When you use an HTML-to-PDF API, your application may send considerably more than a simple web address to the service. You may be sending complete HTML documents containing customer details, invoices, financial information, reports or other business data.

Where that data is processed — and whether it is stored — can therefore be important considerations when selecting a PDF API.

HTML2PDF is a UK hosted HTML-to-PDF API. Our PDF conversion infrastructure is located entirely in the United Kingdom.

In addition, HTML2PDF processes your documents in memory. We do not store the HTML submitted for conversion and we do not save the generated PDF to disk. The PDF is generated in memory and served directly from memory back to your application.

This makes HTML2PDF particularly suitable for UK and European organisations looking for a managed HTML-to-PDF service where document processing takes place in the UK without submitted documents or generated PDFs being stored on the conversion servers.

Why does the location of an HTML-to-PDF API matter?

For a public web page, the physical location of the PDF conversion infrastructure may not be particularly important. The information being converted is already publicly available.

The situation can be different when your application sends raw HTML to a PDF API. That HTML may contain information such as:

  • Customer names and addresses
  • Invoices and transaction information
  • Financial reports
  • Account statements
  • Internal business reports
  • Order details
  • Employee information
  • Other application-generated documents

In these situations, the HTML-to-PDF service becomes part of your application's data-processing architecture. The location of the servers performing the conversion and what happens to the document during that conversion can therefore be relevant when assessing data residency, privacy and compliance requirements.

Many popular cloud and API services are primarily hosted in the United States. Organisations in the UK and Europe may instead prefer document processing to take place on infrastructure located in the United Kingdom.

HTML2PDF infrastructure is hosted in the United Kingdom

HTML2PDF's PDF conversion infrastructure is located entirely in the UK.

When you submit HTML or a URL to the HTML2PDF API, the conversion is performed by our UK-based infrastructure. Your application does not need to operate its own browser-based PDF rendering servers.

The basic architecture is:

Your application
       |
       | URL or HTML
       v
  HTML2PDF API
       |
       v
UK-based rendering
infrastructure
       |
       | PDF
       v
Your application

This gives UK and European applications a managed HTML-to-PDF option without relying on US-based rendering infrastructure.

In-memory processing: your documents are not stored

Server location is only part of the data-privacy question. Another important consideration is whether the conversion provider stores the documents it processes.

HTML2PDF does not store the HTML submitted for conversion or the resulting PDF on its conversion servers.

The conversion takes place in memory. The resulting PDF is also held in memory and returned directly to your application as the HTTP response.

The document flow is therefore:

Your application
       |
       | HTML / URL
       v
  HTML2PDF API
       |
       v
  Render in memory
       |
       v
Generate PDF in memory
       |
       v
Return PDF directly
       |
       v
Your application

No HTML document stored
No generated PDF stored

There is no intermediate step where HTML2PDF saves the submitted document or generated PDF to persistent storage for later retrieval.

This is particularly useful for applications generating documents containing customer or business information. The document is processed for the purpose of generating the requested PDF rather than being stored as a file on our servers.

In short: your HTML comes in, the PDF is generated in memory, and the PDF is returned directly to you. Neither the submitted HTML nor the generated PDF is stored on our conversion servers.

How your HTML-to-PDF data is processed

There are two common ways to use HTML2PDF, with slightly different data flows. Both use our UK-based infrastructure and in-memory PDF processing.

Converting a URL

Your application
       |
       | URL
       v
  HTML2PDF API
       |
       | fetch page
       v
   Your website
       |
       v
Render in memory
on UK infrastructure
       |
       v
Generate PDF in memory
       |
       v
Return PDF to application

HTML2PDF receives the URL, retrieves the page and renders the document using our UK-based infrastructure. The generated PDF is returned directly to your application without being stored on the conversion server.

Sending raw HTML

Your application
       |
       | HTML document
       v
  HTML2PDF API
       |
       v
Render in memory
on UK infrastructure
       |
       v
Generate PDF in memory
       |
       v
Return PDF to application

Sending raw HTML is particularly useful for private or dynamically generated documents because you do not have to expose the document at a public URL before converting it.

The HTML is used for the conversion, the PDF is generated in memory and the resulting PDF is returned directly in the HTTP response. Neither document is saved to persistent storage by the conversion process.

1. Convert a URL to PDF on UK infrastructure

To convert an existing web page, send its URL to the HTML2PDF API: 

curl "https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/?license=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY&url=https%3A%2F%2Fexample.com" \
     --output example.pdf

HTML2PDF retrieves and renders the page using our UK infrastructure. The PDF is generated in memory and returned directly in the HTTP response.

2. Convert private or dynamically generated HTML

If your application generates an invoice, report or other document internally, you can send the HTML directly to HTML2PDF instead of making it available through a public URL. 

curl -X POST "https://api.html2pdf.co.uk/" \
     -d "license=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY" \
     --data-urlencode "html=<html><body><h1>Invoice</h1><p>Private document content...</p></body></html>" \
     --output invoice.pdf

The submitted HTML is processed in memory by the HTML2PDF infrastructure in the United Kingdom. The resulting PDF is also held in memory and returned directly to your application rather than being stored on our conversion servers.

Who benefits from a UK hosted HTML-to-PDF API?

UK-based, in-memory processing can be particularly relevant when generated PDFs contain customer, financial or internal business information.

Typical use cases include:

  • SaaS applications generating downloadable customer documents
  • Accounting software generating invoices and statements
  • E-commerce platforms generating invoices and order documents
  • Financial applications producing reports and statements
  • Business applications generating internal or customer reports
  • UK organisations that prefer their PDF processing to remain in the UK
  • European organisations looking for an alternative to US-hosted PDF APIs
  • Applications handling sensitive business data where avoiding persistent document storage is desirable

What should you consider when choosing an HTML-to-PDF API?

When comparing HTML-to-PDF services, it is worth looking beyond rendering quality and price. Consider:

  • Where the document is processed
  • Whether submitted HTML is stored
  • Whether generated PDFs are stored
  • HTML, CSS and JavaScript rendering quality
  • URL and raw HTML support
  • Headers and footers
  • Page sizes, orientation and margins
  • Print and screen CSS support
  • JavaScript and lazy-loaded content
  • API reliability and performance
  • Pricing at your expected conversion volume
  • Your organisation's data-processing and privacy requirements

HTML2PDF combines UK-based infrastructure with in-memory document conversion: the submitted document and generated PDF are not stored on the conversion servers.

For all available conversion parameters, see the HTML2PDF API documentation.

Try our UK hosted HTML-to-PDF API

If you need managed HTML-to-PDF conversion but prefer your documents to be processed in the United Kingdom without being stored on the conversion servers, you can test HTML2PDF with your own URLs and HTML.

With HTML2PDF you can:

  1. Send a URL or raw HTML to our API
  2. Have the document rendered in memory on our UK-based infrastructure
  3. Have the PDF generated in memory
  4. Receive the PDF directly in the HTTP response

The submitted HTML and generated PDF are not stored on our conversion servers.

Explore the HTML2PDF API documentation or compare our plans and pricing to start testing HTML2PDF.