URLpipe vs ScreenshotOne
URLpipe vs ScreenshotOne
ScreenshotOne is a screenshot specialist; URLpipe takes screenshots as one of eight kinds of data about a URL. Both run async with signed webhooks and both have a hosted MCP server.
By Roger Campos · Last updated: September 2026
TL;DR
Choose ScreenshotOne when screenshots are the product: more formats, video, GPU rendering, chat and tracker blocking, SDKs in seven languages. Choose URLpipe when the screenshot is one of several things you need about a page — Markdown, metadata, Lighthouse, console errors — or when processing must stay in Europe.
Free plan, no credit card. 1,000 credits a month.
At a glance
Feature by feature
| Capability | URLpipe | ScreenshotOne |
|---|---|---|
| Clean Markdown from a URL | Yes | Yes |
| Renders JavaScript (real browser) | Yes | Yes |
| Rendered HTML | Yes | Yes |
| Screenshots | Yes | Yes |
| Full-page screenshots | Yes | Yes |
| Element, dark-mode and hidden-selector screenshots | Yes | Yes |
| Metadata / Open Graph | Yes | Yes |
| AI summary | Yes | Vision prompt, your OpenAI key |
| Keyword extraction endpoint | Yes | No |
| Lighthouse audits | Yes | No |
| JavaScript console capture | Yes | No |
| Several outputs from one page visit | /scrape | Partial |
| Whole-site crawling | No | No |
| Schema-based structured extraction | No | No |
| PDF input or output | No | Output |
| MCP server | Hosted | Hosted, or npx |
| Async + webhook for a single URL | Yes | Yes |
| Idempotency key on retries | Yes | — |
| Your own labels on requests, usage by label | Yes | — |
| Cached results cost nothing | Yes | Yes |
| Residential-IP fetching | One exit, +25 credits/visit | No |
| Official SDKs | No | 7 languages |
| Self-hostable | No | No |
| Free tier | 1,000 credits/mo | 100 renders/mo |
| EU processing, AI included | Yes | — |
ScreenshotOne: checked against screenshotone.com/pricing, screenshotone.com/docs/options, screenshotone.com/integrations/mcp, screenshotone.com/privacy-policy on September 24, 2026. Products change — confirm on each vendor's site before you decide.
Common ground
What they share
Full-page capture, one element by selector, dark mode, ad and cookie-banner blocking, hidden selectors and injected CSS; async requests delivered to signed webhooks; failed and cached captures free; a hosted MCP server. For most screenshots, either will do.
Its strengths
Where ScreenshotOne goes further
- Formats: AVIF, HEIF, GIF, TIFF, JP2 and PDF as well as PNG, JPEG and WebP.
- Video and scrolling captures, from the Growth plan.
- Blocking for chats and trackers, and heuristic banner blocking.
- Device scale up to 5×; GPU rendering on Scale.
- SDKs for Go, Java, PHP, Ruby, Python, .NET and JavaScript.
Ours
Where URLpipe goes further
- The rest of the page: Markdown, metadata, a summary, keywords, Lighthouse and console errors — several from one visit with /scrape.
- Europe: fetching, rendering and storage in the EU on every plan, AI processing EU-only per organization. ScreenshotOne's privacy policy says it is not yet GDPR-compliant.
- Results kept at a token for 30 days, as well as delivered to a webhook.
- Idempotency keys, labels per customer, and a residential exit per request.
curl -X POST https://urlpipe.dev/screenshot \
-H "Authorization: Bearer $URLPIPE_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"url": "https://example.com",
"sync": true,
"page_options": { "block_ads": true, "block_cookie_banners": true },
"screenshot_options": {
"format": "webp",
"viewport_width": 390,
"device_scale_factor": 2,
"dark_mode": true,
"hide_selectors": ["#chat-widget"]
}
}'Billing
What a capture costs
ScreenshotOne counts successful, uncached renders against a monthly allowance, and bills extra only if you turn overage on, under a cap you set. URLpipe counts credits — 1 per screenshot whichever options you use — and a paid plan carries on past its allowance at $1.50 per 1,000 credits. Heavy pages cost the same on both: URLpipe caps the dear dimensions (a delay and a wait of 10 seconds at most, one 16,384 px surface) instead of metering them.
A result served from cache costs nothing (max_age defaults to 7 days, up to 30); an identical request that arrives while the first is still running waits for it and costs nothing; an Idempotency-Key makes a retry return the first result; and bot checks we couldn't clear, target 4xx/5xx pages and robots.txt refusals are never billed.
Pricing
What each one costs
| URLpipe | ScreenshotOne | |
|---|---|---|
| Free tier | $0 — 1,000 credits/mo, no card | $0 — 100 screenshots/mo, no card |
| Entry paid plan | Starter $19/mo — 20,000 credits | Basic $17/mo — 2,000 screenshots |
| Mid plan | Pro $49/mo — 55,000 credits | Growth $79/mo — 10,000 screenshots |
| Billing unit | Credits per call: Markdown, HTML, screenshot or console 1, Lighthouse 2, metadata 5 | Successful, uncached renders |
| Overage | Paid plans never cut off — $1.50 per 1,000 credits | Opt-in, $0.009 each on Basic, under a monthly cap you set |
| Cache hits | Free, up to 30 days old | Free |
ScreenshotOne Basic is $17 for 2,000 screenshots; URLpipe Starter at $19 is 20,000, every option included.
Who it's for
An honest recommendation
Choose URLpipe if…
- You need the page's content and health alongside its screenshot
- Processing must stay in Europe
- You want results collectable by token as well as by webhook
- PNG, JPEG or WebP up to 3× is enough
Choose ScreenshotOne if…
- Screenshots are your whole product
- You need video, AVIF, GIF or PDF output
- You want an SDK in your language
- You need GPU rendering or 5× scale
Moving off ScreenshotOne?
What switching involves
The ScreenshotOne alternatives page covers why people leave, what to look for instead and how the requests map.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Which is better for screenshots, URLpipe or ScreenshotOne?
Do both support async screenshots with webhooks?
Try URLpipe on the free plan.
1,000 credits a month, no card. Confirm your email and your key is live — most people make their first request inside five minutes.