iText is free under AGPL - making it a solid choice for academic, internal, and non-commercial projects. But if you’re building software for commercial use, it becomes a hurdle - businesses must negotiate a commercial license. It’s a shame, because iText offers powerful low-level PDF control - from annotations & form filling, to encryption & standards compliance like PDF/A. But its steep learning curve and licensing friction often outweigh the benefits for teams focused on security, transparency, and time-to-value. That’s where IRONPDF comes in - a developer-friendly PDF solution, built with business in mind. Clean licensing, easy-to-use APIs, and Chromium-based rendering, helps teams move faster without sacrificing flexibility.
Why iText Falls Short at Modern URL-to-PDF Conversion iText cannot execute JavaScript, so dynamic content is missing.Modern CSS functions like calc(), var(), and clamp() trigger parsing errors.External CSS and images must be manually resolved, there's no automatic loading.Dynamic DOM rendering (e.g., React, Vue, Next.js) is not supported.It parses only raw HTML, not the fully rendered browser view. iText can handle outdated, simple HTML; IronPDF accurately converts modern, dynamic websites to PDFs. ...if you want to really drive the point home?
iText do not publicly provide pricing information for their licenses or support, requiring customers to get in touch for a bespoke, variable quote. The AGPL licensing requires open-source disclosure or commercial licensing, with costs that depend on custom quotes and add-ons.
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iText vs IronPDF Which One Suits Your Needs Best? Choosing the right PDF library is about aligning tools with your project’s goals. While both IronPDF and iText have strong reputations, their unique focuses cater to different types of users. When to Choose iText iText is a good fit for academic or compliance-heavy projects, especially where open-source distribution is expected. Its AGPL license aligns well with academic publishing, where sharing source code isn’t an issue.But for commercial teams building proprietary software, the AGPL can be restrictive and the learning curve steep , making iText a less practical choice for fast-paced development. Why Choose IronPDF? IronPDF is favored by businesses in tech, finance, e-commerce, and healthcare for creating dynamic PDFs, reports, and interactive forms, especially in scalable cloud environments like Azure and AWS.The best time to choose IronPDF was yesterday.The second-best time? Today.
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