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

Course authoring tools for enterprise buyers

Asked as “elearning authoring tool”, and as “course creation software”, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. 42 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing
Articulate 360
Clear leader
52% of first choices, clear leader.
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%ContestedStanding →EnterpriseArticulate 36052%Clear leaderThis page

01The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for an enterprise B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Articulate 36052%13%46endorsed leader
02Easygenerator10%10%20accepted challenger
03Adobe Captivate5%14%35accepted challenger
04Elucidat5%12%33accepted challenger
05dominKnow | ONE5%4%24accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
07Lectora0%8%12accepted challenger
06iSpring Suite0%7%27accepted 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

One product takes 52% of first choices here, so the chart would put six markers in one corner and one at the far edge. The two measurements it plots are columns in the standing above: share, and the negative label rate. Zero products carry a negative rate above 25% in this category. Jump to the standing

02What they warned about

Five of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. Claude Haiku 4.5, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Grok 4.1 Fast, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick and GLM 4.7 FlashX 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.
Articulate 360
13%
6 of 46 labels negative · 6 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Tools to Avoid for Your Use Case ... gets expensive fast with many authors” Kimi K2, budget prompt
Adobe Captivate
14%
5 of 35 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“Avoid or approach with extreme caution... the current state of Adobe Captivate poses a high risk of technical debt.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt
Elucidat
12%
4 of 33 labels negative · 4 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“Tools to Avoid for Your Use Case ... $1,650/user/year minimum, quote-based for 50+ users” Kimi K2, budget prompt
360Learning
38%
3 of 8 labels negative · 3 of 12 models · 2 hard negative
“such as Docebo, Cornerstone, or 360Learning—come with native, built-in course builders... The Verdict: Avoid for core, high-value corporate training.” Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative 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

65 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. 922 links across 270 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

elearningindustry.com
37 answers · 57 citations · 10 models
guideflow.com
vendor site · Guideflow27 answers · 33 citations · 9 models
gartner.com
vendor site · Gartner26 answers · 30 citations · 10 models
confirm.com
vendor site · Confirm25 answers · 26 citations · 10 models
elearningsolutionslab.com
23 answers · 23 citations · 10 models
colossyan.com
vendor site · Colossyan21 answers · 23 citations · 9 models
intellum.com
vendor site · Intellum18 answers · 18 citations · 8 models
ispringsolutions.com
16 answers · 20 citations · 10 models
easygenerator.com
vendor site · Easygenerator15 answers · 24 citations · 8 models
g2.com
14 answers · 23 citations · 7 models
dominknow.com
vendor site · dominKnow13 answers · 20 citations · 7 models
knowlify.com
13 answers · 13 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.

gartner.com/reviews/market/elearning-authoring-tools
25 answers · 10 models
confirm.com/blog/elearning-authoring-tools
24 answers · 10 models
elearningsolutionslab.com/best-elearning-authoring-tools
22 answers · 9 models
colossyan.com/posts/elearning-authoring-tools-comparison-chart-for-2026-top…
21 answers · 9 models
intellum.com/resources/blog/elearning-authoring-tools
14 answers · 8 models
easygenerator.com/en/guides/elearning-software-authoring-tools
13 answers · 8 models
elearningindustry.com/directory/software-categories/elearning-authoring-too…
12 answers · 9 models
knowlify.com/articles/best-elearning-authoring-tools
12 answers · 7 models
elearningindustry.com/the-authoring-tool-market-has-changed-how-to-choose-w…
11 answers · 10 models
guideflow.com/blog/help-authoring-tools
11 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 an enterprise B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which course creation software would you recommend to a large B2B company with thousands of employees?”Comparative“What are the top enterprise-grade authoring tools and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best elearning authoring tool for a large company that needs predictable total cost across thousands of users?”Scale-constrained“We are a 5,000 person company with SSO, SOC 2 and procurement review requirements evaluating an elearning authoring tool. What should we look at?”Negative“Which authoring tools should a large enterprise avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Articulate Storyline
One alternativeAdobe Captivate
against: MoodleCornerstone OnDemandChanged
Four alternativesBlackboard Learn, Docebo, SAP SuccessFactors Learning, Skillsoft
against: LinkedIn LearningArticulate 360
Four alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, iSpring Suite
Elucidat
One alternativeiSpring Suite
against: Articulate 360no first choiceagainst: Adobe, Elucidat
GPT-5.4 miniArticulate 360
Two alternativesAdobe Captivate, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360Held
Six alternatives360Learning, Absorb LMS, Elucidat, Intellum Evolve, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360
Six alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, Lectora, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
Adobe Captivateagainst: Articulate 360no first choicenothing named
Gemini 3.5 FlashElucidat
Three alternativesArticulate 360, Easygenerator, dominKnow | ONE
Articulate 360Changed
Five alternativesCYPHER Learning, Docebo, Elucidat, Thinkific, dominKnow | ONE
Articulate 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Create by Confirm, Easygenerator, Lectora, dominKnow | ONE
Articulate 360
Five alternativesAdapt Framework / Adapt Builder, Adobe Captivate, Easygenerator, H5P, dominKnow | ONE
against: ElucidatArticulate 360
Three alternativesEasygenerator, Elucidat, dominKnow | ONE
against: 360Learning, Adapt Learning, Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Coassemble, Cornerstone OnDemand, Docebo, Easygenerator, H5P
Perplexity SonarArticulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat
Articulate 360Held
Three alternativesDocebo, LearnUpon, iSpring Learn
Articulate 360
Six alternativesAdobe RoboHelp, Author-it, ClickHelp, Elucidat, MadCap Flare, Paligo
Easygeneratoragainst: Articulate 360no first choiceagainst: Google Drive, MadCap Flare, SharePoint
Grok 4.1 FastArticulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Elucidat, iSpring Suite
Cornerstone OnDemand, DoceboChanged
Two alternativesAbsorb LMS, SAP Litmos
against: 360Learning, Articulate 360Articulate 360
Seven alternativesAdobe Captivate, Adobe RoboHelp, Elucidat, Lectora, MadCap Flare, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360, Easygenerator
One alternativeiSpring Suite
against: ElucidatArticulate Rise 360
Three alternativesAdapt Learning, Elucidat, Gomo Learning
against: Airtable, Bubble, Google Drive, SharePoint
Mistral SmallArticulate 360, Intellum Evolve
One alternativeiSpring Suite
Articulate 360, TalentLMSChanged
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Coursebox AI, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Author-it, MadCap Flare, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
against: ComposicaArticulate 360
One alternativeElucidat
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashArticulate 360
Four alternativesAdobe Captivate, Elucidat, Lectora, dominKnow | ONE
against: Coursebox AI, MindsmithDoceboChanged
Six alternativesArticulate 360, Cornerstone OnDemand, D2L Brightspace, SAP Litmos, Valamis, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, Lectora, dominKnow | ONE
Easygenerator
One alternativedominKnow | ONE
against: Articulate 360no first choiceagainst: Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Confluence, MadCap Flare, SAP Enable Now
Llama 4 MaverickArticulate 360
Five alternativesAdobe Captivate, Easygenerator, Elucidat, Gomo Learning, iSpring Suite
TalentLMSChanged
Four alternativesAdobe Captivate, Articulate 360, Coursebox AI, iSpring Suite
Adobe RoboHelp
Four alternativesElucidat, HelpNDoc, Intellum Evolve, MadCap Flare
Articulate 360
Two alternativesElucidat, iSpring Suite
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashArticulate 360
Two alternativesAdobe Captivate, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360Held
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Docebo, dominKnow | ONE
no first choiceAdobe Captivate
Three alternativesArticulate 360, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
no first choiceagainst: Adobe Captivate, Coursebox AI, Easygenerator, Gomo Learning, Lectora, Microsoft PowerPoint, ProProfs Training Maker, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
Kimi K2Articulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Elucidat, Lectora
Articulate 360Held
Four alternativesCornerstone OnDemand, Docebo, SAP Litmos, iSpring Suite
Articulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Elucidat, dominKnow | ONE
against: Gomo Learning, iSpring SuitedominKnow | ONE
One alternativeEasygenerator
against: Adobe Captivate, Articulate 360, Elucidatno first choice
Three alternativesArticulate Storyline, Elucidat, dominKnow | ONE
against: Adobe Captivateagainst: ChatGPT
GLM 4.7 FlashXArticulate 360
Six alternativesAdobe Captivate, Colossyan, D2L Brightspace Lumi, Easygenerator, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
DoceboChanged
Six alternatives360Learning, Absorb LMS, Cornerstone OnDemand, Moodle, SAP Litmos, Skilljar
Articulate 360
Three alternativesAdobe Captivate, Lectora, iSpring Suite
dominKnow | ONE
One alternativeElucidat
against: 360Learning, Gomo Learning, Skilljarno first choiceagainst: Adobe RoboHelp, Author-it, Confluence, Google Docs, MadCap Flare, Microsoft Word
MiniMax M2.5Articulate 360
One alternativeiSpring Suite
Articulate 360Held
Four alternativesAdobe Captivate, LearnWorlds, Teachable, Thinkific
Articulate 360
Two alternativesAdobe Captivate, H5P
Easygenerator
One alternativedominKnow | ONE
no first choicenothing named
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 20:39no06 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 18:35yes48 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:25yes1226 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 17:53yes186 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:52yes3816 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:46yes54 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:56yes913 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:35yes52 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 20:56yes520 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 17:53yes921 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:34yes1256 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:31yes520 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:34no04 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:02yes36 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:42yes923 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:47yes196 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:50yes3824 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:11yes55 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 21:08yes2422 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 21:03yes53 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:36yes516 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:25yes1535 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:54yes23115 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:57yes517 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:50yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:08yes311 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:25yes1933 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:43yes207 s
ComparativeGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 18:00yes3519 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 18:08yes2013 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:37yes1721 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:25yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:38yes1423 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 21:13yes2339 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 21:12yes1479 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 19:43yes1940 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:00yes1611 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 20:58yes36 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:32yes2129 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 19:06yes206 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 19:36yes3819 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 21:41yes55 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 19:18yes2533 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 18:47yes53 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 18:48no038 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 18:36yes2354 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:43yes2776 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 18:32yes2075 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 18:48yes1817 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:03no010 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 19:33yes1425 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 20:29yes2010 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 20:36yes1912 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 20:58no09 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 18:13yes1823 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 19:11yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 19:11no032 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:39yes1455 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 18:31yes15151 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 17:56yes518 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-09-17 19:08yes189 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-09-17 21:06no05 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-09-17 18:16yes1628 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-09-17 18:57yes207 s
Negative framingGrok 4.1 Fastspacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-09-17 21:21yes2313 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-09-17 19:38yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via fireworks2026-09-17 20:45yes2829 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-09-17 20:43yes85 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-09-17 17:59yes2374 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-09-17 20:14yes3035 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-09-17 19:25yes2153 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-09-17 20:21yes1934 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
Absorb read as Absorb LMS
Adapt read as Adapt Learning
Cornerstone read as Cornerstone OnDemand
Coursebox read as Coursebox AI
Dominknow read as dominKnow | ONE
Gomo read as Gomo Learning
Moodle Workplace read as Moodle
SAP SuccessFactors read as SAP SuccessFactors Learning
Sana read as Sana Learn
dominKnow read as dominKnow | ONE
iSpring LMS read as iSpring Learn
Unresolved, counted raw
Acrolinx
Adapt Framework / Adapt Builder (Open-Source)
Adobe
Adobe Experience Manager
Articulate Frontline
Bubble
CoreMedia
Create by Confirm (formerly Elucidat)
D2L Brightspace Lumi
LimeJump
RapidFire Tools
SAP Enable Now
Sanity
Storyblok
Writer
XMetaL
oXygen
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.
← Compliance trainingLearning experience plat →