iSpring Suite 8.1 vs. Articulate Studio ’13 vs. Adobe Presenter 11
We have prepared a rather detailed comparison of iSpring Suite 8.7 with other popular PowerPoint-based tools for e-Learning authoring, Articulate Studio ’13 and Adobe Presenter 11.
iSpring Suite 8.7
Pros
- The best PPT to Flash and HTML5 technology
- The best support of PowerPoint effects
- Device adaptation both for player and for content
- Fair price
- Broad LMS support
- Advanced reporting for courses and quizzes
- Powerful synchronization facilities
- Publishing to video
Cons
- Few interactions
- No annotation tool
Review
Great value for the money. Provides the best quality of conversion. Perfectly preserves virtually all PowerPoint effects after conversion to Flash or HTML5. The only tool with an adaptive player that allows you to view courses on any device ranging from desktop to smartphone. Though it yields to competitors in some aspects, it runs like clockwork and provides the highest reliability Learn more about iSpring Suite
Articulate Studio ’13
Pros
- A lot of eye-catching interactions
- Advanced quiz authoring
- Convenient annotation tool
- Quick content translation
Cons
- Unstable work
- Poor PowerPoint support (of effects, animations and other features)
- Content isn’t adapted to mobile devices
- High price
Review
The most expensive of all the analyzed tools. Contains a well-balanced WYSIWYG quiz maker. However, despite being a PowerPoint-based tool, poorly supports PowerPoint effects, some of which get lost after publishing. HTML5 content doesn’t adapt to mobile devices. Sometimes demonstrates unstable performance. Overall, the above-mentioned disadvantages make the price unreasonably high.
Adobe Presenter 11
Pros
- Low price
- Video tutorial recording and simple editing
- Mobile device adaptation by creating different versions of the content
Cons
- A collaboration feature
- Tests are created from presentation slides and can be accidentally damaged
- Poor PowerPoint support (of effects, animations and other features)
- When publishing to HTML5, text and images are converted to images
- There’s no opportunity to view content on mobile devices when offline
Review
The cheapest software of all presented. Not all PowerPoint effects are supported. The tool converts content to both Flash and HTML5 formats, but the majority of the components are only displayed in Flash. There’s a special mobile app for viewing HTML5 courses on iPads, but it doesn’t provide users with the opportunity to save content for viewing later in offline mode.
Conclusion
Each of these tools provides a unique value to content authors who require a particular feature set. Articulate Studio offers a rich feature set with a lot of capabilities for creating and manipulating content, but may seem confusing to some users. (The price tag is also a bit steep.) Adobe Presenter offers a balanced set of features at a reasonable price. Both of these products, however, are somewhat limited in their conversion quality and content sharing methods. iSpring Suite comes with best-in-class conversion quality and a wide range of sharing options at a fair price, and thus seems to be the best choice for content authors who want to share high-quality courses and presentations on any device with a low learning curve.