Adobe Express Embed SDK opens Adobe's hosted editor inside your product, typically in an iframe, and access now requires business approval from Adobe. Polotno SDK is a design editor you build into your own app from React components, under your brand, with designs stored on your side. The question that decides it: do you want Adobe's editor and content inside your product, or an editor that is part of your product?
Pick the one that matches what your product needs
Pick Adobe Express Embed SDK if…
- Your integration fits Adobe's approval criteria: Adobe prioritizes Express enterprise customers, strategic partners, and user bases starting from 1 million users.
- You want Adobe's content: you get thousands of Express templates, Adobe Stock, Adobe Fonts, and brand kits, with no library to source.
- You want commercially safe generative AI: Adobe trains Firefly on licensed and public domain content, and select Enterprise plans are eligible for IP indemnification.
- You want nothing to run: Adobe builds and operates the editor on its own infrastructure.
Pick Polotno SDK if…
- The editor carries your brand: on a paid license your users see no Polotno name, create no third-party account, and never leave your product.
- You want to start without an approval step: the 30-day free trial needs no credit card, and a license is a custom quote.
- Your designs must stay on your side: design JSON lives in your database, and design content reaches Polotno servers only if you use Cloud Render or AI features.
- You generate designs from code in production: designs are JSON, and you render them through the Cloud Render API, on your servers, or in the browser.
How Adobe Express Embed SDK and Polotno differ
1. Access and approval
Adobe's docs state that access to the Embed SDK now requires business approval, and that existing integrations stay active until December 2027, then need approval. You submit your use case through Adobe's sales team.
Adobe's FAQ lists what it prioritizes: supporting Express enterprise customers, paid usage in a strategic partnership, or a well-defined user base starting from 1 million users. It recommends you validate your use case with sales before you start any integration. Until Adobe approves an integration, your users see a red banner saying the experience has not been approved yet.
If your product sits outside those criteria, talk to Adobe before you write code. If you run an integration today, put December 2027 on your roadmap. Polotno has no approval step: you start a 30-day free trial with no credit card, and request a quote when you're ready to launch.
2. Integration
Your page loads Adobe's JavaScript, which opens Express as a full editor, a focused module, or a one-click quick action, typically in an iframe. Adobe builds and runs all of it. Adobe says a proof of concept can start quickly, and estimates eight weeks for a production-ready version in many enterprise implementations.
Polotno SDK is a set of composable React components and a JavaScript API that render in your DOM. There is no iframe boundary: you decide which panels exist, what the toolbar shows, and how the workspace behaves. Customizing the editor needs React, and we publish guides for Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte, and plain JavaScript.
3. Branding and user accounts
Adobe Express Embed SDK is Adobe-branded by design. Adobe manages sign-in, and users need an Adobe ID to save projects. Delayed login lets them start editing first, and they accept Adobe's Terms of Use the first time they authenticate. Adobe's changelog also lists guest authentication for partner integrations. For products where a recognizable Adobe editor is a feature, that's a reasonable trade.
Polotno SDK is white-label. The editor takes your theme, and your components sit next to it.
If your product's value is the creative workflow itself, you will want to own that surface. If the editor is a convenience feature on a different core product, Adobe's brand may cost you nothing.
4. Data and hosting
Adobe saves projects to the user's Adobe Express account, in a folder named after your integration, and runs the editor on the infrastructure behind Creative Cloud. Saved assets come back through the SDK, and your app stores them. You receive the finished file, and the editable project stays in the user's Adobe account. That's fine for many use cases and a blocker for regulated industries, strict procurement, or products whose templates and user content are competitively sensitive.
With Polotno, design JSON lives in your database, assets in your storage, and rendering on your servers or the optional Cloud Render API. License checks and the default asset panels carry no design content.
5. Automation
The Embed SDK is an interactive editor: assets appear when a user finishes editing. For generation without an editor, Adobe pairs it with the Express API. That API is in beta, and its FAQ limits the program to testing and evaluation, with no commercial use of the output and no production deployment.
Polotno designs are JSON documents you create, change, and render from code. The same JSON drives the editor, the programmatic API, and headless rendering on your servers or through the Cloud Render API. You can run batches from your data, or pipelines that never open an editor, in production today.
6. Content and AI
Content is where Adobe leads: thousands of Express templates, Adobe Stock, Adobe Fonts, brand kits, and Firefly generative features, all maintained by Adobe. Access follows the user's Adobe account. Free accounts get limited templates, assets, and generative features, and premium accounts get broader access. Your app can supply premium access or let users sign in with their own account.
Polotno covers the design-editor core: text, images, SVG, shapes, filters, layers, multi-page documents, and video. Default panels bring stock photos, icons and shapes, Google Fonts, and templates, and you can replace any of them with your own content, rules, and licensing. Optional AI covers background removal and text, and Expand, Generative fill, and Upscale run on the provider you connect. Polotno imports PDF, SVG, and PPTX, plus PSD in beta.
7. Licensing
Adobe's landing page calls the SDK free to start evaluation and testing, subject to business approval. Premium Express features depend on entitlement, and some enterprise or partner deployments may involve separate commercial terms. Ask Adobe what applies to your integration.
With Polotno you pay a vendor, and in exchange you get a license agreement and a published support SLA.
Polotno SDK and Adobe Express Embed SDK compared
| Polotno SDK | Adobe Express Embed SDK | |
|---|---|---|
| Access | 30-day free trial, then a custom quote | Business approval through Adobe sales |
| Integration | Composable React components in your DOM | Hosted editor, typically in an iframe |
| Branding | White-label on a paid license | Adobe Express branded |
| User accounts | Yours | Adobe ID to save projects |
| Project storage | Your database and storage | User's Adobe Express account, with saved assets returned to your app |
| Automation | JSON, programmatic API, headless rendering | Interactive editing, plus an Express API in beta with no production use |
| Export | PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG, HTML, PPTX, GIF, MP4. Cloud Render: PNG, JPEG, PDF, PPTX, GIF, MP4 | Finished files returned through the SDK |
| Templates and assets | Default panels, or your own | Thousands of Express templates, Adobe Stock, Adobe Fonts, brand kits |
| AI | Background removal, AI text, and Expand, Generative fill, and Upscale on the provider you connect | Firefly generative features, with IP indemnification on select Enterprise plans |
| Infrastructure to run | Yours, or the optional Cloud Render API | None, Adobe runs it |
| Mobile apps | WebView, with guides for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter | No mobile SDK, Adobe says it focuses on desktop apps and web |
| Pricing model | Fixed license fee by custom quote, Cloud Render billed per use | Free to evaluate, with commercial terms for some deployments |
When Adobe Express Embed SDK is the right call
Adobe Express Embed SDK is the right call when you qualify for approval and want a recognizable, maintained editor with Adobe's templates, stock, and commercially safe AI. Adobe lists Hootsuite, Miro, and the Premier League app among its partners. You run nothing, and if your users want "Adobe Express, but inside our app," that is what this SDK ships.
Polotno SDK is the right call when the editor is part of your product: your brand on the surface, your infrastructure under it, and a JSON schema you can automate against. Polotno has been in market since 2020, with 300+ businesses in production, including Amazon and BMW.
