Finding an Effective Alternative to BlueToad
Written by Matt Berringer
June 17, 2021
BlueToad 101
Founded in 2007, BlueToad has been in the digital publishing and digital edition space for nearly fifteen years. BlueToad is headquartered in Orlando, Florida.
(Learn more about Digital Publishing Basics)
What Do BlueToad’s Reviews Say?
As of this writing, BlueToad did not have enough ratings on G2 crowd to show scores or reviews.
Assessing BlueToad’s Competitors
See Nxtbook’s Platforms in Action
Finding the right content creation software is an important decision to consider when planning out your digital marketing strategy. Relevant factors to consider when searching for an alternative to BlueToad include:
- Does it provide a mobile-friendly solution?
- How does that solution compare to BlueToad’s Article View?
- What kind of support is offered?
- Which analytics options are supported?
- What is the difference in pricing?
Whether you’ve worked with similar content platforms in the past or this is the first time exploring a solution, you’ll want to ask the right questions and explore how they fit into your overall brand strategy.
The Best Alternative to BlueToad
Users transitioning from BlueToad or simply looking for an alternative platform choose Nxtbook Media’s nxtbook or Pageraft platforms. Nxtbook Media offers multiple platforms that drive exceptional content experiences that have driven proven results. Nxtbook Media is a great alternative when looking for expertise in markets ranging from:
- Travel & Leisure
- Sports Franchise Marketing
- B2B Enterprise Marketing
- Digital Publishing
- Higher Education
- Non-Profits & Associations
Check out a comprehensive comparison of the Nxtbook and BlueToad below and find the solution that’s right for you!
Solutions for Mobile-Friendly Digital Content Projects
Both BlueToad and Nxtbook offer solutions for displaying publications on mobile devices. BlueToad’s solution asks clients to upload a PDF to their platform and wait for three business days while the company converts it into a mobile-friendly format. They also reportedly offer a self-service option.
Nxtbook Media offers several options for mobile-friendly reading including self-serve licensing options for nxtbook with Article View and PageRaft, and full-service production support for either platform.
Article View Comparison
Both BlueToad and the nxtbook platform offer a feature called Article View. However, we have consistently heard from people who have seen both features that the nxtbook version of Article View is a better all around solution to providing mobile-friendly versions of PDF source material. If user experience is a high priority for your company, this could be a strong factor in who you decide to work with.
Click here for more information on nxtbook’s Article View feature.
Differences in Support Options
Both BlueToad and Nxtbook offer a variety of support options to their clients. BlueToad’s website says they’ve been offering support for more than a decade and so they are confident that they can quickly find solutions to customer issues.
Nxtbook Media has been providing support for digital publishing customers since 2003 (nearly 20 years). Our support staff includes Partner Advocates, Technical Support, and more (you may even get a check-in phone call or email from our founders from time-to-time. Our goal is to provide expert, personalized, timely, and friendly support for all of Nxtbook’s clients. Happy employees mean happy clients, which is why Nxtbook places a large emphasis on building a positive, empowering environment for our employees. It shows that our company consistently ranks in the top ten of Best Places to Work in PA and is named one of the Top 101 best companies to work for in the nation! Click here to learn more.
Differences in Analytics
Here again, both BlueToad and Nxtbook offer solutions for the analysis of traffic and engagement of your projects. BlueToad states that it works with Google Analytics and includes another proprietary solution called Thermostats.
Nxtbook’s platforms support Google Analytics as well as the analytics platform AT Internet. Clients are welcome to choose the platform that works best for their needs. Nxtbook Media moved away from proprietary analytics tracking more than a dozen years ago because we felt strongly (as did/do our clients) that there should be complete independence between the digital publishing software we build and the analytics that detail performance.
Personalized Publications
While BlueToad does offer a way to serve up personalized recommendations to existing readers it does not seem as though the platform offers a way to create personalized publications by combining existing assets.
In contrast, Nxtbook Media allows clients to create personalized publications using its NxtSelect feature. With NxtSelect, users choose from a library of assets to create a personalized publication for a specific audience. In addition, Nxtbook can also help clients to create regionalized or other field-specific content using their audience data. This personalization can be a very effective way to increase engagement for tourism, entertainment, real estate, B2C sales, B2B sales, and other industries.
Design Services
If you are short-staffed or just looking for an outside perspective, Nxtbook offers a range of design and production services. Nxtbook’s team can help you design your book, build it, add interactive elements, push it live, and more. BlueToad does not appear to offer design services.
BlueToad Pricing
BlueToad recently raised its prices for new customers and clients not under an existing contract. According to publicly available information, BlueToad pricing varies based on whether you do the work yourself or whether you hire BlueToad to do it. The services are priced on a per-page basis. If you want BlueToad to produce the project for you, it costs $8 per page. If you do it yourself, it costs $5 per page.
Nxtbook Media’s pricing is based on a licensing model for more than one project. That pricing can be found here. Custom pricing is also available for single projects upon request (hint: prices are lower than those listed for BlueToad’s services).
