Shorthand vs. Vyond

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Shorthand
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Shorthand enables the user to create interactive multimedia stories for any online audience — all with no code. The vendor boasts that Shorthand is used by hundreds of publishers, brands, non-profits, and more — including the BBC, Honda, Business Insider, and Doctors Without Borders.N/A
Vyond
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Vyond (formerly GoAnimate) is a cloud-based platform for producing custom animated videos. It is used by educators as well as in business contexts by advertisers and content marketers, and for demos and presentations.
$99
per month
Pricing
ShorthandVyond
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Starter
$99
per month
Professional
$199
per month
Enterprise
$1649
per year per user
Agency
$1999
per year per user
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
ShorthandVyond
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsDiscount available for annual billing on Starter and Professional plans.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
ShorthandVyond
Features
ShorthandVyond
Content Creation
Comparison of Content Creation features of Product A and Product B
Shorthand
9.0
Ratings
11% above category average
Vyond
-
Ratings
Content collaboration9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Content Publishing
Comparison of Content Publishing features of Product A and Product B
Shorthand
6.8
Ratings
17% below category average
Vyond
-
Ratings
Content hub9.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Embedded CTAs7.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Content distribution6.00 Ratings00 Ratings
Content promotion5.00 Ratings00 Ratings
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ShorthandVyond
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All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
ShorthandVyond
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
6.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
-
(0 ratings)
7.6
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.0
(0 ratings)
7.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
-
(0 ratings)
2.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
ShorthandVyond
Likelihood to Recommend
Shorthand is ideally suited to visual stories where you have a good number of images and/or embeds or video to include. It is well-suited to long-form stories, where you wish to keep the readers' attention longer than usual. It can help to differentiate particularly important or intriguing stories from others on your website - and for this reason, it could be used as a premium content tool, perhaps for subscribers. It can also be used to showcase stories about awards you've organised, giving them special treatment. It is less suited to breaking news, or very time-sensitive news stories, as it can take some time to prepare, post or update shorthand stories. And it doesn't work well for stories with strong accompanying imagery
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Vyond is great for creating professional looking animations even if you have no experience in animation or video. Vyond is user friendly and has a relatively simple learning curve. The templates and graphics provided makes it easy to create custom animations and storytelling.
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Pros
  • Enabling visual storytelling with multiple pictures
  • Embedding rich media within a story, including video
  • Engaging readers for longer than average dwell times
  • Making it easy to create striking article design without coding experience
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  • Easy to use features that help you create the story behind your video.
  • There are collaboration tools (if you have the right plan) that help you work on a video as a team.
  • I like the different styles of video that you can choose from.
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Cons
  • Additional flexibility in how text is overlaid on pictures would be welcome so that there are more choices on what images to use with particular layouts
  • Enabling users to control the path of text - for example, enabling runaround - could enable some excellent designs
  • Adding additional section templates could speed up design
  • More flexibility in caption placement would be helpful
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  • The fact that it's on a cloud server means that sometimes the software can get clunky/slow.
  • There may be extra work involved if you have multiple characters talking in one audio file and you want them to sync their mouths with their appropriate lines.
  • Characters having multiple actions/expressions means multiple scenes, which can be very cumbersome to manage.
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Likelihood to Renew
No answers on this topic
I was recently at a conference where I learned that many of my peers also use Vyond, solidifying my opinion that it is the right tool for out needs. Further more, one of our content vendors also uses it, ensuring that I will continue to use it as I believe this will facilitate our collaborations in the future
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Usability
No answers on this topic
This program is great when you have no video experience! There's only a little of a learning curve to the program. In general, the user interface is great and easier than using a program like Adobe premier. It's a great resource to use as a marketer.
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Reliability and Availability
I have never known it to be down during my use of it. All you require is an internet connection to log in and you can use it on multiple devices. Adding ease of accessibility, there are simple ways to log in. I've also never known a Shorthand story to go down once live on our site.
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Vendor guy made it difficult bc he was only interested in selling
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Performance
Due to the integration with our content management software, there is a short delay on our site while it loads, which may cause some readers to drift away. However, I've seen other sites where it instantly loads articles, so I believe this to be down to the content management software behind our site more than Shorthand itself. Once that brief initial period is over, it doesn't require additional loading time.
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Vyond is just an animated video creation tool. You have to use your video content and track its performance through other means. Because it is an online tool it doesn't hog your resources or slow down any other tools that I use. It is a stand-alone product and it doesn't need to integrate with any of our other tools. It does what it does and that is all we need.
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Support Rating
No answers on this topic
I haven’t had any issues that required me to contact their support team. However, I believe support in any product starts before you have to call for help. Vyond provides an option for priority queue when you have their professional option. This is great for folks who need things done faster, especially when businesses can’t afford any downtime. Their Live chat feature is also reassuring, because I don’t always want to spend time on the phone or on hold if their call volume is high and I need to solve an issue.
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Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
There should be a Hypercare (expedited problem solving) support level on new rollouts for existing customers
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Alternatives Considered
No answers on this topic
Vyond is WAY better than VideoScribe (although, to be fair, it's also about six times more expensive)! It's much easier to work with and more versatile in terms of styles and what you can do with it. We used VideoScribe for a few years and then ditched it and went looking for a replacement tool. Another application was being used by another learning developer, but that was nixed by IT as not being secure enough. Vyond has given us both the functionality/assets we need and the security that makes IT happy.
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Scalability
As a web-based service, it is easy for users to log into from anywhere. Content can easily be shared, as you can set up teams that enable access to each other's work as required. And content can be reviewed by others before publication using the sharing function. You can also view how an article will look on different devices.
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No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
  • Helped us create one of our top 10 most-read and most-shared stories in the last year
  • Enabled us to elevate key pieces of content, boosting dwell time on our site
  • But can also be time-consuming to adopt for some stories, meaning you need to choose well what stories really deserve the investment in time
  • Boosted collaboration between teams via its ability to share, including offering the chance for others to preview content prior to publication
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  • Allows the training/support teams a quick way to provide “how-to” videos, similar to having a YouTube channel.
  • Our update videos are stored on a channel, which allows us to have a video record of how the project is emerging
  • Leadership likes that we can put out a video very quickly
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ScreenShots

Shorthand Screenshots

Screenshot of Easily add sections and adjust styling.