Open any link on Twitter, Slack, or Discord. The ones that get clicked have rich preview cards with custom images. The ones that get ignored have a blank white rectangle or a generic logo. Social sharing cards are the silent conversion driver nobody optimizes.
Generating these images programmatically is surprisingly painful. You either spin up Puppeteer to screenshot HTML (slow, expensive, breaks constantly) or use a service like Cloudinary with complex URL transforms. Vercel's og image generation is good but only works on Vercel.
An API-first OG image generator that accepts JSON and returns a PNG in 200ms would serve every SaaS, blog, and marketplace that needs dynamic social cards. It's infrastructure — boring, essential, and deeply sticky once integrated.
💰 Revenue Blueprint
Three-tier value ladder to monetize from day one
100 images/month. 5 templates. API access with generous rate limits. Perfect for side projects.
5,000 images/month, custom templates, CDN caching, webhook notifications. Built for production apps.
50,000 images/month, priority rendering, custom fonts, white-label, SLA guarantee. For high-traffic sites.
Why Now?
Social sharing is the primary distribution channel for most content. Every new SaaS, blog, and marketplace needs dynamic OG images. The rise of AI-generated content means MORE pages needing unique preview images, not fewer. Plus, Vercel locking og image generation to their platform creates demand for platform-agnostic alternatives.
📊 Market Evidence
The Market Gap
Cloudinary is complex and expensive for just OG images. Vercel's solution is Vercel-only. htmlcsstoimage.com exists but has dated UX. Nobody offers a fast, modern, developer-friendly API specifically for OG/social images with beautiful templates and sub-200ms response times.
🏆 Competitor Landscape
How existing players stack up in this market
| Competitor | Pricing | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cloudinary | Free tier / $99+/mo | General image CDN with transformation APIs |
| imgix | $10+/mo usage-based | Real-time image processing CDN |
| Vercel OG | Free with Vercel | Built into Vercel, React-based templates |
| Microlink | Free tier / $12-76/mo | Screenshot + OG image generation API |
| htmlcsstoimage | $9-49/mo | HTML/CSS to image API |
General image CDN with transformation APIs
Real-time image processing CDN
Built into Vercel, React-based templates
Screenshot + OG image generation API
HTML/CSS to image API
Launch Strategy
Build the API with a playground where developers can design templates visually. Launch on Hacker News and Product Hunt (core developer audience). Create integrations: Next.js middleware, WordPress plugin, Ghost plugin. Write SEO content: 'how to generate OG images dynamically', 'social sharing image API'. Open-source the template system.
🛠️ Recommended Tech Stack
Suggested tools and technologies to build this idea
Why this stack: Satori converts HTML/CSS to images at the edge with zero cold starts. Vercel Edge Functions serve globally with sub-50ms latency. R2 caches generated images cheaply.
Score Breakdown
Good market signals with room for growth
Market (20%) + Revenue (20%) + Trend (15%) + Competition (15%) + Build (15%) + Pricing (15%)
🚀 Start Building
Copy a prompt into your favorite AI coding tool and start building this idea right now.
Build a SaaS product called "OG Image Generator API". ## Product Overview API to generate social share images dynamically for blogs and profiles. ## Problem API to generate social share images dynamically for blogs and profiles. ## Solution Build OG Image Generator API ## Target Audience indie hackers, small businesses, and solopreneurs ## Tech Stack - Next.js 15 (App Router) with TypeScript - Tailwind CSS v4 for styling - Supabase for auth, database, and storage - Vercel for deployment - shadcn/ui for UI components - Framer Motion for animations ## MVP Features to Build 1. Landing page with clear value proposition 2. User authentication (sign up, sign in, forgot password) 3. Core product functionality based on the solution above 4. Dashboard for users to manage their data 5. Pricing page with at least 2 tiers (free + paid) 6. Basic settings/profile page ## Known Competitors Cloudinary, imgix, Vercel OG, Microlink, htmlcsstoimage ## Key Risks to Address Standard market entry risks ## Deployment 1. Set up Supabase project and configure environment variables 2. Deploy to Vercel with `npx vercel --prod` 3. Set up custom domain 4. Configure Supabase RLS policies for security ## Instructions Start by creating the project structure, then build the landing page first. Use server components where possible. Make it mobile-responsive from the start. Focus on getting the core value loop working before adding polish.