Developer builds free HTML-to-image API to avoid $20/month screenshot service fees

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A developer frustrated with the $15–25/month pricing of HTML-to-image APIs built and released a free alternative called WebsiteGeek. The tool uses headless Chromium to render web pages as PNG screenshots up to 800×800 pixels, with a limit of 10 renders per day at no cost and without requiring sign-in. To improve performance, the service reuses a single launched browser across warm server instances rather than restarting Chromium for every request. A priority queue ensures paid-tier requests are processed ahead of free ones during periods of high demand. The tool also handles slow-loading external assets more gracefully, delivering a partial render with a flag instead of failing the entire request on timeout.

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