Software Alternatives & Startups

Decodo VS DocSpring

Compare Decodo VS DocSpring and see what are their differences

Decodo

Decodo is perhaps the most user-friendly way to access local data anywhere. It has global coverage with 195 locations, offers more than 55M residential proxies worldwide and a great deal of scraping solutions.

Rating
4.5 · 2 reviews
Pricing
$12.5 (1 GB)
DocSpring

PDF filling API that makes it easy to fill out PDF forms and convert HTML to PDFs

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Freemium Free trial $49 / Monthly (Starter - 50 PDFs / mo)

Which is more popular?

Decodo might be a bit more popular than DocSpring. We know about 6 links to it since March 2021 and only 5 links to DocSpring.

social mentions
6 vs 5
Proxy popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
240+ vs 176

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Decodo
DocSpring
Website decodo.com docspring.com
Pricing
$12.5 (1 GB) Official pricing
Freemium Free trial $49 / Monthly (Starter - 50 PDFs / mo) Official pricing
Company 2018 Startup from the United States · 1 - 9 employees · 2017
Listed in

About Decodo and DocSpring

In their own words, as submitted to SaaSHub.

Decodo
DocSpring

Decodo has been a promising proxy provider since its first days in 2018. They offer a wide selection of proxies (residential, shared and private datacenter proxies) and three full-stack scraping APIs with 100% success rates and a no-code scraper. It has an easy-to-use dashboard, public API, and...

Read more about Decodo

We provide a PDF filling and generation API: Upload your PDF to our visual template editor to set up form fields and data types Post JSON to fill out existing PDF forms with data Generate editable PDF forms, or overlay static data on top of fields Create HTML/CSS templates with Liquid fields,...

Read more about DocSpring

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Decodo 6 features
DocSpring 5 features
  • Large Proxy Pool
    Smartproxy offers a vast pool of residential and data center proxies, which expands the choice and decreases the chance of IP bans.
  • User-friendly Dashboard
    The service provides an intuitive and easy-to-use dashboard, making it simple for users to manage their proxies and monitor usage.
  • High Anonymity
    Smartproxy ensures high levels of anonymity and privacy, useful for activities requiring discreetness like web scraping.
  • Global Coverage
    With proxies available in numerous locations worldwide, users can access geographically restricted content or conduct broad market research.
  • 24/7 Customer Support
    Their customer support is available around the clock, offering reliable and prompt assistance to users via live chat and email.
  • Flexible Pricing Plans
    Smartproxy provides a range of pricing plans catering to different needs and budgets, including pay-as-you-go options.

Possible disadvantages

  • Higher Cost for Premium Plans
    While they do offer flexible pricing, the more advanced plans can be expensive, making them less accessible for smaller businesses or individual users.
  • Usage Limitations
    There are bandwidth limitations depending on the plan you choose, which can be restrictive for tasks requiring large data transfers.
  • Shared Proxies
    Some of the proxies are shared, which can potentially slow down connection speeds or lead to IP bans if other users abuse the service.
  • No Free Trials
    Smartproxy does not offer a free trial, which could deter potential customers who are unwilling to commit without trying the service first.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    Utilizing some of the more sophisticated functionalities might require a learning curve, especially for users not familiar with proxy services.
  • Automated PDF Generation
    DocSpring allows users to automate the generation of PDFs by filling out templates with data. This can significantly reduce the time and effort needed to create documents.
  • API Integration
    DocSpring offers a robust API, which allows developers to integrate PDF generation into their own applications easily, enhancing productivity and workflow automation.
  • Flexible Templates
    The platform supports flexible and customizable templates, enabling businesses to maintain brand consistency while meeting specific document formatting requirements.
  • Secure Data Handling
    DocSpring is SOC 2 Type II compliant. We ensure data security through encryption and secure storage options, making it suitable for handling sensitive information.
  • Ease of Use
    The user interface is designed to be intuitive, making it easy for businesses to create and manage PDF templates without requiring extensive technical knowledge.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Decodo
DocSpring

Overall verdict

  • Smartproxy is generally well-regarded in the proxy service industry. It is recommended for those who need reliable and efficient proxy solutions with a balance of cost and performance. However, like any service, it’s important for users to assess their specific needs and test the platform to ensure it meets their requirements.

Why this product is good

  • Smartproxy is considered a good proxy service provider due to its extensive network of residential IP addresses, competitive pricing, and high success rates for web scraping and bypassing geo-restrictions. The service offers user-friendly management tools and responsive customer support, making it suitable for both beginners and advanced users. Additionally, Smartproxy places a strong emphasis on security and privacy, which are crucial factors for many users.

Recommended for

  • Web scraping professionals
  • SEO specialists
  • Businesses looking to bypass geo-restrictions
  • Users concerned with online privacy and security
  • Data miners needing reliable residential proxies

No analysis of DocSpring yet.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Decodo 9 videos + Add
DocSpring 0 videos + Add

Residential rotating proxies. Why choose Smartproxy?

More videos

  • - Smartproxy review & How to smartproxy
  • - Proxies for Scraping
  • - How to Start Using Smartproxy
  • - Smartproxy Review 2023: Best Price To Value Proxies
  • - IPFighter| Review Smartproxy
  • - DECODO Review 2025 (Ex-Smartproxy) | Still the BEST Proxy?
  • - Decodo Review 2025 (former Smartproxy) | FULL Review of new features!

No DocSpring videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Decodo
DocSpring
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing Decodo and DocSpring.

Which are the primary technologies used for building your product?

DocSpring's answer:

Ruby on Rails, React, AWS

What makes your product unique?

DocSpring's answer:

DocSpring is built specifically for developers who need reliable, secure PDF generation in production. We combine PDF form filling and HTML-to-PDF in a single API, with a visual template editor, typed fields, and validation to catch issues early. Our product has a lot of power features and is built to handle very advanced forms. Our infrastructure is SOC 2 Type II compliant, battle-tested, privacy focused, and optimized for high-volume workloads, so you can ship PDF features quickly and then stop thinking about them.

Why should a person choose your product over its competitors?

DocSpring's answer:

DocSpring is designed for teams who need a powerful tool with all the features you need for complex forms and business logic. DocSpring supports structured JSON, typed fields, and array iterations, and many other advanced features, so your templates stay aligned with your real data model. You get powerful validation, a visual editor, strong observability, and an API that fits into modern engineering workflows, so you spend less time fighting PDFs and more time shipping product.

How would you describe the primary audience of your product?

DocSpring's answer:

DocSpring is built for engineering and product teams who manage complex documents in production: things like financial applications, insurance forms, healthcare and legal documents, HR and payroll workflows, and government-style forms.

What's the story behind your product?

DocSpring's answer:

I used to work at a payroll company (Gusto). We had built a similar in-house tool for filling out tax forms. I then built the first version of DocSpring (formerly named FormAPI) while I was living in Thailand. I built it to automate the filling out of visa application and visa extension forms, but realized that it could also be used for tax forms, real estate contracts, and any other kind of fillable PDF form.

Who are some of the biggest customers of your product?

DocSpring's answer:

  • SaaS services serving customers in the real estate, insurance, finance, and legal industries, among many others.

User comments

Share your experience with using Decodo and DocSpring. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Decodo 4.5 · 2 reviews
DocSpring no reviews yet
  • Proxy Service Awards 2024
    proxyway.com · May 2024

    After all these years, we still can’t find a provider that combines mid-market rates, premium-grade performance, and newbie-friendly user experience as well as Smartproxy. You can get proxies that work effectively as...

  • Very good quality
    SaaSHub review
    · Mar 2024

    Residential proxy is quite good. High success rate with their proxies even though it is quite expensive

  • My Review of Smartproxy Service
    SaaSHub review
    · Dec 2023

    Smartproxy, in my experience, is a solid choice for heavy-duty web scraping tasks. Been using it for bulk data mining. Their proxy pool's massive – good for avoiding blocks and captchas. Speed's decent, uptime mostly...

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We have no reviews of DocSpring yet. Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Decodo 6 mentions
DocSpring 5 mentions

View more

  • Ask HN: What Are You Working On? (February 2025)
    I'm still working on DocSpring [1], originally launched on Hacker News in October 2017 under the name "FormAPI." It's a PDF generation API with a template editor UI for setting up fields on PDF forms. It makes it easy to turn complex tax... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Launch HN: Onedoc (YC W24) – A better way to create PDFs
    For programmatic filling of PDFs, have a look at DocSpring: https://docspring.com. - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • So you want to modify the text of a PDF by hand
    Great post. I've spend a lot of time reading through the PDF specification over the last ~5 years while building DocSpring [1], and I still feel like I've barely scratched the surface. Qpdf is a great tool. One of my other favorites is... - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago

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Alternatives to Decodo and DocSpring

When comparing Decodo and DocSpring, you can also consider the following products.