Private publishing

Share Flipbooks Privately

Not every publication is meant for the whole internet. HB Flipbook lets you put a password in front of a flipbook, keep it on an unlisted link, decide whether the original PDF can be downloaded, and unpublish it whenever you want the link to stop working.

Create a private flipbook View pricing

The controls you actually get

Password protection

Give a publication a password and readers must enter it before any page is served. The password is stored as a hash and verified on the server, not in the browser.

Kept out of search

A password-protected publication is marked noindex and excluded from public listings on the HB Flipbook site, so protected pages are not surfaced for the sake of visibility.

Unlisted links

Published flipbooks are reachable at their own address and are not listed anywhere by default. Appearing in a public gallery requires opting that publication in.

Unpublish at any time

Switching a publication back to unpublished makes the link stop working, without deleting your work or losing its settings.

Download control

Choose per publication whether readers may download the underlying PDF or read it on screen only.

Tracking control

Analytics can be switched off for a publication if you would rather not record reading activity for private material.

What this is, and what it is not

These are publishing controls: they decide who can reach a publication and what a reader is allowed to do with it. They are the right tool for material that is confidential in the everyday business sense — a proposal, a client presentation, an unreleased range.

They are not a compliance product, and we do not describe them as one. If your material is subject to a specific regulatory regime, treat a shared password as what it is: a gate that anyone holding the password can pass through, and that you can close by changing the password or unpublishing the flipbook.

When teams use private publishing

Client presentations sent after a meeting. Internal documents that should not be indexed. Investor materials shared with a named group. Private catalogues and price lists for wholesale accounts. Proposals and quotes. Sales presentations. Confidential previews of work that has not been announced.

In each case the reader experience is the same as a public flipbook — a link that opens in the browser, branded as yours — with a password in front of it. Reading activity is still reported, so you can see whether a proposal was opened and how far it was read; see flipbook analytics.

Getting started

Upload a PDF, set a password on the publication, publish it and send the link and password separately. The PDF to flipbook walkthrough covers the upload and publish steps, and pricing shows what each plan includes.

Common questions

Can I password-protect a flipbook?

Yes. Any publication can be given a password. Readers see the title and a password prompt, and the pages are only served after the password is accepted. The password is stored as a hash and checked on the server.

Will a private flipbook show up in search results?

No. A password-protected publication is marked noindex, so search engines are asked not to list it, and it is excluded from any public listing on the HB Flipbook site. Only the password screen is reachable without the password.

Can I stop sharing a publication later?

Yes. Unpublishing a publication makes its link stop working, so it is no longer readable by anyone. You can publish it again later without re-uploading anything.

Can I prevent people downloading the PDF?

Yes. Downloading the original PDF is a per-publication setting. With it switched off, readers can read the publication in the browser but are not given the file.

Are publications listed anywhere by default?

No. A published flipbook is reachable by its own link and is not listed publicly. Appearing in any public gallery on the HB Flipbook site requires you to opt that publication in, and password-protected publications are never included.

Keep reading

Online flipbook maker

What HB Flipbook does overall, from upload through to embedding.

Catalogues and brochures

Publishing client-only catalogues, price lists and property material.

Security

How publications and account data are handled on HB Flipbook.

Publish it privately

Put a password in front of your next proposal or preview, send the link, and close it again whenever you like.

Create a private flipbook Compare plans and pricing