Accrisoft Freedom vs. MadCap Flare

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Freedom CMS
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Freedom is a cloud-based content management system from Accrisoft Corporation.Accrisoft Freedom specializes in membership and events management, social media, online marketing and e-commerce. Freedom is notable for its highly customizable databases, providing full control over HTML layout and complex filter and search capabilities.
$100
per month
MadCap Flare
Score 6.0 out of 10
N/A
MadCap Software, headquartered in La Jolla, offers MadCap Flare, a help authoring and technical writing tool featuring onboarding and support from MadCap, and a set of modules for designing advanced guides, aids, and web or application help aids.
$167
per month
Pricing
Accrisoft FreedomMadCap Flare
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
MadCap Central
$1,500
per year
MadCap Flare
$1,999
per year
MadCap AMS
$2,999
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Freedom CMSMadCap Flare
Free Trial
NoYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details—Includes a 12-month Platinum-level Maintenance Plan.
More Pricing Information
Features
Accrisoft FreedomMadCap Flare
Security
Comparison of Security features of Product A and Product B
Accrisoft Freedom
8.9
2 Ratings
10% above category average
MadCap Flare
-
Ratings
Role-based user permissions8.92 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Creation
Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Accrisoft Freedom
7.6
3 Ratings
0% below category average
MadCap Flare
-
Ratings
WYSIWYG editor7.73 Ratings00 Ratings
Code quality / cleanliness8.63 Ratings00 Ratings
Admin section8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
Page templates8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
Library of website themes4.32 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile optimization / responsive design7.22 Ratings00 Ratings
Publishing workflow8.82 Ratings00 Ratings
Form generator7.83 Ratings00 Ratings
Web Content Management
Comparison of Web Content Management features of Product A and Product B
Accrisoft Freedom
7.8
3 Ratings
6% above category average
MadCap Flare
-
Ratings
Content taxonomy8.33 Ratings00 Ratings
SEO support7.83 Ratings00 Ratings
Bulk management7.42 Ratings00 Ratings
Availability / breadth of extensions7.72 Ratings00 Ratings
Community / comment management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Accrisoft FreedomMadCap Flare
Small Businesses
Divi
Divi
Score 9.8 out of 10

No answers on this topic

Medium-sized Companies
Image Relay
Image Relay
Score 9.5 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
Tridion
Tridion
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Accrisoft FreedomMadCap Flare
Likelihood to Recommend
8.2
(4 ratings)
7.6
(4 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
1.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
3.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Accrisoft FreedomMadCap Flare
Likelihood to Recommend
Accrisoft
The only thing I believe Accrisoft Freedom is not as well suited is for large e-commerce sites. Accrisoft Freedom actually has an E-commerce module and can do products and online sales, however if this is the majority of what your business does (or your clients' businesses), I would recommend an E-commerce focused CMS.
For almost all other circumstances I can think of though, I would recommend Accrisoft Freedom - ma and pa shops on up to a corporation.
Read full review
MadCap Software
MadCap Flare has its problems, but it serves our team well as an authoring software. This would not be the case if we needed to regularly collaborate on articles, as Flare is prone to conflict issues when another person dares to breathe near an open topic. When working individually, though, it's fine. I'd love to see improvements to design, performance, and stability, but Flare remains one of the best softwares on the market for our needs as an authoring team. MadCap Central is well-suited to internal reviewing when every member is comfortable with Flare (the errors it tends to introduce set aside). SMEs, though, tend to find it hard to use. It's cluttered, some styles don't render, and it just seems like a failed attempt to reproduce Google Docs. I'd love to see improvements there, to help get our SMEs to want to use Central.
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Pros
Accrisoft
  • Hosting and maintenance is taken care of. Due to it being proprietary software, everything is built to work together.
  • Simple to use. Basic functionality for websites is built in without having to dig through thousands of potential options.
  • Development is straightforward...no backend languages required. So if someone wants a unique layout for a portfolio, it's very simple to add a new content type and build the new layout using basic html and css.
Read full review
MadCap Software
  • Snippets, variables, and conditioning are all good
  • Once you set it up, updating Help websites is easy.
Read full review
Cons
Accrisoft
  • Their preview setup for reviewing page changes prior to pushing them live is not good. You basically have to push things live to see how they will look, then go back and tweak it, while the changes in progress are live on the site. They need a sandbox, or a better preview feature within the backend so you dont have to keep pushing changes live to test out functionality.
  • Integration with outside tools is non existent. Instead of trying to force people to use their modules or features it would make much more sense to more easily integrate with leading tools in niche spaces.
  • The UI is pretty old. It could use a big refresh. Things like drag and drop builders and functionality should be standard these days. This is also a plus for non tech savvy users as it keeps their page structures to what works without letting people tinker. But if you want to tinker and be a higher end user Freedom isn't the best bet.
Read full review
MadCap Software
  • The software is often quite buggy, and certain bugs seem to date back nearly a decade and still persist.
  • Customizing shortcuts is often an ordeal.
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Likelihood to Renew
Accrisoft
We switched to WordPress; it was out of my control.
Read full review
MadCap Software
No answers on this topic
Usability
Accrisoft
No answers on this topic
MadCap Software
MadCap Flare is in desperate need of an overall redesign. It relies heavily on dozens and dozens of tiny buttons that contain dozens of nested features. Clicking the wrong button can cause your software to freeze and crash. Building targets can be an absolute mystery, as far as all the files involved. It also has a tendency to freeze and crash. There's typically a huge learning curve for new hires who've never used it--nothing is intuitive.
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Support Rating
Accrisoft
This rating is based on personal experience only. I believe majority of people would say their support is top notch & 10/10. The only reason I am personally am giving it lower is because I consider my self a much more advanced user of Freedom than their typical Solution Provider developers. Because I am advanced, I troubleshoot my own issues pretty in-depth before I even contact Accrisoft support. Therefore sometimes I feel it takes longer to get the researched & specific answer I need vs. a simple support question would.
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MadCap Software
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Accrisoft
In all honesty, we have been moving away from Accrisoft Freedom due to its lack of customizability. We as an agency generally prefer open source solutions since our client base primarily consists of those looking for a more custom solution that can be built off of in the future. While yes, these tend to need more care and attention, they have benefited us more.
Read full review
MadCap Software
I wish Google Docs would work for our purposes, but it doesn't have a lot of the technical writing features we need. Using Google Docs would make reviewing and edits much much quicker, but we need MadCap to house all our documents for our Help website.
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Return on Investment
Accrisoft
  • This was the first CMS we had at our company so hard to say positive or negative impact.
  • Prior to this CMS there was a static site that html files had to be ftp to a company to have the site updated. So from that standpoint it made updating the site much less expensive.
  • Compared to a tool like Wordpress this is much more secure and easier to manage, but since we outsource that portion of it to the company that built the site we dont realize those gains.
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MadCap Software
  • Saves time by offering a way to sync documents with other teammates.
  • Often requires time to troubleshoot random errors or bugs that pop up with seemingly no cause.
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ScreenShots—

MadCap Flare Screenshots

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