Bannerbear and Orshot both turn templates into images through an API, no-code tools and AI assistants. Bannerbear is the long-established platform with workflows, forms and 50+ integrations. Orshot is younger and cheaper per image, has a free monthly plan, bills overage instead of refusing requests, and imports designs from Canva and Figma. Both publish an official MCP server.
We make Shareglint, a third tool in this market, so we are not neutral. Every number below is from the vendors' own pricing pages, read on 2026-11-04; each section starts with what the product does well, and we say where we fit at the end.
The numbers side by side
| Bannerbear | Orshot | |
|---|---|---|
| Free | One-off trial, 30 API credits, no card | 100 credits a month, renewed, no card |
| Entry paid plan | Automate: $49 / month, 1,000 API credits (+200 AI credits) | Launch: $39 / month, 1,500 credits |
| Price per 1,000 at entry | $49 | $26 |
| Around 5,000 a month | $149 (Scale, 10,000) | $99 (Launch, 5,000) |
| Around 20,000 a month | $299 (Enterprise, 50,000) | $160 (Grow, 20,000) |
| Largest self-serve plan | $299, 50,000 | $600, 300,000 |
| Over the limit | Requests refused | Overage per credit: $0.036 (Launch), $0.030 (Grow), $0.024 (Scale) |
| Yearly billing | No yearly price shown | 10 months' price for 12 months |
| What a credit is | One image × formats × scale; animation 2 per second | 1 image, 1 PDF page or 1 second of video |
| Template source | Its own editor | Its own editor, Canva and Figma imports |
| Image by URL | "Instant URLs", from Scale | Not compared here — check Orshot's docs |
| Embeddable editor | Not offered | From Launch |
| Video | Yes | Yes; up to 30 s on Launch, longer on bigger plans |
| MCP server | Yes | Yes |
Sources: Bannerbear pricing, Orshot pricing. Orshot also offers a refund "for a new subscription within 1 day (24 hours) of payment, as long as you have used no more than 50% of the credits"; Bannerbear's pricing page states no refund policy.
Bannerbear: breadth and polish
What it does well. A mature drag-and-drop editor, ready-made templates, 50+ integrations including Zapier, Make and Airtable, built-in forms and workflows for people who never touch an API, video and animation, and years of track record. From the Scale plan you get Instant URLs (images generated straight from a URL), team members and your own S3 bucket. If a marketing team will live in the tool every day, the depth shows.
Where it is weaker. It costs the most per image at the entry level, has no free monthly allowance after the 30-credit trial, and refuses requests when credits run out — a campaign that spikes past the plan stops instead of costing a little more.
Pick Bannerbear if you want the broadest no-code and workflow toolbox, or your team already works in its ecosystem. Our page: Bannerbear alternative.
Orshot: cheaper, with imports and overage
What it does well. Orshot's free plan renews every month (100 credits), its paid plans cost roughly half of Bannerbear's per image at low volumes, and overage means a busy month costs more rather than breaking. Designers can bring templates from Canva or Figma instead of rebuilding them, an embeddable editor is available from the first paid plan, and one credit buys an image, a PDF page or a second of video.
Where it is weaker. It is a younger product with a shorter track record, the longest video on the entry plan is 30 seconds, and the free plan's watermark policy is not stated on the pricing page — check before relying on it for public images.
Pick Orshot if your designs live in Canva or Figma, you want a free tier that renews, or you prefer overage to refused requests. Our page: Orshot alternative.
What a month costs at three volumes
Taking each vendor's cheapest plan that covers the volume, on monthly billing, by the pricing pages read on 2026-11-04:
- 1,000 images a month: Bannerbear $49 (Automate). Orshot $39 (Launch, 1,500) — or nothing for the first 100 on the free plan.
- 5,000 a month: Bannerbear $149 (Scale, which covers 10,000). Orshot $99 (Launch, 5,000).
- 20,000 a month: Bannerbear $299 (Enterprise, 50,000), since Scale stops at 10,000 and extra requests are refused. Orshot $160 (Grow, 20,000).
Yearly billing lowers Orshot's prices by about a sixth; Bannerbear's page shows no yearly price. The gap is widest at low and mid volumes and narrows on Bannerbear's bigger plans, where the price per 1,000 drops to $5.98.
The questions that decide it
- Where are the designs today? In Canva or Figma → Orshot saves a rebuild. Nowhere yet, and a marketer will build them → either; Bannerbear's editor is the more established.
- Is volume steady or spiky? Spiky → Orshot's overage. Steady and high → compare Bannerbear's Scale plan with Orshot's Grow plan at your number.
- Do non-developers run the automations? Bannerbear's forms and workflows are built for them.
- Will the images sit in
og:image? Then check URL-based generation, signing and caching in each product's docs before you pick.
A third option for developers
If your templates are written in HTML and CSS, Shareglint renders them as they are — or one of 153 built-in templates, or a simple visual editor — in real Chrome. Starter is $9 a month for 2,000 images (about $4.50 per 1,000), Pro $29 for 10,000, the Free plan 100 images a month with a watermark, and one-off packs of 1,000 for $8 when a month runs over. Signed URLs for og:image work on every plan; every template renders in 6 sizes from one request.
What we do not do, compared with both: no Canva or Figma import, no embeddable editor, no video beyond GIF and MP4 clips of up to 5 seconds, and our no-code integrations are HTTP recipes (integrations) rather than native apps. More vendors: Bannerbear vs Placid, Bannerbear vs Templated, best OG image API.
If a number here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it.
