Comparison
Formfeed as a PDFMonkey alternative
PDFMonkey is a PDF and image generation API on European servers, built around Liquid code templates and a visual Builder. Formfeed covers the same job with Liquid included, and extends it to Jinja2 and Handlebars, Word and PowerPoint templates, templates as files in your repository with tests in CI, and batches of up to 1,000 documents in one request that end in a zip.
Last checked 2026-10-17 · PDFMonkey: pricing page
Free plan with 100 units a month, no credit card
| Formfeed | PDFMonkey | |
|---|---|---|
| Template languages | Jinja2, Liquid and Handlebars with the same helpers; the same tags in your own Word and PowerPoint files (Starter and above) | Liquid |
| Template editing | Code editor in the browser with autocomplete, diagnostics and a paginated preview in which the wording can be edited; a canvas for image templates (beta); templates also as files with CLI, hot-reload dev server and test helpers | Code editor with HTML, CSS and test data tabs and a preview that updates when you save; a drag-and-drop Builder |
| Data residency | EU only: database and rendering in Frankfurt, files in Cloudflare R2 under EU jurisdiction; a document leaves the EU only for a bucket of your own that you configure; DPA with every paid plan (data residency) | Infrastructure on European servers |
| Pricing | EUR plans from €19 a month with included units (one unit is an image or a PDF of up to five pages), extra units at the plan’s rate per 1,000, and a free plan with 100 units; test keys are not metered | EUR plans by documents per month, 20 on the free plan; above the quota, pay-as-you-go on paid plans or boost packs of 1,000 documents for €5 |
| Batches | Batch endpoint for up to 1,000 documents per request, with a zip and a webhook; spreadsheet upload in the app | One document per request; asynchronous generation with a webhook |
| Outputs | PDF, PNG, JPG, WebP from the same template; DOCX and PPTX from Word and PowerPoint templates | PDF; WebP, PNG and JPG from image templates |
| AI agents (MCP) | MCP server @formfeed/mcp with eight tools, among them checks of templates and e-invoices that cost no units; setup guides for 18 clients and frameworks; hosted at mcp.formfeed.dev with an API key or sign-in | No first-party MCP server |
When PDFMonkey fits better
If your team designs PDFs in PDFMonkey’s visual Builder and never opens the code, that stays the shorter path: Formfeed’s canvas makes images only so far, and Builder templates are not imported.
Switching in three steps
- In Templates → Import → PDFMonkey, enter a secret API key and your workspace ID and pick the code templates, or run
formfeed import pdfmonkey: date and number formats are converted, snippets you paste are inlined, the sample data becomes the default data set, and the report lists the rest with its line (migration guide). - Check each draft in the editor, compare its renders with a test key, which is not metered, and publish it: the API renders the published version.
- Replace the call to PDFMonkey’s documents endpoint with
POST /v1/renders, naming the template by its slug; an asynchronous render with a webhook replaces pending documents and their webhook events.
Competitor details come from their public pages on the date above and are reviewed quarterly; tell us at hello@formfeed.dev if something changed.