CraftMyPDF vs PDFMonkey: template style, limits and data handling compared

CraftMyPDF or PDFMonkey: the deciding difference

CraftMyPDF is the better fit if your templates are designed visually and you want US hosting and US dollar billing, while PDFMonkey is the better fit if your team writes HTML and CSS and wants unlimited templates with per-document extras. Both generate PDFs from a stored template plus JSON data through a REST API, and both list Zapier, Make and n8n connections.

The split is mostly about how templates are authored. CraftMyPDF's site says its editor needs no HTML or CSS. PDFMonkey's documentation describes code templates written in HTML, CSS and Liquid, rendered in a Chrome-based browser, alongside a newer visual Builder.

Entry plans and what they include

CraftMyPDF's entry paid plan is Lite at $29 a month, or $290 a year, for 1,200 PDFs and 6 templates, as read on its pricing page on 3 October 2026. Its Free plan gives 50 PDFs and 3 templates a month.

PDFMonkey's entry paid plan is Starter, with 300 documents a month and unlimited templates. Its Free plan gives 20 documents a month, and a 30-day trial with 300 documents starts when you confirm an account. PDFMonkey is a French company and publishes prices in euros only, excluding VAT, so we do not quote a dollar figure. Read the current euro price on its pricing page and convert at your card's rate. Yearly billing is advertised as 10% cheaper than monthly.

Side-by-side on nine criteria

What each one does that the other does not

Only CraftMyPDF: regional API endpoints in the US, Europe, Singapore and Australia, with data processed and stored in the chosen region. CraftMyPDF also lists an upload-to-your-own-S3 option from the Professional plan and e-signature requests that cost 10 credits each; we did not find either on the PDFMonkey pages we read. Image output is not a difference: both products generate images as well as PDFs.

Only PDFMonkey: a quota that never blocks you if pay-as-you-go is switched on. Extra documents are billed per document at the end of the cycle, so a busy month does not force a tier change. Its retention is also a plan setting, from 1 day on Free and Starter to unlimited on Pro+ and Premium, where CraftMyPDF's stored links expire within 7 days at most. PDFMonkey states that all its infrastructure runs on European servers, which suits EU data rules but is the opposite of what a US-only data policy needs.

One PDFMonkey restriction to note: the Free plan cannot load external images, fonts, CSS or JavaScript.

Who each product suits

• CraftMyPDF: small teams where a non-developer maintains report layouts, US companies that want data kept in a US region, and buyers whose vendor review asks for a SOC 2 report.
• PDFMonkey: developers who already have HTML templates, products with dozens of templates on a small plan, and teams with uneven monthly volume.

If neither description fits, the wider field is in our CraftMyPDF alternatives comparison, and plan-by-plan dollar figures are on the CraftMyPDF pricing page.

What switching between them involves

Templates do not transfer. A CraftMyPDF template is a visual layout with expressions in double curly braces. A PDFMonkey code template is HTML with Liquid tags. Moving in either direction means rebuilding each template and retesting it with real data.

1. List every template and the fields it uses. A field map makes this quick.
2. Rebuild the most complex template first, since it exposes the gaps.
3. Change the API call, key and webhook handling in your code or automation tool.
4. Run both services in parallel for one billing cycle and compare outputs, especially page breaks on long documents.