Adobe Captivate vs. Pluralsight Skills

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Captivate
Score 6.8 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Captivate is an elearning authoring and course design tool (or LCMS). It supports mobile HTML5 content. Captivate’s users are commonly midsized businesses to enterprises. Adobe Captivate includes some prebuilt assets as well as customizable workflows.
$33.99
per month
Pluralsight Skills
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Pluralsight Skills is a skill development solution that enables employees to build in-demand skills in a way that’s personalized to their current knowledge and preferred way to learn. The course library includes content on software development, DevOps, machine learning, security infrastructure, and cloud, as well as certification practice exams, hands on learning experiences and cloud labs, and skills assessments.
$29
per month
Pricing
Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
Editions & Modules
Subscription
$33.99
per month
Student & Teacher Edition
$399
one-time fee
Upgrade
$499
one-time fee
Pereptual License
1,299
one-time fee
Individual - Standard
$29.00
per month
Individual - Premium
$45.00
per month
Team - Professional
$579.00
per user, per year
Team - Enterprise
$779.00
per user, per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
Considered Both Products
Adobe Captivate
Chose Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate outshines all of these other tools -Camtasia, Snagit, Powtoons, After Effects, PowerPoint - when it comes to software demonstrations, simulations and/or training videos that contain software demonstrations ( hybrid video containing software demonstrations). But …
Chose Adobe Captivate
1 common platform for reporting & tracking of completion for mandatory trainings. Ability to create own training and mandatory trainings are available & accessible for all employees + contractors
Chose Adobe Captivate
SWAT (internal LCMS) - more flexible but not common to many and difficult to keep up to date Adobe Connect - great for webinars and online classes with live instructor.
Chose Adobe Captivate
At the time Storyline seemed easier to use, but I was already committed to a project and investing time in learning Captivate for it. I also felt some loyalty to Adobe because I had received free Creative Cloud courses through the Adobe Education Exchange.
Chose Adobe Captivate
I use both. Both have their strengths and weaknesses but they complement each other.
Chose Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate easily outputs to HTML5 and give you a programming timeline. Lectora does not have a timeline which is a disadvantage when trying to program animations or any other time based interactions. Lectora does have programming capabilities, but at times is difficult to …
Chose Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate is the best software for the price, functionality, resources, and training.
Chose Adobe Captivate
It's the absolute worst. Bottom of the barrel. I would never select it. The FBI selected it so my consulting agency has to use it for them.
Chose Adobe Captivate
I selected Adobe Captivate because I can add html features and interactivity to my courses.
Chose Adobe Captivate
I've only ever authored in Adobe Captivate.
Chose Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate is a MAC based application that allows for local secure development. A big sell for MAC users.
Chose Adobe Captivate
Captivate is feature-rich and easy-to-use.
Chose Adobe Captivate
I did not select Captivate, it was selected for me. Articulate 360 is easier to use and has a better flow.
Chose Adobe Captivate
I use Camtasia for video editing, however, we have Premier Pro and are now learning to use it. Camtasia and Snagit we use for smaller projects. For bigger projects, we use them all.
Chose Adobe Captivate
Can't touch Authorware. Too bad Adobe killed it. I'd love it if Authorware could be resurrected, modernized and export to HTML5. THat would be the ultimate tool. Animate can do a lot more but it takes a lot more time to build.
Chose Adobe Captivate
Adobe Captivate has more availability and content to be able to change around. Again, I like Adobe Captivate more because of all the content that is available and the pre-made options.
Chose Adobe Captivate
While Captivate has some awesome niche features for some circumstances, currently it cannot beat the ease of use with Storyline. Whether it's content, variables, quizes, etc. things are just "easier" in Storyline. Even something as simple as triggering an event when the …
Chose Adobe Captivate
We are looking for easier templates, automated features, simulations, interactivity activities, and collaboration features.
Chose Adobe Captivate
Captivate is more difficult to figure out. However, once you get passed the learning curve it offers more variety and options than Camtasia. It allows for interactions, simulations, and the likes.
Chose Adobe Captivate
There is a lot more editing/customization capability in Captivate. Zoom is incredibly limited with what you can do within the software.
Pluralsight Skills
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Lynda is a very similar experience. Used it for a very short time and it was tied to classes at a university that I was taking. I think overall it would be very comparable. We only watched small segments that the instructors of the class found to be relevant. It was also great …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
It had more discounted offers back then... and still, more marketing is done. It's cheaper than LinkedIn Learning.

Downside, PluralSight is more [theoretical] than hands-on.
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Before using Pluralsight, staff was using YouTube to help them with developing certain aspects of their knowledge. However, YouTube is much less structured/organized than Pluralsight. Pluralsight has a very wide offering of courses and it has lot of good content. One quick …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Pluralsight does a much better job of delivery and course paths.
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Pluralsight is simply more robust and makes more sense for an organization like ours where we want our employees to have the freedom to explore a wide variety of disciplines, and the adaptability to start/stop courses at any skill level. On a trial basis, the feedback from our …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
They provide a lot of courses, but not every course is given and explained in detail like Pluralsight does.
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Pluralsight offers a much stronger technology learning opportunity than Lynda.com, but lags behind Lynda.com in its soft skills training. As a technical manager, I often recommend Pluralsight to my engineers for learning new skills but will use Lynda.com myself for improving my …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Although alternative e-learning platforms, such as Coursera, offer a wide variety of learning topics, their broad reach and extensive list subject matter clutters their platform. Unlike Pluralsight, Coursera offers a more classic / regimented style of online learning. It's very …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Treehouse and Pluralsight are in similar realms: video content for technology professionals. They're different in that Treehouse is geared towards beginners and people looking to switch careers to break into the industry and Pluralsight is better suited for seasoned …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Pluralsight offers a broad range of courses with high-quality content and features that surpass those of Udemy. My organization has adopted Pluralsight and built trust in it, especially with its strong offerings at the organizational level. In contrast, Udemy focuses more on …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
I think pluralsight's price point is a little better, and I think the depth and breadth of classes offered is oriented more towards my field than Coursera. While Coursera has a nicer interface, Pluralsight, at the time, had more classes and seems to be designed for enterprise …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Pluralsight has a broader offering, from design and drawing to enterprise software development. It offers content from professionals to professionals on well known technologies.
Most other competitors focus on few technologies and the offering is not as rich. They also don't …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
I often purchase courses on from Udemy when I don't see the content I need from Pluralsight. For example, When I needed to learn AngularJS, Pluralsight had many courses but the ones on Udemy quickly explained what they were going to build in the course and they provided small …
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Pluralsight is a great training resource and it was offered at the college. Before being a faculty member, I found free videos from Pluralsight (then, digital tutors) via YouTube and thought they were very helpful.
Chose Pluralsight Skills
Lynda is only a half-assesed online course whereas Pluralsight has a robust catalog of courses.
Features
Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Captivate
9.1
Ratings
7% above category average
Pluralsight Skills
7.9
Ratings
8% below category average
Course authoring8.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Course catalog or library9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Player/Portal8.00 Ratings7.10 Ratings
Learning content9.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.00 Ratings8.00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics9.00 Ratings6.90 Ratings
Social learning10.00 Ratings4.50 Ratings
Gamification8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
eLearning Content
Comparison of eLearning Content features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Captivate
8.4
Ratings
1% below category average
Pluralsight Skills
10.0
Ratings
17% above category average
Multi-Lingual Support7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Structured Learning10.00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Historical Metrics8.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Cloud-Based Content10.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Automation & Integration7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Course Searches00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
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Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
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Medium-sized Companies
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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Score 9.9 out of 10
Enterprises
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Score 9.9 out of 10
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User Ratings
Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
7.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
1.8
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
7.3
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
5.8
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
2.7
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
5.5
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
8.6
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(0 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe CaptivatePluralsight Skills
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe Captivate is well suited for software training. Even though we do not use the software simulation recording feature, we simulate the environment with screenshots and then roundtrip into Photoshop to make edits to a screenshot For example, they added 3 new fields and it affects 25 different slides in the course. I dummy up the 3 new fields in Photoshop, copy the layers with the new fields, flatten and save the screenshot and it's instantly updated in Abode Captivate. I then locate the next slide that needs the same new fields added and round trip into Photoshop and then I just select Paste in Place and flatten and save. The alignment is perfect and the screenshots never leave Adobe Captivate. I had a course that I had to do this to with about 25 slides and it was easy peasy.
Read full review
Awesome tool for teams looking to gain new skills or refine and update existing skills. I love the convenience of using this tool for recertification credits (i.e. PMP). Instead of identifying which classes I need to take, I can identify my interests and have recommendations presented for what paths I should take. It is a really helpful tool to create ladders for my team to transition from one role into the next. I think this is going to be a really beneficial tool.
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Pros
  • Easy learning curve. Captivate makes it easy for a new user to pick it up and understand where to begin. Adobe, in general, does this very well and Captivate is no exception. When you begin using Captivate, many of the tasks to create a video come naturally as things are laid out in a way that makes sense.
  • Embedding with LMS (Learning Management Systems). Adobe has made it very easy to deploy your produced video to any of the popular LMS's available. Captivate also gives you a very easy way of including a SCORM score for any quizzes that must be passed at the end of the video in order to proceed to the next video.
  • Capturing Audio has never been easier. With Captivate you can easily add voice-over audio that you can record directly inside of Captivate, or import a pre-recorded audio clip. You can import sounds from other sources for effects in the video and Captivate already includes all of the commonly used sounds for mouse-clicks, error sounds, etc.
Read full review
  • Pluralsight courses are delivered at a self-directed pace, enabling users to stop, rewind, or fast forward, depending on their familiarity with the content.
  • Pluralsight offers a wide variety of technical courses, providing opportunities to explore new skill areas beyond engineers' current responsibilities.
  • Pluralsight is available on most platforms, providing a high level of accessibility to the content.
Read full review
Cons
  • Templates. There seem to be "themes," but Adobe Captivate has a terrible time saving any sort of object preferences which makes it really difficult when a set of courses need to follow branding guidelines. I have to create a basic course and set up all my colors and whatnot and start every course using that.
  • Ease of use. It is like pulling teeth sometimes to get Adobe Captivate to do things. You may be able to get it to do it, but it'll be like a dozen or more steps which make creating courses incredibly tedious.
  • A bigger focus on software simulation. Adobe Captivate isn't designed for simulation, I get that, and I am happy it does as much as it does. However, it could be better to capture actions and things within a program. For instance, click and drag options and hot-key combinations.
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  • Finding ways to make courses more interactive and less lecture oriented would be helpful.
  • Quality of video and audio lectures could use updating to meet current expectations.
  • Continuing to stay on the bleeding edge of technology. Some classes can be outdated.
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Likelihood to Renew
We have hundreds of courses that were created in Adobe Captivate. It will take us a while to convert to Articulate. We'll need a license for another year and/or until Adobe comes out with a true update to the software.
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Great product and service so far. Awesome new content almost every week.
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Usability
Adobe Captivate does take some getting used to. There are features that are much more convoluted than they need to be, but overall it is a great product with a some excellent features. Being in a pretty small market, Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline dominate the space. They are not the same software, but allow for eLearning authoring. Each has their benefit and their downside, but, for me, Adobe Captivate edges out Storyline.
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Very, VERY easy to use.
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Support Rating
It is difficult to get in touch with Adobe Captivate support. With a seemingly limited number of resources, mostly outsourced, getting in contact with someone to help troubleshoot an issue is challenging. Typically wait times are long, and the desired path to resolution is to use an existing knowledge base or a self-help guide. It is certainly not a user-friendly experience.
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Each feedback I do for them, I get no response. Minimal communication and followups!
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Implementation Rating
I'm only aware of the problems Adobe Captivate had with SumTotal LMS and Upside LMS, requiring extensive contact with both internal and external support staff to fix the problems. We had no problems at all with Articulate.
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No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
While Captivate has some awesome niche features for some circumstances, currently it cannot beat the ease of use with Storyline. Whether it's content, variables, quizes, etc. things are just "easier" in Storyline. Even something as simple as triggering an event when the timeline reaches a certain point. We continue to keep Captivate and Storyline because we're hoping it Captivate will continue building its integration with other Adobe apps and become our and the industry standard.
Read full review
Treehouse and Pluralsight are in similar realms: video content for technology professionals. They're different in that Treehouse is geared towards beginners and people looking to switch careers to break into the industry and Pluralsight is better suited for seasoned professionals that want to hone skills and learn enterprise-level topics. Treehouse is able to really simplify a topic for almost anyone to understand. They clearly have a standard that all teachers ("authors") must follow. After a section, there's a good chance you'll take a short quiz to make sure you understand what you heard. Quizzes are not just multiple choice, you might also have to write a piece of code that accomplishes a goal that was just discussed. Pluralsight has professional and expert level content that Treehouse does not. There's not a strict standard that all authors ("teachers") must follow for providing content. Authors tend to have their own style of teaching. Very few of the courses will quiz you on comprehension. You are more responsible for your understanding of the information.
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Return on Investment
  • Adobe Captivate has allowed our instructors to engage students in ways we never have before.
  • Instructors who have used Adobe Captivate in our organization have reported higher levels of engagement with their courses and their students, theoretically leading to improved assessment of student performance.
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  • Pluralsight is truly cost-effective for staying relevant. An annual Pluralsight subscription for an entire team is far more cost-effective than sending one individual to in-person training for a week.
  • When we need to get up to speed on a technology, our Pluralsight subscription is right at hand. One quick search and we can get started. This helps us shorten the learning curve. Trying to find an in-person course has become difficult because the market has mostly transitioned to online courses.
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ScreenShots