One API call. Auto-scales. Zero Docker, zero containers, zero 3am outages.
Start free — 5 credits, no card →Open source, free, full control. 100+ document formats via LibreOffice. Requires Docker.
Gotenberg docs →Built-in PDF form filling with AI field detection. DOCX templates. Gotenberg has neither.
Start free — 5 credits, no card →100+ formats via LibreOffice: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT. DocuQueue focuses on HTML-to-PDF.
Gotenberg docs →Gotenberg needs Docker first. DocuQueue: one API call, same Chromium engine.
Start free — 5 credits, no card →Async job queue, auto-scales. Gotenberg handles ~6 parallel ops per instance.
Start free — 5 credits, no card →Same document automation quality. Plus URL-to-PDF, templates, form filling, and CSV batch processing. Starting at free with managed hosting.
# Gotenberg: Docker + API call docker run -p 3000:3000 gotenberg/gotenberg:7 curl http://localhost:3000/forms/chromium/convert/html \ -F files=@index.html -o output.pdf # DocuQueue: Just the API call curl -X POST https://docuqueue.com/api/v1/convert-html \ -H "api-key: wp2_your_key" \ -H "Content-Type: application/json" \ -d '{"html": "<h1>Hello</h1>"}' -o output.pdf
Gotenberg is an open source, Chromium-based PDF engine that's free to use and has an active GitHub community. It's a solid choice for simple HTML-to-PDF conversions if you have the DevOps resources to run it. DocuQueue is a managed alternative with the same Chromium rendering quality, plus form filling, MCP support, and zero infrastructure to maintain. Start free with 5 credits — 25/month after email verification.
Gotenberg has real strengths that make it a legitimate choice for many teams. Here's where it shines.
MIT-licensed. No per-document costs, no usage caps, no vendor lock-in. You can inspect every line of code.
Same engine that powers Chrome. Good fidelity for HTML and CSS — flexbox, grids, custom fonts all work.
URL or HTML in, PDF out. The API is straightforward for straightforward use cases.
Good issue tracking, regular releases, and a community that contributes fixes and features.
Consistent environment across machines. If you already run Docker in production, it fits your stack.
Gotenberg works well for simple use cases, but teams hit real walls at scale. These aren't hypothetical — they're reported issues from production users.
Users report the container "always eventually encounters a memory limit error" (#1169). Some need to restart 1-2 times every hour (#940), or at minimum daily (#1032). One report found 34 processes on a single pod (#642).
Production users report a "20%-30% error ratio with conversion returning 503" (#609). LibreOffice operations are even more fragile — complex Office documents fail or lose data (#1329).
Gotenberg requires multipart/form-data requests. This alienates no-code and low-code users who expect JSON (#1245).
No built-in PDF form filling (#198). No visual template editor. You build everything from scratch in HTML.
No job visibility or observability dashboard (#1544). You own scaling, monitoring, patching, and uptime.
CVE-2026-42593 allows unauthenticated arbitrary PDF read. Version upgrades can change output. Self-hosting means you own all security hardening.
Upload any fillable PDF — DocuQueue detects fields, maps your data, and fills every field automatically. Works with W-9s, I-9s, W-4s, and any government or business form.
Same Chromium rendering. Different feature set.
Gotenberg requires self-hosted Docker. DocuQueue runs and scales for you — zero containers to manage.
Gotenberg only supports multipart/form-data. DocuQueue uses standard JSON — works with any language, framework, or AI agent.
Fill PDF form fields programmatically. Gotenberg has no form filling support at all.
Native Model Context Protocol support. Your AI agents can generate PDFs directly. Gotenberg has no MCP integration.
Gotenberg needs constant restarts, memory tuning, and scaling. DocuQueue handles all operations for you.
Your generated PDFs are stored and retrievable. Gotenberg has no built-in storage — you manage that yourself.
Gotenberg runs in Docker. That means you're deploying containers, managing resources, handling restarts when Chromium crashes, and scaling when traffic spikes.
DocuQueue is one API call. No containers, no clusters, no 3am pages.
1. Install Docker 2. Pull gotenberg image 3. Configure volumes 4. Set up networking 5. Configure reverse proxy 6. Set up monitoring 7. Manage updates 8. Handle scaling
Self-hosting Gotenberg means you're responsible for Chromium updates, security patches, and compatibility issues.
DocuQueue is maintained by a team. The rendering engine stays current. You just make API calls.
1. Sign up 2. Get API key 3. Make API call Done.
Gotenberg is sync-only. You call it, you wait. Need async? Build your own queue, your own storage, your own retry logic.
DocuQueue has async job processing built in. Submit, poll, download. Done.
# Submit job curl -X POST https://docuqueue.com/api/v1/convert-html \ -H "api-key: YOUR_KEY" \ -d '{"html": "..."}' # {"job_id": "abc123", "status": "queued"} # Download when ready curl https://docuqueue.com/api/v1/download/abc123 \ -H "api-key: YOUR_KEY" -o output.pdf
| Feature | DocuQueue | Gotenberg |
|---|---|---|
| Cost | Free tier, $9/mo starter | Free (+ self-hosting costs) |
| Infrastructure | Managed | Self-host Docker |
| JSON API | Multipart only | |
| Form filling | Not supported | |
| MCP server | None | |
| Memory management | Managed | Constant restarts |
| Template editor | None | |
| Document storage | Persistent | None |
When you self-host Gotenberg, security is your problem. Most default configurations have real risks that matter in production.
The standard Gotenberg Docker image runs Chromium as root. This means any vulnerability in Chromium or Gotenberg's code could give an attacker root-level access to your container and potentially your host system.
For production use, you need to:
DocuQueue handles all of this for you. Our infrastructure runs with least-privilege principles, automated patching, and continuous security monitoring.
No credit card required. Get your API key in seconds.
// Before (Gotenberg) const response = await fetch( 'http://localhost:3000/forms/chromium/convert/html', { method: 'POST', body: formData } ); // After (DocuQueue) const response = await fetch( 'https://docuqueue.com/api/v1/convert-html', { method: 'POST', headers: { 'api-key': API_KEY }, body: JSON.stringify({ html: '<h1>Hello</h1>' }) } );
Delete your Gotenberg containers and stop managing servers.
Same PDF quality, zero maintenance.
DocuQueue isn't for everyone. Gotenberg wins in specific scenarios.
Gotenberg includes LibreOffice for over 100 document formats. DocuQueue focuses on HTML-to-PDF and PDF form filling.
Gotenberg runs entirely on your infrastructure. No data leaves your network. DocuQueue is cloud-only.
Gotenberg is MIT-licensed, community-maintained, and well-documented. If you have the infrastructure team to run it, it's a solid choice.
Gotenberg with LibreOffice handles Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and more. DocuQueue is HTML-to-PDF focused.
It depends on your needs. Gotenberg is better if you want open source, full control, and need LibreOffice-based document conversion (DOCX, XLSX, PPTX). DocuQueue is better if you want zero DevOps, form filling, MCP/AI agent support, and managed infrastructure. Both use the same Chromium engine for HTML-to-PDF rendering.
Gotenberg's software is free (MIT license), but running it in production requires Docker hosting ($40-200/month), DevOps time for scaling and restarts, and ongoing maintenance. One engineer spending a day a month on Gotenberg maintenance costs more per year than most paid plans. DocuQueue offers a free tier with 25 credits/month, and paid plans start at $9/mo with zero infrastructure costs.
No. DocuQueue is a managed cloud service — you don't need to host anything. This is the core value proposition: zero infrastructure to manage. If you need self-hosting or air-gapped deployment, Gotenberg is the better choice.
Yes. Replace your multipart/form-data POST with a JSON POST to DocuQueue. Your HTML stays the same since both use Chromium for rendering, so the output matches. The main change is sending HTML as JSON instead of uploading an index.html file. Most teams complete the migration in under an hour.
DocuQueue handles infrastructure reliability — memory management, scaling, uptime. Gotenberg users report 20-30% error rates at scale, memory leaks requiring constant restarts, and the need to manage their own monitoring. For high-volume or mission-critical PDF generation, DocuQueue's managed infrastructure is more reliable.
Yes. DocuQueue offers 25 free credits per month with no credit card required. Each credit generates one document. This is enough for testing, small projects, or evaluating the service before committing to a paid plan.
Headless Chrome library for PDF generation. DocuQueue wraps it in a managed API with templates and batch processing.
Deprecated WebKit-based converter. DocuQueue uses modern Chromium with full CSS3 and JavaScript support.
HTML-to-PDF API at $49/mo. DocuQueue offers more features including URL conversion, templates, and form filling at a lower price.
Fill in PDF forms programmatically. See how DocuQueue compares to Gotenberg for form filling workflows.
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