# SightRadar vs AWS Rekognition

> SightRadar is the dedicated, developer-first alternative to AWS Rekognition's face APIs. It is drop-in compatible — the same CreateCollection / IndexFaces / SearchFacesByImage / CompareFaces / DetectFaces shapes, so you keep your code and change one endpoint — but you skip everything that makes Rekognition slow to adopt: no AWS account or IAM, no default TPS quotas to raise by support ticket, a real web console to browse collections and usage, ready-made SDKs, and roughly half the per-photo price ($0.00093 real-time vs Rekognition's $0.00125 Group-1 reference).

Source: https://sightradar.com/compare/aws-rekognition

## Bottom line

For the vast majority of teams, SightRadar wins on all three things that matter day to day — price, reliability, and the web UI. You get about half the per-photo cost, no quota or FPS tickets blocking your launch, and a real console with per-operation cost visibility, on a drop-in Rekognition-compatible API. Unless a single AWS bill is a hard requirement, SightRadar is the better choice.

## Headline verdicts

### Price — winner: SightRadar
- SightRadar: $0.00093/photo real-time, $0.00062/photo batch — about half of Rekognition, prepaid with no surprise bill.
- AWS Rekognition: $0.00125/image (Group-1) on a postpaid AWS bill; volume tiers only help at large scale.

### Reliability & access — winner: SightRadar
- SightRadar: Start instantly. No default TPS quota to raise, no per-operation caps, no support ticket to scale up.
- AWS Rekognition: New accounts ship with low default TPS quotas and per-operation limits you must raise via a service-quota / support request before you can scale.

### Web UI — winner: SightRadar
- SightRadar: A real console: browse collections, run searches in a playground, see usage and per-operation cost, manage keys.
- AWS Rekognition: No first-party UI to browse face collections — it's API/CLI/SDK only, and the AWS bill shows no per-operation face-cost breakdown.

## Where SightRadar wins

- Roughly half the price: real-time at $0.00093/photo and batch at $0.00062/photo, versus Rekognition's $0.00125 Group-1 reference — prepaid, so you spend only what's in your wallet with no end-of-month surprise.
- No quota tickets: Rekognition accounts start with low default TPS quotas and per-operation caps you must raise through a service-quota or support request. SightRadar has no default gate — you scale the moment you sign up.
- A real web UI: browse collections, inspect indexed faces, run a search in the playground, manage API keys, and watch usage — all things Rekognition gives you no first-party console for.
- Per-operation cost visibility: the usage dashboard shows how many calls hit each operation and the exact credit cost, instead of one opaque line on a giant AWS bill.
- Ready-made, zero-dependency Python and Node/TypeScript SDKs and clean docs — not face calls buried inside the sprawling AWS SDK.
- Drop-in compatible API — point your existing Rekognition integration at one new endpoint and keep your code.

## Where AWS Rekognition is the better fit

- If your entire platform already runs on AWS and you need everything on a single consolidated bill with IAM-native access and deep first-party hooks (S3 event triggers, Lambda, Kinesis Video), Rekognition's native integration is the one thing SightRadar doesn't replicate.

## Feature-by-feature

### Getting started

| Feature | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Account required | ✅ Email sign-up, API key in minutes — no cloud account | ❌ Requires an AWS account, IAM users/roles, and policy setup |
| Ready-made SDKs | ✅ First-party Python & Node/TS SDKs, zero-dependency, typed | ➖ Use the broad AWS SDK; face calls are a small part of a huge surface |
| API compatibility | ✅ Same request/response shapes — drop-in for the face operations | ✅ The reference API we're compatible with |

### Reliability & access

| Feature | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Default rate limits | ✅ No default TPS gate — scale without asking | ❌ Low default TPS per operation; raise via service-quota request |
| Per-operation caps | ✅ No per-call quota tickets to manage | ❌ Per-operation transaction caps that need quota increases |

### Web UI & visibility

| Feature | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Web console for collections | ✅ Browse collections, faces, and searches in the dashboard | ❌ No first-party UI to manage face collections |
| Per-operation cost breakdown | ✅ Usage page shows calls per operation and exact credit cost | ❌ AWS bill aggregates; no per-face-operation cost view |

### Pricing

| Feature | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Per-photo price | ✅ Real-time $0.00093, batch $0.00062 — below the Group-1 reference rate | ➖ $0.00125/image (Group-1), tiered down only at high volume |
| Billing model | ✅ Prepaid credits, billed per photo. No subscription, no auto-renew | ➖ Postpaid, metered through your AWS bill |

### Core capability

| Feature | SightRadar | AWS Rekognition |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Per-tenant isolation | ✅ Each account's face vectors are never cross-searchable | ✅ Collections isolate by your AWS account/region |
| Calibrated similarity scores | ✅ Set your own thresholds on calibrated scores | ✅ Similarity scores you threshold |

Competitor pricing changes over time — verify the current rate at https://aws.amazon.com/rekognition/pricing/. SightRadar's rates are at https://sightradar.com/pricing.

## Try SightRadar

Self-serve sign-up, prepaid credits, AWS Rekognition–compatible API, ready-made Python & Node SDKs, and a real web console. Start free at https://sightradar.com/login — docs at https://sightradar.com/docs.