PDFCrowd has been converting HTML to PDF since 2009 and exposes over a hundred parameters to tune the output. HTML to Image is the opposite shape: one format parameter on an API you may already use for images.
Disclosure: we built HTML to Image. We've kept this comparison honest because the alternative is search results full of low-effort listicles. Competitor pricing and features were checked on PDFCrowd's public site in July 2026.
| Feature | PDFCrowd | HTML to Image |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan price | $11 / 200 credits (Micro) | $9 / 1,000 credits |
| Free allowance | 100 trial credits, valid one month | 25 renders / month, ongoing, no card |
| Credit model | 1 credit per 0.5MB of output | 1 credit per render, any size |
| PDF options | 100+ configuration parameters | One format parameter, A4 portrait |
| Conversion types | Eight converters plus an invoice API | HTML, Screenshot and Template endpoints |
| Official SDKs | Python, PHP, Node.js, Java, .NET, Ruby, Go | HTTP-first, official PHP and Laravel packages |
| Named templates | Invoice PDF API only | 25 |
| Webhook delivery | Not surfaced | Yes |
| Track record | Operating since 2009 | Newer, with an MCP server for AI assistants |
| Best for | teams who need fine-grained control of PDF output | PDFs and PNGs from one key without an options manual |
Stay with PDFCrowd when you use the parameters. Its HTML to PDF converter advertises over one hundred configuration options, from page size, margins and headers and footers to page break control, watermarks and password protection, and the converter family covers PDF to image, image to image and PDF to text besides. Seven official SDKs and seventeen years of operation are real assets. If your integration already leans on those options, there is nothing here to gain.
Switch to HTML to Image when the options manual is the problem rather than the solution. Most invoices, receipts and reports need none of those hundred parameters: they need the page to come out looking like the browser shows it. Here that is a request you may already be making for images, plus format: "pdf". One documented parameter, A4 portrait output, and the same key renders named templates and screenshots. The HTML to PDF API page spells out exactly what PDF mode does and does not do.
Simpler integration and cheaper volume. One POST, one auth header, one output switch. At the published prices, 1,000 renders cost $9 here against $23 on PDFCrowd's Small plan, and our credits do not scale with file size, where PDFCrowd charges one credit per 0.5MB of output.
A permanent free tier. 25 renders every month with no card, against a 100-credit trial that expires after one month. For side projects and low-volume internal tools, permanent matters.
Templates, webhooks and MCP. Twenty-five named templates render documents from JSON, webhook delivery handles slow renders asynchronously, and the MCP server lets AI assistants drive the API directly. PDFCrowd offers a JSON invoice API but no general template layer, and does not surface webhook delivery.
Control of the output. Page setup, margins, headers and footers, page break behaviour, watermarks, password protection, viewport width and JavaScript or CSS injection, across more than a hundred parameters. We fix nearly all of those decisions for you; PDFCrowd hands them over.
SDK breadth and longevity. Official client libraries in seven languages, maintained by a company that has run this service since 2009. If your team standardises on typed SDKs rather than HTTP calls, PDFCrowd meets that expectation today.
More converter types. PDF to image, PDF to text, PDF to HTML, image to image and PDF manipulation sit alongside HTML conversion. We convert HTML and URLs, full stop.
# PDFCrowd (URL to PDF)
curl -u 'your-username:your-api-key' \
-F 'url=https://example.com' \
-o example.pdf \
https://api.pdfcrowd.com/convert/24.04/# HTML to Image (URL to PDF)
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", "format": "pdf"}'
Three concrete differences. Auth changes from basic auth with a username and key pair to a single X-API-Key header. The request body changes from multipart form fields to JSON. And the response changes from the PDF bytes in the body, which you save yourself, to a JSON envelope whose url points at the file on our CDN, already hosted. Any PDFCrowd page-setup parameters you were sending have no equivalent here; if you were not sending any, the migration is those three lines.
At the published monthly prices HTML to Image is cheaper at every volume: $9 for 1,000 renders against $23 for 1,000 credits on Small, $60 for 10,000 against $61 for 10,000 credits on Large, with the size-based metering meaning PDFCrowd credits can run out faster than its document count suggests. PDFCrowd's plans do carry per-plan rate limits and concurrency allowances that step up with price, so very bursty workloads should check those numbers. If you want more PDF options without PDFCrowd's surface area, the PDFShift comparison and the DocRaptor comparison cover the middle ground.
Honestly, yes: control. PDFCrowd exposes over one hundred configuration parameters for HTML to PDF, covering page size and margins, headers and footers, page break control, watermarks and password protection. HTML to Image has exactly one output switch, format, and fixes the rest: A4 portrait, automatic pagination, screen CSS. If your documents need those knobs, PDFCrowd keeps them.
PDFCrowd meters by size: one credit per 0.5MB of output, so a 2MB PDF costs four credits and the Micro plan's 200 credits can mean fewer than 200 documents. HTML to Image charges one credit per render regardless of size, so $9 for 1,000 credits means 1,000 renders. At 1,000 documents a month the published prices are $23 (Small) there and $9 here, before any size multiplier.
Fewer. PDFCrowd ships official libraries for Python, PHP, Node.js, Java, .NET, Ruby and Go. HTML to Image is HTTP-first with official PHP and Laravel packages, plus documented patterns for JavaScript, Python, Ruby and others; the request is one POST with a JSON body, so a language guide usually covers it. There is also an MCP server, so AI assistants can render without any SDK.
Yes. Among its eight converters are HTML to Image, PDF to Image and Image to Image, so raw capability is not the difference. The difference is workflow: HTML to Image treats PNG and PDF as two values of one parameter on the same endpoints and adds twenty-five named templates, where PDFCrowd offers a JSON-driven invoice API but no general template library.
The free tier covers 25 renders a month with no credit card. Try the API against your real data before deciding.
Twenty-five pre-built designs you can call with JSON, as a PNG or a PDF. A general template layer PDFCrowd's invoice API does not attempt.