CurlShot vs Urlbox
Pick CurlShot if you want a free plan to start on, a lower price per 1,000 screenshots on the self-serve plans, and any site captured in full quality from the cheapest plan. Pick Urlbox if you need renders saved straight into your own S3 bucket, official SDKs, a Zapier app, or a very high monthly volume on a business contract. Both render in a real browser, take full-page captures, PDFs and videos, hide cookie banners, send webhooks and offer an MCP server for AI agents.
Facts about Urlbox checked on .
Features, side by side
Show the features table (17 rows)
| Feature | CurlShot | Urlbox |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan, no card | Yes | No: a 7-day trial on Hi-Fi and Ultra |
| Any site in full quality on the cheapest plan | Yes | Lo-Fi gives thumbnails of sites you do not own |
| Full-page screenshots | Yes | Yes |
| PDF output | Yes | Yes |
| Video of the page scrolling (MP4) | Yes | Yes |
| HTML as input | Yes | Yes |
| Hide cookie banners | Yes | Yes |
| Block ads | Yes | Yes |
| Dark mode | Yes | Yes |
| Screenshot of one element (CSS selector) | Yes | Yes |
| JSON response with a file link | Yes | Yes |
| Webhook when an async render is done | Paid plans | Yes |
| MCP server for AI agents | Yes | Yes |
| Save to your own S3 bucket | No | Hi-Fi and above |
| Official SDKs | Code samples in six languages | Yes |
| Zapier app | No | Yes |
| n8n node | Community node | Not on its pricing page |
What it costs per month
Monthly plans, billed monthly, before tax. The last column is the plan price divided by the screenshots it includes.
Show the prices (7 rows)
| Product and plan | Per month | Screenshots a month | Per 1,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| CurlShot Free | Free | 100 | Free |
| CurlShot Starter | $19 | 3,000 | $6.33 |
| CurlShot Growth | $79 | 15,000 | $5.27 |
| CurlShot Scale | $249 | 60,000 | $4.15 |
| Urlbox Lo-Fi (own sites; thumbnails of others) | $19 | 2,000 | $9.50 |
| Urlbox Hi-Fi | $49 | 5,000 | $9.80 |
| Urlbox Ultra | $99 | 15,000 | $6.60 |
Sources: Urlbox pricing, and the CurlShot pricing page.
Pick CurlShot when
- You want to start free: CurlShot has a monthly free allowance with no card, Urlbox starts with a 7-day trial
- You pay less per 1,000 screenshots on the self-serve plans (see the table)
- You capture other people’s sites on a small budget: Urlbox’s cheapest plan gives only thumbnails of them
- Failed renders and cache hits do not count against your plan
- Your workflows run in n8n: there is a community node with a trigger for finished jobs
Pick Urlbox when
- Renders go straight into your own S3 or S3-compatible bucket (use_s3)
- You want an official SDK for your language, or a Zapier app
- You need more than the largest self-serve plan, on a business contract with a low price per extra 1,000
- You already run on Urlbox and its options work for you: moving costs time
Move a request over, parameter by parameter
Every CurlShot option is described in the options reference.
Show the parameters table (19 rows)
| To do this | CurlShot | Urlbox |
|---|---|---|
| Page address | url | url |
| HTML instead of a page address | html | html |
| Output format | format | format |
| Whole page | full_page | full_page |
| Viewport width | viewport_width | width |
| Viewport height | viewport_height | height |
| Pixel density (2x) | device_scale_factor | retina |
| Hide cookie banners | block_cookie_banners | hide_cookie_banners |
| Block ads | block_ads | block_ads |
| Dark mode | dark_mode | dark_mode |
| Wait before capture | delay | delay |
| Wait for an element | wait_for_selector | wait_for |
| One element only | selector | selector |
| Hide elements | hide_selectors | hide_selector |
| Add CSS | styles | css |
| Run JavaScript | scripts | js |
| JSON response | response_type | response_type |
| Webhook when done | webhook_url | webhook_url |
| Cache lifetime | cache_ttl | ttl |
Questions people ask
Is CurlShot a good Urlbox alternative?
For most screenshot, PDF and video work, yes: the options map almost one to one (see the table), there is a free plan to test on, and the self-serve plans cost less per screenshot. Urlbox is the better fit if you need renders saved into your own S3 bucket or an official SDK.
How long does it take to move from Urlbox?
Usually one change of address and a few renamed parameters. Both are plain HTTP requests with the options in the query string, so the parameter table on this page is most of the work.
Does Urlbox have a free plan?
Not a permanent one, as of the date on this page. Its pricing page lists a 7-day free trial without a card on the Hi-Fi and Ultra plans, and says it does not offer a free plan.
Why is the Urlbox Lo-Fi plan marked "own sites"?
Its pricing page presents Lo-Fi as the plan to screenshot websites you own: screenshots of third-party sites are low-quality thumbnails on it. Hi-Fi covers most third-party sites and Ultra all of them.
Sources: Urlbox pricing, Urlbox options reference. Checked on 9 November 2026; prices and features change, so check them before you decide.
Try it on your own pages
- Screenshot APIA screenshot API for developers. One HTTP request turns a URL, HTML or Markdown into a PNG, JPEG, WebP or PDF. Full page, devices, blocking, cache, MCP.
- Full-page screenshotTake a screenshot of a whole web page, from the top to the very bottom, as one image. Paste the address, nothing to install. Also available as an API.
- Web page to PDFTurn a web page into a PDF document from its address. Real pages, working links and selectable text. Paste the address, nothing to install. Also an API.