Top 13 Digital Catalog Software [1 Huge WINNER]

13 min readApr 10, 2019

Digital catalog software is huge! Nobody wants a boring old PDF any more; our customers demand something more interactive, more exciting. I’ve taken a look at 13 of the best digital catalog software out there and have been truly blown away by my findings. If you’re looking for the best digital catalog software right now, I can thoroughly recommend Yumpu Publishing as an option, but do check out my 12 runners up too -they’re pretty nice as well.

Catalog flipbook software could change your business forever

This is what I asked myself when I began my search for the best digital catalog software.

I’d been making product catalog publications for many years but had always relied on a PDF catalog to showcase my content.

I was being left behind by the competition, and my company was suffering as a result.

My frustration was beginning to show; I had to find another way.

I’d heard about flip book catalog software and seen the results for myself. Once I started investigating my options for digital flip catalog software, the truth was almost unbelievable.

Not only could a novice like me use software for digital catalog production in a matter of moments (no steep learning curve here!), I could also share my flipbook catalog much more easily too. Join me for a ride into the world of digital video catalog software.

How flip book catalog software got me from zero to brilliant in a month

My company relies heavily on Woocommerce for sales, which is great because it’s really easy to use.

However, unless I can get a customer to my website, I stand zero chance of selling anything at all. I’d spent a long time building an eCommerce mailing list of people I’d engaged with at events, on social and through other channels.

What did I do with this list? Well, I sent them a boring old PDF of my products. By email. Like it was still 1999.

And did I have my audience flocking to do shopping on my bigcommerce website? Was the ‘add to cart’ button working overtime? As you might expect, no.

I knew I had to boost sales if I wanted to stay in business, so I started looking at other ways to work.

As well as being able to shop directly, I added my business to Shopify (a shop system hosted off my website, which still lets people order directly), but that didn’t work.

I was tearing my hair out until someone told me about software for digital catalog publishing.

I couldn’t believe it.

It was possible to make a digital flip catalog with page flip effect for my company with active links, video, photo/image and so much more.

And it was beautiful!

Since I found ecatalog making software, I felt confident my company will be a success… and it has been!

Being able to share my custom catalog directly from the app as well as download it for email means I can directly talk to people on social and show them my products.

In just a month, I managed to increase sales tenfold, enjoying high conversion rates I’d never believed I could achieve.

For the first time in my life, I feel like a real businessperson, capable of running a successful online shop for years to come!

An interactive catalog without Flash — now that’s impressive!

If you’re serious about getting more people to buy your products, you need to be able to showcase the benefits of your stock.

Of course, your pricing needs to be right too, and you need to have a good checkout and product integrations on your website, but I firmly believe the heart of success lies in your marketing.

Why should you use a catalog software maker for your company? Well, let’s start with the basics.

What is a catalog?

Hopefully, you don’t really need me to answer this.

Whether we’re talking about an online digital catalog of a printable catalog, it’s basically a showcase of your products or services to help customers shop with your business.

What is the meaning of e catalogue?

Not everyone has heard of an e catalog, so don’t feel silly if you haven’t either.

In general, anything with an e prefix is something to do with digital. Think about e-commerce, eBook, and e-banking.

The e stands for electronic and means converting something from a real-world format, such as a physical catalog in print, to an electronic version like digital catalog software does.

What is catalog software?

Digital publishing software takes your PDF and turns it into a beautiful flipping book.

The pages really turn, just like a real book, and it’s a great experience to use digital media such as this.

As well as presenting your products in a more engaging format, digital catalog software lets you include interactive elements such as music, video or links, to really make your catalog stand out!

What is the online catalog?

If you’ve ever read a digital magazine, this is just what an online catalog is like.

It’s simply a catalog, like you would normally see print catalogs, but hosted in the online world with page-turning effect.

Why should you use digital catalog software to make your catalog?

There are so many benefits to using a digital catalogue publisher, I can’t tell you enough how amazing you’re going to find it.

Here are just a few:

Your catalog can be read on mobile phones, tablets, and PCs:

Because digital catalogs are responsive, they automatically resize to fit the screen they’re being viewed on. PDFs can’t do this, and that makes them very hard to view on smaller screens such as a phone or tablet.

They’re super easy to update:

Because your catalog design is digital, you can adjust prices, products and images in a flash. There’re no costly reprints needed, and because you’ve made it yourself, there’s no need to pay anyone a high price for a redesign either.

Your customers will love it:

The move from PDF to flipbook is like digital vs analog. Digital is simply better and is fit for the future instead of being stuck in the last century.

You don’t need to be an expert:

Trust me when I say I have literally no graphic brochure design experience. Thankfully many of the best e catalog software platforms come with free product catalog templates , so you can just drop your own content in and have a professional looking catalog in minutes.

It’s very cheap, or even free:

With many of the tools designed to help you learn how to make a catalogue free download, design and publication are all included. Most services at least offer a gratis trial of the digital catalog software, and some are free to use for a lifetime.

Are you sold yet?

There is so much to like about digital catalog software creator, I don’t feel like I’ve even scratched the surface.

My business has one of the latest, most cutting edge new HTML5 online catalogs in my industry now, and my clients (and even my competitors) are always asking how I do it. I’m delighted to tell you my secret!

So, what is the best digital catalog builder software?

I’m going to reveal my top pick for digital catalog software solutions in just a moment.

First, let me tell you about some of my other favorite platforms that I know you’re going to like too.

1. FlippingBook

FlippingBook is a great catalog builder with quite a few cool features to let your publication stand out. There are many amazing examples on the website of digital catalogs that have been created and even some templates for your use. The only downside I’ve found is that the free version restricts the size of the PDF you upload, so if that’s an issue for you, another product catalogs maker option may be better.

2. Zinio

What I like most about Zinio is that it’s not only a free digital catalog maker, it’s also a solution to generating your own revenue too. They allow ads to be placed on your publication, either from Google or from their in house marketing, and when people read your catalog you can actually earn from clicks too. I did find some of the features a little complicated, which was why I didn’t pick this one as my winner.

3. Flipsnack

Flipsnack has a generous free trial and I really enjoyed mine. There are a ton of fun features built into this digital catalog software, and the interface is really easy to understand too. However, it only allows five pages on the free version, so I was looking at $24 a month to continue using it, which, although very nice value, was a little rich for my wallet.

4. Calameo

There’s a huge user reader-base on Calameo, and they host your catalog online on their own bookshelves once you’ve made it too. That means you can connect with a large group of people instantly, which is certainly very appealing. However, do remember that the bulk of this digital catalog software’s viewers are French, so unless you want to market in France or Canada, your reach may be slightly limited.

5. Bote

Bote is amazing digital catalog publishing platform and its free to use also. There’s a simple route to monetization, as with Zinio, which is ok if you want to include ads in your document. They have a relatively limited audience, however, so you’ll need to rely on your own marketing efforts to push out your catalog.

6. FlipHTML5

Flip HTML5 is a popular free digital catalog maker service, and I can see why. It’s simple to learn, and a great choice for a novice. My personal bug bear with this digital catalog software was that sharing was a little difficult.

7. Publitas

There are lots of features in built to Publitas which make it good to embed and download your catalog. It has Google Analytics for insight into how your catalog is performing too, which is very useful. However, once my free trial was up, I found the pricing confusing, so I didn’t sign up to continue,

8. iPaper

The digital catalog software at iPaper has an impressive list of clients and the interface is very high quality. It really is a premium service, and perhaps something I will go back to when my business has grown. However, right now I can’t justify the $135 a month pricing.

9. Anyflip

The digital catalog software at Anyflip was a close contender for my favorite platform. I like the plain dashboard and the ability to include audio and video easily to my html flipbook. My only reservation is not many companies use it, therefore the audience is relatively small. Still, it’s one to check out if you’re new to digital catalog software.

10. Issuu

I bet you thought I’d missed this one! Issue is one of the biggest digital catalog software platforms out there, and one of the longest running too. It’s super straightforward to use, has a massive following and is now owned by LinkedIn, so you get all that integration too. However, the basic account, which is free, just didn’t do enough for me to pick it as my first choice.

11. Joomag

Another major player in the digital catalog software field is Joomag. It’s a great software catalog PDF converter and has stood the test of time. But with age comes a bit of weariness too, and I just feel like it’s about ready for a refresh.

12. Mag+

I’ve included this as my final runner up but am yet to fully get my head around this digital catalog software. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a bit more confident with IT and design, as it seems like it does absolutely everything! It’s a bit complicated for me just yet but is one I’ll definitely come back to in the future.

I bet you’re thinking that must be all the digital catalog software out there already, so how can we still be waiting for my number one choice?

You’d be surprised, actually; there must be hundreds of digital catalog software platforms available, so this is just a shortlist of the best ones!

Anyway, on to my #1 choice… I bet you can’t wait.

It is, wait for it…

… YUMPU PUBLISHING!

From the gorgeous website to the helpful tutorials, I fell in love with this unique and powerful digital catalog software the moment I started to use it.

Just a few of the reasons I like it include:

Great and friendly customer support team to contact
works on every device (mobile devices & desktop — Mac + Windows)
Embedding of video and audio
Full SEO support for Google indexing
Responsive designs
Embedding on website, social media such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., e-commerce website and more
Simple linking directly to the products in my shop from the catalog
Social networks sharing right from the app, no need to download
Convert PDF to flipbook easily — with this tool you get to create online ecatalogs in only 2 minutes

And these are just a few of the features available!

There are many more reasons to like this online catalog software, but don’t take my word for it.

My business has gone, using this digital catalog software from PDF to OMG overnight!

I really hope you’ll try it out for yourself because I can’t recommend this catalogs online maker highly enough.

Here’s how you can get into making a digital catalog today!

I thought it might help if I outlined the processes required to start making a digital catalog and to publish your digital catalog.

I’m sure you’re feeling apprehensive about everything, so let me answer some of your questions for you.

How to make a product catalog

Making a product catalog doesn’t have to be hard. You do need to put in some time and effort though.

Here are my tips:

Invest in excellent photos — these will help to sell your products
Write awesome descriptions — think about SEO as well as human readers
Have strong branding — make the colors and fonts reflect your brand identity
Make it simple to order — link directly to the products on your ecommerce site
Make it simple to ask questions — include your contact information prominently

Putting your product catalog together is down to you, but with a little time invested you’ll be well away.

How do you make a pdf catalog?

When you’ve finished creating your catalog content, there are a few different ways you can turn it into a PDF.

The easiest way I’ve found is by using a free PDF writer such as Cute PDF.

This installs on your PC as a printer, so all you need to do is go to ‘print’ when you’re in the document, and then choose the PDF writer as your printer for the output.

Depending on what software you’re using to create stunning online catalogs, there may be an ‘export as PDF’ option, or something similar.

However, if there isn’t then a free PDF writer is a good workaround.

How do I make a multi-page pdf in Photoshop?

If you’ve decided to use Photoshop to layout your catalog, you may stumble when it comes to creating a multi-page PDF, as it’s not the easiest thing.

Start by creating each page individually; be sure to keep the page widths exactly the same for each one.

Ensure the resolution on each page is identical too. Now save every PSD in the same folder on your PC. It can help to name them page_1, page_2 etc. for management.

Go to file, then automate, then PDF presentation. Click ‘browse’ in the next popup, then hold down Ctrl and select every page of your catalog. Click open to open all the pages as one document. Now you can save it as a PDF all as one document.

Make sure you choose ‘multi-page document’ under the output options before hitting save, and it’s all sorted!

How do you make a catalog?

So now we get to what I’m sure you think will be the hard part. However, it’s not!

Making a digital catalog using digital catalog software is super simple.

Here’s how to create interactive magazines works:

Go to your chosen digital catalog software website and log in or sign up
Upload your static PDF, either by drag and drop or by navigating to the file
Hit ’convert’ to begin converting the PDF to flipbook format
Check your flipbook for errors once complete
Edit the flipbook to add in video, scrolling sections, and whatever else you want
Publish!

That really is all there is to it.

Once published, you can share your digital catalog directly from the app, or you can download it and save it for embedding on your website or emailing out. It’s as easy as that!

Will you be using digital catalog software?

I hope this article has inspired you to try out some digital catalog software tools for yourself.

I had no prior experience of digital catalog software myself, but have managed to make some gorgeous digital publications, even if I do say so myself!

My customers love the change.

They really feel like they’re part of an up-and-coming brand, at the cutting edge of the industry.

I’m enjoying more sales, more traffic, and more attention in general, simply by choosing to do things differently.

In my opinion, Yumpu Publishing is the very best digital catalog software out there and should be your number one choice if you’re just getting started.

I’m still learning about all the things it can do and enjoying the journey.

I hope you enjoyed browsing through my article! Have a try with it yourself and let me know how you get on here on my blog post! Hope this knowledge base was of help to you!