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ScreenshotBuddy vs ApiFlash
ApiFlash facts checked on August 6, 2026
ApiFlash has been rendering screenshots since 2017 and is good at it. If you have landed here looking for permission to switch, this page is not going to give it to you unconditionally. There are volumes where they are cheaper than we are, and there are things they do that we do not do at all.
ScreenshotBuddy is the better fit if the work does not stop at the first screenshot: PDFs from the same endpoint, signed URLs, batch renders with webhooks, and an API an AI agent can reach on its own. Below is both price lists, both feature sets, and an honest reading of who each one suits.
The short version
Which one you should buy
Choose ApiFlash if...
- You want the lowest monthly floor: their first paid plan is $7.
- You are rendering around 100,000 screenshots a month, where $180 works out at about $0.0018 each.
- You need ad and cookie banner blocking, geolocation emulation, or export to S3.
- You want to route captures through your own proxy so bot-protected sites stay solvable.
- You want the smallest possible thing that takes screenshots and nothing more.
Choose ScreenshotBuddy if...
- You need PDFs and screenshots from one API and one endpoint.
- You want to embed captures in a browser without exposing a key.
- Bulk work should be a batch with webhooks rather than a fan-out you maintain.
- The thing calling the API is going to be an agent.
- You want a free plan worth testing on: 200 renders a month with no card, against their 100.
Our case
Where we think we are the better choice
Four things, and they are all about what happens after the first screenshot works.
PDFs come from the same endpoint
Add pdf to the request, pick a paper format, and the same validation, credit and
cache apply as for an image. It is one
documented
parameter away, not a second product.
ApiFlash publishes no PDF output at all: there is no such parameter among their forty five. If you need page-to-PDF and page-to-image from one vendor, that is a hard split.
Signed URLs keep your key out of the browser
Signed URLs let
a browser fetch a capture without your key going anywhere near it. You sign on your server, put
the result in an <img src>, and whoever holds that URL can fetch exactly that
capture and nothing else.
ApiFlash publishes nothing of this kind, so every call carries the access key, which means either exposing it or running a proxy of your own whose only job is to hide it.
Batch renders instead of a fan-out you maintain
Batch and asynchronous renders take a list of captures in one request, answer immediately, pace the work themselves, and can call a webhook when the batch is done. Each finished item comes back as a signed URL.
ApiFlash publishes no batch endpoint and no webhooks, so bulk work there means fanning out concurrent synchronous calls and owning the retries, the backpressure and the failure handling yourself. Their unlimited concurrency is what makes that approach viable, which is a real answer, just a different one.
The surface an AI agent actually needs
Agents can use us without a human writing the integration first. There is a documented
MCP server with
tools for screenshots, PDFs and account usage, plus
Agent Skills, an
llms.txt and a published OpenAPI document.
On the date above, ApiFlash served a 404 for llms.txt, openapi.json
and /mcp, and the word MCP appeared nowhere on their homepage or documentation.
Their case
What ApiFlash does well
One endpoint, forty five parameters, and a price per screenshot that gets genuinely good as the volume climbs.
Cheap at volume, and self-serve there
Their largest self-serve plan is $180 for 100,000 screenshots a month, which works out at about $0.0018 each.
Nothing in our published pricing reaches that volume or that unit price, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
The same features on every tier
Their feature list is identical on every tier, free included. Ad blocking, cookie banner hiding and export to S3 are not things you upgrade to buy.
That is a fairer arrangement than the one most of this category runs.
A rate limit published concretely, and a generous one
20 requests per second on a leaky bucket with a burst of 400, applied globally rather than per plan, with no stated ceiling on concurrent requests.
A free account is documented with the same throughput as their largest one. Ours is per minute and tied to the plan, so for a burst-shaped workload theirs is the better arrangement.
Ground we simply do not cover
Ad and cookie banner blocking, geolocation emulation with latitude, longitude and time zone, and a proxy parameter you can point at your own proxy so that bot-protected sites are your problem to solve rather than a dead end. Their S3 export writes to any S3-compatible endpoint, not only AWS, and caching runs to 30 days with a cached capture not counting against the quota.
Simplicity is the real product. One URL, one key, a documented parameter for nearly everything, and no architecture to adopt. That is a virtue, and for a large number of buyers it is the whole decision.
Pricing
Step for step, side by side
Our figures come from our own plan configuration. Theirs were read from the pricing table on their homepage on the date above, and they publish no annual billing and no overage rate. The two ladders do not carry the same volumes at the same steps, so each cell says what it actually includes.
| Ladder step | ScreenshotBuddy | ApiFlash |
|---|---|---|
| Free |
Free $0 200 renders a month 20 per minute Free, per render |
Free $0 100 screenshots a month 20 per second, every plan Free, per render |
| First paid step |
Essential $9 2,000 renders a month 20 per minute $0.0045 each |
Lite $7 1,000 screenshots a month 20 per second, every plan $0.007 each |
| Second paid step |
Business $29 10,000 renders a month 40 per minute $0.0029 each |
Medium $35 10,000 screenshots a month 20 per second, every plan $0.0035 each |
| Third paid step |
Enterprise $99 50,000 renders a month 100 per minute $0.002 each |
Large $180 100,000 screenshots a month 20 per second, every plan $0.0018 each |
| Above the largest listed plan | Talk to us | A custom plan, no price published |
Both vendors also offer a custom plan above the largest listed tier, and ApiFlash does not publish a price for theirs. ApiFlash publishes one global rate limit rather than a figure per plan, so the same 20 per second with a burst of 400 applies in every cell on their side.
Reading those numbers honestly
ApiFlash has the lower monthly floor. Their first paid plan is $7 against our $9, so if the smallest possible bill is what matters, they win that comparison outright. Per screenshot it goes the other way at that end: $7 for 1,000 is $0.007 each, while $9 for 2,000 is $0.0045 each. Same story at ten thousand, where our Business plan is $29 against their $35 for the identical volume.
Above that, they pull ahead. Their $180 plan for 100,000 screenshots is $0.0018 each, better than our $0.002 at 50,000, and it is self-serve where our equivalent volume is a conversation. If you know you are rendering six figures a month and you need nothing on our list of differences, ApiFlash is the cheaper vendor and you should buy from them.
One thing that is not a difference: neither of us charges for a cache hit. Their cached captures do not count against the quota, and ours cost no credit either, so a workload with a lot of repeat captures comes out well on either service.
Capabilities
Features, side by side
Every ApiFlash entry below was verified on their documentation on the date at the top of this page. Where it says not published, it means we could not find it on any public page of theirs, not that we know it does not exist.
| Capability | ScreenshotBuddy | ApiFlash |
|---|---|---|
| Screenshots, full page and element | Yes, all three | Yes, all three |
| PDF output | Yes, from the same endpoint | Not published, no such parameter among their forty five |
| Signed URLs for embedding | Yes, on every plan | Not published, every call carries the access key |
| Batch and async renders with webhooks | Yes, with a webhook when the batch is done | Not published, bulk work is a fan-out you own |
| MCP server, llms.txt, OpenAPI | All three, plus Agent Skills | Not published, all three paths returned a 404 |
| Ad and cookie banner blocking | Nothing is blocked | Yes, on every tier |
| Geolocation and time zone emulation | We cannot render from a chosen place | Yes, latitude, longitude and time zone |
| Bring your own proxy | No proxy parameter | Yes, managed proxies on enterprise only |
| Export to S3 | Captures come back to you and you store them | Yes, any S3-compatible endpoint |
| Caching, cache hit costs nothing | Yes, a cache hit costs no credit | Yes, up to 30 days, cache hits are free |
| Rate limit | 20 to 100 requests per minute by plan | 20 requests per second, burst 400, same on every plan |
| Free tier | 200 renders a month, no card | 100 screenshots a month, every feature included |
The gaps
What ApiFlash has that we do not
Plainly, so you do not find out later.
- We have no S3 export, so captures come back to you and you store them.
- We have no self-serve plan at 100,000 renders a month, so past 50,000 you have to talk to us.
- Our rate limit is per minute and tied to your plan, from 20 up to 100 requests per minute, rather than a per-second bucket with a burst allowance and no concurrency ceiling. For a burst-shaped workload that is a meaningful difference in their favour.
- We do not block ads or cookie banners, so a consent wall that covers the page will be in your screenshot.
- We cannot emulate a location, so a page that behaves differently by country will render the way it renders for us.
- We do not let you route a capture through your own proxy, and our parameter set is deliberately smaller than theirs.
If your captures are of consumer sites full of consent walls, or of pages that behave differently by country, ApiFlash is the better tool and the honest recommendation is to use them. We would rather you found that out on this page than after paying us.
Try it yourself
Both services have a free tier and neither asks for a card, so the cheapest way to settle this is to render the pages you actually care about on both.
The free plan is the fastest way to settle this. It is 200 renders a month with no card, and it is the same API the paid plans are. Read the pricing, skim the documentation, or create an account and render something.
Everything above about ApiFlash was read from their public site on August 6, 2026, and their product moves. If something here is out of date or unfair, please tell us and we will correct it.