The portable document format or pdf is the industry standard for creating and exchanging documents. The format is remarkably versatile. Pdf files can be viewed on all types of devices on almost all operating systems. Whether you are an individual user or a corporate client, you need to have a pdf generation tool readily available to you.
If you are looking to integrate pdf generation into the app you are developing, then read on to find out why you should choose the APIs offered by pdflayer.com. In this article, we will compare the services offered by both pdflayer.com and pdfgeneratorapi.com.
Table of Contents
What Are The Subscription Plans Offered By pdflayer.com And pdfgeneratorapi.com?
Both pdflayer.com and pdfgeneratorapi.com offer different subscription plans at different. Here is a comparison table listing each plan and its corresponding price per month. pdflayer.com is the cheaper option for all plans and offers a 20% discount on yearly subscriptions, making it very reasonable. Another attractive feature is that its ‘free’ plan has no expiry time.
| pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com | ||
| Plans | Price ($/ month) |
Plans | Price ($/ month) |
| Free | 0 (forever) | Free | 0 (valid for 3 months) |
| Basic | 9.99* | Starter | 59 |
| Professional | 39.99* | Basic | 99 |
| Enterprise | 119.99* | Professional | 199 |
| Premium | 399 | ||
| Enterprise | 699 |
In terms of costs, this is our overall rating for the two services:
| pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com | |
Costs |
 |
 |
How Do API requests/month Compare For pdflayer.com And pdfgeneratorapi.com?
An important feature for any API is the number of API requests per month a client can make. In the case of both pdflayer.com and pdfgeneratorapi.com, one API request means one pdf document generation request. Here is how the two services compare in terms of API requests per month:
| pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com | ||
| Plans | API requests/month | Plans | API requests/month |
| Free | 100 | Free | 2500 |
| Basic | 1,000 | Starter | 2,500 |
| Professional | 10,000 | Basic | 10,000 |
| Enterprise | 1,000,000 | Professional | 25,000 |
| Premium | 100,000 | ||
| Enterprise | 250,000 |
If we look at the above table, we can see that pdflayer.com offers great deals on the number of monthly API requests. The professional package is only $39.99/month, with a significant 10,000 API requests/month. Compare that with pdfgeneratorapi.com, whose basic package is more expensive at $99/month and offers the same number of API requests.
Our overall rating in terms of API requests/month is as follows:
| pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com | |
| API requests per month |
|
|
How Do pdflayer.com And pdfgeneratorapi.com Compare In Terms Of APIs
Both pdflayer.com and pdfgeneratorapi.com serve data via HTTP or HTTPS requests. Both services require a user to have an API key. We found pdflayer.com’s API requests to be simpler, having just three parts: a base URL, the required parameters (API key and input HTML), and finally optional parameters.
Here is an example query from their website:
|
1 2 3 |
http://api.pdflayer.com/api/convert ? access_key = YOUR_KEY & document_url = https://pdflayer.com/downloads/invoice.html |
Pdfgeneratorapi.com’s queries are more complex. They require knowledge of templates and workspaces. Because of these requirements, a pdfgeneratorapi user needs to use an editor provided by pdfgeneratorapi.com to create templates and fulfill the API’s requirements for their documents. Here are two examples taken from their website, that require either a template or a workspace. As you can see using the pdfgeneratorapi is simply more complicated.
|
1 2 |
https://us1.pdfgeneratorapi.com/api/v3/templates https://us1.pdfgeneratorapi.com/api/v3/workspaces |
Here is how we compare the API related features of the two services:
| API Feature | pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com |
| Ease of use | Good | Involves learning about workspaces, templates, and data for pdf generation |
| Documentation | Good | Good |
| API | HTTPS requests | HTTPS requests |
| Input for document generation | URL of HTML page Or raw HTML | Templates + data |
| Code samples included | ✔ | ✔ |
| Sandbox mode for testing APIs | ✔ | ✔ |
Here is our overall rating when it comes to API related features:
| pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com | |
API syntax and related features |
|
|
How Do pdflayer.com And pdfgeneratorapi.com Compare In Terms Of PDF Features
We have divided pdf features into two categories: Document specific features and pdf-specific attributes.
Comparison in Terms of Document Specific Features
The table below shows a list of various features and how pdflayer.com and pdfgeneratorapi.com compare.
| Feature | pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com |
| Convert HTML directly to pdf | ✔ | x (will require templates) |
| Supports images in pdf | ✔ | ✔ |
| Supports charts and graphics in pdf | ✔ | ✔ |
| Document layout can be changed. Layout includes page size, dimensions, margins, headers, footer, etc. | ✔ | ✔ |
| Change color schemes | ✔ (via CSS injection) | ✔ (via templates) |
| Different text encoding | ✔ | UTF-8 only |
Comparison in Terms of PDF Specific Features
Some features are pdf specific. The table below lists those features and shows how the two platforms compare.
| Pdf specific features | pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com |
| Change DPI (dots per inch) resolution | ✔ | x |
| Change zoom factor | ✔ | x (will need to generate a different template for each zoom factor) |
| Change page numbers | ✔ | x (no direct command. Programming required for changing the data field) |
| Add watermarks with different opacity levels | ✔ | x |
| Pdf encryption | ✔ (both 40-bit and 128-bit) | x |
| Pdf authentication (can a password be embedded in the pdf file) |
✔ | x |
Overall this is how we rate the two services in terms of pdf document features and pdf-specific attributes. The rating for pdfgeneratorapi.com for pdf-specific features is low as it has fewer document-related features and limited or no pdf-specific features.
| pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com | |
| Document specific features |
|
|
| Pdf specific features |  |
 |
What Is The Overall Summary and Rating Of pdflayer.com Vs. pdfgeneratorapi.com
The table below summarizes our overall rating for the two platforms in terms of various features.
| Features | pdflayer.com | pdfgeneratorapi.com |
| Costs | |
 More expensive plans |
| API requests per month | |
API requests per month costs more |
| API syntax and related features |
|
Requires learning about templates and workspaces |
Document specific features |
|
Features can only be changed via templates or document data |
| Pdf specific features | |
Little or no pdf specific features |
From the above table, we can see that pdflayer.com has a clear edge over pdfgeneratorapi.com. pdfgenerator.com could be for you — if you want to generate specialized documents with an online editor. However, this would come at a higher cost with limited or no pdf-specific features.
On the other hand, the pdflayer.com platform offers reasonable prices, simpler APIs, great pdf document features, and good pdf-specific properties. Even novice developers can easily call their APIs in their choice of programming environment.
If you are looking to integrate a reliable, secure, and cost-effective means of generating high-quality pdf documents into your software, then sign up now for a free trial at pdflayer.com.
Disclaimer: The information is correct at the time of writing this blog. The subscription plans, prices, and features can change with time.
