Creating online brand guidelines has become more popular as brands realize the benefits over traditional PDFs.

You can call them digital style guides, brand portals, brand management platforms etc.

However, the main appeal is that your brand assets can be instantly accessed by your team, without worrying about versions, emails, and confusing attachments.

A digital guide is like a website that describes your brand and lets people easily obtain assets like logos with the latest updates.

You can even password-protect sections or share links privately.

In this article, I compare the top 10 tools I've found for building online style guides.

I’ll overview the pros and cons of each option based on my hands-on experience.

BTW—You can also consume this content in video form on my YouTube channel:

Whether you’re an agency that delivers brand identities or a startup establishing your own brand, these solutions can help you ditch the PDF and step into the digital age of brand guidelines.

1. Standards

First on my list is Standards—it doesn’t mean it’s best, but I find it best for me—easy to use interface, great customization options and very affordable price!

Standards is also used by great agencies like Pentagram or Gretel and brands like Cash App, Skillshare, and Headspace.

You can see some examples of style guides listed on their website here.

I find the UI very intuitive and easy to use, similar to Webflow.

So much so I've decided to use it myself to recreate my entire PDF—check it out here.

Here's how their editor looks like:

You can get started for free but there is a small "Made with Standards" badge.

Premium plans start at only $10/month to remove the badge.

You also get other features like password protection, project transfers, custom domains and more.

Overall, I found it as the best fit for my current needs.

2. BrandPad

BrandPad is another great option, trusted by iconic brands like IKEA, MoMA, and IDEO.

You can try it free for 21 days.

The interface is so clean and minimalist that it seems to be designed by designers for designers.

Also, check out this cool article about BrandPad here.

You can either start from scratch or choose one of their templates.

Then you navigate between presets and the asset library to build out your guide.

I've found a quite cool template and started creating my style guide (draft only) — here's what the interface looks like:

The downside (at least for me) is that the interface is so stripped down that it's not very intuitive or user-friendly.

But on the flip side, you get tremendous creative control over the look and feel.

For $42/month you can have 2 brand guidelines.

3. Frontify

Next on my list is Frontify, which is a large platform used by major brands like Uber, Microsoft, Lufthansa, and KIA.

It allows you to organize all your brand assets in one central, shared space.

There are lots of integrations with tools like Figma, Canva, Slack, and Miro.

You get advanced customization capabilities so you have creative freedom in designing your guide.

Frontify also has more advanced features like webhooks, APIs, etc. for enterprises.

I played around with this tool as well, here's what the UI looks like:

Overall, Frontify it's a great choice if you're a large organization with complex needs and want deeper integrations with your other systems.

Here is a link to sign up for a free trial.

4. Corebook

Corebook is also used by top agencies like McCann, Veyner Media, and Mackey Saturday.

You start by answering some questions about your brand, then get a simple visual builder to create your guide.

Perhaps it's a bit easier to use than BrandPad.

The downside is you have to build your guide from scratch which is tedious compared to starting from a template.

But on the positive side, you get full control over the design.

Here's a preview of what Corebook's editor looks like:

Corebook° has such features as custom page templates, white labeling and full media support.

You can also add content directly from Figma, Adobe Suite and Miro.

Corebook° Studio has something that none of the other platforms has - a lifetime plan.

Pay for it once and you can use it forever. 

As an alternative to it you can also get a monthly subscription that starts at $39/month and gives you up to 5 projects to work on.

Which you can then either share with a client free of charge or the transfer brand ownership to the client.

5. BrandingGuide

BrandingGuide (BG), on the other hand, offers a super simple, basic style guide creator (one-page site).

You can browse lots of sample brand guidelines they've created for well-known companies.

I put together a draft of my brand guide in just a couple of minutes.

You get two tabs—Style Guide with some info and Brand Assets to download files.

And amazingly, it's 100% free to use.

You can check out my guidelines here.

Overall, if you want something quick and free with minimal effort, this is a great easy option.

6. Baseline

Baseline is a bit different than just a style guide creator.

It's a content creator platform, like a simplified Canva meets brand guidelines.

You start by setting up your brand identity, then Baseline automates building branded templates and content for you.

For example, once your brand is loaded in, you can easily create on-brand social media posts, graphics, and more using their templates for platforms like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

You can see the basic brand guidelines I created here.

It automatically uses your brand colors, logos, and fonts without any extra effort.

Baseline also generates CSS code and allows sharing your brand guide.

There is a free version available.

7. Lingo App

Lingo App is a digital brand guidelines and asset management platform used by companies like Duolingo, Reddit, Bumble, and Snapchat.

It has a Figma integration that helps automate bringing your assets into Lingo.

When you upload logo in SVG, it automatically generates other formats like JPG's and PNG's.

You can monitor who downloads your assets, approve/deny requests, and share private links.

I've also used this tool to create a draft of my own style guide, here's the preview:

Lingo allows setting up passwords, custom domains, and has storage for up to 50GB.

Pricing starts at $30/month for up to 5 users.

8. Gingersouce

Gingersouce takes a different approach—it allows you to create a downloadable PDF style guide.

You can upload your logos, choose fonts and colors, and it inserts them into one of their templates for you.

It essentially automates building a style guide into a fill-in-the-blank form.

You just answer a few questions and as the outcome, you get a PDF that you can view online or download.

You can see the draft I created here.

There's no fancy interface, just a simple way to generate a finished guide easily.

If you want a simple automated way to build a basic style guide PDF, Gingersouce gets the job done.

9. Flipsnack

Flipsnack offers a way to take your existing PDF style guide and turn it into an online flipbook.

So you can take the PDF you already created and upload it to transform it into a slick interactive web version.

Flipsnack also provides design tools to create stunning flipbooks from scratch.

It's a great option if you want to easily make your static PDF style guide digital while preserving your preferred layout and content formatting.

Overall, Flipsnack streamlines enhancing your PDF into an impressive online flip book.

10. InDesign Publish

If you're a designer, you likely already use Adobe CC which includes InDesign.

You may not know that InDesign has a free built-in feature to publish your PDFs online.

I've used it for years to create digital brand guidelines for my clients like SweetGrass, Periti, Medihuanna, Lyntics.

InDesign Publish quickly turns your print-ready PDFs into functional online publications.

PS. Check out my Brand Guidelines Kit—a template that allows you to quickly build PDF style guide in InDesign.

Conclusion

There are lots of great options for creating digital brand guidelines today.

I personally really like Standards for its intuitive interface and ease of use in recreating my PDF.

But ultimately the best platform depends on your specific needs and budget.

Agencies and large enterprises may require more advanced capabilities like white labeling, integrations, and robust customization and access control.

So for that tools like Frontify, BrandPad, Corebook, or Bynder are best.

BTW. I skipped Bynder, just because I couldn't get access to their tool (no trial available).

Smaller brands, on the other hand, want something simple and affordable.

So for that tools like BrandingGuide, Lingo App, Flipsnack, or even InDesign Publish would make for a great option.

PS. Check out my other video showcasing style guides of famous brands:

Also, check out my other YouTube video where I explain my process of creating a style guide from scratch.

I still provide PDF-style guides to my clients, but I plan on adding digital guidelines to my offering as well—hence the research and testing.

If you like the simplicity of the InDesign Publish solution, then check out my Brand Guidelines Kit.

It's an InDesign template I've been using with my clients so far (SweetGrass, Periti, Medihuanna, Lyntics).

Need a style guide for your brand?—just shoot me an email.