Screenshotlayer vs. URLbox: Screenshot API Features and Pricing

Screenshotlayer starts with a free plan for 100 snapshots a month and paid plans from $19.99 a month for 10,000 snapshots. URLbox offers a 7-day free trial and paid plans from $19 a month for 2,000 renders. The allowances and features differ, so the lowest headline price does not settle which is cheaper for your workload. This comparison uses published vendor information, not independent speed or accuracy tests.

ScreenshotNeo is the first alternative to consider: it removes consent banners, popups, and chat widgets before capture, bills only clean shots, and has a paid plan from $5 for 3,000 screenshots.

At a glance

Dimension	Screenshotlayer	URLbox
Trial or free entry	Free plan lists 100 snapshots per month; free use is labeled non-commercial.	7-day free trial, no credit card required, according to its product and pricing pages.
Published paid plans	Basic: $19.99/month for 10,000 snapshots; Professional: $59.99 for 30,000; Enterprise: $149.99 for 75,000.	Lo-Fi: $19/month for 2,000 renders; Hi-Fi: $49 for 5,000; Ultra: $99 for 15,000; Business: $498; Enterprise from $3,000.
Capture controls	Full-height and thumbnail captures, viewport settings, custom CSS, delay, cache TTL and refresh controls, user agent, and language headers.	Responsive viewport, full-page and element captures, hidden elements, custom JavaScript, proxy, and geographic render controls among broader options.
Outputs and extraction	Product page lists PNG, JPEG, and GIF; paid plan page also lists WebP.	Images, PDFs, and video; product and documentation describe text, HTML, and metadata extraction.
Operations	Paid plans list dedicated workers; Professional and Enterprise list S3/FTP export.	Multiple-language SDKs, render links, synchronous and asynchronous API flows, and webhooks are described.

Prices and plan details are vendor-listed and can change. Check the linked pricing pages before purchasing: Screenshotlayer pricing and URLbox pricing.

Screenshotlayer pricing and features

Screenshotlayer’s published pricing lists a free tier with 100 monthly snapshots, marked for non-commercial use. Its paid tiers are Basic at $19.99 monthly for 10,000 snapshots, Professional at $59.99 for 30,000, and Enterprise at $149.99 for 75,000. Annual billing discounts are displayed on its pricing page.

The product highlights full-height and thumbnail screenshots, viewport control, custom CSS, capture timing, cache TTL and refresh controls, and custom user agent and language headers. Output formats listed on its product page include PNG, JPEG, and GIF; WebP appears on the paid-plan page. Plan features differ: paid plans list dedicated workers, and Professional and Enterprise list S3/FTP export. Screenshotlayer describes dedicated workers as handling screenshot jobs concurrently, so compare the worker allowance with your peak workload rather than only monthly volume.

Sources: Screenshotlayer pricing and Screenshotlayer product page.

URLbox pricing and features

URLbox lists Lo-Fi at $19 per month for 2,000 renders, Hi-Fi at $49 for 5,000, Ultra at $99 for 15,000, Business at $498, and Enterprise from $3,000. The pricing page separates tiers by rendering needs and also shows differences in request rates, support, and business provisions. It offers a 7-day trial with no credit card required, according to its pricing and product pages.

URLbox describes URL and HTML inputs, images, PDFs, video, text/HTML/metadata extraction, and a wide set of rendering controls. Its documentation and product information describe responsive viewports, full-page and element screenshots, hiding elements, custom JavaScript, proxy and geographic controls, SDKs, render links, synchronous and asynchronous requests, and webhooks. Advanced features, render duration, and file size can affect usage, so read the plan’s consumption rules for the options you expect to use.

Sources: URLbox pricing, URLbox screenshot API, and URLbox documentation.

Which API is cheaper?

At the entry paid tiers, URLbox lists $19 for 2,000 renders, while Screenshotlayer lists $19.99 for 10,000 snapshots. That makes Screenshotlayer’s listed allowance larger at a similar monthly price, but this is not an apples-to-apples cost per usable capture: the products package different features, fidelity tiers, rate limits, and usage accounting. URLbox notes that duration, file size, and advanced options can affect render consumption. Screenshotlayer’s included volume and worker features also vary by plan.

For a meaningful comparison, calculate the monthly cost using the plan each service requires for your output format, page complexity, request rate, concurrency, storage/export needs, and expected retries. Confirm overage rules and annual discounts on the pricing pages immediately before committing. Do not assume the nominal render/snapshot count maps one-to-one to your application’s successful outputs.

How to choose for your workload

Define outputs. List the required image formats and whether your product also needs PDFs, video, or extracted text, HTML, or metadata.
Specify rendering controls. Identify needs such as viewport, full-page or element capture, injected CSS/JavaScript, custom headers, proxy, region, and delayed content handling.
Estimate traffic shape. Record monthly volume, peak requests per minute, concurrency, and latency expectations. A monthly allowance alone does not describe peak capacity.
Read usage accounting. Check how advanced options, long renders, larger files, retries, and cache behavior affect consumption, and whether unused requests are charged.
Evaluate operations. Compare SDK support, synchronous versus asynchronous jobs, webhooks, export destinations, access controls, and support provisions relevant to your deployment.
Trial representative pages. Use pages from your actual workload, including slow pages, custom fonts, canvas, delayed content, and long pages. Record success rate, output correctness, latency, and billable usage under the same conditions.

The research behind this article did not run a head-to-head test. Neither service can be declared faster, more accurate, or more reliable from the published plan information alone.

Cost, performance, and reliability considerations

Model effective cost. Divide expected monthly spend by successful, usable outputs after accounting for plan allowances, feature consumption, and failed or retried renders. Verify each provider’s billing treatment rather than assuming failures are free.
Measure your own pages. Capture duration depends on the pages and settings. Compare identical URLs, viewport sizes, wait conditions, and output formats. Include repeated runs to see variability.
Plan concurrency separately. Screenshotlayer’s dedicated workers are a plan feature; URLbox publishes request-rate differences by tier. Check the exact plan limits and how queues behave at peaks.
Build resilient callers. Use bounded timeouts, retry transient network or service failures with backoff, and avoid retrying permanent input or authorization errors. For asynchronous flows, persist job identifiers and process webhook events idempotently.
Protect sensitive pages. Both services render URLs from an application. Review each provider’s current documentation and terms for credentials, headers, data handling, and access controls before sending private content.
Cache carefully. If page freshness permits, cache results in your own application or use provider cache controls. Set expiration based on content change requirements; stale screenshots may be incorrect even when they reduce repeat work.

Or skip the browser setup

With ScreenshotNeo’s screenshot API, one GET request returns an image or PDF. Cookie banners are accepted or removed before the shot, along with known consent platforms, newsletter popups, and chat widgets; each cleanup step can be disabled. Bot checks, blank pages, timeouts, failed loads, and cache hits cost nothing, with the result identified by response headers. ScreenshotNeo also provides an MCP server so AI agents can take screenshots. The free plan includes 1,000 screenshots a month with no card; paid plans start at $5 for 3,000 screenshots.

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

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)

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}`);
await Bun.write('shot.webp', new Uint8Array(await res.arrayBuffer()));

Replace the placeholder with your API key. See the API documentation for parameters and response details. Create a free account for 1,000 screenshots a month with no card.

Common questions

Are Screenshotlayer and URLbox’s listed prices guaranteed?

No. They are prices shown on vendor pricing pages when this research was reviewed on October 3, 2026. Recheck the official pages at purchase time.

Which one is faster?

The reviewed sources do not establish a comparable independent speed result. Benchmark with representative pages and settings from your own application.

Do the listed render and snapshot counts mean the same thing?

Not necessarily. The services describe different features and usage rules. Check how the selected plan counts advanced rendering, long jobs, and files.

Can I use the free Screenshotlayer plan commercially?

The pricing page labels free usage non-commercial. Review its current terms if your use case is commercial.

Does URLbox offer more than screenshots?

Its product and documentation describe PDFs, video, and text, HTML, and metadata extraction in addition to image renders.