ScreenshotAPI vs Urlbox for Website Screenshots

Short answer: ScreenshotNeo is the first alternative to try if you want clean website screenshots, billing only for clean results, and a low-cost paid entry plan. Between ScreenshotAPI.to and Urlbox, both are hosted APIs with substantial overlap for everyday website screenshots and PDFs. ScreenshotAPI.to’s published comparison describes a free monthly allowance and more renders at some entry-level prices; Urlbox lists additional output formats such as AVIF, SVG, and MP4 video. Those claims do not establish which service renders a page better, and prices and plan limits can change. Choose based on your required outputs, real monthly volume, request rate, cache behavior, and operational requirements—not the headline price alone.

This guide interprets “ScreenshotAPI” as ScreenshotAPI.to, the provider whose published comparison discusses Urlbox. It is a different service from ScreenshotAPI.com. Do not apply ScreenshotAPI.com’s metered pricing or product claims to ScreenshotAPI.to.

1. Quick comparison

Question	ScreenshotAPI.to	Urlbox
Best reason to consider it	The published comparison lists a free monthly tier and more renders at some entry price points.	Consider it if you need an output or service term it lists, such as AVIF, SVG, MP4, or an applicable enterprise plan.
Common capture needs	The vendor comparison lists common image formats, PDF, full-page capture, custom viewports, dark mode, wait strategies, selector waits, ad/cookie-banner blocking, signed URLs, retina output, and stealth mode for both.
Additional formats in the comparison	PNG, JPEG, WebP and PDF are among the common formats listed.	The comparison additionally lists AVIF, SVG, and MP4 video. Verify current availability and plan access with Urlbox.
Integration patterns	The comparison describes familiar screenshot parameters and a migration mapping. Check the live API reference for current details.	Urlbox documents render links and synchronous or asynchronous JSON API requests.
Pricing evidence	Figures below come from ScreenshotAPI.to’s dated comparison.	Urlbox’s official pricing page lists its plan figures and describes quotas, request rates, cache behavior, storage, support, and SLA tiers.

The feature comparison is published by ScreenshotAPI.to, so treat its statements about both vendors as vendor-authored comparison material, not independent testing. Neither the cited sources nor this guide provide side-by-side rendering benchmarks or independently measured uptime.

2. Pricing and quotas

ScreenshotAPI.to’s comparison page says it was last updated June 29, 2026. It reports these figures:

Service and plan	Published price	Published allowance
ScreenshotAPI.to free	Free	200 screenshots/month
ScreenshotAPI.to Starter	$19/month	5,000 screenshots/month
ScreenshotAPI.to Growth	$49/month	25,000 screenshots/month
ScreenshotAPI.to Scale	$149/month	100,000 screenshots/month
Urlbox Lo-Fi	$19/month	2,000 renders/month
Urlbox Hi-Fi	$49/month	5,000 renders/month
Urlbox Ultra	$99/month	15,000 renders/month

These are dated comparison claims, not timeless price guarantees. Urlbox’s official pricing page independently lists Lo-Fi at $19/month for up to 2,000 renders, Hi-Fi at $49/month for up to 5,000, Ultra at $99/month for up to 15,000, Business at $498/month, and custom Enterprise from $3,000/month. It also describes tier-specific request-per-minute limits, integrations, support, and SLA terms. Check the live plan page for current entitlements before buying.

Compare effective cost, not just plan price

1. Estimate monthly successful captures, including retries and any separate render sizes or formats your workflow needs.
2. Check whether cached results count against quota. Urlbox says render links are cached for 30 days by default, with TTL and force options; it says cached screenshots served from cache do not count against quota, while first-time renders or REST API requests do.
3. Compare request-per-minute limits against peak traffic. A monthly allowance does not tell you how quickly a burst can be processed.
4. Include storage and delivery in the design. Urlbox says Hi-Fi and above can store to the customer’s S3 bucket, and Ultra and above support S3-compatible storage.
5. Confirm whether the format and operational features you need are on the plan you priced.

Urlbox describes successful renders as the billable unit in its pricing FAQ. Its cache rules can make render-link traffic behave differently from direct REST API requests. Model your own request pattern and verify the current terms rather than assuming every API call has the same quota effect.

3. Features and output formats

Shared capabilities reported in the comparison

ScreenshotAPI.to’s comparison lists both services for PNG, JPEG, WebP, and PDF; full-page screenshots; custom viewport sizes; dark mode; wait strategies and CSS selector waits; ad and cookie-banner blocking; signed URLs; retina output; and stealth mode. The comparison is a useful checklist, but it does not prove every feature is available on every current plan or behaves identically. Verify the API reference and plan page for your intended configuration.

When Urlbox’s extra listed formats matter

The comparison lists AVIF, SVG, and MP4 video for Urlbox in addition to the common formats. These can be decisive if a downstream system requires a particular format or a video capture. Confirm the current format support, plan entitlement, and constraints directly with Urlbox. Do not infer from a format list that every URL or capture configuration will produce an equivalent result.

Workflow and operations

Urlbox’s documentation describes converting URLs and HTML into screenshots, PDFs, and videos, and extracting text, HTML, and metadata. It documents render links that can be embedded in image tags, plus synchronous and asynchronous JSON API requests. Its docs also describe use cases such as thumbnail generation, previewing copy, release checks at multiple viewport sizes, Open Graph images, PDF exports, and video previews. These are vendor-proposed workflows, not independently verified outcomes.

For a production evaluation, compare the following against your own requirements:

• Image types, PDF settings, and any video or vector output required downstream.
• Full-page capture versus a specific element, viewport and device sizing, and retina scale.
• Wait conditions, cookies, headers, authentication, and behavior on pages that load content after navigation.
• Sync response latency versus asynchronous jobs and webhook handling.
• Cache key, cache duration, forced refresh behavior, and whether cached delivery consumes quota.
• Peak request rate, support level, privacy options, storage destination, and SLA terms for your plan.

4. Which service should you choose?

Try ScreenshotNeo first if you want cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets removed before capture, with bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads never billed. Its paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 screenshots, and its free plan includes 1,000 per month without a card.

For the two services in the title, consider ScreenshotAPI.to when the reported free allowance or entry-tier render volume fits your test or workload. Consider Urlbox when a currently supported output such as AVIF, SVG, or MP4, or a service term on its plan grid, is a requirement. For either provider, validate the live pricing and feature details and run representative pages through the actual workflow before committing.

Do not choose on a universal “better screenshot quality” claim: the available research does not include independent side-by-side visual tests, performance measurements, or uptime measurements.

5. Migration and implementation checklist

The ScreenshotAPI.to comparison gives a starting mapping for common parameters such as URL, width, height, format, full-page capture, dark mode, waits, and delay. It says the request patterns are similar but authentication headers change. Treat that as a migration checklist, not a guarantee that all parameters or behavior match.

1. Inventory every option used in production, including defaults that may not appear in your application code.
2. Map each parameter to the destination API’s current reference, including authentication and output format.
3. Capture a fixed set of representative pages: static, long, authenticated, lazy-loaded, and interaction-dependent pages where relevant.
4. Compare image dimensions, cropping, page completeness, output encoding, and error behavior.
5. Test cache hits, forced refresh, concurrency, retries, and asynchronous completion if your workflow uses them.
6. Roll out gradually and monitor successful renders, failures, quota consumption, and delivery latency.

Use both providers’ official docs for exact request schemas. Urlbox’s API supports render links and sync or async JSON requests; the comparison’s parameter mapping is only an initial guide to moving between APIs.

6. Troubleshooting and edge cases

Symptom	Likely cause	What to check
Output is blank or incomplete	The page may still be loading content when capture starts, or the page may require a particular wait condition.	Use the provider’s documented wait options, test a selector that appears when the needed content is ready, and compare a fresh capture with a cached result.
Lazy-loaded content is missing	Content may load only after scrolling or another interaction.	Verify the provider’s full-page and lazy-load behavior in its current docs; test the actual page and required content.
One service accepts a request the other rejects	Parameter names, defaults, authentication, or feature support may differ.	Check the destination API reference rather than relying only on a parameter mapping. Verify output and plan access.
Quota runs out earlier than expected	First-time renders, direct API calls, retries, or additional capture variants may consume quota differently from cached link delivery.	Review the provider’s current billing definition and cache behavior. For Urlbox, distinguish cached render-link delivery from first-time renders and REST API requests.
Requests are slow or throttled during bursts	The plan’s request-per-minute limit or the capture workload may constrain throughput.	Check current rate limits, queue work, use asynchronous requests where appropriate, and avoid unbounded retries.
Format is unavailable	The requested format may not be supported for that endpoint or plan, or the comparison may describe a feature whose entitlement changed.	Confirm format and plan support in the provider’s live docs and pricing page before building downstream assumptions.
Cached content looks stale	A render link may return a cached capture within its configured lifetime.	Review TTL and force-refresh options. Urlbox says render links default to a 30-day cache and documents TTL and force options.
Private page capture fails	The target may require authentication or access from the capture service.	Check documented authentication, privacy, and request options. Do not assume two APIs handle credentials or private network access the same way.

For reliability, make capture jobs idempotent where possible, bound retries, and record request identifiers and outcomes. If using async capture, persist job state and handle webhook delivery according to the provider’s documentation. The cited comparison does not establish comparative timeout rates or delivery guarantees; verify those requirements directly with each provider.

7. Or skip the browser setup

ScreenshotNeo is a website screenshot API and MCP server from Yorker Media. One GET request takes a URL and returns PNG, JPEG, WebP, or PDF. Cookie banners, popups, and chat widgets are removed before the shot; bot checks, blank pages, and failed loads are never billed, and response headers report the page verdict and billing status. AI agents can use its MCP server tools to take screenshots, get page information, and capture PDFs.

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,
)
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}`);

See the ScreenshotNeo API documentation for request options. The API also supports full-page capture, CSS selector capture, device presets and custom viewports, dark mode, retina scale, PDF settings, HTML/CSS capture, custom CSS and JavaScript, clicking or hiding elements, wait conditions, request blocking, custom headers and cookies, user agent and authorization, timezone and geolocation, transparent backgrounds, resizing, configurable caching, signed image links, async jobs with signed webhooks, bulk capture of up to 100 URLs per call, a usage API, and an OpenAPI spec. The parameter names used by other screenshot APIs also work to make switching easier.

There is a free tier with 1,000 screenshots per month and no card. Paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 screenshots; higher tiers are $15 for 15,000, $39 for 60,000, $99 for 250,000, and $249 for 1,000,000. Yearly billing gives two months free, and every feature is available on every plan. Start with 1,000 free screenshots a month, no card required.

8. Frequently asked questions

Is ScreenshotAPI the same as ScreenshotAPI.com?

No. This comparison refers to ScreenshotAPI.to. ScreenshotAPI.com is a separate service; its pricing and feature claims should not be attributed to ScreenshotAPI.to.

Does Urlbox have video capture?

ScreenshotAPI.to’s comparison lists MP4 video for Urlbox, and Urlbox’s docs describe video capture. Verify current format and plan availability in Urlbox’s own documentation.

Does the research prove one API is faster?

No. It contains no independent side-by-side performance benchmark or measured uptime comparison. Test your own representative pages and traffic pattern.

Can I use screenshots directly in an HTML image tag?

Urlbox documents render links for embedding in image tags. Check its current docs for the exact URL format, authentication, and caching behavior.

Where can I verify current Urlbox pricing?

Use Urlbox’s official pricing page; plan pricing and included quotas can change.