Adobe Captivate vs. LearnDash

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

LearnDash is perfect for starting out with your courses or if you're tired of paying exorbitant fees to third-party platforms. It allows you to create audio, video, or text-based training in a simple and intuitive way if you're familiar with WordPress. I don't recommend it if you're not comfortable editing or designing your own website. LearnDash es perfecto para empezar a crear tus cursos o si estás cansado de pagar comisiones abusivas a plataformas de terceros. Te permite crear formaciones en audio, vídeo o texto de una forma sencilla e intuitiva si sabes manejarte dentro de Wordpress. No te la recomiendo si no te sientes cómodo editando/diseñando dentro de tu propia web. This review was originally written in Spanish and has been translated into English using a third-party translation tool. While we strive for accuracy, some nuances or meanings may not be perfectly captured.

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 Personally, I think this is an outdated technology.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

• Integrate with the website and other plugins (woocommerce, etc.)
• Simple lesson design
• Offers different formats in which to offer your courses (free, paid, restricted access, with groups, etc.)
• Integrarse con la web y con otros plugins (woocommerce, etc)
• Diseño sencillo de las lecciones
• Ofrece diferentes formatos en los que ofrecer tus cursos (gratuito, pago, acceso restringido, con grupos, etc)

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

• I would like to see more options for creating activities (games, fill in the blanks, etc.)
• It would be nice if the support section had a Spanish translation.
• I miss that when you install the plugin they give you a small introduction to teach you how to use it.
• Me gustaría que haya más opciones de creación de actividades (juegos, rellenar huecos, etc)
• Estaría bien que la sección de soporte tuviera traducción al español
• Echo en falta que en el momento de instalar el plugin te hagan una pequeña introducción para enseñarte a usarlo

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

Learndash is an intuitive tool with everything you need to create courses and present them in an engaging way. It's also surprisingly easy to use. I've deducted a few points because, while it offers quite a few options out of the box, you may need to integrate it with other plugins (bbpress, etc.) to get the most out of it. Learndash es una herramienta intuitiva con todo lo necesario para crear cursos y presentarlos de una manera atractiva. Además es sorprendentemente fácil de utilizar. Le he quitado unos puntos porque, aunque de base ofrece bastantes opciones, es posible que necesites integrarlo con otros plugins (bbpress, etc.) para sacarle el máximo provecho.

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

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

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

• It has allowed me to transform materials that were previously only for my students into scalable digital products, multiplying the income generated with certain resources by up to 50x.
• I have been able to amortize the cost of the plugin with just a few sales.
• It's allowed me to present my courses in a professional manner and on my own website. Although the impact is difficult to measure, this has also contributed to increasing my sales.
• Me ha permitido transformar materiales que antes eran solo para mis estudiantes en productos digitales escalables, multiplicando hata x50 los ingresos generados con ciertos recursos.
• He podido amortizar el coste del plugin con unas pocas ventas
• Me ha permitido presentar mis cursos de una forma profesional y dentro de mi propia web. Aunque el impacto es difícil de medir, esto también ha contribuido a aumentar mis ventas.

Incentivized