Adobe Captivate vs. EPAY Systems

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

I am able to track which of my clients have paid their invoices and which have not. The number of days that the EPAY invoice is outstanding is easily accessible. The date the original invoice was sent is displayed. The initial form to complete in order to send the EPAY is so simple a caveman can do it. Just need the client's name, email, and the amount of the invoice. The automated follow-up emails to the clients who have not paid are helpful.

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 Personally, I think this is an outdated technology.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

• EPAY team is responsive to our needs. Excellent team who understands our challenges and helps us come up with solutions.
• System functionality is configurable so that we minimize custom programming.

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

• All-time punches are rounded to 15-minute intervals which can skew accurate break times.
• Slow lading or occasional lags due to server overload.
• Sync errors cause occasional overlapping punches.

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

Because I can't give it a Zero, I believe EPAY Systems is the most senseless system I have ever used. I worked on systems over 25 years ago that were better. In my opinion, there is no logic to the programming; the system is unbelievably SLOW, and there and hundreds of problems every week. And major ones that they will not or can not correct. For example, we can not file or access employee records in the system as it can take longer than 10 minutes to view or load one document for one employee - IF the system allows you to get that far, which it usually doesn't.

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

I feel the support is terrible. We have an outsourced support purpose who doesn't understand the EPAY Systems or our company, [removed], will only answer the first thing mentioned even if there is an entire list. Then the answer does not solve the 1st problem on the list or any other and has no idea how to help us. We have requested a replacement and were told we would get one, then told later we would not. I believe while the support person is nice, I believe they were not trained or supported on their end, and effectiveness is probably 1% or less, takes forever, and is only on the minor issues.

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

Our main reason for switching to Blueforce is
that we found the platform to be pretty promising and interactive than other
alternatives. With other alternatives, there was one issue or another which just
used to not give us a very smooth and subtle experience. Thankfully, this tool
has solved all our problems and has been a godsend gift that does its job
quietly and lets the final results make the noise.

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

• Decreased the Risk of lawsuits due to paying incorrectly
• Allows for accurate Payroll process
• Employees are paid correctly per the law- Employee Happiness

Incentivized