Why choose
Urlbox vs PhantomJS?
PhantomJS is a discontinued headless web browser scriptable with JavaScript. Urlbox is the screenshot focused alternative to running PhantomJS. It's time to stop depending on a suspended library.
Urlbox turned PhantomJS into a service you can depend on.
If you're happy maintaining server-side JavaScript, it's easier than ever to create a DIY screenshot microservice with Puppeteer.
Urlbox has been through a few iterations over the years. We started off in 2012 using Node.js v0.6. Today it is still mostly written in JavaScript - and increasingly in TypeScript.
For the rendering engine, we started off using PhantomJS to generate screenshots, then moved through various projects - webkit2png, QtWebkit and Electron before settling down with headless Chrome/Chromium (via PhantomJS).
There are loads of website screenshot APIs. Urlbox has been focused on being the best since 2012
Urlbox's screenshots are considered the most accurate and high quality of any screenshot service.
The Urlbox team sweats the small stuff, ensuring that fonts and emojis render correctly. We cringe with you at full page website screenshots with repeating scrollbars and ugly horizontal seams. Other APIs struggle to handle newer CSS features such as Flexbox, Grid and slower loading WebGL pages.
PhantomJS is challenging to debug and scale
Urlbox has figured out all the edge cases so you don't have to wade through StackOverflow.
Choose your render mode
With Urlbox
With Urlbox you can preview all available API options and check API usage on our modern dashboard.
With PhantomJS
With PhantomJS, you'll need to hand code a solution for every one of your use cases.
More output formats
With Urlbox
With Urlbox, you can render screenshots as PNG, JPEG, WEBP, AVIF, SVG, PDF, and even HTML.
With PhantomJS
With PhantomJS, you can render PNG, JPEG, GIF, and PDF... but they're unlikely to look as good.
Delay settings
With Urlbox
With Urlbox, you can ensure a screenshot is only taken when a certain element is either in the DOM, or has left the DOM. Very useful if a web page has lazy loading, and you want to make sure spinners are gone before generating a screenshot.
With PhantomJS
With PhantomJS, you'll need to figure out how to implement delays yourself.
Request options
With Urlbox
With Urlbox, you have all the power you need to set headers, proxies and user agents. You can even fail an API request if certain elements are present (or not present) in the DOM. That means they won't count against your monthly quota!
With PhantomJS
With PhantomJS, the power is there if you write your own code to handle it.
About Urlbox
We’re profitable, privately owned, and we're in this for the long haul. Since 2012, we’ve generated hundreds of millions of screenshots for companies of all sizes.
Learn more about usUrlbox's support of emojis was a big signal that it could replace our own service. It was a simple replacement - a real success story for us.
Read the full story
Jānis Peisenieks
HO Engineering
Using Urlbox, we've scaled our volume to over 5 times what we were. We’re confident that Urlbox will continue to produce great results as we grow.
Read the full story
Andy Croll
CTO
So what sets Urlbox apart from PhantomJS?
Here are six ways that Urlbox outperforms PhantomJS: See all features
Retina Images
Render images at 2x resolution and beyond.
Block Ads & Popups
Don't let ads and popups ruin your screenshots.
Auto-Accept Cookies
No more cookie banners in your screenshots.
Bypass Captchas
Get around captchas and other anti-bot measures.
Custom Proxy
Use your own proxy to access websites behind a firewall.
Multi-Platform
Use with your favorite language.
Screenshot Specialists at hand
Exceptional support
Sadly, you'll hear many complaints about the level of support from other screenshot APIs - you only have to look at their Twitter feed.
Priority support really does mean priority support at Urlbox.
With Urlbox, you'll rarely have to wait for a whole business day - we'll usually get back to you within the hour!
We're in this for the long haul
Urlbox's founder Chris has been full-time on the business for over 5 years. Urlbox is proudly profitable, and has been for years. It's a world away from the neglected side-projects so many of our customers have previously experienced.
"It would have been so cumbersome to implement a service of our own to take screenshots. Urlbox's API is so straightforward, and the live preview is cool. I can play around with the parameters and see it do what I need it to do."
Matthias Wagner, CEO Flux
Free Trial
It's easy to switch from PhantomJS
You'll simply be forming a URL rather than writing lines of code. So what are you waiting for?
7 day free trial.No credit card required.
