How Rend compares
Two prices, seconds delivered and storage kept, both by resolution. Here is how that compares to the usual ways of paying for video.
Side by side
Three common approaches to paying for and running video, next to Rend.
Pricing model
- RendDelivery + storage by resolution
- Minute-billed platformsPer minute, plus tiers
- Budget per-GB CDNsPer GB, by region
- Roll your ownWhatever the bill says
Plans
- RendPAYG, Builder, Scale, Enterprise
- Minute-billed platformsMonthly bundles
- Budget per-GB CDNsUsage commitments
- Roll your ownYour own budget
Encoding included
- Rend
- Minute-billed platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Warmed opener for cold video
- Rend
- Minute-billed platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Open source
- Rend
- Minute-billed platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Self-host, free forever
- Rend
- Minute-billed platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Bare-metal edge nodes
- Rend
- Minute-billed platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Agent-ready, OpenAPI + llms.txt
- Rend
- Minute-billed platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
The other three columns are broad strokes for how each kind of platform usually bills and runs, not a quote from any one vendor. Rend's own rates are listed live in the dashboard.
What you are comparing against
Three common ways teams pay for and run video today.
Minute-billed platforms
These charge per minute of video plus tiers, and encoding and fast cold starts are often paid extras. They are convenient to start with, but the bill grows with your library and your traffic in ways that are hard to predict.
Budget per-GB CDNs
These bill raw bandwidth by region and leave encoding, packaging and the cold-start problem to you. Cheap per gigabyte, but you assemble the rest of the stack yourself.
Roll your own
Full control, but you own encoding, storage, a global cache and cold starts. Rend is open source if you want that control without starting from scratch.
What Rend does differently
Encoding, storage, a fast edge, and the cold-start problem are handled in one place, and you pay for what people watch.
- Delivery and storage billed by resolution, not by the minute.
- Encoding included on every upload, not a separate charge.
- Generated HLS served from Tigris-backed origin by default, with the bare-metal edge path kept optional.
- Open source and free to self-host, the same code that runs Rend Cloud.
- Agent-ready, with llms.txt, OpenAPI, a generated SDK and a copyable setup prompt for the model in your editor.
Frequently asked questions
Common questions about how Rend compares to other ways of paying for video.
- How is Rend different from minute-billed platforms?
- They charge per minute of video plus tiers, and things like encoding and fast starts are often extras. Rend bills delivery and storage by resolution, includes encoding, and serves generated HLS from Tigris-backed origin by default.
- How does Rend compare to budget per-GB CDNs?
- A per-GB CDN bills raw bandwidth by region and leaves encoding and packaging to you. Rend handles encoding, packaging, storage and delivery through one playback stack.
- Why not just roll my own video stack?
- You can, and Rend is open source if you want to. But rolling your own means owning encoding, storage, a global cache and the cold-start problem. Rend gives you that stack, or the option to self-host the same code.
- Is Rend cheaper than the alternatives?
- It depends on your traffic, but Rend takes away two common surprises: per-minute fees and egress charges. You pay for seconds delivered and storage kept by resolution, with encoding included.