Filtrate vs AWS Rekognition
One focused call vs orchestrating a full AWS moderation pipeline
Common objection:
"Rekognition is from AWS — it must be more powerful and production-ready than a third-party tool."
Rekognition is solid for content moderation, but it's only one piece of the compliance puzzle. For a marketplace listing site, you also need EXIF stripped and WebP compression. Rekognition does neither. A full compliance pipeline with Rekognition requires stitching together: DetectModerationLabels (moderation) + DetectLabels (categorization) + DetectText (text detection) + a separate EXIF stripper + a separate optimizer + S3 storage. That's 5–6 API calls and integrations. Filtrate does all of that in one call at $0.002/image.
Feature comparison
| Feature | Filtrate | AWS Rekognition |
|---|---|---|
| EXIF / GPS metadata strip | No | |
| WebP / AVIF compression | No | |
| AI content moderation | DetectModerationLabels — one call | |
| Text detection | DetectText — separate API call required | |
| Single endpoint for full stack | No — requires 2–3 calls: moderation + labels + text | |
| Output format conversion | No | |
| Built-in CDN / storage | No — classification only; pair with S3 separately | |
| Developer sandbox (no card) | AWS Free Tier — requires account + billing |
Pricing comparison
Integration effort
fetch('https://api.filtrate.polsia.app/v1/process', {
method: 'POST',
headers: { 'X-API-Key': 'flt_live_…' },
body: new FormData().append('image', file),
});
// Returns: moderated WebP image (EXIF stripped, optimized, verdict included)// Rekognition: multiple calls for a full stack
// 1. DetectModerationLabels (moderation)
const r1 = await rekognition.detectModerationLabels({ Image: { S3Object: { Bucket, Name } } });
// 2. DetectLabels (categorization — often needed for marketplaces)
const r2 = await rekognition.detectLabels({ Image: { S3Object: { Bucket, Name } } });
// 3. DetectText (text extraction)
const r3 = await rekognition.detectText({ Image: { S3Object: { Bucket, Name } } });
// EXIF strip? NOT AVAILABLE — need a separate tool
// WebP compress? NOT AVAILABLE — need another toolWhen to pick Filtrate
- You need EXIF strip, optimization, and moderation in one call without orchestrating 3–4 API calls
- You want transparent per-image pricing with no monthly minimum
- You need GDPR-safe media for a marketplace or e-commerce platform
- You want GPT-4o-mini moderation included at no extra charge
- You need to get live today — one integration, one API key
When Rekognition makes sense
- High-volume celebrity or face recognition use cases (Rekognition Face Detection is strong)
- Deep AWS ecosystem lock-in — already running S3, Lambda, SQS, and want unified tooling
- Custom Moderation Adapter training with your own annotated dataset of flagged/prohibited images
- Existing investment in AWS infrastructure and an ML team to orchestrate the pipeline
One API. All three operations. No vendor lock-in.
Most tools do one thing well. Filtrate does everything compliance demands in a single call. No stitching together a CDN + moderation service + metadata stripper. One endpoint. One bill. One integration.
Try the API playground
Test against real images. See the verdict in 1–5 seconds. No account required.
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