Amazon Rekognition alternative
An alternative to Amazon Rekognition for images and text
Compare Amazon Rekognition and openshield: what one check is, the public prices and limits, and where each fits. Facts about Amazon Rekognition are as of 2026-10-19.
Up to 2,000 free checks every month. No card needed.
At a glance
Amazon Rekognition and openshield side by side
Facts about Amazon Rekognition are as of 2026-10-19, read from its own pages. Its prices are in US dollars as it lists them, openshield's are in euros, and none is converted.
| What | Amazon Rekognition | openshield |
|---|---|---|
| Images | The pricing page lists USD 1.00 per 1,000 images for the first million images a month on the group of APIs that holds content moderation. | From €0.001 to €0.005 an image, by what its workflow checks, from a prepaid balance. |
| Free tier | 1,000 images a month are free for 12 months from the creation of the account. | Up to free checks every month, with every category and no card. |
| One billed unit | Billed per image processed, and running several APIs on one image counts as processing several images. | Euros from a prepaid balance. Each component a workflow uses has its price. |
Last checked: 2026-10-19
On the other side
What you get with openshield
An engine you can read and run
openmod is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence, and you can run it yourself. openshield is the hosted version.
Nothing stored
Content is checked in memory and forgotten when the answer is sent. The journal keeps the decision, never the content.
Checks processed in the EU
The checking server and the databases are in the European Union.
Your own image categories, in words
Describe what to look for in a few short sentences, and set how strict it is. No model to train.
Prepaid, with free use every month
Up to 2,000 free checks every month, then a prepaid balance with no subscription. Each workflow shows what it costs per image and per text before you save it.
The full answer from the first call
The decision, the reasons, and the score and threshold of each, before a first top-up too.
To be fair
Where Amazon Rekognition may fit better
Rekognition belongs to the Amazon Web Services family, where other features run on the same image. If your stack is already on AWS and you only need images, it is a natural fit. openshield checks images and text only.
Moving over
Moving from Amazon Rekognition to openshield
openshield is not a drop-in replacement for Amazon Rekognition. It has its own request and answer format: one call to POST /v1/image or POST /v1/text answers accept, review or reject, with the categories and scores behind the decision. Only the SightEngine workflow routes follow another provider's format.
Last checked: 2026-10-19. Prices and limits change, so confirm them on the pages of Amazon Rekognition before you decide. If a fact here is wrong, write to contact@sway.events.
Amazon Rekognition is a trademark of Amazon Web Services. openshield is not affiliated with or endorsed by Amazon Web Services.
More
Other ways in
- Alternatives compared How openshield compares with Hive, Amazon Rekognition, Google Cloud Vision, Azure and OpenAI.
- Image moderation API Nudity, gore, weapons and more, with a score per category.
- Text moderation API Unsafe text, personal data, spam and scams, with the reasons.
- Pricing Free use each month, then a prepaid balance, priced by what each check uses.
Questions
Before you start
- Is openshield a drop-in replacement for Amazon Rekognition?
- No. openshield has its own request and answer format, and only the SightEngine workflow routes follow another provider's. Moving from Amazon Rekognition means calling POST /v1/image or POST /v1/text and mapping the answer.
- How does the price compare with Amazon Rekognition?
- The billed units differ, so read the table. openshield gives up to free checks each month (€2.00 of use), then takes each check from a prepaid balance, from €0.001 an image. The figures about Amazon Rekognition are as of 2026-10-19: confirm them on its pricing page.
- Does openshield store the content it checks?
- No. Content is checked in memory and forgotten when the answer is sent. The journal keeps the decision, never the content.
- Where does openshield process checks?
- In the European Union: the checking server and the databases are there.
- Can I run the engine myself?
- Yes. openmod, the engine under openshield, is open source under the Apache-2.0 licence.
Start with up to 2,000 free checks every month
No card needed. Create a key and send your first request in five minutes.
Prepaid, in euros, excluding VAT