Comparison
A PDFShift alternative built on flat pricing
PDFShift is a solid HTML to PDF API. The most common reason people look for an alternative is the credit system: one large or multi-page document can burn several credits, which makes your monthly bill hard to predict. PDFPipe prices one document as one document.
How they compare
| PDFPipe | Typical credit-based API | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing unit | One flat price per document | Credits, larger docs cost more |
| Free tier | 500 documents a month | Around 50 a month |
| Rendering | Real Chromium, waits for fonts and images | Real Chromium |
| Security | SSRF-sandboxed, blocks private and metadata IPs | Varies |
| AI agents | First-class MCP server | None |
| Errors | Specific messages (timeout, capacity, bad URL) | Often generic |
The same request shape
Migrating is mostly a URL and a key change. You still POST HTML or a URL and get back a PDF.
curl -X POST https://api.pdfpipe.xyz/v1/pdf \
-H "Authorization: Bearer pp_live_your_key" \
-d '{"html":"<h1>Invoice</h1>","options":{"format":"A4"}}' \
--output invoice.pdfWhen PDFShift is the better fit
If you are happy with credits and already integrated, there is no urgent reason to switch. PDFPipe is the better pick when you want predictable flat pricing, a free tier you can actually ship on, or you are building for AI agents that call tools directly.
Try PDFPipe on the live playground with no signup, then read the docs.
See pricing →