Likelihood to Recommend 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.
Read full review We use Mindflash for a lot of our internal training needs, and it is very versatile to accomplish your needs in training employees in a variety of different areas. I've never tried to use it for external needs, but I feel like the software at the advanced level wouldn't suit that need very well at all. At the Pro level, you get a lot more flexibility, but the cost is prohibitive for the size of our company.
Read full review Pros 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 Personally, I think this is an outdated technology.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. Read full review Mindflash is very clean and user-friendly. Very easy for learners to navigate and understand. Mindflash’s reporting tool is unmatched. You can pull any type of report you could want or need. Customer service is top-notch. From our Sales Executive to our CSM, all the way up to the VP, our experience has been amazing. Read full review Cons 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. Read full review Integration with Salesforce using professional level software. Mindflash's limited integration to only work with the higher level of Salesforce product. More brand customization for multiple product line trainings. Communication of trainers using Mindflash and sales team. We have multiple trainers sending invitations for training with no way for them to communicate with our sales team when a person has completed training. Read full review Likelihood to Renew 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.
Read full review The number of people using Mindflash is only going to rise and we need a system that remains easy to use for everyone involved. [update] This is especially vital now that we've lost head count in critical departments. Getting all of our training and Safety objectives met would be impossible without Mindflash.
Read full review Usability 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.
Read full review The interface is just so simple to understand. It's clean and efficient. We showed Mindflash off to the Safety group, who are not computer gurus and they were beyong excited to use it.
Read full review Support Rating 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.
Read full review Any problems or questions we have had with Mindflash have been handled promptly and effectively. I normally use the online chat option but have had to correspond with them through email and phone as well. We have never had an issue languish for weeks or months with Mindflash. They either fix the problem or let you know that the software isn't capable to handle the need at that point.
Read full review Implementation Rating 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 .
Read full review If you're going to develop a short course to demo the product internally, don't bother avoiding your own topics. Mindflash rolls whatever content you create during the trial into your production environment when you decide to buy. The time taken to go from not having a system to being live with Mindflash is virtually instant. What you'll be wanting for is time to develop content and people to test it out.
Read full review Alternatives Considered 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.
Read full review This is an alternate software that we have looked into, right now we don't have the need for the increased flexibility that
Lesson.ly provides with learning from your mobile or tablet. We haven't seen a lot of those things as particularly useful for our current training methods, but we see the quality to be similar.
Read full review Return on Investment 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. Read full review Mindflash has had a positive impact on our business because it allows us to train more new users with less effort, and ensure that trainees have access to the course materials for a period of time after they have started using our software to do their daily jobs. Review of the course materials allows them to get answers to common questions without having to submit requests to our support team, thereby reducing the administrative burden on our resources. Read full review ScreenShots Trakstar Learn Screenshots