Why we built LambdaShot
The story behind LambdaShot: why we decided to build a screenshot API and the problems we set out to solve for developers.
Every developer who's needed programmatic screenshots has faced the same journey: "How hard can it be? I'll just spin up Puppeteer." Two weeks later, they're debugging memory leaks, managing browser processes, and wondering why certain pages render blank.
We've been there. Multiple times. That's why we built LambdaShot.
The problem
Taking screenshots programmatically sounds simple, but the reality is anything but:
- Browser management - Chrome instances crash, leak memory, and need constant babysitting
- Scaling challenges - Each browser uses significant RAM; scaling to hundreds of concurrent screenshots is expensive
- Edge cases everywhere - Lazy loading, cookie banners, dynamic content, web fonts, and more
- Infrastructure overhead - Someone has to maintain the servers, update browsers, handle security
Our experience
We first encountered this problem while building a link preview service. We needed to generate thumbnail images for URLs shared on a platform. Simple enough, right?
Our initial Puppeteer setup worked great for a few hundred screenshots per day. Then we hit scale. Browser crashes increased. Memory usage spiked. Some pages took 30+ seconds to render. Others showed blank content or cookie consent dialogs covering everything.
We spent months solving these problems. Custom font loading. Scroll-based lazy loading triggers. A database of cookie banner selectors. Queue management for browser instances. Automatic retry logic. Health checks and auto-restart mechanisms.
Eventually, we realized: we'd built a screenshot API. And we weren't the only ones who needed it.
What we set out to build
LambdaShot was designed with three principles:
- Just work - No configuration needed for common cases. Point at a URL, get a screenshot.
- Handle the edge cases - Cookie banners, lazy loading, dynamic content - we handle it so you don't have to.
- Simple pricing - Pay per screenshot. No tiers, no commitments, no surprises.
The road ahead
We're just getting started. Our roadmap includes:
- Video recording and animation capture
- PDF generation
- More output formats and customization options
- SDKs for every major language
We're building the screenshot infrastructure we wish we had. If you've ever struggled with programmatic screenshots, we'd love for you to give LambdaShot a try.