Rise, from Articulate Global, is a web-based system for course creation and learning, featuring a library of imagery and a collection of modular, customizable lessons on business topics relevant to every employee that can be mixed with the user's own content to develop custom courses faster.
$399
per month
Camtasia
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
Some video solutions on the market are super-easy to use, but deliver lackluster results. Others deliver professional quality video, but the learning curve is extreme. Camtasia aims to enable anyone to quickly start creating pro-quality videos in minutes with no video experience needed. Camtasia can capture everything happening on the screen with just a few clicks, and offers drag-and-drop editing and visual effects features to transform screen recordings into polished software…
$299
one-time fee per user
Pricing
Rise
Camtasia
Editions & Modules
Starter
$399.00
per month, billed annually
Growth
$799.00
per month, billed annually
Midsize
$1,299.00
per month, billed annually
Larger
$1,999.00
per month, billed annually
Education
$212.99
one-time fee per user
Government & Non-Profit
$269
one-time fee per user
Business
$299.99
one-time fee per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Rise
Camtasia
Free Trial
Yes
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
No
No
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
No
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
—
*Discounts available for purchases supporting a large volume of users.
We have utilized Articulate Rise for our primary curriculum design platform for multiple years. Although it can look pricey compared with other free options, they do a great job of supporting nonprofit use and more cost-effective. By doing so, they continue to be the best in the industry when it comes to value relative to cost with a nice suite of content creation tools that can easily create an out-of-the-box online curriculum while still being easy to navigate for traditional teachers who may be extremely knowledgeable about curriculum development but not tech-savvy. The product could benefit from more content formats and activity types (doesn't seem to have been updated in years) and more authority and control over color/visual palettes and style.
Camtasia is so easy to use that I recommend it over Adobe Premiere, Captivate, Storyline, and other tools. The only problem is the price. Due to the fact that I purchased this for education purposes, and educational prices have gone up exponentially, it has been difficult even at $179 to upgrade, as an educator and the organization is not always willing to reimburse the purchase, it would have been more economical. It was less than $100 (Black Friday) when I bought our updated version in 2019. Camtasia profile accounts aren't the best setup, however. My profile account does not reflect when I was a user or show past invoices, and I wanted to see how long ago I was a user.
USB Microphones can sometimes cause a problem if they become accidentally unplugged during a recording session. This can corrupt some of the files that the Camtasia Recorder application uses to capture directly to .avi mode.
You'll sometimes get a message when you next try to record that .avi mode isn't available and the only way to fix this is by completely uninstalling and reinstalling Camtasia (with a reboot in the middle of these two actions).
This bug only manifested after Camtasia 8 was released, but still seems to cause an issue right up to and including Camtasia 2021.
I'd like to see more standard Annotation options. The existing ones are pretty good, but variety is a little lacking.
More 'Behaviours' would also be really welcome as these are a great feature and make Callouts a bit more interesting and lively. I've not seen any new Behaviours over the past few versions (since Camtasia 2018).
Each release of Camtasia has added just enough functionality to justify the upgrade to the new version. I like that Camtasia is not a subscription-based product as we have more flexibility and control over our spend on the product. We can also purchase support packages that include the next version when released.
I haven't used another video recording and editing tools that is as comprehensive and straight-forward as Camtasia. Typically, if you want a user-friendly video editing tools for novice users, you have to compromise on features. Camtasia solves this problem by offering extensive editing features in a simplistic, user-friendly environment. Highly recommend
With the latest version (Camtasia 2020), I actually had problems with an Imac with HighSierra, but from the first moment they answered and guided me to solve the problem, even before making the purchase (with some doubts I had). And they have support in English and Spanish, I really liked that.
We chose Articulate Rise because it was the best balance of offering multiple design tools and embeddable content without being obnoxiously priced. Because the course design also ensures SCORM-compliance, whatever we create can easily be embedded in learning management systems later on. We looked at some more robust platforms but the type of tools they offered required a level of coding and technical expertise that would have left those same tools unused by staff. Meanwhile, many free services have some features but make it hard to create a truly cohesive, unified course experience (as opposed to disjointed activities and readings that essentially just get "collated" online). In this case, you really can build a great, linear, holistic course without spending an arm and a leg.
I've tried several freeware recorders, too. If all you want to do is literally record your screen, and nothing else, you don't need Camtasia. There are literally dozens of apps that will do that. If you want an app that will record your screen while capturing mouse clicks, follow you, record your voice while you capture, and annotate when you're done, Camtasia has no equal. Plus, it doesn't stop there. You can add professional intros and outros (many already created to choose from), lower thirds, etc., leading to videos with very high production value. This is THE program to buy if you want to produce training videos of very high quality.
