We have exciting news to share: Thumbalizr is upgrading its underlying screenshot engine. Over the next few weeks, we will progressively transition from our current Browshot-powered backend to ScreenshotCenter — a next-generation screenshot API designed for performance and dependability.

Why are we making this change?

Thumbalizr has relied on the Browshot infrastructure since its early days. While Browshot has been a solid foundation, technology moves forward. ScreenshotCenter brings a modern cloud-native architecture that translates into tangible improvements for every Thumbalizr user. We want you to benefit from those advances without any effort on your part.

What does this mean for you?

The short answer: everything keeps working as before, but better. Your existing integrations, API calls, embed codes, and settings remain unchanged. The migration is entirely on our side. Here is what you can expect:

Quicker thumbnail generation

ScreenshotCenter's optimized infrastructure processes page captures significantly faster. Complex pages that used to take several seconds will now complete in a fraction of that time, so your thumbnails are ready sooner.

Greater reliability

Built on redundant, distributed cloud services, ScreenshotCenter reduces the likelihood of failed captures and timeouts. You should see fewer errors and less need for retries.

Up-to-date Firefox rendering

Until now, Thumbalizr offered Chrome as the primary rendering engine, with only a dated version of Firefox available as an alternative. With ScreenshotCenter, we gain access to the latest Firefox release, ensuring accurate rendering for websites that behave differently across browsers.

New capabilities on the horizon

Moving to ScreenshotCenter is not just about doing the same things faster. It also unlocks a set of features we plan to roll out in the coming months:

• Additional geographic locations — Capture pages from a broader selection of countries, useful when content varies by region.
• Smarter ad and popup filtering — ScreenshotCenter includes improved mechanisms for removing cookie consent banners, overlay ads, and other intrusive elements, resulting in cleaner thumbnails.
• Video recordings — Instead of a single static image, generate a video of a page loading, scrolling, or running through a sequence of interactions. Ideal for monitoring dynamic content like carousels and animations.
• PDF exports — Save full-page captures as PDF documents for archiving, compliance documentation, or easy offline sharing.
• Extended device emulation — Render pages as they appear on a wider variety of smartphones and tablets, with precise viewport dimensions and user-agent emulation.

Rollout plan

We are taking a cautious, phased approach to ensure a seamless experience:

1. Starting now — Newly created accounts will automatically use the ScreenshotCenter backend.
2. Over the coming weeks — Existing accounts will be switched over in small batches. We will monitor each batch closely before proceeding to the next.
3. Ongoing — New features (more locations, video, PDF, enhanced filtering) will be introduced progressively as they become available.

You do not need to take any action. Your thumbnails, settings, and API usage will continue to work exactly as they do today.

Want to learn more?

If you are curious about how ScreenshotCenter compares to other screenshot services, they have published a detailed comparison on their website.

Have questions about the migration? Feel free to reach out to us. We are happy to help.

We have added a number of libraries and plugins for different web frameworks and languages. These plugins allow you to easily embed Thumbalizr on your websites. We have focused on the most popular web frameworks:

• Django: an extension to call Thumbalizr directly from your Django templates.
• Ruby on Rails: this extension adds a custom thumbalizr_url tag to all your templates.
• Template Toolkit: a plugin to call Thumbalizr from your templates.

All these plugins are open-source. The code source is available on GitHub. They can be installed with your favorite dependency manager: rubygem, pip, cpan, etc.

If you need to use Thumbalizr outside of a web framework, or if you need deeper integration with your websites, a number of libraries are available for Python, Ruby, Perl and PHP. Check out the documentation and the code samples.

If you need tools for other languages or web frameworks, please let us know.

You can upload your own images in place of the default error and processing thumbnails you provide. You can upload the images inside your profile. The custom processing image will be used wile we are creating the thumbnail for you. The custom error image will be used when your screenshot fails. The custom images will be resized as needed to fit your API call.

Custom images must be PNG files under 5 MB. You should use an image in the same dimensions as the thumbnails you typically require to get the best display. You can delete your custom images to use the default thumbnails we provide.

The updated profile settings

We have update the membership page to make it easier to choose the right membership. To simplify the check out process, we have dropped the 3-month payment option.

You can choose between a monthly subscription and a one-time payment. Subscriptions are now managed by Chargebee. This service makes it easy to download receipts, upgrade, downgrade our cancel your membership. You still have the option to pay with Paypal or a credit card, in US dollars or euros.

The new membership page

We've added code samples in PHP, Python, Ruby, Perl, Bash for the Embed API. These scripts can be downloaded an run locally, you just have to update the code with your Embed API key and Secret. The examples illustrate how to easily embed Thumbalizr thumbnails into your website. We are working on a complete library for more advanced use case.

Code sample from the API documentation