# Course authoring tools: what AI models recommend, November 2026

Gane Index, November 2026 Edition. Asked as "elearning authoring tool" and as "course creation software", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/learning/course-authoring-tools/2026-11

**Standing:** Articulate 360 leads with 27% of first choices; verdict contested. 55 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Articulate 360](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/articulate-360/index.md) | 27% | 16% | 43 |
| 2 | [H5P](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/h5p/index.md) | 18% | 6% | 18 |
| 3 | [iSpring Suite](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/ispring-suite/index.md) | 11% | 8% | 51 |
| 4 | [360Learning](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/360learning/index.md) | 11% | 0% | 10 |
| 5 | [Easygenerator](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/easygenerator/index.md) | 4% | 3% | 35 |
| 6 | [TalentLMS](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/talentlms/index.md) | 4% | 0% | 10 |
| 8 | [Adobe Captivate](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/adobe-captivate/index.md) | 2% | 21% | 47 |
| 9 | [Articulate Storyline](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/articulate-storyline/index.md) | 2% | 19% | 16 |
| 20 | [Elucidat](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/elucidat/index.md) | 0% | 11% | 19 |
| 21 | [dominKnow | ONE](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/dominknow-one/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 12 |
| 22 | [Lectora](https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/vendors/lectora/index.md) | 0% | 22% | 18 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 111 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: no first choice
- GPT-5.4 mini: Articulate 360; alternatives Adobe Captivate, Elucidat, iSpring Suite
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Articulate 360; alternatives Easygenerator, Elucidat, dominKnow | ONE, iSpring Suite
- Perplexity Sonar: Articulate 360; alternatives Adobe Captivate, Easygenerator, iSpring Suite
- Grok 4.20: Articulate 360; alternatives Easygenerator, iSpring Suite
- Mistral Small: Articulate 360; alternatives Adobe Captivate, Easygenerator, iSpring Suite
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Articulate 360; alternatives iSpring Suite
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Articulate 360; alternatives Adobe Captivate, Easygenerator, iSpring Suite
- Kimi K2: iSpring Suite; alternatives Articulate 360, Easygenerator, Elucidat
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Articulate 360; alternatives Adobe Captivate, Coassemble, Easygenerator, iSpring Suite
- MiniMax M2.5: Easygenerator; alternatives Articulate 360, iSpring Suite
- GPT-6 Luna: Articulate 360; alternatives Easygenerator, dominKnow | ONE
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Articulate 360; alternatives iSpring Suite

## Sources the answers cite

68 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- easygenerator.com: 37 answers, 46 citations
- elearningindustry.com: 23 answers, 34 citations
- selecthub.com: 23 answers, 25 citations
- smartcat.com: 19 answers, 19 citations
- ispringsolutions.com: 18 answers, 20 citations
- softwareadvice.com: 17 answers, 24 citations
- capterra.com: 15 answers, 21 citations
- reddit.com: 14 answers, 17 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://easygenerator.com/en/guides/elearning-software-authoring-tools (33 answers)
- https://selecthub.com/c/elearning-authoring-tools (22 answers)
- https://smartcat.com/blog/l-and-d-tools (19 answers)
- https://ispringsolutions.com/blog/elearning-authoring-tools (15 answers)
- https://elearningindustry.com/directory/software-categories/elearning-authoring-tools (13 answers)
- https://elearningindustry.com/best-elearning-authoring-tools-and-course-creation-software (10 answers)
- https://learnworlds.com/blog/coursedesign/elearning-authoring-tools (9 answers)
- https://raccoongang.com/blog/elearning-authoring-tools-elearning-professionals (9 answers)
- https://softwareadvice.com/lms/course-creation-comparison (8 answers)
- https://guideflow.com/blog/elearning-authoring-software (7 answers)

## Warned against

- Adobe Captivate: 10 of 47 labels negative. "Don't start new projects in Classic; existing users should plan migration." (Kimi K2, negative prompt)
- Articulate 360: 7 of 43 labels negative. "Avoid premium tools like Articulate 360 (~$1,700+/year)" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Lectora: 4 of 18 labels negative. "Generally avoid/deprecate: Legacy/Flash-based tools (older versions of Captivate, older Lectora versions, etc.)" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- iSpring Suite: 4 of 51 labels negative. "old iSpring versions exporting to SWF) are defunct" (Gemini 3.5 Flash, negative prompt)

## Movement since October 2026

Floor: 13 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
Same leader: Articulate 360 at 27%.

- 360Learning: 0% to 11%, +11. Inside the floor by 2 points · rank 20 → 4 of 111.
- iSpring Suite: 16% to 11%, −5. Inside the floor by 8 points · rank 3 of 111, unchanged.
- Articulate 360: 30% to 27%, −3. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 1 of 111, unchanged.
- H5P: 20% to 18%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 2 of 111, unchanged.
- Easygenerator: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 8 → 5 of 111.
- TalentLMS: 2% to 4%, +2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 15 → 6 of 111.
- Elucidat: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 9 → 20 of 111.
- dominKnow | ONE: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 10 → 21 of 111.
- Adapt Learning: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 12 → 24 of 111.
- Adobe Captivate: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 11 → 8 of 111.
- Articulate Storyline: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 14 → 9 of 111.
- Articulate Rise 360: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 13 points · rank 13 → 15 of 111.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/hr/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, November 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/hr.