Carbone vs CraftMyPDF
Carbone
carbone.io
CraftMyPDF
craftmypdf.comSide by side
| Figure | Carbone | CraftMyPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $29/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | Yes | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 18 | 6 |
| Spec score · PDF Creation Software | 9.4 (#1) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Spec score · Document Generation Software | 9.4 (#1) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Spec score · Mail Merge Software | 9.4 (#1) | 9.0 (#2) |
| Documentation | Documentation includes quickstart, template design, API reference, examples, SDK guides, on-premise installation, configuration, licensing and changelog sections. | The documentation contains getting-started material, editor component guidance, integration tutorials, API references and regional endpoint details. |
| Founded | 2013 | 2021 |
| Headquarters | Bellevigny, France | Crunchbase lists CraftMyPDF as a private Singapore company in the Central Region. |
| Integrations | Official connectors cover Airtable, Bubble, Glide, Make, n8n, Ninox, Retool, Zapier, HubSpot, Odoo, Pipedrive, Salesforce, DocuSign and Subnoto. | The maker lists Zapier, Make.com, Bubble.io, Backendless, HubSpot, FlutterFlow, n8n, Coda.io, Python, and a REST API. |
| Licence | The Community Edition is open source under Carbone Community License (CCL), while the Enterprise Edition is closed source; the CCL prohibits offering the community software as a document-generator SaaS. | An independent FAUN.dev profile classifies CraftMyPDF as closed source and says its code is not publicly published. |
| Limit: documentation | G2’s review summary records eight mentions that documentation is difficult or incomplete for advanced functionality. | A Trustpilot reviewer reported that component documentation was poor and required direct help to solve advanced nested-report and page-break issues. |
| Praise: support | G2’s review summary says responsive, capable customer support is the most frequently praised aspect, with 16 mentions. | Trustpilot reviewers repeatedly praise responsive, personal help and fast assistance with configuration and layout problems. |
| Purpose | Carbone merges JSON data into document templates and generates files such as PDF, DOCX, XLSX and PPTX. | CraftMyPDF lets users design reusable templates and generate PDF documents and images from dynamic data using no-code automation or an API. |
| Rating on Capterra | 4.8 out of 5 from 14 reviews. | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Rating on G2 | 4.8 out of 5 from 58 reviews. | 3.5 out of 5 from 1 review |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.8 out of 5 from 14 reviews. | 0.0 out of 5 from 0 reviews |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 4.7 out of 5 from 49 reviews. | 4.2 out of 5 from 6 reviews |
| Support | The Essential plan includes chat support from 9 AM to 6 PM UTC+2, with asynchronous email responses outside those hours. | The pricing page says the team usually replies to email inquiries within 24 hours, with live chat and priority support available on paid plans. |
| What it does | Carbone merges JSON data with user-designed templates to generate PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODS, HTML and other files. | CraftMyPDF is a web drag-and-drop editor for reusable PDF and image templates with programmatic document generation. |
Plans
Carbone
- Cloud FreeFree
- FreeFree
- On-Premise CommunityFree
- On-Premise FreeFree
- Amazon Web Services$0.15, paid once
- Cloud Essential$29 a month
- Essential€29 a month
- Cloud Essential Plus$95 a month
- Essential Plus€95 a month
- Advanced€159 a month
CraftMyPDF
- FreeFree
- Lite$29 a month
- Plus$49 a month
- Professional$99 a month
- Premium$299 a month
- Business$499 a month
In their own words
Carbone
Carbone merges JSON data into document templates to generate files such as PDF, DOCX, XLSX, and PPTX. Templates can use formats including DOCX, ODT, ODS, XLSX, XML, Markdown, and HTML. Its conversion API handles more than 100 formats and supports LibreOffice, OnlyOffice, and Chromium. API access and bulk generation are listed, with Cloud, On-Premise, Private Cloud, and AWS deployment options. The pricing page lists free Cloud and On-Premise plans, plus a free 30-day trial for self-hosted On-Premise use. Cloud Essential costs $29.00 per month; documents are counted for each 1 MB of injected JSON and images, and additional documents beyond a plan allowance are invoiced separately. Carbone says Cloud stores templates for reuse but does not retain submitted JSON or generated documents beyond what rendering and delivery require. It says it has no access to customer templates, data, or generated documents in on-premise deployments. The service also offers an MCP server and an open-source Carbone Skill for connecting AI assistants and generating templates. Its listed platform options include API, Linux, macOS, self-hosted, web, and Windows.
CraftMyPDF
CraftMyPDF is a cloud service for designing reusable templates and generating PDFs or images from dynamic data. Its browser-based drag-and-drop editor supports text, images, QR codes, barcodes, shapes, tables, charts and other elements. Templates can take JSON, CSV or connected workflow data, with built-in expressions and custom JavaScript functions for formatting and calculations. The editor also creates fillable PDFs with text fields, dropdowns, option lists, checkboxes, radio buttons and signature fields. AI and computer vision can detect fields in uploaded PDFs and prepare them for data mapping. Documents can be generated in bulk, through no-code automation integrations or through a REST API. Listed integrations include Zapier, Make.com, Bubble.io, Backendless, HubSpot, FlutterFlow, n8n and Coda.io. Regional rendering endpoints are offered in the US, Europe, Singapore and Australia. CraftMyPDF says it completed a SOC 2 Type II audit. The free plan includes 50 PDFs or images per month and three templates; paid plans start at $29/mo. Each PDF uses one credit regardless of page count, and unused monthly credits do not roll over.