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Adobe Captivate

Score6.8 out of 10

296 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Adobe Captivate?

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.

Categories & Use Cases

Key Features

Learn about the best (and worst!) features Adobe Captivate has to offer, as determined by TrustRadius' reviewers.
Based on 296 ratings of Adobe Captivate's features
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Top Performing Features

  • Social learning

    Includes features for collaboration and knowledge sharing among peers.

    Category average: 7.9

  • Structured Learning

    The content is provided in a structured way that builds upon itself as users progress through the material.

    Category average: 8.2

  • Cloud-Based Content

    Learning materials are hosted in the cloud, allowing users anywhere, anytime access with an internet connection.

    Category average: 8.2

Areas for Improvement

  • Historical Metrics

    Centralized learning history where users can track their progress and learning goals.

    Category average: 8.1

  • Multi-Lingual Support

    Content provided supports multiple languages or translations.

    Category average: 7.8

  • Automation & Integration

    The platform integrates with various other systems to allow for automation features such as adding or removing users from courses and auto-enrollment in courses.

    Category average: 7.9

Reviews

What users are saying about Adobe Captivate.
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Adobe Captivate Review

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Courseware development that solves the training needs of multiple departments in the company.

Pros

  • 360 View
  • Video insertions
  • Take-home license option

Cons

  • The top issue is with Adobe Captivate vaporware - several years of Adobe promises of updates. Adobe Captivate is still called "2019". I've reviewed the prototype on several occasions over the course of 2 years, yet nothing is coming to market.
  • Since Adobe dropped 360 view support in Photoshop, how are we supposed to edit 360 photos in Captivate? I feel this is very disappointing since Adobe Captivate's 360 feature is amazing. We've had to use non-Adobe products like Affinity to support the 360 feature.
  • Adobe Captivate courses frequently lock up in SumTotal LMS (SCORM 2004 v3), while other products like Articulate work flawlessly.
  • PowerPoint import is a big problem for us. In my experience, Adobe Captivate maintains hooks into the original PPT file, causing many problems and fails if the referenced PPT is updated or moved.
  • No easy way to darken previous bullets after they have passed to the next bullet unless we use complicated scripting.
  • Adobe Captivate is not part of Creative Suite, even though it depends on Creative Suite for many editing tools (imaging editing, video editing, etc.). It also makes licensing a challenge for the company.
  • In my opinion, the timeline is clunky and buggy, especially when adjusting the end position. Some blocks in the timeline jump around instead of moving and/or truncating with the end-point adjustments.

Most Important Features

  • 360 view
  • Video insertion
  • Take-home license

Return on Investment

  • In my experience, Adobe Captivate courseware failures in SumTotal LMS have resulted in our aircraft mechanics not meeting qualifications, prohibiting them from repairing aircraft and resulting in delays in releasing the aircraft to service.
  • In my experience, it is very difficult getting a hold of an Adobe technical service agent who speaks clear English, causing long delays in resolving problems.

Alternatives Considered

Articulate Storyline, Articulate 360 and Articulate Studio

Other Software Used

Articulate 360, Blender, Adobe PhotoShop, Affinity Photo, Canva, Microsoft Powerpoint, Microsoft SharePoint, Adobe Premiere Pro

Usability

Best tool on the market for software demonstrations and simulations

Incentivized
Gabe Nance
eLearning Curriculum Developer in Sales at Thryv (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We primarily use Adobe Captivate for software demonstrations, simulations and/or training videos that contain software demonstrations. I've tried several other systems (Camtasia, Powtoons, etc.) and Captivate is by far the superior system for software demonstrations and simulations. In fact, we often use it in conjunction with other systems (After Effects, Powtoons, Camtasia, etc.) to create "next level" training videos!

Pros

  • Software demonstrations
  • Software simulations
  • Training videos that include software demonstrations
  • Video effects that include specific motion paths

Cons

  • It doesn't handle animated gifs well at all in my opinion
  • It would be nice to have more control over precise motion paths (like After Effects)
  • It would be nice to have more assets ready to incorporate (like After Effects)

Return on Investment

  • 30% increase in learner engagement for software demonstrations
  • 56% increase in learner engagement for use in hybrid training using Zoom/Teams
  • Overall improvement in learner satisfaction scores (12%)

Usability

Alternatives Considered

Camtasia, Snagit, Powtoon, Adobe After Effects and Microsoft Powerpoint

Captivate is the #1 tool for eLearning- Hands Down

Incentivized
Cheryl MacLeod
Instructional Designer III at Black Knight (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Adobe Captivate to create software simulations training but we do not use the video simulations as recording is blocked by our ISO. We have a variety of software for servicing mortgages and consumer loans, so most of our training is software training. We do have some industry knowledge type training we offer as well.

Pros

  • Awesome graphic editing features like round-tripping from Adobe Captivate to Photoshop is a huge time saver.
  • The QuickStart slides are an amazing time saver.
  • The library functionality is very useful as well.

Cons

  • Ability to crop photos into shapes other than squares/rectangles would be useful.
  • Ability to preview just one slide or from any slide in scaled HTML5 format.

Most Important Features

  • Awesome graphics functionality.
  • Amazing assets.
  • Round tripping into other Adobe products for edits.

Return on Investment

  • I can't really speak to this .

Alternatives Considered

Articulate Storyline

Great for Intermediate-Level Instructional Designers!

Incentivized
Emma Wright
Learning and Development Specialist in Human Resources at Cellular Sales (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Adobe Captivate to author all of our e-Learning courses. Specifically, we use Adobe Captivate to create SCORM shells that contain multiple slides and videos, and we use it for the interactive assessment options such as interactive video, hot spot assessments, knowledge checks, etc.. We use Adobe Captivate to meet needs for knowledge share, skill training, and behavior leaning.

Pros

  • Interactivity.
  • Assessment.
  • Advanced actioning.
  • LMS compatibility.

Cons

  • The asset design is dated.
  • Functions are not intuitive for new users.
  • Troubleshooting variables, advanced actions, and coding can be challenging.

Most Important Features

  • Assessment.
  • Interactive learning.
  • Incorporating videos.
  • Advanced actioning.

Return on Investment

  • Our company works in wireless retail. Users who completed our Adobe Captivate training on the Motorola Edge product were over 130% more likely to sell one or more Motorola Edge devices within the first month of product launch..

Alternatives Considered

Articulate 360

Other Software Used

Vyond, Camtasia, Canva

Adobe Captivate - A challenging experience

Incentivized
Cliff HolversonView profile
Instructional Media Designer at On Center Software by ConstructConnect (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our company decided to use Adobe Captivate to begin creating eLearning content for our customers to supplement our instructor-led and video training. We hope to utilize self-paced learning to introduce concepts to our clients before they enter the IL training space so they can get the most out of their time with a live instructor. To this end, we have created several courses that cover the basics of our software. Each course uses the "software simulation" portion of Adobe Captivate, along with some knowledge check questions.

Pros

  • Software simulation
  • Branching
  • Customization

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.

Most Important Features

  • Software simulation
  • Theming/branding
  • Consistency
  • Ease of Use

Return on Investment

  • Price point - it is very cheap compared to others
  • Familiarity - I am very comfortable with other Adobe products, so Adobe Captivate was an easy choice
  • Ease of use - this is negative; it has taken me a long time to get up and running and document how things work so other users in my department can create courses consistently

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft Powerpoint

Other Software Used

Adobe PhotoShop, Camtasia, Audacity