Comparison
TailPDF vs Puppeteer
Both use Chromium for pixel-perfect rendering. One requires you to manage Chrome instances — the other is an API call.
| Feature | Puppeteer | TailPDF |
|---|---|---|
| Rendering quality | Excellent (Chromium) | Excellent (Chromium) |
| Infrastructure | You run Chrome | Zero |
| Memory usage | ~200MB+ per instance | None (API) |
| Scaling | Browser pools, complex | Automatic (Cloudflare edge) |
| Docker required | Typically yes | No |
| Cold start | Seconds | Milliseconds |
| Screenshots | No (PDFs only) | |
| Full browser control | No (PDF-focused API) |
When to use Puppeteer
- You need screenshots, scraping, or full browser automation
- You want total control over the rendering pipeline
- Data must never leave your servers
When to use TailPDF
- You just need PDFs — not a full browser automation suite
- You don't want to manage Chrome, Docker, or browser pools
- You want an API call that returns a PDF — from any language
Code Comparison
Puppeteer
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');
// Launch Chrome (200MB+ RAM)
const browser = await puppeteer.launch();
const page = await browser.newPage();
await page.setContent(
'<div class="flex">Invoice</div>'
);
// Need to load Tailwind yourself
const pdf = await page.pdf({ format: 'A4' });
await browser.close();
// Don't forget: error handling,
// browser pools, memory limits,
// Docker config, scaling...TailPDF
const res = await fetch(
'https://api.tailpdf.com/pdf',
{
method: 'POST',
headers: {
'Authorization': `Bearer ${apiKey}`,
'Content-Type': 'application/json',
},
body: JSON.stringify({
content: '<div class="flex p-8">Invoice</div>',
}),
}
);
const pdf = await res.arrayBuffer();
// Done. No Chrome. No Docker. No scaling.