Feature Guide
How to build
File Upload & Storage
File uploads, image processing, CDN delivery, and storage management for user-generated content.
beginner
1–2 weeks (manual)
1–3 days (with AI)
Best tools to use
[01]
Uploadthing
Type-safe file uploads for Next.js. Handles presigned URLs and validation.
[02]
AWS S3 + presigned URLs
Direct-to-S3 uploads with presigned URLs. Most flexible and cheapest at scale.
[03]
Cloudflare R2
S3-compatible storage with zero egress fees. Great for cost optimization.
[04]
Supabase Storage
Built into Supabase with RLS policies. Simple for Supabase projects.
[05]
Vercel Blob
Simple blob storage integrated with Vercel. Good for small files.
Key considerations
- ✓Always upload directly to storage (presigned URLs) — never through your server
- ✓Validate file types and sizes on both client and server
- ✓Use a CDN (CloudFront, Cloudflare) for serving files
- ✓Generate thumbnails/variants for images on upload
- ✓Implement virus scanning for user uploads in sensitive applications
Common mistakes
- ✗Uploading through your API server (memory issues, slow)
- ✗No file size limits (users will upload 2GB files)
- ✗Serving files from your origin instead of a CDN
- ✗Not cleaning up orphaned files when records are deleted
- ✗Storing files in the database as blobs
Products that nailed this
Uploadthing
Cloudinary
ImageKit
Related features
Skip the research.
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