Paligo

Paligo

Customer Verified
Top Rated
Score 9.9 out of 10
Top Rated
Paligo

Overview

What is Paligo?

Paligo, headquartered in Stockholm, offers their component content management system (CCMS), supporting the creation and publishing of technical documentation and help systems.
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Recent Reviews

Paligo delivers

8 out of 10
December 20, 2022
We use Paligo to generate all external-facing, technical documentation, including hardware manuals, software reference material, and …
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Go Paligo

9 out of 10
December 08, 2022
I use Paligo everyday to create end user documentation both digital and physical. The software is easy to use and easy to learn, I …
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Awards

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Pricing

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What is Paligo?

Paligo, headquartered in Stockholm, offers their component content management system (CCMS), supporting the creation and publishing of technical documentation and help systems.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional
For the latest information on pricing, visithttps://paligo.net/pricing

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting / Integration Services

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Product Details

What is Paligo?

Paligo is an enterprise-grade cloud-based Component Content Management System (CCMS) with single-sourcing content reuse for technical documentation, training content, policies and procedures, and knowledge management. Paligo is 100% XML in the back end, based on a modified version of DocBook - an established open standard developed for technical documentation. This is to provide future-proofing as well as extensibility and transformability for any current and future applications. The strict structure of XML and solid validation it provides offers possibilities and a consistency that, according to Paligo, no other format can provide.

Companies seek to make their documentation more efficient through single-sourcing and reuse. But many single-sourcing projects fail due to the steep learning curves and costs of implementation of traditional systems. So cloud-based solutions like Paligo aim to enable greater collaboration and efficiency. Using modern web technology reduces the costs of implementation, to increase usability and thereby user acceptance. A cloud-based authoring and publishing platform to reuse and single-source documentation with a clear focus on usability and user acceptance can improve the chance of realizing the return of investment and actually achieving the increase in efficiency.

In an information-enabled world, content is required to help solve problems and guide decision-making. Siloed content creation and management technology have led to content duplication, inconsistent content, and challenges finding the right content for customer and employee experiences. A component content management system (CCMS) like Paligo aims to change that.

Paligo's top features at a glance:

  • Structured Authoring

Structured authoring helps make content consistent, accurate, and future-proof. The XML editor enables content reuse, making structured authoring easier.

  • Content Reuse

Reuse content at scale with topic-based authoring and smart single sourcing features such as component reuse, block content reuse, the Paligo text fragment reuse, dynamic variables, and conditional content.

  • Multi-Channel Publishing

Paligo takes multi-channel publishing to another level. Publish to HTML5, PDF print, SCORM eLearning, Zendesk, Salesforce, GitHub, BitBucket, Amazon S3, and much more.

  • Versioning

Paligo features version history and roll-back, version branching, and release management made specifically for technical writers and content authors.

  • Translation Management
Paligo offers smart translation management, avoiding duplicate files for each language. Integrates with Memsource and other TMS solutions.

Paligo Features

  • Supported: Single sourcing
  • Supported: Content reuse
  • Supported: Multi-channel publishing
  • Supported: Translation management
  • Supported: Contributor editor
  • Supported: Structured authoring
  • Supported: Topic based authoring
  • Supported: Versioning
  • Supported: Branching
  • Supported: Assignment planner
  • Supported: REST API
  • Supported: Variables
  • Supported: Conditional content
  • Supported: CCMS
  • Supported: Integrations
  • Supported: XML editor
  • Supported: Docbook

Paligo Screenshots

Screenshot of Branching in PaligoScreenshot of Conditional filters in PaligoScreenshot of Contributor editor in PaligoScreenshot of Some of the integration options in PaligoScreenshot of Main editor in PaligoScreenshot of Multi-channel publishing options in PaligoScreenshot of Assignment planner in PaligoScreenshot of Content reuse in PaligoScreenshot of SME reviewing in PaligoScreenshot of Translations in PaligoScreenshot of Versioning in Paligo

Paligo Videos

A quick, high-level look inside Paligo.
An in-depth look at the best-in-class Paligo <> Zendesk integration.

Paligo Competitors

  • Heretto
  • Vasont
  • Ixiasoft
  • MadCap Flare
  • Adobe Technical Communication Suite

Paligo Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported CountriesGlobal
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

Paligo, headquartered in Stockholm, offers their component content management system (CCMS), supporting the creation and publishing of technical documentation and help systems.

Heretto are common alternatives for Paligo.

Reviewers rate Support Rating highest, with a score of 9.7.

The most common users of Paligo are from Mid-sized Companies (51-1,000 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews

(1-23 of 23)
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Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Creation of technical documentation, including installation instructions and specifications. Paligo filtering and translation features allow us to more efficiently re-use content in many documents across various products. As a structured-authoring platform, Paligo also supports our ability to standardize document structure, style, and format. Revision times and translation costs are reduced as well.
  • Translation management.
  • Content re-use.
  • Single sourcing.
  • The user interface departs from average user expectations.
  • File administration features could be easier to use.
Paligo is particularly well suited for developing similar document sets for multiple products or product lines. It is not a page layout application, so don't expect the same capabilities as popular applications for graphics-heavy documentation. With some up-front time developing good layouts, however, Paligo does manage to create very usable PDF output for customer-facing documents.
Usability is good and constantly improving, but somewhat slow to adapt to standards usually viewed as universal for similar software.
Very responsive support. Paligo does particularly well at responding to requests for help quickly and effectively.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo as a content creation tool for the company's Standard Operating Procedures. The main problem we were having with our previous SOP platform, was ease of use for the end user. Paligo solves that problem.
  • Ease of Use
  • Source Control
  • Customer Service
  • Reviewer should be able to see the old version of the SOP and the new version to identify changes easily.
Paligo is provides ease of use to their users. Their customer service is amazing. Whenever I need something, out Account mManager is always there to help with either an answer or finding a solution.
It is straight forward and easy to use.
My Account Manager has provided me with an abundance of support when needed.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We have a large number of datasheets that use nearly the same content. This allows for a seamless update of this information in all respective locations. Updates that used to take 40 hours now take a few hours.
  • The variables that can be defined. This allows for speciation tables to be generated based on the output you want.
  • The formatting control of the PDF is good.
  • The TOC format is really nice.
  • I think the software is pretty good and the training documentation is pretty good. Every once in a while you run across a feature that doesn't have much information so support may be needed. Support was always very helpful.
  • Bringing in a document that isn't formatted well is a challenge, If they offered a simple way to properly translate the formatting of a document so that the import would work would be nice. We were transitioning off MS Publisher documents in which the import feature did not really work. We built the datasheet from scratch which was not a bad thing as the datasheet had not originally authored used topics as a baseline.
It is the most intuitive software of this type of CCMS that I have tried. Others were a struggle for me to even get to function. I had my first document published very quickly using the software and variables.
The process works well.
They always were responsive and know how to resolve my challenges.
December 20, 2022

Paligo delivers

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo to generate all external-facing, technical documentation, including hardware manuals, software reference material, and training material.
  • Content reuse
  • Finding existing content used elsewhere
  • Publishing to multiple output formats
  • Single-sourcing imagery
  • User interface hides some commonly-used functionality
  • Exporting changes only
  • More clearly connect layouts with outputs
Paligo is the first web-based product I've used that is obviously developed with the documentation expert in mind.
Our platform is complicated so documentation supporting it can be too. Paligo's UI allows myself and more junior members to jump right in.
I've yet to be unhappy with the support I've received from Paligo. Missing features are an occurrence for any piece of software.
Benjamin Spendlove | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo to manage all our user documentation. This consists of thousands of topics in hundreds of publications covering hardware, software, and system setup and usage. One of our biggest challenges in managing this much content is that we have very few writers and a number of variations of each of our products. There are seven different variations of our flagship software product, and the manual is over 800 pages. Much of the content is reused across variations, of course. The ability to maintain them all as a single publication and automatically generate the correct set of topics at publishing time is invaluable. We have used XML to make this possible for a number of years, but Paligo gives us all the benefits of XML with few of the drawbacks. It's much easier to use and more reliable than our previous methods for authoring and managing content. This saves us time and lets us focus on the important work.
  • Simple and intelligent content reuse
  • Easy review, feedback, and release workflow
  • Many publishing options
  • Intuitive user interface
  • Importing unstructured content can be finicky.
  • The formatting options for PDFs aren't open-ended, but limited to the options that have been made available.
  • Only users with paid licenses can edit content.
Paligo made all my tech writerly dreams come true. It's perfect for companies with people in a traditional technical writer role who write or at least gatekeep all the content. They can collaborate with the subject matter experts within Paligo to get feedback, but the writers manage and publish everything. It's especially useful where content is reused in many different places. It's also great for content that is translated into multiple languages. It would be less amazing for simple or straightforward documents, and it's not a wiki where anyone can edit the content.
It's much easier than systems that are pieced together from multiple tools. Since we've started using it, the UI has improved, but there is still room for further improvement.
All the support requests I've submitted have been resolved in one way or another. Sometimes it takes some back and forth, which is to be expected. This is where being on a different continent becomes a drawback. Since we became Enterprise users, we've also had an additional level of help and support from a dedicated account manager in the US, and the resolutions seem to come more quickly.
December 19, 2022

Very satisfied

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Paligo to create our product documentation and publish it in several formats. It's easy to learn to use it for everyday use, and the features that have been added since we began using it have been most appreciated. With all things, we have had bugs on occasion, but the support is available when we need it. Good FAQs and documentation too. It shows that the Paligo team understands the needs of technical writers when they develop features in the product. We recommend it regularly to colleagues in our organization who do not have their own licenses.
  • XML reordering of topics
  • Reused content.
  • adding and removing elements such as italic or guilabels.
  • a direct drag-and-drop reordering feature in the text window as the XML tree view can be tricky.
  • Easier means of identifying XML errors when saving- the current error messages disappear too quickly.
  • the possibility to name each setting for the Zendesk integration- we publish to a sandbox and production environment, so we need a better way to save the settings.
Suited to all technical writers who need to publish in multiple formats.
Getting to grips with Paligo as a first-time technical writer was a quick process.
Most of the time we have excellent help from the support team, occasionally some colleagues have struggled or the root of the problem hasn't been located.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Paligo to create publicly accessible Guides, Tutorials, and visual Walkthroughs supporting our industrial automation software. These need to be suitable for product marketing, building excitement/confidence during pre-sales, and supporting new and long-time users of our product(s). Across these different use cases, articles are consumed by Management, Supervisors / Operators, Trainers, and Engineers. Users interact with our product across multiple platforms: inside our software, in our Paligo-based help pages, and in our Learning Management System. In order to avoid duplicating or creating contradictory product information, we need to be able to author in a single location, with content and style outputs conditioned by the platform.
  • Conditional formatting.
  • Tracking text reuse.
  • Informal topics / components.
  • User interactions.
  • SCORM 1.2 compatibility.
  • Unlinking / editing reused text is unintuitive.
  • WHEN I COPY A TOPIC, REUSE THE PARAS INSIDE IT!
Paligo fits my use case very well (product training materials with a consistent, highly-visual style). There are some arbitrary limitations on how components can be structured - which can be tedious - but most of what I want to do is very straightforward.
Generally, I'm very happy with Paligo and the productivity gains that I get from using it. There are a few arbitrary limitations on structure, and when applying conditional formatting, that I don't really understand. Unlinking / editing reused text uses this broadly inscrutible colour-coding that I just hate. It would be nice to double-click a component, make edits, then respond to a popup asking if I want to confirm the edit for all linked content, or unlink this instance. Likewise converting from an informal topic insertion to duplicates of its raw contents.
I've had good experiences so far with Paligo support. Responses have been prompt, with enough detail to unblock me / point me to features I didn't yet know about. Maybe it's unfair to fault them for not road mapping proper SCORM 1.2 compatibility, but I'm going to do it anyway.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
My work task: uses Paligo as the platform for reviewing legal documents and for publishing these documents on browsers that contain HTML5.
  • Reuse Technical Content is excellent.
  • Paligo is perfectly compatible with HTML 5. The display in browsers is well done
  • Paligo is a powerful web editor and publisher. Its functions are easy to use. Its search function is effective.
  • Problems : Our working language is French, our legal documents use specific numbering bullets. We use 2 character bullets, example 1o, 2o etc.
  • Fortunately, our work team is bilingual. Moreover, Paligo's source code editor is very flexible. With JavaScript and CSS, we overcome obstacles.
- the creation of numbering bullets for French text is limited, and needs improvement. - the creation of borders and alignment of text in table cells need improvement. - editor tools and help/support available in French. Paligo must improve these functions if it wants to break into the French-speaking market, which is the main market in Quebec.
my own experience with Paligo
No support available in French.
December 08, 2022

Paligos best features

Brad Baillio | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We build autonomous systems for Mining Equipment. This autonomous system has many documentation needs, and we use Paligo to organize all of those documents.
My role as the Compliance manager is to ensure that we are properly documenting the risk controls associated with the product and how that information is disseminated to the different users of the system.
This information finds itself in Operators Manuals and Safety Manuals.
Paligo is great because it allows us to make common sections and resuse/repackage into different documents.
  • Reuse
  • Collaborative editing
  • Role-based user management
  • Image repository management (versioning,
  • Better ways of interacting with comments, commentators, resolution of comments
Managing similar content that needs to be shared across documents is where it shines, and where it boosted our document management.
It also allowed multiple tech writers to mange the content, and allow engineers and managers to provide input, commentary, corrections without paying for full licenses.
It generally works pretty well. Sometimes the interface requires an excessive number of clicks to get to where you are editing things.
The comments could be a little more granular and easier to respond/reply/close.
I have not needed to engage in customer support, so I can't honestly rate this.
December 08, 2022

Go Paligo

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Paligo everyday to create end user documentation both digital and physical. The software is easy to use and easy to learn, I appreciate how easy it is to produce online pages and pdf's. they also have a responsive customer service that is will listen to suggestions. We (the doc team where I work) suggested changing the colors on the warning labels to make them easier to read and they applied our suggestion.
  • Easy to use
  • Easy to learn
  • easy to share with others for reviews
  • easy to publish
  • Some of the table features could be improved
  • better search on the help, it's sometimes hard to find the right topic
  • better auto save
They followed a recommendation we had about improving the warning labels which was nice to see.
The ability to send reviews is helpful if it's needed to get feedback from a large swath of people, and it's nice everyone can see everyone else's comments.
Easy to use and easy to figure out.
The support is very good they are in constant communication with our organization. They request feedback and respond to feedback when it is given to them. The online help is good. the only issue I have is it can be sometimes hard to search for the correct topic, the way the search works could probably be improved.
Kaspar Dahlqvist | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
About two years ago, we decided that our current CCMS was not up to the tasks anymore, and we started a thorough search for a new one. After much consideration, our choice fell on Paligo.

We use it to create all our user manuals, installation sheets and other PDF documents. We will soon start to publish HTML5 packages for online documentation, which Paligo handles very well.
  • Since it is a fully cloud based solution, it allows for very efficient sharing of topics between users spread out all over the world.
  • It publishes very neat and easy-to-use HTML packages for online documentation.
  • The GUI is easy to learn and easy to work with. An extremely potent CCMS.
  • Using the taxonomy features, it is easy to add any metadata to your topics for nice searchability.
  • The search features for topics can be improved even further.
  • Being able to drag-and-drop in the content manager is a powerful tool, but it is easy to accidently drop things so they disappear.
  • Paligo needs an undo action button or feature.
For topic based authoring, Paligo excels! Easy to use and yet very powerful. People from all over the world can collaborate in an easy manner, using the same content.
The GUI is easy to work with, and it also contains a very nice overview of all users and their access rights. Even though it (in our case) contains thousands of topics and images, it has never been slow to work with. Whenever we run into problems or have feature requests, support cases are always addressed in a very short time frame.
Fast and often in-depth responses. Very professional support team.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo for writing multiple software manuals. We were looking for a performant, modern and user-friendly authoring software, which we believe we have found in Paligo. We have multiple writers cooperating on writing manuals for multiple pieces of software. We also required customizable output in the PDF and HTML formats.
  • Usability and user experience
  • Semantic markup of topics
  • Performance
  • Output quality
  • Output customization
  • More hotkeys
  • Customization of the UI of the application
  • Deeper versioning
  • Integration with other services
Paligo is an excellent piece of software for writing complex documentation and keeping content up-to-date over multiple output formats.
It's truly an excellent app.
Paligo's support is very fast-to-respond and always does its best to help. We have not encountered a single situation that Paligo's support did not help us with.
Ricardo Jorge Da Costa Lima | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Paligo is used on a daily basis by our technical writer. It serves as the central tool to create new and update existing manuals. These manuals are intended to guide users through our software.
  • The review mode is super convenient. Comparing a snapshot of the previous versions with the current one clearly outlines the respective changes and reduces the necessary content to review tremendously.
  • The option to reuse text fragments is another handy feature. Text fragments will be updated whenever the original text fragment is altered is also extremely helpful.
  • Managing a content's structure was never easier. An intuitive drag & drop functionality allows you to design your document's structure however you like.
  • You can also fork content, in addition to reuse text fragments. This is another helpful option that no longer requires you to create repetetive chapters over and over.
  • The option to comment within the previously praised review mode is quite tricky as it only provides a minimal dialog box. Additionally, extended filter functionalities for comments in general and basic formatting feat. would also be helpful in case the author and reviewer are not physically located in the same office and have to rely on these comments.
  • Paligo provides a preview mode that is convenient to a certain degree. However, the formatting of images is quite critical as their formatting (such as width) is not accurately reflected in the preview mode and therefore requires a subsequent review when the document is exported.
  • The also previously praised "Reuse text fragments" function can also be improved. It may be a helpful and handy feature, but; the search criteria that must be entered to find text fragments must be improved because it does not consider hyphens. Additionally, the order of returned results is not consistent therefore quite tedious to use.
  • For every day or stand-alone words, this is therefore almost impossible and causes unnecessary extra work, causing one to check multiple recommended sources only to realize none of them is the desired one and subsequently disregarding the reusing of text.
  • This eventually becomes even more tedious when revising documents where text was not reused due to the above-described scenario.
  • In addition, allowing users to merge one text fragment with another text fragment that matches 100% would result in a reduced effort for the user to edit reused text fragments. It can also be helpful for cleaning up lack-of-reuse artifacts created by inexperienced Paligo users.
  • A general flowchart functionality to visualize the overall procedure of our software would be a huge improvement.
Well-Suited:
  • Updating existing content based on comments made in review mode
  • Determine locations in which text fragments are reused
  • Layout Design conveniently to set up a template for your documents. A variety of settings and features allow you to customize your layout to your desire.
Less Appropriate:
  • Visualizing processes with Flowcharts
As a greenhorn, I am quite new to CCMS and have no benchmark for comparison. However, Paligo is an intuitive system that provides you with coherent messages whenever an operation is not possible. This helps in a continuous learning process until you are aware of the basic underlying logic. Additionally, I heavily rely on hotkeys. Once you know when to appropriately use your hotkeys Paligo becomes an even faster and more convenient tool.
Paligo's support has a very quick turnaround time and always ensures that your raised questions are fully answered.
They constantly follow up to clarify whether their suggestions have the expected result.
All around a group of friendly, helpful, and quick supporters!

However, raising a feature request is often not answered at all, although it is heavily upvoted by other Paligo users.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo to manage technical documentation for approximately 20 different software products. We serve multiple markets and have both cloud and on-premise versions right now, so we have a need to reuse a lot of our content with just minor variations between versions. We also work with many different product managers and need an efficient and reliable way to send and track review and approval assignments. The company is growing fast, and we are leveraging Paligo's powerful features to increase our efficiency.
  • Content Management.
  • Publishing to Multiple Outputs.
  • Allowing Collaboration and Review with SMEs.
  • Excellent Product Documentation, LMS Resources, and Support.
  • Layout editor could be more efficient and flexible.
Paligo is an extremely powerful tool that can be scaled to fit an organization. It can be considered a tool just for technical documentation, but it also could manage documentation for an entire organization. We are a medium-sized technical writing team with a fairly large portfolio of products to manage, and it makes sense for us to use it just as a writing team. But we are also working on connecting with other teams to get them on board so we can all share content across the enterprise. That's where the investment in Paligo really will pay off richly. The only situation I can think of where it would not work is for a very small company with just one product that doesn't plan on growing much.
It does have a bit of a learning curve if you are not used to structured authoring or separating content from layout, but the learning resources are excellent, and once you pass the curve, it proves to be very efficient to use. I take a point off for the layout editor. It can be a bit tedious to go through all of those different lists, and the previews do tend to load slowly.
So far, support has been excellent. They reply very quickly and give in-depth replies. Solutions advisors and account managers have also been very responsive and clearly focused on creating the best experience for implementation. And that's only when the answers can't be found in excellent product documentation. The online training class and tutorials are also very good.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo to write, edit, update, and manage our product support website.

With our last documentation tool, it was necessary to download a desktop application, connect it to the repo containing the support site, and then download the entire site if we needed to edit something; publishing the site meant pushing it back to the repo and then deploying it. Paligo simplified this process by handling everything within a web browser. Critically, this allows us to update and deploy documentation from any machine with an internet connection, without having to download and authenticate an entire application.

Paligo also makes it easier for us to centralize our product documentation, as well as streamlining the process of creating, editing, and publishing new pages as we add new features to the product.
  • Creating and editing documentation is easy
  • Custom CSS and JS makes it simple to customize the site to our exact needs
  • Integrations with multiple services (Azure, Bitbucket, etc.) give us multiple options for deploying docs
  • Collaborative editing is straightforward
  • The amount of CSS/JS required to customize a site's appearance can be cumbersome
  • Product documentation can be lacking, specifically with integrations; in some cases, support offered no real help when trying to solve a problem with an integrated service
  • Some features require extensive development experience to use, which can sometimes be an obstacle to less-experienced team members
Paligo is an excellent solution for companies looking to move to a cloud-based writing and deployment tool for product documentation. It can be especially useful for companies that need to have multiple support sites connected to a single hub page.

There can be a steep learning curve when using Paligo, as not everything is as obvious as one might hope. Nevertheless, once you know the product, it's very useful.
Paligo's component-based documentation system makes it very easy to re-use content across a support site. This saves time and effort on a daily basis.
Support always responds in a timely fashion, and their answers are always useful and direct.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo to create and publish our Technical Documentation for all of our products. This includes single-sourcing of content through different products, for multiple audiences and includes translation into multiple languages (both LFT and RTL). We mainly publish PDFs but will be publishing HTML5 content in the future.
  • Image insertion, updates and multi-image options for localization
  • Single-source content reuse - one piece of content, whether a sentence or a complete topic, can be re-used anywhere else.
  • Multiple publication channels and outputs - PDF, HTML, ZenDesk etc.
  • Translation auto-translate, plus import and export XLIFF file options makes localization quick and simple.
  • Very intuitive UI
  • Would appreciate greater ability to set PDF Properties within Paligo.
  • Text Callouts for graphics - while Paligo has a few image options, there is no ability to add text callouts to an image that link to related sentences, sections or topics. That would be a huge gamechanger.
  • It would be nice to have a more WSIWYG GUI for the Layout section. In can be tricky remembering which components are changed where.
Any company that requires a cloud-based documentation tool for a single user or a large team of writers, would do well to select Paligo. Since it is cloud-based, and not installed per laptop, it is easy to log in from any computer. The potential downside is an inability to work offline - but since my company is entirely cloud-based, that is not an issue. On the contrary, I am confident knowing that all of my source files are safely stored in the cloud and available for my colleagues, and not on my laptop.
Responsive, accurate, helpful and friendly support.
Andras Domok | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo for our customer documentation. It is an excellent tool because it lets me create and edit a topic-based document set for all of our products, design the layout and publish in multiple formats all in one place. This eliminated the need for a more complex tool chain that we used for all of these tasks before.
  • PDF and HTML layout design
  • Batch publishing
  • Web based
  • Easy to use design
  • Automated batch publishing to a local drive
  • Pre-made layout templates eg. product flyers or startup guide PDF templates that could be then customized
  • A solution to create a complex documentation website based on html publications
Paligo is the best tool I have used yet when it comes to creating a topic-based document set ready for single-source publishing all in one tool. It is really good if your company is getting started with creating customer documentation from scratch or if you already have documentation tools but you want to streamline your process.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I use Paligo as our sole CCMS and authoring tool to create and manage the user documentation for our platform. Our documentation is leveraged by many different kinds of users, both internal and external, and I'm able to meet the various needs of these users as the only technical writer at the company. When shopping around for tools, we needed a powerful CCMS that provided lots of content reuse and publishing options while still being cloud-based instead of locally installed. Paligo checked all those boxes and was easy to use on top of that, especially for someone with some experience working in XML-based authoring tools (I have a background using MadCap Flare).
  • Streamlined authoring and publication workflow
  • Content reuse
  • User-friendly UI
  • No content reuse at the individual phrase level (within paragraphs)
  • No GUI theme editor
If you're looking for a cloud-based CCMS that focuses on the authoring experience, Paligo is a great choice. With some basic experience and a bit of training, most tech writers can have a customized output up and running in days, not weeks. Conversely, if you don't want to tinker with CSS to develop a look and feel you want or need content reuse at the lowest possible level, Paligo may not quite fit your needs. One thing I will add is that as a new user, and one who regularly pushes the boundaries of what Paligo's designed to do, I've found the customer support to be absolutely top-notch. I'm always able to work alongside support to figure out a solution to my problem—and am nearly always able to accomplish what I set out to accomplish.
Rachel Cheyfitz she/her | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
1. PDF & Word generation to enable partner rebranding.
2. Push to Bitbucket for HTML5 embedded.
3. Push to Zendesk.
  • Zendesk integration is fantastic.
  • Single sourcing is amazing.
  • File management is easy and intuitive.
  • More flexible PDF formatting.
  • Self hosting platform.
  • Bi-directional open source repo syncs for true CI/CD.
  • API integration.
For any cloud-based documentation needs for any size company, if single sourcing is a priority, Paligo exceeds its major competitor. Because it was born in the cloud, its cloud-based features make it far more intuitive.
Rochelle Fisher | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo as our mission-critical authoring tool. It is a CCMS that enables our globally diverse team to work together to create various documentation deliverables in a topic-based method, with different writers working on the same publication, the same chapter, and sometimes the same topic in an efficient and consistent manner. It is based on the open-source DocBook schema, so if you change your mind a few years down the road, you are not locked into Paligo but can migrate with minimal expense and time. Paligo does single-sourcing better than other CCMS tools, creating beautiful PDFs out of the box and with easy customization, HTML5 for product Help, Word, SCORM, and more. It integrates perfectly with Zendesk, letting us push out 100s of new articles and articles updates in minutes. It has integration with AWS S3, GitHub, Memsource, and many other third-party tools for delivery and storage. L10N features are built-in and easier to use than in other CCMS and CMS tools. Variables are centralized and easy to manage with variable sets and variants for parallel publishing to OEMs and simultaneous versions. It has an easy-to-use XML interface if you want to get into the backend, and a nice WYSIWYG interface if you want to create content simply. The best thing about Paligo is its Best-In-Class Support and Customer Success. Actually, it's everyone at Paligo. Though Paligo has grown in the past couple of years, it still offers the awesome responsive expert solutions that it did when it was newer. For any team of technical writers, I highly recommend Paligo.
  • Single-source quickly and well out of the box.
  • Attributes in the content for conditional publishing.
  • Quick previews with publishing and variable settings, for efficient debugging.
  • Responsive expert support.
  • Extensive integrations.
  • Re-use features for consistency among writers.
  • Review features.
  • Translation features.
  • Push to Zendesk can add new image files each time or delete all attachments. Missing feature to delete only image attachments and keep external attachments (more of a Zendesk issue than Paligo issue).
  • Role-based access control.
  • Mirror servers, so that team members in different continents do not have a slower connection to the instance on the cloud.
Paligo is less suitable for solo writers unless you are a contractor with many customers, in which case it would be a great tool! For teams, this is the best CCMS I have used (compared to AuthorIt and Flare) and is much better than Word, FrameMaker, or similar, which are not designed for team use. The biggest reason for going with Paligo is the people. I've never had such a positive experience with any company's support. They are fast and give great help. When running into issues with integrated platforms, they don't say they can't help - they just take on the problem and send a solution. Everyone at Paligo listens. And they follow up with real actions. I would recommend Paligo for this reason to any technical writing team.
Monica White | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use Paligo in the Technical Documentation department to structure and publish the software guides. We use the Salesforce integration to push the content to Support and the HTML5 publication capacity to publish directly to internal access.
The ability to cross-reference and reuse content allows our technical writers to be succinct in topics while still presenting useful information across multiple products with a consistent message throughout.
  • The topic/publication structure is quite graceful. It makes setting up an outline of content quite intuitive, and after the tools are identified and defined, it's much simpler to set up a large document and work with others to produce it.
  • Strict field definitions and use cases make topic structuring inherent in the workflow, which brings more attention to content handling. The train of thought required to utilize the tool also improves the train of thought required to focus the content, making for a better ultimate publication.
  • The output capabilities and Salesforce integration make publishing the files very easy.
  • The learning curve is a bit steep, especially for anyone who's never worked in a true content authoring tool before. It takes a bit of work to move from a Word atmosphere to Paligo, but the training sessions address all of those issues and more.
  • I wish there were more focused formatting tools. At this point, I don't know how to change the text color or format my output beyond the legacy defaults I inherited when I started this job. My fellow writers and I still sometimes struggle with putting things where we want them to go simply because they aren't the right field type at that location.
Before I took the intermediate training, I was so frustrated with Paligo that I mentioned it negatively in a networking event. Now that I have taken the training, I will be correcting that comment at the next one. :)
However, part of what I inherited was a badly managed library, and I am working hard with my fellow writers to restructure and re-present the content. I have only been working with Paligo for a month and a half, and while it's been a struggle to get here, I'm glad I learned it so that I can truly utilize its content reuse strengths across three different product lines.
It probably would not be ideal for desktop layout or on-demand production environments.
The training is exceptional, and follow-up support is absolutely comprehensive. The main minds behind this company are dedicated to its success, and you can tell by how responsive they are to their customers.

I almost feel as if I have a professional connection with my main contact for this company, and it makes me confident that any time I reach out, there will always be a supportive answer following. This is an excellent aspect for ANY company, and Paligo has it in spades. Thank you, Mike.
I'm glad that it's cloud-based, so I can access it from home or work. But I do wish it were a little more intuitive on the front end for new users; the alt key is more useful than the ctrl key, initial layout is confusing until you learn the depth of the tools, and you really do have to take the $400 training in order to truly understand how to use the product. I don't know what my company pays for access to the software, but I know it's something.
Paul LaBarbera | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We're using Paligo to manage the documentation libraries for several products. After a merger, we needed to consolidate documentation into a single platform and workflow. We were previously authoring in Zendesk and Confluence. Paligo has many benefits: A topic-based XML authoring tool provides flexibility with your content. While there is extra work involved compared to authoring a random Zendesk article, this flexibility lets my team adapt to a changing industry quickly. We're no longer locked into a single platform that we push our content into.
  • Once you get the hang of it, the workflow and UX lets you build highly structured content relatively quickly.
  • The number of publishing options is outstanding.
  • If you're disciplined, you can maintain a giant documentation library that is very well organized. Content re-use can be done at an enterprise-wide level.
  • The SaaS platform occasionally hiccups on us. This has never resulted in lost content, but we'll occasionally get "Cannot connect to server errors". Admittedly, this hasn't happened much at all lately.
  • The Zendesk publication feature is great (no author Help Authoring Tool has it built in), but the feature set could be expanded.
Paligo is not appropriate if you are not interested in structured authoring. If you do not value having your content in extensible XML formats, then the value of Paligo is limited (but your customers will notice the lazy attitude in your writing style). If you really value the content you're producing, you should be using an XML-based authoring tool. Paligo is best in class.
Sarah Holdgrafer | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Currently, only my team uses Paligo. My team creates end-user help articles through ZenDesk Guide. Paligo is a CCMS that allows us to use structured authoring to manage all our content and publish not just to ZenDesk, but to PDF and HTML5 as well.

Paligo allows us to single source the majority of our end-user content, reuse topics across multiple articles, publish to multiple channels, filter for languages and markets by country, manage content in an intuitive way, and remove all styling concerns from the content creation process so we can focus just on writing the content and managing article images and gifs. Our article styles are handled all through our external CSS, which automatically applies to articles when we publish to Zendesk. This makes our content creation process shorter overall and allows us to reuse content in multiple formats with different styling, without creating the content from scratch each time.

In addition to managing our knowledge base content, we've also created feature-level user guides in PDF to distribute to select users, and PDF guides to send to developer partners as product documentation required for the plugin development approval process.
  • Topic reuse - many of our tutorial and how-to articles include procedures with the same first steps. Reuse allows us to create these steps once, including images, and reuse them in as many articles as we need.
  • Single sourcing - At any time if the text or images in reused topics need updating, we just update the original topic and the changes reflect in every article that uses that topic.
  • Content management - the topic and media management is excellent. we can organize however we need, rename topics and images as needed and move them around within the folder structure without breaking any links to the topics / articles they are used in (each topic and asset has a unique ID number that doesn't change, allow us to rename and move assets to best suit our needs)
  • Filtering and variables - we can create a single topic that includes all the information for different markets (in this case, different content for accounts in different countries) and by using filtering and variables when building the content and in the publishing workflow I can publish just the US content to our US help center, the UK content to the UK help center, and the Australian content to the Australia help center, but using manage a single article within Paligo itself.
  • Translation and localization workflow - the translation workflow (sending topics to be translated into another language) and localization workflow (publishing the same content in multiple languages) works well within the ZenDesk integration. It uses the ZenDesk localization settings to ensure the proper translation ends up in the correct articlein Zendesk.
  • Speed - since it is cloud-based we do sometimes run into speed issues in loading or saving content
  • steep learning curve requiring training - the Paligo trainer is great, and their help center is also very good, but for individuals not already well versed in structured authoring it's a bit of an uphill battle to really understand why the UI works the way it does. that said, their support is incredibly helpful and enthusiastic!
  • Stats - it would be great to have easier access to data showing which users on my team have created what content and performed what actions within the app or on specific content. This is mostly a manager need as I need to report progress to my manager regularly.
A recommendation would be dependent on their needs and numerous other factors, including their publishing channels. For my situation, where a good chunk of content (especially images) are used across dozens of articles, we're documenting the use of an entire SaaS platform and the 100+ integrations we have, and we publish different versions of some content based on account country, it's an ideal fit. Any help center that has more than 100 articles hosted on ZenDesk could potentially benefit from switching to a cloud-based CCMS.

Structured authoring is less appropriate for managing content that is constantly changing or doesn't have a unified structure, like blogs, for instance.
The support is quick, the team very knowledgeable and invested in my success. The only reason I didn't give it a 10 is because there is no chat support (yet). But, so far, the responses have been quick enough that hasn't been an issue.
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