Polotno SDK and Switchboard Canvas overlap on exactly one job, generating images from templates and data, and are built for different owners of that job. Switchboard is an image-generation API: your team designs responsive templates in Switchboard's web designer, your code POSTs element values, and one call can return multiple sizes at once. Polotno SDK is the creative layer you embed in your product: an end-user editor, a programmatic API, and rendering on your infrastructure, all sharing one open JSON schema.
What each product actually is
Switchboard's differentiating trick is responsiveness: templates are built with "pinning" so one design adapts across output sizes, and a single API call can render several sizes from the sizes array. Add built-in translation into 70+ languages and it's a tidy pipeline for multi-format, multi-locale ad and social creative. Integrations cover Zapier, Pabbly, and Google Sheets; delivery includes S3 export and webhooks.
Polotno ships the infrastructure layer: an embeddable canvas editor for your users, design JSON in your database, and rendering client-side, on your servers via polotno-node, or through the optional Cloud Render API.
In practical terms: Switchboard automates your team's output; Polotno powers your product's creative features.
End-user editing
Switchboard has no embeddable editor. The Template Designer is a tool for your team inside Switchboard's web app. Your app's users can trigger renders; they cannot create or edit designs.
Polotno's embedded editor is the product: white-label, composable into your UI, with template governance deciding what users can change. When the roadmap says "users customize their own graphics," a render API can't get there; an SDK starts there.
Templates and data ownership
Switchboard templates live in Switchboard's cloud in a proprietary format, authored only in their designer. Renders reference templates by API name; requests override element values.
Polotno designs are documented JSON you store yourself. The same file drives the editor, batch pipelines, and rendering, and moves with you between deployment modes.
Rendering and scale
Switchboard renders cloud-only, metered per API call, with plan-based limits on sizes-per-call and batching. The multi-size call is a real efficiency for ad-format sprawl.
Polotno renders where you choose. Browser rendering gives users instant exports at no marginal cost; server rendering handles batches on your hardware; the Cloud Render API covers bursts. Multi-size output is a loop over the same JSON with different dimensions, less elegant than one call, unmetered when self-hosted.
Pricing model
Switchboard: Creator $19/mo (1,000 calls), Agency $79/mo (10,000 calls, translation, PDF), Enterprise $299/mo (100,000 calls), with $0.10 per call overage.
Polotno SDK: flat license, from $249/mo, Enterprise custom, 60-day trial, no per-render metering self-hosted.
At small automation volumes Switchboard costs a fraction of an SDK license. The crossover comes with volume (overage math) or the first end-user-editing requirement, which no plan upgrade adds.
Summary
| Polotno SDK | Switchboard Canvas | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Embeddable SDK: editor, API, renderer | Image-generation API + hosted designer |
| End-user editor | Yes, white-label, in your app | No |
| Design format | Open JSON, stored on your side | Proprietary, in Switchboard's cloud |
| Rendering | Client, self-hosted, or optional cloud | Cloud-only, per-call metering |
| Multi-size output | Loop over the schema, unmetered | Native: several sizes per call |
| Localization | Your data through template variables | Built-in translation, 70+ languages |
| Pricing | Flat license from $249/mo | $19–$299/mo tiers + $0.10/call overage |
Conclusion
Switchboard Canvas is a sharp tool for a specific pipeline: one team, many formats, many locales, all generated in the background. The multi-size call and built-in translation are genuine advantages for ad-ops workloads, and the entry price is low.
Polotno SDK is for products rather than pipelines: when end users need to create and edit designs under your brand, when design data belongs on your infrastructure, and when one schema should power the editor, the automation, and the rendering. After six years and 300+ production integrations, including Amazon and BMW, that's the territory it's built to hold.
