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Our Story

An editor’s guide to magazine makers

We test the tools so your next issue starts on the right page.

Craft My Magazine is an independent desk that judges online magazine maker tools — digital flipbook creators, print-ready layout editors, and template studios — and lays out the winners like covers on a newsstand.

Why we started

Choosing a magazine maker is oddly hard. Every tool claims to be the easiest, the most powerful, and the most print-perfect all at once. Marketing pages blur together, review sites bury the useful parts under affiliate buttons, and the free tiers hide their limits until you hit them. We wanted a board that reads like an editor’s notes: clear, opinionated, and grounded in actually building an issue.

How we work

We build the same sample magazine in every tool — a cover, a feature spread, a photo gallery, and a back page — then score the craft on one shared rubric. Editing power, template quality, typographic control, flipbook feel, print output, collaboration, and free-tier limits all count. Those scores roll up into named award categories, from the all-round Editor’s Choice to the specialists that win a single desk. You can read the full method on our How We Judge page.

How we stay independent

Rankings are earned, never bought. No tool can pay for a higher place, a category, or a kinder write-up. When this site later links out to makers, some links may be affiliate links — but they never change how a tool is tested, scored, or tiered. The rubric decides the board; the payouts never do.

Who it’s for

Independent creators, small teams, marketers, educators, and anyone turning a stack of pages into a polished magazine — whether it lives as a web flipbook or ships to a printer.

Say hello

Have a tool we should put on the bench, or a category we’re missing? Write to us at [email protected]. We read every note.