Apify Website Screenshot Actor vs Urlbox for Bulk Captures

Short answer: choose an Apify Actor when you want a programmable run that fits into Apify’s actor-and-dataset workflow; choose Urlbox’s Screenshot API when your application needs synchronous or asynchronous rendering through an API; choose Urlbox Capturedeck when you want managed bulk lists, schedules and team-oriented exports. These are different workflows, so there is no universal winner. For a product to shortlist first, ScreenshotNeo combines a screenshot API with an MCP server, removes common consent banners and popups before capture, and bills only clean shots.

“Apify Website Screenshot Actor” does not identify one unique product. This comparison uses One Scales’ community-maintained Website Screenshot Pro as the named Actor example. A separate community listing, Website Screenshot Generator, has a different feature and billing description. Their prices and capabilities belong to those individual listings, not to every Apify Actor or to Apify as a whole.

1. Choose the product that matches the capture workflow

Your workflow	Start with	Why	Check before committing
Integrate URL rendering into an application or service	ScreenshotNeo, first; then compare Urlbox API and a specific Apify Actor	ScreenshotNeo provides a one-request screenshot API and MCP tools for agents. Urlbox documents direct render links and synchronous or asynchronous JSON API requests. Apify Actors run as configurable automation tasks.	Request shape, output handling, viewport and full-page needs, rate or concurrency limits, failure billing, and persistence.
Run a list periodically and let a team review or export captures	Urlbox Capturedeck, alongside the specific Apify Actor	Capturedeck is the separate Urlbox bulk product; its listed plans describe schedules, simultaneous page counts, downloads and retention.	Batch size, schedule, exports, retention, storage integrations, and monthly successful-capture quota.
Build a custom pipeline around runs and result data	The exact Apify Actor listing	Website Screenshot Pro advertises JSON, CSV, API and automation outputs; the described flow uses an Actor run and retrieves output from its default dataset.	Actor-specific input schema, run and compute charges, output format, retries, and listing maintenance.

Urlbox’s Screenshot API and Capturedeck have separate interfaces and plan tables. A developer API comparison should use Urlbox API pricing; a scheduled bulk review comparison should use Capturedeck pricing. Do not compare one product’s per-minute request limit with another product’s simultaneous pages or monthly captures as if they were the same capacity measure.

2. What the named Apify Actors document

Website Screenshot Pro: a specific Actor listing

The One Scales listing identifies the Actor as onescales/website-screenshot-pro. It advertises full-page and viewport capture, multiple device sizes, and JSON, CSV, API and automation outputs. The listing displayed a starting price of $30 per 1,000 results and, when the research was retrieved in 2026, a 5.0 rating from four reviews. Those figures describe this Actor listing at that time; the rating sample is small and is not an independent quality assessment. See the Actor listing and its live pricing tab for current terms.

The documented integration shape is a POST to Apify’s Run Actor endpoint, followed by retrieval of the run output from its default dataset. Use the input schema and endpoint instructions shown for the exact Actor in its listing. The research available for this article does not establish a stable, complete request body for that Actor, so copying a guessed JSON payload would not be a reliable runnable example.

Website Screenshot Generator: a different listing

The Website Screenshot Generator listing describes bulk screenshots and PDFs from public pages, including viewport, full-page and selector capture. It describes pay-per-event charges for a run and successful captures, and directs buyers to its Pricing tab for exact rates. Do not transfer these features or billing terms to Website Screenshot Pro—or vice versa.

Apify evaluation checklist

Open the exact Actor listing and confirm its owner or maintainer, input schema, output schema and current pricing.
Choose the capture settings that match production: target URLs, viewport or device size, full-page mode, delay and proxy settings if applicable.
Run a representative batch that includes ordinary pages and the difficult pages you expect in production.
Record successful captures, failed captures, run charges, compute charges if applicable, retries, and any export or storage work.
Repeat at expected peak batch size and schedule frequency. A small trial run does not establish sustained throughput.

3. What Urlbox documents

Screenshot API for application integration

Urlbox documents two broad request paths: render links that return a render directly, and JSON API requests handled synchronously or asynchronously. Its API uses a project secret in a Bearer authorization header. The quickstart shows a JSON POST to /v1/render/sync; its documentation also identifies /v1/render/async. Async jobs can be handled with polling or a webhook, according to Urlbox’s product documentation. Start with the Urlbox overview, API reference and quickstart for the current request schema and code samples.

Urlbox’s product page describes URL and HTML rendering, more than 100 rendering options, and optional output links for screenshots, metadata, markdown text and hydrated HTML. These are vendor-described capabilities, not a guarantee that a given site or workload will render in a particular time.

Capturedeck for managed bulk capture

Capturedeck is a separate bulk-capture offering. Its pricing page lists scheduled captures and, on some tiers, timestamps and URLs, ZIP downloads, reports, storage integrations and one-year data retention. Check which features are included in the current tier and whether advanced scenarios use additional credits. The Capturedeck plan page is the relevant source for current terms.

4. Compare price and capacity without mixing units

The following are vendor-listed prices observed in 2026, not a head-to-head cost test. Prices and plan terms can change. Urlbox says prices exclude VAT on its API pricing page; confirm currency, billing cadence, taxes, trial terms and current quotas on the live pages before purchasing.

Product and plan	Listed price and quota	Other relevant listed limit or note
Website Screenshot Pro (Apify Actor)	Starting at $30 per 1,000 results	Actor-specific listing price; confirm how actual runs, failures and any compute are billed.
Urlbox Screenshot API Lo-Fi	$19/month for up to 2,000 renders	Listed request limit: 30 per minute.
Urlbox Screenshot API Hi-Fi	$49/month for up to 5,000 renders	Listed request limit: 100 per minute.
Urlbox Screenshot API Ultra	$99/month for up to 15,000 renders	Listed request limit: 300 per minute.
Urlbox Screenshot API Business	$498/month, shown as $495 base plus $3 per 1,000 renders	Listed request limit: 1,000 per minute.
Urlbox Capturedeck Solo	$29/month for up to 1,000 captures	Up to 50 webpages at a time.
Urlbox Capturedeck Basic	$49/month for up to 3,000 captures	Up to 100 webpages at a time.
Urlbox Capturedeck Standard	$99/month for up to 10,000 captures	Up to 300 webpages at a time.
Urlbox Capturedeck Pro	$299/month for up to 50,000 captures	Up to 10,000 webpages at a time; the page also lists an extra monthly charge for additional 10,000 captures.

Sources: the Website Screenshot Pro listing, Urlbox API pricing and Capturedeck pricing. Urlbox’s pricing page says failed requests are not charged and notes that longer or more complex requests can consume additional render credits. The Actor’s “results” unit and Urlbox’s “renders” or Capturedeck’s “captures” should not be assumed equivalent.

Build a like-for-like monthly estimate

Count unique URLs per month and captures per URL, including each viewport, device size, retry or scheduled run.
Specify the actual render configuration: full-page versus viewport, selector capture, delay, HTML versus public URL, and any difficult JavaScript-rendered pages.
For each option, calculate expected billable units using that product’s own definition. Include run or compute charges where the Actor listing applies them, and additional credits for complex Urlbox requests where applicable.
Add operational costs: downloading, exporting, moving files to storage, retaining them, and building a review workflow.
Use a representative batch to measure your own success rate and elapsed time. Apply observed retry rates to the monthly estimate, but label this as your workload estimate—not a vendor-wide benchmark.

There is no matched performance or total-cost benchmark in the available research. The listed prices alone do not show which option will cost less for your capture settings, failure rate, retries and retention needs.

5. Run a representative evaluation

Define the output. Decide whether each record needs an image only, a PDF, metadata, HTML, a dataset row, an archive or a report.
Choose representative pages. Include a normal page, a long or lazy-loaded page, a page with a consent banner, and a page with dynamic content or bot protection if those occur in your workload.
Match settings. Fix viewport, full-page behavior, wait policy and output format across tools. Record any setting a product cannot match.
Run the same batch. Use the expected batch size and schedule. Record wall-clock time, successful outputs, failed outputs, retries, actual billed units and manual cleanup.
Check delivery and retention. Verify that downloaded files open, result rows map to requested URLs, exports are usable and saved files remain accessible for the period your workflow requires.
Choose by operating fit. Prefer API control for application integration, managed schedules and review exports for team workflows, or Actor runs when the Apify automation and dataset model fits your pipeline.

6. Output retention and reliability

Urlbox’s quickstart says returned render URLs expire after 30 days unless the customer downloads the file or directs Urlbox to save it to cloud storage. Treat a returned URL as temporary delivery, not permanent storage. Capturedeck has separate listed retention terms; verify the selected plan. For every option, decide who downloads or archives outputs, how long files must remain available, and how a failed or partial batch is recovered.

For reliability, track each requested URL through a durable status such as pending, complete, failed or retryable. Preserve the source URL and capture configuration alongside the output. Make retries bounded and safe to repeat, and avoid treating a missing output as a successful capture. For scheduled jobs, alert on incomplete batches and verify that webhook or polling handlers can tolerate duplicate notifications and delayed completion. These are implementation practices; the retrieved product pages do not establish comparative reliability or an SLA for the workloads discussed here.

7. Or skip the browser setup

If you want a direct screenshot API call, ScreenshotNeo returns an image from one GET request. The following examples use the documented API base and adapt the sample target to this comparison. See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for request options and response details.

cURL

curl -G "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot" -d access_key=YOUR_API_KEY --data-urlencode url=https://stripe.com -o shot.webp

Python

import requests

r = requests.get(
    "https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot",
    params={"access_key": "YOUR_API_KEY", "url": "https://stripe.com"},
    timeout=90,
)
r.raise_for_status()
open("shot.webp", "wb").write(r.content)

Node.js

const q = new URLSearchParams({ access_key: 'YOUR_API_KEY', url: 'https://stripe.com' });
const res = await fetch(`https://api.screenshotneo.com/v1/shot?${q}`);
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Screenshot request failed: ${res.status}`);
const image = Buffer.from(await res.arrayBuffer());
await import('node:fs/promises').then(fs => fs.writeFile('shot.webp', image));

ScreenshotNeo removes cookie and consent banners, newsletter popups and chat widgets before capture; each step can be turned off. Bot checks, blank pages and failed loads are never billed, and response headers report the page verdict and billing status. Its MCP server includes take_screenshot, get_page_info and capture_pdf for Claude, Cursor and other MCP clients. The Free plan includes 1,000 screenshots per month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 screenshots. Sign up for 1,000 free screenshots a month, with no card required.

8. Troubleshooting bulk screenshot runs

Symptom	Likely cause	What to do
The Actor run completes but some URLs have no image	Actor-specific input, page access, timeout or per-item failure; a completed run does not necessarily mean every item succeeded.	Inspect the Actor’s dataset rows and error fields, confirm the listing’s input schema, then retry only failed URLs. Include failed items and any retry/run charges in the cost calculation.
The Apify estimate does not match the bill	Per-result pricing may not cover all run, event or compute charges, depending on the exact Actor.	Check that Actor’s live Pricing tab and run details. Do not extrapolate Website Screenshot Pro’s listing rate to another Actor.
Urlbox API requests are rejected	Incorrect project secret, authorization format or request schema.	Use the Bearer authorization format and current JSON schema in the API reference; keep the secret out of source control and client-side code.
Async renders appear stuck or are missing from the application	Polling or webhook handling may not match the documented asynchronous flow, or the application may discard delayed results.	Follow the current async documentation, persist job identifiers and statuses, and make callbacks safe to process more than once.
A previously saved Urlbox render link no longer works	The quickstart says returned render URLs expire after 30 days unless downloaded or saved to cloud storage.	Download the asset before expiry or configure the documented cloud-storage path for persistence.
Monthly usage is higher than the URL count	One URL may generate multiple renders due to viewports, repeat schedules or retries; complex Urlbox renders can use extra credits.	Estimate by capture instance and configuration, not unique URL count. Inspect actual usage and failed-request treatment on the relevant live plan page.
A batch finishes too slowly	Large pages, complex rendering, serial processing or a concurrency/rate limit can affect elapsed time.	Measure the representative workload, check the specific plan’s documented limits, and increase concurrency only within those limits. Do not infer speed from a quota or marketing claim.

9. FAQ

Is the Website Screenshot Actor an official Apify screenshot product?

The named Website Screenshot Pro page is a community Actor maintained by its developer. The research did not establish a first-party Apify screenshot product. Attribute capabilities and price to the listing itself.

Does Urlbox keep screenshot files permanently?

No such assumption is safe for returned API render URLs: Urlbox’s quickstart says they expire after 30 days unless downloaded or saved to cloud storage. Check the selected product and storage configuration.

Can I decide from published prices which one is cheaper?

Not reliably. Billing units, failed captures, retries, compute or event charges, complex renders and retention differ. Price a matched representative batch with the live terms.

Should I compare Capturedeck with the Urlbox API?

Only if you are explicitly comparing managed bulk operations with a developer integration. For a like-workflow comparison, use the Urlbox API for application rendering and Capturedeck for schedules, batch review and exports.

Sources and pricing note

Vendor pages consulted for this comparison: Apify Website Screenshot Pro, Apify Website Screenshot Generator, Urlbox API reference, Urlbox quickstart, Urlbox Screenshot API, Urlbox API pricing and Urlbox Capturedeck pricing. Prices, quotas and plan features are time-sensitive; the figures above reflect pages retrieved in 2026 and should be rechecked before purchase or publication.