Comparitive Review Articulate vs. Coral Presenter

Feb 23, 2011

I am hoping some of you can be of assistance to me.  I am a sales manager for a small company and have the most in depth knowledge of our product line.  It is for this reason that I have also been given the duties of a corporate training program developer & manager.  I am new to this method of education.  Up to this point, all of our training has been conducted in person at a customers location.  

Here is my dilemma.  We are currently researching various software systems to develop the necessary SCORM compliant programs.  We have researched a few and one that my marketing director found is CORAL - PRESENTER.  Due to the aggressive price point, he feels this will do all we need without the price tag of Articulate.

After my discussions with others, and my research, it appears as though Articulate is the standard in the industry.

I know I am on a Articulate forum but I am looking for honest opinions and advice.  I am hoping that some of you have experience with both Articulate and Coral, and can give me the pro's and con's both provide so we can make an educated decision.

Thank you for your assistance!

12 Replies
Gerry Wasiluk

Hi! 

I've not tried Coral Presenter and am very biased.  So take all this with a grain of salt.  Articulate is the leader here in PPT-to e-learning software.

I would urge you to look not just at price or even features.  Look also at support and service after the sale.

For that, I know of no other e-learning tool company that supports its users "after the sale" with as many resources as Articulate does (many of which are FREE). 

And that's not my opinion alone.  I've talked to many e-learning developers in our area and they agree.  No one supports its users like Articulate.

This community site is testament to that.  Look at all the folks who participate.  Look at all the tutorials and other resources provided for you.

With Articulate, you are truly never alone using the software.   That's a tremendous plus in my book.

Brian Allen

Hmmm...  When you said "Coral - Presenter", I thought for sure you must have meant "Corel", and I then thought "Corel has a new Presenter style product - THAT'S strange!"

Coral Presenter - One of the first things that pop out is the lack of an Engage-style feature, which might be a factor if you are looking to build more interactive courses.  Additionally there is no video conversion software, and unless Coral Presenter automatically converts video when you import it you will need an additional piece of software to do this.  My guess is that if Coral Presenter converted video it would be one of the feature highlights, and it's not.

The best thing you can do is put together a mock project/course that will incorporate all of the features, even the nice-to-have features, that your company would like to see in your eLearning courses.  Then download free trial versions of both products and try to create that course, and base your decision on the end product you are able to produce with each product as well as ease of use, scalability, etc.

Steve Flowers

Attention to detail and reliability are important to me as a customer. A couple of things jump out at me on the Coral site. JS errors are hitting my old browser. I'm also not able to load their tour (guessing it's built using their toolset) -- it just stares at me with a Flash default loading component (0%). 

The password protect and trigger animations feature sound like neat additions though. I'm glad to see more tools in this space. Competition benefits everyone.

Robert Kennedy

Brent, All I can say is this with regards to the community.  You posted 45 mins ago and already you have 5 responses.  Bet you can't get that anywhere else.  So, I agree with Brian's suggestion on putting together the mock demos. 

I took a look at the Coral site and checked out some of the demos.  Maybe, I'm biased having only used Articulate, but I'm not impressed with even the aesthetic look of the player.  For me, blurry edges and icons make a difference in how professional the product looks.  

Additionally, I don't think those demos show the best use of their products.  Or maybe it does.  I don't know.  But, Tom Kuhlmann says to put your best out there .  Can I have a medal Tom, please?

The quiz option of Coral is limited in the types of Quiz questions.  Plus, as Brian also said, the lack of an Engage type feature puts Articulate Studio way ahead in my opinion.

I'm just one guy but its like my parents always say, sometimes you pay a bit more for quality.  If you pay less, then you end up buying it again.

Bottom line, I would really download the trials of both, make your comparisons, create something usable and then allow the stakeholders to make the buying decisions for your company.

Phil Mayor

Not looked at Coral but one of the nice features of articulate is it publishes each slide individually instead of creating one swf, this ensures the player starts as soon as possible (only needs to load three slides not the entire content) also the community are great for finding soolutions

sorry I am biased

Phil

Tom Kuhlmann

Years ago I used to do some consulting with not-for-profit groups.  Most often they would use open source and/or the lowest cost solutions.  In most cases what they saved in the purchase they spent (and a lot more) on support and dealing with other issues. 

Echoing what some others have already said, the ongoing support for software purchases should be a major consideration.  I'm proud of what we do here.  We're not just committed to selling the software.  We're also committed in you getting the most out of it.

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