PicaJet
Search Build shortlist

Optimizely, Piwigo, Cloudinary, digiKam

Side by side on what we have verified on each vendor’s own pages. Where a fact was not checked, the table says so rather than leaving a blank that reads as “no”.

What decides it · Runs on your own servers

If the files genuinely cannot leave your infrastructure, this is not a close race — the platforms marked No below should not be on the call at all.

Optimizely

No

Piwigo

Yes

Cloudinary

No

digiKam

Yes

Everything else

Optimizely
Piwigo
Cloudinary
digiKam
Verdict
Not checked
Not checked
Not checked
Not checked
Price published
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Billed on
Quoted per customer
Flat price per account by storage; users are unlimited
Credits: one credit is 1,000 transformations, or 1 GB of storage, or 1 GB of video bandwidth
Free software, no licence fee
Deployment
Cloud
On-premise, Cloud
Cloud
On-premise
Free plan
No
Yes
Yes
Yes
Free trial
No
Yes
Yes
No
Transparency index
0%
100%
60%
100%
Most common complaint
Not one tier and not one figure on the pricing page
A ten per cent price rise is announced for 1 September 2026
Prices are published for the API but not for the DAM, so the product being compared with a DAM still has no price
It has no collaboration, permissions or approvals by design

“Not checked” means exactly that: we have not verified it, not that the platform lacks it. Every other value was read off the vendor’s own pages on the date shown on each platform page.

What to ask on the demo

One question per platform, drawn from what actually goes wrong with it — not a generic checklist. Vendors run the demo; this hands the agenda back to you.

Optimizely Not one tier and not one figure on the pricing page — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Piwigo A ten per cent price rise is announced for 1 September 2026 — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
Cloudinary Prices are published for the API but not for the DAM, so the product being compared with a DAM still has no price — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.
digiKam It has no collaboration, permissions or approvals by design — ask them to answer this in writing before the trial.

No email required — the page prints as it stands.