Real3D Flipbook vs DearFlip: prices, features and our own tests

Last updated October 19, 2026.

A note before you read: we make Real3D Flipbook. We have tried to keep this comparison fair. DearFlip’s prices and features come from its own pricing page, documentation, changelog and wordpress.org listing. We ran every test in the same way for both plugins, with scripts that measure what the browser does rather than what we see. Where DearFlip is the better choice, this post says so.

Real3D Flipbook and DearFlip are two of the most used flipbook plugins for WordPress. Both turn a PDF into a book with a WebGL page turn, both have a free version, and both also come as a Shopify app and a JavaScript library. The differences are in the details: what the free version includes, how fast the book appears, what readers can do with the text, how far the plugin goes beyond the viewer, and what you pay.

The short answer

In our tests with the same 24-page catalog, Real3D showed the cover sooner: 1.3 s against 2.6 s on desktop, and 6.2 s against 9.5 s on a slow phone. On desktop, DearFlip blocked the browser less and moved the page layout less. Page turns were equally smooth. In the PRO versions both have search and clickable links, but only Real3D let readers select and copy text.

Prices

Paid versions, in US dollars, before VAT.

For one site, Real3D is cheaper on both plans, and its lifetime licence costs less than half of DearFlip’s. Real3D with all seven addons for life ($99) still costs less than DearFlip Pro for life ($179).

For many sites, DearFlip is the better deal: 30 sites for $199 a year, against $229 for 20 sites with Real3D.

Both vendors say staging and development sites don’t use up a licence. Both let you upgrade a licence later. The money-back terms are worded differently: DearFlip refunds within 30 days if you are not satisfied for any reason, and Real3D refunds within 30 days when its support can’t fix a problem that makes the plugin unusable.

Free versions

• DearFlip Lite includes the 3D and 2D flipbook, a vertical scroll viewer and a slider viewer, PDF and image flipbooks, a table of contents from the PDF or your own, deep links to pages, categories and lightbox popups, with no limit on the number of flipbooks.
• Real3D Lite includes the realistic 3D page turn, the other view modes, PDF and image flipbooks, inline, lightbox and fullscreen display, and the Gutenberg block and shortcode. Pages are shown at standard resolution, and links inside the PDF, text search and deep linking need the PRO version.

We also installed both free plugins and opened the same catalog in each with default settings.

On a phone, both show one page at a time. DearFlip keeps all eight toolbar buttons on screen. Real3D keeps four and puts the rest in a menu.

If you will stay on a free plugin, DearFlip Lite gives you more sharing options and a link to the current page. Real3D Lite gives you print and a faster first view. If you are going to buy, compare the paid versions below. You can see the difference between Real3D Lite and PRO with your own PDF on the Lite vs PRO page.

Features

“Not listed” means DearFlip’s site and documentation did not mention the feature when we checked. It may exist.

DearFlip’s pricing page lists search and print as “non-mobile”. Its changelog lists Gutenberg and Elementor blocks under future plans.

Loading speed: our test

How we tested

• The PDF: a 24-page, 3.3 MB furniture catalog we made for the test from the photos in our Living Design demo. It has 66 photos, real text with product codes, 134 web links and nested bookmarks.
• Free versions: Real3D Flipbook Lite 5.7 and DearFlip Lite 2.4.37 from wordpress.org.
  • Each plugin had one flipbook with default settings, on its own page, with the other plugin switched off.
  • We served copies of the two pages from the same local server. It compresses files and supports range requests, as most hosts do.
• The browser: Chrome, starting with an empty cache on every run.
  • Desktop: a 10 Mbps connection.
  • Phone: a phone-sized screen on slow 4G (1.6 Mbps, 150 ms) with the processor slowed 4×. These are the settings Google’s Lighthouse uses for mobile.
• Runs: three per plugin and setting. We report the middle result. The runs were within a few percent of each other.

Results

What the rows mean:

• Loading indicator is when the reader first sees that a book is coming instead of an empty box.
• Cover fully visible is when the first page is on screen and stops moving.
• Total blocking time adds up the moments when the browser was too busy to react to a tap or a scroll.
• Layout shift (CLS) measures how much the rest of the page jumps while the viewer starts. Google counts up to 0.1 as good and up to 0.25 as needing improvement.

What you see while it loads

• Real3D shows a dark stage with a spinner almost at once, then the cover.
• DearFlip shows an empty box, then a grey stage with a “Loading PDF” message. The cover first appears to one side and then slides to the middle.

On the slow phone the gap grows to more than three seconds: 6.2 s against 9.5 s. Most of the wait there is the download, and DearFlip fetched almost twice as much of the PDF before it showed the first page.

How much each one downloads

Real3D asked for less of the PDF before showing the cover: 619 KB against 1,128 KB. On desktop it then keeps loading the next pages in the background, so the next flips don’t wait, and after 20 seconds it had downloaded a little more than DearFlip in total. On the phone it preloads less, and it downloaded less in total too. DearFlip loaded a bigger first part of the file and then waited for the reader to turn pages.

Where DearFlip did better

On desktop, DearFlip kept the browser less busy while loading (22 ms of blocking time against 78 ms). It also moved the page less: Real3D’s viewer takes its full height only when it starts, which pushes the content below it down. On the phone, both had the same layout shift, and Real3D blocked the browser slightly less (170 ms against 202 ms).

The PDF reader inside both plugins is the same, pdf.js 3.11, so most of the difference comes from how each plugin schedules the work. DearFlip also needs jQuery, which many WordPress sites load anyway. Real3D does not.

Also tested in WordPress Playground

We repeated the free-version test in WordPress Playground, which runs a whole WordPress site inside the browser. We used WordPress 7.1, the same PDF and one page per plugin with the shortcode and default settings, and ran each test three times. In Playground every file comes from the browser’s memory, so there is no network to wait for. This test only shows how fast each plugin starts and draws the PDF.

The order is the same as on the test pages: Real3D showed the cover first. Without a network, blocking time on desktop was close to zero for both (0 and 3 ms).

Page flips

Both plugins turned pages at 60 frames per second on average in every run, on desktop and on the slowed-down phone. We timed every frame during four page turns. On the phone, Real3D had one or two frames that took twice as long as the rest in two of the three runs. That is a single skipped frame, which you would hardly notice.

Reading the text

For catalogs, reports and manuals, what readers can do with the text often matters more than the page turn. We opened our test catalog in each vendor’s “try your PDF” demo, Real3D Flipbook PRO 5.7.6 and DearFlip PRO 2.5.180, and tried the things readers do most. In both demos the PDF opens in your browser and is not uploaded.

• Selecting and copying text. Real3D keeps the PDF’s text layer, so readers can select and copy a phone number, a product code or a quote, as in a PDF reader. In DearFlip’s demo we found no selectable text in any of the four view modes we tried: 3D, 2D, vertical reader and slider.
• Search on phones. Both have full-text search on desktop. DearFlip lists search and print as not available on mobile. In Real3D both work on phones too.
• Zoom. Real3D PRO re-renders pages at up to 4K as readers zoom in, so fine print stays sharp. DearFlip Pro also adds extra zoom and a bigger page size over its free version.

In a single try, DearFlip’s demo showed our cover a little sooner after we chose the file, about 0.5 s against 0.7 s. That includes the time Real3D takes to open its lightbox. Both demos read the PDF from your computer, so this measures drawing, not downloading.

Page turn and view modes

Both plugins draw the page turn with WebGL, so pages bend as they turn instead of sliding flat.

Real3D has six view modes: realistic 3D, a lighter CSS 3D flip, 2D, swipe for phones, scroll for long documents, and a simple mode with no animation. Phones can use a different mode from desktops. More on choosing in which flipbook view mode to use.

DearFlip has fewer everyday modes but more book styles. Its Pro version adds spiral binding, a hybrid 3D book and a calendar mode. Its changelog lists a 2.5 beta with a new page curl and a book spine. If you publish calendars, or want a spiral-bound look, DearFlip has a format Real3D doesn’t offer.

Beyond the viewer

This is where the two differ most. DearFlip is a viewer, with everything included in one Pro plan. Real3D is a viewer plus seven optional addons:

• Page Editor: add links, video, audio and images on top of pages. See interactive flipbook pages.
• WooCommerce and Preview Mode: sell a publication, or show a few pages and keep the rest for members. See sell or protect a flipbook.
• PDF Tools: convert large PDFs to page images on your server, for faster loading.
• Bookshelf: show many publications on one page. See build a digital library.
• Elementor and WPBakery: native widgets for the page builders.

If you only need to show PDFs, DearFlip’s single plan is simpler. If the flipbook is part of a shop, a membership or a page-builder site, Real3D covers more of it.

Customizing the look

Both let you change colors and choose which toolbar buttons appear. DearFlip offers a top, bottom or floating toolbar with customizable controls and text. Real3D has a choice of toolbar layouts (bottom bar, top bar, corners, pill, player and minimal), light, dark and gradient skins, two icon sets, and a table of every toolbar button where you can switch it on or off, rename it and reorder it. You can try the layouts on a live book on the WordPress plugin page.

Track record

• DearFlip has been on wordpress.org since 2017. Its free version has more than 200,000 active installs and a 4.9-star rating there.
• Real3D Flipbook has been sold since 2015. It has more than 22,000 WordPress customers and more than 1,060 reviews on Envato, where its author has the Power Elite rank.

Both are mature, actively updated plugins. This is not a choice between an established plugin and an experiment.

Which one to choose

• For a catalog or brochure that customers search for product names and codes, or read on phones: Real3D, for selectable text and search on every device.
• When the flipbook is near the top of the page and loading speed matters: Real3D, which showed the cover sooner in our test.
• For selling issues or members-only content: Real3D with the WooCommerce or Preview Mode addon.
• For Elementor or WPBakery sites: Real3D, which has native widgets.
• When layout shift on desktop matters most: DearFlip, which moved the page less while loading.
• For calendars or a spiral-bound look: DearFlip.
• For a free plugin you won’t upgrade, with sharing: DearFlip Lite. With print: Real3D Lite.
• For an agency with 20 or more sites on a yearly plan: DearFlip’s 30-site licence is cheaper.
• For one site, paid once: Real3D, at $69 lifetime, or $99 with every addon.

Whichever you pick, test it with your own PDF before you commit. Both are free to try, and both paid versions have a 30-day money-back period.

Questions about Real3D Flipbook and DearFlip

Which is cheaper, Real3D Flipbook or DearFlip?

For one site, Real3D: $49 a year or $69 lifetime, against $59 and $179 for DearFlip Pro. For many sites on a yearly plan, DearFlip: $199 a year for 30 sites.

Is Real3D Flipbook faster than DearFlip?

In our test, Real3D showed the cover sooner: 1.3 s against 2.6 s on desktop, and 6.2 s against 9.5 s on a slow phone. On desktop, DearFlip blocked the browser less and shifted the page layout less. Page turns were equally smooth.

Which one downloads more data?

Before the cover, DearFlip: it fetched almost twice as much of the PDF. After the cover appears on desktop, Real3D loads the next pages in the background so later flips don’t wait, and ended up slightly ahead in total. On the phone, Real3D downloaded less overall.

Can I move from DearFlip to Real3D Flipbook?

Yes. Both use your own PDF files, so there is nothing to convert. Create a flipbook from the same PDF in Real3D, then replace the DearFlip shortcode on the page with the Real3D block or shortcode. See how to turn a PDF into a flipbook on WordPress.

Does DearFlip have a free version?

Yes, DearFlip Lite on wordpress.org, which includes the 3D, 2D, scroll and slider viewers. Real3D also has a free Lite version. Neither free version has search, selectable text or clickable PDF links.

Which is better on phones?

Both work on phones and both switch to one page at a time. In our slow-phone test Real3D showed the cover about three seconds sooner. Real3D also has a swipe mode made for small screens, separate mobile settings, and search and print on mobile. DearFlip lists search and print as desktop only.

Will the test results be the same on my site?

The order should be similar, but the numbers will not be. They depend on your host, your theme, the other plugins on the page and above all your PDF. A PDF with smaller images loads faster in both.

For the wider picture, with four more plugins and a full price table, see best flipbook plugins for WordPress.