Pintura is a JavaScript image editor that opens on one photo, or one clip with its video extension, so your users can crop, filter, annotate and save it, usually on the way into your app. Polotno SDK is a design editor SDK: pages, layers, templates, print and video, stored as JSON. One question decides it: do your users fix a file they already have, or create a design?
Pick the one that matches what your users do
Pick Pintura if…
- Your users edit one photo or clip at a time: crop, rotate, filter, annotate, redact, save. Pintura is built for that job.
- Editing happens during upload: it integrates with FilePond, Uppy, Dropzone and jQuery File Upload, and it compresses and resizes in the browser before the file reaches your server.
- You want no backend: Pintura renders in the browser, so you have no render service to run.
- You want a price you can read today: Pintura publishes its prices and offers a 60-day refund.
Pick Polotno SDK if…
- Your users create designs: pages, text, shapes and images as separate layers, starting from a template or a blank page.
- You need templates and automation: designs are JSON, so your code can generate them, change them and render batches.
- You need server-side rendering or print: render on your own servers or through the Cloud Render API, with PDF output for press.
- Video is part of a composition: video layers sit on the same canvas as images and text, with a timeline for trim, split, audio tracks and animation.
How Pintura and Polotno differ
1. What your user edits
Pintura opens one image, or one video with its extension, and your user changes that file. It returns the edited file, the editor state, or both, and you can restore that state to resume later.
Polotno opens a design: one or more pages holding text, images, shapes, SVG and video as separate layers. You store the result as JSON and export it when you need a file.
2. Photo tools
Pintura goes deeper on the photo itself. It covers guided cropping with locked aspect ratios, redaction, retouching, frames, and finetune controls such as exposure and clarity, and it corrects mobile photo orientation for you. AI features such as background removal connect through third-party services.
Polotno covers the common edits on the same canvas as everything else: crop, resize, flip, masks, filters, and brightness, contrast and saturation. Optional AI covers background removal and text, plus the editor side of Expand, Generative fill and Upscale, which run on the AI provider you connect.
3. Uploads and frameworks
Pintura is vanilla JavaScript with no dependencies, with adapters for React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, jQuery and Alpine. Your users can open it during an upload through FilePond, Uppy, Dropzone or jQuery File Upload. Example projects cover React Native, Ionic, Cordova and Capacitor.
Polotno ships React components, with guides for Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte and plain JavaScript. Customizing the editor needs React. Native apps reach it through a WebView, with guides and demo projects for iOS, Android, React Native and Flutter, and you build and maintain the bridge. Desktop apps run it in Electron with no bridge to build.
4. Automation and templates
Pintura automates the editor. You preset crop ratios, filters, watermarks and shapes, and you can process images in code without opening the UI. That suits image rules across uploads. Its docs also show templates built from shapes, with per-shape locks, and a recipe that swaps text placeholders in your own code. We found no template library or data binding beyond that.
Polotno automates the design. Your code can generate templates, set values from your data and render batches, all against the same JSON. Per-element locks and admin, user and viewer roles enforce brand rules inside the editor.
5. Rendering, output and video
Pintura renders in the browser, and images come out as PNG, JPEG or WebP. Its video extension clips, splits, trims, crops, rotates, flips and resizes, with color effects, in the same interface. It encodes in the browser too, and its docs say server-side FFmpeg is often the better choice for longer videos, with a sample script you run yourself.
Polotno renders through the Cloud Render API, on your own servers, or in the browser. Print PDFs support CMYK, bleed, crop marks, PDF/X-1a and PDF/X-4. Its video timeline has trim, split, audio tracks and animation, and it is not a full non-linear video suite.
6. Licensing
Pintura is a yearly subscription: per seat for development teams, a discounted personal tier for one hobby product, and a custom Enterprise license. Video is an add-on. Prices are on its site, edits are unlimited on every tier, and Pintura says it won't raise your subscription price. If the subscription ends, you keep using the last version it covered, without updates or support.
Side by side
| Polotno SDK | Pintura | |
|---|---|---|
| Scope | Design editor with templates and automation | Image editor, plus a video extension |
| Design model | JSON document with pages and layers | One image or video, plus saved edit state |
| Automation | Generate and change designs in code | Presets, saved state, processing without the UI |
| Photo tools | Crop, masks, filters, color adjustments | Also redaction, retouching, frames, orientation correction |
| Upload integrations | You wire it up | FilePond, Uppy, Dropzone, jQuery File Upload |
| Frameworks | React components, guides for Next.js, Vue, Angular, Svelte and plain JavaScript | No dependencies, adapters for React, Vue, Angular, Svelte, jQuery and Alpine |
| Rendering | Cloud Render API, your servers, or the browser | Browser |
| Output | PNG, JPEG, PDF, SVG, HTML, PPTX, GIF, MP4. Cloud Render: PNG, JPEG, PDF, PPTX, GIF, MP4 | PNG, JPEG, WebP, and video through the extension |
| Video | Timeline with trim, split, audio tracks, animation | Clip, split, trim, crop, rotate, flip, resize |
| Pricing | Fixed license fee by custom quote, no per-render fee self-hosted, Cloud Render billed per use, 30-day free trial with no credit card | Published yearly subscription, 60-day refund, keep using after it ends |
When Pintura is the right call
If your app takes in user images, such as profile pictures, listing photos or CMS media, and you want people to crop and tidy them before they reach your server, Pintura fits, and Polotno is more editor than you need. You add it with a copy-paste uploader integration, you run no backend for it, and you can read its price today.
Polotno fits when the user is making something new: a layout, a template-based design, a print file or a composed video. A reasonable rule: if the output is the user's own file, made better, pick Pintura. If the output is a design, pick Polotno.
