Adobe InDesign vs Flipsnack
Adobe InDesign
adobe.com
Flipsnack
flipsnack.comSide by side
| Figure | Adobe InDesign | Flipsnack |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $19.99/mo | $1/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| iOS | — | Yes |
| Android | — | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 9 | 11 |
| Spec score · Desktop Publishing Software | 9.2 (#4) | 9.4 (#2) |
| Collaboration | Adobe says InDesign includes features for sharing assets, receiving feedback, and collaborating with stakeholders. | Workspaces support teams, role assignments, comments, real-time editing takeover, shared brand assets and locked templates. |
| Company size | LinkedIn lists Adobe as a public software-development company with 10,001+ employees. | LinkedIn lists Flipsnack as having 51–200 employees. |
| Documentation | Adobe provides a desktop help center with user guides, release notes, technical requirements, troubleshooting, scripting and plug-in documentation. | Flipsnack provides a Help Center, Academy courses, API reference, integration guides and a developer documentation site. |
| Integrations | Official integrations include Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, Adobe Express, Adobe Capture, Bridge, Creative Cloud Libraries and InCopy. | Listed integrations include HubSpot, Salesforce, Shopify, Google Drive, Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Zapier, ChatGPT, Adobe InDesign, Marq, Slack and SSO providers. |
| Licence | InDesign is proprietary commercial software distributed through Adobe membership plans rather than an open-source licence. | Terms grant users a limited license to use the service while users retain ownership of uploaded content; no open-source license is provided. |
| Rating on G2 | 4.6 out of 5 from 3,363 reviews. | 4.7 out of 5 from 416 reviews. |
| Rating on GetApp | 4.8 out of 5 from 344 reviews. | 4.6 out of 5 from 310 reviews. |
| Security | Adobe says it integrates security activities across its software development practices, processes, and tools, and provides product security bulletins and advisories. | Flipsnack says it uses encryption in transit and at rest, and lists GDPR and ISO 27001, ISO 9001, and ISO 20000-1 across its plans. |
| Support | Adobe’s InDesign Help Center provides tutorials, technical requirements, troubleshooting articles, and product documentation. | The pricing comparison lists live chat support on all plans and priority support for Enterprise. |
| System requirements | InDesign 21.x requires Windows 10 or 11 64-bit, at least 8GB RAM, AVX2 and an internet connection; macOS 12 or newer is required for current versions. | The public site and accessibility widget support Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Opera, Edge, Internet Explorer 11 or newer, JAWS and NVDA on Windows and Mac. |
| What it does | InDesign creates and publishes books, digital magazines, posters, brochures, eBooks, presentations and other print or digital layouts. | Flipsnack converts PDFs or designs into interactive HTML5 flipbooks that can be shared, embedded and tracked. |
Plans
Adobe InDesign
- Creative Cloud Pro for students and teachers$19.99 a month
- InDesign$22.99 a month
- InDesign$22.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro$34.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro$34.99 a month
- InDesign for teams$37.99 a month
- InDesign for teams$37.99 a month
- Creative Cloud Pro for teams$99.99 a month
- InDesign annual prepaid$263.88 a year
Flipsnack
- FreeFree
- Student$12 a year
- Lite$14 a month
- Starter$16 a month
- Pro$38 a month
- Business$85 a month
- Classroom$260 a year
- Starter$35,192 a month
- Pro$52,456 a month
- Business$1,091,020 a month
In their own words
Adobe InDesign
Adobe InDesign is a professional page-layout application for designing, preflighting, and publishing content for print, web, and tablet apps. It can produce brochures, digital magazines, eBooks, posters, and presentations, with precise typography controls and access to Adobe Fonts. Adobe describes layout and AI features including Flex Layout, layout-aware Rewrite, PDF-to-InDesign conversion, generated alt text, and Generative Expand. InDesign integrates with Photoshop, Illustrator, and Acrobat, and includes tools for sharing assets, receiving feedback, and collaborating with stakeholders. It runs on macOS and Windows as a desktop app, not a mobile app, and is available only through a membership plan. A seven-day trial provides the full version but converts to a paid Creative Cloud membership unless canceled before it ends. The InDesign plan includes 100GB cloud storage and 25 monthly generative credits; Creative Cloud Pro plans include access to 20+ apps. For versions 21.3 and later, Adobe lists at least 8GB RAM and an internet connection for activation, subscription validation, and online services.
Flipsnack
Flipsnack turns PDFs or original designs into digital flipbooks with a page-turning experience. Publishers can add links, videos, forms, buttons, embeds, product tags, and pop-ups, while analytics track views, clicks, engagement, form interactions, time spent, and heatmaps. Its stated uses include product catalogs, marketing materials, internal communications, sales enablement, employee benefits, real estate, and training. Integrations include HubSpot and Salesforce, with materials also covering Zapier, Shopify, Google Tag Manager, APIs, and webhooks. Flipsnack runs in a web browser and has no desktop application for computers. iOS and Android reader apps remain available, but their development and support are paused; the apps do not support private flipbooks or SSO login. The free plan does not expire and allows five flipbooks of up to 15 pages each, a 100 MB PDF upload, and 250 one-time AI credits. Free downloads carry the Flipsnack watermark. Paid options include Student, Classroom, Starter, Pro, Business, and Enterprise; the listed starting price is $16/user/mo (annual).