Magazine software spans a variety of functions, from digital editions to billing to customer experience. With more and more publishers looking to increase their revenue from digital offers, the technology of the magazine industry is adapting to meet the needs of the modern age. We’re talking about high-quality online experiences, reliable back-end sales, and automated fulfillment.

In our ultimate guide to magazine software, we’ve hand-picked the best options for several categories, so you can choose the right platform to satisfy every need in your tech stack.

Here are the magazine software categories we cover:

• Digital editions software
• Magazine design software
• Flat planning software
• Subscription and circulation management software
• Advertising software
• CRM and marketing automation software
• Analytics and experience software

Digital editions software

In November of 2020, The New York Times generated more revenue from digital subscriptions for the first time. This trend has continued, with digital subscriptions surpassing print every month since. Many publishers are looking to replicate this success by reaching digital natives and global audiences through one-off digital editions purchases and annual subscriptions.

These software platforms can help you create and distribute your own digital editions.

1. eMagazines

Some of the best magazines in the world run their digital editions with eMagazines, including People, TIME, and Cosmopolitan. We offer the software and services that publishers need to create the most beautiful online magazine that looks great on computers, tablets, and mobile phones. We handle distribution, delivery to Apple News+, landing pages for new sales, and tons more.

Features:

• PDF converter
• Mobile optimized magazine reader
• Fully branded experience
• Password-free and download-free digital magazine delivery
• Expert assistance with production and delivery to subscribers
• High-quality article audio
• Subscriber back issue access
• Analytics and reporting
• Support for Apple News+
• Subscription order pages that integrate with ELPs
• Native app building and maintenace
• New customer acquisition through our partner network
• End-user customer support

Pricing:

We offer custom pricing based on your needs. We have affordable plans for global and national publishers, as well as small regional and niche magazines.

2. MagLoft

MagLoft is a complete digital publishing solution tailored for print and PDF publishers looking to modernize their content strategy. With six integrated tools, MagLoft supports mobile app creation, PDF-to-HTML conversion, progressive web apps, social media automation, and multi-platform distribution—including future integration with Apple News.

Features:

• AI-powered PDF to HTML conversion with FlexPDF
• Branded iOS and Android app creation with AppBuildr
• Progressive Web App development with WebBuildr
• Visual content editor for interactive publishing with TypeLoft
• Automated social media scheduling across eight platforms
• Apple News content distribution with AutoNews

Pricing:

MagLoft offers three plans. The Starter plan, at $199/month, is best for indie publishers and includes a Progressive Web App, single-level subscription sales, and single-user access with basic sharing features. The Professional plan, priced at $499/month, is ideal for multi-channel publishers and includes iOS and Android app support, article-level sales, tiered subscriptions, role-based user access, and AI-powered social media publishing. For large organizations, the Tech Studio plan offers a fully customized solution with bespoke integrations and advanced support.

3. Foleon

Foleon is a digital magazine platform that enterprises use for releasing their own internal publications, but it can be used by magazine publishers as well. What makes it unique is the capacity to include your digital publication as part of an overarching content marketing strategy.

Features:

• Drag-and-drop content editor for interactive layouts
• Custom branding through reusable brand kits
• Mobile-responsive design for all screen sizes
• Templates for magazines, e-books, and other formats
• Native marketing and CRM integrations
• Built-in audience analytics and engagement tracking

Pricing:

Foleon offers several subscription plans tailored to teams of different sizes and complexity, but does not publish exact pricing online. Plans range from “Grow” for smaller teams exploring interactive content, to “Enterprise” for organizations that require locked brand settings, custom roles, secure APIs, and advanced governance features. All plans include unlimited projects, mobile optimization, and access to professional templates, while higher tiers unlock global content modules, workspaces, collaboration tools, and scalability across departments. Pricing is available by request.

4. Issuu

With Issuu, you can manage your digital magazines, SEO articles, newspaper content, and social media posts. The platform is great for small, niche publishers as well as content marketers, but it’s not a fit for large media brands, who need more advanced distribution features.

Features:

• Fullscreen magazine reader with customizable embeds
• Website embedding for flipbooks and media
• Sales landing pages and digital content monetization
• Social media, article, and GIF content creation tools
• AMP and mobile-optimized sharing options
• SEO optimization and lead capture features
• Audience analytics and performance insights

Pricing:

Issuu offers multiple plans. The Starter plan, at $21/month (billed annually), includes unlimited flipbooks, fullscreen sharing, link and video embedding, and up to 500 pages or 100MB per file. The Unlimited plan, starting at $188/month (billed annually), adds advanced branding control, private publishing, lead generation forms, analytics, and commission-free digital sales. For teams, Issuu for Teams starts at $417/month and includes private workspaces, role-based access for multiple users, single sign-on (SSO), and centralized content management. A limited free plan is also available for testing the platform.

Magazine design software

With magazine design software, you can create beautiful covers and page layouts. Adobe InDesign is the most popular solution, but we’ve included a couple alternatives as well.

5. Adobe InDesign

Adobe InDesign is the top design software for all sorts of PDF use cases, including print magazines, brochures, flyers, menus, posters, e-books, and more. Most graphic designers are well-versed in Adobe InDesign. Once you create your PDF, you can then convert it into a mobile-optimized digital magazine with eMagazines.

Features:

• Magazine layout templates and page presets
• AI-powered layout assistance and auto-adjustments
• Advanced typography and styles
• Flexible custom page layouts and resizing
• Prepress tools for print-ready output
• Integration with Adobe Creative Cloud apps like Photoshop and Illustrator
• Support for collaborative workflows and cloud file syncing

Pricing:

Adobe offers multiple plans for teams. The Creative Cloud Single App plan for InDesign starts at $37.99/month per license (billed annually). For access to over 20 apps including InDesign, Acrobat Pro, Photoshop, and Adobe Firefly, the Creative Cloud Pro plan is $99.99/month per license. Volume discounts and administrative tools are included for business teams.

6. Canva

Canva was created as the antithesis to Adobe InDesign. You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer to use this platform. Because it lacks some of the professional printing optimization features, it’s not a favorite for enterprises and large brands. But if you need to design your magazine yourself and can’t afford a designer, this is a great solution.

Features:

• Magazine cover and page layout templates tailored for editorial formats
• Custom sizing options to fit magazine, digital edition, and social formats
• Extensive element library of icons, imagery, fonts and graphics
• Brand management tools for maintaining consistent magazine identity
• Social media content planner built‑in to extend your magazine’s reach
• Team collaboration and shared workspace to streamline magazine production

Pricing:

Canva offers a free tier, plus paid subscriptions suited to publishers and teams. The Free plan allows basic design and collaboration; the Pro plan (suited for individuals) unlocks premium templates, advanced editing tools and AI‑features. The Business/Teams (now called “Business”) plan is designed for collaborative workflows, centralized brand assets and enhanced controls. Pricing starts at US $0 for Free; Pro is US $119.99/year per user (or approx. US $12.99/month) and Business/Teams requires contacting sales for larger organisations though published starting‑points for small teams are around US $100‑150/year per user when billed annually.

7. Affinity

Affinity is a page layout software popular with magazine publishers. You can use it for print or digital projects and it offers all of the professional features that large media brands expect. Keep in mind that this tool is best used by graphic designers, not amateurs. In 2024, Canva acquired Affinity and made all Affinity apps (including Publisher, Designer, and Photo) completely free, making high-end design tools more accessible than ever.

Features:

• Style consistency across pages
• Custom typography
• Team collaboration
• File collation
• Media library management
• Embed PSD, AI, PDF, JPG, TIFF, DWG, and Affinity files
• Data merge
• Professional printing optimization

Pricing:

Affinity is now completely free for all users. This includes full access to Affinity Publisher, Affinity Photo, and Affinity Designer for desktop. Thanks to Canva’s acquisition, magazine publishers of any size can now use Affinity’s professional layout tools without cost, making it one of the most accessible advanced design solutions on the market.

Flat planning software

Flat planning software takes your PDF pages and helps you arrange them into one cohesive magazine-reading experience. You can easily move pages around to plan out the page order. Here are the top solutions for publishers.

8. Blinkplan

 

Blinkplan is a flat planning tool designed specifically for magazine and print publishers. It makes planning and organizing your magazine layout easy with drag-and-drop functionality and built-in collaboration tools. Teams can propose, review, and approve layout changes in real time, helping streamline production and avoid errors before going to print.

Features:

• Collaborative workspace for editorial teams
• Page comments and version history tracking
• Drag-and-drop flatplan editor for easy layout updates
• Color-coded page types with automatic counters
• Flatplan previewing and PDF export for sharing
• Flatplan cloning and light content editing tools

Pricing:

Blinkplan offers four simple monthly plans with no credit card required and cancel-anytime terms. The Tiny plan costs $15/month and includes 3 active flatplans, 6 users, and up to 90 pages per flatplan. The Small plan is $20/month for 5 flatplans and up to 175 pages each. The Standard plan, at $29/month, also includes 5 flatplans but allows 400 pages per flatplan. The More plan is $39/month and includes 10 flatplans, 10 team members, and support for up to 650 pages per layout.

9. Flat-Plan

Flat-Plan is another flatplanning tool perfect for easy, hassle-free pagination. The standout? Flat-Plan offers very affordable pricing, with no plan or page limits on every subscription.

Features:

• Plan sharing
• Drag and drop pagination
• Color coding for pages
• Clone pages
• Upload thumbnails

Pricing:

With the Basic plan, you get unlimited plans and pages (but no commenting) for $7 per month. Or, choose the Premium plan to get unlimited usage plus commenting functionality. The Premium plan costs $9 per month or $84 when billed annually.

10. Flipsnack

Flipsnack offers a flat planning feature as part of its broader flipbook creation platform. It’s ideal for publishers looking to combine editorial planning with interactive digital magazine production. With built-in design tools, collaboration options, and the ability to brand and securely share your content, Flipsnack is particularly useful for smaller publishing teams or marketing departments producing multi-page publications.

Features:

• Flatplan-style editor using drag-and-drop flipbook creation
• Built-in templates and PDF import options
• Team collaboration with shared folders, labels, and version control
• Upload and merge multiple PDFs into a single flipbook
• Media and link embedding, including video, audio, and e-commerce elements
• Track engagement with page-level analytics and Google Analytics integration
• Custom branding with logos, colors, domains, and private sharing options

Pricing:

Flipsnack offers several plans. The Starter plan is $16/month (billed annually) and includes basic PDF-to-flipbook conversion with up to 5 flipbooks and 100 pages each. The Professional plan is $38/month and expands functionality to 50 flipbooks, advanced interactivity (like videos and lead forms), and analytics tools. The Business plan is $85/month and includes 100 flipbooks, full branding, custom domains, HTML5 downloads, and advanced privacy features. Team and Enterprise plans are available for larger organizations and include multi-user support, workspaces, and integrations. A 14-day free trial is available.

Subscription and circulation management software

There are a variety of tools for managing subscriptions, everything from revenue collection and optimization to platforms designed exclusively for magazine circulation.

11. ChargeBrite

ChargeBrite is a recurring revenue platform that’s perfect for magazine subscriptions and other types of renewable products and services. This company also offers The Magazine Manager, which you’ll find in the CRM section of our list on the best magazine software.

Features:

• Subscription management
• Billing automation
• Recurring revenue model options
• Revenue experiments
• Sales insights
• Accounting and reporting
• Automated renewal notifications
• Backdating and prorating

Pricing:

ChargeBrite doesn’t reveal their pricing online, so you’ll need to get in touch with them for a quote. They do, however, offer a 60-day free trial that you can play around with before you talk to sales.

12. Simple Circ

Simple Circ is dedicated exclusively for the magazine industry. As such, it provides some useful features that generic subscription management software doesn’t, such as USPS address validation and back issue sales.

Features:

• Subscription management
• Autorenew
• Sales insights
• Accounting and reporting
• USPS address validation
• Back issue sales
• BPA & AAM audit support
• Automated invoicing

Pricing:

For up to 80,000 subscribers, you’ll pay $799 per month on the Pro plan and $649 on the Essentials Plan, which doesn’t include all of the automation features you get on the Pro plan. You can also get in touch with them for custom pricing. If you have fewer than 2,000 subscribers, you’ll pay as low a $99 per month.

13. QuickFill

QuickFill is a powerful subscription management platform built specifically for magazine and periodical publishers. It’s trusted by over 900 publishing brands and is designed to scale. With tools for billing, renewals, marketing reports, and auditing, QuickFill helps publishers streamline operations and maintain compliance.

Features:

• Full-service subscription management
• Automated renewals and invoicing workflows
• Prospect and customer data tracking
• Circulation audit support for BPA and AAM
• Detailed marketing and sales performance reporting
• Scalable infrastructure for high-volume publishers

Pricing:

QuickFill pricing is based on the number of users, not subscriber count. For teams with 1 to 5 users, pricing starts at $100 per user per month. For 6 or more users, the rate drops to $60 per user per month. Custom enterprise plans are available for publishers with complex operational needs.

14. RunMags

RunMags is a magazine billing software that offers a lot of different features in one place. You can handle sales, circulation, pagination, and more.

Features:

• Magazine‑specific billing and subscription management
• Advertising inventory, proposal and contract management
• Drag‑and‑drop flatplan / page‑layout planning tool
• Automated renewals, invoices and payment workflows
• Integrated CRM for prospects and existing customers
• Marketing / reporting dashboards and circulation auditing
• GDPR‑compliant self‑service portals and digital distribution options

Pricing:

RunMags offers several tiered plans designed for publishers of different sizes. For example, one published pricing set shows a Launch plan at €149/month (3 users, up to 250 subscribers) and a Publisher plan at €599/month (15 users, up to 25,000 subscribers) before moving into an enterprise tier. All plans include a 14‑day free trial, no contract required, and the ability to scale with your business.

Advertising software

Advertising makes up a sizable portion of revenue for magazine publishers of any size. These software platforms help you maximize that revenue from your digital presence.

15. Sharethrough

Sharethrough is a programmatic advertising platform that’s designed for publishers, content creators, and app developers. Taking a human-centric approach, the company seeks to deliver the best ad experience. Think high relevancy, fast load speeds, and minimal disruptions.

Features:

• Seamless ad experience
• Advertising from top brands
• Automated monitoring and troubleshooting
• Optimized bid auctions
• Minimum floor price settings
• Extensive intregrations

Pricing:

There’s no cost to publishers with sufficient traffic and demand. Contact Sharethrough to learn their requirements.

16. Raptive

Raptive is a full-service creator media company that empowers digital publishers and content creators to build profitable, thriving brands. Formerly known as AdThrive, Raptive offers advanced monetization and business solutions—combining ad management, audience growth, and creator-first support under one roof.

Features:

• End-to-end ad management
• Customized revenue strategies
• Hands-on publisher support
• Business growth coaching
• Access to proprietary tools and analytics
• Opportunities for brand partnerships

Pricing:

Raptive’s pricing is custom, and acceptance into the platform is based on a variety of factors. While requirements may vary, publishers typically need at least 100,000 monthly pageviews from reliable traffic sources like search and social media.

17. Outbrain Direct Response

Outbrain Direct Response (ODR), now part of Teads, is a performance-focused advertising platform designed to maximize ROI across the open internet. Known for pioneering performance marketing beyond walled gardens, ODR leverages predictive AI, deep contextual insights, and vast reach to deliver outstanding results for advertisers—particularly those in affiliate, lead gen, and direct-to-consumer verticals.

Features:

• Performance-optimized native ads
• Predictive AI-powered bid automation
• Advanced contextual and behavioral targeting
• Deep reporting and optimization tools
• Trusted premium publisher inventory
• Global team with hands-on support and strategy

Pricing:

Outbrain Direct Response operates on a cost-per-click (CPC) model, with pricing dependent on your targeting, vertical, and campaign goals. Their team offers customized performance strategies to optimize for ROAS, CPA, or lead gen metrics.

18. Google Adsense

Google AdSense is a popular platform for small publishers because there are no traffic minimums like AdThrive and Sharethrough.

Features:

• Mobile-optimized advertising
• Large network of advertisers
• Ads are screened for quality
• Fast-loading ads

Pricing:

How much you’ll earn from the advertisements you display on your website depends greatly on the niche. On average, publishers earn from 25 cents to $3 per 1000 impressions.

CRM and marketing automation software

A great CRM should allow you to store and segment all of your customers and contacts so you can target them with relevant marketing. When choosing a tool, prioritize customer journey automation, contact segmenting, and integrations with your complete marketing tech stack.

19. The Magazine Manager

The Magazine Manager is a popular CRM designed for publishers. In addition to CRM and billing features, it also offers marketing automation as well as project management software for tracking edition production tasks.

Features:

• CRM
• Customer reports to increase ad revenue
• Ad proposal templates and offer management
• Project management software
• Subscription billing
• Accounting and finance reporting
• Email marketing automation
• Customer segmentation

Pricing:

The Magazine Manager doesn’t publish their pricing online, so you’ll need to get in touch with them for a custom quote.

20. Salesforce Media Cloud

Salesforce is one of the top CRMs in the world. While the entire company is not magazine-specific, they do offer a Media Cloud product that bundles their CRM with other key features to help publishers manage customer relationships and grow revenue. What’s more, internal sales teams can use it to manage advertising deals.

Features:

• Subscriber and contact CRM
• Subscriber lifecycle management automation
• Advertising sales management and team collaboration
• Media commerce management
• Product catalog
• Customer billing
• Transactional email delivery
• Customer onboarding management

Pricing:

You’ll pay $325 per user per month for Media Cloud Growth, or $475 per user per month for Media Cloud Advanced, which unlocks all available features including advertising sales management and subscriber lifecycle management.

21. Pipedrive

Pipedrive is a simple yet powerful CRM designed to help sales teams close more deals. It allows you to manage your entire sales pipeline, automate tasks, and gain deep insights into your sales performance. Pipedrive’s AI-powered features optimize lead management and follow-up strategies so you never miss an opportunity. Whether you’re scaling a small business or managing a large team, Pipedrive adapts to your needs with customizable pipelines, real-time reports, and over 100 integrations.

Features:

• Automated lead nurturing and follow-ups
• AI-driven sales insights and forecasting
• Customizable pipelines and workflows
• Email tracking and workflow automation
• Seamless integrations with popular tools and apps

Pricing:

The Essential Plan costs $14 per user per month and includes lead and calendar management. Their other plans range from $49 to $99 per user per month, giving you access to more advanced features for enterprise security and collaboration.

Analytics and experience software

Tracking and monitoring is essential for providing the best possible user experience. These tools can be implemented on publisher websites to track the success of free content, paid conversion flows, and more.

22. Google Analytics

Google Analytics is Google’s free platform for website, web app, and mobile app insights. You can use it to track the success of your website, including your check out flows, subscription landing pages, and free content, as well as your digital magazine. At eMagazines, we give your team access to the Google Analytics account for your digital magazine so you can see how many reads your content gets, the average session lengths, and more. When publishers switch to eMagazines, they typically report a large bump in dwell time because our UX makes the digital editions so much more enjoyable to read than other solutions.

Features:

• Session statistics
• Audience acquisition insights
• Device data
• Goal tracking (conversions or behaviors)

Pricing:

Google Analytics is free to use.

23. Hotjar

Hotjar is a great tool for high-volume websites. While it’s known for its heatmaps, Hotjar offers a variety of ways to discover user sentiment, experiment with page improvements, and find website bugs. While traditional analytics tools like Google Analytics can tell you the what, Hotjar aims to tell you the why. For instance, you might discover in Google Analytics that a certain magazine edition is converting as high as you expected. In Hotjar, you could use heatmaps, sentiment ratings, and session recordings to find issues with the landing page.

Features:

• Heatmaps for visualizing behavior
• User session recordings
• Sentiment ratings
• Rage click monitoring
• User surveys

Pricing:

The free plan tracks up to 1,050 sessions per month. The Plus plan costs $39 per month and allows for up to 3,000 sessions. Most businesses will need a custom Business plan based on their amount of website traffic. This starts at $99 per month.

24. Heap

With Heap, you get a powerful tool for companies looking to fully understand their customers’ digital journeys. Unlike traditional analytics platforms, Heap automatically captures every user action, providing businesses with complete data to improve conversion, retention, and user experience. Instead of manually tracking user behavior, Heap offers advanced data science to uncover key moments of friction and opportunity. It helps you focus on what matters most, showing you not only what users are doing but also why they’re doing it, and what needs to be fixed.

Features:

• Automatic capture of all user interactions
• Advanced data science to identify friction points
• Integrated session replay for full context on user actions
• Insights on user flows, conversion, and retention
• Over 100 integrations to support your tech stack

Pricing:

Heap’s free plan covers up to 10,000 monthly sessions and 6 months of data history. They don’t publish their pricing for their paid plans, so get in touch with their sales team to inquire about pricing.

25. Forsta

Forsta is a fully-featured experience management platform that publishers can use to monitor and improve not only their website, but every aspect of the customer experience. The platform is designed for CX and market research professionals. With voice sentiment analysis, it can also be used to monitor the experience of customer support calls.

Features:

• Online surveys
• Online focus groups
• Brand experience insights
• Social listening
• Brand monitoring
• Voice sentiment analysis

Pricing:

Pricing isn’t available online, so you’ll need to get in touch with the sales team for a custom quote.

Magazine software can span from behind-the-scenes operations to the platforms that help you provide a stellar reading experience to your subscribers.

To create beautiful, on-brand digital editions, learn more about eMagazines.