Overview

Sightengine is a cloud API for assessing and moderating images, video and text, with additional audio checks and media authenticity tools. It suits developers and businesses building moderation into social networks, messaging apps or marketplaces. Its breadth and configurable image rules are compelling, but video limits, request rates and the lack of human review make plan fit worth checking early.

Key features

Visual moderation covers nudity, hate, violence, drugs, weapons and self-harm. Teams can tune image thresholds and rules to match different community policies, a useful control when one default standard would be too blunt. The product also detects AI-generated images, video, speech and music, and deepfakes.

Beyond classification, Sightengine offers OCR and QR moderation, image and video search, age estimation, liveness checks and recapture detection. This makes it relevant to workflows that need more than a simple image filter. Text moderation is included, while audio moderation and several advanced checks require Pro.

API examples and SDKs cover Curl, Python, PHP and Node.js. Sightengine says customer content is not shared with third parties and no human moderator is involved. Its API servers support HTTPS and TLS 1.3, and receive an A rating from Qualys SSL Labs; its data-center partners are described as ISO 27001, SOC 2 and PCI DSS compliant. Enterprise adds SAML single sign-on and region-specific end-user data processing.

Pricing

Sightengine has a free tier and paid plans from $29/mo. The free plan costs 0.00 USD per free, supports 1 req/s and includes online documentation, but has daily and monthly usage limits and excludes video processing and live-stream support. Sightengine says customers should not subscribe to more than one Free plan, so this is best for limited evaluation rather than scaling a production workload.

Starter costs 29.00 USD per month and bills 10,000 operations per month, with each additional operation at $0.002. It covers visual moderation, AI image and video detection for videos up to 50MB, text moderation and deepfake detection, at 1 req/s. It does not support live streams. This is the practical entry point for modest workloads that need paid usage and video checks, but the request rate and file-size ceiling constrain heavier or real-time video pipelines.

Pro costs 99.00 USD per month and bills 40,000 operations per month, with additional operations at $0.002. It raises the video limit to 500MB, adds live moderation, audio moderation, image and video search, liveness, recapture and age estimation, plus AI music detection. The plan supports 10 req/s and five concurrent video jobs. It is the more suitable tier for teams combining media types or needing live moderation, though teams should account for the operation quota and job concurrency.

Enterprise has custom pricing, custom volume, models and classes, geo-fencing, enterprise SLAs, a dedicated support engineer and custom capacity. It is the fit for larger or region-sensitive deployments that need tailored throughput or support. Free includes online documentation; Starter adds email support, Pro priority support, and Enterprise a dedicated engineer. A free trial is offered.

Platforms

Sightengine is available through API and web access, with cloud deployment. Its developer examples and SDKs target Curl, Python, PHP and Node.js, which gives teams a direct path to integrate from common backend environments. It is not a self-hosted deployment option.

Who it's for

Sightengine is strongest for developers and businesses that want one API surface for image, video and text moderation, then can move to Pro when audio, live moderation or richer media checks become necessary. Marketplaces and social or messaging products can benefit from configurable image policies and the added detection tools. It is less suitable where human review workflows or self-hosted deployment are requirements, or where the free tier's lack of video support is a blocker.

Pros and cons

Pros: Broad coverage across image, video, text and audio, with AI-content and deepfake detection, can consolidate several moderation checks.
Pros: Configurable image thresholds let teams align decisions to their own community policies.
Pros: Pro combines live moderation with 500MB video support and five concurrent video jobs, a meaningful step up for richer pipelines.
Cons: Free has usage caps and no video or live-stream support, limiting its production usefulness for media-heavy services.
Cons: Starter remains at 1 req/s and excludes live streams; its 50MB video ceiling may not fit larger uploads.
Cons: There is no human review workflow, and deployment is cloud-only, ruling it out for teams that require either capability.

Alternatives

WebPurify is worth considering when Android, iOS or self-hosted support matters; its AIM option provides per-image AI categories, real-time results and API access, while Live Moderation is priced per item.

Amazon Rekognition Content Moderation may suit teams already building around an API and web service that want a free tier; its video free tier lasts 12 months from account creation and includes 60 free analysis minutes per month.

Hive Moderation is an option for teams seeking access to 10+ models and selected-model pay-as-you-go billing; its developer offer provides $50+ in free credits after adding a payment method.

Google Cloud Vision API is a fit for teams preferring per-image, per-feature billing with a free allowance of the first 1,000 units.

Moderation API may fit teams that need video and audio moderation with a defined monthly message quota and team seats: its Basic plan is 79.00 USD per month for 10,000 messages, three team members and email support.

Besedo is an alternative for teams that want a 14-day trial with 10,000 pieces of moderated content per month, unlimited users and analytics.

Bodyguard.ai is an alternative with general classifications, automatic and manual moderation, insights reporting and Smart Search in its Guardian plan, priced at 1000.00 EUR per month.

Clarifai Visual Search is an alternative for teams considering API, self-hosted or web access with usage charges after a minimum monthly commitment.

For a wider shortlist, compare AI Content Moderation Software and Social Media Moderation Software.

Verdict

Choose Sightengine when your team wants configurable, developer-facing moderation across several media types, with a clear path from limited free use to higher-volume Pro and custom Enterprise capacity. Its broad checks and API examples are the main draw. Look elsewhere if you need human review, self-hosting, or video processing on a free tier.

	Sightengine	Utopia AI Moderator
Free plan	Yes	No
Free trial	Yes	No
Paid from	$29/mo	—
Open source	No	No
Platforms	api, Web	Web
Free plan	Yes	—
Paid from	29 /mo	—

Sightengine vs Utopia AI Moderator

Sightengine

Utopia AI Moderator