Media Library Pro vs Curator

Curator by awcodes is a free media picker and manager for Filament. Version 5.x supports Filament 4 and 5. It is for teams that want a picker field plus a media resource, with image resizing handled by Glide.

For the full matrix and a note on the similarly named ralphjsmit product, see the comparison overview.

What Curator does well

• Glide-backed images. The <x-curator-glider> component builds signed Glide URLs to resize, crop and convert formats on demand.
• Curations. Per-image crops saved against a named preset, for when one automatic crop is not good enough.
• Simple model. A picker field (CuratorPicker), a Filament resource for browsing and editing media, a table column and a rich editor integration.
• Configuration. Disk, directory, visibility, file swap, directory restriction and a features.tenancy flag, set globally or per field.
• Free and open source. No licence to buy.

Differences that matter

	Media Library Pro	Curator
Storage model	A library table with a file managed by spatie/laravel-medialibrary.	Its own curator table. Its docs say it is not meant to be used alongside Spatie Media Library.
Image processing	Conversions through Spatie, driven by a focal point.	Glide, on demand, with curations.
Organization	Nested folders, tags, favorites, smart views, trash.	Folders, tags and trash are not documented.
Usage tracking	Per-file "Used in" list and a delete guard.	Not documented.
Uploads	Chunked and parallel, with duplicate detection and URL import.	Chunking, duplicate detection and URL import are not documented.
Editing	Non-destructive editor with versions.	Curations.
Theme	Own compiled CSS.	Adds a CSS import and an @source line to your Filament theme.
Price	Commercial licence.	Free.

Choose by workflow. Curator resizes at request time through Glide, which suits sites that serve many sizes of the same image. Media Library Pro generates conversions through Spatie and keeps them with the file.

Migrating from Curator

Use the importer. It reads Curator's table, copies each file into the library, and rewrites the foreign keys in your own tables.

php artisan media-library:import curator --dry-run
php artisan media-library:import curator --update=posts.cover_id --update=pages.hero_id --map=curator-map.json

--table sets the Curator table if you renamed it, --folder places everything in a folder (default Imported/Curator), and --map writes a JSON map from old to new ids. The import is repeatable: files that are already imported are skipped. The full steps, including the picker swap, are in Importing existing files.

Curations (per-image crops) have no equivalent import. Recreate them with the focal point and conversions.

When to pick which

Pick Curator when it is free, you want Glide's on-demand sizes, and a picker plus a media resource is enough.

Pick Media Library Pro when you need folders and tags, to know where files are used, large and duplicate-safe uploads, private files, or a library per tenant. See the overview for the rest of the field.