Sightengine

sightengine.com
Productivity
Weekend Project

Content Moderation and Image Analysis you can rely on

How to Replace Sightengine

Overview

Sightengine provides powerful APIs to automatically assess, filter and moderate images, videos, and text content. The platform offers 120+ moderation classes and AI detection capabilities to build efficient and scalable content analysis pipelines. It enables platforms to prevent abuse, enforce terms of use, and validate content authenticity with instant processing and privacy compliance.

Features

31 features across 12 categories

AI Content Detection(5)

AI Image DetectionAI

Detect AI-generated images and assess the authenticity of media

AI Music DetectionAI

Detect AI-generated music

AI Video DetectionAI

Spot AI-generated video content

Deepfake DetectionAI

Identify face swaps and AI manipulation in images

Stable Diffusion DetectionAI

Detect if images were generated using Stable Diffusion or other generative AI models

Analytics & Monitoring(1)

Usage Monitoring Dashboard

Online usage dashboard with detailed request logs for monitoring API usage

Content Moderation(7)

Audio ModerationAI

Transcribe and detect profanity in audio

Circumvention DetectionAI

Detect attempts to circumvent or disintermediate your platform, including abusive links, QR codes, phone numbers, email addresses, and references to other platforms

Image ModerationAI

Moderate images with 120+ moderation classes covering nudity, hate, violence, drugs, weapons, and self-harm

OCR & QR ModerationAI

Moderate text and QR codes present in images and videos

Restricted Activities DetectionAI

Detect activities such as smoking, vaping, gambling, drinking alcohol, sextoys, banknotes, and coins

Text ModerationAI

Detect and filter sexual, hateful, violent, insulting or otherwise inappropriate texts. Detect personal information, links, usernames, and restricted activities

Video ModerationAI

Moderate and filter videos and live streams

Developer Tools(1)

API Documentation

Comprehensive API docs, SDKs, and quick-start guides for easy integration

Also in: Jobber, Hugging Face, 1Password

Image Analysis & OCR(4)

Image AnonymizationAIPremium

Anonymize images in content moderation pipeline

Image Quality AssessmentAI

Assess technical and aesthetical quality, automatically detect low-quality images, identify issues like bad framing, blurriness, poor lighting, and highlight high-quality content

OCRAI

Extract text from images and videos at scale

Video AnonymizationAIPremium

Anonymize videos in content moderation pipeline

People & Identity(2)

Age Group EstimationAI

Implement age group verifications for images

Profile Image ValidationAI

Enhanced profile picture verification: check if the image contains a clear and recognizable face, if the face is real, if other people or children are present

Performance(2)

Dedicated InfrastructurePremium

Dedicated infrastructure for unparalleled performance on Enterprise plan

Prioritized ProcessingPremium

Prioritized processing for optimal speed on higher tier plans

Also in: Jira Service Management, Hugging Face, WordPress.com

Privacy & Compliance(1)

Privacy Compliance

No human moderator involved, images remain private and are not shared with any 3rd party

Reliability(1)

High Availability Infrastructure

Failure-tolerant infrastructure and fallback strategies with high-end hardware

Security(1)

HTTPS Security

Secure API endpoints with HTTPS encryption

Support(4)

Dedicated Customer Support EngineerPremium

Dedicated customer support engineer assigned to Enterprise customers

Email SupportPremium

Email-based customer support included in paid plans

Enterprise-class SLAPremium

Service Level Agreement guarantees for Enterprise customers

Prioritized SupportPremium

Prioritized support response times on higher tier plans

Pricing

Free

Free
  • 2,000 operations per month (max 500 per day)
  • 1 simultaneous video stream
  • Content Moderation
  • Full access to all Moderation APIs
  • Access to all Models
  • High performance and availability
  • Secure environment and API
  • Usage monitoring
  • API SDKs and examples

Starter

$29/mo
  • 10,000 operations per month + $0.002 per additional op
  • 1 simultaneous video stream
  • Content Moderation
  • Email support
  • Full access to all Moderation APIs
  • Access to all Models
  • No hard usage limits
  • High performance and availability
  • Secure environment and API
  • Usage monitoring

Growth

$99/mo
  • 40,000 operations per month + $0.002 per additional op
  • 2 simultaneous video streams
  • Content Moderation
  • Email Support
  • Full access to all Moderation APIs
  • Access to all Models
  • No hard usage limits
  • High performance and availability
  • Secure environment and API
  • Usage monitoring

Pro

$399/mo
  • 200,000 operations per month + $0.0015 per additional op
  • 5 simultaneous video streams
  • Content Moderation
  • Prioritized processing for Optimal Speed
  • Prioritized Support
  • Full access to all Moderation APIs
  • Access to all Models
  • No hard usage limits
  • High performance and availability
  • Secure environment and API
  • Usage monitoring

Enterprise

Custom
  • Custom number of operations
  • Custom number of simultaneous streams
  • Content Moderation
  • Image and Video Anonymization
  • Dedicated infrastructure for Unparalleled performance
  • Dedicated Customer Support Engineer
  • Enterprise-class SLA
  • Exclusive enterprise premium options
  • Full access to all Moderation APIs
  • Access to all Models
  • No hard usage limits
  • High performance and availability
  • Secure environment and API
  • Usage monitoring

Cost Calculator

Keep Paying Sightengine

Monthly$29/mo
Yearly$348/yr
5-Year Total$1.7k

Build It Yourself

Est. Build Time~2 hrs
Hosting$20/mo
DifficultyVery Easy

Total Cost Comparison

1 YearSave $108
SaaS
$348
DIY
$240
3 YearsSave $324
SaaS
$1k
DIY
$720
5 YearsSave $540
SaaS
$1.7k
DIY
$1.2k

DIY hosting estimate based on Vercel + Supabase free/pro tiers (~$20/mo). Build time estimated from 31 features at very easy complexity.

Build vs Buy

Should you build a Sightengine alternative or buy the subscription? Estimate based on 31 features.

Buy Sightengine

Better Value
Monthly cost$290/mo
3-year total$10,440
Time to deployDays

Build Your Own

Development cost$24,000
Maintenance$360/mo
3-year total$36,960
Dev time~2 months

Buying Sightengine saves ~$26,520 over 3 years vs building.

Estimates based on 31 features and a BuildScore of 5/5. Actual costs vary.