RelayThat is a hosted design app for marketing teams. You add your brand assets once, it fills 2,000+ layouts with them, and it resizes the results for each channel. Polotno SDK is a design editor developers embed in their own products. The two do different jobs, so start with one question: are you making images for your own brand, or building design into software your customers use?
Pick the one that matches what you're making
Pick RelayThat if…
- You need on-brand marketing images and have no designer: SmartLayouts fill from your brand assets, and RelayThat asks for no technical skills.
- One design has to reach many channels: one click resizes a layout, and another downloads every size as a zip.
- You run several brands: workspaces hold each brand's fonts, colors and images, and you switch between them in one click.
- Nobody on your team writes code: you sign in and start, with nothing to integrate.
Pick Polotno SDK if…
- You're building a product with design in it: the editor mounts in your app, under your brand, for your customers.
- Your code needs to create or change designs: Polotno designs are JSON, and we found no public API on RelayThat's site.
- Users need a free canvas at any size: RelayThat works from preset layouts and preset sizes.
- You need more than PNG and JPG: Polotno also exports PDF, SVG, HTML, PPTX, GIF and MP4.
How RelayThat and Polotno differ
1. What you're getting
RelayThat is a finished web app. You sign in, load your brand, and make images for your own marketing. Its Enterprise plan extends that to a custom brand portal, where a concierge team imports your assets and you invite employees, agencies or franchisees.
Polotno SDK is a component for developers. You install it in your product, connect your login and storage, and your customers use it under your brand. The SDK needs a developer to build it in, so a marketer with a deadline should look elsewhere.
2. How designs get made
RelayThat starts from layouts. You add brand assets once, 2,000+ SmartLayouts fill with them, and you pick from finished options. Its FAQ sets the limits. You choose from 50+ preset sizes with no custom size, and you can't add extra text, icons or shapes to a layout. You can save a variation of a layout as your own, which removes its auto-resize.
Polotno starts from a free canvas at any size, with templates as a starting point. To hold brand rules in place, you get per-element locks on moving, resizing, deleting, content and style (element locking), admin, user and viewer roles (user roles), a font allowlist, and a brand kit panel. You write the validation rules and approval workflow.
If a non-designer needs usable options fast, the layout model does that, and Polotno has no equivalent out of the box. If your users need to lay out their own designs, you need the canvas.
3. Integration
We found no public API on RelayThat's site. Its Enterprise plan lists "Data Integration" with no detail, so ask RelayThat if you need it. Finished images reach you as downloads.
Polotno designs are JSON, so your code can create them, change them and render them through the Cloud Render API, on your own servers, or in the browser. Your product can generate designs with no person in the loop.
4. Templates and data
RelayThat's FAQ says "it is not possible to import or export templates", so plan on your designs staying in RelayThat as editable work. You keep the images you download.
Polotno designs are files you store in your own database, and you can move them between environments or back them up like any other data.
5. Pricing model
RelayThat sells per-user monthly plans that differ by users and workspaces, with unlimited image downloads on the plans it lists. Its FAQ says it offers no free trial. Enterprise is by contact and adds branded sign-in pages and white-label options.
Feature comparison
| Polotno SDK | RelayThat | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Design editor SDK you embed | Hosted design app for marketing teams |
| Who uses it | Your customers, in your app | You and your team, in RelayThat |
| Skills needed | A developer to integrate it | No design or technical skills |
| Starting point | Blank canvas or templates | 2,000+ SmartLayouts filled from your brand assets |
| Sizes | Any size you set | 50+ preset sizes, no custom sizes |
| Resizing | Magic resize moves and scales elements | One-click resize, zip of all sizes |
| API | JSON designs, rendering from code | None found on its site |
| Rendering | Cloud Render, your servers, or the browser | Inside RelayThat |
| Output | PNG, JPEG, PDF, PPTX, GIF, MP4, plus SVG and HTML outside Cloud Render | PNG, JPG |
| Template portability | JSON you store | No template import or export |
| Pricing model | Fixed license fee by custom quote, no per-render fee when self-hosted under fair use, Cloud Render billed per use | Per-user monthly plans, unlimited image downloads |
When RelayThat is the right call
RelayThat suits a small marketing team or agency that needs on-brand social and display images and has neither a designer nor a developer free. You add your brand once, pick from ready layouts, and download the sizes you need. Polotno SDK would be the wrong purchase for that job, because it only becomes useful after a developer builds it into a product.
Polotno SDK fits when you build software and design is a feature of it. You can start a 30-day free trial with no credit card, or request a quote.
FAQ
Can I embed RelayThat in my product?
We found no embeddable editor. Enterprise lists branded sign-in pages and white-label options with no further detail, so ask RelayThat what they cover.
Does Polotno have something like SmartLayouts?
No single feature does that. You can build a version: load templates, set brand values in the JSON from code, and use magic resize for each channel. That is development work RelayThat has already done.
