Scaling Puppeteer for PDF generation is harder than it looks. Stop debugging memory leaks and font issues. Switch to PageSnap's managed API and get back to building your core product.
Puppeteer is great for local testing, but at scale, it's a nightmare. Most developers start with a simple page.pdf() script. But once you move to production, you hit the "Puppeteer Wall": zombie processes, high RAM consumption, and inconsistent rendering between local and server environments.
| Challenge | Self-Hosted Puppeteer | PageSnap API |
|---|---|---|
| Infrastructure | Manual Docker/Server setup | Serverless - Just a POST request |
| Memory Management | Common leaks & crashes | Isolated, high-concurrency clusters |
| Scaling | Vertical/Horizontal scaling needed | Instant batching (Up to 200 PDFs) |
| Advanced Features | Manual logic for Headers/S3/Wait | Built-in (display_header_footer, s3_path_url) |
| Cost | High server & maintenance hours | Pay-per-use (Credits never expire) |
Don't worry about Chromium dependencies, Linux font libraries, or GPU-acceleration flags. We maintain a high-performance Chrome cluster so you don't have to.
Puppeteer usually processes one page at a time unless you build a complex queue. PageSnap allows you to submit up to 200 contents (URLs or HTML) in a single API call. Use our webhook_url to receive a notification the moment they are finished.
Avoid the "blank PDF" problem. PageSnap implements the same advanced wait_until triggers you know from Puppeteer (load, domcontentloaded, networkidle0, networkidle2) plus a custom idle_time_after_loaded to ensure your dynamic charts and animations are fully settled.
Unlike other APIs that charge for every attempt, PageSnap offers 50 free sandbox requests per day. Perfect your layout using the "sandbox": true flag without touching your credit balance.
If you already have your HTML or URL ready, migrating is just changing a function call.
{
"contents": {
"urls": ["https://example.com/report"],
"htmls": ["<div>Custom HTML Content</div>"]
},
"options": {
"print_background": true,
"wait_until": "networkidle0",
"display_header_footer": true,
"header_template": "<div style='font-size:10px;'>Header - <span class='pageNumber'></span></div>",
"margin_top": "2cm"
}
}Stop spending hours every week debugging why a certain CSS Grid layout broke on your Linux server but worked on your Mac.
Puppeteer is a "RAM hog." Running it on the same server as your API can lead to 500 errors. PageSnap offloads that risk entirely.
Use our s3_path_url to stream PDFs directly to your own bucket, saving you from managing local temp files.
A: Yes. Use add_style and add_script in the options to inject custom logic right before the PDF is generated—just like page.addStyleTag in Puppeteer.
A: We support set_extra_http_headers, auth (Basic/Digest), and cookies via the options object, allowing our engine to access your protected routes securely.
A: You can include up to 200 items in the contents array per request, making it significantly faster than sequential Puppeteer scripts.
Join the developers who reclaimed their time by switching to PageSnap.
Get 60 Free Credits Per Month - No Credit Card Required