cloudlayer.io vs PDF API
cloudlayer.io
cloudlayer.ioPDF API
pdfapi.devSide by side
| Figure | cloudlayer.io | PDF API |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $49/mo | €15/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 8 |
| Spec score · HTML to PDF APIs | 8.4 (#4) | 8.1 (#14) |
| Deployment | cloud | cloud |
| Intended users | The pricing page positions Starter for startups and small teams, Growth for teams shipping documents at scale, and Business for high-volume generation. | The site describes the service as built for developers and targets teams generating invoices, reports, contracts, and other documents from applications. |
| Key features | Capture web pages as PNG, JPG or WebP screenshots · Generate PDFs from base64-encoded HTML · Generate images from raw HTML input · Full-page capture with automatic scrolling · Custom viewport width, height and device scale factor · Wait for CSS selectors, navigation states or timed delays · Authenticated requests using cookies or HTTP authentication · Asynchronous jobs and webhook notifications in v2 | HTML and CSS to PDF rendering · Raw HTML or saved-template rendering · JSON data injection with Handlebars-style variables · Configurable page size, orientation, margins, headers, and footers · Temporary, time-limited PDF download URLs · Reusable templates stored in the dashboard · Sandbox mode for testing and CI/CD · Webhooks for PDF generation, deletion, and quota events |
| Rendering | The service uses headless Chrome and supports modern HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, web fonts, flexbox, and grid. | The site says its persistent pool of Chromium instances and Rust backend generate documents in under 300ms. |
| Support | Plans include email support, with Growth listing a response time under 24 hours and Business under four hours; Business also includes a dedicated account manager. | Free includes community support, Starter standard email support, Pro priority email support, and Scale premium SLA and onboarding. |
| Support | email, community, docs | |
| Templates | Users can customize pre-built templates or create their own with HTML, CSS, Nunjucks syntax, and JSON data injection. | Reusable dashboard templates support Handlebars-style variables, loops, conditionals, and JSON data. |
Plans
PDF API
- FreeFree
- Starter€15 a month
- Starter€190 a year
- Pro€82 a month
- Pro€990 a year
- Scale€249 a month
- Scale€2,990 a year
- FreeFree
In their own words
cloudlayer.io
cloudlayer.io has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.
PDF API
PDF API converts HTML templates and JSON data into PDFs through a cloud REST API. Developers can submit raw HTML or reuse dashboard templates with Handlebars-style variables, loops, and conditionals. Page size, orientation, margins, headers, and footers are configurable, while Chromium rendering supports modern CSS including Flexbox, Grid, and custom properties. Listed uses include invoices, receipts, contracts, financial reports, shipping labels, and tickets. The maker says a persistent Chromium pool and Rust backend generate documents in under 300ms. Webhooks report generation, deletion, and approaching quota limits, with authenticity checked through the X-PDF-Signature header. Generated files use temporary URLs and are removed when a URL expires, by default after 24 hours, or when deleted. Sandbox requests do not count toward quota, but sandbox files are watermarked and purged after one hour. The service is EU-hosted and GDPR compliant. Plans include Free at free for 500 PDFs monthly and paid plans from €15/mo.