Adobe Express Alternatives for Professional PDF Catalogs

Adobe has been the default name in design software for decades. When they launched Adobe Express (previously Adobe Spark), the idea was to bring simplified design tools to people who don't want to learn Photoshop or InDesign. Fair enough.

But after spending a few weeks trying to build product catalogs in Adobe Express, I came away with one clear takeaway: it's a design tool that happens to export PDFs, not a catalog tool that happens to look good.

That distinction matters more than you'd think.

The Adobe Express Experience for Catalogs

Adobe Express gives you templates, a drag-and-drop editor, access to Adobe Fonts, and Adobe Stock images. The design quality ceiling is genuinely high. If you know what you're doing, you can make things look really polished.

But here's where it breaks down for catalogs:

• No awareness of "products." Adobe Express treats everything as a design element. It doesn't know what a product name, price, or SKU is. There are no product-specific fields or layouts.
• Multi-page workflows are clunky. You can create multi-page documents, but managing 30+ pages with consistent product layouts is tedious. There's no master page functionality like InDesign has.
• No data connections. You can't pull data from a spreadsheet, an API, or an ecommerce platform. Every single product detail is typed by hand.
• The cost adds up. The premium plan gives you access to Adobe Stock and Fonts, but you're paying Adobe Creative Cloud prices for what is essentially a simplified web editor.
• No commerce features. No order forms, no pricing tiers, no wholesale functionality. It's purely a design output tool.

For a 6-page brand brochure, Adobe Express works. For a 50-page product catalog that needs to be updated quarterly, it's going to cost you too much time.

What to Use Instead

Canva

Yes, Canva is an obvious mention, but it deserves it. For the same "simple design tool" category, Canva is faster, has more templates, and the free tier is more generous than Adobe Express. The collaborative features are also better.

That said, Canva has the same fundamental problem for catalogs: no product data integration, no variant handling, and no commerce features. It's better than Adobe Express for the money, but it's still a general design tool.

InDesign (the "proper" Adobe option)

If you're committed to Adobe and need real catalog functionality, InDesign is the actual tool for the job. It has data merge, master pages, paragraph styles, and proper multi-page document management. Professional catalog designers use InDesign for a reason.

The problem? The learning curve is brutal. If you're a merchant who needs to get a catalog out this week, InDesign isn't a realistic option. It's a professional tool that requires professional skills.

Flipsnack

Flipsnack is a middle ground between simple design tools and professional catalog software. It handles multi-page documents well, outputs interactive flipbooks, and has templates designed specifically for catalogs and brochures. The pricing is more accessible than Adobe.

Still, product data is manual, and the design flexibility is more limited than Adobe Express. Good for digital catalogs you plan to share online rather than print.

EasyCatalogs

Here's where I'll make the case for a purpose-built tool. EasyCatalogs approaches the problem from the opposite direction: instead of "here's a design tool, figure out how to make a catalog," it starts with "you have products, let's turn them into a catalog."

The workflow: connect your Shopify store, import products (with all their data—images, prices, variants, descriptions, metafields), choose a catalog template, customize the design, and export to PDF. If you need a wholesale order form, it's a setting you toggle on. If you want an interactive flipbook, that's built in too.

When your products change, you sync the catalog in one click instead of manually finding and updating every affected page.

The trade-off is design freedom. You won't get pixel-perfect control over every element like you would in Adobe Express or InDesign. But the templates are professionally designed, and for most merchants, a catalog that's 90% as pretty but took 90% less time to create is the better outcome.

The Real Question: Design Tool or Catalog Tool?

This is what it comes down to. If you're a designer who needs to create a one-off, highly customized catalog where every pixel matters, use InDesign or Adobe Express. You'll have full control.

If you're a merchant or business owner who needs to create and maintain product catalogs as part of your ongoing sales process, use a tool built for that. The time savings alone will justify the switch.

The best tool isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that matches how you actually work.

For Shopify merchants specifically, EasyCatalogs removes the biggest pain point: the disconnect between your product data and your catalog design. When those two things are connected, everything gets easier.