How Rend compares
Two flat prices, one for minutes watched and one for minutes stored. 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
- RendTwo flat per-minute rates
- Managed video platformsPer minute, plus tiers
- Budget per-GB CDNsPer GB, by region
- Roll your ownWhatever the bill says
Plans
- RendSimple pay as you go
- Managed video platformsMonthly bundles
- Budget per-GB CDNsUsage commitments
- Roll your ownYour own budget
Encoding included
- Rend
- Managed video platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Warmed opener for cold video
- Rend
- Managed video platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Open source
- Rend
- Managed video platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Self-host, free forever
- Rend
- Managed video platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Bare-metal edge nodes
- Rend
- Managed video platforms
- Budget per-GB CDNs
- Roll your own
Agent-ready, OpenAPI + llms.txt
- Rend
- Managed video 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.
Managed video platforms
These often combine minute-based billing with resolution tiers, quality levels, add-ons, and volume bands. Rend keeps the same familiar units but removes those multipliers.
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.
- Two flat rates: delivered watch minutes and stored video minutes.
- 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?
- Rend uses the familiar delivered-minute and stored-minute model, but keeps it to two flat rates with encoding included and no resolution multipliers.
- 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 makes the calculation direct: delivered minutes times $0.001, plus stored minutes times $0.003 per month. Encoding is included.