UPDATED: I spent a lot of time looking for alternatives to Issuu. I found that most of the free ones lacked features I wanted. Some of the paid services had a lot of good features, but I wanted to avoid paying. After a long search of Issuu alternatives, I created this list of 3 best free Issuu alternatives.

Looking for a way to do good Web publishing without having to stick with Issuu.com and it’s pricing policy? Looking for alternatives to Issuu?
I was in the same boat as you for quite a while. I have an extensive Web publishing business that relies on having a strong presence of my content, which comes to me in the form of PDFs.


The publishing software Yumpumade a lot of promises. First of all, it looked like an awesome and free alternative to Issuu cause it had the same basic feature set that Issuu does: a publication that can be shared with social media tools and can be indexed by search engines like Google. I took a look at the kind of presentation that this platform can generate from a PDF, and it looked really good. Yumpu’s format is called ePaper, and it looks like a real magazine.

Great alternatives to Issuu’s Features
So I established that Yumpu is at least as good as the free tier of Issuu. Quickly I learned that the service would also give me one of my favorite features for publishing- embeddable documents. I could upload PDF files and then embed the resulting publication file on my own website, for free. I didn’t have to compromise on readers wandering offsite anymore- I got the best of both worlds. That alone was enough to convince me to switch over to this Issuu alternative.
With this Issuu competitor, you can embed your ePaper anywhere you want
The good news didn’t end there, though. I explored the interface some more and realized that I had a lot of customization tools for styling the digital publications and adding things like audio, video, and interactive elements.
These kinds of things are only available for the highest Issuu pricing subscription, and here Yumpu was giving them to me for free. I couldn’t believe I had spent so much time paying for Issuu when the best alternatives to Issuu – Yumpu was right here.
Right away, I canceled my Issuu subscription and started using the free Issuu alternative Yumpu full-time. I’ve never regretted switching to this digital publishing platform.
Yumpu’s site integration, SEO, and social media tools mean I can bring in my audience and keep them in my domain. On top of that, I also get the security of knowing that no matter what combination of browser, operating system, and platform the reader has, the page flip book will load correctly. Combined with the social media outreach, this has allowed me to bring in a lot of new readers for my flip book who rely on their mobile devices like iPad, iPhone, smartphones and tablets for Web access and browsing.
After my Issuu review, here’s why I love Yumpu as an alternative:
- Embed the online magazines on your favorite platform (website, facebook, online shop)
- Supports all devices. Mobile and desktop.
- Optimized for search engines like Google.
- Fully integrated with all major social networks, publications will spread like wildfire.
- Embed Video and Audio into digital publications
- Link to shop from your publication
- Unmatched support
- And much more…

I let the service handle all of my PDF publications now. With the customization options, I can do a lot. I had never even tried them before because Issuu had them locked away in the premium level of features. But it can be quite effective to embed a certain song or video along with a published piece. For an extra charge, it is possible to include signup forms. Yumpu’s ePaper can handle those too.

If you are stuck using Issuu for your publishing and you are searching for Issuu alternatives or Issuu competitors, I really do recommend trying Yumpu.com.
Not all Issuu reviews will give you the information you need to make the best decision for your publishing needs. An Issuu review should compare and contrast Issuu’s pricing and plans. When I did my Issuu Review, I found the following facts.
Issuu pricing
The basic free version of Issuu included the upload and share functions, iOS & Android apps, embed ePaper anywhere, and unlimited publishing. The pricing for the Issuu Plus version is $26/month, in which you can customize your reader with basic features, and limited analytics. You get a 14-day free trial for that plan.
Issuu’s premium version, which they recommend using, is considered the branded reader. In this package, the publisher has advanced analytics and sharing capabilities. Issuu states that this package runs $35/month.

Comparison of the Yumpu plans
The FREE version has an unlimited amount of magazines, unlimited pages per magazine, HTML5, Flash, and JS.
With the adFREE Plan for $24.95/month you get Google Analytics support, no advertisements, and Privacy settings for your magazine. If you pay annually, you can save about $84 and the monthly price is $19.95. You get a 30-day free trial for that plan. If you like the plan, the money will be debited on the 31st day. If you don’t want to, just quit before the 30st day and you will not pay anything.
The next package is a big jump to $95/month, but this is actually a WEBKiosk for your magazines. You get your own site, in your very own branding and design to showcase your magazines in an elegant and ordered way. Your WEBKiosk can also have it’s own domain or subdomain.
You can get an APPKiosk for $219/month, which includes your own native iPhone and iPad app. This is Yumpu’s most popular plan. With this plan, you can boost your publishing business to the next level by conquering the big and also growing mobile market.
And then there is the PROKiosk. The PROKiosk is an all-in-one solution. If you want to go further and monetize your magazines, you can get subscription management and inApp subscription, which is awesome if you want to sell your digital magazines in your Apps.
Issuu competitors check: Yumpu Features
- Publish documents globally
- Reach millions of readers weekly
- SSL encrypted communication
- Unlimited number of e-Papers (depends on the plan)
- Unlimited pages per e-Paper
- Perfect to embed in websites
- Read on Facebook
- Optimized social sharing
- Player: HTML5, Flash, Javascript
- Tablet and mobile player
- Add audio, video, and links
- Search engine optimized
- Content delivery network
- Support community + great support team
- Publish in 70 languages
- WordPress plugin
- Developer API interface
- Developer PHP API library
- Zoomfunction
- Publish via Dropbox from desktop
Also for a publisher looking for Issuu competitors for iPad and iPhone, this is the real deal. It’s a great digital publishing service that gives you many more features than the Issuu pricing plan. The presentation is equally aesthetically pleasing and costs nothing.
Overall, after my Issuu review, I would recommend Yumpu over the other services because I love the way I can customize my content.
I feel like I am reading a printed publication even though it is online.
The flipbook animation software service has a large community and thus you will be exposed to new readers. It is 100% free for everyone worldwide.
Just give this best Issuu alternative a try and see if you want to go back to paying! Hope I could help you on the alternatives to Issuu issue 🙂
Best 5 Issuu Alternatives to create flip books
- Yumpu.com (unlimmited PDF pages in their free plan) 41%, 4796 votes4796 votes 41%4796 votes - 41% of all votes
- Flipsnack (limited to 5 PDF pages in their free plan) 23%, 2689 votes2689 votes 23%2689 votes - 23% of all votes
- Issuu (free basic plan available but you are limited how you can embed other media) 12%, 1423 votes1423 votes 12%1423 votes - 12% of all votes
- Joomag ($39 a month if you want an ad-free flipping PDF) 10%, 1123 votes1123 votes 10%1123 votes - 10% of all votes
- Fliphtml5 ( design is very oldschool) 8%, 978 votes978 votes 8%978 votes - 8% of all votes
- Uniflip 3%, 302 votes302 votes 3%302 votes - 3% of all votes
- Calameo 1%, 123 votes123 votes 1%123 votes - 1% of all votes
- Anyflip 1%, 86 votes86 votes 1%86 votes - 1% of all votes
- Publitas 0%, 53 votes53 votes53 votes - 0% of all votes
- Axmag 0%, 25 votes25 votes25 votes - 0% of all votes
Hi Robert,
thanks for this fantastic article! I've used issuu before and after a while I was looking for an alternative. Thanks to you, I found a great provider.
Best,
Susan
Thanks for the compliment!
My problem with issuu is, when I upload my individual pages, it does not take the pages and format them into spreads. Not even after several tries. I uploaded every page as a single document. Thanks issuu, I'll move to another service now, even if it'll cost me some bucks.
I heard some nice things about Yumpu.com. After reading your article, I think I'll give this issuu alternative a try.
Here are my 2 cents on Yumpu:
+ best page flipping FX I've ever seen!
+ various & impressive ways to embedd the magazine on your website
+ it's fresh and new, most of our readers haven't seen anything like that before
+ free and hosted, no software to install
Cons
- no linking to specific pages
- no searchin inside a document
As always, this is just my personal opinion.
Cheers,
Michael
Hi Michael,

1.) You can link to specific pages following theses steps:
- access the Hotspot Editor
- choose the linking tool
- select from the drop-down box “Go to page XYZ”
- enter the page number of the particular page
- click the “Save” button
2.) There's a search inside the documents, here's a screeshot:
Best,
Rob
Hi Robert,
I run a magazine which is in paper and e-format. I may need to start using Yumpu in the future. It sounds good. Just one quick question - with the free package, could I create links from the ads in my magazine which then link to the advertisers' websites?
Many thanks,
Andy
Hey Andy,
yes, with the so called "Hotspot Editor", you can add links to all the elements of your magazine.
Best Regards,
Rob
Hey Robert,
nice little blog you got. I am also thinking of switching from Issuu to another competitor. Your post gave me a good idea how I could accomplish that, I won't forget to share :) Thanks!!
Hi Manuel,
no problem, I am always glad to help!
Best,
Rob
Are those embeds also compatible with mobile devices like the Samsung Galaxy S5?
Hello,
yes they are compatible both Android and iOS devices.
Best,
Rob
Thanks for such a great and detailed article. I too have grown weary of ISSUU and today I will sign up with this new provider.
Warmest regards,
Marsha
A con against the issuu free account is the number of sexually explicit magazines that show up in the side bar or if you are just browsing issuu.com
Rob, what about serving ad's? I'm looking for a service that will help me make alittle cash off my page turns. Does this offer that?
Hello Al,
you can either use graphics in your interactive magazine and then put links to a landing page/website/blog/etc. with our Hotspot Editor on that element, or you can use the page teaser feature. The page teaser is an image that is uploaded by you and it will overlay the magazine after a specific amount of turned pages (for example on page 4 the page teaser overlays the magazine). If the user clicks the Page Teaser he will be redirected to a link of your choosing. To use the page teaser feature you'll have to get the AdFREE plan.
Best Regards,
Rob
Thanks for this,
I am so glad I came across the best issuu alternative so I can embed my issues on my site. I used to direct people to issuu however feel I was losing people on the first page due to loading time ( apparently the average time before people click out of a website in 3 SECONDS if it hasn't already loaded)
Thanks
Charlie
Hi, I was wondering for an alternative to issuu,
as it´s not possible to embedd those presentations on wordpress free...
I have tried this Yumpu, and it´s the same problem, there is no way to embedd a presentation..it appears only the link....
I don´t know what to do now...
Hi Maria,
I've put together a short tutorial on how to embed a yumpu magazine into wordpress (it's the same procedure for all kind of websites!)
Please follow these 4 simple steps:
https://nubuntu.org/services/insert-pdf-wordpress-blog-post
Best,
Robert
Hi Robert,
I am so happy to have found your post, and kudos for the great information, that so many people have found helpful.We are planning to produce travel guides for towns and villages in the area of Spain where I live, so Yumpu appears to be very promising for our needs.
Thanks so much
Jackie
Re pdf page size
Do the pdf files have to be in any particular page size/format in order to sync up with Yumpu?
Thank you for your excellent article!
Allan
Too bad I didn´t found your blog sooner.
I already worked with Issuu many years and just recenty tried Joomag. I never heard about Yumpu before but I wanna give it a try now.
It´s time for a change :) I´m looking forward to this alternative to issuu.
Before I forget it – one question Robert: Where do I find the button to link to pages?
Thanks a lot!
Oooopps - sorry!!!
Just found the answer.
You already answered the question in your former comments! :)
After reading your post, I’ve compared Yumpu to other similar tools and it’s pretty obvious that their free version is the best out there. There’s no competition for it no matter how hard you search. Even their paid plans are much better than most alternatives. I wouldn’t use anything but Yumpu because it’s cheaper, faster, better, with many more features per paid plan, etc.
It’s impressive to see that you can pay $0 for Yumpu and get the same things and more than Issuu’s Starter plan which is $19!
Been using Yumpu for a few weeks (their free plan) and I’m very happy with everything. It’s hard to believe it but they are offering a lot of features for free! Other tools don’t offer them or charge money for this.
Yumpu is the best Issuu alternative. I like Issuu but to be fair, Yumpu is better in almost every way possible. There are many more features to it, it’s cheaper and as a beginner you can start with the free plan and get things done without investing anything.
I can’t believe I haven’t heard about Yumpu until now! Thank you for mentioning them – you’ve just made my day! For the past several hours I’ve been playing with it and boy does it have a lot of cool stuff! Why is this free again?
It’s free because this is their way of attracting clients. Once you see how many goodies they just give out for free, you’ll be more enticed to try their paid plans. I think this is a fair deal.
Well, that makes perfect sense to me and I appreciate that they are offering so much for free. There are features here I had to pay real money for with other tools like Issuu or Joomag.
Just like you, I was disappointed to see that Issuu has a lot of features locked away :(. I understand that they want people to pay for their service but just look at what Yumpu is offering on their Free plan. It makes almost no sense not to use Yumpu all the time.
I’m just starting out with creating flipbooks so this post is helpful to me. I’ve hardly looked at Yumpu but if everything I’m hearing is true then it is the way to go. Will probably have a look in the next days. Thanks!
Try them out first. Then you can test out all the others and see the differences – it will be pretty obvious which one is the best.
Not many have talked about Yumpu’s support and I just wanted to touch on that. Their staff is well prepared and very, very friendly and helpful. Even when I’ve asked them some “stupid” questions that could have been answered if I’d read things a little :), they replied quickly and were very nice about it. A 10 out of 10 for their support!
Been 3 days since I’ve started using your recommended Software plus comparing it with Issuu. Just like you said, the differences are there plus their free plan is almost as good as the Issuu paid plans :)) which was pretty shocking for me. This is definitely a surprising tool!