Developer API
Alternative to DocRaptor
DocRaptor is the premium HTML-to-PDF API — powered by PrinceXML, the best-in-class print typography engine. If you're rendering wedding invitations, scientific papers, or legal filings where typographic nuance matters (hyphenation, widow/orphan control, multi-column justification), DocRaptor earns its price.
For the 95% of HTML-to-PDF workloads — invoices, receipts, reports, transactional emails, statement exports — DocRaptor is structurally overpriced. $15/month for 125 docs ($0.12 each) plus $0.12/doc overage means a team doing 500 docs/month pays $60/month. PennyPDF's equivalent: 500 coins on the Pro pack = $14.99.
Engine difference matters for complex typography, not for invoices. PennyPDF uses headless Chromium with print-CSS awareness — the same engine every browser renders with. For transactional docs where the content is the point, not the typography, it produces visually identical output at one-fourth to one-tenth the cost.
Copy, paste, ship
Same bearer-token auth across every endpoint. Set PENNYPDF_API_KEY in your environment first.
curl -X POST https://api.pennypdf.com/v1/html-to-pdf \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $PENNYPDF_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"html": "<h1>Report Q1</h1>...", "page_size": "Letter"}' \
-o report.pdf# For comparison — DocRaptor's pattern is similar
curl -X POST https://docraptor.com/docs \
-u $DOCRAPTOR_API_KEY: \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"document_content": "<h1>Report Q1</h1>...", "type": "pdf"}' \
-o report.pdf
# Costs $0.12 after the 125-doc monthly floor.PennyPDF vs DocRaptor
| PennyPDF | DocRaptor | |
|---|---|---|
| Price per doc | 1 coin (~$0.04) | $0.12 overage |
| Monthly minimum | $0 | $15/mo for 125 docs |
| Annual cost at 500 docs/mo | ~$15 (Pro pack) | $60 (monthly with overages) |
| Engine | Chromium print-CSS | PrinceXML |
| Best for typography | Invoices, reports, receipts | Print-quality books, papers |
| Test renders | 10 welcome coins | Unlimited watermarked |
How it works
- 1Run one test render on DocRaptor and one on PennyPDF with your actual HTML.
- 2Compare visual output. For invoice-class content, you'll see no meaningful difference.
- 3If acceptable, swap the endpoint URL and bearer token. ~5 minutes of code changes.
Frequently asked
When should I stay with DocRaptor?+
Typography-critical output: books, scientific papers with MathML, legal filings with strict formatting requirements, wedding invitations, marketing brochures with elaborate layouts. PrinceXML's print heritage genuinely earns its premium for those.
Does PennyPDF's Chromium handle print CSS correctly?+
Yes — @page rules, page-break-* properties, print-specific media queries, custom page sizes. Full Chromium print pipeline. What it doesn't match: PrinceXML's hyphenation dictionaries (50+ languages, proper line-breaking) and its widow/orphan optimizer.
Latency comparison?+
Both are 1-3 s for a typical invoice. PennyPDF skews slightly faster on short docs (Chromium boots faster than Prince), DocRaptor slightly faster on 100+ page docs (Prince's multi-threaded rendering).
Rate limits?+
PennyPDF: 200 rpm per API key on sync, unlimited on async. DocRaptor: varies by tier, generally 10-60 rpm. For high-QPS pipelines (month-end invoicing), PennyPDF is less likely to throttle.
Migration effort?+
Very low. Both take JSON payloads with html/content fields. Renaming the endpoint URL and mapping a few field names (document_content → html, prince_options → our own camelCase options) takes an afternoon including tests.
Will the output be bit-for-bit identical?+
No — different rendering engines. What you should expect: pixel-level differences in exact kerning (1-2 px), occasional line-break choices diverging, fonts rendering slightly differently. For invoice/report content, nobody notices.
Why PennyPDF
- No subscription. Ever.
- Coins never expire — use them in 5 years.
- Client-side processing for 14 of 22 tools.
- No watermarks at any tier.
- Per-operation pricing, shown before you click.
- Same coins for web + public API.