Blurb BookWright vs Pressbooks
Blurb BookWright
store.blurb.com
Pressbooks
pressbooks.comSide by side
| Figure | Blurb BookWright | Pressbooks |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | $10/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| macOS | Yes | — |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | — |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| Self-hosted | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 10 | 7 |
| Spec score · Book Layout Software | 9.5 (#1) | 8.6 (#3) |
| Company founding | Blurb says Eileen Gittins founded the company in 2005. | LinkedIn lists Pressbooks as founded in 2011 and headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. |
| Integrations | BookWright supports importing photos from Adobe Lightroom, SmugMug, and Dropbox through Photo Manager. | Pressbooks Enterprise LTI integration works with Canvas, Moodle, D2L Brightspace, and Blackboard. |
| Purpose | BookWright is desktop bookmaking software for designing custom books. | Pressbooks helps authors and educational institutions create, adapt, and share accessible digital books and learning materials. |
| Rating on Trustpilot | 2.7 out of 5 from 4,652 reviews | 3.2 out of 5 from 1 review. |
| Security | Blurb says it uses industry-standard encryption, firewalls, intrusion detection, controlled facilities, access controls, audits and vulnerability scans. | Enterprise Networks are described as professionally hosted in a secure SaaS environment with data protection and single sign-on. |
| Support | Blurb directs customers to its Help portal for answers and customer support contact. | Enterprise customers receive personalized onboarding, end-user training, troubleshooting, responsive service, and webinars. |
| System requirements | Windows support is listed as Windows 7, 8 or 10; macOS support is 10.13 or later; both require 2 GB RAM, 500 MB storage and 1280×800 resolution. | The current plugin requires PHP 8.3 and WordPress 7.1.3 or newer, and lower versions are unsupported. |
| What it does | BookWright is Blurb’s free desktop application for designing and publishing books and other printed projects. | Pressbooks is a WordPress Multisite based book content-management system for publishing webbooks and exporting books to digital, print and XML formats. |
Plans
Blurb BookWright
- BookWright softwarePrice not published
- Softcover photo book$12 a month
- ImageWrap Hardcover photo book$32 a month
- Linen Hardcover with Dust Jacket photo book$32 a month
- Layflat photo book$60 a month
- BookWrightFree
- BookWrightFree
- Paperback book, Economy Color, 5×8 in$3.99, paid once
- Paperback book, Standard B&W, 5×8 in$4.99, paid once
- Premium Magazine$7, paid once
Pressbooks
- Free TrialFree
- Single Author$12 a month
- Collaboration$40 a month
- Single Author$120 a year
- Collaboration$400 a year
- Institutional Network$5,999 a year
- Shared Network$15,999 a year
In their own words
Blurb BookWright
Blurb BookWright is desktop software for designing custom books, including photo books, paperbacks, hardcovers, magazines, notebooks, and wall art. It provides customizable templates, freestyle grids, typography and cover tools, bleed lines, and trim guides. Image tools support scaling, cropping, enhancement, and auto-retouching powered by Perfectly Clear by EyeQ. Text Flow fits text into frames and accepts Rich Text Format imports, while Photo Manager imports photos from Adobe Lightroom, SmugMug, and Dropbox. Users can work offline in the desktop software, but publishing requires an internet connection and a free Blurb account is needed for features and publishing options. Finished projects can be printed on demand, ordered in bulk, or purchased as PDFs. BookWright is free to use; users pay for a book when they send it to print. Listed requirements include Windows 7, 8, or 10, or macOS 10.13 or later, with 2GB RAM and 500MB storage. Books can be up to 440 pages.
Pressbooks
Pressbooks has no write-up on Specifiction yet; its figures are above.