Polotno SDK and Templated both generate designs programmatically, and that's roughly where the overlap ends. Templated is a hosted render API: your team designs templates in Templated's web editor, then your code calls a REST endpoint to produce images and PDFs from data. Polotno SDK is creative infrastructure you embed: an editor your end users work in, a programmatic API, and a rendering engine — all running under your brand, driven by one open JSON schema.
What each product actually is
Templated follows the Bannerbear model. The template editor is an internal tool for your designers; the product your code touches is the render endpoint. Design template once, POST data, receive a PNG or PDF. Zapier, Make, and n8n integrations make it usable without much code at all.
Polotno SDK ships the layer underneath that entire workflow. The embeddable editor is for your end users, not just your designers. The JSON schema is open and lives in your database. Rendering runs on your servers via polotno-node, or through the optional Cloud Render API when you'd rather not manage render infrastructure.
In practical terms: Templated is a service you call; Polotno is infrastructure you own.
End-user editing
If your users need to edit designs — personalize a card, adjust a listing flyer, build a social post inside your product — Templated doesn't have that surface. Its editor is for template authors on Templated's domain, not for embedding in front of your customers.
This is Polotno's core: composable React components you wire into your own UI for a full canvas editor — text, images, SVG, shapes, filters, layers, multi-page documents, video. Fully white-label, themed to your product, with your asset libraries and your governance over what's editable.
For pure background generation with no human in the loop, an embedded editor is machinery you don't need — and Templated's shape is genuinely simpler. The question is whether "no human in the loop" stays true as your product grows. In our experience it rarely does: generation features attract "can I tweak it?" requests within the first quarter.
Automation and rendering
Both products automate well; they automate differently.
Templated renders on its infrastructure from templates stored on its platform. Simple, reliable, metered — and bounded by the vendor's template model, render quotas, and format support.
Polotno's automation works against the open schema. Your code creates or mutates design JSON directly — from CRM data, user input, or an LLM — and the same JSON drives the editor, batch pipelines, and headless rendering to PNG, JPEG, PDF, MP4, PPTX, GIF, or SVG. Because rendering can run entirely on your infrastructure, throughput is a scaling decision you own, not a plan limit you negotiate.
Data control and hosting
With Templated, templates and generated assets live on Templated's platform, and every render passes through their servers.
Polotno runs on your side: design data in your database, rendering on your hardware if you choose. The only Polotno-hosted path is the optional Cloud Render API. For teams with compliance requirements — or templates that constitute competitive IP — this is usually the deciding line.
Pricing model
Templated prices like a SaaS API: subscription tiers metered by renders per month. Costs start low and track usage — attractive at small volume, worth modeling carefully at scale, where per-render pricing compounds.
Polotno SDK is a flat commercial license: Self-Serve at $899/mo, Enterprise by custom quote with negotiated SLAs and optional source-code access, and a 60-day free trial for development. No per-render or per-user metering — self-hosted rendering costs whatever your servers cost.
Below a few thousand renders a month with no end-user editing, Templated's math likely wins. Once an embedded editor enters the requirements or render volume becomes real, the flat license plus your own infrastructure tends to come out ahead — and stays predictable.
Summary
| Polotno SDK | Templated | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Embeddable SDK — editor, API, renderer | Hosted render API with template editor |
| End-user editor | Yes, white-label, in your app | No — editor is for template authors |
| Design format | Open JSON schema, stored on your side | Platform templates on Templated |
| Rendering | Self-hosted or optional cloud | Templated's infrastructure, metered |
| Automation | Programmatic API against open schema | REST endpoint + Zapier/Make/n8n |
| Pricing | Flat license from $899/mo | Subscription tiers, per-render quotas |
Conclusion
Templated is a solid pick for teams that need automated image and PDF generation with minimal setup: design a template, wire a webhook, done. It's easier to adopt than an SDK and requires no rendering infrastructure of your own.
Polotno SDK fits when creative production is part of your product rather than adjacent to it — when end users need to edit, when design data needs to live on your infrastructure, and when you want one schema powering the editor, the automation, and the render pipeline. Six years in, with 300+ businesses from startups to Amazon and BMW running it in production, that's the job it was built for.
