PDFMonkey vs CraftMyPDF: Features and Pricing

Last checked: 26 October 2026. Prices and features change: if you spot something out of date, tell us and we’ll fix it.

We make PDFMonkey, so keep that in mind as you read. Everything we say about CraftMyPDF comes from CraftMyPDF’s own pages, listed at the bottom, and there’s a whole section on where they do better than us. Prices come from each company’s public pricing page: ours in euros excluding VAT, CraftMyPDF’s in US dollars.

TL;DR

Both products let you design a template once and generate PDFs or images from JSON through an API or no-code tools. CraftMyPDF packs more ready-made blocks into its visual editor: barcodes, charts, form fields, headers and footers. PDFMonkey’s Builder is more intuitive: fewer blocks, a clear layout and a live preview, so non-technical teammates can edit templates on their own. Developers get Code Templates in HTML, CSS and Liquid when they want full control. PDFMonkey also costs less at most volumes.

Choose PDFMonkey if you want:

• a more intuitive visual Builder your whole team can use, or HTML, CSS and Liquid templates for your developers;
• a low entry price (€5 for 300 documents, €15 for 3,000) and unlimited templates on every plan;
• pay-as-you-go on every paid plan rather than having to change plans when you run out;
• password-protected PDFs on every plan, Free included;
• EU hosting by default and official Workato and Glide integrations;
• to let AI agents like Claude Code or Cursor edit, preview and test your templates through our CLI and MCP server.

Choose CraftMyPDF if you need:

• a visual editor with built-in barcodes (100+ types), charts, form fields, and headers and footers with page numbers, or to turn existing PDFs into templates;
• a white-label template editor to embed in your own product;
• regional endpoints (US, Europe, Singapore, Australia) or your own S3/R2 bucket for generated files;
• a SOC 2 Type II report;
• a bigger free tier: 50 documents a month instead of 20.

Feature comparison

Pricing at equivalent volumes

Monthly billing, cheapest published option for each volume. For PDFMonkey we show the plan that covers each volume, and only count pay-as-you-go when that plan would cost more than CraftMyPDF. Yearly billing saves 10% on PDFMonkey and up to 17% on CraftMyPDF.

What the totals leave out:

• Retention and seats follow the plan. At 12,000 documents with PDFMonkey Pro, files are kept up to 7 days and you get 2 seats. Pro+ and Premium bring unlimited retention and seats.
• CraftMyPDF caps templates per plan: 6 on Lite, 15 on Plus, 50 on Professional, 1,000 on Premium.
• CraftMyPDF credits also pay for other operations: an e-signature request uses 10 credits, a watermark 0.5.

Where CraftMyPDF is the stronger choice

CraftMyPDF is the better pick if your team wants everything in a visual editor, including barcodes, charts, form fields and page numbers, if you start from existing PDF forms, if you want to embed a white-label editor in your own SaaS, or if you need regional processing outside the EU, your own storage bucket or a SOC 2 Type II report. It also offers a collection of ready-made templates, such as invoices.

If you’ve read older comparisons

A few comparison pages still describe PDFMonkey as it was years ago. Here’s how things stand on 26 October 2026:

• Retention is not capped at one year. It is unlimited on Pro+ and Premium. (docs)
• PDFMonkey is not developers-only. The visual Builder needs no code. (docs)
• There are two official SDKs, Ruby and Node.js, so PDFMonkey isn’t tied to Rails.
• Image generation is available in WebP, PNG and JPG. (docs)
• A GDPR Data Processing Agreement is available, and all data is hosted in the EU. (docs)

Moving from CraftMyPDF to PDFMonkey

• Templates are rebuilt, either in the Builder (visual) or as a Code Template (HTML, CSS, Liquid). There is no import from CraftMyPDF’s editor format.
• Expressions become Liquid filters and tags in Code Templates, or bindings and the Logic panel in the Builder.
• Barcodes other than QR codes can be drawn with a JavaScript library loaded in your template.
• Headers, footers and page numbers need a Code Template, through the template settings or Paged.js.
• API calls become a POST /api/v1/documents with a document_template_id and your JSON payload. Use the sync endpoint for a one-request flow, or webhooks for volume.
• If you rely on your own bucket, listen to the webhook and copy each file from its download URL to your storage.
• No-code scenarios in Zapier, Make or n8n only need the generation step swapped for the PDFMonkey one.

The 30-day Pro trial (300 documents, no credit card) is enough to try a migration on a real template.

FAQ

Does PDFMonkey delete documents after one year at most?

No. Retention is set per template. The maximum is 1 day on Free and Starter, 7 days on Pro, and unlimited on Pro+ and Premium, where documents can be kept as long as you want.

Does PDFMonkey have a visual editor like CraftMyPDF?

Yes. The PDFMonkey Builder is a drag-and-drop editor that needs no code. Code Templates (HTML, CSS and Liquid) are the other option. Each template uses one or the other. CraftMyPDF’s editor has more ready-made components: 100+ barcode types, a chart component, form fields, and headers and footers with page numbers. The PDFMonkey Builder has fewer blocks, which makes it more intuitive: you find your way around quickly and see a live preview of your test data as you edit.

Is PDFMonkey cheaper than CraftMyPDF?

Up to about 12,000 documents a month, generally yes: €5 for 300 documents and €15 for 3,000 on PDFMonkey, versus $29 for 1,200 and $49 for 3,000 on CraftMyPDF (monthly billing). Around 40,000 documents the totals are close. PDFMonkey also keeps templates unlimited on every plan.

Can I keep my data in Europe with both?

Yes, in different ways. PDFMonkey processes and stores everything in the EU (Paris and Frankfurt) by default. CraftMyPDF offers four regional endpoints, including Europe, and lets you write files to your own AWS S3 or Cloudflare R2 bucket from the Professional plan.

Is PDFMonkey SOC 2 certified like CraftMyPDF?

No. PDFMonkey holds no SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certification; it documents its security measures and offers a GDPR Data Processing Agreement. CraftMyPDF states it has completed a SOC 2 Type II audit.

Sources

Checked on 26 October 2026:

• CraftMyPDF: pricing, home page, enterprise features, data protection and security, invoice templates, QR codes and barcodes, charts, sections, form fields, PDF pages
• PDFMonkey: plans, pricing, retention, password protection, data storage, compliance and DPA

Looking at other options? See all our comparisons.