Microlink alternative with no subscription

Looking for a Microlink alternative? Here's an honest comparison. Microlink is a good product. Shotmint is a simpler, pay-as-you-go option for people who don't want another monthly bill.

Pricing at a glance

	Model	Price	Free tier	Unused volume
Microlink	Monthly subscription (Pro tiers, plus Enterprise from €500)	Pro €39/mo for 46,000 requests · €72/mo for 84,000 · €120/mo for 140,000 · €240/mo for 280,000 · €360/mo for 420,000	100 requests/month free, no card	Monthly quota; at 100% requests pause until the next billing cycle or an upgrade (no overage fees)
Shotmint	Prepaid credits, no subscription	€5 / 2,000 · €19 / 10,000 · €59 / 50,000 (one-time)	100 free renders, no signup	Never expire

Microlink prices are in USD and come from their public pricing page on 18 October 2026. Prices change, so check their current pricing. Shotmint prices are in EUR.

Where Microlink is the better choice

Microlink is much more than a screenshot API: one endpoint covers screenshots, PDFs, link previews and metadata, markdown and clean text for LLMs, logos, rendered HTML, Google search results and custom browser functions, with SDKs and a set of free web tools. Its per-request price at volume is low (€39 a month for 46,000 requests), it never charges overage, and if you need metadata or link previews alongside screenshots every month, it is a strong choice.

When Shotmint fits better

You only need screenshots, PDFs or Open Graph cards, and your volume is occasional or bursty. Microlink's cheapest paid plan is €39 every month; with Shotmint you buy credits once (€5 for 2,000 renders, €19 for 10,000, €59 for 50,000) and they never expire, so a quiet month costs nothing. You can get a free key with 100 renders without signing up, and failed renders never cost a credit. If you render tens of thousands of pages every single month, Microlink's Pro plan is likely cheaper, and we would rather tell you that.

What Shotmint does

• GET /v1/screenshot: PNG, JPEG or WebP screenshots of any URL, with full-page capture, custom viewport, retina scale, a single-element selector, dark mode, transparent backgrounds (omit_background), ad and cookie-banner blocking (block_ads), and hide_selectors.
• POST /v1/pdf: PDFs from a URL or raw HTML, with format, landscape, margins, and backgrounds.
• GET /v1/og: 1200×630 Open Graph cards from a title and subtitle, with signed public URLs you can put straight in an og:image tag.
• A failed render never costs a credit. Every response includes an X-Credits-Remaining header.
• A real headless Chromium renders every page, so modern CSS, web fonts, and JavaScript work.

Shotmint is a new, small service. It doesn't have SDKs, integrations, or enterprise plans yet. If you need those, Microlink may suit you better. If you want an API key in 10 seconds and to pay only for what you use, try it.