Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

PrintFriendly VS React Engine

Compare PrintFriendly VS React Engine and see what are their differences

PrintFriendly logo PrintFriendly

PrintFriendly cleans and formats web pages for perfect print experience.

React Engine logo React Engine

A react render engine for Universal (previously Isomorphic) JavaScript apps written with express, by PayPal
  • PrintFriendly Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-27
  • React Engine Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-02

PrintFriendly features and specs

  • User-Friendly Interface
    PrintFriendly offers an intuitive and straightforward interface, making it easy for users to convert web pages into print-friendly PDF documents or remove unwanted elements before printing.
  • Customizable Content
    The tool allows users to remove images and text, adjust font sizes, and customize content before printing or converting to PDF, providing greater control over the final output.
  • Browser Extension Available
    PrintFriendly provides browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, and Edge, enabling quick access to its features without needing to navigate away from your current webpage.
  • Environmentally Conscious
    By allowing users to eliminate unnecessary content before printing, PrintFriendly helps save paper and ink, promoting environmentally friendly practices.
  • Free to Use
    PrintFriendly offers its core features for free, making it accessible to a wide range of users without cost barriers.

Possible disadvantages of PrintFriendly

  • Limited Advanced Features
    While PrintFriendly provides essential tools for printing and PDF conversion, it lacks more advanced features found in other dedicated PDF editors or converters, such as annotations or OCR.
  • Dependence on Internet Connection
    The tool requires an active internet connection to function, which might be inconvenient for users who wish to work offline or in areas with poor connectivity.
  • Potential Formatting Issues
    Occasionally, PrintFriendly may face difficulties accurately preserving complex webpage formats, leading to discrepancies in the print or PDF output.
  • Privacy Concerns
    Since PrintFriendly processes web pages online, users concerned about privacy need to be cautious about the content they upload or process using the service.
  • Advertisements in Free Version
    The free version of PrintFriendly may display ads, which can detract from the user experience and encourage users to upgrade to a paid plan for an ad-free experience.

React Engine features and specs

  • Isomorphic rendering
    React Engine enables both server-side and client-side rendering of React components, providing a seamless isomorphic/universal JavaScript experience. This allows for faster initial page loads and better SEO while maintaining rich client-side interactivity.
  • Express.js integration
    React Engine is designed as a view engine for Express.js, making it easy to integrate React into existing Express-based applications with minimal configuration. It follows familiar Express conventions for setting up view engines.
  • Built-in React Router support
    The library comes with built-in support for React Router, enabling developers to easily set up server-side and client-side routing without complex manual configuration.
  • PayPal backing
    React Engine was developed and maintained by PayPal, which provided credibility and ensured it was battle-tested in a large-scale production environment before being open-sourced.
  • Simplified setup
    The library abstracts away much of the complexity involved in setting up server-side rendering with React, reducing boilerplate code and allowing developers to get a universal React application running quickly.

Possible disadvantages of React Engine

  • Abandoned project
    The repository appears to be no longer actively maintained, with no recent commits or updates. This makes it risky to use in production as bugs and security vulnerabilities may go unpatched.
  • Outdated dependencies
    React Engine was built for older versions of React and React Router. It may not be compatible with modern versions of React (16+, 17, 18) or React Router (v5, v6), limiting its usefulness in current projects.
  • Limited ecosystem support
    The library is tightly coupled to Express.js, meaning it cannot be easily used with other Node.js frameworks like Koa, Hapi, or Fastify, reducing its flexibility.
  • Better modern alternatives
    Modern tools like Next.js, Remix, and Vite with SSR plugins provide far more comprehensive and well-maintained solutions for server-side rendering with React, making React Engine largely obsolete.
  • Limited documentation and community
    The project has relatively sparse documentation and a small community, making it difficult for new developers to troubleshoot issues or find examples and best practices for advanced use cases.

Analysis of React Engine

Overall verdict

  • Unable to verify a project specifically named 'React Engine' on GitHub with confidence, as this does not correspond to a widely recognized or well-documented open-source project that I have reliable information about. There may be multiple small or niche repositories using this name, and quality would vary significantly between them.

Why this product is good

  • React Engine is not a commonly recognized name in the mainstream React ecosystem
  • No verifiable consensus data on stars, maintenance status, documentation quality, or community adoption is available
  • Could refer to a personal project, a boilerplate, a rendering engine, or a niche tool - without more context, its quality cannot be assessed
  • Names like this are sometimes used for student projects, abandoned repos, or experimental tools that lack production readiness

Recommended for

  • Not recommended without further verification
  • Developers should search GitHub directly, check star count, last commit date, open issues, and documentation before adopting
  • Best suited for evaluation on a case-by-case basis rather than a blanket recommendation
  • If you have a specific repository URL, sharing it would allow for a more accurate assessment

PrintFriendly videos

Download webpages easily and printfriendly | Hindi

React Engine videos

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

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to PrintFriendly and React Engine)
PDF Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Office & Productivity
0 0%
100% 100
Productivity
100 100%
0% 0
eCommerce Tools
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using PrintFriendly and React Engine. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, PrintFriendly seems to be a lot more popular than React Engine. While we know about 49 links to PrintFriendly, we've tracked only 1 mention of React Engine. 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.

PrintFriendly mentions (49)

  • Jonathan Majors Abuse Allegations Go Back Nearly a Decade
    Use printfriendly to get around the paywall. I was wondering when these articles about him would start dropping. Source: about 3 years ago
  • Indigenous tribes warned of a buried kingdom in Owens Valley. Now, Caltrans bulldozers are unearthing bones
    I also use printfriendly.com as an alternative. Source: over 3 years ago
  • Colville Tribes have no right to open a casino in Pasco and โ€˜they never willโ€™ | Opinion
    I'm getting blocked by a paywall; does anyone have an archive.is or printfriendly.com version of this? Source: over 3 years ago
  • Bad Empanada goes full campist and defends the 9/11 attack
    Copy the url and paste it into printfriendly.com. Source: over 3 years ago
  • [The Atlantic] Not Just the Janitor of Abbott Elementary
    Printfriendly.com is another option if you need it. Source: over 3 years ago
View more

React Engine mentions (1)

  • react-engine vs other template engines
    I was wondering to use paypal's React Engine (https://github.com/paypal/react-engine), but I have some doubts:. Source: over 4 years ago

What are some alternatives?

When comparing PrintFriendly and React Engine, you can also consider the following products

Print Edit WE - A print focussed blog offering trend direction, fashion forecasts and weekly print design posts. Welcome to The Print Edit, home of all things print.

The Printliminator - The Printliminator is a simple tool you can use to make websites print better.

Print for Google Chrome - Print for Google Chrome is a browser extension that allows you to edit the pages that you want to print.

Awesome Cookie Manager - Awesome Cookie Manager is an extension for managing your cookies operation on chromium-based browsers.

Print What You Like - Format any web page for printing in seconds with this free online editor

Wayback Machine - Browse through over 150 billion web pages archived from 1996 to a few months ago.