Flipbooks AI vs DearFlip: A Hosted Flipbook Service Against a Self Hosted Plugin

The Short Answer

Choose Flipbooks AI if you do not run a website, or you do not want to install and update software on the one you have, and you need a finished PDF online behind a link, with a password if it is private, in the next five minutes.

Choose DearFlip if you already run a WordPress site, a web server or a Shopify store, you want the flipbook on your own domain and the PDF on your own hosting, and a one time lifetime licence suits you better than a subscription.

Flipbooks AI vs DearFlip at a Glance

Flipbooks AI wins 8 of these 11 rows, ties 3 and loses none. They are rows we picked, so read them that way. Every figure was checked against DearFlip's own public pages in August 2026, and the sections below say plainly where DearFlip is the better buy.

Pricing Compared

DearFlip does not sell one subscription. It sells licences per product and per site, and each product keeps its own pricing page. Checked in August 2026, the WordPress plugin lists Starter at $39 a year or $119 one time for a single site, and Pro at $59 a year or $179 one time, with Pro widening to 5 sites for $99 a year or $299 one time, and 30 sites for $199 a year or $499 one time. The JS and jQuery library is priced separately at $49 a year or $149 one time for one site, $79 or $249 for three sites, and $199 or $499 for fifteen. The Shopify app has a free plan plus Pro at $8 a month or $59 a year, billed in USD, with a 14 day free trial.

Two caveats on those figures. The WordPress and JS pricing pages show a bare dollar sign with no currency code and no geographic notice, so treat them as list prices rather than a guaranteed USD charge; only the Shopify listing states that billing is in USD. And there is no single pricing page to check, because dearflip.com/pricing returns a 404 and every product hosts its own. Older figures circulating on review sites, such as $49 a year for a single WordPress site, conflict with the vendor current page, so use the numbers above.

Flipbooks AI sells three plans in USD, also checked in August 2026: Starter at $59 a year, sold annually only, Plus at $14 a month or $108 a year, and Ultra at $29 a month or $228 a year. The difference is what the money buys. A DearFlip licence buys software you install on hosting you already pay for, counted in sites. A Flipbooks AI plan buys the conversion, the storage, the bandwidth and the reader page, counted per account. On sticker price alone their WordPress Starter licence at $39 a year is cheaper than our $59 Starter, and their one time lifetime licences have no equivalent here at all. That is a genuine advantage and it belongs in your arithmetic.

What Each Free Plan Really Gives You

DearFlip has three free entry points and they are not equivalent, which is where most people get confused. The WordPress Lite plugin on WordPress.org is the strong one: unlimited flipbooks, 3D and 2D viewers, PDF and image support, embedded inline mode, table of contents, page thumbnails, deep linking and RTL, with more than 200,000 active installations. The documented gap is that clickable links inside a PDF do not render, because PDF link display is a premium feature, and only the basic thumbnail lightbox is included. The Shopify app also has a real free plan, with 3D and 2D modes and embedded and thumbnail display, and no trial clock.

The third free option is a trap for a business. The JS library Lite build on GitHub is licensed CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 and described as personal non profit use only, and it is an old build, version 1.7, while the commercial library is 2.x. If you are a company, WordPress Lite is the free route to take. And here is what all three share: none of them is a hosted account. Each one assumes you already run a WordPress site, a web server or a Shopify store, and that you will install software there and keep it updated.

The Flipbooks AI free plan is an account rather than a download. You keep three flipbooks live at a time with 1 GB of storage and the magazine page turn effect, and free output carries a small mark in the corner. A single shared password is allowed while you are still free, the link is never listed in any public directory, there is no page cap, there is no ad beside the reader, and readers need no account. On raw volume DearFlip Lite is plainly more generous, because unlimited beats three and it is not close. On time from a finished PDF to a working link, the comparison runs the other way, because there is nothing to install.

Branding and Watermarks

Flipbooks AI is easy to state. Free flipbooks carry a small mark in the corner of the reader. Every paid tier removes it, starting with Starter at $59 a year, and brand colours for the reader controls unlock on that same first paid step, so a $59 flipbook can already match your palette rather than ours. There is no separate add on and no higher tier you have to climb to for either one: the cheapest paid plan is the plan that clears the mark.

DearFlip cannot be stated as cleanly, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. Nothing in the WordPress.org listing, the free versus premium document or the Shopify listing mentions a watermark, a credit link or a powered by badge on free output, but no vendor page states that free output is clean either, so we will not claim it in either direction. What is fair to say is structural: the flipbook renders inside a page on your own domain rather than on a supplier reader page, which leaves far less surface for a supplier mark, and no DearFlip plan is sold as removing branding because no plan is described as adding it.

The mirror image matters just as much. A custom logo or white label option does not appear in the DearFlip settings documentation we read, so a licence does not appear to include a put your own logo on the reader option. Treat that as not documented rather than proven absent. Then again, they answer the branding question in a different way altogether: the page around the flipbook is your page, with your header, your fonts, your navigation and your domain in the address bar. That is a kind of control our hosted reader page cannot offer at any price, and it is worth more than a logo swap to some buyers.

Privacy and Who Can Find Your Flipbook

On Flipbooks AI a flipbook is reachable by its link and nothing else. It is never added to a public directory, we never submit it to a search engine, and the collection cannot be browsed by anyone except its owner. A single shared password can be set while you are still on the free plan, and per reader passwords, where each person gets their own, are an Ultra feature. One honest limit about our own product: on Flipbooks AI that password gates the reader interface, not the underlying file, so it is not a substitute for an access controlled document store.

On DearFlip the question is a different question, because visibility is not a vendor setting at all. Their pricing FAQ says the flipbooks stay in your server and are hosted from your site, so whatever your CMS, your server or your firewall enforces is exactly what applies to the flipbook. There is no DearFlip gallery and no vendor hosted account holding your flipbook, so there is nothing of yours for a supplier to list anywhere. For a regulated organisation, or for anyone who simply will not put a document on third party infrastructure, that is a better answer than our hosted product can give, and it is the strongest argument for choosing them over us.

Two qualifiers to carry with you. First, no password protection option appears in the DearFlip settings documentation we read, so access control would have to come from your own site, through CMS page permissions or server authentication, rather than from the plugin. That is not the same as saying it does not exist, only that it is not documented there. Second, their separate online PDF viewer page states that no uploading or conversion is required, which points at rendering in the browser, but we did not read their privacy policy and will not present that page as a privacy guarantee.

Embedding and Sharing

DearFlip wins embedding, and it is not close, because embedding is the entire product rather than an upsell. The free WordPress Lite plugin includes the embedded inline flipbook, and the free Shopify plan includes embedded and thumbnail display. Their paid tiers add popup and lightbox variants, triggered by buttons, links or custom elements, rather than unlocking embedding itself. On Flipbooks AI the embed code and the allowed domain list start on the Plus plan at $14 a month or $108 a year. If dropping a flipbook into a site you already run, at no cost, is the deciding factor, that points at them.

What does cost more on their side is breadth. A DearFlip licence is scoped to a number of sites, 1, 3, 5, 15 or 30 depending on the edition, from $39 to $199 a year, so cost tracks how many properties you publish on rather than how much you publish. Staging, development and local sites do not consume that quota, which is a fair way to run it. A Flipbooks AI plan is not counted in sites at all, so if you publish across several domains the two pricing models pull in opposite directions and the sums are worth doing before you buy either one.

Sharing is where the models invert. Flipbooks AI hands you a link the moment the upload finishes, and any reader opens it in a browser with no account, no app and no sign up. DearFlip publishes nothing, so the shareable address is whatever page on your own site holds the embed, and building that page is your job. Their separate online PDF viewer, which advertises that no uploading or conversion is required, produces no shareable public link and no embed code, so it is a preview tool rather than a publishing route. If you have no site to put a flipbook on, that gap is the whole comparison.

Ease of Use and What Each Tool Is For

These two answer different questions. DearFlip answers how do I put a flipbook inside the site I already run, and it answers it across an unusual spread of platforms for one vendor: a WordPress plugin, a JS and jQuery library, a Joomla extension, a Shopify app launched in July 2026, a Chrome extension and a Windows app. On WordPress you install the plugin and point it at a PDF hosted on your own site, then configure the viewer from their settings page. That path has a track record: 4.9 out of 5 from 188 reviews on the WordPress.org plugin directory, checked in August 2026, alongside more than 200,000 active installations and a plugin updated recently and tested against current WordPress.

Read that rating precisely, though. It is the rating of the free Lite plugin on WordPress.org, not of the paid Starter or Pro licence, and we could not verify a DearFlip listing on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot or TrustRadius to set beside it, so ignore figures quoted from those. The Shopify app had no reviews when we checked in August 2026, which is normal for something launched weeks earlier but means no track record yet on that platform. The work is also real work: you install software, keep it updated, host the PDF and own whatever breaks on your server.

Flipbooks AI answers a narrower question: my PDF is finished, how do I get it online. You upload the file, choose a page turn effect, add a password if it is private, and share the link. There is nothing to install and no server to patch. The trade is that we are not a design tool and not an enterprise platform. There is no template gallery, no in tool page editor, no custom domain, no team seats and no API. If your document is not designed yet, or you need any of those, we are the wrong choice and we would rather you knew that before you signed up.

Who Should Choose Which

Choose Flipbooks AI if

• You do not run a website, or you do not want to install and update software on the one you have
• You want a link, and a shared password if the document is private, within minutes of the PDF being ready
• You want conversion, storage, bandwidth and the reader in one price instead of on your own hosting
• You publish across several domains and do not want the bill to change every time you add one

Choose DearFlip if

• You already run a WordPress site, a web server, a Joomla install or a Shopify store and want the flipbook on your own domain
• You prefer a one time lifetime licence, $119 or $179 for a single WordPress site and $149 on the JS library, to a subscription
• You need the PDF to stay on your own hosting, inside the access control and compliance setup you already have
• You want free embedding and a genuinely generous free tier: unlimited flipbooks on the WordPress Lite plugin, with support for documents over 1000 pages and 500MB

How to Switch from DearFlip to Flipbooks AI

There is no import step, because a flipbook is always built from a source document. If you still have the PDF you uploaded, the move takes about as long as one upload.

1. Find the PDF your flipbook is rendered from. A DearFlip flipbook is rendered from a PDF that already sits on your own server, because their pricing FAQ says the flipbooks stay in your server and are hosted from your site. Start from that original file and check it is the final version, because whatever is in the PDF is exactly what travels to the new tool.
2. Write down how each flipbook was configured. DearFlip documents options such as viewer mode, table of contents, page thumbnails, deep linking and sound, with popup and lightbox variants, spiral and calendar modes and basic analytics on the paid tiers. Note which of those each of your flipbooks used before you change anything, so you have something to judge the replacement against. Note too whether you were on the free WordPress Lite plugin, where clickable links inside a PDF do not render because PDF link display is a premium feature there.
3. Upload the PDF to Flipbooks AI. Drop the file on the create page. There is nothing to install, no shortcode and no server to configure, and conversion takes seconds. You see a preview before anything is published, and the free plan keeps three flipbooks live with 1 GB of storage, so you can move one document across and judge the result before committing the rest.
4. Set the password and the effect, then publish. Choose a page turn effect and add a shared password if the document is private, which is allowed while you are still on the free plan. The published flipbook is reachable by its link only: it is never listed in a public directory and we never submit it to a search engine. Paid plans from $59 a year remove the corner mark and unlock brand colours for the reader controls.
5. Swap the embed on your site, then decide about the licence. Replace however the DearFlip flipbook is inserted on your page with a link to the new flipbook, or with the embed code if you are on Plus. Keep the plugin installed until every page is swapped. Before letting an annual licence lapse, check what expiry means for your edition: their JS licence page says the jQuery plugin can be used without activation and that expiry costs updates and support, while the WordPress licence documentation we read does not address expiry at all.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is DearFlip a hosted flipbook service like Flipbooks AI?

No, and this is the difference that decides everything else on this page. DearFlip is software you install on something you already run: a WordPress plugin, a JS and jQuery library, a Joomla extension or a Shopify app. Their pricing FAQ states that the flipbooks stay in your server and are hosted from your site. There is no DearFlip hosted account holding your flipbooks, and no upload step to them. Flipbooks AI is the opposite: you upload a PDF and get a hosted link back, with no site and no server of your own required.

Does DearFlip have a free plan?

It has three free entry points and they are not equivalent, checked in August 2026. The WordPress Lite plugin is the strong one: unlimited flipbooks, 3D and 2D viewers, table of contents, thumbnails, deep linking and RTL, with more than 200,000 active installations, and the documented gap is that clickable links inside the PDF do not render because PDF link display is premium. The Shopify app has a free plan too. The JS Lite build on GitHub is licensed non commercial under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 and is the old 1.7 version, so it is not a viable free option for a business.

How much does DearFlip cost?

Figures come from their own product pricing pages, checked in August 2026, because there is no single pricing page: dearflip.com/pricing returns a 404. WordPress: Starter $39 a year or $119 one time for one site, Pro $59 a year or $179 one time, Pro for 5 sites $99 a year or $299 one time, Pro for 30 sites $199 a year or $499 one time. JS library: $49 a year or $149 one time for one site, rising to $199 a year or $499 one time for fifteen. Shopify Pro: $8 a month or $59 a year, billed in USD, with a 14 day trial. The WordPress and JS pages show only a dollar sign with no currency code, so treat those as list prices.

Can I use DearFlip without a WordPress site?

Yes, through the JS and jQuery library, the Joomla extension or the Shopify app, but every one of those still needs something you run: a web server, a Joomla install or a Shopify store. There is no route where DearFlip hosts the file for you, which is a design choice rather than a gap. If you do not have a site, or you would rather not install and maintain software on the one you have, that is the case for a hosted tool. On Flipbooks AI the free plan keeps three flipbooks live with a link and a shared password, and nothing to install.

Does DearFlip put a watermark on free flipbooks?

We could not confirm it in either direction, so we will not claim it in either direction. The WordPress.org listing, their free versus premium document and the Shopify listing all describe the free editions without mentioning a watermark, a credit link or a powered by badge, but no vendor page states that free output is clean either, and absence of a mention is not proof. What is structurally true is that the flipbook renders inside a page on your own domain, which leaves little room for a supplier mark. Flipbooks AI does place a small corner mark on free flipbooks, and any paid plan from $59 a year removes it.

Can I password protect a DearFlip flipbook?

No password protection option appears in the DearFlip settings documentation we read, so access control would have to come from your own site, through CMS page permissions or server authentication rather than from the plugin. Treat that as not documented rather than proven absent. On Flipbooks AI a single shared password can be set while you are still on the free plan, and per reader passwords, where each person gets their own, are an Ultra feature at $29 a month or $228 a year. One honest limit on our side: that password gates the reader interface, not the underlying file.

Can I embed a flipbook on my own website for free?

On DearFlip yes, and it is the clearest thing they do better than us at a lower price. Embedding is the product rather than an upsell: the free WordPress Lite plugin includes the embedded inline flipbook and the free Shopify plan includes embedded and thumbnail display, while the paid tiers add popup and lightbox variants instead of unlocking embedding itself. On Flipbooks AI the embed code and the allowed domain list start on the Plus plan at $14 a month or $108 a year. The constraint on their side is licence scope, since one licence covers 1, 3, 5, 15 or 30 sites depending on the edition.

How many pages can one flipbook have, and how big can the file be?

Neither tool ties a page cap to a plan tier. The WordPress.org listing for DearFlip states that it supports documents exceeding 1000 pages and 500MB using partial loading, and their pricing FAQ says you can create as many flipbooks as you can, so the practical limits there are your own hosting and the reader browser. Flipbooks AI sets no page cap either, so a long annual report or a full catalogue goes up whole. What limits you with us is storage, which is 1 GB on the free plan, and a very heavy PDF takes longer to convert.

Is DearFlip well reviewed?

Yes, with one qualification about what the score actually covers. The WordPress.org plugin directory shows 4.9 out of 5 from 188 reviews, checked in August 2026, alongside more than 200,000 active installations, and that rating is for the free Lite plugin rather than for the paid Starter or Pro licence. We could not verify a DearFlip listing on G2, Capterra, Trustpilot or TrustRadius, so treat figures quoted from those with suspicion. The Shopify app, launched in July 2026, had no reviews at all when we checked, which is simply too new to judge.

I heard DearPDF closed. Is DearFlip going away too?

No, and it would be unfair to imply it. DearPDF, a sibling product from the same company, states on its own site that it is now closed, with a migration plugin to move users to DearFlip being created. DearFlip itself looks actively maintained: when we checked in August 2026 the WordPress plugin had been updated within roughly the previous two months and was tested against current WordPress, and the company had shipped a brand new Shopify app in July 2026. Longevity is a reason to consider them, not a reason to worry.