Choose your storage and delivery providers with Chunkify, or use Cloudflare Stream's hosted video platform. Compare the costs, control, and work each approach involves.
Updated October 14, 2026 · VOD comparison
Your storage. Your delivery.
Stream You want generated video files in your own bucket, a delivery domain you control, and a choice of provider prices. Connect any S3-compatible storage, including Amazon S3 and Cloudflare R2. Keep your infrastructure when changing processors, or use standalone transcoding in an existing pipeline.
Compare encoding controlsYou want storage and delivery managed by one video provider, with encoding included and no separate bucket or CDN setup. Stream also provides hosted video analytics and live streaming.
Cloudflare Stream overviewChunkify with R2 and Cloudflare delivery is one possible setup. It uses customer-owned storage. Cloudflare Stream is a separate hosted video product.
Any S3-compatible storage, including S3 and R2
Your provider, domain, and delivery rates
Chunkify Player or your HLS player. Analytics to your destination.
Prepaid video-duration capacity
Cloudflare-hosted streaming endpoints
Stream Player or your HLS/DASH player. Stream Analytics.
Your generated files stay in your bucket. Keeping storage and the delivery domain in your accounts reduces dependence on the processing provider. Changing processors still involves API, events, playback, and deferred-encoding integration work.
Stream offers encoded downloads for portability. Those are different from retaining the original upload or owning its managed streaming storage.
Storage & CDN ownershipStream includes encoding. Chunkify charges for preparation and lets you choose storage and delivery prices. Try the same three illustrative workloads.
Your storage & Cloudflare delivery
Modeled monthly cost · USDFree encoding · managed hosting & delivery
Modeled monthly cost · USDInspect individual charges before plan credits. Storage, publication transfer, and plan fees remain in the full monthly estimate above.
Hover or use arrow keys to inspect values. Select a legend series to isolate it.
New input minutes / month
Stream encoding is included. Chunkify preparation shown before plan credits, using 1080p input.
Delivered minutes / month
Stream delivery uses duration. R2 request counts stay at the current estimate; its egress bandwidth rate is zero.
Stream uses $5/month per 1,000 minutes of prepaid storage capacity and $1 per 1,000 delivered minutes. Encoding and ingress are included. Chunkify processing rates are provisional; R2 storage, operations, and the editable publication-transfer assumption are included. Chunkify welcome credit is excluded from this recurring estimate.
Both platforms can make video playable before every quality is complete. Compare the preparation lifecycle as well as the final streaming outputs.
Per-title analysis selects useful resolutions and bitrates. Preparation publishes a playable fallback. A planned production rendition starts encoding when a player requests it, so an unrequested 1080p rendition stays unencoded.
The request starts the whole rendition. Initial preparation and fallback output still exist, and the fallback can differ in quality and bandwidth from the completed rendition.
Per-title encodingStream's documented maximum delivered quality is 1080p, using H.264. Cloudflare describes standard resolution ladders; content-based selection or removal of ladder rungs is not documented.
Stream also uses on-the-fly encoding in some paths. Its FAQ says videos can be playable while other qualities are encoding. These are shared capabilities; compare the documented workflow and measure startup and quality with the same sources and devices.
Both provide adaptive streaming and allow compatible third-party players. Storage location, encoding controls, and analytics are separate decisions.
Swipe the table to compare both platforms.
| Capability | Chunkify | Cloudflare Stream |
|---|---|---|
| Processing | Input-minute VOD preparation. Automatic streaming generation is included. | Ingestion and encoding included in Stream's storage and delivery model. |
| Input and output storage | Uploads, URLs, or connected storage inputs. Write to any S3-compatible storage, including Amazon S3 and Cloudflare R2. Input and output can differ. | Uploads and URL ingestion import video into Stream's managed storage. |
| Delivery | Your chosen CDN and provider rates. | Managed delivery charged by delivered duration. |
| Player choice | Chunkify Player or compatible HLS playback. | Stream Player or compatible HLS and DASH playback. |
| Ladder and encoding targets | Per-title VOD selection; standalone per-title, bitrate, and CRF controls have a separate scope. | Managed H.264 streaming up to 1080p. Standard resolution ladders; per-title ladder selection is not documented. |
| Playback analytics | Chunkify-hosted analytics with 30-day retention on both plans, or self-host the open-source server. SDK exports to other providers are also supported. | Hosted Stream Analytics and a GraphQL analytics API. |
| Portability | Published files stay in your account. Retain storage and CDN accounts while migrating the integration. | Encoded MP4 downloads are available; original-file export is not. |
| Application workflows | Upload and player components, generated captions, translation, and video-event workflows. | Direct creator uploads, captions, thumbnails, signed playback, and webhooks. |
Chunkify also provides standalone H.264, H.265, AV1, and VP9 outputs with supported per-title, bitrate, CRF, dimensions, frame-rate, and trim controls. These use output-minute processing charges.
Stream's managed ladder and encoded downloads serve a different workflow. Cloudflare Media Transformations is another product with its own processing and pricing model.
Included encoding does not remove storage and delivery charges. Customer-owned infrastructure also comes with responsibilities.
Connect storage, choose a CDN, and configure browser access. Include provider requests, storage, publication transfer, and optional services in the estimate.
Storage & CDNTemporary Chunkify outputs are for testing and expire after 24 hours. Production playback needs lasting storage and delivery.
Storage retentionAn available fallback does not mean every production rendition is ready. The first request for a planned quality starts its full encode.
Playback integrationUse Chunkify-hosted analytics with 30-day retention on both plans, self-host the open-source server, or send events to your existing tools. Its read-only MCP server lets AI agents query view totals, inspect playback sessions, and export CSV reports.
Playback analyticsUploads can reserve capacity until completed or expired. When capacity is exhausted, ordinary accounts cannot accept more video without freeing or purchasing capacity.
Storage capacityBuffering and preloading are billable. Uploaded-video delivery rounds to four-second segments, and MP4 downloads also incur delivery usage.
Delivery accountingRenew a canceled Stream subscription within 30 days to retain its videos. Cloudflare documents this as a non-renewal condition.
Cancellation policyAn encoded download does not recover the exact original upload. HDR is delivered as SDR, and multichannel audio is mixed to stereo.
Originals and media handlingThe custom-player guide says to fetch manifests directly from Stream, without caching, proxying, or storing them. A custom player does not make the streaming files customer-owned.
Manifest integrationStream documents H.264 delivery up to 1080p. Check this limit if your application requires 4K playback or another streaming codec.
Delivered qualityDefault limits are 30 GB per upload and 120 videos queued or encoding. These are ingest limits, not viewer-concurrency limits. Higher limits require contacting Cloudflare.
Upload limitsUse retained originals where possible. If you use Stream's encoded downloads, validate the quality and the contents before reprocessing.
Use an existing bucket and CDN, or configure them for a new application. Check source access, browser uploads, and playback before processing the library.
Create Upload sessions on your server and save stable playback, poster, and preview URLs from lifecycle events. Keep the Asset ID for updates.
Test players, captions, access controls, and analytics. Keep Stream active while validating the replacement, then update the playback URLs in your app.
Chunkify can prepare adaptive video while your files stay in your own R2 bucket and playback uses your configured CDN domain. You get managed processing and a choice of infrastructure prices, with uploader and player components available for your application. Stream is a separate product that manages storage and delivery together.
A provider setup such as R2 gives you zero-priced egress, so higher playback volume does not add an R2 bandwidth charge. Per-title selection and encoding on demand can avoid storing unnecessary outputs. Your total still includes preparation, storage, requests, and publication transfer. Stream includes encoding and can suit upload-heavy workloads with limited playback; use the calculator for your usage.
Chunkify selects useful resolutions and bitrates, then encodes planned production renditions when requested. An unrequested rendition stays unencoded, which can reduce generated storage. Automatic streaming generation is included in the input-minute preparation charge. Stream also uses on-the-fly encoding in some paths; its public descriptions use standard resolution ladders and do not establish per-title ladder selection.
With Chunkify, generated files and the CDN domain remain in accounts you control. That reduces the need to export a hosted video library when changing processors. Plan for changes to API calls, events, and deferred encoding. Stream offers encoded MP4 downloads, so migration is possible, but the exact original upload cannot be downloaded from Stream.
Both options are available. Chunkify provides a player component and supports compatible HLS players. Stream provides its player and supports HLS and DASH players. Integrate captions, access controls, and analytics for the player you choose.
Yes. Standalone transcoding supports H.264, H.265, AV1, and VP9 outputs, with supported per-title, bitrate, and CRF targets. Send results to connected storage and use events to continue your application workflow. These output-minute charges are separate from VOD preparation. Stream and Cloudflare Media Transformations have their own scopes and pricing.
This page compares VOD. Stream also provides live ingest, recording, and restreaming, which may fit an application that needs one managed service for both live and on-demand video. Include those requirements separately when evaluating Chunkify's VOD and transcoding workflows.