iSpring Suite vs Elucidat: A Hands-On Comparison

Creating quality learning is tough work on its own, and wrestling with your authoring tool shouldn’t be a part of it. Some instructional design projects don’t fall short because of a lack of skills or time, but simply because the wrong tool was chosen for the job.

That’s why we’ve put iSpring Suite vs Elucidat side by side — two well-known eLearning authoring tools that offer strong capabilities but serve different needs, depending on your goals, team size, and content strategy.

I partnered with Anna Poli, Senior Instructional Designer at iSpring, to break down the comparison based on what really matters in practice: content creation experience, learning formats, team collaboration, AI features, pricing, and more. 

Whether you’re a solo ID or part of a larger L&D team, I invite you to read on to find the best fit for your workflow and your learners.

iSpring Suite is the flagship authoring tool from iSpring — a well-established name in the eLearning industry. It’s known for being intuitive and packed with advanced features that help course creators build almost any type of learning content.

The suite includes two parts: a desktop app that works right inside PowerPoint, and a cloud-based tool for collaboration, content storage, and even creation of an instructional design portfolio. This setup gives IDs the flexibility to create, manage, and review content with teammates — all in one place.

iSpring Suite supports all major eLearning standards: SCORM (1.2 and 2004), xAPI, cmi5, and AICC, making it easy to upload content to any LMS. eLearning courses are optimized for any screen size and can even be accessed offline, making it a strong choice for mobile learning.

Elucidat is a cloud-based authoring software that helps teams roll out polished, responsive courses across a company or client base — without needing deep technical skills.

It’s really built with L&D and content creation teams in mind, rather than solo creators. One thing that stands out is how it supports large-scale content production while keeping everything on-brand, thanks to centralized branding controls. That’s a big win if you’re managing lots of courses across different departments or regions.

Two things I find especially helpful in fast-paced learning environments are re-release, which automatically pushes course updates to the LMS without re-uploading, and role-based permissions, which let you manage who can view, edit, or approve content.

iSpring Suite vs Elucidat: A Side-by-Side Breakdown

Below, you’ll find a detailed comparison of Elucidat vs iSpring Suite, the best eLearning authoring tools, in terms of their key capabilities and characteristics for eLearning designers.

User experience

iSpring Suite

iSpring Suite has a familiar feel from the get-go, especially if you’ve ever worked with PowerPoint. Since the desktop tool integrates directly into it, most eLearning designers find it very intuitive, even if they have no prior authoring experience.

Once installed, the iSpring Suite tab appears on the PowerPoint ribbon with all features clearly labeled and logically organized. Plus, real-time previews let you see how your content looks and behaves instantly, removing guesswork and unnecessary back-and-forth. You can start from scratch or turn any existing presentation into an engaging course.

Also read:

How to Convert PowerPoint to SCORM →

The Best Instructional Design Software and Tools →

Elucidat

Elucidat’s cloud-based platform has a clean software UI, especially if you’re using templates. It’s easy to pick up, even without prior authoring experience.

That said, I did run into a few clunky UI moments, and some workflows felt less intuitive than expected, but overall it has an absolutely manageable learning curve.

Types of learning content

iSpring Suite

iSpring Suite gives you the flexibility to create a range of engaging learning experiences right in PowerPoint — whether you’re working with slides, video, or engaging branching scenarios.

To structure content, there are 14 ready-made interactions like timelines, tabs, and hotspots — great for breaking down complex topics visually for learners. For knowledge checks, iSpring offers 14 quiz types, from basic to advanced (drag-and-drops, sequencing, etc.). They provide an opportunity to add feedback, enable branching, and limit time and the number of allowed attempts to prevent learners from cheating.

Also read:

How to Create a Quiz in PowerPoint →

How to Create a Video Presentation in PowerPoint →

You can also create learning videos with synced slides and webcam footage or record smart screencasts with visual hints. Another standout feature that’s a favorite with users is engaging role-play simulations:

As Anna Poli, Senior Instructional Designer at iSpring, puts it:

“What I love about role-plays is that they are great for simulating real-life conversations and practicing communication skills, whether it’s handling a tough customer, leading a team meeting, or giving constructive feedback. Learners go through realistic scenarios where every choice they make changes the outcome. It’s one of the most engaging formats we use.”

Anna Poli,

Senior Instructional Designer at iSpring

Elucidat

Elucidat gives you a lot of flexibility in how you structure your content — you can go with a traditional paginated slides format with “Next” buttons or create cloud-based scrollable pages that feel more like modern web content:

With this tool, you can embed 9 types of interactions, like tabs, flip cards, timelines, and clickable images with hotspots. It’s all drag-and-drop, and the prebuilt page types make it easy to structure content visually.

Assessments are also good, with a variety of questions and testing rules. There’s even a neat feature that lets you add questions directly into videos, which I found useful for keeping learners engaged mid-watch.

Like iSpring Suite, it supports branching. You’re not locked into a linear path, and that opens the door to more engaging learning experiences, such as showing different content paths depending on someone’s job title or assessment result.

Assets and templates

iSpring Suite

One of the most helpful things about working in iSpring Suite is having a content library of over 127,000 assets.

The library includes realistic illustrated characters — male and female, of different ages, backgrounds, and professions, and in different poses — which makes it easy to find someone who feels relatable to your audience.

One standout feature is the character builder, which helps you create custom characters for your unique training needs or learners. There’s also a solid selection of backgrounds, icons, and objects to bring scenes to life without having to search for external visuals.

Navigation is smooth, and its numerous filters allow you to quickly drill down to exactly what you need. New visuals are added regularly, and the style stays modern and clean, so your eLearning courses always look fresh without additional design efforts.

Elucidat

Elucidat offers a strong set of 25+ professionally designed templates, covering a range of formats:

You can either choose one manually or answer a few questions to get a tailored recommendation, which makes getting started easy. The learning templates are clean and flexible.

While the templates are solid, visual assets are a different story — here is Anna’s take:

“When it comes to visual assets, though, Elucidat relies on stock content from Pixabay. It’s a solid selection of images and icons, but unlike iSpring Suite, there’s no built-in library of original, in-house artwork, so your learning visuals may need more sourcing and customization.”

Anna Poli,

Senior Instructional Designer at iSpring

AI tools

iSpring Suite

Overall, the AI learning capabilities in both authoring tools are fairly similar. iSpring Suite’s cloud-based part includes an AI-powered course builder that helps you create courses in a social media format that’s ideal for modern learners.

The built-in AI assistant accelerates the process, which is especially useful when you’re working under tight deadlines. It can brainstorm content ideas, refine your text, pull out key takeaways, translate into multiple languages, and even generate quiz questions — all within seconds.

There’s also an AI chatbot that answers technical questions and links directly to relevant help docs, making navigating the tool even faster.

Elucidat

With the Elucidat platform, you can generate a first draft of your course in just a few clicks. The AI can also help write intros, summaries, and quick knowledge checks, which is especially helpful when you’re staring at a blank screen and need something to work on.

It’s worth noting that, according to the vendor, Elucidat’s AI is trained on the ADDIE model, so the output aligns with established instructional design practices.

Also read:

The Best AI Tools for Teachers That Help Optimize the Learning Process →

The Top AI Course Creators for Streamlining Course Development →

Creating an Online Course with AI: Dos and Don’ts →

Real-time collaboration

iSpring Suite

With iSpring Suite, it’s easy for content creation teams and subject matter experts to work together in a single shared space. You can upload a course, give teammates access, and, depending on their role, they can view, comment, or even jump in and edit the content directly.

This setup keeps feedback in one place and makes the whole development process feel more streamlined and less chaotic, especially when you’re working across teams or time zones.

Elucidat

Similarly, the Elucidat platform offers a built-in review workflow that makes it easy for teams to collaborate on content. You can invite internal or external reviewers simply by entering their email — they don’t need an Elucidat account to leave feedback.

Reviewers can comment directly on specific parts of the course, which keeps conversations focused and cuts down on scattered feedback threads.

You can also set time limits for review access, assign roles, and manage visibility, helping to streamline approval cycles and keep projects on track within the platform.

Pricing

iSpring Suite

iSpring Suite is available in two main plans:

• iSpring Suite (basic version) — $770 per author/year (Content Library, text-to-speech feature, and cloud-based tools are not included)
• iSpring Suite Max (complete version) — $970 per author/year

Discounts are also offered for freelancers and academic users, with all pricing clearly listed on the website.

Elucidat

In comparison, Elucidat’s pricing isn’t published. You’ll need to contact them directly for a quote. Based on user feedback, this lack of transparency can be frustrating, particularly since many find the platform pricier than similar tools.

What do customers say?

iSpring Suite

Reading through recent user reviews, I see that iSpring Suite is consistently praised for its intuitive PowerPoint layout and plenty of robust capabilities under one roof. Users often mention how quickly they can create engaging courses, and they appreciate iSpring’s responsive support team.

Elucidat

The Elucidat platform earns similar praise for its user-friendly interface, plus kudos for collaborative authoring and regular feature updates. However, advanced customization can be tricky, and large projects sometimes run slowly — issues that ongoing improvements are beginning to address.

Final Verdict on iSpring Suite vs Elucidat

Both authoring tools are strong players in the eLearning space, but they serve slightly different needs, and that really shows once you get hands-on with them.

The Elucidat platform shines in large-scale, team-based environments. It’s built for L&D teams that need to push out consistent, device-optimized content at scale — and have the resources to manage onboarding and process. That said, its full range of advanced features and customization options can take some time to master, and the pricing model may be less appealing to individuals.

iSpring Suite, on the other hand, is equally friendly for both individual course designers and teams that want to create courses that don’t have a steep learning curve. For desktop functionality, you need to have PowerPoint installed, but the freedom and power you get in one subscription are unmatched for various needs and use cases.

“What I love about iSpring Suite is how quickly you can move from idea to finished course. Whether it’s a role-play, a screencast, or well-rounded assessments, the tool gets out of your way and lets you focus on the learning experience — not the mechanics of building it.”

Anna Poli,

Senior Instructional Designer at iSpring

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