HR AI Index
September 2026 Edition · The permanent record of this edition. The unqualified address always carries the latest edition.
Index › Learning and development › September 2026 Edition

Course authoring tools

Asked as “elearning authoring tool”, and as “course creation software”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 59 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Articulate 360
Contested
22% of first choices, contested.
ShowinginAll 50 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.
Small businessArticulate 36020%ContestedStanding →Mid-marketArticulate 36022%ContestedThis pageEnterpriseArticulate 36052%Clear leaderStanding →

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Articulate 36022%14%35accepted challenger
02H5P17%17%23accepted challenger
03iSpring Suite15%4%51accepted challenger
04Articulate Rise 3607%0%11accepted challenger
05Adobe Captivate5%26%43criticized challenger
06Easygenerator2%10%21accepted challenger
07Elucidat2%15%20accepted challenger
Show the three products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
10Lectora0%31%13criticized challenger
08Articulate Storyline0%17%12accepted challenger
09dominKnow | ONE0%10%10accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its vendor page.
Head to head
Articulate 360 vs H5PArticulate 360 vs iSpring SuiteH5P vs iSpring Suite

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Articulate 36022%
02H5P17%
03iSpring Suite15%
04Articulate Rise 3607%
05Adobe Captivate5%
06Easygenerator2%
07Elucidat2%
08Articulate Storyline0%
09dominKnow | ONE0%
10Lectora0%

02What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Canva
100%
6 of 6 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 5 hard negative
“authoring tools that users and experts recommend avoiding or being cautious about: - **Canva**: Users report that it requires a lot of effort to use effectively” Mistral Small, negative prompt
Adobe Captivate
26%
11 of 43 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid premium tools like ... Adobe Captivate (~$400/year)\u2014great but not budget-friendly.” Grok 4.1 Fast, budget prompt
Parta
80%
4 of 5 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 3 hard negative
“its Pro editor is quite complicated, making course setup more labor-intensive. It also lacks certain features like scenario-based learning” MiniMax M2.5, negative prompt
Articulate 360
14%
5 of 35 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“What to avoid on a tight budget - Articulate 360 ... it's overkill for small teams” DeepSeek V4 Flash, budget prompt

03What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: twelve of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

60 of 72 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 6 of those lists are Google grounding redirects that name no site and are left out of the counts. 760 links across 211 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

elearningindustry.com
30 answers · 54 citations · 10 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner25 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
elearningsolutionslab.com
25 answers · 25 citations · 10 models
colossyan.com
vendor site · Colossyan23 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
atomisystems.com
19 answers · 24 citations · 9 models
confirm.com
vendor site · Confirm19 answers · 19 citations · 8 models
lingio.com
18 answers · 21 citations · 7 models
ispringsolutions.com
15 answers · 22 citations · 8 models
intellum.com
vendor site · Intellum15 answers · 15 citations · 8 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow14 answers · 17 citations · 8 models
proprofstraining.com
vendor site · ProProfs Training14 answers · 15 citations · 9 models
getapp.com
13 answers · 17 citations · 8 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

elearningsolutionslab.com/best-elearning-authoring-tools
25 answers · 10 models
gartner.com/reviews/market/elearning-authoring-tools
25 answers · 10 models
colossyan.com/posts/elearning-authoring-tools-comparison-chart-for-2026-top…
21 answers · 8 models
confirm.com/blog/elearning-authoring-tools
18 answers · 8 models
intellum.com/resources/blog/elearning-authoring-tools
13 answers · 8 models
lingio.com/blog/elearning-authoring-tools
13 answers · 6 models
atomisystems.com/elearning/the-ultimate-guide-to-selecting-business-trainin…
12 answers · 8 models
elearningindustry.com/best-elearning-authoring-tools-and-course-creation-so…
10 answers · 6 models
collab.thehumanco.org/blog/best-elearning-authoring-tools
9 answers · 3 models
getapp.com/education-childcare-software/elearning-authoring-tools/org/mid-s…
8 answers · 8 models

04How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ModelDirect“What is the best elearning authoring tool for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which course creation software would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top authoring tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best elearning authoring tool for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an elearning authoring tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which authoring tools should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Articulate 360
Two alternativesParta, iSpring Suite
LearnWorldsChanged
Two alternativesKajabi, Thinkific
Articulate 360
Seven alternativesAdobe Captivate, Articulate Rise 360, Articulate Storyline, Coursebox AI, Easygenerator, Lectora, iSpring Suite
H5P, Moodle, iSpring Suiteno first choicenothing named
GPT-5.4 miniArticulate 360
Four alternativesAdobe Captivate, Elucidat, Lectora, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360Held
One alternativeAdobe Captivate
no first choiceArticulate Rise 360
Four alternativesAdapt Learning, Camtasia, Microsoft PowerPoint, iSpring Suite
against: Lectorano first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashArticulate 360
Four alternativesEasygenerator, Elucidat, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360, WorkRampChanged
Three alternativesDocebo, Elucidat, TalentLMS
Articulate 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, H5P, iSpring Suite
ActivePresenter, iSpring Suite
Four alternativesAdapt Learning, EdApp, H5P, isEazy
against: Adobe Captivate, Articulate 360Articulate Rise 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Easygenerator, Elucidat, iSpring Suite
against: Adobe Captivate, Articulate 360, Articulate Presenter, Elucidat, Gomo Learning, Lectora, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
Perplexity SonarArticulate 360
One alternativeEasygenerator
Absorb LMSChanged
Three alternativesLearnDash, ProProfs Training Maker, Thinkific
Articulate Storyline
Four alternativesAdobe Captivate, Articulate Rise 360, Easygenerator, iSpring Suite
ActivePresenter, Adobe Captivate, H5P
One alternativeeXeLearning
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Captivate, Canva, Genially, Google Docs, Lectora, ProWritingAid, Reedsy Studio, Webflow
Grok 4.1 FastArticulate 360, iSpring Suite
One alternativeAdobe Captivate
against: ElucidatTalentLMSChanged
Three alternativesAbsorb LMS, Articulate 360, LearnUpon
Articulate 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, H5P, iSpring Suite
H5P
Two alternativesAdapt Learning, ProProfs Training Maker
against: Adobe Captivate, Articulate 360Articulate 360
Two alternativesElucidat, iSpring Suite
against: Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Canva, H5P, Webflow
Mistral SmallActivePresenter
Three alternativesArticulate 360, Gomo Learning, iSpring Suite
Absorb LMS, SAP LitmosChanged
Two alternativesLearnUpon, iSpring Suite
no first choiceH5P
Two alternativesArticulate Rise 360, iSpring Suite
no first choiceagainst: Canva, H5P, Parta, Webflow
DeepSeek V4 FlashArticulate 360, iSpring Suite
One alternativeAdobe Captivate
360LearningChanged
Four alternativesArticulate 360, LearnUpon, TalentLMS, iSpring Suite
against: DoceboArticulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Camtasia, iSpring Suite
H5P, iSpring Suite
One alternativeAdobe Captivate
against: Articulate 360, Easygenerator, ElucidatArticulate 360, Articulate Rise 360
Two alternativesAdobe Captivate, iSpring Suite
against: 7 Taps, Adobe Captivate, Articulate Studio, Canva, H5P, Lectora, Parta
Llama 4 MaverickAbsorb LMS
One alternativeSAP Litmos
ProProfs Training MakerChanged
One alternativeArticulate
no first choiceH5P
Three alternativesArticulate Storyline, Lectora, iSpring Suite
no first choiceagainst: Canva, Parta
Qwen 3.7 FlashArticulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Elucidat, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360, iSpring SuiteChanged
Three alternativesAbsorb LMS, Microsoft Viva Learning, TalentLMS
against: Teachable, ThinkificArticulate 360
Six alternativesAdobe Captivate, H5P, HeyGen, MadCap Flare, Synthesia, iSpring Suite
Adobe Captivate, H5P
Three alternativesEasygenerator, Genially, iSpring Suite
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Captivateagainst: Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Google Slides, Microsoft Word, Notion, Prezi, Slack Docs, Weebly, Wix
Kimi K2iSpring Suite
One alternativeAdobe Captivate
against: Articulate 360360Learning, Academy of MineChanged
Three alternativesArticulate 360, TalentLMS, iSpring Learn
Articulate 360
Four alternativesAdapt Learning, Adobe Captivate, Elucidat, dominKnow | ONE
H5P
Four alternativesActivePresenter, Adapt Learning, ProProfs Training Maker, iSpring Suite
Articulate Rise 360, Easygenerator, Elucidat
Two alternativesArticulate, iSpring Suite
against: Adobe Captivate, H5Pagainst: Adobe Captivate
GLM 4.7 FlashXArticulate 360
Two alternativesAdobe Captivate, Articulate Rise 360
LearnUponChanged
Three alternatives360Learning, TalentLMS, iSpring Learn
Articulate 360
Eight alternatives360Learning, Adobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, H5P, Lectora, MadCap Flare, iSpring Suite
H5P
Two alternativesTwine, iSpring Suite
against: Easygeneratorno first choiceagainst: Microsoft Word, iSpring Suite
MiniMax M2.5Adobe Captivate, iSpring Suite
One alternativeArticulate 360
LearnUpon, TalentLMSChanged
Two alternativesDocebo, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360
Six alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, H5P, MadCap Flare, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
H5P, iSpring Suite
Four alternativesActivePresenter, Articulate 360, Genially, Paradiso Authoring Tool
no first choiceagainst: Canva, Parta
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

05The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:28yes98 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:00yes65 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 22:06yes1264 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:05yes206 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:23yes3420 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:20yes810 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 17:56yes2428 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:43yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:39no030 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 19:17yes1341 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:05yes1042 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:17yes1119 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:04yes96 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:10yes46 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:57yes1050 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:11yes206 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:56yes3819 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:20yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:16yes2930 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:06yes52 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:03no026 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:00yes1077 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:18yes1336 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:42yes529 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:31yes98 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:11no05 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 21:55yes939 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:02yes1911 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:24yes3417 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:36yes89 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:46yes1513 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:41yes52 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:38yes519 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:05yes828 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 20:37yes13112 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:05yes1062 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 20:57no04 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 19:17no04 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:27yes1824 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:52yes207 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:14yes2617 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:40yes57 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:19yes2220 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:46yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 21:35yes930 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:01yes923 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:02yes2331 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:43yes1026 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:47no08 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:04no08 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 20:11yes923 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:13yes2011 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:35yes1713 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:38no06 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:17yes1015 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:17yes52 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:12no030 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:21yes1076 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:08yes961 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:37yes921 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 21:01no02 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:42no04 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:48yes1420 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 21:00yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:29yes2412 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:12yes54 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:49yes2923 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:45yes52 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:46no029 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:36yes3040 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:44yes2499 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 21:24yes1028 s

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

Category-scoped readings
Adapt read as Adapt Learning
Articulate Rise read as Articulate Rise 360
Cornerstone read as Cornerstone OnDemand
Coursebox read as Coursebox AI
Gomo read as Gomo Learning
Litmos read as SAP Litmos
PowerPoint read as Microsoft PowerPoint
dominKnow read as dominKnow | ONE
iSpring LMS read as iSpring Learn
Unresolved, counted raw
7 Taps
Articulate 360 - Storyline/Rise
Articulate Presenter
Articulate Studio
Atticus
D-ID
D2L Creator+
HeyGen
Icegram
InDesign
Lingio
Oppi (formerly Adapt)
Paradiso Authoring Tool
ProWritingAid
Raptivity
Reedsy Studio
Shopify
Slack Docs
Weebly
domi/Co.llab
iSpring Cam Pro
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.

Also in learning and development

The other categories of this function, with the leader in each.
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