Issuu Reviews

Pros

Issuu is fantastic, I love how smooth the user interface is, how easy it is to upload, and the ability to organize all of your publications into stacks. With nearly 1000 publications on the site, it makes distribution easy.

Cons

The newer features need to be fleshed out more. Mobile friendly article creation isn't bad, but it doesn't recognize paragraphs that stretch across 2 columns, and it struggles with photos sometimes. The article stories are a bit abysmal though, it doesn't make it easier than using Illustrator/Photoshop.

Pros

Issuu is easy to use. It’s professional and it is sleek. The design is very nice. The ease of access is good. Not to mention the actual final product is very very professional and of high quality.

Cons

The pay wall. You can only upload 50 pages for free and with a limit of 50MB. This is okay for small projects but for portfolios you have to be precise with the amount of pages and use compression software.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing Issuu

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to Issuu

Pros

My new brochures were on FB and Instagram, and I started receiving calls from my friends and, eventually, a mum concerned about the WARNING LABEL about the content; I mean Friday night, email support they would be contacted on Monday. Meanwhile, I had to spend an entire evening. removing contact from my site and email. [sensitive content hidden]The brochure is an overview of GAP YEAR travel, I'm all ears if any can show me what on watch is explicit about that. I will now spend Sunday finding a provider, this would have been catastrophic if it happened while I was removed, so NO I do not recommend this brand. Im all for keeping the internet clean, but I will NOT stand for is this. NONE opened that brochure, it was scanned and I was. Im am shocked!

Cons

i have said enough...very discontinued in their approach to verifying if I had breached tge contract.I was not selling; I had simply used them for hosing, my brochure, mu business, and they jut swooped in and made a call that let me very unsettled.....

Pros

With its ease of use and efficiency, I love the ability to repurpose and redistribute content with one asset across multiple channels. At the same time, it's entirely forgiving of human error with nearly realtime updates rendered for any and every edit.

Cons

Love to have customizable short links for the long URLS that are produced for the full screen experience. Also love to link visual stories to specific URLS. In addition, I'd love to be able to incorporate videos in article stories. :)

Pros

Right now I use the free account as I have not been able to go to a paid account. But I love the product and hope to upgrade in the future. The issuu.com book previews are made from PDF files and easy to upload. They look just like the print books I design and have great features, such as being able to enlarge the document while maintaining a clear representation of the text, which is very sharp. The same is true of cover images. The entire function of the flippable document is far greater than any e-book I've seen.

Cons

I was disappointed to lose the embedding option but links are just fine to put on a website or media post. There are some minor issue with the old embed interfering with editing a page in Wordpress but it is not difficult to re-do a page.

Pros

Our school definitely appreciates having a home on the web to archive our publications. Professional appearance with nice sorting capabilities. Nice social sharing and easy to pull out stories for custom sharing. Well done.

Cons

There are so many features that cost. As a small private educational institution who is not wanting to use Issuu to sell, we cannot afford the $20 each month to house our materials, even though begin able to schedule to publish and allow viewers to occasionally download would be excellent. We wish there was a educational/non-profit discount. We use smugmug for exactly the same purposes with photos, and their $75/year is very doable to gain some extra features over the free version. There are commercial features we miss out on there as well, but we don't sell our photos either, so it's just right.

Pros

Issuu is amazingly simple to navigate. In particular this year when most class work has been online, I was able to teach students basic page layout using Google Docs. The pdf that students produced was easily uploaded to Issuu and the link shared with their classmates for critique. Of course they could share a Google Doc link, but everyone loved the way that Issuu allowed their work to be opened up into a double page spread that could easily be flipped forward or backward to view. They are aware that a subscription would remove ads, but as novices, it is great to become aware of possibilities for marketing and other publication.

Cons

I found this equally easy to use whether using InDesign or a simple Google Docs pdf. I can’t think of anything that I would change.

Pros

I love how simple the platform is for both publishers and consumers. I'm a relatively light user, but I have never once felt the need tp even consider other platforms. It has an attractive interface and makes my job easier.

Cons

I sometimes feel the language in the UX and in tutorials and the pricing model etc is so specific to typical magazines where there is a single design distributed to the masses. I have a very different use case where I sell customer one-off magazine designs to clients and use Issuu to work through revisions and approvals with them. I also maintain my issuu profile as a way to showcase my work. I'm sure there are lots of other unique use cases too. Really, this is such a small nit, but it is the one thing I would complain about if I had to.

Pros

Works very reliably. Clean interface. Has become the standard.

Cons

Need a button on purchase page for nonprofit publications. (Live chat worked well, but could avoid getting to that.)

Pros

It's incredibly easy to share documents with anyone and maintain a professional, quality driven aesthetic.
It also works great as an archive!

Cons

Can't really give any cons! If there was something, I would highly encourage the company to provide in depth trainings/tutorials to show how to maximize the use of the documents. How to effectively implement stories, make the document interactive, and so forth. Would be great!

Pros

Readers who can't pick up our free weekly due to the limitations of the pandemic really appreciate seeing the digital pages in Issuu. They get to see all of our creative layouts and useful print ads that they miss out on when browsing our website.

Cons

I really want to change our user name/url. We chose the wrong one when signed up years ago and it's not an option for us to start over from scratch with a new account. Also, I want the ability to see analytics on a link that I add to multiple publications. This would be useful to show advertisers how many times their ad was clicked on during a given period of time.

Pros

It's a really easy way to get my portfolio up, along with any presentation. I've been using issuu since 2011 and I've been a fan ever since.

It's also really easy to get your booklets printed - at a way more affordable price than most places as well.

Cons

Over the years, it's become limited due to popularity and usage. There were a lot more tools and features available to free subscribers. I don't need to use it enough to have to pay for a subscription, however, for those that use it to post their portfolios when needed, some more features would be nice.

Pros

Love being able to share PDFs and mimic the experience of a printed book. Great for my real estate clients when they want to share leasing brochures without the expense of printing and mailing a book.

Cons

I think if there's a way to add in video, a way to make the PDFs more interactive, that would be a game changer. Also sharing better on social media.

Pros

I like the ease of use and that the basic package is free. For a small shop, this is ideal because every dollar is stretched. Issuu gives us just what we need to stay competitive.

Cons

There's really nothing that I dislike. I do wish that there could be some sort of filters for where ads are placed. Sometimes ads and other publication suggestions that appear near my content is not appropriate for young viewers.

Pros

The opportunity to upload original material for others to peruse in a personal website is good. The ability to maintain it secure could be better but is also good.

Cons

I would love it to be more affordable or have student options, or even options for super small business that don’t yet make profit.

Pros

The is great for my needs which is to upload our seasonal catalogs to be view virtually. It allows me to provide a direct link that I can share with all my customers. It is easy to use and quick so I don’t have to spend a lot of time to do what I need to!

Cons

I suppose some features are a little more difficult to figure out but I don’t need or have a real use for them.

Pros

Issuu is extremely easy to use. I upload our new magazine each month in a matter of minutes. There are a ton of other things you can to do help your content be seen by more. You can even add links and videos to your content. I love everything about this platform and I am so glad I found them.

Cons

Issuu is constantly improving and working to make their platform better for everyone. I have not had any problems nor do I hold any complaints against them.

Pros

Low cost for publishing documents
Great website integration
Allows us to keep stock of our marketing materials

Cons

Customer service is not great
Difficult to use on mobile device
Downloading can be difficult
On occasion we can't open to the documents

Pros

As a print designer of magazines and annual reports issuu has been a great platform to share work digitally with clients and their audience.

Cons

Sometimes my clients have a limited budget and can’t always afford the cost.

Pros

The ability to reach a wide global audience.

Cons

Creators should be able to monetize and make money off of views like YouTube. The fact that you have to pay to use it once you get so many views is strange and is why I stopped using the platform.

Pros

We publish hard copy but also have readers who want to read online. This is a perfect solution. Also a great way to archive.

Cons

I don't really see anything that needed to be improved.

Pros

Some of the greater assest ISSUU provided us are the capability to embed videos in our magazine and we love the Article Stories feature. Allowing us to easily share every single article on is own is a great way to build a content library for our Social Media accounts.

Cons

We hope that in the future the integration of videos will also be available for the Article Stories. An other great upgrade would be the capability to upload new images if the one in the pdf doesn't work for the Article or Visual Stories.

Pros

easy to get up there, but no traction at all and no interest from customer service. simply not helpful in trying to establish a small independent Magazine.

Cons

Buries indie mags under a ton of subscriber glossies.

Pros

It’s very Easy to use and friendly, simple and efficient

Cons

Not much options for the home page and not bringing much views to my works

Pros

I was pleased to and excited ti use Issuu to update my fraternity's monthly newsletter. The publication is the main communication and marketing tool that we use to connect with our members and the general public. It's more efficient to provide a link versus the monthly costs of printing and mailing the newsletter.

Cons

Yes, the print-on-demand process needs to be less costly.