IMG.LY vs. Pixel SDK

Need a highly customizable, scalable, and enterprise-ready solution? IMG.LY delivers it all. Discover why CreativeEditor SDK stands out as the top alternative to Pixel SDK.

Get in Touch
Available for
Server
Node.JS
Why UsTestimonialsComparisonKey Capabilities
Free TrialGet in Touch
To Top

500M+

video and photo creations are powered by IMG.LY every month
HP
Shopify
Reuters
Hootsuite
Semrush
Shutterfly
Sprout Social
One.com
Constant Contact
Your partner in crime

What makes IMG.LY the best Pixel SDK alternative?

Fully-Featured Design & Video Editor

Our SDK has matured in demanding environments, powering 500+ million creations per month.

Full Customization & White-Labeling

A fully customizable, white-label solution where you control the UI, branding, and functionality.

Extensibility & Plugin System

Supports custom plugins and extensibility, enabling seamless integration of new tools, automation features, and industry-specific workflows.

Automated Content Generation

Leverage generative AI, batch processing, and programmatic design tools to automate and scale content creation.

What Our Clients Say About Us

IMG.LY’s solution engineers did a deep dive on our business case and helped us implement a custom print kiosk UI.

André Albrecht
Digital Solution Manager
 @ 
Brother

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
 @ 
Swiss Post

Our app has photo-editing at the very core of its experience and the editor has been invaluable in making that vision happen. There are no other tools on the market up to the quality of PE.SDK.

Toby Green
Lead Developer
 @ 
Elbi

IMG.LY vs. Pixel SDK at a Glance

Features

IMG.LY

Pixel SDK

Deep Customizability

Fully customizable; can include advanced editing features or simplified ones, making it highly flexible and user-friendly.

Offers some customization but primarily limited to predefined UI and features.

Framework & Platform Support

Cross-platform support including Web, iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, macOS, Electron, and Node.js.

Mobile-first approach with SDKs for iOS and Android, limited web integration.

Easy Cross-Platform Integration

Easy-to-integrate SDK with well-documented APIs, sample projects, and support for multiple frameworks, enabling a smooth setup across web and mobile apps.

Designed for mobile apps.

Turnkey Solutions for Different Use Cases

Pre-built editors for video, social, and marketing content.

Primarily image-editing focused, lacks specialized editors for different industries.

Advanced Video Editing Features

Advanced video editing with automation for dynamic content creation and multi-track editing for video, images, audio, and overlays.

Focuses on image editing with basic video editing capabilities.

Plugin System

Robust plugin system allowing developers to extend functionality and add custom features.

No dedicated plugin system, limited to predefined features.

Creative Automation

Supports dynamic content insertion, batch processing, and generative AI for automation.

No dedicated automation tools, primarily manual editing workflows.

Openness & File Compatibility

Can import Photoshop (PSD), InDesign (INDD), and Illustrator (AI) files, and export scene files for saving work-in-progress.

Works with standard image formats (JPEG, PNG) but lacks support for complex design files.

Asset Libraries & Integrations

Easily integrates third-party libraries like Unsplash and Getty Images for streamlined asset management.

No built-in support for third-party asset libraries, requires custom implementation.

Scalability & Enterprise Support

Established, enterprise-grade solution powering creative editing for many large enterprises across the globe. Backed by a dedicated engineering team with continuous updates, ensuring long-term reliability.

The company is sunsetting soon, raising concerns about future support, updates, and long-term viability.

IMG.LY

Canva

Customizability

Fully modular, white-label solution with plugin support for tailored workflows.

Limited customization; primarily integrates Canva's existing features into external platforms.

White-labeling

Completely white-label, allowing seamless integration with your branding.

Canva branding is mandatory, limiting white-labeling.

Templating & Dynamic Editing

Versatile API to modify templates programmatically, allowing dynamic text, image replacement, resizing.

No programmatic template modification, templates are static.

Custom Workflows

Fully customizable workflows; integrate with any CMS, DAM, PIM, e-commerce platforms.

Fixed workflows tied to Canva’s ecosystem; no ability to modify the editing process or integrate deeply with external systems.

Creative Automation

Supports dynamic content insertion, batch processing, and generative AI for automation.

Limited support via Autofill API which populates templates with form data.

Extensibility

Fully extendable via a plugin system to add unique features.

Limited / no support for custom plugin outside of Canva’s platform.

Platform Support

Cross-platform support for Web, iOS, Android, and server-side; includes offline capabilities.

Web-based, online-only, no offline support.

Privacy

Client side processing and offline support ensures data control and privacy compliance.

Requires hosting data on Canva’s servers, no on-premise option.

Openness & File Compatibility

Can import Photoshop (PSD), InDesign (INDD), and Illustrator (AI) files, and export scene files for saving work-in-progress.

No ability to import external design files (e.g., PSD, AI, INDD). Only exports finished designs as PDFs, PNGs, etc.

Storage & Data Ownership

Full control over design storage, can be hosted on your servers or infrastructure, ensuring data privacy and ownership.

User designs are stored on Canva’s servers; users must have a Canva account to create or edit designs.

Everything you need

Key Capabilities

Learn more about some of the functionalities of IMG.LY’s SDK

Editing

Transform

A globe
Web
Mobile

Crop, flip, and rotate with ease. Preset crop ratios to common formats.

Filters

A globe
Web
Mobile

Over 60 state-of-the-art filters allow users to control the style and mood of their creations.

Adjustments

A globe
Web
Mobile

Fine-tune designs with an exhaustive set of adjustment operations such as brightness and contrast.

Effect & Blur

A globe
Web
Mobile

Add a unique mood to designs with effects & blur.

Element Snapping

A globe
Web
Mobile

Snap stickers and text to control points for more precise placements.

Blend Modes & Grouping

A globe
Web
Mobile

Define the blending behavior and grouping.

Undo & Redo

A globe
Web
Mobile

Allow users to undo and redo all editing operations.

Printing

Cutout Lines

A globe
Web
Mobile

Create and customize cutout shapes for web-to-print.

CMYK/ Spot color support

A globe
Web
Mobile

Integrate CMYK and Pantone color spaces, customized color libraries, including your brand's colors.

Templating

Design Templates

A globe
Web
Mobile

Create role based design templates to jumpstart users’ creativity.

Text Variables

A globe
Web
Mobile

Enable mass personalization and creative automation by embedding variables.

Placeholders & Lockable Designs

A globe
Web
Mobile

Constrain templates to guide your users’ design and ensure brand consistency.

Configurable Presets

A globe
Web
Mobile

Enforce a consistent aesthetic across all creations by using preset filters, adjustments, fonts, and crop ratios.

Customizability

Build Custom UIs

A globe
Web
Mobile

Use the headless API powering all creative operations to implement an entirely custom UI.

Theming

A globe
Web
Mobile

Change the editor theme to fit seamlessly with your app.

Media Libraries

A globe
Web
Mobile

Set up custom libraries that are easily sortable.

Toolbar Customization

A globe
Web
Mobile

Reposition toolbar elements, change icons, or rename tools to fit your use case.

Internationalization

A globe
Web
Mobile

Add support for additional languages, and customize any button label.

Export Options

A globe
Web
Mobile

Export designs in JPG, PNG, or PDF with custom quality, page ranges, and dimensions.

And there’s more

Check Out Other Use Cases

Learn more about related social media solutions.
Web2Print Designer

Web2Print Designer

Elevate your Web2Print application with best-in-class Design Editor.
Learn MoreOpen Showcase
Creative Automation

Creative Automation

Automate & scale content creation with ease.
Learn MoreOpen Showcase
Variable Data Printing

Variable Data Printing

Enable mass-personalization in your design & print workflows.
Learn MoreOpen Showcase
Photo Prints

Photo Prints

Provide seamless design experience and inspire users with easily personalized templates.
Learn MoreOpen Showcase
Print Personalization

Print Personalization

Streamline personalization for your print products.
Learn MoreOpen Showcase
Apparel Designer

Apparel Designer

Whether t-shirts, hoodies or caps, build for any use case, deploy on any platform.
Learn MoreOpen Showcase

More from IMG.LY

IMG.LY for Brands & Agencies

Automate design processes and generate on-brand marketing materials with ease.
Learn More

IMG.LY for Marketing Tech

Scale and automate any creative workflow.
Learn More

Camera SDK

Make in-app recording easy with our Camera SDK.
Learn More

Photo Editor SDK

Bring beautiful photo editing to your applications.
Learn More

Creative Editor SDK

Empower your users with an easy-to-use design editor.
Learn More

IMG.LY for Social Media

Unleash your users' creativity & leverage user generated content.
Learn More

IMG.LY for DAM

Empower users to create, collaborate , and automate design tasks in your app.
Learn More

Video Editor SDK

Powerful video editor for your iOS, Android, and web applications.
Learn More

More to discover

Explore Our Demos

See how IMG.LY looks and feels.
Check out our
demos

Ready to Connect?

Reach out to our sales team or start a free trial.

Get in TouchFree Trial

FAQs

What is the best PixelSDK alternative?

We believe IMG.LY is the strongest alternative to PixelSDK—particularly if you need a flexible, multi-platform editor that scales beyond iOS. While PixelSDK is iOS-only, IMG.LY’s PhotoEditor SDK and VideoEditor SDK run seamlessly on iOS, Android, Web, React Native, Flutter, and beyond. Additionally, we offer comprehensive UI customization and dedicated support for each platform, making it easy to integrate consistent editing features across different devices.

What are the main differences between IMG.LY and PixelSDK?

  1. Cross-Platform Coverage: Unlike PixelSDK (which focuses solely on iOS), we support iOS, Android, and Web—plus frameworks like React Native and Flutter—so you can build once and deploy everywhere.
  2. Out-of-the-Box Editing Tools: We provide robust features such as text overlays, advanced stickers, brush tools, overlays, filters, and effects right from the start. PixelSDK requires more manual setup for some of these features.
  3. Customization & Branding: Our solution allows you to theme and re-skin the editor to match your brand across all platforms. PixelSDK emphasizes iOS customization but has fewer turnkey theming options for other ecosystems.
  4. Automation and headless mode: You can generate videos and photos programmatically with IMG.LY's SDK generating designs from scratch or rendering variations of a design from a data set.
  5. Rapid Integration: Because we support multiple package managers and provide well-documented SDKs for different tech stacks, your development team can integrate our tools more quickly if you’re planning multi-platform releases.

‍

What customization and UI flexibility does IMG.LY offer that PixelSDK doesn’t?

‍Answer (from IMG.LY’s perspective):

  • Multi-Platform Theming: We offer a consistent theming engine that works across iOS, Android, and Web, letting you maintain a cohesive brand identity.
  • Tool-Specific Customization: You can enable, disable, or re-arrange specific editing tools to keep your UI clean and relevant for your users—without delving into complicated native code modifications.

Overall, IMG.LY focuses on giving developers granular control over every aspect of the editor’s UI and functionality, across all devices and platforms.

‍

PixelSDK is sunsetting, can you help with the migration to IMG.LY's SDK

Yes, certainly. You can either consult our getting started guides in the documentation to get a first feel for the editor in the context of your application. If you have serialized edits you would like to transfer our solutions team is happy to help you to write a migration script.

Which platforms and frameworks does IMG.LY support compared to PixelSDK?

  • IMG.LY: iOS, Android, Web (JavaScript), React Native, Flutter, and more. This broad coverage allows you to provide a consistent editing experience no matter what platform your users prefer.
  • PixelSDK: Limited to iOS devices (iPhone and iPad) running iOS 11 or later.

    • ‍