react-pdf

React-pdf lets you build them using JSX components. Instead of wrestling with a PDF library's API, you write `<Document><Page><View><Text>` just like you'd write a React component. The mental model is the same, the output is a PDF.

Everything is free under MIT. No paid tier, no premium features. The library handles layout (flexbox-based), fonts, images, SVG, links, and page breaks. It works in Node.js (server-side generation) and in the browser.

There's nothing to host for the library itself. `npm install @react-pdf/renderer` and start building. If you need server-side PDF generation at scale, you'll run a Node.js service, but that's your infrastructure choice. Solo developers: perfect for adding PDF export to a React app. Invoices, reports, anything you'd otherwise build with a Python PDF library. Small teams: great for any app that needs branded PDF output. The component model makes templates maintainable. Growing teams: it scales, but complex layouts with many pages can be slow to render.

The catch: the flexbox layout engine is close to CSS flexbox but not identical. Some properties behave slightly differently, and you'll spend time debugging layout issues that "should work." Also, rendering speed. Complex multi-page documents can take seconds to generate. For high-volume PDF generation, you might want a dedicated service.