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Integrating Cloudinary with Netlify

Cloudinary and Netlify

Netlify is a web development platform that allows for teams to easily build, deploy, and scale high performance applications for the web.

Cloudinary further enables teams to build those applications with images and videos, with close attention to performance with optimization, and an industry-leading DAM for managing media assets.

Using Cloudinary with Netlify

Netlify is relatively agnostic in terms of providing a prescriptive way to build applications, giving teams flexibility in how best to solve working with tools like Cloudinary.

You can primarily think of 3 main integration points: build time, website or application code, and content. Each of these points has its own strength depending on a project’s needs.

Optimizing at Build Time with Netlify Cloudinary

At build time, we can use Netlify Cloudinary, a Netlify integration, which provides blanket image optimization for websites and apps deployed to Netlify. By installing this integration, Cloudinary will automatically replace existing images with Cloudinary-optimized versions to help improve performance and page load size.

This would be considered the most “hands-off” approach, as installing the integration only requires a few clicks, and as such, this provides the least flexibility for being able to take full advantage of Cloudinary features.

Integrating Cloudinary with Language & Framework SDKs

When it comes to integrating Cloudinary with your application stack, Cloudinary provides a wide variety of SDKs as well as community SDKs like Next Cloudinary that bring first class support for working with your assets right inside of your application code.

This will give you the most flexibility out of all of the options for being able to transform and deliver not only images, but also videos, using all of the features Cloudinary has to offer, including being able to upload and manage assets right from your application.

Here are a few SDKs and Community SDKs for some of the most popular tools:

Next Cloudinary: https://next.cloudinary.dev/
React SDK: https://cloudinary.com/documentation/react_integration
JavaScript SDK: https://cloudinary.com/documentation/javascript_integration
Node.js SDK: https://cloudinary.com/documentation/node_integration
Gatsby: https://cloudinary.com/guides/front-end-development/integrating-cloudinary-with-gatsby
Svelte: https://svelte.cloudinary.dev/
Nuxt: https://cloudinary.nuxtjs.org/

Find more Cloudinary SDKs and community SDKs over on the Cloudinary docs.

Managing Assets in Ecommerce & Content Management Systems

When managing the images and videos that get added to your website or application, typically the bulk of those assets should come from your content management layer. This helps keep all of your content in one place as the source of truth, whether that’s a CMS or ecommerce PIM (Product Information Management).

To ensure you’re able to easily add images and videos to your content layer, Cloudinary works closely with its Technology Partners to provide best-in-class CMS and Ecommerce integrations for your favorite content solutions. This gives you the best of both worlds, managing your assets using the Cloudinary DAM from right inside of your content platform.

For ecommerce, some of the integrations you can find are:

To manage Cloudinary within your content, you can also find integrations for:

And these are just a few of the popular ones. Head over to the Technology Partners page to see all Cloudinary and Partner-Built Integrations.

Is your product not listed? Learn how to build your own integration.

More Resources

Learn more about how to use Cloudinary with Netlify:

QUICK TIPS

Colby Fayock

In my experience, here are tips that can help you better integrate Cloudinary with Netlify:

Leverage Netlify Cloudinary Build Plugin for easy optimization
Use the Netlify Cloudinary Build Plugin for automatic image optimization at build time. This is perfect if you need a quick, hands-off approach to improving performance without diving into custom code. It’s especially useful for static sites where you want to minimize manual image management.
Use Cloudinary’s SDKs for dynamic content delivery
Integrate Cloudinary directly into your application’s codebase using SDKs like the React or Node.js SDKs. This allows you to dynamically manipulate and optimize images and videos based on user interactions, enhancing the performance and responsiveness of your app.
Optimize images on the fly with URL transformations
If you’re integrating Cloudinary into your site’s front-end, take advantage of URL-based transformations. This lets you adjust image sizes, apply filters, and optimize delivery directly through Cloudinary’s API without pre-generating multiple image versions.
Combine Cloudinary with a headless CMS for content-rich sites
For content-driven sites, integrate Cloudinary with a headless CMS like Contentful or WordPress. This allows content creators to easily manage and optimize media assets directly within their familiar CMS environment while benefiting from Cloudinary’s powerful DAM features.
Use environment variables for secure API integration
When integrating Cloudinary’s API with your Netlify project, use environment variables to store sensitive API keys and credentials securely. Netlify’s environment variable management makes it easy to keep your Cloudinary credentials safe while maintaining flexibility across different environments.
Set up custom caching strategies
To further enhance performance, implement custom caching strategies on Netlify that work alongside Cloudinary’s CDN. This ensures that frequently accessed images and videos are quickly delivered to users while minimizing server load.
Utilize Netlify Functions for advanced image processing
For more complex scenarios, use Netlify Functions to perform server-side image processing with Cloudinary. This is particularly useful for tasks like generating dynamic images based on user input or handling bulk image uploads and transformations.
Monitor performance with Netlify Analytics and Cloudinary’s dashboard
Use Netlify Analytics to track your site’s performance and Cloudinary’s dashboard to monitor asset usage and optimization metrics. Together, these tools give you a comprehensive view of how your media assets impact site performance and user experience.
Automate deployments with Netlify and Cloudinary CI/CD integration
Integrate Cloudinary’s media management with your CI/CD pipeline in Netlify. Automate the deployment of new assets and ensure that optimized media is always delivered during the build process, reducing manual intervention.
Explore Cloudinary Labs for experimental features
Cloudinary Labs offers cutting-edge features that can be integrated into your Netlify projects, such as advanced video processing or AI-powered media enhancements. Experimenting with these features can give your application a competitive edge in media delivery.

Last updated: Aug 24, 2024