Elearning authoring tools: comparison of 7 major authoring tools [2025 update]

This blog post has been updated.

An eLearning authoring tool is a valuable addition to any L&D team. You get the most out of your chosen solution when you find the tool best suited to your needs. To help you make the right decision, we've compared seven key players in the market.

Read on to discover each authoring solution's features, strengths, and weaknesses.

What are you looking for in a content authoring tool?

Before diving into our authoring tool comparison, it's critical to map out your needs. This way, you determine the features that are most relevant to you, your organization, and your learners.

Here are some things to consider:

Ease of use

• How big is your team?
• How much technical expertise do you have?
• How much experience does your team have?
• Do you want your subject matter experts (SMEs) to use your authoring tool?
• How much time do you have to train and onboard your users?

Course creation possibilities

• Do you need to create simple eLearning content to train your audience, or is something more complex required?
• How much content do you need to produce?
• Do you want ready-made templates and themes?
• Do you need multiple authors to work on a piece simultaneously?
• How much control do you want to customize screens and layouts?
• Do you want the option to automate your workflow by automatically generating content?

Delivery requirements

• Are learners limited to specific device types, or do you need to deliver learning to any device, anywhere?
• Does content need to be delivered in different languages?
• How important is it for your content to be accessible to learners with visual, hearing, cognitive, or motor impairments?
• How quickly do you need to be able to distribute and publish courses to your LMS?

1) Gomo Learning: Easy-to-use cloud authoring with depth

Since 2014, Gomo has helped learning designers create responsive content delivered in the cloud. Gomo makes creating learning content simple, with fast and flexible course design and responsive and adaptive output.

Using Gomo to create eLearning courses is fast and easy. Subject matter experts and designers without in-depth technical expertise find the features straightforward thanks to its flexible, cloud-based nature, drag-and-drop interface, and feature-filled editor that supports live preview.

At the same time, Gomo has greater scope for mastery. For example, its rich range of screen interactions and advanced features, such as dynamic branching and content locking, also give experienced learning designers the tools they need. Gomo also enables a true multi-language learning experience, supporting more than 160 languages and dialects within a single course, including right-to-left languages. That means you only have to create a course once, and you can translate it both via AI and XLIFF file export and import.

In a market where no tool does everything, Gomo's authoring tool offers teams a seamless content creation, collaboration, and customization experience regardless of skill level.

Who is Gomo for?

Everyone in your organization! Even if learning designers and SMEs aren’t digitally savvy, they will find that Gomo speeds up the content creation and distribution process without sacrificing the quality of the output.

Experienced learning designers will also find a wide array of customization options to suit their needs.

Gomo strengths

• AI content generation, course review, and auto-translation features
• Fully responsive and adaptive desktop and mobile learning 
• Cloud-based—no software download necessary
• Full support for multi-language content and character sets via AI and XLIFF (including right-to-left languages). A single course can contain multiple languages
• Varied and highly customizable style templates to match your brand
• Analytics included as standard

Gomo weaknesses

• Not really viable for click-through style systems training—no screen capture functionality
• No extreme-fine detail control—designers who obsess over pixel-perfect positioning or complex scripted animations will have to work within some minor, easy-to-adapt-to constraints
• No WYSIWYG editor—only instant preview

2, 3) Articulate 360: Two parts of a whole that force you to compromise

Articulate Storyline and Rise are two authoring tools under the Articulate 360 brand. Each product can be used as a standalone solution, but you might find that you need both to get the best authoring experience.

Although Storyline allows for fine-detail control and customization options, taking advantage of the more complex interactive and programmable elements requires substantial skill. What's more, since Storyline remains a desktop-focused tool, the output isn't optimized for mobile. This results in eLearning that's hard to navigate and not especially attractive on mobile devices.

The compromise for many users looking for responsive multi-device content is Rise, the polar opposite of Storyline in many ways. It offers a basic, easy-to-use editor with a range of pre-built templates and blocks. Content is responsive but offers less customization for page layouts and a limited set of interactions.

The bundling of Rise and Storyline as Articulate 360 promises to offer the best of both worlds, but the jury's still out because there's very little that brings those worlds together. For instance, you can import Storyline interactions into Rise, but they're still subject to the same mobile limitations.

Articulate 360 offers two solid but contrasting products that might leave you wishing for a single tool that falls somewhere in the middle or combines the best features of both.

Who is Articulate Rise for?

Because of its ease of use and appealing (but limited) output, Rise is good for novices or designers with little to no need for customization who are working on relatively simple programs.

Who is Articulate Storyline for?

Experienced learning designers who need a tool with advanced authoring features but don't need a cloud-based platform that creates multi-device learning.

Articulate 360 strengths

• Easy to use and generates simple courses (Rise)
• Responsive course output (Rise)
• Cloud-based updates, collaboration, and review (Rise)
• The ability to create highly customized interactions with triggers, variables and conditions, and embedding (Storyline)
• Creative freedom for experienced instructional designers (Storyline)
• A range of design possibilities within a desktop-only context (Storyline)

Articulate 360 weaknesses

• Steep learning curve (Storyline)
• Output isn’t responsive (Storyline)
• Desktop-based, with limited support for mobile (Storyline)
• Lacking advanced features that experienced learning designers need (Rise)
• No translation support for right-to-left languages (Rise)
• Moving courses from Storyline to Rise requires a plug-in, and content loses responsiveness

4) Easygenerator: A simple authoring tool that creates basic eLearning content

Easygenerator is an authoring tool designed for subject matter experts and users with little to no authoring experience. Its simple cloud-based user interface allows for rapid course creation and collaboration, making it a popular choice for users who want a solution for creating basic courses.

Easygenerator's interface strips down the content creation process, guiding users with a course builder, a series of pre-made templates, or the option to import existing files to get started. While this approach makes it quick to structure and populate courses, it's likely that some users will find it limited by the lack of flexibility and customization options. Some might also find the limited interactions too basic to meet more complex requirements.

Who is Easygenerator for?

Easygenerator is ideal for SMEs or designers with limited experience looking for a tool to simplify course creation.

Easygenerator strengths

• Multiple file type import
• Collaboration and review capabilities
• Drag-and-drop content creation
• AI content creation

Easygenerator weaknesses

• Auto-translation limited to a single language per course
• Lacks advanced features for more experienced learning designers
• Limited course customization options

5) Adobe Captivate: Legacy desktop authoring with a new look and feel

Captivate is a legacy desktop authoring application known for its advanced capabilities and steep learning curve. The launch of the all-new Captivate in 2023 overhauled the familiar experience, aiming to create a new workflow for users of all skill levels. The all-new Captivate offers a simplified, drag-and-drop interface with ready-made slide layouts and text and media blocks that adapt to different screen sizes.

Adobe has finally focused on modernizing the product by introducing responsive design and collaboration features. As a result, legacy users will find some of the features they're familiar with sorely lacking. For example, there's no support for virtual reality, video demos, and complex, custom-built interactions.

For users who prefer the PowerPoint-inspired interface that gives them granular control over design choices, Captivate Classic is still available to fill these gaps, and as part of the subscription package, Adobe allows both desktop-based versions to run simultaneously. The legacy version offers the same features but can be buggy and feel dated, considering everything was programmed with Flash in mind. In addition, Captivate isn't backwards compatible and files can't be imported.

Who is Adobe Captivate for?

Captivate was once a dominant force in eLearning design, and it remains in the toolkit of anyone who has to maintain legacy projects. It still has some strengths in systems training.

The new Adobe Captivate offers a reworked user experience, making it more suited to beginners and users who don't need extensive customization options.

Adobe Captivate strengths

• Screen capture and software simulation features are good for systems training (Classic version)
• Support for mobile and VR-based interaction types, such as geolocation, tilt, touch, and head tracking (Classic version)
• Collaboration and content review (New version)
• Integrates with other Adobe products

Adobe Captivate weaknesses

• Files aren’t compatible between Captivate versions
• Fewer customization options (New version)
• No plans to support Captivate Classic in the long-term
• Desktop-based solution with no collaboration features (Classic version)
• Takes time to learn (Classic version)
• Content must be manually authored in order to output responsive courses (Classic version)

6) Elucidat: Another cloud-based tool

Elucidat is another cloud-based, responsive authoring tool. As such, users can expect features such as multiple users working simultaneously in the cloud on a single piece of content and designing responsive content.

Elucidat has a visual editor and version control among the cloud-collaboration features common to other tools. However, some users might respond less favorably to Elucidat compared to its competitors as the separation of the 'authoring' and 'layout' editor may undermine the efficiency of the design.

This approach can slow course creation and editing for even the most experienced users. While the output is potentially more customizable than other solutions, getting your desired results is easier elsewhere.

Who is Elucidat for?

Elucidat is another cloud-based tool with a simple environment that SMEs can work in while still offering customization options for experienced users, as long as they’re prepared to dig for them.

Elucidat strengths

• Typical cloud-based benefits—collaborative creation and review
• Responsive course output
• Learning analytics dashboard
• Version control
• WYSIWYG editor
• AI-assisted features

Elucidat weaknesses

• Steep learning curve for more advanced features means it’s harder to achieve customization than with some competitors
• No scripting language or extreme fine-detail control over the output
• Editor cluttered by unnecessary icons
• Expensive relative to its competitors

7) Adapt: Open-source freedom for learning dev agencies

Adapt is an open-source alternative for the eLearning authoring tools market, offering cloud-based course editing. Not uncommonly, open source is something of a double-edged sword. On the positive side, many of Adapt's contributors are learning designers with relevant experience in desirable interactions and features. Provided you have advanced programming skills, you can change how Adapt handles interactions via the Adapt Framework.

This leads to the negatives of Adapt. It is, first and foremost, a developer's tool and is less workable as an enterprise solution. As a result, you'll find other authoring tool options that are more user-friendly and tuned to the requirements of the general user.

It's worth noting, however, that Adapt can keep more complex features locked away from less skilled users via its ‘lite mode’. It's also possible to buy 'hosted' versions of the tool, offering some level of customer support on a budget. However, by going this route, you're getting a basic version of the tool without the ability to dive into the Adapt Framework—arguably the main reason for choosing Adapt.

Who is Adapt for?

Adapt is most commonly a tool used in-house by learning development agencies, who have the skills to exploit its customization potential. Its use by L&D departments is less common.

Adapt strengths

• Available for free (typically only used in-house by design agencies)
• Highly experienced developers can dive into the framework behind the tool and create complex custom eLearning interactions and layouts
• Open-source community of designers
• Paid (but cheap) ‘hosted’ versions available with support (but limited features and no access to Adapt Framework)
• Responsive course output

Adapt weaknesses

• Updates must be manually implemented on the free version and are sometimes slow to arrive for paid versions
• Weak, non-visual UI with form-based creation
• Requires a skilled developer to achieve results
• Designed by designers for designers—there’s a risk that non-designers may get lost

At a glance—eLearning authoring tools comparison table

Use the table below for a feature-by-feature comparison of each eLearning authoring tool:

eLearning software	Software type	Ease of use	Highlights	Best suited for
Gomo Learning	Cloud-based, responsive authoring platform	Easy	Multi-language course translation Highly customizable Instant LMS publishing and updates Easy to collaborate	Power-users and novice contributors
Articulate Storyline	Desktop, non-responsive authoring tool	Difficult	Highly customizable No collaboration Non-responsive	Power users, learning design veterans
Articulate Rise	Cloud-based and responsive authoring tool	Very easy	Simple Responsive Limited customization	Novices, designers working on simple programs/courses
Easygenerator	Cloud-based, responsive authoring tool	Easy	Multiple file type import Collaboration and review capabilities Drag-and-drop content creation Lacking advanced authoring and customization capabilities	Designers with limited experience and SMEs
Adobe Captivate	Desktop-based	Difficult	Desktop-first, with limited collaboration options Legacy file types not supported in all-new Captivate Steep learning curve Some Classic features missing in all-new Captivate	Long-term Captivate users
Elucidat	Cloud-based, responsive HTML5 authoring platform	Somewhat easy	Cloud collaboration WYSIWYG editor Harder to customize Can be expensive	Power users and novice contributors
Adapt	Open-source, responsive authoring tool	For advanced users only	Customizable by highly skilled developers Designer-friendly features created by designers	eLearning dev agencies

Conclusion

Though there are many points of overlap, there are also many ways these authoring tools differ. Fortunately, you don't have to compromise when choosing the features you value most.

With Gomo, you get a responsive, cloud-based eLearning authoring solution that's easy to use and comes packed with advanced features for learning designers to create and tailor engaging and on-brand experiences.