Comparison

TailPDF vs Prince XML

Prince XML is the gold standard for print-quality PDFs — at $3,800. TailPDF starts free and renders Tailwind CSS natively.

Feature Prince XML TailPDF
Starting price $3,800 (perpetual license) Free (100 PDFs/mo)
CSS support Excellent (CSS Paged Media) Excellent (Chromium)
CSS Paged Media spec Full Via Chromium (partial)
Tailwind CSS No special support Native
Architecture Desktop/server license Cloud API
Google Fonts Manual Automatic
Print-quality output Excellent Excellent

When to use Prince XML

  • You need full CSS Paged Media support for print publishing
  • You want a perpetual license with no API dependency
  • Budget isn't a constraint — $3,800+ upfront works for you

When to use TailPDF

  • You use Tailwind CSS, Flexbox, or modern web CSS
  • You want API-based generation without spending $3,800 upfront
  • You're building a SaaS that generates PDFs at scale

Code Comparison

Prince XML

# $3,800 license + installation
prince input.html -o output.pdf

TailPDF

# Free tier, instant setup
curl -X POST https://api.tailpdf.com/pdf \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"content": "<div class=\"p-8\">...</div>"}'

Also compare TailPDF with:

wkhtmltopdf Dompdf Puppeteer

High-quality PDFs. No $3,800 license.

TailPDF produces excellent PDFs from Tailwind CSS — starting free. Scale as you grow, pay as you go.

Try TailPDF free View Documentation

No credit card required • 100 free PDFs every month