TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Save this comparison

Save this comparison

Add Product

Recommended Comparisons

    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    MadCap Flare

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AMadCap 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

    RWS Tridion Sites

    Score9 out of 10
    N/ARWS Tridion Sites provides web content management capabilities, connecting people, processes, and information across teams, brands, and markets, to deliver impactful online experiences globally. RWS Tridion Sites' DPX platform enables the use of either traditional or headless publishing. It includes advanced features such as automated personalization, multilingual capabilities and Semantic AI. The BluePrinting® technology at the core of RWS Tridion Sites simplifies reuse and…N/A
    Pricing
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Editions & Modules
    MadCap Central
    $1,500
    per year
    MadCap Flare
    $1,999
    per year
    MadCap AMS
    $2,999
    per year
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsIncludes a 12-month Platinum-level Maintenance Plan.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Considered Both Products
    MadCap Software
    No answer on this topic
    RWS Group
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    80%
    Would buy again
    4 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    80%
    Happy with the feature set
    4 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of MadCap Flare and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    MadCap Flare
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    9.0
    9 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings9.09 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of MadCap Flare and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    MadCap Flare
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    9.1
    8 Ratings
    15% above category average
    API00 Ratings8.36 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings10.07 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of MadCap Flare and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    MadCap Flare
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    8.5
    8 Ratings
    8% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings8.08 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings8.07 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings8.33 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of MadCap Flare and RWS Tridion Sites
    Feature
    MadCap Flare
    -
    Ratings
    RWS Tridion Sites
    7.6
    8 Ratings
    1% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings9.07 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings9.06 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings9.08 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.35 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings3.03 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Storyblok
    Score9.9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    9.9
    (22 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.3
    (15 ratings)
    Usability
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    MadCap FlareRWS Tridion Sites
    Likelihood to Recommend
    MadCap Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    Love the product and I really like how we use it for public sites. The only negative aspect is that it is just hard to find Tridion devs that understand the tool, grasp .net, react, and understand the blueprint, etc.
    Read full review
    Pros
    MadCap Software
    • Single-sourcing
    • Branching (GIT)
    • Publishing and hosting
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    • Makes it easy to spin up a new site quickly
    • Allows for numerous users to work on the same site without conflicting with each other's changes
    • Allows you to unpublish changes or revert to old versions if you make a mistake
    • Allows you to time publishing actions (for example, you can set it to happen overnight)
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    MadCap Software
    • I use it on a mac with windows parallel and it can be so buggy and laggy.
    • I would love it if the software was entirely cloud-based, like Google Docs.
    • Reviewing in Central is not a good experience, need better review functionality.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    • Tridion is complicated in enough ways that it makes it difficult to train new users. Therefore, we have to limit the number of people with access to the system since we have not yet implemented Workflow.
    • When something goes wrong (items fail to publish, or there is unexpected behavior with components), there is little explanation provided that would point us in the right direction to troubleshoot. As a result, content Authors and Editors have to frequently ask for IT assistance.
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    MadCap Software
    No answers on this topic
    RWS Group
    I am giving this a semi-high rating because we have already got Tridion up and running and we are still in the process of moving the sites over to Tridion. It is unlikely we will be moving things to a new CMS AGAIN in the near future as the cost to get Tridion was high.
    Read full review
    Usability
    MadCap Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    The editor user interface is very user friendly and in-site editing makes simple updates fast and easy. The extensibility of Tridion is a big plus and the ability to add our own options into the default Tridion interface helps us integrate with external systems. Finally, the user permissions and security system helps us deploy it within our large organization.
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    MadCap Software
    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.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    It is a nuclear missile compared to the other handguns and knives on the market today. But it also requires nuclear technicians and expertise that a handgun doesn't require. Do you need to decimate your competition and you have the investment capabilities necessary to put a nuclear missile into the sky? Then definitely do it. Especially if you need a very good multi-lingual blueprint provider like Tridion.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    MadCap Software
    • We haven't measured this specifically
    Read full review
    RWS Group
    • SDL is a very complex system. Creating custom components by external vendors turned out to be expensive.
    • The learning curve is very slow, so training takes a lot of time and cost.
    • The revamped corporate site looks clean, modern, and is mobile-friendly.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    MadCap Flare Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshot