Guides / Comparison

A modern wkhtmltopdf alternative

wkhtmltopdf served a generation of invoice generators, but the project is archived and its patched-WebKit engine never learned flexbox, grid, or modern web fonts. Layouts that look fine in a browser silently break in production PDFs.

RasterKit prints through current Chromium, so the rule becomes simple: if it renders in Chrome, it renders in your PDF. No binaries to compile, no Qt patches, no servers to babysit.

Side by side

	wkhtmltopdf	RasterKit
Rendering engine	Patched WebKit (~2012, archived)	Current Chromium, continuously updated
Flexbox / Grid / modern CSS	Largely broken	Full support
JavaScript-rendered pages	Limited, flaky	Full support with wait controls
Hosting	Self-managed binary on your servers	Managed API, zero infrastructure
Headers/footers/page numbers	Basic	Chromium print templates
Products included	Single product	Screenshots + PDFs + OG images, one key, one bill

When wkhtmltopdf is the better choice

• You need fully offline, air-gapped PDF generation and accept the legacy engine
• Your templates are simple, table-based layouts that already work

When RasterKit is the better choice

• Your templates use any CSS written after 2013
• You want to delete browser-management code and servers
• You also need screenshots or social images — one integration covers all three

Try it in two minutes

curl -X POST https://rasterkit.com/v1/screenshot \
  -H "x-api-key: $RASTERKIT_API_KEY" \
  -H "content-type: application/json" \
  -d '{"url": "https://example.com"}' \
  -o screenshot.png

Get your free API key →

Comparison reflects public information as of June 2026. Spot an inaccuracy? Tell us and we'll fix it.