Elabora vs Articulate Storyline 360
Storyline is the reference for hand-built interactions and simulations, on Windows. Elabora writes the course with your AI from a plan you approve, on Mac or Windows, for free. Pick Storyline when you need SCORM 2004, xAPI or fine-grained triggers; pick Elabora to go from a brief to a reviewed SCORM 1.2 course quickly, and keep your files.
At a glance
| Criterion | Elabora | Storyline |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free on your computer, and it will stay free. Reviewers are free too. Online, each author has free quotas for courses on the web and for reviews open at the same time; paid options with larger quotas will come later. | Sold in Articulate 360 AI: 1,749 USD per seat per year for teams, 1,449 USD for a single designer. 14-day trial. |
| Where you build | A desktop app for macOS and for Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit). | Windows 11. On a Mac, inside Windows in a virtual machine (Parallels Desktop; VMware Fusion on Intel Macs). |
| Delivery formats | SCORM 1.2 packages, and web publishing on Elabora’s hosting or any web server. | SCORM 1.2 to SCORM 2004 4th edition, xAPI and cmi5 packages; publishing to Review 360 and Reach 360. |
| Your files | Each course is a folder of readable files on your computer, in an open format with public schemas. The core that reads it is open source (Apache-2.0). | .story project files on your computer. When the subscription ends, Storyline 360 stops working: you can no longer open, edit or publish them. Published courses keep working. |
| Built-in AI | Elabora’s chat with free models (OpenCode), and ✨ buttons for text alternatives and translations. Every change the AI makes can be undone. | AI Assistant, and AI Chat since December 2025, which edits slides, layers, variables and triggers (2026). Uses the credits of Articulate 360 AI. |
| Your own AI agent | Works with your own agent: Claude Code in the Claude app, Codex in the ChatGPT app, or any AI through the elabora command and its MCP server, to read and edit courses. | AI Chat inside the app. Articulate 360 connects to Claude, ChatGPT or Copilot through MCP to generate content and outlines. |
| Review | Reviewers comment from a link, free and without an account. Their comments come back into Elabora on the screen, the block or the word of narration; you reply there or hand them to your AI. | Review 360, included: reviewers comment from a link, without an account by default; you see, answer and resolve their comments in a panel inside Storyline. |
| Working together | One author per course, on their computer. Reviewers comment through a link. | With Articulate 360 Teams, members share slides with each other (Team Slides). |
| Import | Storyline projects (.story), published Storyline courses and Rise exports, in beta, with a report of what came over and what did not. | PowerPoint, Articulate Studio and Storyline projects. |
| Templates and media | 7 complete templates of 14 screens each, in English and French, and starter blocks. | Content Library 360: over 12 million photos, illustrations, icons and videos, and templates. |
| Translation | Several languages in one course, translated by your AI, a translator or yourself, reviewed on screen; one package per language. | Articulate Localization: translation into 80+ languages, paid with credits. |
| Accessibility | Built-in checks before delivery: WCAG 2.2 AA contrast, axe tests, text alternatives, keyboard use and captions. | Built to help meet Section 508 and WCAG, with an accessibility checker and closed captions. |
Each value comes from the vendor’s official page, read on the date shown.
The difference in one minute
Storyline is a slide editor. You place every object, then add layers, states and triggers to make it react. It gives you control over each pixel and each click, and it takes the time that this control asks for.
Elabora starts from what your learners need to be able to do. You describe your audience and attach your documents; the AI proposes a plan of objectives, parts and screens; you approve it, then it writes the screens. You refine them by asking the agent, or by editing each block yourself. The course ends as a SCORM 1.2 package or a web link.
What Storyline does better
- Interactions built by hand. Layers, states, triggers and variables let you build almost any behaviour, slide by slide. Storyline’s AI Chat can now create triggers and variables for you too.
- Software simulations. Screen recording that you can edit afterwards, in demo, trial and assessment modes.
- More delivery formats. SCORM 1.2 to SCORM 2004 4th edition, xAPI and cmi5. Elabora delivers SCORM 1.2 and the web today.
- Review inside the app. Review 360 comments show up in a panel in Storyline, on the slide you are editing, and you reply and resolve them there.
- A large ecosystem. Content Library 360 with millions of photos, illustrations, icons and videos, years of tutorials and a large community.
Where Elabora differs
- Your AI writes with you. Claude, ChatGPT or Elabora’s free chat drafts the plan, then the screens. Each change the AI makes shows up as a card you review, and one click undoes it.
- On Mac and Windows. Elabora is a desktop app on both. You need no virtual machine and no Windows licence on a Mac.
- Your files stay readable. A course is a folder on your computer, in an open format with public schemas. Elabora is free, so your courses stay editable for good.
- Checks before delivery. Elabora checks contrast, text alternatives, keyboard use and captions, and tests each package in an LMS emulator against the rules of LMSs such as Moodle, Cornerstone and SuccessFactors.
- Reviews down to the word. Reviewers comment from a link, free and without an account. Their comments land on the screen, the block or the word of narration, and you can hand them to your AI.
Coming from Storyline
- Keep Storyline for the courses that need SCORM 2004, xAPI or complex simulations.
- Try one course in Elabora: create a new one from your brief, or import a .story project (beta) and read its import report.
- Check the package in your LMS, or first with
elabora test --package.
Which one should you choose?
Choose Storyline if…
- Your LMS needs SCORM 2004, xAPI or cmi5.
- You build software simulations with screen recording, or interactions that rely on layers, states, triggers and variables.
- Your team already works in Articulate 360, with Review 360 and shared slides.
- Clients or job offers ask for Storyline skills.
Choose Elabora if…
- You work on a Mac, or on Mac and Windows.
- You want your AI to write the course from a plan you approve, and to undo any change it makes.
- SCORM 1.2 or a web link is enough for your LMS.
- You want your courses as files you own, in an open format, at no cost.
Elabora’s limits today
We list them on every comparison. They are what we work on first.
- One delivery format today: SCORM 1.2 packages and web links. If your LMS needs SCORM 2004, xAPI or cmi5, keep your current tool for those courses for now.
- Importing Storyline and Rise courses is in beta. Some question types, triggers and interactions come over as text with a note, and the import report lists each one.
- A young tool: the first public version came out on 20 October 2026, and Elabora is in beta. Expect fewer tutorials and community answers, and a new version every few days.
- One author per course for now. Co-authoring and shared team spaces come later, with Elabora’s cloud.
- A smaller library: 7 templates and starter blocks, and no stock library of photos or characters.
Questions
- Can Elabora open Storyline files?
- Yes, in beta. Elabora imports a .story project or a published Storyline course and turns it into an Elabora course. The import report lists what came over, what took a simpler form and what was left out.
- Does Storyline 360 run on a Mac?
- Only inside Windows. Articulate’s requirements list Windows 11, and on a Mac a virtual machine such as Parallels Desktop. Elabora has its own Mac app.
- Can I use both?
- Yes. Both deliver SCORM packages to the same LMS. You can also check any SCORM 1.2 package, Storyline’s included, with the free command elabora test --package.
- What happens to my courses if I stop paying?
- With Storyline 360, Articulate says the app stops working when the subscription ends, so .story files can no longer be opened; published courses keep working. Elabora is free on your computer, and your courses are folders of files you keep.
Try Elabora on your computer. It’s free.
Download Elabora