MICROLINK ALTERNATIVE · UPDATED OCT 2026

Shots vs Microlink

Microlink is an excellent general-purpose URL API — metadata, screenshots, PDFs, link previews. But if what you actually need is screenshots plus social/OG images, you're paying for a Swiss Army knife when you need two blades.

The honest comparison

	Microlink	Shots
Free tier	25 requests/day, no card	Free during beta · demo key 20/day/IP, no card
Paid entry	€39/mo (~$45) for 46k requests	Free during beta
URL → screenshot API	Yes	Yes — viewport, full-page, delay
OG / social image API	No (screenshot only)	Yes — 12 hand-designed templates
Template gallery	—	12 templates, POST JSON → PNG
Metadata / link previews	Yes — best in class	No (not our lane)
PDF generation	Yes	No
Built for	Link unfurling, metadata	Devs who need screenshots + OG images

Competitor pricing from microlink.io public pricing, Oct 2026; confirm at checkout.

When Microlink is the better choice

We'll say it: if you need link previews, metadata extraction, or PDFs alongside screenshots, Microlink is the best single API for that bundle — its free tier is genuinely generous and the edge network is fast. Don't replace it with Shots for metadata.

When Shots wins

1. You need OG images, not just screenshots. Every launch, blog post, and docs page needs a 1200×630 social card. Microlink can't generate one from a template — Shots has 12 hand-designed templates you feed with JSON:

curl -X POST https://shotsapi.com/v1/og/launch \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SHOTS_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"title":"We just launched","subtitle":"Screenshots via API"}' \
  --output og.png

2. You want one API for both jobs. Screenshot your changelog and generate its social card from the same key, same dashboard, same quota.

3. You're in beta-budget mode. Shots is free while in beta. Microlink's free 25/day is real, but the moment you outgrow it you're at €39/mo.

Switching takes 5 minutes

# Before (Microlink)
curl "https://api.microlink.io/?url=https://example.com&screenshot=true"

# After (Shots)
curl "https://shotsapi.com/v1/screenshot?url=https://example.com" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $SHOTS_KEY" \
  --output screenshot.png