Adobe Captivate vs. Axonify

Captivate is well suited for instruction designers who want to build attractive, personalized, interactive, energetic lessons. It's also a good choice for someone who wants to build something innovative because Captivate gives the developer so much control over so many aspects.

But if someone wanted something built quickly, generically and didn't care about holding the viewer's attention, then Captivate might be an expensive tool. That person might be more satisfied with a cheaper and easier to learn authoring tool.

Incentivized

Well-suited to the original purpose of delivering questions on a daily basis; everything beyond that gets complicated. For example, there are a number of program types available to deliver information (certifications, daily reinforcement, self-directed learning, assigned paths, etc.). However understanding how they all fit together requires advancing weaving together of multiple types of programs for individual groups, and requires more time than you would expect. Nearly 3 years into working with Axonify, we are still trying to iron it all out. We also have side groups of customers who meet to help each other because we all struggle with it too. We have a hard time helping our leaders and subject matter experts understand what is possible and what doesn't work well in the platform, since it is so different and doesn't work as expected. For example, communication to teams is one way - the recipients can't respond.

Incentivized

• Quickly adding in graphics, text, and interactive buttons.
• Has extensive variables and branching for additional customization, beyond the competition.
• Has 360 degree capability which competitors don't offer (I have not used this feature).
• High degree of customization and personalization.
• True responsive screen display on all devices, viewable as you are creating the training. This is different than some competitors - some just shrink the screen, but Adobe Captivate allows actually removing or moving or changing items at different screen sizes.
• If you like Flash, it has Flash output, although it's going away in 2020. Personally, I think this is an outdated technology.
• Many advanced capabilities. I chose this product due to the capabilities.
• Comes with assets, templates, people, head shots, and full body—excellent.
• Adobe Captivate is the authoring tool. It integrates with Adobe Captivate Prime - which I highly recommend if you want to truly take advantage of all of its features in reporting, administration, compliance, and social learning. (I didn't use Prime because you essentially need 100+ students to affordably use Prime.) If you look at my chart of what Captivate is capable of, I can't say that Captivate has a lot of the reporting features because they are part of Prime/SCORM, although, with Captivate's customization, you might be able to do most of them if you are up to it, but I did not.

Incentivized

• Update the platform in response to feedback from current users- ex. Many of the features I wished Axonify had when I first signed up for it are now live, such as guided learning, the ability to add certification to guided learning paths, and the ability to tie outside metrics and behaviors directly to Axonify training frequency and scores
• Reinforce employee knowledge to ensure employees don't forget content they don't use frequently- ex. as long as an employee signs in to train regularly, you can be assured that they will learn what they need to because the Axonify algorithm prioritizes reinforcement questions on topics that the learner hasn't seen recently and topics that the learner has the lowest scores in. The end result is that the platform is always customizing the content watch learner sees to help improve the individual's weak points. This means that of an employee is under performing, we know it is either because the process is not working, or the employee is unwilling to follow the process, not because he or she doesn't know any better
• Foster competition and excitement around completing certain training milestones- ex. the Leaderboard can get pretty competitive as employees compete to reach the top. The platform also lets you auction off different prizes on the platform using points earned by answering questions correctly, thereby indirectly creating an incentive to complete training.
• I have never worked with a company that did such a great job at walking a new user through the implementation process. A year and a half after implementing the platform I still have a regular call from my rep (Erin Bresser) during which we discuss my company's training plan, pain points, strategies, upcoming features, and anything else training related. I could not ask for more or better support from a vendor.
• I love all the different content options I have. I can use the bare bones basics and simply add questions directly into Axonify, or I can support those questions by building a complex course, video, animation, or even downloading content from the Content exchange directly from Axonify. This means that weather I have a day or a year to prepare content, I have the ability to produce a functional and productive experience for my workforce

Incentivized

• Clunky interface, it takes a lot of extra clicks to get places compared to other Adobe apps and competitor's eLearning software.
• Would be nice if it was part of creative cloud, or at least in the group of apps you can add through Creative Cloud.
• More regular and meaningful updates. Compared to flagship apps like Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Captivate is like the read headed step child. Competitors excel at providing regular updates with clear change documentation. How are we still using Captivate 2019 in 2022?
• The interface feels like it is still stuck in the 90s, would be nice if it was more modern and better in-line with flagship adobe offerings.
• Variables and associated menus are a nuisance to work with vs some of the clever drop down and content-sensitive options in Articulate Storyline.

Incentivized

• Subjects and categories organization system can get a little confusing.
• While there is support for mobile phones, there's not an easy way to test it on mobile devices without deploying it first.
• Lots of options so it can get complex if you just need a straightforward solution.

Incentivized

We have hundreds of courses that were created in Adobe Captivate. It will take us a while to convert to Articulate. We'll need a license for another year and/or until Adobe comes out with a true update to the software.

Incentivized

Adobe Captivate does take some getting used to. There are features that are much more convoluted than they need to be, but overall it is a great product with a some excellent features. Being in a pretty small market, Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline dominate the space. They are not the same software, but allow for eLearning authoring. Each has their benefit and their downside, but, for me, Adobe Captivate edges out Storyline.

Incentivized

Axonify is extremely easy to use, for both employees and managers. The platform is visually appealing, and Axonify offers a number of videos and tutorials for any administration and user functionality. The reporting is also very easy to obtain and review, with the ability to drill down to team and individual results.

Incentivized

It is difficult to get in touch with Adobe Captivate support. With a seemingly limited number of resources, mostly outsourced, getting in contact with someone to help troubleshoot an issue is challenging. Typically wait times are long, and the desired path to resolution is to use an existing knowledge base or a self-help guide. It is certainly not a user-friendly experience.

Incentivized

Axonify has been great for support. We have a dedicated rep but I have also just posted to the official user boards and gotten feedback as well. Axonify also has a conference every year that is a great way to learn. You can also become certified in Content or Administration with Axonify if you so choose.

Incentivized

I'm only aware of the problems Adobe Captivate had with SumTotal LMS and Upside LMS, requiring extensive contact with both internal and external support staff to fix the problems. We had no problems at all with Articulate.

Incentivized

I think that Articulate360 is more user-friendly and has a cleaner, more updated look. If you can edit a PDF, then you can use Articulate 360. Adobe Captivate may be more challenging for the designer, but it has more features. We chose Adobe Captivate because we want the option to create interactive learning environments. Adobe Captivate plays well with the other Adobe design products including Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premier. Additionally, Adoe Captivate is highly compatible with Cornerstone, our preferred Learning Management Systems.

Incentivized

I like the way Axonify provides chunks of information to the learner by overwhelming them by dividing them into bite-size content. The learners don't have a lot of time to give to training, so Axonify has helped has provided just in time training to those teams. It's very much suited to our organization. Axonify is extremely easy to use for both learners and managers. The platform is visually appealing and provides a lot of video-based content to learn the platform for any administrative and user functionality. It is a unique tool in its segment, it meets the requirements that other tools, LMS, or learning libraries don't.

Incentivized

• Adobe Captivate has allowed our instructors to engage students in ways we never have before.
• Instructors who have used Adobe Captivate in our organization have reported higher levels of engagement with their courses and their students, theoretically leading to improved assessment of student performance.

Incentivized

• Before, we could not accurately measure if people were really reviewing our monthly safety material or really reading our new policy releases. Now we have nearly 100% compliance.
• Over the past two years since we implemented Axonify, we have seen a decrease of $200,000 in our workers comp annual cost. We expect this trend to continue or stay stable due to a staff that is more aware of safety.
• We maintain our position as a San Francisco and Silicon Valley Best Place to Work due to our high morale and employee engagement level. 99% of our employees engage with Axonify an average of 13x per month. This ranking has made us an leader in affordable housing with some of the best staff members in our industry.

Incentivized