Carbone vs Aspose.cloud

Introduction

The aim of this article is to highlight the advantages and disadvantages of Carbone compared with the Aspose.cloud solution.

The scope of comparison is the provision of a template-based document generation tool with a LowCode approach.

Carbone, the simplest and most efficient solution for document generation

Carbone is a template-based document generation solution. These universal templates can be in any XML-based format: DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, ODT, ODS, ODP, XML, HTML, ...

The tool is available as a turnkey SaaS or self-hosted solution. A development tool, Carbone Studio, is available free of charge.

What is Aspose

Aspose offers a range of tools for creating and manipulating all kinds of documents.

These tools are available either as a Saas version or as a self-hosted solution.

The equivalent products to Carbone are Aspose.Word Report and Convert.

All tools are available via user interfaces at https://aspose.app

Points of differentiation

Template creation

Both solutions use templates in which the user integrates tags which are then replaced by the user's data.

Here's a comparative table of features

Aspose uses LINQ-based syntax, while Carbone uses smart tags.

Carbone syntaxe example:

{d.items[i].name}  {d.items[i].address}  {d.items[i].price}
{d.items[i+1]}

Aspose syntaxe example:

<<foreach [in items]>> <<[name]>> <<[address]>> <<[price]>>
<</foreach>>

Carbone syntax is much simpler to learn and evolve. Aspose syntax allows more complex operations (table merge), but is complicated to implement.

Carbone's ability to create its own values in the template increases the tool's capabilities tenfold.

Getting started and integrating the API

Getting to grips with the Carbone solution is made easier by the availability of the Carbone Studio tool. The “Live Reload” function saves a great deal of time, and can be used by people with no development knowledge.

Here's a video of how it works:

The Aspose solution offers online tools for creating and testing document generation, but use is rather laborious as it requires uploading the template, pasting the data, then downloading the generated file.

Aspose supports JSON, XML and CVS input, whereas Carbone only supports JSON.

Performances

Here's an example of how to generate a simple file. The templates used are :

Here are the generation times using APIs via CURL commands.

Aspose.cloud:

curl "https://api.aspose.cloud/v4.0/words/buildReport" \
  -X PUT -H "Content-Type: multipart/form-data" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer eyJhbG...8VA" \
  -F Template="@test_apose.docx" \
  -F Data="{\"Name\":\"Guillaume\",\"Price\":\"12€\",\"Description\":\"Bla bla bla\", \"Image\":\"https://goodflair.com/app/uploads/2024/07/beautiful-bengal-cat-1024x682.jpg\"}" -F ReportEngineSettings="{\"DataSourceType\":\"Json\",\"DataSourceName\":\"persons\"}" \
  --output template.docx \
  -w "@curl-format.txt"
  
=== HEAD
       http_version: 1.1
          http_code: 401
      num_redirects: 0
      url_effective: https://api.aspose.cloud/v4.0/words/buildReport
 === TIMING
    time_namelookup:  0.003453 (elapsed time for DNS resolution)
       time_connect:  0.127146 (time elapsed from start to TCP connection to remote host)
    time_appconnect:  0.345756 (time elapsed until connection, for the application protocol used (e.g. https))
   time_pretransfer:  0.346000 (time elapsed until response sent by server)
      time_redirect:  0.000000 (temps écoulé depuis le début par toutes les redirections)
 time_starttransfer:  0.589567 (the server sends its first byte)
 === STATS
     speed_download:  405B/s (Average download speed)
       speed_upload:  28995B/s (Average upload speed)
                    ----------
         time_total:  0.596743

Carbone Cloud:

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.carbone.io/render/1228f44ebb597f27c36d42d00593e6c31de6bd75ca99139369d0d63d40b6d373?download=true' \
     --header 'carbone-version: 4' \
     --header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
     --header 'Authorization: Bearer '${CARBONE_API_TOKEN} \
     --data-raw '{ "data":{ "Name":"Guillaume","Price":"12€","Description":"Bla bla bla", "Image":"https://goodflair.com/app/uploads/2024/07/beautiful-bengal-cat-1024x682.jpg"},"convertTo":"docx"}' \
     --output template.docx \
     -w "@curl-format.txt"
     
=== HEAD
       http_version: 1.1
          http_code: 200
      num_redirects: 0
      url_effective: https://api.carbone.io/render/1228f44ebb597f27c36d42d00593e6c31de6bd75ca99139369d0d63d40b6d373?download=true
 === TIMING
    time_namelookup:  0.002380 (elapsed time for DNS resolution)
       time_connect:  0.027081 (time elapsed from start to TCP connection to remote host)
    time_appconnect:  0.058002 (time elapsed until connection, for the application protocol used (e.g. https))
   time_pretransfer:  0.058056 (time elapsed until response sent by server)
      time_redirect:  0.000000 (temps écoulé depuis le début par toutes les redirections)
 time_starttransfer:  0.196427 (the server sends its first byte)
 === STATS
     speed_download:  544254B/s (Average download speed)
       speed_upload:  647B/s (Average upload speed)
                    ----------
         time_total:  0.279364

Generation time is halved with the Carbone solution.

Pricing

Cloud offers

Please note that to generate a PDF from a DOCX document, 2 API calls are required with the Aspose solution.

Self-hosted offers

Self-hosted model is different:

• Aspose.cloud : The pricing structure is identical to that of the Cloud solution
• Carbone on premise offers unlimited packages at a fixed, highly competitive price.

Summary

Carbone is more generic, thanks to its support for all types of template. This solution is easier to use and more powerful.

The Aspose solution offers more powerful formatting, especially with tables, but is much more complex to use.

Carbone has a more efficient No-Code approach that allows it to be put into the hands of less technical people.

References :

• Aspose.Words template documentation : https://docs.aspose.com/words/net/template-syntax/
• Aspose.app Assembly : https://products.aspose.app/words/assembly
• Carbone documentation : https://carbone.io/documentation/design/overview/getting-started.html
• Carbone Studio : https://studio.carbone.io