I picked up PDF-API.io at Tier 1 from AppSumo to give it a test drive before committing to a higher tier. The limits are more than enough for my current needs in my photography and creative services businesses, and I’m still considering upgrading to Tier 2. But before I do, there are some serious issues the developer needs to address. For now, I’m giving it 3 out of 5 tacos. 🌮🌮🌮

First, let’s start with the positives: the API itself. From the documentation, it looks solid—straightforward and easy to use. My plan is to connect it with n8n webhooks to pull data from my WordPress site (using Bricks Builder and Bricksforge Pro Forms) and make POST requests. It seems simple enough and exactly what I need for generating PDFs. Unfortunately, I haven’t even tested the API yet because I got stuck wrestling with the template editor.

The WYSIWYG editor is where things get frustrating. It’s clunky, unintuitive, and honestly, feels half-baked. For starters, there’s no sense of structure. When you add elements, they all pile up in the top-left corner of the canvas like a chaotic little stack that doesn’t even acknowledge obvious page margins that are shown on the canvas. That said, there is a glimmer of hope: the auto-alignment tools. These make it easier to line up elements perfectly on the canvas, which is a nice touch and helps bring some order to the chaos.

Another big downside is the lack of keyboard shortcuts. This slows down the workflow significantly. There’s also no right-click functionality for quick actions, which would make things much faster. Imagine a Gutenberg-style editor with hotkeys to add or modify elements on the fly—that’s the kind of usability this tool desperately needs. And let’s not forget the cursor modes: switching between them is so clunky it feels like you’re stuck in the early 2000s. Tools like Canva have mastered seamless element interaction, and if that’s too much to ask here, at least give us a keyboard shortcut to make the process bearable.

Lastly, there’s no variable manager. A simple tool to, create, manage, insert, and dynamically update variables across elements would save a ton of time and reduce errors. Right now, it’s way more manual than it should be.

Now onto the biggest issue: conditional logic. Or rather, the total lack of it. This is a critical feature for an API-driven tool like this, and its absence is a major limitation. There’s no way to set conditions for individual elements (like showing or hiding a block based on the data), let alone for text strings inside those elements (an absolute necessity). This is a dealbreaker for dynamic PDFs.

Here’s an example of why this matters: I send wedding questionnaires to couples, and their responses vary a ton. Some have coordinators; some don’t. Some want a first look; others don’t. Without conditional logic for elements and the text inside them, I can’t create PDFs that adapt to their unique data. At best, you end up with blank fields, while at worst you will end up with awkward gaps or broken layouts. A proper dynamic PDF tool should handle this seamlessly, but PDF-API.io doesn’t.

Despite these issues, I’m holding onto it because I see the potential. If the developer fixes the editor (especially the structure and usability) and adds robust conditional logic, this could be a game-changing tool. With some developer commitment and a few signs of development progress, or a roadmap, I’d happily upgrade to Tier 2.

For now, though, PDF-API.io, while having great UI, feels like it’s still in early development in terms of UX and features. It gets 3 out of 5 tacos from me. 🌮🌮🌮 I’m rooting for the team to make this tool shine because there’s a lot of promise here. Keep at it—you’re onto something great, and I'll be excited to update this review again with more tacos once some of these milestones are achieved.