PDFShift
PDFShift is a Paris-based developer API service that converts HTML to high-fidelity PDFs, screenshots, and Open Graph images via a Chromium engine, serving 48,000+ developers with HIPAA and GDPR compliance. Founded 2018, bootstrapped.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2018
- HeadquartersParis, France
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B
- OfferingSoftware
What PDFShift does
PDFShift is a Paris-based developer API service, founded in 2018, that converts HTML documents and websites into pixel-perfect PDFs, screenshots, and Open Graph images. The platform runs on an always-up-to-date Chromium rendering engine supporting full CSS3, modern web fonts, flexbox, grid layouts, responsive design, and JavaScript libraries such as React, VueJS, ChartJS, and D3.js, with optional integrations to Google Maps and OpenStreetMap. The REST API exposes endpoints for PDF conversion, screenshot capture, and Open Graph image generation, with code samples in Python, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, C#, Java, Go, and cURL. The company is headquartered at 128 rue la Boétie, 75008 Paris, operating as S.A.S.U. PDFShift under founder Cyril Nicodème.
The platform serves 48,000+ developers and has processed 74+ million conversions, with average conversion time of 1.5 seconds and 99.99% uptime across a redundant server infrastructure. It supports up to 50 parallel conversions per request, webhook-based asynchronous processing, custom CSS and JavaScript injection, encryption, watermarking, and direct delivery to user-owned Amazon S3 buckets. PDFShift is fully HIPAA compliant with a Business Associate Agreement available, GDPR compliant with a Data Processing Agreement, and stores EU customer data in French datacenters hosted by OVH.
PDFShift's business model is credit-based usage pricing with a freemium entry point. The free plan provides 50 credits per month; the Boost plan costs $24 per month for 2,500 credits, with overages billed at $0.03 per credit. Annual subscriptions pay for 10 months rather than 12. Go-to-market is product-led growth: self-serve registration, comprehensive documentation, an interactive Playground, and a peer-review footprint on Capterra (4.8 stars, 57 reviews), G2 (4.6 stars, 29 reviews), and AlternativeTo (4.9 stars, 39 reviews). The company is bootstrapped, with no external funding rounds disclosed, and operates with 1-10 employees.
PDFShift firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- PDFShift
- Legal name
- S.A.S.U. PDFShift
- Website
- https://pdfshift.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2018
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- PDFShift is a Paris-based developer API service that converts HTML to high-fidelity PDFs, screenshots, and Open Graph images via a Chromium engine, serving 48,000+ developers with HIPAA and GDPR compliance. Founded 2018, bootstrapped.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
PDFShift industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Document Conversion API
- NAICS
- Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (51821), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)
- SIC
- Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370), Services-Computer Processing & Data Preparation (7374), Services-Computer Programming Services (7371)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Cloud Encoding & Transcoding Services (SaaS/PaaS) (MPAHAHAC)
Keywords
Where PDFShift is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paris
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices1 record
Markets served
PDFShift business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Technology or R&D, Infrastructure, Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales
Revenue model
- Credit-based Subscription: PDFShift operates on a credit-based subscription model where users purchase monthly credit bundles. Each credit allows one conversion of up to 5MB. Documents exceeding 5MB consume additional credits (e.g., a 14MB document counts as 3 credits). The service offers a free tier with 50 credits per month and paid plans with varying credit limits. Overage charges apply when users exceed their plan limits, billed at $0.03 per additional credit conversion.
- Annual Subscription Discount: Annual subscription plans offer a 10-month pricing structure (paying for 10 months instead of 12), providing a discount for committed customers.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Freemium | Monthly | Free Plan - 50 credits/month |
| Subscription | Monthly | Boost Plan - $24/month |
| Subscription | Annual | Annual Plans - 10 months for price of 12 |
| Usage-based | Monthly | Custom Enterprise Plans |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels9 records
PDFShift product offering
Product offeringCore offering
PDFShift provides a REST API that converts HTML documents and websites into pixel-perfect PDFs using a continuously updated Chromium rendering engine, with full CSS3, JavaScript injection, custom headers/footers, encryption, watermarks, parallel conversions (up to 50), and asynchronous webhook delivery. The same API also generates website screenshots and Open Graph images for social automation, and supports direct delivery to AWS S3 with HIPAA and GDPR compliance modes for healthcare and EU data handling.
Product overview
PDFShift offers a unified API platform for document conversion and generation. The core product is the PDFShift API, which converts HTML documents and websites to pixel-perfect PDFs using Chromium rendering. Supporting capabilities include Website Screenshot Generation for capturing website images, Open Graph Image Generation for social media banners, and a Template Engine for storing and managing document templates securely. The platform supports multiple programming languages (Python, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, C#, Java, cURL) and integrates with Amazon S3 for document storage.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- PDFShift API REST API service that converts HTML documents, raw HTML payloads, or website URLs into pixel-perfect PDF files using a Chromium rendering engine, with support for full CSS3, JavaScript injection, custom headers and footers, encryption, watermarking, parallel conversions, and webhook-based asynchronous delivery. Targeted at developers and technical teams who need programmatic, high-fidelity document generation.
- Website Screenshot Generation API API capability that captures up-to-date screenshots of any website and produces customizable image output, enabling product teams to programmatically generate visual previews and social-ready images from URLs. Targeted at developers embedding visual capture features in their products.
- Open Graph Image Generation API API feature that generates Open Graph images for social media sharing by combining PDFShift-stored templates with variable parameters, enabling automated blog banner and social card creation. Targeted at content teams and CMS users on platforms such as WordPress, Next, and Nuxt.
Quantifiable outcome
- 74+ million conversions completed
- +3 more outcomes
Companies that use PDFShift
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments3 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
PDFShift technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- Yes
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration1 record
AI capability1 record
Feature8 records
PDFShift partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.
- StripecoreStripe is used to handle all payments made on the PDFShift service. The sole purpose is to increase security regarding the handling of sensitive payment information such as credit card details.
- Amazon S3corePDFShift integrates with Amazon S3 for document storage. Documents can be stored on PDFShift's S3 storage for 2 days, or directly delivered to user's own S3 bucket for increased privacy.
- OVHcoreEU customer data is stored in French datacenters hosted by OVH, providing EU data residency for GDPR compliance.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
PDFShift competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- DocRaptor: DocRaptor (by Gravity Department) is a direct competitor offering an HTML-to-PDF API powered by the Prince XML engine. It targets the same developer persona with similar pricing tiers and use cases (invoices, reports, contracts).
- Api2Pdf: Api2Pdf is a direct competitor providing HTML-to-PDF and URL-to-PDF APIs backed by wkhtmltopdf and Chromium engines. It targets developers with usage-based pricing very similar to PDFShift's credit model.
- HTMLPDF API: HTMLPDF API offers a Chromium-based HTML/URL-to-PDF conversion API targeting enterprise use cases. It competes head-to-head with PDFShift on rendering fidelity, parallel conversions, and webhook support.
- Prince (XML/HTML to PDF): Prince is an established commercial HTML+CSS-to-PDF engine used by DocRaptor and others. It is a foundational technology in the same space and competes on rendering quality for print-grade PDF output.
Broad incumbents
- Apryse (formerly PDFTron): Apryse is a larger, well-funded incumbent in the document SDK and PDF processing space. It offers HTML-to-PDF as part of a broader platform (viewers, editors, conversion) and competes for the same enterprise document workflows.
- Adobe PDF Services API: Adobe's PDF Services API is a broad incumbent offering HTML-to-PDF and a full suite of document services. It competes on enterprise credibility and integration depth rather than on developer pricing, but represents the same buyer need.
- CloudConvert: CloudConvert is a broad file-conversion API covering 200+ formats including HTML-to-PDF. It targets the same developer customer with a wider portfolio, positioning itself as a general-purpose alternative.
Emerging players
- Gotenberg: Gotenberg is an open-source Docker-based API for converting HTML, Markdown, and other formats to PDF using Chromium. It is an emerging, self-hostable alternative that some PDFShift customers may choose to avoid usage fees.
- Browserless: Browserless offers headless-browser-as-a-service with Chromium, enabling customers to build their own HTML-to-PDF pipelines. It overlaps with PDFShift for technical teams willing to manage conversion logic themselves.
- WeasyPrint: WeasyPrint is an open-source Python-based HTML/CSS-to-PDF library. While not an API service, it competes at the developer-decision layer for teams evaluating whether to build conversion in-house vs. use PDFShift.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
PDFShift social profiles
Digital presencePDFShift compliance and trust
Trust signalCompliance2 records
PDFShift financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
PDFShift leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
PDFShift funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
PDFShift M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about PDFShift
What does PDFShift do?
PDFShift provides a REST API that converts HTML documents and websites into pixel-perfect PDFs using a continuously updated Chromium rendering engine, with full CSS3, JavaScript injection, custom headers/footers, encryption, watermarks, parallel conversions (up to 50), and asynchronous webhook delivery. The same API also generates website screenshots and Open Graph images for social automation, and supports direct delivery to AWS S3 with HIPAA and GDPR compliance modes for healthcare and EU data handling.
Is PDFShift a public or private company?
PDFShift is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was PDFShift founded?
PDFShift was founded in 2018. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is PDFShift based?
PDFShift is headquartered in Paris, France, in the Europe region.
How does PDFShift make money?
Two revenue lines are on record. Credit-based Subscription is the primary driver. The others are annual Subscription Discount.
Who are PDFShift's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are DocRaptor, Api2Pdf, HTMLPDF API and Prince (XML/HTML to PDF). Broad incumbents are Apryse (formerly PDFTron), Adobe PDF Services API and CloudConvert. Emerging players are Gotenberg, Browserless and WeasyPrint.
Does PDFShift have an API?
Yes. PDFShift offers a REST API for converting HTML documents to PDF, generating screenshots, and creating Open Graph images. The API endpoint is https://api.pdfshift.io/v3/convert/pdf. Authentication uses API tokens via the X-API-Key header. Features include CSS and JavaScript injection, custom headers and footers, encryption, watermarking, webhooks for async responses, and parallel conversions. The API supports Python, NodeJS, PHP, Ruby, C#, Java, and cURL with code samples and guides available. Developer documentation is at docs.pdfshift.io.
What industry is PDFShift in?
PDFShift's product category is Document Conversion API. Its primary akta.pro industry code is MPAHAHAC, Cloud Encoding & Transcoding Services (SaaS/PaaS). Its NAICS code is 51821 and its SIC code is 7370.