Filecook vs DocRaptor at a glance
| Filecook | DocRaptor | |
|---|---|---|
| Rendering engine | Latest Chromium | PrinceXML |
| Matches browser output | Yes, by definition | Close, but a separate engine |
| CSS Paged Media depth | Chromium’s subset | Extensive — its main strength |
| JavaScript execution | Yes | Yes |
| Entry price | Free tier, then $9 / month | From $15 / month for 125 documents |
| Free tier | 500 renders / month | Test documents are free and watermarked |
| Self-hosted option | Perpetual licence available | Not offered |
Competitor details checked August 2026 from public documentation and pricing pages. Products change — verify current terms with DocRaptor before deciding.
Pick DocRaptor when typography is the product
PrinceXML is widely regarded as the strongest HTML-to-PDF engine for print work, and that reputation is earned. If you are producing books, journals, or documents that lean on named page rules, running headers, cross-references, or fine control over widows and orphans, Prince does things Chromium simply cannot. We would rather tell you that than lose your trust later.
Pick Filecook when the browser is the source of truth
Most business documents are not typeset books. They are invoices, dashboards, statements, and certificates that were designed in a browser and need to come out looking the same.
- What you see is what you get. Design in Chrome, render in Chrome — no second engine to develop a mental model for.
- Modern CSS without caveats. Grid, Flexbox, container queries, and whatever ships in Chromium next.
- Client-rendered content works. Charting libraries that draw to canvas or SVG at runtime render normally.
- Lower entry cost. A free tier that runs real workloads, then $9 a month.
A useful test
Take your three most complicated documents and render them on both. If the differences are in page-break placement and hyphenation, Prince will likely win. If the differences are in layout fidelity to the original web page, Chromium will.
Frequently asked questions
Is Chromium worse than PrinceXML?
Can I migrate my DocRaptor templates?
Do you support modern CSS like Grid and Flexbox?
Can I use Google Fonts or my own web fonts?
@import in your stylesheet, a <link> tag, or a self-hosted @font-face rule. The renderer waits for fonts to load before it captures the page.