Axle AI is a media asset management platform with built-in AI engines for scene understanding, face recognition, logo detection, OCR, and transcription. It offers both a cloud tier (from $20/TB/month) and on-premise hardware bundles starting at $4,995, with enterprise deployments serving organizations managing petabytes of content. FrameQuery is a cloud-first search tool that indexes your footage with AI in minutes (scenes, faces, objects, and transcripts) from $19/month with no hardware to buy or IT team to manage. Choose Axle AI for on-prem infrastructure at scale; choose FrameQuery to search your footage without the enterprise price tag.
| Feature | FrameQuery | Axle AI |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture | Cloud processing, local index | On-premise or cloud |
| Setup time | Minutes | Minutes (cloud) to weeks (on-prem) |
| Pricing | From $19/mo | From $20/TB/mo (cloud) or $4,995+ (hardware) |
| AI search | Faces, objects, scenes, transcripts | Scene, face, logo, OCR, transcription |
| Format support | 50+ native formats | Common production formats |
| NLE export | FCPXML, EDL, LosslessCut | Premiere, Resolve, FCP, Avid integration |
| Hardware required | On-prem only | |
| Face recognition | ||
| Speech transcription | ||
| Team index sharing | ||
| Self-service signup | Cloud only | |
| IT administration required | On-prem only |
Axle AI offers a cloud tier with self-service signup and on-premise hardware bundles. The cloud option gets you started quickly, but on-premise deployments (where Axle AI is strongest) involve purchasing hardware, connecting it to your storage, and configuring the system. Larger on-prem setups require server provisioning, network configuration, and ongoing IT maintenance.
FrameQuery is self-service from day one. Sign up, point it at your footage, and your videos are processed in our cloud. Once done, the search index lives locally on your machine and you can search instantly. No hardware to buy, no IT department to involve, no enterprise sales calls to schedule.
Axle AI includes a suite of AI engines: scene understanding, face recognition, logo and object recognition, OCR, and speech transcription. These run on your local hardware, which means performance scales with the server you invest in. The platform catalogs media and creates proxy files for browsing alongside search results.
FrameQuery searches across visual scenes, spoken words, detected faces, and objects simultaneously. Search for “interview in a warehouse” and it finds those frames even if no one tagged the scene. Results are millisecond-fast because everything runs locally against your indexed library. Cloud processing handles the heavy AI work so you don't need powerful local hardware.
Axle AI offers multiple pricing tiers. Their cloud product starts at $20/TB/month, and custom solutions start at $249/month for 2 users. On-premise hardware bundles start at $4,995 (the Searchr bundle with 2 users and 5 TB of storage), and enterprise deployments serving organizations with petabytes of content cost substantially more. On-prem requires upfront hardware investment and ongoing maintenance budgets.
FrameQuery starts with a free tier (search only), Starter at $19/month (10 hours of indexing), Pro at $54/month (50 hours, timecoded comments, approval workflows, and cloud-hosted index sharing with access management), and Max at $228/month (300 hours). Index sharing via local export, Google Drive, Dropbox, or NAS is free on every plan. There are no ongoing storage fees; proxies are deleted after processing and your search index lives locally.
FrameQuery natively supports 50+ video formats including R3D, BRAW, ProRes, and CinemaDNG, with no transcoding required. It exports to FCPXML, EDL, and LosslessCut markers, fitting into any NLE workflow. You can also share processed indexes with your team for free.
Axle AI catalogs media and creates proxy files for browsing and search. It integrates directly with Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve, Final Cut Pro, and Avid via dedicated connectors, which is a strong advantage for teams already invested in those NLE ecosystems. Axle AI positions itself as lighter than traditional MAMs by connecting with storage you already own rather than requiring migration to new infrastructure.
It depends on your needs. Axle AI is media asset management software with built-in AI engines for scene understanding, face recognition, and transcription, available as both a cloud service and on-premise hardware. It is designed for organizations that want a full MAM platform. FrameQuery is a cloud-first, self-service search tool that indexes your footage with AI from $19/month. If you need a full MAM with petabyte-scale storage or 100% on-prem operation, Axle AI is the right choice. If you want fast, affordable video search without the MAM overhead, FrameQuery is the better fit.
FrameQuery ranges from free (search only) to $228/month for the Max plan with 300 hours of indexing. Axle AI Cloud starts at $20/TB/month, custom solutions at $249/month for 2 users, and on-premise hardware bundles at $4,995 for 2 users and 5 TB of storage. Enterprise on-prem deployments cost significantly more. FrameQuery has no upfront cost and no hardware requirements.
For on-premise deployments, yes. Axle AI's on-prem product requires purchasing, installing, and maintaining server hardware. Their entry-level Searchr bundle includes a hardware appliance. Axle AI also offers a cloud tier that does not require dedicated hardware. FrameQuery processes footage in the cloud, stores the search index locally, and deletes proxy files after processing. There is no hardware to buy or maintain.
Both platforms offer AI-powered search including scene understanding, face recognition, and speech transcription. Axle AI also includes logo recognition and OCR. FrameQuery focuses on visual scene search, face detection, object recognition, and transcript search, with results that are millisecond-fast because the index lives locally. FrameQuery also natively supports 50+ professional formats including R3D, BRAW, ProRes, and CinemaDNG without transcoding.