Puppeteer isn’t a PDF tool. It’s a browser automation tool that happens to have a .pdf() method. That distinction matters enormously when you’re running at scale.

Why Puppeteer fails in production

Here’s what actually happens in production environments:

  • Memory leaks you can’t reproduce locally — Chromium eats RAM under sustained load
  • Flaky rendering across server restarts — fonts missing, CSS not loading
  • Browser processes hanging on shutdown — you end up with zombie Chromium instances
  • Slow cold starts — spawning a headless browser adds 500ms–2s to every request

The alternative

The ExportToPDF API was designed for this exact problem. You design your template visually, POST your data, and get a pixel-perfect PDF back in under 100ms. No browser, no infra headache, no layout surprises.

from exporttopdf import ExportToPDF

client = ExportToPDF(api_key="sk_live_...")
doc = client.documents.generate(
    template_id="tpl_8xk2p",
    data={"name": "Acme Corp", "invoiceNumber": "INV-041"}
)
print(doc.download_url)

Three lines of Python. That’s it.