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ScreenshotBuddy vs Urlbox
Urlbox facts checked on August 6, 2026
Urlbox is the better product if what you need is a screenshot that has to hold up under scrutiny. They have been at this for over a decade, they publish more than a hundred rendering options, and they are SOC 2 Type II attested with timestamped render verification built into the API. ScreenshotBuddy is the better fit if you want to start without a credit card, want every feature on every paid plan, want signed URLs to be the only way a render link exists, and want your AI agent to speak to the API over MCP rather than through a terminal.
If your work is compliance evidence or video capture, stop reading and go to Urlbox. Otherwise, below is the whole argument, including the parts of it that do not favour us.
The short version
Which one you should buy
Choose Urlbox if...
- The screenshot has to hold up under scrutiny, and you want a vendor that has been at this for over a decade.
- You want depth: they publish more than a hundred rendering options.
- You need output past images: eleven formats by their own count, including mp4 and webm video with scripted scrolling, and markdown, HTML and metadata extraction.
- Your work is compliance evidence: they are SOC 2 Type II attested with a public trust center, and their Ultra tier has timestamped render verification built into the API.
- You want forgiving billing: a render that returns no image is not charged, cached render links do not count against quota, and passing your allowance auto-upgrades you rather than cutting you off.
- You want an SDK in Python, Ruby or .NET, or a command line client.
Choose ScreenshotBuddy if...
- You want to start without a credit card: 200 renders a month, every month, against their seven day trial.
- You want every feature on every paid plan, with no option sitting two tiers up.
- You want signed URLs to be the only kind of render link, with no unsigned alternative to fall back to.
- You want your AI agent to speak to the API over MCP rather than through a terminal.
Our case
Where we think we are the better choice
There is a real free tier here
200 renders a month, every month, no credit card.
Urlbox offers a seven day trial with no card and then a paid entry point, so the side project that renders a few hundred images a month has nowhere free to live. Ours also renews, which matters more than the size of the number.
Nothing is gated between our paid plans
Essential, Business and Enterprise are the same API, and the plans differ only in how many renders you get and how many requests per minute you may make.
On Urlbox, custom headers require Hi-Fi, and proxies, secure_mode and
certify require Ultra. If the one option you need happens to sit two tiers up, you
pay for the tier rather than the option.
Signed URLs are the only kind of render link
Signed URLs are how a browser-facing render link works here, and there is no unsigned alternative to fall back to. You sign on your server with a secret that never leaves it, and anyone holding the URL can fetch exactly the capture it describes and nothing else.
Urlbox supports the same HMAC signing, but their docs record that unauthenticated requests are permitted by default on signup and that forcing authenticated requests is a setting you turn on. That is a defensible onboarding choice and it is also the permissive default.
An API your AI agent can reach over MCP
We have a documented MCP server over streamable HTTP, with an API token in the same header a REST call sends, no OAuth step and nothing to install. We also publish an agent skill and an llms.txt.
Urlbox has an excellent machine-readable docs story, a CLI, and installable agent skills for four coding agents, but no MCP server is published: searching the whole of their llms-full.txt on the date above returned nothing for MCP. If your agent only speaks MCP, that is the difference.
Their case
What Urlbox does better
Three things, and none of them is a small one.
The depth is real
Their options reference covers waits, retries, progressive option escalation, ad and cookie banner blocking, granular resource blocking, proxies, geolocation, timezone and platform overrides. Most screenshot APIs, ours included, publish a fraction of that surface.
Their format list runs past images into PDF with header and footer templates, mp4 and webm video with scripted scrolling, and markdown, HTML and metadata extraction, which their own summary counts as eleven output formats.
The evidence angle is backed by product
Their certify option generates render verification hashes with timestamps, and
secure_mode gives zero data retention with a ninety second purge.
Both sit behind their Ultra tier, but they exist, and they are paired with a SOC 2 Type II attestation and a public trust center. We have none of that.
Billing that forgives a spiky month
A render that returns no image is not billed. Render Link results are cached for thirty days and cached hits do not count toward quota. Passing your included volume does not stop your service, it moves you to the next tier at volume pricing with alerts at eighty, ninety and a hundred percent.
That is a more forgiving arrangement than most of this market offers, and it is worth money on a spiky workload.
Pricing
Step for step, side by side
Our figures come from our own plan configuration. Theirs are from their pricing page on the date above, and prices move. The two ladders do not line up on volume, so the rows pair the steps rather than the render counts, and each side carries its own.
| Step | ScreenshotBuddy | Urlbox |
|---|---|---|
| Free |
Free $0 200 renders a month 20 per minute |
No free plan $0 7 day trial, no card Trial only |
| Entry plan |
Essential $9 2,000 renders a month 20 per minute |
Lo-Fi $19 2,000 renders a month 30 per minute |
| Middle plan |
Business $29 10,000 renders a month 40 per minute |
Hi-Fi $49 5,000 renders a month 60 per minute |
| Top listed plan |
Enterprise $99 50,000 renders a month 100 per minute |
Ultra $99 15,000 renders a month 250 per minute |
| Above 50,000 | Talk to us |
Business $498 $495 plus $3 per 1,000, usage based 1,000 per minute |
| Unlimited volume | Not offered |
Enterprise From $3,000 Unlimited renders No limit |
Urlbox's Ultra is $99 a month for 15,000 renders at 250 requests a minute. Our Enterprise plan is $99 for 50,000 renders at 100 a minute. Which of those two numbers you care about depends entirely on whether your renders arrive in bursts or spread out across the month.
Capabilities
Features, side by side
A tick is never the whole answer, so every cell says in words what it actually is.
| Capability | ScreenshotBuddy | Urlbox |
|---|---|---|
| Free forever tier | 200 renders a month, no card | No, a 7 day trial with no card |
| Image formats | png, jpeg, webp | png, jpeg, webp, avif, svg |
| Yes, with paper size and orientation | Yes, with header and footer templates | |
| Video capture | No | mp4 and webm, with scripted scrolling |
| Markdown and metadata extraction | No | Yes |
| Signed render links | Required, no unsigned alternative | Supported, unauthenticated allowed by default |
| Features gated by tier | None, every paid plan is the whole API | Headers from Hi-Fi, proxies, secure_mode and certify from Ultra |
| Batch and async renders | Yes, with webhooks | Yes, with webhooks |
| Timestamped render verification | No | Yes, via certify on Ultra |
| SOC 2 Type II | Not certified | Attested, with a public trust center |
| MCP server | Yes, documented | None published |
| Agent skill and llms.txt | Both published | Both, plus a CLI and per-page markdown |
| Official SDKs | Node.js and PHP | Node, Python, PHP, Ruby, .NET, plus a CLI |
The gaps
What we do not have
Plainly, so you do not find out later.
- We do not capture video, in any format.
- We publish a small fraction of their option count, so if you have built against their retry, blocking and escalation semantics you will find gaps here.
- We have no timestamped verification of a render, which rules us out for evidence work outright.
- We are not SOC 2 certified and have no trust center, which will end the conversation with some procurement teams before it starts.
- We do not extract markdown, HTML or page metadata, so we are not useful as a scraping layer.
- We ship two SDKs where they ship five plus a CLI, so if your stack is Ruby or .NET you will be writing the HTTP calls yourself.
None of that is on a roadmap we are willing to promise you here. If any of it is what you came for, Urlbox is the honest recommendation.
Try it yourself
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 Urlbox 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.