Renderly vs Puppeteer
for HTML to PDF

Puppeteer is a great browser automation tool — but running it in production to generate PDFs means owning a Chromium server, managing memory, and handling every Linux sandbox edge case yourself. Renderly does all of that for you.

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Feature comparison

Renderly APISelf-hosted Puppeteer
Setup time~60 seconds30–60 min (install Node, Chromium, handle deps)
InfrastructureZero — hosted APIYour server — you manage Chromium updates
Chromium versionAlways latest stablePinned to your installed version
Cold start< 200ms (warm pool)1–8s per cold browser launch
Memory per renderManaged by Renderly200–400 MB per Puppeteer instance
ScalingAutomaticManual — you provision more servers
SandboxingFully managed, secure--no-sandbox flags often required on Linux
MaintenanceNoneChromium, Node, OS updates on you
Cost at 10k PDFs€49/mo (Pro plan)$50–200+ in server / EC2 costs
APIREST — any languageNode.js only (or awkward subprocess calls)

Migration: from Puppeteer to Renderly

Replace your entire Puppeteer PDF pipeline with a single fetch call:

before.js — Puppeteer
<span class="cm">// ❌ Before — ~30 lines of Puppeteer boilerplate</span>
<span class="kw">const</span> puppeteer = require(<span class="str">'puppeteer'</span>);

<span class="kw">const</span> browser = <span class="kw">await</span> puppeteer.<span class="fn">launch</span>({
  args: [<span class="str">'--no-sandbox'</span>, <span class="str">'--disable-setuid-sandbox'</span>],
});
<span class="kw">const</span> page = <span class="kw">await</span> browser.<span class="fn">newPage</span>();
<span class="kw">await</span> page.<span class="fn">setContent</span>(html, { waitUntil: <span class="str">'networkidle0'</span> });
<span class="kw">const</span> pdf = <span class="kw">await</span> page.<span class="fn">pdf</span>({ format: <span class="str">'A4'</span> });
<span class="kw">await</span> browser.<span class="fn">close</span>();
after.js — Renderly
<span class="cm">// ✅ After — 5 lines, any language, no server</span>
<span class="kw">const</span> res = <span class="kw">await</span> fetch(<span class="str">'https://api.renderlyapi.com/v1/pdf/from-html'</span>, {
  method: <span class="str">'POST'</span>,
  headers: { <span class="str">'Authorization'</span>: <span class="str">'Bearer rly_live_…'</span>, <span class="str">'Content-Type'</span>: <span class="str">'application/json'</span> },
  body: JSON.<span class="fn">stringify</span>({ html, format: <span class="str">'A4'</span> }),
});
<span class="kw">const</span> pdfBuffer = <span class="kw">await</span> res.<span class="fn">arrayBuffer</span>();

Why teams switch from Puppeteer

🚫
No more --no-sandbox hacks
Running Puppeteer in Docker or Linux always requires unsafe sandbox flags. Renderly runs in a hardened, isolated environment.
💰
Lower total cost
At 10,000 PDFs/month, a dedicated Node server costs more than Renderly Pro — and you still have to maintain it.
⚡
Faster renders
A pre-warmed browser pool means you never wait for Chromium to cold-start. Renders complete in under 200ms p95.
🌍
Works from any language
Puppeteer is Node.js only. Renderly is a plain REST API — call it from Python, PHP, Go, Ruby, or any HTTP client.
🔄
Always up-to-date Chromium
Puppeteer versions lock you to a specific Chromium. Renderly always uses the latest stable Chrome rendering engine.
📈
Scales automatically
Need to render 100 PDFs at once? Renderly handles the concurrency. No thread pools or queue management needed.

Ship PDFs in 60 seconds

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