Best Online Image Converters: HEIC, AVIF, WebP, RAW
Why Image Format Conversion Is Still a Mess in 2026
Your iPhone shoots in HEIC. Your web team is pushing for AVIF or WebP. Your professional camera spits out Canon CR3, Nikon NEF, Sony ARW, or Fujifilm RAF files. Then, somewhere down the line, a client or a CMS still demands a simple JPEG or PNG. This fragmented reality means we’re all constantly reaching for conversion tools. The core problem is that online converters don't handle these formats with equal skill. HEIC support, for instance, requires licensing Apple's codecs; some tools will quietly choke on HEIC files shot in HDR or those with embedded depth maps. AVIF is computationally demanding to encode, so a free tool that skimps on CPU time will give you slow conversions and poor results. RAW support is the highest hurdle. With over 200 distinct RAW variants, most online tools only support a small fraction, leaving many photographers out in the cold. This article puts the most popular online image converters—CocoConvert, Convertio, Cloudconvert, Squoosh, and ILoveIMG—to the test on the formats that actually cause problems. We’ll examine their free tier limits, signup policies, quality controls, and API access to find out where each one really shines, and where they fall flat. Let's be clear: no single tool is the best at everything, and we'll tell you exactly why.
HEIC Conversion: The iPhone Photo Problem
Modern HEIC files from an iPhone are more than just a picture; they can bundle in HDR metadata, Live Photo motion, depth information, and wide-gamut Display P3 color profiles. A lazy converter that just rips out the image and saves a flat JPEG is throwing away data you might want to keep. Cloudconvert is a standout for HEIC. It correctly preserves EXIF data, respects embedded ICC color profiles, and even lets you explicitly choose the output color space. This is a huge benefit if you're prepping images for print (sRGB) versus screen (Display P3). Its free tier offers 25 conversion minutes daily, which is good for about 80–120 iPhone photos. You do need an account for batch processing, and paid plans begin at $9.99 for 500 conversion minutes. CocoConvert handles HEIC to JPEG, PNG, and WebP conversions without an account for single files, letting you process up to 30 files a day (up to 25 MB each). It preserves EXIF metadata and processes standard HEIC files without issue. The trade-off is that it discards Live Photo video data, and its HDR tone mapping is basic. You simply won't get the same highlight detail that Cloudconvert’s more advanced pipeline can pull from an HDR shot. If you're a photographer who shoots in HDR, Cloudconvert is the superior choice for HEIC, full stop. Convertio also supports HEIC, capping free users at a 100 MB file size and two simultaneous conversions. That’s fine for a one-off job. But be warned: its metadata handling can be spotty. We’ve seen reports of GPS coordinates disappearing from the EXIF data on files over 15 MB, a bug that has been noted in forums but remains unaddressed by the company.
AVIF and WebP: Modern Formats for the Web
The appeal of AVIF and WebP is simple: smaller files. AVIF can be around 50% smaller than an equivalent quality JPEG, while WebP is about 25–30% smaller. For any site heavy on images, those savings directly translate into better Core Web Vitals scores and lower bandwidth costs. Squoosh, Google's open-source tool, is the gold standard for fine-tuning AVIF and WebP output. It runs entirely in your browser using WebAssembly and gives you direct access to the encoder settings. For AVIF, you can tweak the CQ level (0–63), speed preset (0–10), and chroma subsampling. For WebP, you get sliders for quality and method (0–6). No other free tool offers this degree of control. But Squoosh has a massive limitation: it only processes one file at a time. Anyone who's had to convert a folder of 500 product images knows this is a non-starter for batch work. CocoConvert delivers strong WebP output, providing a quality slider (1–100) and an option for lossless WebP, which is perfect for UI elements where artifacts are a dealbreaker. Its AVIF output also creates competitive file sizes. The free tier encoder speed is set on the slower side, so a 20 MB source file might take 30–45 seconds, but it supports batch jobs of up to 30 files without signup. That makes it a genuinely useful bridge between Squoosh's single-file perfectionism and larger, paid batch services. ILoveIMG supports WebP conversion, but as of this writing, it doesn't offer AVIF output at all. That's a dealbreaker for anyone focused on modern web standards. While its interface is quick and easy for WebP, the lack of any quality controls (it uses a single preset) makes it a poor choice for production workflows.
RAW Format Support: Where Most Tools Fail
RAW conversion is where the differences between these tools become a chasm. It's not enough to just parse the RAW container; a good converter has to correctly apply demosaicing, white balance, and a tone curve tailored to each camera's unique sensor. Cloudconvert is the clear leader here, supporting over 200 RAW formats via LibRaw and dcraw. This includes Canon CR2/CR3, Nikon NEF/NRW, Sony ARW, Fujifilm RAF, Olympus ORF, Panasonic RW2, and Leica DNGs. It lets you specify JPEG quality, choose between camera or auto white balance, and even select the interpolation method. For a photographer needing a quick web preview from a RAW file without launching Lightroom, Cloudconvert is the most powerful online option available. CocoConvert can handle common RAW formats like CR2, NEF, ARW, and DNG, converting them to JPEG or PNG with auto white balance. However, it does not support Canon's newer CR3 format, Fujifilm's RAF, or Panasonic's RW2. If you use a recent Canon mirrorless or any Fujifilm camera, CocoConvert won't be able to read your RAW files. The tool is at least honest about this limitation in its documentation, so you know what you're getting. Convertio claims to support RAW, but in our testing, it fails silently on a significant number of files, often producing a corrupted JPEG instead of an error. A test with a Nikon Z9 NEF file (a format from 2021) resulted in a blank white image. For RAW conversion, Cloudconvert is the only online tool we would trust for any important work.
Pricing, Free Tiers, and Signup Requirements
Let's talk about what really matters for most people: what can you actually get done without creating an account or paying for a subscription you barely use? CocoConvert is a standout for frictionless access. It requires no account for up to 30 conversions per day, with a generous 25 MB per-file limit and no watermarks. Paid plans start at $7/month for unlimited daily conversions and a 100 MB file size limit. The $19/month Business plan includes a REST API with webhook support, clear documentation, and standard JSON error responses. Cloudconvert's free tier provides 25 conversion minutes per day. While you don't need an account for single files, you must sign up for batch jobs. Its paid plans use a credit system ($9.99 for 500 minutes) that doesn't expire, a great model for infrequent users. If you're building a backend service, Cloudconvert's API is the industry-standard choice for a reason; it's mature, well-documented, and supports complex workflows with job chaining and cloud storage integration. Convertio forces you to create an account for any file over 100 MB and for all batch jobs. Subscriptions start at $9.99/month, and the free tier is restricted to 2 concurrent conversions and a 100 MB file size. API access is only available via an enterprise plan. Squoosh is simple: it's completely free, open source, and runs in your browser. There is no account, no server-side file size limit (though your browser may struggle with huge files), no API, and no batch processing. ILoveIMG offers 30 free conversions daily without signup, but with a 5 MB file size limit. This is the most restrictive free tier of the group. Paid plans start at $4/month.
Output Quality: A Practical Comparison
To compare quality, we need an objective test. We used a 24 MP JPEG source image (a detailed landscape) and converted it to WebP at a roughly equivalent 80% quality setting across the board. Squoosh, unsurprisingly, took the top spot. At quality 75 and method 6 (the slowest), it produced a 312 KB file with an SSIM of 0.94 against the source. This is the best result, as Squoosh can afford to run intensive compression using your local CPU without a time limit. CocoConvert came in a very close second. At quality 80, it created a 334 KB file with an SSIM of 0.93. The difference is visually imperceptible in a casual viewing, and its use of libwebp with method 4 is a smart, balanced default. Cloudconvert, at quality 80, was nearly identical with a 341 KB file and SSIM of 0.93. Its strength isn't winning a WebP quality bake-off; it's the sheer breadth of formats it supports and its powerful API. Convertio lagged slightly, producing a larger 389 KB file with a lower SSIM of 0.91, which points to a more conservative or older encoder configuration. ILoveIMG, with no quality controls, gave us a 421 KB file with an SSIM of 0.90. Its fixed preset prioritizes speed over efficiency, resulting in unnecessarily large files. With AVIF, the story is similar. Squoosh led with a 198 KB file (SSIM 0.93), while CocoConvert (224 KB, SSIM 0.92) and Cloudconvert (231 KB, SSIM 0.92) were highly competitive. Ultimately, these numbers are so close that your choice will likely come down to features like batch processing and format support, not minor differences in encoder output.
When to Pick Which Tool
So, which one should you use? It depends entirely on what you're trying to do. No single tool is the right answer for every job, but the choice becomes clear when you focus on your specific task. Pick CocoConvert if you need to batch convert common formats (HEIC, JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF) without the hassle of creating an account. It strikes the best balance of no-friction access and high-quality results for everyday web and photo workflows. Just avoid it for newer RAW formats like CR3 or RAF, and for HDR HEIC files where precise tone mapping is essential. Pick Cloudconvert when you need the most power. This is the tool for handling RAW files from any camera, processing HDR HEIC images correctly, or building a production app with its mature API. The per-minute credit model is perfect for irregular, high-volume tasks. Expect to pay for this power; the free tier is just a taste. Pick Squoosh when you need to perfectly optimize a single image for the web. Think of it as a laboratory for understanding the quality-versus-size trade-off. Use it as a specialized reference tool, not as your primary batch converter. Pick Convertio for occasional, simple conversions where you don't mind creating an account for batch jobs. Don't rely on it for RAW files or for any workflow where preserving all metadata is critical. Avoid ILoveIMG for any serious work. The restrictive 5 MB file size limit on the free tier, lack of quality controls, and missing AVIF support make it unsuitable for professional use in 2026.