Re:LightningPDF – HTML to PDF API with a native renderer and...
by DigitalTrubador on Wednesday March 18, 2026 @02:14AM
(#47422112)
Three days debugging Puppeteer for an invoicing feature, memory leaks, blank pages in production, fonts not loading, I ended up shipping something that broke every few weeks. So I built a proper API instead.
The core is a dual-engine system: a native renderer for simple documents (under 100ms), and headless and cached Chromium for complex CSS layouts.
The API picks automatically based on what you send.
Other things I added:
1. Tailwind CSS built-in (no build step).
2. Markdown → PDF
3. Async job queue for batch generation, webhooks, and a visual template designer for the no-code path.
Free tier is 50 PDFs/month, no credit card. Paid starts at $9.
https://lightningpdf.dev
What would actually make you switch from your current setup?
The core is a dual-engine system: a native renderer for simple documents (under 100ms), and headless and cached Chromium for complex CSS layouts.
The API picks automatically based on what you send.
Other things I added: 1. Tailwind CSS built-in (no build step). 2. Markdown → PDF 3. Async job queue for batch generation, webhooks, and a visual template designer for the no-code path.
Free tier is 50 PDFs/month, no credit card. Paid starts at $9. https://lightningpdf.dev What would actually make you switch from your current setup?