pdfkitt vs PDFShift
Both PDFShift and pdfkitt render HTML to PDF with a Chromium-based engine and a simple POST request. The biggest practical difference is how you pay: PDFShift meters by the size of the PDF you generate, while pdfkitt charges by the number of documents.
Side-by-side comparison
| PDFShift | pdfkitt | |
|---|---|---|
| Rendering engine | Chrome | Chromium (Playwright) |
| Free tier | 50 PDFs / month | 1,000 PDFs / month |
| Pricing model | Metered by output file size (about 1 credit per 5 MB) | By document count — large PDFs cost the same as small ones |
| Entry paid plan | From around $9 / month | From $19 / month for 10,000 PDFs |
| Setup | Single POST request | Single POST request |
When PDFShift is a good fit
PDFShift is a solid, well-established option and its size-based pricing can work in your favor if you generate many small PDFs. If you are already on it and happy, there is no urgent reason to switch.
pdfkitt is the better fit if your documents vary in size or include images, since file-size metering makes those costs unpredictable. The 1,000-per-month free tier is also far larger than PDFShift's 50, which makes pdfkitt easier to evaluate before you pay anything.
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