Move the public-page slice from Urlbox.

Start with the response contract

Move the capture only when your server owns delivery.

Urlbox supports several surrounding workflows: signed render links, JSON responses with a temporary renderUrl, async jobs, webhooks, caching, and cloud storage. Latchshot has a smaller contract. An authenticated server request returns the image or PDF bytes synchronously, and your application decides whether and where to store them.

Keep Bearer authentication; change what comes back.

Urlbox's current JSON API and Latchshot both accept a server-side Bearer credential. The important difference is the response. Urlbox POST /v1/render/sync returns JSON containing a temporary hosted renderUrl. Latchshot POST /v1/render returns the artifact bytes directly.

Before: Urlbox JSON API

curl -fsS \
  'https://api.urlbox.com/v1/render/sync' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $URLBOX_SECRET" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "format": "png",
    "width": 1440,
    "height": 900,
    "full_page": false
  }'

# {"renderUrl":"https://renders.urlbox.com/…png", ...}

After: Latchshot binary response

curl -fSL \
  'https://latchshot.fly.dev/v1/render' \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $LATCHSHOT_API_KEY" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "url": "https://example.com",
    "kind": "screenshot",
    "format": "png",
    "width": 1440,
    "height": 900,
    "fullPage": false
  }' \
  -o after.png

Translate the controls with exact semantics.

Start from the smallest request. Several names map directly, but wait behavior and output delivery do not. Compare representative pages instead of assuming similar names produce identical pixels.

On a narrow screen, scroll the option table horizontally.

Stop if Urlbox supplies more than rendering.

Latchshot has no equivalent for these Urlbox capabilities. Removing one can change the page, response, delivery contract, or security model.

• Direct embedding and hosting: render links, temporary renderUrl responses, provider caching, ttl, force, deduplication, and hosted refresh behavior.
• Async and storage: async renders, status polling, webhooks, S3-compatible uploads, custom CDN hosts, and provider-managed storage.
• Page changes: selectors, clicks, hover, cleanup beyond the five best-effort controls, injected CSS or JavaScript, raw HTML input, headers, cookies, and custom user agents.
• Network placement: custom or managed proxies, geolocation, time-zone placement, authenticated pages, private hosts, and non-standard target ports.
• Image and PDF processing: thumbnail resizing, clipping, padding, background changes, page ranges, custom PDF dimensions, headers, footers, metadata, and arbitrary PDF scale.
• Other outputs and analysis: WebP, AVIF, SVG, HTML, Markdown, video, metadata extraction, readable content, LLM output, and certified renders.

Keep Urlbox for any job that needs those features. A split-provider design is safer than weakening an existing workflow to force a migration.

Cut over one eligible job at a time.

1. Inventory the exact Urlbox request shape, including delivery, storage, cache, and page-modification options.
2. Reject any job that depends on the stop list. Do not treat an <img src> render link as a server API call.
3. Render a representative public-page set through both providers using fixed viewports and formats.
4. Compare dimensions, visible content, fonts, navigation completion, latency, and the surrounding storage or delivery behavior.
5. Route a bounded share of eligible jobs to Latchshot and keep the Urlbox path until rollback has been exercised.

Retry only 429, 502, 503, and 504, with a strict attempt cap. Treat authentication, validation, and target-policy failures as permanent until the request changes.

Price the complete workflow.

Latchshot counts successful direct renders. Failed direct renders do not consume monthly quota, and automatic overages are disabled during the beta. The current plans are Free at 100 successful renders each UTC month, Launch at $19 for 2,500, Build at $49 for 12,000, and Scale at $149 for 50,000.

That is not proof that migration is cheaper. Include downstream image resizing, object storage, transfer, URL delivery, retry volume, engineering work, and every Urlbox-only job that remains.

Create one Free-plan key, save it when it is returned, and use the 100 monthly successful renders on a representative eligible set.