𝗣𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝗣𝗗𝗙 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀

𝗣𝘂𝗽𝗽𝗲𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗿𝗦𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗽 𝗣𝗗𝗙 𝗶𝗻 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝘀𝘁𝘀

Your team finds a PDF library. The prototype works in one afternoon. You want to ship it.

Then you ask a hard question. What happens at 2,000 PDFs per minute?

PuppeteerSharp is a strong tool. It renders HTML and CSS perfectly. It uses an MIT license.

But it runs a Chromium browser. This is an architectural choice. It costs engineering time.

Here are the hidden costs:

• Memory: Each browser instance takes 100 to 200 MB. Large documents crash the renderer.
• Deployment: Container images are huge. This slows down your cold starts.
• Security: Google updates Chromium every four weeks. You must patch and test every update.

You will need a pool manager. You must monitor zombie processes. You must build a regression test suite.

The MIT license is free. The operational work is not.

AWS Lambda has a 250 MB limit. PuppeteerSharp is often too big for this.

Some teams prefer a commercial library like IronPDF. It removes the fleet management. It works as a simple library call.

Ask these questions before you choose:

• Do you need perfect HTML fidelity?
• Do you already run a browser fleet?
• Are you ready to own the Chromium patch cycle?

If you answer no, a managed library is the right path.

Source: https://dev.to/ironsoftware/puppeteersharp-pdf-in-production-the-real-costs-456n