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    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

    Xara Designer Pro

    Score8.5 out of 10
    N/AXara, headquartered in Berlin, offers Designer Pro, a desktop publishing application.N/A
    Pricing
    MadCap FlareXara Designer Pro
    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 FlareXara Designer Pro
    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 FlareXara Designer Pro
    Considered Both Products
    MadCap Software
    No answer on this topic
    Xara
    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
    Best Alternatives
    MadCap FlareXara Designer Pro
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    Adobe InDesign
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    No answers on this topic
    Adobe InDesign
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    No answers on this topic
    Adobe InDesign
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    MadCap FlareXara Designer Pro
    Likelihood to Recommend
    8.2
    (5 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    Usability
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    MadCap FlareXara Designer Pro
    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
    Xara
    Really great for on-the-fly images for social media, blog posts, websites. It is extremely easy to use and new employees do not need to spend any time with training since its really intuitive. Less appropriate for graphic design like removing backgrounds, etc.
    Read full review
    Pros
    MadCap Software
    • Single-sourcing
    • Branching (GIT)
    • Publishing and hosting
    Read full review
    Xara
    • Graphic art
    • Social media imagery
    • blog post images
    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
    Xara
    • load times
    • windows not opening
    • glitching when copying objects
    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
    Xara
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Xara
    I like both and use both but for different things. Canva, I think has more templates overall. Support is better with Xara and my templates are already built in Xara. Also, detail attention is better in Xara. I have built very meticulous charts in Xara and even mocked up product designs here.
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    MadCap Software
    • We haven't measured this specifically
    Read full review
    Xara
    • Less time on boarding interns
    • Easy to copy templates for uniformity across the brand
    • Quick downloads
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    MadCap Flare Screenshots

    Product screenshotProduct screenshot