Best PDF Creation Software in 2026
Updated
In short: Carbone is ranked #1 of 34 as of 2 October 2026, ahead of CraftMyPDF and ReportLab. The best-ranked option with a free plan is CraftMyPDF. The lowest first paid tier on this page is PDFMonkey at €5/mo.
Creating PDFs at scale can mean turning structured data, templates or user input into consistent documents. Compare these tools on API access, bulk generation, data merge and deployment, then check whether they support your input sources, page limits and fillable forms. Free plans and paid starting prices help frame the cost of trying them. Carbone, CraftMyPDF and ReportLab appear among the first entries, alongside PDFMonkey and DocRaptor. If documents need to fit an existing product or workflow, weigh the generation approach and integration options against the kinds of PDFs your team needs to produce.
34 PDF creation software ranked on what their makers publish — plans and prices, free tiers, platforms and the facts on their own pages.
| # | Platform | Score | Why | From | Free plan | Paid from | Data merge | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Carbone | 8.9 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $29/mo | Yes | — | Yes | View |
| 2 | CraftMyPDF | 8.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $29/mo | Yes | 29 /mo | Yes | View |
| 3 |  ReportLab | 8.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | £144/mo | Yes | — | Yes | View |
| 4 | PDFMonkey | 8.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | €5/mo | Yes | — | Yes | View |
| 5 | DocRaptorArtifex Software Inc. | 8.3 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $15/mo | Yes | 15 /mo | — | View |
| 6 | Docmosis | 8.1 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $49/mo | No | 49 /mo | Yes | View |
| 7 | Formstack DocumentsFormstack (Intellistack, LLC) | 7.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $31.99/mo | — | — | — | View |
| 8 |  Anvil PDF Generation APIAnvil | 7.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $99/mo | Yes | 99 /mo | Yes | View |
| 9 |  Adobe PDF Services APIAdobe | 7.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Yes | View |
| 10 | APITemplate.io | 6.9 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $19/mo | Yes | 19 /mo | Yes | View |
| 11 | DocuGenerate | 6.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | 19 /mo | Yes | View |
| 12 |  Wondershare PDFelement | 6.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | — | View |
| 13 | PDF Generator APIActual Reports OÜ | 6.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | €6.67/mo | No | — | Yes | View |
| 14 | PDFShiftSASU PDFShift | 6.4 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | $24/mo | Yes | 24 /mo | Yes | View |
| 15 | MakePDF | 6.3 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Yes | View |
| 16 | Plumsail DocumentsPlumsail | 6.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | 25 /mo | Yes | View |
| 17 |  WeasyPrint | 6.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | — | View |
| 18 |  Prince | 6.2 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | — | View |
| 19 | PDFCreator | 5.9 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | — | View |
| 20 | Foxit Document Generation API | 5.9 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | Yes | View |
| 21 |  Nintex DocGen | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | — | Yes | View |
| 22 |  PDF995 | 5.8 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | — | View |
| 23 |  jsPDF | 5.7 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | — | — | View |
| 24 |  HTMLPDF.dev | 5.6 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | Yes | 19 /mo | — | View |
| 25 | Docupilot | 5.5 | RecognisedAPIDocumented | — | No | 29 /mo | Yes | View |
Is your platform on this list?
Numbered spots on this list can be sponsored. They are labelled, and the editorial order and scores never change for payment.
Questions about this list
Which PDF creation software is ranked first on Inferse?
Carbone is ranked #1 of 34 with a score of 8.9. CraftMyPDF is second and ReportLab third.
How many of these have a free plan?
8 of the 25 on this page publish a free plan on their own pricing pages.
Which is the cheapest paid option?
On this page, PDFMonkey has the lowest first paid tier we found: €5/mo.
How is this list ranked?
Ranked on what each maker publishes, open and connectable first: a public API, open-source code, the depth of its documentation and a free tier to try it on. Model lists are sorted by the figure in their title, exactly as each provider publishes it. Paid placements never change a rank.