Ceros is a design tool for creating interactive web-based content. It allows designers to create highly interactive digital experiences and offers a great deal of creative freedom and flexibility. Ceros is a great option for creating content where visual appeal is a must. But with a steep learning curve, the platform isn’t without its downsides — especially for businesses with content needs that outweigh their design capacity.
The good news is that there are plenty of user-friendly alternatives to Ceros for teams who want to speed up production and relieve design pressure. To help you in your search, we’ve rounded up a few of the best ones on the market right now.
Why look for a Ceros alternative?
There are several reasons why businesses — especially larger, more complex ones — are choosing to move away from Ceros. The fact is, Ceros is designed with designers in mind. And it shows. That’s fine if you’re already a whizz with Illustrator — less so if you’re an account manager who needs to create an on-brand proposal… like yesterday.
To keep up with rising content demands, many businesses are shifting away from total dependence on design teams and agencies towards a more distributed approach. By giving non-designers the autonomy to create on-brand content themselves, companies can cut down production times while taking the pressure off creative teams. It’s a win-win.
Unfortunately, Ceros just isn’t a great fit for this new approach. The flexibility and Adobe-like UI that makes the tool so appealing to designers also makes it unapproachable for pretty much everyone else. If you’re aiming to create more content faster, doing this with Ceros means either investing in more design headcount or dedicating a lot of time and resources to training business users to use the tool.
Another significant drawback of the Ceros platform is that it lacks advanced personalization features, making it harder to tailor content to a specific reader. Ceros also falls short regarding collaboration and governance functionality — it’s a solution built for a handful of experienced designers to use independently, not a large organization looking to simplify review processes and set content controls with a single platform.
What to look for in a Ceros alternative
Easy for everyone to use — not just designers
Relying on design teams alone creates unnecessary bottlenecks and slows down your production process. When looking for a Ceros alternative, look for a solution that even the least Adobe-savvy among us can use.
Personalizable content
It’s 2025. Generic content isn’t going to cut it anymore. Audiences expect content tailored to their specific needs, pains, and gains. In your search for a new content solution, look for platforms with sophisticated personalization features that will make your readers feel seen.
Built for content collabs
Creating business docs is rarely a one-person operation. Your chosen Ceros alternative should allow team members to easily review and give feedback on each other’s work. Bonus points if you can set user roles to give everyone the right amount of freedom when working on content.
Controlled content delegation
Empowering everyone in the business to create content themselves is great. Until you spot an off-brand brochure or an error-ridden white paper out in the wild, that is. Look for a solution that lets you manage content centrally and keeps everything in line with your brand guidelines and security standards.
6 alternatives to Ceros
Fortunately, there are some great Ceros alternatives out there for teams struggling with design bottlenecks. Choosing the right platform for your organization means thinking carefully about your team structure and your content process. What’s running smoothly? And which friction or bottlenecks do you want your new solution to address? We’ve rounded up a few of the top Ceros alternatives out there right now:
Turtl
Turtl is a content automation tool that allows companies to create interactive, personalized content.Best for: Smaller teams looking to create personalized lead gen content.
Not ideal if: You’re a large business or enterprise looking to scale up asset creation.
Pros:
- Personalization features.
- Basic content features are straightforward to use without design or technical skills.
- Creative output is static — not too far off a flippable PDF.
- Limited design flexibility.
- Advanced features beyond basic content creation may require technical expertise or extra training.
- Collaboration features are limited.
Joomag
Joomag is an all-in-one tool for creating and publishing digital magazines.Best for: Teams looking for a way to publish simple digital magazines.
Not ideal if: You’re looking for design flexibility or want to produce content for a range of use cases.
Pros:
- User-friendly interface suitable for non-technical users.
- Limited interactivity — Joomag publications are similar to flippable PDFs in terms of experience.
- Focused on publishing digital magazines — not ideal for organizations with diverse content needs.
- Publications don’t always work well on mobile devices, according to users.
Flipbooks
There are a number of solutions like Flipsnack, FlippingBook, or Issuu, that allow you to convert an existing PDF into a flipbook by adding page-turning animations.Best for: Small teams or solo creators looking for an easy way to enhance static PDFs with basic interactivity.
Not ideal if: You’re a larger team or business looking to create dynamic content experiences that go beyond the limits of a flippable PDF.
Pros:
- Easy to use.
- Quick turnaround.
- Cheaper alternative to a comprehensive content creation platform.
- Limited analytics capabilities.
- No design flexibility. The quality of the output entirely depends on the quality of the original PDF.
Tiled
Tiled is an online solution that allows you to add an interactive layer or “tile” onto a static content piece.Best for: Creative teams who want to add some interactivity to pre-designed docs.
Not ideal if: You want to transform your creation process and produce truly interactive content.
Pros:
- Basic features are easy to use with minimal technical expertise required.
- Built-in analytics.
- Requires an additional design tool, which adds another step to the process.
- Not automatically responsive — you have to create a separate version of your content for mobile.
- Not truly interactive, since Tiled adds an interactive layer on top of static content.
- Limited design possibilities once the content is in Tiled.
- Limited integrations, mainly focused on distribution.
Pagestrip
Pagestrip is a digital publishing platform focused on creating visually engaging and interactive web content.Best for: Small-scale content teams looking to create one-off interactive content pieces.
Not ideal if: You’re producing and managing a high volume of content on a regular basis.
Pros:
- Advanced website embedding capabilities.
- Some content management features such as the ability to bundle stories and schedule publications.
- No robust solutions for team workflows, approval processes, or version control.
- Lacking features like templates, workspaces, and brand kits for ensuring brand compliance at scale.
- Pricing is set up for one-off projects rather than ongoing content production.
Foleon
Foleon is a content creation platform that allows business users to create interactive, on-brand documents at scale.Best for: Enterprise or mid-sized businesses with complex content needs and want to produce a variety of assets at scale, whilst managing brand standards and security compliance centrally.
Not ideal if: You’re only producing low volumes of content or you’re looking for a fully custom website experience.
Pros:
- Easy to use, so everyday business users can create stunning interactive content themselves — no coding or design skills required.
- Dedicated workspaces and tools for governance and security-focused teams like IT.
- Suitable for a range of use cases, from sales to marketing to employee communications.
- Collaboration and governance features like workspaces, brand controls, and role-based permissions.
- Advanced features to enhance engagement like full-screen background videos, animated data visualizations, and parallax effects.
- In-depth built-in analytics and CRM integrations.
- No-code platform doesn’t offer the same level of customization as a website or CMS.
Final thoughts on Ceros alternatives
In a nutshell, if you want to create a few assets with advanced design capabilities and have the required design skills, then a tool like Ceros is the way to go. If you’re looking for ease of use and want to create numerous content assets quickly while keeping everything on-brand and compliant, then choose an enterprise-focused solution like Foleon.
Curious how Foleon compares to Ceros? Check out our side-by-side comparison.