DocRaptor
Turn HTML into pixel-faithful PDFs and spreadsheets with one API call.
About
DocRaptor is a developer API from Expected Behavior, a US shop operating since 2007, that converts HTML and CSS into PDFs and Excel files. The idea is simple: design your invoice, report, or ticket in HTML, POST it to the API, and get back a print-quality document with headers, footers, page numbers, and watermarks. Because it renders real HTML and CSS, teams keep full design control instead of wrestling with PDF layout libraries.
Getting started is free through a test mode that watermarks output, and paid plans start at $15 a month for 125 documents, with volume tiers scaling up significantly from there. It is a single-purpose tool, which is both the appeal and the limit: there is no editor, no desktop app, and no free production tier, so it fits backend document generation rather than ad-hoc PDF work. Documentation and client libraries cover the common languages. No independent benchmarks of rendering speed or fidelity are published; the quality claims are provider-stated.
What it can do
- Convert HTML and CSS to PDF with full layout fidelity
- Generate XLS spreadsheets from HTML as well
- Headers, footers, page numbers, and watermarks
- Test mode with free API access and watermarked output
- Synchronous and asynchronous document generation
- Client libraries for major languages
- Hosted rendering with no infrastructure to run yourself
Setup
Sign up at docraptor.com for an API key, then POST your HTML to the API endpoint. Test mode is free with a watermark.
Prerequisites
DocRaptor account and API key. Paid plan required for watermark-free production output.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 7/10
Scored 7/10 (metrics tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: Expected Behavior founded 2007 per vendor data; an independent dev.to walkthrough confirms the API workflow, free test mode with watermark, and the $15/mo Basic plan for 125 documents; Slashdot comparison data confirms the pricing tier. Strengths: dead-simple HTML-to-PDF with full CSS control, long operating history, generous test mode. Docked for: (1) no free production tier and per-document costs add up at volume; (2) single-purpose with no editing or conversion breadth; (3) quality claims are provider-stated with no independent benchmarks. License: proprietary SaaS.
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 7.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 8.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 2.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 7.0/10
- · Expected Behavior; founded 2007, United States
- · HTML/CSS to PDF and XLS API for backend document generation
- · Headers, footers, page numbers, watermarks; sync and async generation
- · Free test mode with API key and watermarked output
- · Client libraries for major languages
- · Single-purpose: no editor, desktop app, or free production tier
- · Per-document costs add up at volume
- · Rendering quality claims are provider-stated; no independent benchmarks
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.