Microlink
One API that turns any URL into screenshots, metadata, PDFs, and data, on an open-source core.
About
Microlink is a developer API that turns any URL into structured output: screenshots, PDFs, link-preview metadata, page-to-markdown conversion, and data extraction via CSS selectors, all from one endpoint. The screenshot side handles full-page and element captures, device emulation, ad and cookie-banner blocking by default, and a built-in residential proxy for blocked pages, with sub-second cached responses over a global edge network. A free web tool does 25 screenshots a day with no login, and the API free tier is 25 requests a day with no card.
The open-source story is the real differentiator: the core pieces (Metascraper, MQL query language, the Browserless headless browser) are MIT-licensed on GitHub, and the company publishes its own comparison pages with pricing math. Paid tiers center around roughly $45 a month for 46,000 requests with no per-minute rate cap and a 99.9% SLA, figures the company states about itself. Beyond screenshots it competes as a general URL-to-data API, which makes it broader but less single-purpose than ScreenshotOne.
What it can do
- URL to screenshot, PDF, metadata, markdown, and structured data from one endpoint
- Full-page and element-level screenshots with device emulation
- Ad and cookie-banner blocking by default, residential proxy for blocked pages
- CDN-hosted screenshot URLs with cache layer
- Data extraction with CSS selectors and Puppeteer-level JS execution
- Node.js SDK (@microlink/mql) plus direct REST from any language
- Open-source MIT core: Metascraper, MQL, Browserless
Setup
No key needed for the free tier: GET https://api.microlink.io/?url=...&screenshot=true. Add an x-api-key header for Pro.
Prerequisites
None for the free tier (25 requests/day); API key for Pro plans.
Use cases
Works with
Trust score — 8/10
Scored 8/10 (verified tier, metrics-v1). Evidence: the official docs confirm the unified screenshot/metadata/PDF/data endpoint, 25/day free tier with no card, and the open-source MIT core (Browserless repo: 1,840 stars, pushed Oct 2026). Strengths: the most transparent vendor in the category with published benchmarks and open core, generous free tier, no rate caps on paid plans. Docked for: (1) edge-network, SLA, and per-request cost figures are provider-stated; (2) broader than a pure screenshot API, so power screenshot features are one part of a bigger surface; (3) commercial use beyond the free tier requires a paid plan. License: proprietary API with MIT open-source core.
★ 1,840 GitHub stars
How the trust score is built
Full methodology →- Adoption · stars/downloads, log-scaled vs peers
- 8.0/10
- Maintenance · recency, releases, issue load
- 9.0/10
- Openness · license + docs
- 8.0/10
- Manual review · sanity read + red-flag check
- 8.0/10
- · Microlink (Kiko Beats)
- · One endpoint: screenshots, PDFs, metadata, markdown, data extraction
- · Full-page and element captures, device emulation, ad/cookie-banner blocking
- · Residential proxy for blocked pages; CDN-hosted URLs with cache layer
- · Browserless OSS core: 1,840 GitHub stars, pushed Oct 2026
- · Publishes own comparison pages with pricing math
- · Broader than a pure screenshot API; commercial use beyond free tier is paid
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these sources. Where a claim comes from the provider and couldn't be independently verified, the text says so.