CastPDF vs CraftMyPDF

In short

CraftMyPDF is built around a drag-and-drop editor. You place text, images and tables on a canvas, and it lists Zapier, Make and Bubble connectors on every plan. If a marketer or office manager will design and own your documents, it is a strong fit.

CastPDF is built around HTML and CSS. A developer writes the layout once, with a live preview, and print mode takes care of page breaks, repeating table headers and page numbers. Plans start at $19 for 2,500 PDFs a month, and what you do not use carries over.

Prices side by side

The cheapest monthly plan that includes each volume, from each vendor's public pricing page (checked October 2026, before tax). Where a vendor sells extra documents on a smaller plan, that can cost less than the plan shown; the text below works it out where it matters. CastPDF counts one PDF per document, whatever its page count.

Drag and drop or HTML and CSS

A drag-and-drop editor is quick to learn. You see the page as it will print, and moving a logo is a mouse movement, not a code change. CraftMyPDF offers this on every plan, including the free one.

CastPDF does not have a drag-and-drop editor or other visual design controls. Templates are HTML and CSS with Liquid, edited next to a live preview. Once the layout exists, the Simple mode form lets anyone change the sample data and generate a document from the dashboard without touching code.

Code has its own benefits. A layout can reuse your website’s CSS and fonts. It can follow rules a canvas cannot express easily, such as "keep this block on one page" or "show the section title at the top of every page". And because it is text, a developer can review changes and keep history in version control.

Here is the kind of rule that takes a few lines of CSS in a CastPDF template. It prints the company name and the page count in the footer. It also keeps each order card on one page.

@page {
  margin: 18mm 16mm 24mm;
  @bottom-left {
    content: "Northwind Supply, packing list";
    font-size: 8pt;
    color: #6b7280;
  }
  @bottom-right {
    content: counter(page) " / " counter(pages);
    font-size: 8pt;
    color: #6b7280;
  }
}
.order-card {
  break-inside: avoid;
}

The page numbers guide and the print CSS reference explain the margin boxes and counters.

How many templates each plan allows

Both tools cap the number of templates per plan. If you make many document types, for example one invoice per brand or one certificate per course, check this before price.

At the entry and middle tiers CastPDF allows more templates for less money. At the top, CraftMyPDF’s Business plan allows 10,000 templates, far more than CastPDF’s fair-use limit of 2,000. Very few teams need that many, but if you do, CraftMyPDF has the higher ceiling.

Usage alerts, and what happens to unused documents

Both tools email you at 80% and 100% of your monthly documents, so neither one surprises you with a silent limit. CastPDF also emails when overage starts and when your spending cap is reached.

The difference is what happens to the documents you did not use. On CraftMyPDF, credits reset each month and do not roll over. On CastPDF’s paid plans, unused documents carry over to the next month, once, up to one extra month’s worth.

A worked example: on Starter, a quiet month where you make 1,600 PDFs leaves 900 unused. The next month then includes 3,400, which absorbs a busy month-end without overage. The usage and billing docs give the exact rules.

Monthly cost at each CraftMyPDF plan size

The price table above compares three round volumes. This table uses CraftMyPDF’s own plan sizes instead, and finds CastPDF’s cheapest route to each one. Sometimes that is a smaller plan plus a few extra documents, because CastPDF sells documents past the plan limit.

On yearly billing CraftMyPDF charges 10 times the monthly price, so Lite costs $290 a year. CastPDF Starter costs $180 a year. All CastPDF plans and rates are on the pricing page.

Where CastPDF is stronger

• Lower price at every plan step, with overage at a fixed rate between steps instead of a jump to the next plan.
• Rollover. Unused documents on a paid plan are not lost at the end of the month.
• Print rules for long documents. Repeating table headers, rows that stay whole, running headers and page counters, all in print mode. See how to repeat table headers.
• More free documents to build with, plus test keys that are free, unlimited and watermarked, so your test suite never uses your allowance.
• A spending cap on overage that you control, with a clear error when it is reached.
• EU processing. Documents are made and stored on servers in Germany, under a Data Processing Agreement.

When CraftMyPDF is the better choice

• The people who design your documents are non-technical and want drag and drop. CastPDF has no visual editor, and its layouts need someone who can write HTML and CSS.
• You want ready-made connectors for Zapier, Make or Bubble. CraftMyPDF includes them on every plan. CastPDF works from those tools only through a generic HTTP request step.
• You manage thousands of separate templates. CraftMyPDF’s Premium and Business plans allow 1,000 and 10,000.
• Your documents are short and already look right there. A move costs time and gains little if nothing is broken.

Switching from CraftMyPDF, step by step

CastPDF cannot import a drag-and-drop layout, so plan to rebuild each template in HTML. For a typical invoice or certificate that is a short job, and you only do it once.

1. Keep a reference PDF. Generate one current document from each CraftMyPDF template. You will match the new template against it.
2. Start from the closest starter. Open one of the six starter templates (invoice, receipt, certificate, sales report, event ticket or service agreement) and adjust its HTML and CSS to match your reference.
3. Keep your field names. Use the same JSON your app already sends. Write each field as {{ order.total }} and each repeating row as a {% for %} loop, so your code does not change.
4. Check a long example. Paste your biggest real payload as sample data and look at page two in the live preview. Headers should repeat and rows should stay whole.
5. Point your code at the new endpoint. Send template_id and data to POST /v1/pdf with a test key first. The quickstart has examples in several languages.
6. Run both for a short while. Generate the same documents in both tools for a week, compare them, then switch to a live key.

Sources

Every fact about another product on this page comes from that product's own pages, checked October 2026. CastPDF's prices and limits come from our pricing page.