Adobe Captivate vs. Articulate 360 vs. H5P

6 min read
Dec 19, 2022 9:41:35 AM

Being a course creator, you might already know the importance of authoring tools. Authoring tools are essential software in your e-learning toolkit. With the variety of authoring tools, you might get confused about what to choose to get the best results.

The authoring tool is a specialized software tool to enable users to create interactive and effective e-learning. There are different types of authoring tools targeting various problems. Some of them are even limited to a particular niche. You can create and deliver courses online with these authoring tools or software.

Training captivates, articulate 360, and H5P are all highly-recognized and considerable e-learning software capabilities. We will discuss the performance features of all these authoring tools, which might help you decide on the best one according to your requirements.


Which one is the Best?

Let's start with discussing the features of all three of them separately and see which parts you want to create an e-learning course.

#1- Adobe Captivate

Adobe captivates one of the most powerful desktop authoring tools. It is perfectly suitable for general eLearning development, including the creation of slides, presentations, and quizzes. Not only that, but it is also ideal for creating complex interactive courses. Moreover, it is also preferred by most course creators in developing software simulations through effects, slide settings, and triggers.

Therefore, adobe captivates is undoubtedly one of the most versatile ones in creating realistic simulations and presenting them to users in different modes. One of the most prominent features of adobe captivate is that it can create Virtual Reality projects. It also enables you to create the most interactive courses with studio-quality HD videos. This is made possible by simultaneously recording webcam and on-screen content.

The main thing that differentiates this authoring tool from the others is its wide variety of interactive elements. With this toolkit, you can make the course more interactive with puzzles, games, drag-and-drop, and many other interactive activities.

Pros of Adobe Captivate
  • Adobe Captivate enables you to feature creative customization on your course through branching and extensive variables.
  • It has a 360-degree (VR) capability to utilize virtual reality in your eLearning course.
  • It features a version for Mac.
  • This authoring tool features complex software simulation recording options.
    It possesses an accurate, responsive screen display on all types of devices.
  • This is what makes it viewable as you are creating the training.
  • Contains an assets library including people, templates, headshots, and full-body shots.
  • It can generate automatic text-to-speech voiceovers.
  • You can also insert your background with the help of 'Green Screen.'
  • It also features mobile-specific development tools, for instance, geolocation tagging.
Cons of Adobe Captivate
  • It has an unintuitive user interface.
  • Its technical support is outsourced to a call center.
  • You will have to put in a lot of effort and time to learn to use it.
  • It might get buggy or crash in Windows.
  • Adobe Captive might give you a tough time in designing responsive content.
  • You must create separate versions for smartphones, tablets, and desktops.
  • After the imported PowerPoint presentations are converted through captivate, it doesn't preserve all the animations.

#2- Articulate 360

Articulate 360 consists of two authoring tools: Storyline 360 and Rise 360. Storyline 360 is designed to develop custom courses with exceptional creative and interactive elements. It is perfect for L&D creators of every skill level. On the contrary, the Rise 360 is ideal for L&D teams making it a responsive platform for creating a course that will automatically adapt to various screen sizes.

Storyline 36 is popular among the instructional design community. This is because it possesses advanced features like triggers and layers that enable the creators to produce customized training content. It also features an Articulate Content Library consisting of backgrounds, templates, buttons, characters, and icons. With access to a vast collection of stock images and a small portion of visual assets, it is the dream of instructional designers.

Articulate Rise 360 is a web-based authoring tool. This tool enables the instructional designers to design and create training modules and whole courses in the 'long read' forms using the browsers. Without the updates initially, the Rise 360 has a limited selection of interactions which increase through regular updates.

Pros of Articulate 360
  • Articulate Storyline 360 offers excellent opportunities for content customization.
  • It features a content library with stock images, backgrounds, and characters.
  • It also comes with output responsive mobile-ready courses.
  • It enables the designers to create complex courses with multiple interactive features by utilizing triggers, layers, and states.
  • It features a screen recorder that enables you to capture screencasts and make simple editing.
  • It can also import PowerPoint slides.
  • It also comes with a free mobile application for playing courses offline.
  • Articulate Rise 360 enables designers to create responsive training content easily and quickly with the help of a simple web interface.
  • This authoring tool works on Mac, Linux, and Windows.
  • It supports most of the eLearning standards allowing you to create training content easily and upload it to any LMS.
  • It enables you to collaborate on courses with your team members.
Cons of Articulate 360
  • The Articulate Storyline 360 doesn’t have a user-friendly interface.
  • It can also be heavy on computer resources.
  • Articulate Storyline has no Mac version.
  • It also has a steep learning curve.
  • Interaction templates are not as efficient in some cases.
  • It has a basic screen recording functionality.
  • Articulate Rise 360 can only enable you to create a single format of the training module.
  • It only offers four question types for quizzes in the courses.
  • Rise 360 has limited content customization capabilities.


#3- H5P

Another considerable and one of the most popular authoring tools in H5P. It is an open-source authoring tool that is ideal for the production of interactive educational activities right inside the browser. This can help you create interactive videos, crossword puzzles, course presentations, pairing memory games, and many more. It features more than forty different interactive activities for you.

You can use H5P in three different ways. The first way is through plug-ins in WordPress, Moodle, and Drupal. The other methods include using a direct link or adding the activities to other platforms and delivering content to LMSs. You can add content to media, blogs, and other sites that support embedded content. Also, the contents can be provided to LMSs like Brightspace, Canvas, Moodle, Blackboard, and all the other systems supporting the LTI standards.

H5P is an exceptional authoring tool for courses as it offers a variety of assessments. From different types of quizzes to drag-and-drop tests, it provides you with everything you need to create a practical approach. It also enables you to produce various interactions to make it a successful course. Being a mobile-friendly and responsive tool allows the users to have the best experience. It ensures that all of the users are experiencing the same rich content on smartphones, tablets, and computers.

Pros of H5P
  • It is a web-based authoring tool that enables you to create content in the browser.
  • H5P also has a free version.
  • It is highly intuitive.
  • It features an open educational resources hub where different authors can collaborate and share available content.
Cons of H5P
  • As it has a free version, it doesn’t have the versatility of other paid tools.
  • It doesn’t feature a screen recording or video editing tool.
  • It doesn’t come with a preview option.
  • It enables you to transfer content to only LMSs and LTI.
  • In H5P, reporting is only available if you avail of the paid version of the authoring tool.

Comparing Training Captivate, Articulate 360, and H5P

Now that we have discussed all three authoring tools separately, it is time to reach all of them to check which one will be the best one for you. While talking about Adobe Captivate, we can say that it is perfect because of its virtual reality features, Adobe Photoshop import, and responsive content.

While Articulate Storyline 360 is a better option when importing PowerPoint content is concerned. At the same time, both authoring tools are perfect for Cluelabs widgets and software simulations. Both of them also generally support all the modern eLearning trends.

H5P is also quite similar to both Articulate 360 and Captivate, but it has possible limited interactivity. Most of it is because it has a free version which most people use. But it is the best authoring tool if you do not have the budget to invest in more powerful and expensive eLearning tools. If you are involved in academic education, H5P is excellent for creating engaging and interactive content or course for your students.

Articulate Rise lets you pump training courses quickly and is perfect for new instructional designers and experienced industry cats. It is ideal when there are no strict rules for creating specific types of systems. In contrast to Rise, Articulate Storyline is excellent for experienced instructional designers looking for more leverage for the kind of content or course they create. It makes it easier for the teams to collaborate on various eLearning projects through several desktop and web authoring tools.

Adobe Captivate is a professional eLearning software and is more potent than Articulate 360 and H5P, and all the other competitors. But learning and operating are less intuitive, tricky, and time-consuming. Therefore, it is perfect for professionals comfortable working with variables to create competitive content.

Summing Up

If you have been confused about what authoring tool to choose for better course creation, we have compared all the best possible options. You can look through these specialized software's features and check which one might fulfill all your requirements. Whether it is Captivate, Articulate, or H5P, they all have pros and cons. Some might find articulate better, while others think H5P is enough to get what they want.

Therefore, it is entirely up to the level of expertise of the instructional designers or course creators and the project size which authoring tool will suit you the best. Make sure to go through the optimum features of all of them before making the right decision for your course creation.

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