PdfGen vs PDFMonkey

PdfGen is a cloud platform for generating PDFs from HTML templates, including invoices, reports, certificates, contracts, guides, and proposals. It provides a code editor powered by Monaco, a rich text editor, and live PDF preview. Templates can use plain text, structured object, or tabular variables, and variable definitions can generate data-entry forms. For rendering, users can choose iText for metadata-rich output or Puppeteer/Chromium for web-to-PDF conversion. Its REST API manages templates, variables, and document generation; an MCP server connects with coding agents including Cursor and Claude Desktop. TypeScript and Python client libraries are available. Listed integrations include GitHub template sync, Google Fonts, Stripe, and AI providers Anthropic Claude, OpenRouter, MiniMax, and DeepSeek. Organizations offer Admin and User roles, email invitations, and shared templates, variables, and documents. The site says generation runs in isolated server-side environments, stored content is encrypted at rest, API keys are SHA-256 hashed, and data in transit uses TLS. Plans set monthly document allowances; extra documents use plan-specific credits. Pricing ranges from free to €25 a month.

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.