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Comparison

PDF4.dev vs Gotenberg

Gotenberg is a Docker-based conversion API that turns HTML, URLs, and Office documents into PDFs. PDF4.dev is the full platform: template editor, Handlebars variables, live preview, REST API with auth, dashboard, and AI agent support. One is a conversion engine, the other is a complete PDF workflow.

Updated March 2026

This comparison is published by PDF4.dev. We aim for accuracy but acknowledge our perspective.

TL;DR

Choose PDF4.dev if you want

  • A template editor with live preview
  • Handlebars variables with auto-detection
  • REST API with built-in auth and API keys
  • Dashboard with generation logs
  • AI agent support via MCP

Choose Gotenberg if you want

  • Office document conversion (Word, Excel, PowerPoint)
  • Self-hosted Docker with full infrastructure control
  • An existing template system you want to keep
  • URL-to-PDF conversion

Feature-by-feature comparison

FeaturePDF4.devGotenberg
Template editorCode + visual editorNone (API only)
Live previewReal-time with accurate dimensionsNone
Template variablesHandlebars with auto-detectionNone (pre-render yourself)
PDF engineChromium (Playwright)Chromium + LibreOffice
Office conversionNot supportedWord, Excel, PowerPoint
URL to PDFNot supportedSupported
Variable detectionAuto-detected with sample valuesManual
API authenticationBearer token (SHA-256 hashed)No built-in auth
API documentationInteractive OpenAPI 3.1 (Scalar)Basic docs
Generation logsFull history with filtersNone
DashboardBuilt-inNone
Free PDF tools24 browser-based tools (compress, merge, split...)None
Batch generationCSV upload, variable mapping, ZIP downloadMultipart upload
Reusable componentsHeaders, footers, blocksNone
AI agent support (MCP)Built-in MCP serverNone
PriceGenerous free tierFree (open source)

What Gotenberg doesn't include

Gotenberg converts files to PDF. Everything around it, the template system, the editor, the preview, the auth layer, is on you to build.

What you need to buildDIY effortPDF4.dev
Template storage8-16hBuilt-in
Variable injection4-8hBuilt-in
Editor UI16-40hBuilt-in
Live preview8-16hBuilt-in
Auth + API keys4-8hBuilt-in
Generation logs4-8hBuilt-in
Dashboard UI8-16hBuilt-in
Total52-112 hours~5 minutes

At a $100/hour developer rate, that's $5200-$11200 of engineering time on top of Gotenberg itself. Plus ongoing maintenance.

When Gotenberg makes sense

Gotenberg is an excellent tool for specific use cases. If your workflow matches one of these, it may be the better choice:

  • Office document conversion: you need to convert Word, Excel, or PowerPoint files to PDF. Gotenberg handles this via LibreOffice, and PDF4.dev does not support Office formats.
  • URL-to-PDF capture: you want to convert live web pages to PDF by URL. Gotenberg supports this natively.
  • Existing template system: you already have a template engine (Jinja, EJS, Blade, etc.) and just need something to convert the rendered HTML to PDF.
  • Full infrastructure control: you need the conversion engine running inside your own Docker cluster with no external dependencies.

But if your use case is “I need to design HTML templates, inject data, and generate PDFs via API”, Gotenberg gives you only the last step. PDF4.dev gives you the entire workflow.

Frequently asked questions

Useful resources

Free tools

HTML to PDF converterMerge PDF

From the blog

Generate PDFs from HTML with Node.jsHTML to PDF benchmark 2026

Other comparisons

vs PDFMonkeyvs DIY Puppeteervs DocRaptorvs WeasyPrintvs wkhtmltopdfvs jsPDFvs PDFShiftvs PDFKitvs html2pdf.js

Try the full platform

Template editor, live preview, REST API, and dashboard. Start generating PDFs in 5 minutes.

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