Carbone alternative: templates as code, flat price
Carbone fills Word and Excel templates with JSON. Oicana takes the developer route, Typst templates in Git, compiled inside your own application, with a flat license and unlimited documents.
What Carbone does well
Section titled “What Carbone does well”Carbone generates documents from office templates: you design in Word, Excel, or LibreOffice, and Carbone injects JSON data. It outputs many formats beyond PDF, offers SDKs for several languages, and can run as a cloud API or on-premise. There is also a source-available community edition. If non-developers design your documents in Word, Carbone is built exactly for that.
Where Oicana takes a different route
Section titled “Where Oicana takes a different route”- Templates as code instead of binary office files. Oicana templates are plain Typst text files. They diff cleanly in Git, get reviewed in pull requests, are covered by snapshot tests, and AI can help write them. A
.docxtemplate is a zipped binary: no meaningful diffs, no code review, no merge. - Flat fee instead of counted documents. Carbone’s cloud plans meter documents: Essential is $29/month ($26 billed annually), Advanced $159/month, and additional documents beyond plan volume are invoiced separately. On-premise licenses start around $1,500/year. Oicana is a flat €19 to €199 per month per application, unlimited documents included.
- In process instead of a document service. Oicana is a library for Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Rust, and PHP, plus WebAssembly in the browser. No HTTP hop to a render service, and a warmed up template compiles in single digit milliseconds.
- A typesetter instead of an office suite. Typst is a modern typesetting system with precise control over layout, fonts, and page structure, including PDF/A, PDF/UA, and ZUGFeRD / Factur-X e-invoices. You are not limited to what a Word document can express.
Side by side
Section titled “Side by side”| Carbone | Oicana | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Document generator filling office templates with JSON | PDF templating library, in process |
| Templates | Word, Excel, LibreOffice files | Typst projects with declared JSON and image inputs |
| Template workflow | Designed in an office suite | Text files in Git: diffs, reviews, snapshot tests |
| Runs | Cloud API or on-premise service | Inside your app: Node.js, Python, Java, C#, Rust, PHP, browser |
| Output formats | PDF and many office formats | PDF (including PDF/A, PDF/UA, hybrid e-invoices), PNG, SVG |
| Pricing | Metered cloud plans from $29/month, extra documents invoiced; on-premise from about $1,500/year | Flat €19 to €199 per month per application, unlimited documents |
| Free option | Free cloud tier, source-available community edition | Free for non-commercial use, free 30-day commercial evaluation |
Which one should you pick?
Section titled “Which one should you pick?”Pick Carbone if your templates are designed by non-developers in Word or Excel and that workflow works for your team. Pick Oicana if your developers own the documents: templates in version control, declared and validated inputs, generation inside your own services, and a price that does not grow with your document volume.
Next steps
Section titled “Next steps”Getting startedFrom template to compiled PDF in your stack, step by step.
Oicana vs commercial servicesThe broader comparison with metered PDF APIs.