Sometimes the websites you want to screenshot employ anti-automation measures.
Rather than a screenshot of what you see in your web browser, you might encounter various challenges:
- CAPTCHA or reCAPTCHA verification
- Cloudflare Turnstile
- Other security puzzles
- Error messages
- Unwanted redirects
When you just need a handful of screenshots, it feels unfair. When you need thousands for your job, it's deeply frustrating.
Wouldn't it be great if far fewer of your screenshots were blocked?
Introducing the use_stealth option.
If you're on one of Urlbox's Ultra, Business, or Enterprise plans, you can now send the option use_stealth: true with your screenshot requests.
With this option enabled, Urlbox's headless browsers will behave more like regular desktop or mobile browsers, significantly reducing the chances of your screenshots getting blocked.
Important Note: Do not use the user_agent option together with use_stealth, as this combination will create a browser fingerprint that is more easily detectable as automated traffic.
This feature is currently available on the latest version of our rendering engine. Make sure to include engine_version: latest in your requests.
Sadly this feature is not a silver bullet. Bot detection technologies are constantly evolving. We'll always work to try and keep up but 100% success is simply not possible.
We're just getting started with more enhancements in this area. Are you encountering specific websites that are particularly challenging to screenshot? Let us know – our next update could be the one you've been waiting for.
