The PHP
Website Screenshot API

Urlbox is the website screenshot API for PHP that makes fast, accurate screenshots. Finally, a screenshot API you can depend on without writing your own microservice.

We’re profitable, privately owned, and we're in this for the long haul. Since 2012, we’ve generated hundreds of millions of screenshots for companies of all sizes

Using Urlbox, we've scaled our volume to over 5 times what we were. We’re confident that Urlbox will continue to produce great results as we grow.

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Urlbox's support of emojis was a big signal that it could replace our own service. It was a simple replacement - a real success story for us.

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Jānis Peisenieks
Jānis Peisenieks // Head of Engineering, Whimsical

Clojure

Riga, Latvia

See how easy our PHP screenshot API is

Check out our composer package here, and on github

// run this on the command line to install the urlbox php package:
// composer require urlbox/screenshots

use Urlbox\Screenshots\Urlbox;

$urlbox = Urlbox::fromCredentials('API_KEY', 'API_SECRET');

// only required option is a url:
$options['url'] = 'example.com';

// specify any other options to augment the screenshot...
$options['width'] = 320;

// Create the Urlbox URL
$urlboxUrl = $urlbox->generateSignedUrl($options);

// $urlboxUrl is now 'https://api.urlbox.io/v1/API_KEY/TOKEN/png?url=example.com&width=320'

// Generate a screenshot by loading the Urlbox URL in an img tag:
echo '<img src="'.$urlboxUrl.'" alt="Test screenshot generated by Urlbox">'

>50% of our customers built their own microservice... before switching to us

If you're happy maintaining more JavaScript with your PHP code, DIY screenshot APIs are easier to get started with than they used to be.

Urlbox has been through a few iterations over the years. We started off in 2012 using Node.js v0.6. Today it is still mostly written in JavaScript - and increasingly in TypeScript.

For the rendering engine, we started off using PhantomJS, then moved through various projects - webkit2png, QtWebkit and Electron - before settling down with headless Chrome/Chromium (via Puppeteer).

There are loads of website screenshot APIs.
Urlbox has been focused on being the best since 2012

Urlbox's screenshots are considered the most accurate and high quality of any screenshot service.

The Urlbox team sweats the small stuff, ensuring that fonts and emojis render correctly. We cringe with you at full page website screenshots with repeating scrollbars and ugly horizontal seams. Other APIs struggle to handle newer CSS features such as Flexbox, Grid and slower loading WebGL pages.

So what sets Urlbox apart from other APIs?

Here are six ways that Urlbox outperforms other screen capture APIs:

A better way to take screenshots.

Retina Images

Render high quality, high-DPI images that look great on retina screens

Block Pop-ups

Stop annoying pop-ups getting in the way of your screenshots

Click Accept

Automatically dismiss cookie banners to prevent them spoiling your screenshots

Block Ads

Prevent ads taking all the attention in your screenshots

Bypass Captchas

Automatically attempt to solve and bypass any captchas that are shown

Bring Your Own Proxy

Use a proxy server to prevent sites from blocking your screenshots

It would have been so cumbersome to implement a service of our own to take screenshots. Urlbox's API is so straightforward, and the live preview is cool. I can play around with the parameters and see it do what I need it to do.

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Matthias Wagner
Matthias Wagner // CEO, Flux

JavaScript

California, United States

Other APIs look and feel dated

You'll find Urlbox's dashboard and documentation fresh and regularly updated

Choose your render mode

With Urlbox you can preview all available API options and check API usage on our modern dashboard

With other APIs, you'll feel like you've stepped into a computer history museum

Screenshot API render mode

More output formats

With Urlbox, you can render screenshots as PNG, JPEG, WEBP, AVIF, SVG, PDF, and even HTML

With other APIs, you can only render in one or two formats

Output format

Delay settings

With Urlbox, you can ensure a screenshot is only taken when a certain element is either in the DOM, or has left the DOM. Very useful if a web page has lazy loading, and you want to make sure spinners are gone before generating a screenshot

With other APIs, the burden is on the page you're screenshotting - which is often out of your control

Delayed screenshot API

Request options

With Urlbox, you have all the power you need to set headers, proxies and user agents. You can even fail an API request if certain elements are present (or not present) in the DOM. That means they won't count against your monthly quota!

With other APIs, you pay for just a handful of options - regardless of whether or not they actually work

Output format

Exceptional support

Sadly, you'll hear many complaints about the level of support from other screenshot APIs - you only have to look at their Twitter feed.

Priority support really does mean priority support at Urlbox.

With Urlbox, you'll rarely have to wait for a whole business day - we'll usually get back to you within the hour!

Swiped.co

It's so evident that Urlbox really cares and pays attention. It's rare that I need customer support but, when I do, I know one of the team will get right back to me.

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Mike Schauer
Mike Schauer // Founder, Swiped.co

PHP

New Jersey, United States

ReviewTycoon

I love the support that Urlbox provides. Normally when I have a new feature request like WebP images or blocking cookie pop-ups, I email support and get a response saying it's already possible - within minutes.

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Rutger Tolenaar
Rutger Tolenaar // Founder, ReviewTycoon

PHP

Oegstgeest, the Netherlands

We're in this for the long haul

Look up Urlbox's founder, Chris Roebuck, on LinkedIn.

While Urlbox is small and scrappy, you'll see he's been full-time on the business for over 5 years. Urlbox is proudly profitable, and has been for years. It's a world away from the neglected side-projects so many of our customers have previously experienced.

Chris plans to be in the screenshots business for the long term.

Free Trial

Ready to start rendering?

Designers, law firms and infrastructure engineers trust Urlbox to accurately and securely convert HTML to images at scale. Experience it for yourself.

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