# AIIPWorld as a PDFShift alternative > A short, sourced comparison of AIIPWorld and PDFShift for people choosing an HTML to PDF API, with the source address and check date beside each PDFShift fact. A short, factual comparison for people choosing an HTML to PDF API. Everything we say about PDFShift comes from its public pricing and home pages, with the address and the date we checked next to each fact. We have not compared output quality or speed. ## Key facts - PDFShift figures come only from its pricing page and home page, checked 2026-10-11; nothing else about PDFShift is claimed. - PDFShift lists a free plan of 50 credits a month and paid plans from $9 a month for 500 credits; AIIPWorld has 100 free credits a month, with 1 credit per simple render. - PDFShift lists watermarks, password protection, webhooks and S3 delivery; AIIPWorld offers none of these yet. - This page does not rank output quality, speed or engines. ## What to compare in a PDFShift alternative This part is for people who already use PDFShift, or who are looking for a pdfshift alternative and want to compare the two on facts. Each PDFShift fact comes from its public pricing page or home page, checked on 2026-10-11. We have not compared output quality or speed, so this page does not say which service renders better. Start with the unit each service charges in. PDFShift sells credits, and one credit is one document counted per 5 MB of generated data. We also sell credits. A simple render costs 1 credit, and larger outputs cost more credits. Credit costs are provisional until launch, so check the current values on our pricing page. ## PDFShift pricing in short The PDFShift pricing page lists a free plan with 50 credits a month, files up to 15 MB and a 30 second timeout. Paid plans start at Starter, $9 a month for 500 credits, and run through Boost, Growth and Business ($99 for 25,000 credits) to larger plans that reach $999 for 1,000,000 credits. Extra credits cost from $0.04 on Starter down to $0.001 on the largest plan. Several things are listed as paid-only: no file size limit, timeouts up to 15 minutes, delivery to AWS S3, and parallel and asynchronous responses. Annual billing is 10 months for the price of 12, and unused credits do not roll over. ## PDFShift vs AIIPWorld: what each makes The PDFShift home page lists HTML and URL to PDF, headers and footers with page numbers, watermarks, password protection, webhooks, saving to Amazon S3, and screenshots. Our API makes PDFs from HTML you send or from public web addresses. You can set the page format or size, margins, landscape orientation, background printing, scale, page ranges and print or screen styles. Header and footer HTML is supported, and page numbers use the classes pageNumber and totalPages. Tagged PDFs and an outline are options. It also takes screenshots as PNG or JPEG. We do not offer watermarks, password protection, S3 delivery or webhooks. Jobs are asynchronous: you submit a request, receive a job_id, and poll the job until it reaches succeeded, failed or timeout. Credits for failed and timed-out jobs are returned. The render server has the Noto fonts, including CJK and emoji, and Liberation 2. Fonts on your own machine are not there. Load other fonts with @font-face from a public URL or a data URL. ## How to test a PDFShift alternative with your own documents A sample file will not show you much. Run your own documents through each service and check the points below. - Fonts: confirm that every font your documents use is on the render server or loads from a public URL. - Page breaks: check where tables and sections split across pages. - Headers and footers: check that the margin is large enough for the header and footer you use. - JavaScript: check that the page is ready when rendering starts. If it is not, use wait_until, wait_for_selector or delay_ms. - Size: compare how each service counts a large PDF. PDFShift counts per 5 MB; we add credits per 5 MB beyond the first 5 MB and per 10 pages beyond the first 10. - Cost: estimate the credits for a typical document, then compare that with the plan price you would pay. - Time: time your own documents from request to download, and compare the results between the two services. ## Moving from PDFShift to AIIPWorld Authentication uses an API key from the dashboard. Send it as Authorization: Bearer followed by the key, or in an x-api-key header. Keep your HTML as it is, and map your current options to the names we use, such as format, margin, print_background, header_template and footer_template. Send one request per document to /v1/render. There is no batch endpoint. Templates with JSON data are not available, and neither are webhooks or S3 delivery, so poll the job for the result and download it from the signed link. After the move, run the test list above again. Compare each new PDF with the old one before you switch your users. ## When PDFShift may suit you better PDFShift may suit you better if you need watermarks, password protection, webhooks or delivery to S3 today. Its larger plans also lift the file size limit and allow long timeouts. We do not offer the first four, and we cap long jobs with a hard timeout. We may suit you better if you want free web tools, a free plan with 100 credits a month, and PDF and screenshots from one account. Choose by testing your own documents and comparing the cost for your volume. Neither page can tell you which output looks better for your layout. ## Questions ### Which one is cheaper? Both sell credits, but a credit means different things. PDFShift lists $9 for 500, $24 for 2,500, $39 for 5,000 and $99 for 25,000 credits a month; our plans are on the pricing page. A simple render is 1 credit here, and long PDFs and large results cost more. Compare the per-credit table above, then your own volume. ### Which one has better output quality? We have not compared the two, so we do not claim either. Render a few of your real documents with each service. ### Is there a free PDFShift alternative? Our web tools are free and need no account. Anonymous use asks for a human check from Cloudflare Turnstile, and signed-in users skip it. Our free API plan includes 100 credits a month, and results are kept for 1 day. PDFShift also lists a free plan with 50 credits a month. ### Is there an AIIPWorld API like the PDFShift API? Yes. POST /v1/render takes html or a public url and returns a job that ends in a PDF file. See the PDF API page for every option. ### Do you support webhooks or watermarks? No, not yet for webhooks (they are planned for Pro and Business), and we do not offer watermarks or password protection. Jobs are asynchronous: submit, then poll for the result. ### Do I need to rewrite my HTML? Not necessarily. Send the HTML you already use and compare the output. Check that your fonts are on the render server or load from a public URL, and remember that local files on your machine are not available to the server. ### How current is the PDFShift information? It was checked on 2026-10-11 against pdfshift.io/pricing and pdfshift.io. Prices and limits change, so confirm them on PDFShift's own site before you decide. ## Related - [AIIPWorld as a Browserless alternative](https://aiipworld.com/alternatives/browserless/index.md) - [AIIPWorld as a Urlbox alternative](https://aiipworld.com/alternatives/urlbox/index.md) - [AIIPWorld as a ScreenshotOne alternative](https://aiipworld.com/alternatives/screenshotone/index.md) Page: https://aiipworld.com/alternatives/pdfshift/