Comparison
Doc2api vs Anvil
A broader product than Doc2api. If you need signature packets with a legal audit trail, they do something we do not.
Where Anvil is the better choice
Genuinely — if any of these is your requirement, stop reading and use them.
- Etch e-signature packets — a proper e-sign product with its own audit trail, priced at $1.50 a packet. Doc2api stamps a drawn signature into the PDF, which is not the same thing and is not a substitute where a legally robust signing ceremony is required.
- Multi-step workflows across several documents and participants. Doc2api handles one document at a time.
- AI document tagging, which reads a PDF and proposes its fields. Doc2api's equivalent is currently switched off, so flat and scanned PDFs need their boxes drawn by hand here.
- A genuinely generous free tier for dashboard-driven use, including unlimited e-sign packets.
What Doc2api does
Three jobs, one endpoint — worth knowing before the comparison below.
1
Fill a PDF you were given
Upload a fillable PDF and its fields come back as a typed JSON schema. Flat or scanned, you draw named boxes on the page instead. The output is that exact document.
2
Design one from nothing
A drag-and-drop designer: tables with repeating rows, bar/line/pie charts, barcodes and QR codes, signature blocks, running headers and footers, watermarks, page numbers, a brand colour and type scale, elements that appear only when an expression is true, and six page sizes from A5 to Tabloid. No markup required.
3
Or hand us your own HTML
An HTML block takes your markup — headings, tables, lists, images, links and inline styles — and renders it into the document, script-free and parsed against an allow-list. Paste what you already generate instead of rebuilding it.
Where Doc2api differs
Per-document cost, at volume
Anvil's published API rate is $0.10 per PDF fill once starter credits are used. Doc2api's Business plan works out at $0.002 per document, and the +500,000 pack at $0.0016 — a difference that only matters above a few thousand documents a month, and matters a great deal above a hundred thousand.
No account needed to evaluate
Anvil's free tier is generous but still starts with a signup. Here you can upload a PDF and get a working endpoint before deciding whether to register.
No seat limits
Anvil's published plans include 2 user seats on Free and 5 on the AI and Product packs, with unlimited seats on Enterprise. Doc2api does not count seats at all — invite the whole team on any plan, including Free.
White-label at $50 instead of $425
Removing our branding from the embedded form is on Pro, at $50 a month. Anvil lists white labeling and custom colours on the Product Pack, at $425 a month. If putting your own name on the form matters, that is the same feature at a very different price.
A real API key on the free plan
Anvil's Free tier is dashboard-only for much of what you would want to automate — their published list puts Document AI API access, interactive acroform fields and flat-to-fillable conversion outside it. Here the free plan, and the no-account trial before it, both hand you a working key against the same endpoints a paying customer uses.
Narrower on workflow, wider on the document
Doc2api has no multi-participant workflow engine. What it does have is three ways to produce the document itself: fill a PDF you were given, design one in a visual editor, or hand it your own HTML. If the hard part is the document rather than the routing, that is the trade worth making.
Published pricing
Anvil's figures read from their pricing page on 7 August 2026. They may have changed since — check before deciding, and email support@doc2api.co if anything here is out of date.
Anvil
| Plan | Price | Included |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited templates, workflow submissions and e-sign packets via their dashboard; no metered API usage included |
| AI Pack | $99/mo | 2,500 starter PDF-fill creditsthen $0.10 per PDF fill |
| Product Pack | $425/mo | 2,500 starter PDF-fill credits, higher AI limitsthen $0.10 per PDF fill |
| Enterprise | Custom | Custom |
Doc2api
| Plan | Price | Per 1,000 docs |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 50/mo, no expiry |
| Starter | $20/mo1,000 documents/month | $20.00 |
| Pro | $50/mo10,000 documents/month | $5.00 |
| Business | $200/mo100,000 documents/month | $2.00 |
| Business + 500,000 documents pack | $1,000/mo600,000 documents/month | $1.67 |
Cost per document is not the whole comparison — and it does not always favour us. Where it does, it still ignores everything in the section above; where it does not, we have said so there. Read both.
Choose Anvil if…
You need e-signature packets with an audit trail, multi-participant workflows, or AI field detection on scanned forms.
Choose Doc2api if…
You want a PDF-filling API with predictable monthly pricing at volume, an embeddable form, and no signup to evaluate it.
Decide it in two minutes instead
Upload the actual PDF you need filled and see what comes back. You get a working endpoint and a real API key — no account, nothing to cancel.