PDF4.dev vs PDFMonkey
PDF4.dev
pdf4.dev
PDFMonkey
pdfmonkey.ioSide by side
| Figure | PDF4.dev | PDFMonkey |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $29/mo | €5/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 3 | 12 |
| Spec score · HTML to PDF APIs | 7.9 (#20) | 8.5 (#3) |
| Product | PDF4.dev is a hosted PDF generation API that turns HTML templates with Handlebars variables into PDFs. | PDFMonkey is a document generation API that lets users design templates and send dynamic data to generate documents. |
| Rendering | The service renders PDFs with Playwright and headless Chromium, with the homepage stating about 300 ms per PDF with a warm browser pool. | PDF files are rendered in a Chrome-based browser, supporting HTML, CSS, JavaScript, external fonts, images, charts and other web technologies. |
| Support | The Free plan includes community support, Pro includes email support, and Enterprise includes priority support. | Support is provided through in-app chat and [email protected], with typical replies within a few hours during Central European business hours. |
Plans
PDFMonkey
- 30-day TrialFree
- 30-day TrialFree
- FreeFree
- FreeFree
- Starter€5 a month
- Starter€5 a month
- Pro€15 a month
- Pro€15 a month
- Pro+€60 a month
- Pro+€60 a month
In their own words
PDFMonkey
PDFMonkey is a cloud document-generation API that turns templates and dynamic data into files. Templates can be built in a visual drag-and-drop editor or written in HTML, CSS, and Liquid; JSON data can be sent through the REST API to generate documents. Its Chrome-based renderer supports JavaScript, external fonts, images, charts, and other web technologies. Outputs include PDF, PNG, WebP, and JPG, and bulk generation from datasets is supported. Connectors include Zapier, Make, n8n, Workato, Bubble, Glide, and InvoiceBerry; developer tools include Ruby and Node.js SDKs and webhooks. API traffic uses HTTPS/TLS, dynamic data is stored in encrypted database columns, and generated files are kept in private S3 buckets with one-hour presigned URLs. PDFMonkey states that it has no formal SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification. The free plan allows 20 documents per month with one-day retention and a 30-second generation limit, and excludes external images, fonts, CSS, and JavaScript. Paid plans start at €5/mo.