PDFSend vs DIY Puppeteer

// DIY Puppeteer — the "simple" version
const puppeteer = require('puppeteer');

async function generatePdf(html, data, options) {
  // Launch browser (cold start: 2-5 seconds)
  const browser = await puppeteer.launch({
    headless: true,
    args: ['--no-sandbox', '--disable-setuid-sandbox',
           '--disable-dev-shm-usage']
  });

  try {
    const page = await browser.newPage();

    // Manually replace variables
    let rendered = html;
    for (const [key, value] of Object.entries(data)) {
      rendered = rendered.replaceAll(`{{${key}}}`, value);
    }

    await page.setContent(rendered, {
      waitUntil: 'networkidle0' // or 'networkidle2'?
    });

    const pdf = await page.pdf({
      format: options.format || 'A4',
      margin: options.margin || { top: '20mm', bottom: '20mm' },
      printBackground: true,
    });

    return pdf;
  } finally {
    await browser.close(); // Don't forget this!
  }
}

// Now you need: API route, auth, template storage,
// editor UI, preview, logs, error handling...
// That's another 60-120 hours of work.

// PDFSend — one API call
const res = await fetch('https://pdfsend.up.railway.app/api/v1/render', {
  method: 'POST',
  headers: {
    'Authorization': 'Bearer ps_live_xxxxx',
    'Content-Type': 'application/json',
  },
  body: JSON.stringify({
    template_id: 'invoice',
    data: { company: 'Acme Corp', amount: '$1,500' },
  }),
});

const pdf = await res.blob(); // Done.