PDFShift
Hosted HTML-to-PDF API running headless Chromium behind a single REST endpoint.
Jobs Convert
Since 2018
Operated by PDFShift SASU
Opens the vendor's own site.
Jobs covered
Open a task to see exactly what the vendor documentation supports.
Convert
Browse all convert toolsconverting HTML, raw HTML or a URL to PDF through PDFShift's hosted REST API at https://api.pdfshift.io/v3/convert/pdf, where the current site and API documentation describe headless Chromium rendering, CSS/JavaScript/webfonts, headers and footers, page numbering, password protection/watermarks, and documented screenshot, PNG, JPEG, WEBP and Open Graph image outputs where the API supports them. The scope records HTML/raw-HTML/URL-to-PDF conversion and the documented image/screenshot modes, notes that credits are charged by generated output size (one credit per under-5-MB output), and makes no Office/Word/Excel conversion, generic PDF editing, OCR, redaction, signing or self-hosted-service claim
Where your files are processed
Files leave your device
We observed a file upload to api.pdfshift.io.
This is a vendor-hosted HTTP API: HTML/raw HTML or a URL is POSTed to https://api.pdfshift.io/v3/convert/pdf and rendered on PDFShift servers. Default conversion is in memory with no traces after the request, but filename/webhook storage on PDFShift S3, log_request raw-request storage, and s3_destination/is_gdpr/is_hipaa changes are documented exceptions; those are vendor statements, not independently tested.
The vendor states EU customer data is stored in OVH France; non-EU customer residency and the S3 region are not established, and the privacy terms contain broader transfer caveats. Residency is therefore recorded as unknown rather than asserting an EU-only service.
What it does
PDFShift is a hosted conversion API that renders HTML, raw HTML or a URL to PDF with headless Chromium, and can also produce PNG, JPEG, WEBP and Open Graph image outputs where documented. It supports modern CSS, injected stylesheets and JavaScript, webfonts, custom headers and footers with page numbering, and optional password protection or watermarks through the REST API at api.pdfshift.io.
Billing is by generated output size: one credit covers under 5 MB of generated output, so output size determines cost rather than a fixed document count. The free plan is 50 credits/month with a 15 MB file-size cap and 30-second timeout; paid plans currently start at Startup USD 9 for 500 credits, with 250 MB file size and 100-second timeout on the paid endpoint.
The API requires an X-API-Key and an account. Default rendering is in memory with no remaining traces after the request, but filename/webhook storage and log_request logging are documented exceptions; optional s3_destination and is_gdpr/is_hipaa settings alter storage.
The product is vendor-hosted, not self-hosted or local. PDFShift's current structured data gives founding date 2018, and the operator is PDFShift SASU.
Best for
Product and back-office teams that need HTML, raw HTML or a URL rendered to PDF or a documented image/screenshot output by a Chromium-based hosted API, at low to moderate volume, without running their own Chromium fleet.
Worth knowing
PDFShift is a hosted API: HTML, inline data and URLs you ask it to fetch go to PDFShift servers, so it is unsuitable for content that cannot leave the infrastructure. The free plan is 50 credits/month, 15 MB maximum file size and 30-second timeout; paid plans currently have a 250 MB file size and 100-second timeout, with Startup USD 9/500 credits and larger plans as listed by the current pricing endpoint.
No GBP price is verified and no synthetic conversion is made. Default conversion is in memory, and PDFShift says no traces remain after the request, but filename and webhook parameters store the generated PDF on PDFShift S3 for two days, log_request stores the raw request, and s3_destination, is_gdpr and is_hipaa alter storage; those vendor statements were not independently tested.
PDFShift says EU customer data is stored in OVH France, but non-EU residency and the S3 region are not established and the privacy terms contain broader transfer caveats, so this is not a universal France-only guarantee. Authenticated free conversions are not watermarked; sandbox/unauthenticated requests can be watermarked, and the free-plan watermark should not be confused with that sandbox behaviour.
PDFShift does not guarantee any SLA level. Chromium-based rendering is not identical to every desktop rendering environment; print styling, font availability, viewport size and load timing can change output, and no fidelity comparison was run here.
Credit accounting is by generated output size, not document count. It is not an Office/Word/Excel converter, a general PDF editor, an OCR tool, a redaction tool or a signing service; redaction is recorded as absent from the documented scope rather than as a security guarantee.
No source licence is offered.
Details, and where each comes from
Vendor statements, our own reading of their pages, and the things nobody has established yet, each answered separately. Where we have not confirmed something it says so rather than guessing, and a row nobody has established is greyed out.
- Versions covered
- API
- Website
- pdfshift.io
- Requires an account
- Yes
- Free tier
- Yes
- Watermark on the free tier
- No
- Maximum file size
- 250 MB
- Batch processing
- Yes
- Data residency
- Not verified
- Open source
- No
- Self-hostable
- No
- Licence
-
Proprietary hosted SaaS.
Proprietary hosted SaaS. PDFShift SASU, a French company, is the provider; the terms describe the service as SaaS offered free and paid.
The API requires an X-API-Key. Free users get 50 credits/month with a 15 MB file-size cap and 30-second timeout; paid plans currently have a 250 MB file size and 100-second timeout, with plans from Startup USD 9/500 credits; no GBP price is verified, so no currency conversion is made.
No source licence is offered.
- Redaction
- No redaction feature
- Programmatic access
- HTTP API
- Last availability check
- Responded in 459 ms 21 October 2026
Checked automatically by our own runner, not reported by the vendor. 100% of our last 30 checks got a response.
What the redaction verdict rests on
From the vendor's own documentation, read 22 September 2026. Not tested by us.
What that does not establish
The vendor’s own site was read on 22 September 2026 and contains no mention of redaction, sanitisation, blackout or whiteout. Absence from a vendor’s own material is not proof that a feature does not exist - it may be undocumented, or on a page the reading did not reach - but for a NEGATIVE claim it is the strongest evidence available, and it is weaker than a positive quote.
Recorded as such rather than presented as certainty.
What the vendor says
Claims are labelled rather than repeated as fact. Where we have checked something ourselves, it says so and shows when. Checked means we read the vendor's own page and it says what we recorded - not that we tested the behaviour, unless the note says we did.
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“Once the request is done, there are no remaining traces of your data on our servers. All is done in memory.”
Checked by us - the source only partly supports this Read 22 September 2026
The sentence is verbatim on the page - "Once the request is done, there are no remaining traces of your data on our servers. All is done in memory." - but the same page goes on to name three documented ways to make it false, so partial is the honest verdict rather than confirmed.
Under a heading reading "Special conditions", the page states that the parameters filename, webhook and log_request each cause the generated PDF to be written to PDFShift's S3 bucket and returned as a URL instead of held in memory: "In that case, we do store the document. If your documents requires no storage at all, you must not use these parameters." It adds that log_request stores the request body in raw, against a default in which logs hold only "a irreversible hash used for comparison purpose".
So the claim is true of the default path and false of three options a customer may well be using, and the page offers no indication of which path a given account is on. Two mitigating facts, also from the page, belong with it: an s3_destination parameter keeps even the stored output out of PDFShift's bucket, and the is_gdpr and is_hipaa flags force the no-storage behaviour regardless of the other parameters.
Recorded as a defect in the claim's unconditional wording rather than as misconduct - the vendor discloses all of this, in the same document, under a heading that invites the reader to look. We have not called the API and no control was run.
Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- 26184da475804da8079109109864e864566d5f5c2024d217bac6e3f94ea6b61e
How we checked
Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://help.pdfshift.io/how-do-you-handle-sensitive-documents re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-help-pdfshift-io-how-do-you-handle-sensitive-documents-0403a633.txt.
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“But despite all this, we can't, and we won't guarantee any level of SLA, being at 99.999%, 99.99% or event 99.9%, and the reason is simple;”
Checked by us - the source says this Read 22 September 2026
Confirmed verbatim, including the vendor's typo ("event 99.9%" for "even 99.9%"), which is preserved rather than corrected. This is the most refreshing claim in the tier: asked whether it guarantees an SLA, the vendor says plainly that it does not and will not, at any of the three levels named.
Most vendors in this index assert a number; this one refuses to. It is the same vendor whose retention claim was recorded as partial earlier in this campaign for omitting three storage parameters, so the index holds both a candid refusal and an incomplete claim from the same company - which is why each is recorded on its own evidence.
Standing: Re-read and matched byte for byte
Check it yourself: the source, the SHA-256, and how we checked
- From
- the text a browser renders
- SHA-256
- e8406fe4470dacf538e56464bdc5e3493828e5d362faae2a1ab43c68766961bc
How we checked
Re-verified verbatim on 2026-09-22: https://help.pdfshift.io/what-is-your-sla-can-you-guarantee-a-999-a-9999 re-rendered in headless Chrome with scripts/render-page.mjs and the claim's wording found in the rendered text. Originally verified on 2026-09-21. sourceHash is the SHA-256 of the re-rendered text, held as rv-help-pdfshift-io-what-is-your-sla-can-you-guarantee-a-999--2b39cad5.txt.
Each claim is quoted from the vendor's own pages. This section describes what we have and have not checked - it is not a judgement about anyone.
Sponsorship is distribution, not an endorsement or a promise of search rankings, AI citations, traffic, or sales. This listing is a free entry, compiled from published sources.