Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

JSON Generator VS DocSpring

Compare JSON Generator VS DocSpring and see what are their differences

JSON Generator logo JSON Generator

Create mock and sample JSON using a powerful template syntax

DocSpring logo DocSpring

PDF filling API that makes it easy to fill out PDF forms and convert HTML to PDFs
  • JSON Generator Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-04-10
  • DocSpring PDF Template Editor
    PDF Template Editor //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring HTML Template Preview
    HTML Template Preview //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring HTML Template Editor
    HTML Template Editor //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring Auto-generated Web Form
    Auto-generated Web Form //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring E-Signatures
    E-Signatures //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring View Submissions
    View Submissions //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring View API Request Logs
    View API Request Logs //
    2025-02-26
  • DocSpring Postman Collection
    Postman Collection //
    2025-02-26

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, then post JSON to generate PDFs
  • Use our merge API to combine multiple PDFs into a single document

PDF generation doesn't need to be complicated or take weeks of engineering time. Use our battle-tested service to start filling out PDFs in minutes.

DocSpring

$ Details
freemium $49.0 / Monthly (Starter - 50 PDFs / mo)
Release Date
2017 October
Startup details
Country
United States
State
Delaware
City
Newark
Founder(s)
Nathan Broadbent
Employees
1 - 9

JSON Generator features and specs

  • Easy to Use
    JSON Generator has a user-friendly interface that allows users to quickly create JSON data with minimal effort.
  • Customizable
    The tool allows customization of JSON data structures, enabling users to define their own fields and data types.
  • Random Data Generation
    It can generate random data for testing purposes, which is useful for developers and testers working on applications requiring sample data.
  • Templates
    JSON Generator provides templates to speed up the data creation process, allowing users to quickly start with common structures.

Possible disadvantages of JSON Generator

  • Limited Advanced Features
    The tool may lack some advanced features that developers might need for more complex JSON data generation.
  • Online Dependency
    Being an online tool, it requires an internet connection, which might not be suitable for all users or situations.
  • Security Concerns
    As with any online tool, there may be concerns about the security of the data being generated or uploaded.
  • Learning Curve for Templates
    While templates are available, there may be a learning curve associated with understanding and effectively using them for new users.

DocSpring features and specs

  • 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.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JSON Generator and DocSpring)
Developer Tools
100 100%
0% 0
PDF Tools
0 0%
100% 100
JSON
100 100%
0% 0
Document Automation
0 0%
100% 100

Questions & Answers

As answered by people managing JSON Generator 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

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, JSON Generator should be more popular than DocSpring. It has been mentiond 9 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

JSON Generator mentions (9)

  • How to code faster - VS Code edition
    JSON Generator: also generates mock data, but for JSON specifically. It's a bit more complex, but it allows for tailor-made results. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • Show HN: Generate JSON mock data for testing/initial app development
    Is there a generator for all the JSON generators out there? https://json-generator.com/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Object-oriented JSON in Go
    So I generated a random JSON file and tried parsing it. It doesnโ€™t error, but whenever I do a println(root.Object().Value().String()), I get a panic: wrong type. If I do a println(root.Object().Present()), it prints false. So seems like it would be better if you returned an error for this happening at the .Parse() call. But either way, not sure whatโ€™s happening. The JSON is indeed valid, as it was generated from... Source: over 3 years ago
  • How to Create a Table with Inline CRUD with Angular 14+
    Next, weโ€™ll seed some demo data into the table. To generate some demo data, you can checkout JSON Generator. Once youโ€™ve opened the window, replace the code in the left tab with the following code and hit generate. - Source: dev.to / over 3 years ago
  • How to Mock a Live Stream Chat
    Hey, I would try to do it using pre-comps for each message, getting the data like username, text, emojiโ€ฆ the from a json. This way you could generate the json manually with something like this to setup the blank json (just one way of doing that) or with some other kind of script. Then change the expression generated by mamoworldjson to link it to the comps name. The only thing iโ€™m not sure is how to insert the... Source: almost 4 years ago
View more

DocSpring mentions (5)

  • 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 and immigration forms into simple type-safe APIs with strong validations. I've been having a lot of fun with AI agents lately. Have tried a lot of them - Cline, Roo Code,... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Launch HN: Onedoc (YC W24) โ€“ 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 RUPS [2], which really lets you dig into the structure of a PDF. [1] https://docspring.com [2] https://github.com/itext/i7j-rups. - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago
  • Workflow for automating document creation from a "database"
    Hi /u/pepeday, Iโ€™m the founder of a software product that I built to solve this problem. The service is called DocSpring: https://docspring.com We provide a platform that you can use to set up PDF templates, and automatically generate PDFs by filling in those templates with data from your database. Please feel free to send me a message and Iโ€™d be happy to speak with you and help you figure out a solution. I can... Source: almost 5 years ago
  • How do you fill copies of the same PDF certificates with Excel data?
    - https://docspring.com/ (super advanced features, a bit bloated). Source: almost 5 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing JSON Generator and DocSpring, you can also consider the following products

Dadroit JSON Viewer - Open a 1GB JSON file in a blink ๐Ÿ’ฃ

DocRaptor - As the only API powered by the Prince HTML-to-PDF engine, DocRaptor provides the best support for complex PDFs with powerful support for headers, page breaks, page numbers, flexbox, watermarks, accessible PDFs, and much more

Jayson - Powerful JSON viewer for iPhone and iPad

Doczilla - Effortlessly create stunning PDFs and screenshots. Seamlessly store them in your own AWS or Google Cloud Storage bucket, putting the control and creativity right at your fingertips.

ExtendsClass JSON Generator - ExtendsClass's JSON generator allows to generate random JSON data from a template.

wkhtmltopdf - wkhtmltopdf is an open source (LGPL) command line tools to render HTML into PDF and various image...