Compare
The PDF API that doesn't make you build a template first.
Leafwright renders the documents your product already produces. POST raw HTML, a public URL, or a Handlebars template with JSON to one API and get a signed PDF link back — invoices, reports, statements, certificates. An AI studio drafts and repairs templates on the same engine, brand kits keep every document on-brand, and AI agents render over MCP.
PDFMonkey is a template-first PDF API: you build a Liquid or Vue template in its dashboard, then send JSON to render it. It's a capable tool with good automation connectors — but there is no raw-HTML endpoint, so if your documents start life as HTML, you rebuild them as templates before you can render anything.
curl -X POST https://leafwright.co/api/v1/pdfs \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $LEAFWRIGHT_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"source": { "type": "html", "html": "<h1>Invoice #1042</h1>" },
"delivery": { "mode": "sync", "return": "url" }
}'
# 200 → { ..., "download_url": "https://...signed URL..." }No template to create first — send the HTML you already have. On PDFMonkey the same job starts in the dashboard: build a Liquid or Vue template, then render it with JSON. Full API reference →
npx -y @leafwright/mcp| Feature | Leafwright | PDFMonkey | Edge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Raw HTML & URL rendering | First-class: POST source.type=html or a public URL — no template required. | No raw-HTML endpoint; the documented path is a {{htmlContent}} workaround inside a template. | Leafwright |
| AI templating | AI drafts templates and repairs them from render logs; brand kits lock fonts, colors, and footers; a11y and print checks before publish. | Not stated on pdfmonkey.io (September 2026). | Leafwright |
| Visual builder | Canvas studio on the same engine the API renders with. | Vue Builder and Code Templates, plus @pdfmonkey/cli. | Split Both ship a real builder — different surfaces. |
| MCP for AI agents | Remote server at leafwright.co/mcp (OAuth 2.1) and local @leafwright/mcp. | Not stated on pdfmonkey.io (September 2026). | Leafwright |
| Free tier | 100 PDFs + 8 AI drafts per month, $0, no card. | 20 documents per month, plus a one-time 300-document 30-day trial. | Leafwright |
| Serverless fit | Hosted rendering — one HTTPS call from your function. | Hosted rendering — same story. | Even Either one keeps Chromium out of your bundle. |
| Webhooks & delivery | Signed success and failure webhooks; delivery to a signed URL or your own S3/GCS bucket. | Svix-powered webhooks; downloads via 1-hour signed S3 URLs. | Split PDFMonkey's webhook tooling runs deeper; bring-your-own storage is Leafwright's. |
| Engine transparency | Chromium 151, version-pinned (Playwright 1.62); published in the API docs. Upgrades are deliberate, never a side effect of a rebuild. | Chrome 133 (“Chrome v5”) with public version pins. | Even Both pin and publish; Leafwright currently runs the newer engine. |
| Output formats & render-time JS | PDF only; HTML sources reject script, iframe, form, and external assets by design. | PNG, WebP, and JPG alongside PDF; JavaScript at render time on paid plans. | PDFMonkey Need image output or server-rendered JS charts? PDFMonkey is the better fit today. |
| Document caps | Explicit caps, validated up front: 200 pages, HTML 250 KB, CSS 120 KB. | Bounded by render time (30 s–5 min by plan); no published page cap. | PDFMonkey |
| Automation connectors | REST API and MCP; no iPaaS connectors. | Zapier, Make, and n8n. | PDFMonkey |
At 3,000 documents a month the two cost within a few dollars of each other (Indie $19 vs Pro €15) — price is not the reason to switch here.
The gap is at zero: Leafwright's free tier carries 5× the monthly documents (100 vs 20), with AI template drafts included.
USD · verified September 2026
EUR ex-VAT · verified September 2026
Leafwright's Hobby plan is free with no credit card: 100 PDFs and 8 AI template drafts per month, hard-capped. PDFMonkey's free plan includes 20 documents a month, with a one-time 30-day trial of 300 documents.
Yes — that is the core difference. Leafwright accepts source.type=html (and public URLs) as first-class render sources. PDFMonkey requires a Liquid or Vue template; the documented workaround is passing your markup through a {{htmlContent}} variable.
Documents that exist as HTML need no migration — POST them to /api/v1/pdfs directly. For templated documents there is no one-click importer: describe the document to the studio's AI (content, layout, brand), refine the drafted Handlebars template on canvas, publish it, and render it by ID with your JSON data.
As of 2026-09-01, MCP is not stated on pdfmonkey.io. Leafwright publishes a remote MCP server at leafwright.co/mcp and a local package: npx -y @leafwright/mcp.
Hobby is free and hard-capped: 100 PDFs and 8 AI template drafts a month, no credit card. Upgrade when you outgrow it.