MadCap Software, headquartered in La Jolla, offers MadCap Flare, a help authoring and technical writing tool featuring onboarding and support from MadCap, and a set of modules for designing advanced guides, aids, and web or application help aids.
$167
per month
MarketMuse
Score 9.2 out of 10
N/A
MarketMuse is a search engine marketing platform built around features such as site auditing, content quality grading, and content analysis.
$0
per month
Pricing
MadCap Flare
MarketMuse
Editions & Modules
MadCap Central
$1,500
per year
MadCap Flare
$1,999
per year
MadCap AMS
$2,999
per year
Free
$0.00
per month
Standard
$149.00
per month
Premium
$999.00
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
MadCap Flare
MarketMuse
Free Trial
Yes
No
Free/Freemium Version
No
Yes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
No
Entry-level Setup Fee
No setup fee
No setup fee
Additional Details
Includes a 12-month Platinum-level Maintenance Plan.
MadCap Flare has its problems, but it serves our team well as an authoring software. This would not be the case if we needed to regularly collaborate on articles, as Flare is prone to conflict issues when another person dares to breathe near an open topic. When working individually, though, it's fine. I'd love to see improvements to design, performance, and stability, but Flare remains one of the best softwares on the market for our needs as an authoring team. MadCap Central is well-suited to internal reviewing when every member is comfortable with Flare (the errors it tends to introduce set aside). SMEs, though, tend to find it hard to use. It's cluttered, some styles don't render, and it just seems like a failed attempt to reproduce Google Docs. I'd love to see improvements there, to help get our SMEs to want to use Central.
As I am a content marketer, every day I have to fight to get top-ranked for my articles. So, SEO should be perfect. For my content side of SEO, MarketMuse is a lifesaver to me. It helps me to plan my content, get the score of my content, and the suggestion to optimize my articles. It saves my time and money too.
MadCap Flare is in desperate need of an overall redesign. It relies heavily on dozens and dozens of tiny buttons that contain dozens of nested features. Clicking the wrong button can cause your software to freeze and crash. Building targets can be an absolute mystery, as far as all the files involved. It also has a tendency to freeze and crash. There's typically a huge learning curve for new hires who've never used it--nothing is intuitive.
The support I have received from all MarketMuse staff at each step of the process has been excellent. They are very friendly, quick to assist, and also provide really good training to teach you how to use their product. Additionally, their own blog is a wealth of information regarding different aspects of content marketing, from articles to video interviews.
MadCap software does offer quite a few more technical features than Google Drive, but the user experience is far inferior. Google Drive is much less buggy to work with, and it's much more accessible. MadCap only being available on Windows operating systems makes it difficult to work with teammates who may not have such a device available.
MarketMuse is more cost-effective than BrightEdge and does more for writers and editors that are strictly focused on content. It keeps people in one system after their first draft. Writers and editors do not need to go into multiple tools to look things up manually, saving valuable time. This enables them to produce more content more quickly.
