade guides |
Most of the Starter's gaps sit in what your users see, like transitions, animation and mobile editing, while the work both options leave to you is infrastructure: storage, project lists and login. Each section below covers Remotion, then IMG.LY, and ends with a verdict, starting with the gaps users notice first.
## Transitions and Animations
### Remotion
The Starter's timeline covers the basic cut:
- Multiple tracks with drag and drop
- Splitting, trimming and snapping
- Opacity fades, and rolling edits that move the cut between two clips without changing their combined length
- Playback speeds from 0.25x to 5x
Transitions and keyframe animation aren't included. You can add them with Remotion's transitions package and animation helpers, and building, styling and testing those controls in the editor's interface is up to your team.
### IMG.LY
- Clip-to-clip [transitions](https://img.ly/demos/transitions.md) such as cross-fades, pushes and wipes, on web, iOS and Android
- Entrance, exit and loop [animations](https://img.ly/demos/animations.md), such as slide, fade, zoom and spin, with adjustable duration and easing
- Text animations that bring a headline in line by line, word by word or character by character
- A timeline with multiple video and audio tracks, trimming, splitting and speed changes
- The same edits through the API, so a server can trim, split and assemble videos without the editor
### Verdict
Both handle the basic cut. Choose CE.SDK if your users need transitions or animated titles from launch, and choose the Starter if you want to build your own keyframe animation system in React and have the time to do it.
## Mobile Editing on iOS and Android
### Remotion
- Built for desktop browsers, with no mobile support
- React Native support for Remotion isn't planned
An iOS or Android app would therefore need a separate editor built by your team.
### IMG.LY
- CE.SDK's [timeline editor](https://img.ly/demos/video-ui/ios/) runs in native iOS and Android apps, as part of the [mobile video SDK](https://img.ly/products/video-sdk-mobile.md)
- Camera and voiceover recording inside the app, so users can film a clip or record narration and drop it straight onto the timeline
- Transitions, automatic captions and locked brand templates work there too
- React Native and Flutter apps get a CE.SDK of their own, covered in our [React Native](https://img.ly/blog/a-modern-video-editor-sdk-for-your-react-native-app.md) and [Flutter](https://img.ly/blog/a-modern-video-editor-sdk-for-your-flutter-app.md) guides
[Planoly](https://img.ly/case-studies/planoly.md) grew from Instagram-only planning into a social media platform for five-plus channels, including Facebook, TikTok and Pinterest. It embedded CE.SDK in both its web and mobile apps, so creators edit photos and videos without ever switching to an outside tool:
> IMG.LY exists everywhere that Planoly exists.
_Ben Morton, Product Manager, Planoly_
### Verdict
Choose CE.SDK if your product has an iOS or Android app, or plans one, since the Starter would need a separate mobile editor built by your team. If your users only edit on desktop, both options cover them, and the other sections decide.
## Rendering and Exporting the Video
### Remotion
- Renders on Remotion Lambda by default, in your AWS account, splitting each video into chunks that many functions process at once
- A codec selector for MP4 or WebM, with ProRes and GIF available in Remotion itself
- Optional rendering in the browser, which drops Lambda but still uploads files to AWS S3
- In-browser renders keep the user on the page, and the file is a temporary download unless you store it
### IMG.LY
- MP4 is the only video export format, with [export options](https://img.ly/demos/video-export-options.md) for frame rate and resolution, up to 4K on capable hardware
- Exports run on the user's device, so no render servers are needed
- [Browser support](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/js/browser-support-28c1b0.md) for desktop Chrome, Edge and Safari 26 or newer
- Background export on the web, so users keep editing while a video exports
- Server export with [`@cesdk/node-native`](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/node-native/export-save-publish/export/to-mp4-c998a8.md) inside a Node.js service (not on AWS Lambda)
- Server export with the [CE.SDK Renderer](https://img.ly/demos/export-using-renderer.md), a Docker container for Linux that needs an NVIDIA GPU for video
Our [Renderer introduction](https://img.ly/blog/ce-sdk-renderer-creative-automation.md) shows where the Renderer fits in an automation pipeline.
### Verdict
Remotion is stronger here. Choose the Starter if you need WebM output or want to render on AWS Lambda, knowing that Remotion itself can add ProRes or GIF if your team wires them in. Choose CE.SDK if MP4 covers your needs and exporting in the browser or on your own servers works for you.
## Keeping Every Video on Brand
### Remotion
- No templates, placeholders or locked elements in the Starter's feature set, so brand rules are yours to design on the JSON project state
- Fonts from Google Fonts, and other fonts mean changing how the preview and the render load them
- One dark theme and no light mode, though the source is yours to restyle
### IMG.LY
- Placeholders, text variables and locked elements for branded [templates](https://img.ly/demos/placeholders-video.md): users swap the clips and the headline, but can't move or change the branded elements you lock, such as logos or brand colors
- The same controls on web, iOS, Android and the server
- Brand kits that bundle your fonts, colors and logos for users to pick from
- Servers can fill a template from data, for example one video for each product in a catalog, as our guide to [video automation](https://img.ly/blog/automating-video-creation-at-scale-templates-timelines-rendering.md) explains
- Your brand fonts in TTF, OTF or WOFF, added to the editor's font picker
- Light, dark or system themes, with [theming](https://img.ly/demos/theming.md) for your product's colors, covered on our [white-label editor](https://img.ly/capabilities/white-label-editor.md) page
[Optimizely](https://img.ly/case-studies/optimizely.md) was losing deals because its Content Marketing Platform had no brand template editor. It embedded CE.SDK in one of its fastest projects, and now more than 1,000 customers create their own on-brand assets while its win rate against competitors has risen:
> One of the biggest things for us was that we wanted to enable our smaller customers to be able to build and use templates, people without expertise, people without design teams.
_Rob Driscoll, Principal Product Manager, Optimizely_
### Verdict
Choose CE.SDK if branded templates matter to your product: placeholders, locked elements and brand kits come included, and you still set your own lock rules and theme on top. With the Starter, every brand control is something your team designs and builds.
## Generating Captions From Speech
### Remotion
- Transcription through OpenAI's Whisper API, using a captions route on your server and your OpenAI key
- Word-by-word caption editing, with the font, the text color and a highlight color for the active word
- Files up to 25 MB, which Remotion puts at about 13.4 minutes of mono audio
- Captioning switched off for longer recordings unless you change that logic
- Alternatives in the captioning guide: Remotion's browser Whisper package, which runs on the user's CPU and is slower, or its server package, which you host and scale
### IMG.LY
- The [Auto Caption plugin](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/js/user-interface/ai-integration/auto-captions-73368c.md) on web, iOS and Android, which turns a clip's speech into timed captions
- A built-in ElevenLabs provider on the web, or a custom provider for any other speech-to-text service
- Caption import from SRT or VTT files
- [Caption editing](https://img.ly/demos/video-captions.md) and restyling in the editor, plus presets that apply a complete caption look (font, color, background and alignment) in one click
### Verdict
Both generate and edit captions, and both can work with the transcription service you prefer, since the Starter's captioning code is yours to change and CE.SDK accepts a custom provider. Choose CE.SDK if you also need automatic captions in your iOS and Android apps.
## Data Protection and Security
### Remotion
- You get the full source code, so your security team can review everything the editor runs
- Uploads go to an S3 bucket in your AWS account, and the default setup switches off S3's "Block all public access", enables ACLs and accepts requests from any origin
- Backend routes for uploads, captions and rendering ship without authentication or rate limits, which Remotion's production checklist asks you to add
- Caption audio goes to OpenAI by default
- Browser renders send Remotion a telemetry event with the IP address and page domain, but no video content or user data, and your privacy notices need to cover that transfer
- Lambda renders send telemetry only when a license key is set
- Remotion publishes a DPA statement describing itself as an independent controller for licensing and telemetry data, and says a separate GDPR data processing addendum is generally not needed
### IMG.LY
- [Client-side processing](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/js/security-777bfd.md): editing and export run on the user's device or your servers, and images, videos and designs are never uploaded to IMG.LY
- IMG.LY is SOC 2 Type II certified and GDPR compliant, with SSO available on enterprise plans and [compliance reports](https://img.ly/forms/contact-sales.md) on request
- Licensing data is limited to device identifiers on mobile and export counts, collected under GDPR's legitimate interest provision
- Licenses are pinned to your domains or app identifiers, and enterprise license files work without contacting IMG.LY's licensing service
- Engine and content assets can be [served from your own servers](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/js/serve-assets-b0827c.md) instead of IMG.LY's CDN
- Automatic captions send audio only to the speech-to-text provider you choose, through a proxy that keeps the API key on your server
- Security fixes are published in the public changelog
[The Print Bar](https://img.ly/case-studies/print-bar.md), an Australian custom-apparel company, rebuilt its decade-old editor on CE.SDK and went live about four weeks before the Christmas peak. Self-hosting was a firm requirement, and after the relaunch one customer placed a five-figure order entirely self-serve:
> It needed to be self-hosted, a package solution that integrated directly, not another cloud service.
_Tom Rowe, Product & Engineering, The Print Bar_
### Verdict
Both can keep your users' media inside infrastructure you control. Choose the Starter if your security team needs to review every line of the editor's source, and choose CE.SDK if you want editing and export to stay on the user's device, with fewer backend routes to secure and a SOC 2 Type II certified vendor.
## Storing Uploads and Saved Projects
### Remotion
- Uploads go to AWS S3 by default, with a bucket and an IAM user you create by following Remotion's asset uploads guide
- Files that users delete stay in storage until you add a cleanup step
- Projects save to the browser's local storage when the user presses Save
- No project list or auto-save, and saving to your servers means rewriting the Starter's save and load functions
### IMG.LY
- The default upload handler is for development only, so you register one that sends files to your storage, whether that's S3, another cloud bucket or your DAM
- Projects save as a string, or as a zip archive that bundles the project with its assets, for you to store wherever you like
- Auto-save means subscribing to the editor's history updates and calling your save function
- [Version history](https://img.ly/demos/version-history.md) with snapshots, so users can restore an earlier version of a project
### Verdict
With either option, your team decides where clips and projects live and puts the editor behind your app's login. The Starter comes wired to AWS S3, while CE.SDK connects to any storage, AWS included, through your own upload handler.
## Maintenance, Updates and Licensing
### Remotion
- Your team maintains the code
- Remotion's FAQ expects a customized Starter to "quickly diverge" from the original
- Later changes come in through GitHub if you forked the repository, or by hand if you copied the code, and merging them is your team's job
- Bought once per project
- Companies with four or more people also need a Remotion Company License, and Remotion's license FAQ places organizations that build video editors on its per-render "Remotion for Automators" plan
### IMG.LY
- IMG.LY maintains the SDK, and new versions come with upgrade guides for the changes that need them
- Staying current means updating a dependency
- You customize CE.SDK through configuration, theming, plugins and its API, or build your own interface on the headless engine
- You don't control the source, so new features follow IMG.LY's roadmap rather than yours
- A single commercial license from IMG.LY
[Halio](https://img.ly/case-studies/halio.md) built its social platform for financial advisors on CE.SDK, and advisors now produce 30 days of branded content in about 30 minutes. As a small team, it relies on IMG.LY's releases instead of building editor features in-house:
> IMG.LY's ongoing updates and new features have been invaluable. We don't have the resources to develop these features in-house.
_Mark Lamb, CEO, Halio_
### Verdict
Choose the Starter if owning and changing every line matters more to you than the upkeep that comes with it. Choose CE.SDK if you would rather have IMG.LY maintain the editor and spend your team's time on the rest of your product.
## Overall Verdict
The Starter fits React teams that want to own every line of their editor, don't need mobile editing, and value Remotion's WebM output and Lambda rendering. CE.SDK fits teams that need a [video editor SDK](https://img.ly/products/video-sdk.md) on web, iOS and Android, with transitions and locked brand templates from the start, and would rather not maintain the editor themselves. Our [build or buy](https://img.ly/blog/strategic-guide-to-creative-editing-when-to-build-when-to-buy.md) guide looks at that trade-off in more depth, and the [React integration guide](https://img.ly/blog/a-modern-react-video-editor.md) shows what setting up CE.SDK in a React app involves.
Digitas Germany evaluated building its own editor for a campaign portal where car dealers create video, social and print assets, then chose CE.SDK. More than 600 dealers now create their own assets across 140+ campaigns for 10 automotive brands, and as its [case study](https://img.ly/case-studies/digitas.md) puts it, CE.SDK shipped a richer product in months than an in-house build would have produced in years.
[Omneky](https://img.ly/case-studies/omneky.md), an AI ad-generation platform, chose CE.SDK so its engineers could focus on AI. New signups grew 10× month over month after it launched auto-generated ads with CE.SDK as the editing layer, and it now generates more than 1,000 ads a day:
> The partnership with IMG.LY lets us focus on building the best AI, the best data-driven engine, the best advertising integrations, and the best ad generation. And then we can sleep easily that the image editing and video editing portions of the platform are well taken care of and well supported on the IMG.LY side.
_Hikari Senju, Founder & CEO, Omneky_
To see how Remotion itself, rather than the Editor Starter, compares with CE.SDK, read our [Remotion alternative](https://img.ly/remotion-alternative.md) page, and for other code-first tools, our [open source roundup](https://img.ly/blog/best-open-source-video-editor-sdks-2025-roundup.md). Our [React Video Editor](https://img.ly/react-video-editor-alternative.md) comparison covers a third-party editor that keeps you on Remotion. To try CE.SDK yourself, open the advanced [video editor demo](https://img.ly/demos/advanced-video-ui.md) or [start building](https://img.ly/get-started.md) with CE.SDK in your app.
## FAQ
**Is the Remotion Editor Starter free?**
No. It's a one-time purchase per project that gives you access to a private GitHub repository. Because it runs on Remotion, companies with four or more people also need a Remotion Company License, while Remotion stays free for individuals, non-profits, evaluations and companies of three or fewer people.
**Can I use the Remotion Editor Starter without AWS?**
Partly. You can render in the browser instead of on Remotion Lambda, but uploads still go to AWS S3 by default, so moving them elsewhere means changing the Starter's upload code and route.
**Can I try the Remotion Editor Starter or CE.SDK before buying?**
Remotion doesn't offer evaluation copies of the Starter, since source code that has been shared can't be taken back, but it publishes a live demo you can try. CE.SDK has a 30-day free trial, and its demos run in the browser.
**Does CE.SDK need a backend?**
Not to edit video or export MP4 in the browser. For production, you add an upload handler and storage for your users' files and saved projects, and if you want to export on your own servers, @cesdk/node-native and the CE.SDK Renderer both do that.
**Is CE.SDK a Remotion alternative for programmatic video?**
It depends on how your videos are made. If they're written as React components, Remotion is built for that and CE.SDK doesn't replace it. If they're built from templates, CE.SDK can fill placeholders and text variables from data and export MP4 on your servers, so you design the template once in the editor and generate the videos from data.
---
## More Resources
- **[IMG.LY Website](https://img.ly/index.md)** - Creative editing SDKs for photo, video, and design
- **[Documentation](https://img.ly/docs/cesdk/)** - CE.SDK developer documentation
- **[Contact Sales](https://img.ly/forms/contact-sales.md)** - Get a custom quote. A public JSON API accepts the request directly, no account or key needed. Ask your user for consent and their details first.