HTML to Image is the image-generation alternative to Microlink: raw HTML rendering, URL screenshots and 25 named templates from a $9 entry plan.
Disclosure: we built HTML to Image. We've kept this comparison honest because the alternative is search results full of low-effort listicles.
| Feature | Microlink | HTML to Image |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price | $49 / 46,000 requests (Pro) | $9 / 1,000 credits |
| Free tier | 25 requests per day, rate-limited | 25 images per month, no card |
| Named templates | No | 25 |
| Raw HTML support | No (URL input only) | Yes |
| URL screenshots | Yes | Yes |
| JavaScript execution | Yes | Yes |
| Webhook delivery | Not surfaced | Yes |
| Custom fonts | Page-level only | Yes |
| Per-seat charges | Not surfaced | No |
| Best for | link previews, metadata extraction and page screenshots | generating images from your own HTML and data, plus screenshots |
Stay with Microlink when the job is describing other people's pages rather than generating your own images. Link previews, normalised metadata, logo extraction and its open-source SDK are what Microlink is built around, and screenshots ride along with that. If your product embeds rich link cards, Microlink is the purpose-built tool.
Switch to HTML to Image when the job is producing images from your own HTML and data. A specific scenario: OG images on publish, invoices on payment, social cards for a newsletter. None of those exist at a URL for Microlink to capture — they are markup your app generates, which is exactly what the HTML endpoint and the 25 named templates are for. Screenshots come along on the same key, and the paid floor is $9 instead of $49.
Raw HTML rendering and 25 named templates. Microlink only works from live URLs, so generating an image from your own markup means hosting a page first. HTML to Image takes the markup directly, or skips it entirely with a JSON call to a template.
A paid floor of $9 instead of $49. Microlink jumps straight from the rate-limited free tier to a $49-a-month Pro plan. Our pricing starts at $9 for 1,000 renders, so growing past the free tier does not require a five-fold budget commitment.
Webhook delivery and production defaults on every plan. Renders return a JSON envelope with a CDN-hosted URL, webhooks cover async flows, and custom fonts work in your own markup. Microlink's free tier carries burst and concurrency limits explicitly aimed at non-production use.
Metadata and link previews. Normalised page metadata, link preview cards, logos and an open-source SDK are Microlink's core, and HTML to Image has no equivalent. If that is the job, use Microlink.
A generous hobby free tier and cheap volume. 25 requests a day free, and Pro's 46,000 monthly requests work out around a dollar per thousand. For high-volume URL capture where the limits fit, that unit price is hard to argue with.
# Microlink (URL screenshot)
curl "https://api.microlink.io/?url=https://example.com&screenshot=true"
# Pro: pro.microlink.io with an x-api-key header# HTML to Image (URL screenshot)
curl -X POST https://app.html2img.com/api/screenshot \
-H 'X-API-Key: your-key-here' \
-H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
-d '{"url":"https://example.com","width":1280,"height":720}'
Three concrete differences. HTML to Image takes a POST with a JSON body instead of a GET with query parameters. Auth uses an X-API-Key header rather than Microlink Pro's x-api-key against a separate pro subdomain. And the response envelope is flatter: the image URL sits at a top-level url field instead of data.screenshot.url.
See the URL parameter reference for the full request and response shape.
The ladders barely overlap because the products are shaped differently. HTML to Image runs $9 for 1,000 renders up to $225 for 65,000. Microlink has no paid step below $49, at which point it includes 46,000 requests — cheap per unit if you actually need that many URL captures a month, expensive as a floor if you need two thousand. For image generation from your own data the comparison is one-sided anyway, since Microlink does not take raw HTML at any price.
No. Microlink is URL-driven: you point it at a live page and it screenshots, extracts metadata or generates a PDF from that page. There is no endpoint that accepts your own HTML. If you want an OG image or invoice rendered from markup your app generates, you would have to host that markup at a URL first. HTML to Image accepts raw HTML directly, alongside URL screenshots and named templates.
For hobby-scale URL work, yes: 25 requests a day adds up to more monthly volume than our 25 images a month, though it comes with burst and concurrency limits designed for testing rather than production. The bigger question is the paid floor: Microlink Pro starts at $49 a month while HTML to Image starts at $9. If you outgrow either free tier, the first paid step is five times cheaper here.
Microlink is strongest as a metadata and link-preview service: normalised page metadata, link preview cards, logos and its open-source SDK for embedding previews. Screenshots and PDFs are part of that toolkit. It is a different shape of product from an image-generation API, which is why teams often run into its limits when the job shifts from describing pages to producing images from their own data.
Straightforward. Microlink screenshot calls are a GET with the target URL; ours is a POST with a JSON body containing the same URL plus width and height. Both return JSON pointing at a hosted image. The response shapes differ (data.screenshot.url versus a top-level url field) so the parsing changes by a line or two.
The free tier covers 25 renders a month with no credit card. Try the API against your real data before deciding.
What Microlink doesn't do. Twenty-five pre-built designs for invoices, social cards, OG images and more. JSON in, PNG out, single API call.