Media — professional stack.
For each requirement below, pick the option that fits your build — recommended first, then free and cheaper alternatives — or skip what your project doesn't need. Tap the info icon next to any requirement to see why it matters.
Hosting / Application Platform
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsVercel Hobby FREE $0/mo incl. 100GB bandwidth, 6000 execution hrs, 100GB-hrs compute, unlimited deploys / Pro $20/seat/mo + $40 per 100GB bandwidth over ($0.18/GB-hr compute over, $0.60/M function invocations) / Enterprise $4000+/mo custom seat, 99.99% SLA, dedicated support / Netlify Free $0 100GB bw, 300 build min / Pro $19/mo 1TB bw + $55/100GB over, $7/500 build min over / Cloudflare Pages FREE $0 unlimited bandwidth + 500 builds/mo / Render Free $0 750 hrs Web Service + 100GB bw / Standard $19/mo + $0.10/GB over / Railway Hobby $5/mo + usage $0.000463/vCPU/s + $0.000008/GB/s (~$0.10/GB egress) / Fly.io PayG $0 + $0.10/GB egress, $0.015/GB storage, Machines ~$1.94/mo 1x / AWS ECS Fargate $0.04048/vCPU/hr + $0.004445/GB/hr + ALB $0.0225/hr + EKS $0.10/hr ($72/mo) cluster / GCP Cloud Run $0 free tier 2M req + $0.40/M req + $0.000024/vCPU-s | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Database (Primary - Postgres)
Persistent storage for your app’s data — users, products, orders. The single most important architectural decision for most projects.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Free $0 500MB DB, 1GB file, 50k MAU, 2GB bandwidth, 7d backup / Pro $25/mo 8GB DB + 100GB storage + 250GB bandwidth, $0.125/GB DB over, $0.021/GB file storage over, $0.09/GB bw over, PITR 7d ($100/mo for 28d) / Team $599/mo 100GB DB + SOC2 + 28d PITR + 5x read replicas / Enterprise $2000+/mo custom + multi-region + HIPAA / Neon Free $0 0.5GB storage, 10 CU-hours, 10 branches / Launch $19/mo 10GB + 100 CU-hr + $4/GB over, $5/10 CU-hr over / Scale $69/mo 50GB + 500 CU-hr + $18/10GB, $7/10 CU-hr over / PlanetScale Scaler Pro $29/mo 10GB storage $2.50/GB over, 100M reads $5/10M over / AWS RDS db.t4g.micro $12.5/mo single-AZ, db.r6g.large $300/mo Multi-AZ $600/mo + storage $0.115/GB-mo + IOPS $0.10/IOPS-mo + backup $0.095/GB-mo / Aurora Serverless v2 $0.12/AU-hr min 0.5AU + storage $0.10/GB-mo + IO $0.20/M / CockroachDB Cloud Free $0 10GB + $0.25/M RUs | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
File Storage for Media Assets (S3 Compatible)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare R2 Free $0 10GB storage, 10M Class A ops, 50M Class B, ZERO egress fees (huge saving) / PayG Standard $0/mo + $0.015/GB-mo storage + $4.50/M Class A after 10M, $0.36/M Class B after 50M + free egress still / AWS S3 Standard $0.023/GB-mo first 50TB, $0.022 next 450TB, $0.021 after, + $0.09/GB egress first 10TB ($0.085 next 40TB), $0.005/1k PUT, $0.0004/1k GET + Intelligent Tiering $0.0025/1k obj monitoring / Backblaze B2 Free 10GB + first 1GB/day egress free / Paid $0.006/GB-mo storage + $0.01/GB egress, $0.005/1k download / Wasabi $6.99/TB/mo min 1TB, no egress, no API fees, $6/TB over / Vercel Blob Free 1GB + Pro $20/mo 100GB bw ($0.15/GB over) + $0.15/GB storage / Cloudinary Free 25GB bw, 25GB storage / Plus $89/mo 25GB storage + $0.40/credit overage / Supabase Storage Free 1GB + Pro 100GB + $0.021/GB over | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Video Hosting API (VOD)
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsMux Video Free $0 1000 min test asset (watermarked), 1000 min delivery trial / Starter PayG $0/mo + encoding SD $0.004/min, HD $0.008/min, 4K $0.016/min, per-title optimization $0.0025/min base, storage $0.0013/GB-hr (~$0.95/GB/mo), delivery $0.0025/min (~$0.08/GB) + $0.0013/GB storage long term + $20 credit included / Pro $199/mo includes $100 credits, volume discount 20% after $1000/mo / Enterprise $3000+/mo custom contract - $0.002/min encode (50% off), $0.0015/min delivery, SOC2, 24/7 / Cloudflare Stream Free trial $0 1000 min video / Standard $5/mo per 1000 min stored + $1/1000 min delivered - includes automatic encoding to 1080p, signed URLs, no egress / Pro 500k min incl $5000/mo Enterprise / Bunny Stream $20/mo starter 500GB storage + $0.01/GB delivery NA/EU (APAC $0.03), $1/1000 min encoding / Vimeo OTT Growth $1/subscriber + $500/mo platform fee + $0.09/GB delivery over 2.5TB | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Audio Hosting API / Podcast Hosting
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsSpotify for Podcasters (Anchor API) Free $0 unlimited hosting, distribution, monetization / SoundCloud API Free 15k requests/day, upload limit 180min / Pro $12/mo unlimited upload / Transistor.fm API $19/mo 15k downloads/mo + $0.50/1k over / $49/mo 75k + $0.25/1k over / Castos $29/mo 100k downloads + $0.20/1k over, transcription $0.10/min / Mux Audio PayG $0 + encoding $0.004/min, storage $0.0013/GB-hr, delivery $0.0022/min (audio optimized) / Cloudflare R2 self-host + Howler.js/Shaka + RSS feed Free $0 10GB + $0.015/GB after, zero egress + Dolby.io Enhance API Free 1000 min/mo + $0.20/min after, 48kHz improve $0.02/min / Riverside.fm API $30/mo 20hrs transcription $0.15/min over | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Authentication / User Management
How users sign up, log in, and are authorized. Getting roles and access control right early prevents painful rewrites.Pricing & free-tier limitsClerk Free $0 10k MAU, 5k M2M tokens, email/pass + social, 1 org / Pro $25/mo incl 10k MAU + $0.02/MAU after 10k, orgs $25/mo per 100 + SSO add-on $100/mo (50 SSO connections), MFA $0 included / Business $100/mo incl 10k MAU + RBAC advanced + $0.015/MAU over / Enterprise $500+/mo custom SSO, SLA, DPA, HIPAA / Supabase Auth Free 50k MAU included per project, 2 MFA factors, email + social + SSO (Pro) / Auth0 Free $0 7.5k MAU, 1000 M2M tokens, social logins / B2C Essentials $35/mo 500 MAU + $0.07/MAU over, 1k M2M / B2C Professional $240/mo 1000 MAU + $0.07/MAU, MFA, RBAC / B2B Essentials $150/mo 500 org MAU + $0.18/MAU / Enterprise $800+/mo 1000 org MAU + custom / WorkOS SSO $250/mo 100 SSO cnx + $8/connection over + Directory Sync $150/mo / Okta Customer Identity $0.015/MAU + $0.05/MFA sms / Enterprise $2000+/mo + Support / Lucia Auth + Oslo Open Source $0 self-host | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
CDN (Content Delivery - Video/Audio)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare CDN Free $0 unlimited bandwidth, global 300+ PoPs, 3 page rules + Cache 256MB upload / Pro $20/mo 20 page rules + WAF OWASP core + Image resize 20k + $5/mo extra 100k + Tiered cache + Argo Smart Routing $5/mo + $0.10/GB (30% bw saving) / Business $200/mo 100 page rules + 100% WAF managed + custom TLS + tiered cache + prioritized / Enterprise $5000+/mo custom bw commit $0.02/GB, Bot Management Enterprise $10k/mo, SLA / Bunny CDN Volume Tier PayG $1/mo min + $0.01/GB NA/EU, $0.03/GB SA/APAC, $0.01/GB storage, optimizer $9/mo + $0.01/10k req + Perma-cache $0.005/GB / Fastly PayG $50/mo min + $0.12/GB first 10TB $0.08 next 40TB + $0.012/10k req + $20/domain TLS + $0.30/M image optim / Enterprise $3000/mo commit incl DDoS + 99.99% SLA / AWS CloudFront Free 1TB + $0.085/GB first 10TB + $0.08 next 40TB + $0.0075/10k HTTPS reqs | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Transcoding API / Video Encoding
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsMux Encoding PayG included with Mux Video: SD $0.004/min, HD $0.008/min, 4K $0.016/min, per-title encoding $0.0025/min base + $0.004/min extra quality / Just-in-Time $0.0022/min delivery only if needed / Cloudflare Stream auto-encode included in $5/1000min storage + $1/1000min delivery, no separate encoding fee, up to 4K / AWS Elemental MediaConvert Basic $0.0075/min SD ($0.007/min QVBR), $0.015/min HD, $0.030/min UHD 4K + Pro tier HEVC 2x price, audio $0.003/min + Reserved $0.005/min min 1yr commit / Coconut.co $0.03/min SD + $0.06/min HD + $49/mo platform fee, HEVC $0.09/min / Bitmovin Encoding $500/mo incl 10k min SD / $0.02/min SD over, $0.04 HD, $0.08 4K + per-title AI $0.01/min extra / Enterprise $2000+/mo + $0.015/min / Self-host FFmpeg on Render Standard $19/mo or AWS Spot $0.02/min equivalent + $0.10/GB egress / Dolby.io Transcoding $0.10/min HD + $0.20/min 4K + $0.02/min audio | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Email API (Transactional)
Sending transactional email (receipts, resets, alerts) and sometimes marketing mail. Deliverability matters more than features here.Pricing & free-tier limitsResend Free $0 3k emails/mo + 100 emails/day limit, 1 domain, webhook / Pro $20/mo 50k emails/mo + $0.80/1k over ($0.0008/email) actually $0.0004 in higher tier, 50k limit -> Scale $85/mo 100k + $0.60/1k over, 400 req/s / AWS SES Free (EC2) $0 3k msgs/day + $0.10/1k after (i.e. $0.0001/email) + $0.12/GB attachment + dedicated IP $24.95/mo / Postmark Free $0 100 emails trial / $15/mo 10k + $1.80/1k ( $0.0018/email) over + $1.25/1k bounce inbound / $50/mo 50k + over $0.00125 / $100/mo 125k + Message Streams included / Brevo (Sendinblue) Free 300 emails/day + unlimited contacts / Starter $25/mo 20k emails no daily limit + $15/mo per 10k extra, transactional $0.15/1k over / SendGrid Free 100 emails/day free forever / Essentials $19.95/mo 10k + $2/M over + Pro $89.95/mo 100k + $6/100k over / Customer.io $200/mo 12k profiles + $0.08/profile over, unlimited emails | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Backups (Automated DB + Storage)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase Free 7d daily logical backups retained 2 backups + PITR not available / Pro $25/mo PITR 7d included + WAL continuous, 2 backups + restore $100 per PITR extension to 28d ($100/mo add-on), + $0.021/GB storage backup over / Team $599/mo PITR 28d incl + 3x weekly full / Neon Free 1d PITR / Launch $19/mo 7d PITR + branch restore + 1d backup window / Scale $69/mo 14d PITR + 7d backup / AWS Backup $0.05/GB-mo warm backup + $0.15/GB restore + S3 Standard $0.023/GB + Glacier Flexible $0.0036/GB-mo + Deep Archive $0.00099/GB + cross-region replication $0.02/GB / SimpleBackups $9/mo 10 servers + $0.02/GB storage B2/R2/S3, overage $2/server + $0.025/GB / Scale $29/mo 50 servers / R2 versioning FREE - only storage $0.015/GB-mo + no egress / S3 versioning $0.023/GB-mo + egress $0.09/GB / Veeam Cloud Connect $13.50/workload/mo + $0.02/GB | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Monitoring / Error Tracking / Logging
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsSentry Free $0 5k errors/mo (5k spans), 10k replays 1k min, 1 user, 30d retention / Team $26/mo 50k errors + $0.00029/error over, 50k transactions $0.0004/transaction over, 50 replays + 5 seats / Business $80/mo 100k errors + 200k transact + unlimited seats + 90d retention / Enterprise $600+/mo custom / Better Stack (LogTail+Uptime) Free $0 10 monitors 3-min, 1GB logs / Pro $24/mo 50 monitors 30-sec + 30GB logs + 500k ingest + $0.50/GB over + SMS $0.30 + call $0.75 / Grafana Cloud Free 10k series metrics, 50GB logs, 50GB traces / Pro $29/mo + $8/1k series over, $0.50/GB logs over 100GB, 5 users / Scale $150/mo + $0.012/series over / Datadog Pro $15/host/mo infra + APM $31/host + log $0.10/GB ingest + $0.05/GB retention + RUM $1.50/1k sessions + 450 custom metrics free $0.05/100 metrics over / Enterprise $500-3000/mo bundle / New Relic Free 100GB ingest + 1 user full + all features / Pro $49/user/mo 100GB + $0.30/GB over + Advanced $349/user / UptimeRobot Free 50 monitors 5-min + 5 status pages | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Video Hosting LIVE API (Live Ingest - Test)
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsMux Live Streaming Test Free $0 included in video trial 1000 min test / PayG Production $0.016/min streamed (1080p input) + $0.02/min transcoded for adaptive bitrate (up to 5 renditions) + $0.0033/min delivered (storage 24h included, long store $0.0013/GB-hr) + $20/mo optional min fee / Cloudflare Stream Live Free trial $0 1000 min / $5/1000 min stored (live recording) + $5/1000 min input + $1/1000 min delivered + auto-recording to VOD, low-latency LL-HLS / AWS IVS Standard $2.00/hr ingest 1080p60 + $0.50/hr 720p + $0.12/hr per 1000 viewers delivered (i.e. 1k hr @1Mbps ~0.42TB) + chat $0.50/1000 msg + recording $0.15/hr + storage $0.023/GB / Low latency $2.50/hr ingest + $0.15/hr delivery / Real-time $0.04/participant/min + stage $0.50/hr / Brightcove Live $199/mo per event + $0.20/viewer hr + $600/mo platform | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Audio Streaming API (HLS/DASH Delivery)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsMux Audio Streaming (HLS/DASH) Delivery $0.0022/min delivered (audio) + storage $0.0013/GB-hr + encoding $0.004/min / HLS.js + dash.js open source $0 + self-host on R2 $0.015/GB storage + Cloudflare CDN Free $0 unlimited audio band / Bunny Stream Audio delivery $0.01/GB NA/EU $0.03 APAC + $0.01/GB storage + $1/1000min encode / Dolby.io Real-time Streaming $15/mo 1000GB + $0.50/GB over + 100% uptime SLA / Enterprise $500/mo 10TB + $0.20/GB / Wowza Streaming Engine Self-host $175/mo single instance perpetual $1495/license + Cloud $25/mo per instance + $0.12/GB delivery + $0.20/transcoded hr / Triton Digital a2x $800/mo + $0.02/listener hr audio ads / Icecast + liquidsoap OSS $0 self-host on $12/mo droplet | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Image Optimization / Media Transformation CDN
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare Images Free $0 5k images stored + 100k delivery/mo / $5/mo includes 100k images stored + 100k delivered, $5/100k stored after, $1/100k delivered after + Image resizing $9/100k requests (incl 50k free) + $1/100k over / Vercel Image Optimization Free $0 6k source images/mo (or 100k transformations) / Pro $20/seat includes 1k transformations + $5/1k source images (1000 trans) + $40 per 100GB optimized bw over / Netlify Image CDN Free 5k transformations + Pro 100k + $19/100k over / ImageKit Free $0 25GB bandwidth + 25GB storage / $49/mo 100GB + $0.04/GB over + unlimited transformations / Growth $99/mo 250GB / Cloudinary Free 25 credits (25GB storage=25 credits, 1k transformations=1 credit) / Plus $89/mo 100 credits + $0.44/credit over + Add-on AI $50/mo / Adv $224/mo 250 credits / Bunny Optimizer $9/mo per zone + $1/10k images + $0.04/GB optimized delivery / Imgix $75/mo starter 500GB bw + $10/100GB over + $0.02/1k transformations / Fastly Image Optimizer $20/mo + $0.0075/transform | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Search Infrastructure (Media Catalog Search)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsAlgolia Free $0 10k records + 10k search requests/mo + 1k recommend requests / Grow $1/1k records/mo ($0.001/record) + $0.50/1k searches + $0.50/1k recommend + $0.60/1k AI search / Pro $250/mo 100k records included + volume discount to $0.50/1k records over + $0.40/1k searches / Enterprise $500+/mo custom + $1.00/1k AI search + SLA / Meilisearch Cloud Free 10k documents + 10k searches / $30/mo 100k docs + 100k searches + $15/100k docs over + $12/100k searches over / Pro $100/mo 1M docs / Typesense Cloud Free 100k docs, 1GB RAM / $40/mo 500k docs 2GB RAM + $20/100k docs over + search $0.40/100k / Elastic Cloud Serverless $16/mo 1GB storage 1GB RAM + autoscale $0.12/GB storage + $0.03/CU hr + $0.06/M search over / AWS OpenSearch t3.small $15/mo + storage $0.10/GB + $0.135/hr data node / Qdrant Cloud Free 1GB vector storage + 100 QPS / $25/mo 5GB ($0.50/GB after) + $0.04/100k searches over / Supabase pgvector Free included with DB, 500MB = ~500k 768d vectors | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Caching (Redis / Edge Cache)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsUpstash Redis Free $0 10k commands/day, 256MB storage, 1 global region / PayG $0.20/100k commands + $0.25/GB storage + $0.60/100k ECPUs if serverless / Pro $10/mo 100k commands/day incl + $0.20/100k over + 1GB storage + 5k ECPUs included / Global $30/mo + replication / AWS ElastiCache Serverless Free trial $0 1GB-hr/day + $0.125/GB-hr storage + $0.25/M ECPUs (1 ECU = 1KB) + data $0.125/GB-hr / Provisioned cache.t4g.micro $12.12/mo + cache.r6g.large $180/mo / Redis Cloud AWS Essentials Free 10MB / $5/mo 250MB + $0.15/100k ops + data transfer $0.10/GB / Pro $41/mo 1GB 5GB transfer + $0.20/100k over / Enterprise $500+/mo clustering / Cloudflare Workers KV Free $0 100k reads/day, 1000 writes/day, 1GB storage / Paid $5/mo + $0.50/M reads after 10M, $5/M writes + storage $0.50/GB-mo + free egress / R2 cache + Cloudflare Cache API Free | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Background Jobs / Queue (Transcode, Thumbnails)
Runs slow work (emails, exports, payouts) in the background so users don’t wait. Keeps your app snappy.Pricing & free-tier limitsBullMQ + Redis self-host OSS $0 + Upstash Redis Free $0 / Sidekiq OSS $0 + $12/mo Redis + Sidekiq Pro $179/mo 50k jobs/day + Enterprise $999/mo / QStash (Upstash) Free $0 500 msgs/day + $10/mo 24k msgs/day + $1/30k msgs over + $10/mo 100 dlq / Trigger.dev Free 10k runs/mo + 1k compute hrs / Pro $29/mo 50k runs + $0.01/run over + 3k compute min / Scale $99/mo 250k / Inngest Free 50k steps/mo + $20/mo 100k steps + $0.30/1k steps over + 500k events + concurrency 10 / Pro $200/mo 500k steps + $0.25/1k over / AWS SQS Free 1M requests/mo + $0.40/M req after + FIFO $0.50/M + SNS $0.50/M publishes + Lambda invoke $0.20/M / Cloud Tasks HTTP $0.40/M + $0.01/10k ops + $0.40/M dispatches / Temporal Cloud Free 10k actions/mo + $25/mo 100k actions + $0.10/1k over + $0.03/GB-hr storage | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
WAF / Bot Protection / DDoS Mitigation
Controls and protects your APIs — quotas, abuse prevention, and firewalls. Important once you have real traffic or many clients.Pricing & free-tier limitsCloudflare Free $0 unmetered DDoS mitigation + 5 WAF custom rules, managed ruleset limited / Pro $20/mo 20 WAF rules + OWASP core + Managed ruleset advanced $5/mo + Bot Fight Mode + rate limiting 1 rule / Business $200/mo 100 rules + 25 page rules + custom WAF + Bot Management basic / Enterprise $5000+/mo custom + Bot Management Enterprise $10k/mo includes AI bot detection, $0.02/10k bot req + Argo $5/mo + $0.10/GB + Shield Advanced anti-bot + Cloudflare Turnstile Free $0 up to 1M validations + $0.50/1k over / AWS WAF ACL $5/mo + $1/rule/mo + $0.60/M requests evaluated + Bot Control $10/mo + $1/1M bot req + Shield Standard Free DDoS + Advanced $3000/mo org + $0.10/GB protection data / Fastly Next-Gen WAF (Signal Sciences) $250/mo 50M req + $5/M over + DDoS $200/mo min + $0.10/M / Imperva Cloud WAF $199/mo + $0.50/M req + DDoS Unlimited free | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
CI/CD + Repository Hosting
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsGitHub Free $0 2000 min/mo Actions Linux (1x), 200 min macOS (10x), 500MB packages, unlimited public repos / Pro $4/mo user (Team $40/user) + 3000 min Linux + $0.008/min Linux over (500 credits=$4), $0.016/min Windows (2x), $0.08/min macOS (10x) + storage $0.25/GB-mo + 2GB Actions cache / Actions larger runners $0.016/vCPU-min / GitLab Free 400 CI min + 5GB storage / Premium $29/user/mo 10k min + $8/1000 min over / Vercel Builds Free unlimited hobby deploys / Pro $20/seat/mo includes $0 build cost + $0.15/GB-hr build + $0.15/GB-hr function / Netlify Build Free 300 min/mo / Pro $19/mo 1000 min + $7/500 min over + concurrent builds 3 / CircleCI Free 6000 credits/mo (~1000 Linux min) / Performance $30/mo 30k credits + $0.00008/credit over + $15/container + macOS $50 per 25k credits / Cloudflare Pages Builds Free 500 builds/mo + $5/100 builds over + Workers Bundled $5/mo 10M req + $0.30/M over + Unbound $0.15/M + $0.05/GB egress (free for Pages) | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
DRM / License API (Widevine, FairPlay via PallyCon)
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsPallyCon Multi-DRM Free 1 month trial 10k licenses / Launch $500/mo 5k licenses + $0.02/license overage ($20/1k) includes Widevine + FairPlay + PlayReady + token + watermark $0.10/asset / Business $1500/mo 50k licenses + $0.015/license over + advanced watermark + offline + $0.02/license persistent / Enterprise $3000+/mo 500k + $0.01/license / BuyDRM KeyOS Starter $750/mo 10k licenses + $0.03/license over + $750 setup + Studio Approved / Axinom DRM $400/mo 5k licenses + $0.02/license over + $0.50/hr watermarking / Vualto (EuclidIQ) $600/mo 10k + $0.02 over / Apple FairPlay cert Free with Apple Dev Program $99/yr + DRM provider fee $0.01-0.03/license / Cloudflare Stream + Signed URLs alternative: $5/1000min storage + $1/1000min delivery includes token gating (no hardware DRM) | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Live Streaming API (Mux Live, Cloudflare Stream Live)
Delivers and processes audio/video to users. Bandwidth-heavy, so plan the cost.Pricing & free-tier limitsMux Live + Cloudflare Stream Live + AWS IVS bundle as above: Mux $0.016/min ingest (1080p) + $0.02/min transcoded ABR + $0.0033/min delivered + Cloudflare $5/1000min ingest + $5/1000min stored + $1/1000min delivered + IVS $2/hr ingest + $0.12/hr /1k viewers delivery / Brightcove Live Premium $600/mo 5 events + $0.25/viewer hr + storage $0.05/GB-mo / Wowza Streaming Cloud Live $75/mo 15hr + $0.18/hr over + $0.15/GB delivery + Low latency $0.20/hr / Dolby.io Real-time $15/mo 1000GB + WebRTC $0.004/participant/min | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Recommendation Engine API (Content Discovery)
Manages the content and assets you publish without editing code. Essential for sites with frequent updates.Pricing & free-tier limitsRecombee Free $0 10k items catalog + 50k recommendation req/mo + 200k events + $99/mo Pro 100k items + $0.10/1k req over (200k req included) + $499/mo Growth 1M items + Growth $1499/mo 10M + Custom Enterprise $3000+/mo unlimited + SLA / AWS Personalize $0.20/hr training + $0.40/1k real-time req + $0.20/GB data + 2 TPS min $0.40/hr = ~$288/mo min + batch $0.05/GB + $0.01/1k batch rec / Algolia Recommend $0.50/1k recommend req + $1/1k records + AI search $1/1k + $30k/yr Enterprise / Qdrant Hybrid Search Cloud Free $0 1GB vectors ~1M 768d vectors / $25/mo 5GB ($0.50/GB over) + $0.04/100k searches / Weaviate Serverless $25/mo 1M vectors + $0.08/100k queries + storage $0.05/GB / Pinecone Starter $70/mo 1M vectors 1 pod + $0.095/pod-hr + $0.20/100k queries / Supabase pgvector + vecs Free included + RAG | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Ad Server API (Video Monetization - VAST/VMAP)
Where your code actually runs and serves requests. Picking the right host affects speed, scaling, and how much ops work you do.Pricing & free-tier limitsGoogle Ad Manager (GAM) Free $0 up to 90M non-video impressions + 8M video (must qualify small business) + $0.0015/video ad over 8M + 360 (Premium) $1500/mo min spend + 10% rev share optional + AdX 20% fee / SpringServe (Magnite) Video ad serving $1000/mo min + $0.03/CPM ad impres ($0.00003) over 10M impres + $0.05/CPM VAST 4.0 + $0.01/CPM tracking / Publica by IAS $500/mo 1M addrs + $0.50/1k over (i.e. $0.50 CPM) + SSAI $0.10/GB + support / Broadpeak + Serverside.ai $600/mo 1M impres + $0.60/1k over / FreeWheel $2000+/mo min + $0.05/CPM + 10% transaction fee / Mux SSAI + Ad tag free + Google IMA SDK free / Cloudflare Stream Monetization Beta $10/CPM ($10/1k ad impres) + 10% revenue share / AWS MediaTailor SSAI $0.30/1000 ad transactions (1 trans = 1 ad) + $0.15/GB manifest delivery | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Video Analytics API (QoE, Mux Data)
Where you keep files users upload or you serve — images, videos, documents — and how fast they reach visitors around the world.Pricing & free-tier limitsMux Data Free $0 10k video views/mo + 200k events + QoE + A/B + 30d retention / Pro $50/mo 50k views + $30 per 10k views over ($0.003/view) + 90d retention + advanced alerts / Growth $199/mo 200k views + $20/10k over ($0.002/view) + 13mo retention / Scale $499/mo 1M views + $15/10k over ($0.0015/view) / Enterprise $2500+/mo custom 5M+ + 99.99% SLA / Conviva Free trial 14d + Precision $750/mo 100k viewer hrs + $0.01/viewer hr over / Experience $1500/mo 500k + $0.008/hr / Nice People At Work Youbora $500/mo 100k views + $0.005/view over / Bitmovin Analytics $99/mo 50k impres + $0.001/impres over / Datadog RUM + Video RUM $1.50/1k sessions + $0.12/GB over + 500 sessions free / Cloudflare Web Analytics Free $0 unlimited + Radar / Self-host Grafana + Loki $29/mo + $0.12/GB | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
API Gateway / Rate Limiting
Controls and protects your APIs — quotas, abuse prevention, and firewalls. Important once you have real traffic or many clients.Pricing & free-tier limitsKong Gateway OSS Free $0 self-host (Apache) unlimited + Konnect Cloud Free 1M req/mo + Pro $250/mo includes 10M req + $0.02/1k req after ($20/M) + Dev Portal $100/mo + ServiceHub $250/mo / Enterprise $3000+/mo 100M + SLA / AWS API Gateway REST $3.50/M req + $0.06/hr caching (0.5GB cache $0.02/hr) + data transfer $0.09/GB + WebSocket $1.00/M messages + $0.25/M connection-min + HTTP API $1.00/M req (+ $0.90/M after 300M) + $0.90/M over / Cloudflare API Gateway Free discovery + rate limiting 1 rule free + Pro $5/mo 10 rules + $0.05/M good req + $5/M blocked req + Workers $5/mo 10M req + $0.30/M over / Upstash Rate Limit Free 10k verifications/day + $0.20/100k over + Redis backend free / Arcjet Free 5k decisions/mo (bot/rate/PII) + Pro $20/mo 100k + $0.30/10k over + Enterprise $500+/mo 5M + Shield $50/mo / Zuplo Free 100k req/mo + $30/mo 1M + $25/M over + rate limiting 10 rules | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Secrets Management
A piece of your stack you may or may not need, depending on scope. Pick the option that fits — or skip it if your project doesn’t require this capability yet.Pricing & free-tier limitsInfisical Cloud Free $0 500 secrets, 1k API calls/day, 5 users, 1 project / Pro $20/mo per seat (min 2) 1000 secrets + $0.10/10k API calls over 100k, SSO, audit, HSM / Enterprise self-host $0 + enterprise add $500/mo custom / Doppler Free $0 100 secrets + 50 API calls/day + 5 users / Team $18/user/mo unlimited secrets + 100k API calls/mo + $10/10k over + SSO / Enterprise $100/user/mo + volume + HSM + SLA / AWS Secrets Manager $0.40/secret/mo + $0.05/10k API calls + KMS key $1/key/mo + $0.01/10k KMS req / Rotation Lambda free / Hashicorp Vault OSS self-host $0 + HCP Vault Dedicated $0.032/hr cluster (~$23/mo) + standby $0.016/hr + $0.03/10k operations + storage $0.10/GB-mo / Plus $0.095/hr Enterprise / 1Password Secrets Automation $3.99/user/mo included Connect server / Akeyless Free 2k secrets + $0.50/1k ops over / $45/mo team | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Audit Logs (User + System)
Controls who can do what inside your admin tooling. Limits blast radius if an account is compromised.Pricing & free-tier limitsSupabase via Postgres pgAudit + Supabase Audit Log extension Free $0 self-query + Log retention 7d Free, 28d Pro $25/mo, 90d Team $599/mo / Log drain $0 + Better Stack $0.50/GB over / WorkOS Audit Logs Free $0 10k events/mo (beta) + Pro $25/mo 100k + $0.01/event ($10/1k) after + export S3 $0 + 1yr retention + $50/mo extra year / Enterprise $500+/mo unlimited / Auth0 Log Streams Free 2 log streams + 10d retention Free, 30d Pro $240/mo / Additional retention $100/mo 30d extra / $0.10/1k events streaming after 1M + $0.60/M log export / AWS CloudTrail Management events Free first trail + data events $0.10/100k (S3/Lambda) + Insights $0.35/100k events + storage S3 $0.023/GB + CloudWatch $0.50/GB ingest / Better Stack LogTail Free 1GB/mo + $0.50/GB over + $24/mo 50GB / Clerk Audit logs Free beta + $0 included, export to S3 $0 | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Privacy / GDPR / CCPA Compliance Tooling
Keeps you secure and compliant with regulations. Required for enterprise customers and handling sensitive data.Pricing & free-tier limitsOneTrust Cookie Consent Free $0 1 domain 100 pages, quarterly scan / Pro $30/mo 10k pageviews/mo + 5 domains + $5/10k extra views / Business $200/mo 100k views + auto-blocking + geolocation + $100/mo extra 100k / Enterprise $800+/mo unlimited + TCF 2.2 + IAB / Cookiebot by Usercentrics Free 1 domain 50 subpages scan monthly / Premium $12/mo 1 domain 100 subpages + $4/100 subpages over + yearly scan + TCF / Premium Plus $39/mo 500 subpages + $12/100 over / Enterprise custom / Usercentrics CMP Free $0 1 domain + 50k sessions/mo after Pro $45/mo 50k + $15/50k over + TCF $10 extra / Pro + TCF $85/mo / Transcend Privacy Center Free $0 5k data subjects/yr + $500/mo Scale 50k subjects/yr + $0.10/subject over + DSR automation $0.50/DSR / Enterprise $3000+/mo unlimited / DataGrail Request Manager $750/mo 10k subjects + $0.20/subject over + $200/mo integration / AWS Macie $5/GCP? $1/GB classified + $0.10/GB evaluated + discovery $0.10/GB / Open source: Klaro + CookieYes Free $0 15k pageviews | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Uptime Monitoring + Status Page
Tells you when things break and why. You cannot fix what you cannot see — this is how you keep downtime short.Pricing & free-tier limitsSentry Free $0 5k errors/mo (5k spans), 10k replays 1k min, 1 user, 30d retention / Team $26/mo 50k errors + $0.00029/error over, 50k transactions $0.0004/transaction over, 50 replays + 5 seats / Business $80/mo 100k errors + 200k transact + unlimited seats + 90d retention / Enterprise $600+/mo custom / Better Stack (LogTail+Uptime) Free $0 10 monitors 3-min, 1GB logs / Pro $24/mo 50 monitors 30-sec + 30GB logs + 500k ingest + $0.50/GB over + SMS $0.30 + call $0.75 / Grafana Cloud Free 10k series metrics, 50GB logs, 50GB traces / Pro $29/mo + $8/1k series over, $0.50/GB logs over 100GB, 5 users / Scale $150/mo + $0.012/series over / Datadog Pro $15/host/mo infra + APM $31/host + log $0.10/GB ingest + $0.05/GB retention + RUM $1.50/1k sessions + 450 custom metrics free $0.05/100 metrics over / Enterprise $500-3000/mo bundle / New Relic Free 100GB ingest + 1 user full + all features / Pro $49/user/mo 100GB + $0.30/GB over + Advanced $349/user / UptimeRobot Free 50 monitors 5-min + 5 status pages | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
Staging Environments / Preview Deploys
An isolated place to test changes before real users see them. Catches bugs without embarrassing your production users.Pricing & free-tier limitsVercel Preview Deploys Free unlimited preview deploys + 100GB-fast data transfer Hobby / Pro $20/seat unlimited previews + $40/100GB bw over + password protection $0 + comments / Enterprise $4000+ unlimited + SSO + SOC2 / Netlify Deploy Previews Free $0 unlimited previews + 100GB bw + 300 build min / Pro $19/mo 25k team minutes? 1TB bw + $55/100GB over + $7/500 build min over + role-based access / Cloudflare Pages Preview Free unlimited previews + unlimited bandwidth + builds 500/mo free + $5/100 builds over + Workers preview free / Render Preview Environments $19/mo per team + compute $0.10/hr per preview service (min $5) + 100GB bw + over $0.10/GB / Railway Environments per PR $5/mo base + $0.000463/vCPU-sec + $0.000008/GB-sec + egress $0.10/GB / PlanetScale DB Branch Free 10 branches + 10M reads + storage 5GB + $29/mo Pro 100 branches + $2.50/GB over / Neon branching Free 10 branches + 3GB storage per branch (copy-on-write) + Launch $19/mo 50 branches + $4/GB after / Fly.io Review Apps $0 + usage $0.10/GB egress + machines $0.02/hr / AWS Amplify Hosting Preview Free 5GB stored + 15GB served + 1000 build min + $0.023/GB stored over + $0.15/GB served over + $0.01/build min over | Professional scale: expect $300-1500/mo payG at 100k users/video hrs
How this professional media checklist works.
Each requirement below is something a professional media build typically needs. Pick one of the four researched options — recommended, free, cheaper or paid — add your own with "Other", or skip the requirement if your project doesn't need it. Nothing is mandatory; the plan on the right tracks what you've decided so nothing gets forgotten.
Your picks are saved in this browser automatically, so you can come back anytime. Options are researched per build level and refreshed as vendors change their plans — always verify details on the provider's page before committing.