5 Flexible Turtl Alternatives For Scaling Content Production

Turtl is great if you want to create quick, flippable content. But the platform’s limitations can leave users frustrated. Discover 5 more versatile Turtl alternatives.

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Turtl is a platform for creating digital assets like magazines and reports. The format allows users to add some interactivity to their docs and gather insights into how the content performs.

But, with some serious limitations regarding format and design flexibility, Turtl isn’t without its drawbacks — especially for organizations who want to produce and manage content at scale.

The good news? There are some great Turtl alternatives out there for businesses who need a tool that’s easy enough to use across the organization but flexible enough to produce standout content. Let’s dive in.


Why look for a Turtl alternative?

Organizations with diverse content needs are choosing to move away from Turtl for several reasons. The main driver behind this shift is the need for flexibility. Many companies, especially larger businesses and enterprises, need to produce a high volume of content for a wide range of use cases. 

The HR team needs to create staff manuals and employee benefit guides, marketing has a backlog of e-books and thought leadership content to produce, and sales is pushing out proposals by the dozen. But the highly restrictive, flipbook-esque format that Turtl offers simply isn’t versatile enough to work for all those different content pieces. 

Content-driven businesses using Turtl are often faced with a choice: Invest in additional platforms or tooling to keep up with their content demands, or create a whole load of assets that look and feel the same. 

Here are a few other key reasons why a business might look for an alternative to Turtl:

Little creative freedom

One of Turtl’s main selling points is that it’s straightforward to use. The idea is that anyone can create interactive content, regardless of design background. But to create great-looking assets, your designers typically need to lay some groundwork first. This is where the Turtl platform falls flat.
Creatives using Turtl find that the platform lacks the customizability needed to create visually appealing content, with some even comparing the platform’s fixed layouts to tools like PowerPoint. 

Limited brand governance

Turtl allows you to add brand colors, a fixed logo placement, and Google fonts as standard. But to truly showcase your brand’s uniqueness in your content, you’ll need to pay an additional fee to have a custom brand theme created by Turtl’s developers.  

Fixed templates

Turtl offers fixed templates as a way to speed up the creation process. But the templates themselves are rigid and tricky for users to adjust themselves. This means you’re limited to the same page styles, making it a real challenge to adapt content for different use cases. 

Lack of interactivity

Turtl’s format is pretty static — not too far off a flippable PDF. And users say that Turtl docs can be confusing and hard to navigate. 

Responsiveness

Mobile-friendly content is a must if you want your business docs to actually get read. But with Turtl, creating content for mobile can be a real struggle, and often requires twice the design work.


What to look for in a Turtl alternative

Balance of creative freedom and ease of use

Relying on design teams alone slows down your production process. But your chosen content solution should take the pressure off creative teams, not add to their frustrations. When looking for a Turtl alternative, opt for a platform that both business users and designers like to use. 

Versatile enough for all your content needs

If your entire organization is creating content, a handful of standard, hard-to-adjust templates simply won’t cut it. If you’re aiming to create content at scale, choose a platform with a diverse template library and the ability to create and save your own custom templates.

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. Look for a solution that lets you manage content centrally and keeps all your assets in line with your brand standards.  

Automatically responsive

We can’t stress it enough: In the world of content, mobile is king. That’s why it’s worth choosing a Turtl alternative that’s automatically responsive so your docs look great on all devices. 

A format built for modern readers

Turtl’s flat, static format won’t keep your audience engaged for long. Look for formats that provide your audience with an immersive, dynamic experience that’ll keep them reading.


5 alternatives to Turtl

Fortunately, there are some great Turtl alternatives out there for teams looking for an easy-to-use solution that’s also flexible enough for their content needs. We’ve rounded up a few of the top Turtl alternatives out there right now: 


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. 

Cons:

  • 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. 

Ceros

Ceros is a design tool that allows you to create interactive, web-based content. 

Best for: Experienced designers looking to make their docs more interactive. 

Not ideal if: You’re struggling with limited design capacity or you want to create a large volume of content across teams and business units. 

Pros:

  • Creative freedom and design flexibility.
  • Advanced storytelling features like animations, hover effects, and transitions to increase engagement.

Cons:

  • Ceros is built with designers in mind — and it shows in their platform. 
  • Steep learning curve for those without a technical or design background.
  • Little variation between users, making it hard to adjust permissions to specific roles. 
  • Ceros is another design tool — it doesn’t solve the issue of being dependent on designers.
  • Limited analytics
Discover: 6 Ceros Alternatives To Smash Your Design Bottlenecks

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 uniquely engaging content that goes beyond the limitations of an interactive layer. 

Pros:

  • Easy to use with minimal technical expertise required.
  • Built-in analytics.

Cons:

  • 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 content is in Tiled. 
  • Tiled creates "micro-apps" that aren't accessible and add extra loading time.

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. 

Cons: 

  • 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 work well on mobile devices, according to users.

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.
Cons: 
  • No-code platform doesn’t offer the same level of customization as a website or CMS. 

Final thoughts on Turtl alternatives

Finding the right platform to produce and manage your business docs depends on factors like the size of your organization, who’s creating content (and for what), and the level of design flexibility you’re looking for. 

If you just need to convert some PDFs into flippable content and don’t mind if it looks the same as every other Turtl doc out there, then a tool like Turtl is a quick and easy solution. If you want to balance creative freedom with ease of use, and a platform that’s versatile enough for all of your content needs, then Foleon is the way to go.

Curious how Foleon compares to Turtl? Check out our side-by-side comparison.

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