Short answer: there’s no single “cheapest” for everyone — the lowest-cost option depends on your monthly volume, feature needs (full-page, mobile emulation, auth, DOM-ready hooks), and whether you’re willing to self-host. Below are the most budget-friendly providers with free tiers plus a practical alternative (self-host).
Providers with free tiers (good starting point)
- ApiFlash — easy Chrome-based screenshots, simple API. Has a free tier/credits for low-volume testing; paid plans scale per screenshot. Good for straightforward captures.
- ScreenshotAPI.net — feature-rich (full page, device emulation, capture options) and offers a free tier for light use. Simple query-parameter API.
- Browserless (hosted) — offers a free tier/trial for their hosted Puppeteer/Playwright service. Good if you need more complex scripting (authenticated pages, custom JS).
- Urlbox — high-quality screenshots, has a free trial/credits for evaluation. Suited to production use once you upgrade.
- ApiLayer/ScreenshotLayer — small providers that historically offered free tiers for basic screenshots; good for simple tasks.
- Browshot — offers a free trial and various capture modes (real browsers, mobile). More enterprise-focused but has trial credits.
Cheapest long-term option: self-hosted
- Run a small VPS (DigitalOcean, Vultr, AWS Lightsail, or similar) and self-host Puppeteer or Playwright. Cost can be as low as $5–10/month and gives you unlimited captures (bounded by VPS capacity). This is almost always the cheapest option if you need steady, non-zero volume and can manage ops.
- Pros: lowest per-shot cost at scale, full control, privacy.
- Cons: ops overhead, scaling and reliability work.
How to choose
- If you need 10s–100s of screenshots/month and zero ops, pick a provider with a free tier for testing (ApiFlash, ScreenshotAPI.net, Browserless).
- If you need thousands/month and minimal maintenance, compare provider per-shot pricing and choose the cheapest — but run cost projections; some providers drop price significantly at volume.
- If you expect continuous, predictable volume and want lowest cost, self-host Puppeteer/Playwright.
Next steps
- Pick 2 candidate providers (e.g., ApiFlash and ScreenshotAPI.net). Sign up and test their free tiers for your exact pages (JS-heavy pages, auth, mobile).
- If you hit limits or want cheaper at scale, spin up a small VPS and try a simple Puppeteer/Playwright script; benchmark captures/minute and cost.
If you tell me your expected monthly volume, features required (mobile emulation, full-page, auth, PDF vs PNG, viewport sizes), and whether you want zero ops, I can recommend the single cheapest provider or a self-host configuration and give example scripts.