IMG.LY vs. Customily
The Customily alternative for online sellers that want product personalization built into their own shop.
What makes IMG.LY the best Customily alternative?
Personalization in your own store
IMG.LY runs in your own store, so no outside app sits between shoppers and your checkout.
In your iPhone and Android apps
Shoppers can personalize products in your phone apps too, using the engine behind your website.
Print files your printer accepts
IMG.LY exports PDF/X and flags errors before a file reaches your printer.
Batches from your own data
IMG.LY fills templates from your data and outputs print files on servers you run, for one order or a whole product line.
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. Customily at a glance
| Feature | IMG.LY | Customily | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Primary Use Case | IMG.LY gives you a design editor to embed and white-label inside your own shop, so shoppers create personalized products without leaving your site. | A personalization app for online stores: merchants set up personalizable products, shoppers see their choices on a live preview, and production files suit printing, engraving, embroidery or laser cutting. | IMG.LY keeps the whole design step on your own site under your brand. Customily is an app for online stores whose files also cover engraving and embroidery. |
| Target Audience | Print-on-demand and gift brands, photo and apparel shops, label and packaging makers, commercial printers and brand portals looking to build product personalization into a storefront or platform they own. | Online merchants and print-on-demand sellers offering personalized products, fulfilled by an integrated provider or their own production. Print-on-demand providers can also list products that merchants then personalize and sell. | Print-on-demand sellers appear on both lists. IMG.LY also suits printers and packaging makers with a platform of their own, and Customily links merchants with POD providers. |
| Technical Approach | IMG.LY becomes part of your own codebase, on servers you choose. Its editor can ship as it is, the engine can sit behind an interface you design, or it can render with no interface. | A hosted web app that installs into store platforms. On other sites, developers on an API-enabled plan embed it in an iframe or run its JavaScript canvas library in the browser. | IMG.LY runs inside your own code, and its editor is optional. Customily is hosted, and other sites reach it by iframe or canvas library. |
| Advanced Design Editing | Designs of one or many pages mix vectors, photos and type. Text can use variable fonts, justified paragraphs and highlights behind single words, and color can be CMYK or spot. On the web, boolean operations combine or cut shapes. | Merchants set text along circles or custom paths with draggable nodes, warp it or fill shapes with it, and add gradients, textures and shadows. Spot colors are not documented. | IMG.LY handles multi-page designs, spot and CMYK colors, and shape cutting. Customily's text tools curve, warp or fill shapes with type. |
| File Format Support | Takes in JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, SVG, PDF and TTF, OTF or WOFF fonts, and opens PSD, IDML, AI and EPS designs for editing. Exports PDF, PDF/X, WebP, PNG, JPEG, SVG, MP4 and IDML, plus PSD on a server. | Print files export as PNG, JPG, PDF, EPS, AI, DXF or, with a connected provider, embroidery formats. PSD imports keep text and raster layers but lose text styling. IDML is not documented. | Design files such as IDML and AI open for editing in IMG.LY. Customily adds DXF and, through providers, embroidery formats to its exports. |
| Print Production | From a browser tab or a Node.js process, IMG.LY writes PDF/X at conformance levels 1a, 3 or 4 with a FOGRA39 or GRACoL 2013 profile or one your printer supplies. Pages with bleed get trim and bleed boxes automatically, web cutouts prepare die-cut shapes, and screens show rich black apart from plain black. | Print files set resolution for image formats and RGB or CMYK for vector formats. Page sizes include any bleed, and crop marks or cut lines placed in a base file print with every design. PDF/X is not documented. | IMG.LY delivers PDF/X with standard or custom color profiles. Customily sets bleed and crop marks through a base file and does not document PDF/X. |
| Templating & Dynamic Editing | Locked elements, placeholders and text variables make up a template, and text scales itself to fit its frame. Exclusion areas can be set to keep every element out of die cuts, spines and envelope windows. | Templates hold fixed or editable text and photo or vector placeholders, text can shrink or wrap to fit, and layouts let shoppers switch between design versions. | Placeholders and auto-fitting text appear on both sides. IMG.LY also keeps elements out of die cuts and spines, and Customily lets shoppers switch between layouts. |
| Variable Data Publishing | A template personalizes one order while the shopper edits or a whole data file in a server batch, and output speed grows with the machines you add. | Each order's choices build its production file, and text can autofill the order number. Customily generates print files for Amazon Custom orders from an imported order report. Batch runs from other data files are not documented. | IMG.LY runs whole data files as server batches. Customily builds one file per order and handles Amazon Custom reports in bulk. |
| Creative Automation | On your servers, IMG.LY reads records from your databases, spreadsheets or APIs and renders one personalized print file per record automatically in Node.js. | Scripts on a web page can fill a template's text, fonts, images and vectors and export production files. Merging records from databases or APIs into templates is not documented. | IMG.LY pulls records from your systems and renders the files server-side. Customily scripts fill templates inside a web page. |
| AI Capabilities | AI plugins create images, cut out backgrounds and rewrite text, optionally via the AI Gateway. Agents built into your product can create on-brand designs with the CoDesign SDK, and those designs open in the web editor as editable layers. | Merchants' AI effects restyle or cut out shoppers' photos, shoppers turn text into images, and merchants create lifestyle mockups. Outside providers need the merchant's API key. An SDK for AI agents is not documented. | Image generation and cutouts work in both. IMG.LY adds an agent that builds editable designs, and Customily adds restyled photos and lifestyle mockups. |
| Product Mockups | On the web, a Mockup Editor kit places artwork on posters, postcards, apparel and business cards, while the 3D Mockup Editor kit uses 3D libraries for live product previews. | Merchants turn blank product photos into a mockup and can add one photo per variant, masks for folds or texture, and front and back views. 3D mockup support is not documented. | IMG.LY's kits add live 3D previews. Customily turns photos of the merchant's blank products into mockups. |
| Asset Management | Asset libraries you define, dynamic asset sources and your DAM feed the editor, and mobile users add photos straight from their gallery or camera. | Merchants keep image, color, font and vector libraries in their Customily account, bulk upload image, vector and font libraries as ZIP files and see where each is used. Connecting a DAM is not documented. | Your DAM and live sources plug into IMG.LY. Customily stores libraries in the merchant's account, uploaded in bulk as ZIP files. |
| User Interface | The included editor takes your theme and toolbar order, the web version accepts custom panels, and APIs let you embed one component or build every screen yourself. | Shoppers use text fields, dropdowns, swatches, uploads, color and date pickers, maps and QR codes. On stores such as Shopify and WooCommerce, the live preview shows on the page, in a modal or behind a button. | Shoppers get a full editor in IMG.LY, themed or rebuilt to fit. In Customily they fill in an option form beside a preview. |
| White-labeling | The editor shows no IMG.LY name or logo, and your store's colors and theme apply across every component, which suits OEM and enterprise deployments. | Custom CSS can restyle virtually any element Customily adds to a storefront, while the iframe for custom stores and emailed personalization links load from a Customily preview domain. | IMG.LY stays unbranded throughout. Customily's look changes through CSS, but its iframe and emailed links still use a Customily domain. |
| Interactive Editing | Edits render instantly on the GPU. On the web, shoppers press and hold a photo, then drop it on another to swap the two, and the Design Validation kit flags designs that are not ready for print. | The live preview updates as shoppers personalize. They can move, zoom or rotate uploads and drag movable text or clipart inside merchant-defined areas, and a minimum image size can reject low-resolution uploads. | Previews update live on each side. IMG.LY checks print readiness with its validation kit, and Customily can reject uploads below a minimum size. |
| Multi-Layer Editing | Layer count is unlimited, and photo, shape, text and video layers support blend modes, groups and masks. In the web layer list, dragging a row moves an element into a group or to another page. | In the Design Studio, merchants stack text, image and vector layers, mask uploads with shapes or text, and lock, hide, rename or reorder layers in a panel. Shoppers change layer content through the option form. | IMG.LY adds blend modes and video layers. In Customily, merchants arrange the layers and shoppers edit only what the form exposes. |
| Cross-Platform Support | Browsers, iOS and Android apps (native, Flutter or React Native), desktop software on Electron or macOS, and Node.js backends all run on one shared engine. | Storefronts work in any browser and device, and product-page personalization can give mobile its own preview style and touch gestures. Merchants design in Chrome, Safari or Firefox. Native app support is not documented. | IMG.LY also covers phone apps, desktop programs and Node.js backends. Customily works in any browser and adapts its preview for phones. |
| Customizability | The editor adopts your brand palette and typefaces, runs in a light or dark mode, shows translated labels, and lets you hide or rearrange any panel. Roles decide what each user may edit. | Store-wide Styles set how the personalization form, swatches, upload controls and buttons look. Option sets, conditional logic and input limits decide what shoppers can change. | IMG.LY adapts the whole editor's look, language and layout. Customily restyles its form and steers shoppers through option logic. |
| Extensibility | Plugins bring in your own tools, asset sources, render steps and third-party AI models while the core SDK stays unchanged, and upgrades leave them working. | Custom JavaScript can change storefront behavior, and the Design Studio API creates, clones, renames, tags and deletes products and templates. A plugin system is not documented. | IMG.LY grows through plugins that keep working after upgrades. Customily offers custom JavaScript and an API for managing products and templates. |
| Ease of Integration | Starter kits such as a complete photobook editor give a working base, and with Agent Skills an AI coding agent turns a plain-language brief into a working web project. | Supported stores connect through an app, plugin, extension or account authorization, and Customily's team checks BigCommerce and Magento installs. Developers on other platforms start from complete example pages. | IMG.LY starts you from a working kit or an AI-built project. Customily connects through store apps and plugins and gives other platforms example pages. |
| E-commerce Integrations | A storefront whose code you control, whether built on Shopify, WooCommerce or from scratch, can embed IMG.LY as its personalization step, and orders, payments and fulfillment stay where they run today. | Connects to Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Amazon, BigCommerce, Magento, Walmart DSV and custom-built stores; Shopify, Etsy and WooCommerce orders and print files go to POD providers such as Printful, Printify, Gelato and Gooten. | IMG.LY becomes the personalization step of your own storefront. Customily plugs into marketplaces such as Etsy and Amazon and routes orders to POD providers. |
| Flexible Rendering Approach | Shoppers' edits draw on their own device. On your servers, jobs run through the Node.js SDK or the CE.SDK Renderer. Every path gives identical output. | The live preview draws in the shopper's browser on a canvas, and Customily's service generates the production files after checkout. A production renderer you can host is not documented. | Each draws previews on the shopper's device. Print files come from your servers with IMG.LY and from Customily's service after checkout. |
| Production Readiness | Enterprise customers produce millions of assets monthly with IMG.LY, support tiers cover the integration phase, and the company is GDPR compliant. | Online brands sell personalized products through Customily every day, and merchants can get live help and one-to-one training. | Each has customers in live production. Customily trains merchants one to one, and IMG.LY adds integration support and GDPR compliance. |
| Scalability | Asynchronous, load-balanced rendering divides work between shopper devices and your servers, and a batch can be as large as you need. | Stores with large order volumes can pull personalization details automatically through an API, and an order that mixes products from several POD providers is split between them. | An IMG.LY batch can be any size. Customily handles volume through API access and by splitting mixed orders across providers. |
| Storage & Data Ownership | Shopper photos, saved designs and customer data remain on servers you control, and IMG.LY needs no storage or service from any other provider. | Shopper uploads and production files sit on Customily-hosted storage, including an Amazon S3 bucket. Outside Shopify, canceling the account permanently deletes templates, designs and personalization settings. Self-hosted storage is not documented. | With IMG.LY, the data stays on your servers. Customily stores it for you, and outside Shopify a canceled account loses its templates and designs. |
| Clear Pricing Model | Enterprise licensing follows usage volume and deployment scope, and the free trial opens every feature to as many users as you need. | Sold as a monthly subscription per platform, a separate one for other platforms and custom setups, and a transaction fee per personalized item sold that falls in tiers as monthly sales grow. | IMG.LY licenses by usage and scope. Customily charges a monthly subscription plus a fee on each personalized item sold. |
| Support & Documentation | Every platform has API references, guides and sample implementations, and enterprise licenses add SLAs, faster response times and engineering consultation. | Merchants get a help center, GitHub developer guides, email, in-app chat and tickets, and the Shopify interface adds video tutorials and call booking with Customily's staff. | Each offers guides and direct help. IMG.LY adds SLAs and engineering advice for enterprises, and Customily adds chat and booked calls. |
Key capabilities
Learn more about some of the functionalities of IMG.LY’s SDK.
Editing
Printing
PDF/X export.
Write PDF/X files in a browser tab or with Node.js, under whichever ICC profile your print partner uses.
Cutout lines.
Create and customize cutout shapes for web-to-print.
Printer’s marks.
Registration and crop marks take an offset, length and weight of the user’s choosing in the web editor, while every page edge can carry its own bleed.
CMYK & spot color support.
CMYK previews show colors as they will print: rich and plain black differ, tints scale their ink values, and spot colors stay accurate even inside gradients and shadows.
Templating
Design templates.
Create role based design templates to jumpstart users’ creativity.
Placeholders & lockable designs.
Constrain templates to guide your users’ design and ensure brand consistency.
Photobook editor.
On the web, a Photobook Starter Kit fills layouts with photos by itself and exports PDF/X-4 files that carry a FOGRA39 output intent.
Before you choose a personalization tool
Three guides to help you decide between a hosted personalization app and an editor inside your own storefront.
Find out if you need a platform or an SDK
The guide’s decision path checks whether you already have users, a product catalog and a checkout in your own software, and the comparison sets IMG.LY beside seven other editor SDKs.
Learn what print-ready means
What sets PDF/X-1a, X-3 and X-4 apart, where print shops expect PDF/X, and how IMG.LY’s print-ready export converts colors with ICC profiles.
Bring personalization to the phone
Why print businesses should plan for shoppers on phones, and what an app with a built-in editor adds beyond a mobile website.
Check out other use cases
Learn more about related 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
IMG.LY fits if you want shoppers to personalize products in your own shop and apps. It also exports PDF/X from a browser or from servers you run.
Customily is a hosted personalization app that links up with Shopify, Etsy, WooCommerce, Amazon and other stores, and it charges for each personalized item sold on top of a subscription. IMG.LY, by contrast, is an SDK that goes into your store or app and runs wherever you host it.
IMG.LY can be built into a Shopify or WooCommerce storefront, or into a custom shop whose code you control. Customily also connects to marketplaces such as Etsy, Amazon and Walmart DSV.
Customily keeps what shoppers upload, along with the finished production files, on storage it hosts, including an S3 bucket at Amazon. With IMG.LY, saved designs, customer photos and print output stay on servers you control.
With IMG.LY you get PDF/X-1a, PDF/X-3 or PDF/X-4, and each file is checked against the standard. Customily print files come as PDF, PNG, JPG, EPS, AI or DXF; page sizes include bleed, vector formats can be RGB or CMYK, and PDF/X output is not documented.
Customily's personalizer is browser-based on phones too; where shoppers personalize directly on a product page, it adds touch gestures and a separate mobile preview style. IMG.LY can also run inside mobile apps for iOS and Android, native ones as well as Flutter and React Native builds.
Customily merchants can apply AI cutouts and restyling to shoppers' photos, shoppers can generate images from text, and merchants can create lifestyle mockups. With IMG.LY, AI plugins create images, take out backgrounds and rewrite copy inside the editor, and an agent you run can assemble designs through the CoDesign SDK.