iText vs IronPDF

iText, Great for your Homework (and More)

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.

Let our product do the talking

Let's Get Straight to the Point

You’re looking for a PDF library. Here’s ours compared to iText

iText

IRONPDF

IronPDF was designed with developer productivity in mind. For example, generating a PDF from a URL takes as little as four lines of code:

Let’s put our code into action and convert a HTML to PDF:

It speaks for itself, right?

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iText can handle outdated, simple HTML; IronPDF accurately converts modern, dynamic websites to PDFs.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?

HTML-to-PDF Conversion: IronPDF vs iText

Real Browser Rendering

IronPDF captures full web pages exactly as seen in Chrome. iText only sees static HTML.

Dynamic Site Support

IronPDF handles JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Next.js. iText breaks.

Automatic Asset Loading

IronPDF fetches CSS, fonts, and images for you. iText requires manual setup.

Automatic Asset Loading

IronPDF renders flexbox, grid, calc(), var() - iText crashes on these.

Developer-Friendly

Convert any URL to PDF in one line with IronPDF. iText needs preprocessing and workarounds.

How IronPDF Works For You

Here are some real comments we found about iText - and how IronPDF addresses those issues.

iText.PDF: Ease of Use

“There is a lot of boilerplate code that one needs to write to get going.”

IronPDF gets straight to the point with straightforward namespaces and minimal code.

iText: Documentation & Support

“Found very little documentation about iText. It can be improved.”

Between our blog, How-Tos, code examples, Slack channel, 24/5 support team, and more, you’ll always be able to find what you need.

iText.PDF: Cost & Licensing

“iText will get the job done, but their licensing costs can get expensive.”

IronPDF starts at just $749 for a lifetime perpetual license.

iText.PDF: Upgrade Experience

“We were trying to upgrade the iText version…it was a little complicated.”

We have made IronPDF the leading¹ .NET HTML to PDF product by prioritizing compatibility, usability and results.

iText.PDF: Documentation Quality

“iText PDF should maintain its developer doc to make it understandable.”

The IronPDF changelog is updated every month with the latest updates and information.

If we can impress Reddit

We can impress anyone.

Build A Package Tailored to You

1 Dev, 1 Location

N/A - Request a quote

$749 with 1 year free support

10 Devs, 10 Locations

N/A - Request a quote

~~$2,999~~ $1,999 with 1 year free support

Monthly License

N/A - Request a quote

$500 (10,000 API calls per month)
Includes 10 products, unlimited developers, locations, and OEM redistribution

Full Product Suite
10 Devs, 10 Locations

Request a quote

$5,998 with free support
+ OEM $3,998 / + SDK $15,998

5 Years Product Updates Renewal

It is included in the commercial license but only 3 members can be included.

$2,999

Support Hours

Mon-Fri, 9am-5pm (USA ET time zone)

24-hour, global coverage, five days a week

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.

IronPDF: Transparent, perpetual licenses starting at $749. No hidden fees or compliance concerns.

From multinational organizations to one-dev armies, we cater to teams of all sizes. But more importantly, we don’t sell you a license and then just leave you stranded.

All of our products come with a year’s free premium support provided by our industry-leading software engineer specialists, operating 24 hours a day, five days a week - something iText doesn’t offer.

MEET YOUR BACKUP

ONLINE 24/5

Still not convinced?

Why IronPDF?

A few of the reasons IronPDF is a market leader.

Pixel-perfect rendering

What you see in the browser is what you will get in the PDF.

Cross-platform

Works on almost all platforms.

Up & running in 5 mins

From the first download to working in production, in literally 5 minutes.
Download IronPDF

Great documentation

No need for trial and error.
We've got docs and examples for everything.

24/5 Technical Support

Engineers answering your live chat questions in under 1 minute.
(except weekends🛌💤)

Money-Back Guarantee

30 days, no questions asked.
We're confident in our product.
Get free trial

The best time to join IronPDF was nine years ago. The second best time is now.
Get in touch today to find out how we can help you build better.

IronPDF vs iText What you can and can't do	iText	IRONPDF
PDF Conversions Features
HTML to PDF	Requires paid add-on (pdfHTML)	Built-in (Chromium engine)
DOCX to PDF	Requires custom implementation or add-ons	Built-in
PPT to PDF	Not supported natively (need Apache POI or Aspose as a preprocessor)	Supported
Pixel-perfect Chrome rendering for HTML	Uses custom HTML renderer (pdfHTML, limited CSS/JS)	Native Chromium rendering
Javascript support in HTML	Not supported	Supported (Headless Chrome)
Convert Razor, XAML, ASPX, RTF, Markdown	Requires manual work or custom code	Built-in
PDF Building
Protect with password and permissions
Custom Headers and Footers (Text/HTML)	Limited text support	Full HTML & CSS Support
Custom PDF forms
Advanced drawing features (Text, Image, Line)
Compatibility
.NET Latest & Core support
.NET Framework support

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.

iText vs IronPDF

iText, Great for your Homework (and More)

Let's Get Straight to the Point

Why iText Falls Short at Modern URL-to-PDF Conversion