Only the 3 best screenshot APIs

I could have created a list of all APIs and list them, which I did in the past, but the practice shows that it wouldn’t help you much to simplify your search.

Trust me, I tried to list all the screenshot APIs (and yet missed a few) and it barely helped anyone to make a great decision.

So among almost one hundred APIs, I picked only 3 really the best screenshot APIs:

ScreenshotOne.com—the screenshot API for developers
Urlbox.com—the API you can really depend on
ScreenshotAPI.net—programmatic screenshots in seconds

These APIs, to my experience, indeed can guarantee you decent quality of service and are in active development. I reached out to the founders of these APIs and shared the post with them and asked if they wanted to add something or if they seemed it be unfair.

Also, apologies to any other products if I don’t mention you. There are indeed many more great APIs, but the goal is to simplify the search for solutions and not complicate it. Please, reach out to support@screenshotone.com with your proposition and I will consider updating the article.

But do you really need a screenshot API?

Don’t forget that while you have landed on the article to read about the best screenshot APIs, it might be that you don’t need a screenshot API at all.

Most of the time, you can start quickly rendering screenshots with Puppeteer or a similar solution for your language of choice. It is the cheapest option, except you often need proper servers to render websites with headless browsers.

But once you need to render screenshots at scale and you want to remove cookie banners, and glitches, and solve hundreds of other issues related to websites, you better go with any screenshot API and outsource that boring and often annoying work to the service that can do it for you at some fee.

Read more about why and how to choose a screenshot API.

1. ScreenshotOne.com—the screenshot API for developers

ScreenshotOne is one of the best solutions in the market, recently grew past 1000 active developers using it, rendering 1,000,000+ screenshots monthly and with high uptime for real screenshot renders.

ScreenshotOne in numbers

I must be open in advance that I am a founder of ScreenshotOne, one of the best screenshot APIs according to my customers, and we do whatever we can to deliver an excellent screenshot automation experience. But no matter how much we would want everybody to become my customer, we understand that it is impossible and our API is not for everybody.

Of course, I am not objective when describing ScreenshotOne, but I can prove to you, that it is one of the best certainly.

While ScreenshotOne supports Zapier and other no-code automation tools, my sole focus is developers and my goal is to offload them from the boring job of dealing with all headless browser and screenshotting issues.

No-code

We want to free developers’ time for more interesting tasks and tasks related to their business core.

As a software engineer with 10 years of experience, I understand developers’ needs weel and try to close any issues or problems as fast as possible.

Think of using ScreenshotOne as hiring a skilled developer for only $20+ a month (depending on your needs) to close all the boring tasks and issues related to screenshot automation.

We have plans and strategies to grow the API further and proved that for the last 2 years. We carefully listen to my customer’s demands and try to solve all current and future problems that arise for them.

By the way, you also can try our API for free and see if it fits you.

What you get if you go with ScreenshotOne:

Clean screenshots. We block cookie banners and other annoying pop-ups for you. You just get crisp screenshots that delight your customers.
Full-page screenshots. Lazy loading images, different glitches, whatever—we got you covered.
Videos with predefined scenarios like scrolling screenshots.
GPU rendering if needed.
Responsive support
Native SDK for your language of choice.
Caching on Cloudflare CDN for free, for up to 30 days!
Upload screenshots to any S3-compatible storage.
Proxies.
Choose the IP location. Geolocation coordinates, and whatever.
And more, I can continue forever.

And that’s only the small subset of benefits you can get if you go with ScreenshotOne.

A quick example of code for Node.js of you can render screenshots with ScreenshotOne:

// npm install screenshotone-api-sdk --save

import * as fs from "fs";
import * as screenshotone from "screenshotone-api-sdk";

// create API client
const client = new screenshotone.Client("<access key>", "<secret key>");

// set up options
const options = screenshotone.TakeOptions.url("https://example.com")
    .delay(3)
    .blockAds(true);

// generate URL
const url = client.generateTakeURL(options);
console.log(url);
// expected output: https://api.screenshotone.com/take?url=...

// or download the screenshot
const imageBlob = await client.take(options);
const buffer = Buffer.from(await imageBlob.arrayBuffer());
fs.writeFileSync("example.png", buffer);

// the screenshot is stored in the example.png file

If you have any questions or concerns, we would be happy to answer them. Please, feel free to reach out at support@screenshotone.com or just schedule a demo call.

2. Urlbox.com—the API you can really depend on

If ScreenshotOne is not a good fit for you, then go with Urlbox.

I am familiar with the founders and we have a long story of relationships. They even supported me on the ScreenshotOne Product Hunt launch.

I can’t forget that. But that’s not the reason, why I mention them. It is because their API is indeed the best.

They have been in business since 2012! And they strive for excellence. I just went to check their website, and they did so many great updates to it. It shows that their product is alive and they care about it.

Their service is decent, they have good customer reviews and I have never heard any bad word about them.

As for me, the main difference between ScreenshotOne and Urlbox is that they target different kinds of customers closer to the enterprise segment, but they do target individual developers and small companies, too. I believe you won’t be disappointed.

And their pricing structure. It is different from ScreenshotOne:

Their cheapest plan is still more expensive than ScreenshotAPI.net and ScreenshotOne, and you get fewer benefits. At the basic plan with $17 only, ScreenshotOne already supports asynchronous requests, webhooks, Zapier, and other no-code automation.

But it only makes if it is really important to you.

Their middle tier seems to be cheaper than ScreenshotOne’s, but if you were to compare actually the amount of screenshots they render and what they allow, it wouldn’t be cheaper. At the middle tier plan, ScreenshotOne already allows to render marketing videos and scrolling screenshots and many more screenshots, 10,000 instead of 5,000.

And the highest tier, that’s where Urlbox shines, as for me. For ScreenshotOne, it starts from $259/mo, but with Urlbox it is much much more affordable.

Urlbox also has native SDKs, a simple example for JavaScript:

// npm install urlbox --save

import Urlbox from "urlbox";

const urlbox = Urlbox(YOUR_API_KEY, YOUR_API_SECRET);

const options = {
    url: "github.com",
    thumb_width: 600,
    format: "jpg",
    quality: 80,
};

const imgUrl = urlbox.generateRenderLink(options);
// https://api.urlbox.io/v1/YOUR_API_KEY/TOKEN/jpg?url=github.com&thumb_width=600&quality=80

<img src={imgUrl} />;

I would probably give a practical try to both ScreenshotOne and Urlbox APIs and then decide which one I enjoy using more.

3. ScreenshotAPI.net—programmatic screenshots in seconds

For a long time, this API was in the first position of Google and it fully deserves it still, but we don’t have control over Google and they decide what to rank due to the ranking factors.

ScreenshotAPI.net is part of the XO Capital company. According to their blog, they bought the product a few years ago and did a great job of improving and growing it.

I just checked out their product and they keep improving it, recently, they added the scrolling screenshots feature, for example.

If ScreenshotOne or Urlbox pricing structure doesn’t fit you well, I would go with ScreenshotAPI.net. Their cheapest plan is only $9/mo, and they will deliver you decent-quality screenshots.

The main difference between ScreenshotOne, Urlbox, and ScreenshotAPI.net, is that the former is focused on building only the API, but the owners of ScreenshotAPI.net dedicate their time to other products, too.

The screenshot API is not a product that must be constantly developed, but when choosing the API I want to rely on, I would consider that factor, too—whether the owners of the API are focused and dedicate their full attention or not.

ScreenshotAPI.net doesn’t have an official SDK, but they support the HTTP protocol, so it is easy:

// npm install node-fetch

import fetch from "node-fetch";
import { writeFile } from "fs/promises";

async function captureScreenshot(token, url, options = "") {
    const response = await fetch(
        `https://shot.screenshotapi.net/screenshot?token=${token}&url=${url}&${options}`
    );
    const buffer = await response.buffer();
    await writeFile("screenshot.png", buffer);
}

const TOKEN = "YOUR_TOKEN_HERE";
const URL = "https://example.com";

captureScreenshot(TOKEN, URL);

All in all, it is a good product, and I would give it a try.

Summary

Today, ScreenshotOne and Urlbox are the best solutions in the market for screenshot automation both striving for excellence and keeping up daily with rising customer demands.

If you are a developer or small to medium and more focused on marketing tasks and want to generate different animated videos for outreach or engaging content, I would give you a chance to ScreenshotOne since it has more capabilities in this niche.

Otherwise, consider ScreenshotOne and Urlbox equal but different in the pricing structure. Choose whatever suits you best.

ScreenshotAPI is also a good choice if you need it. It is much cheaper to start with, has good reviews, and is almost on par with the best solutions by features in the screenshot API niche.

Frequently Asked Questions

If you read the article, but still have questions. Please, check the most frequently asked. And if you still have questions, feel free reach out at support@screenshotone.com.

Which screenshot API is the best?

The perfect screenshot API depends on your specific needs, including functionality and budget. The list provided is a useful reference, and we suggest considering our API—ScreenshotOne, as a potential option.

Who can benefit from screenshot APIs?

Screenshot APIs are tools designed for developers interested in automating the process of taking screenshots. This includes developers who want to add screenshot capabilities to their apps and website owners who need to track user interactions.

When and why use a screenshot API?

There is a lot of use cases for screenshot API. Starting from website archivation for historical reference and ending in automating personalized videos at scale, but not only.

3 best screenshot APIs in 2024