ActivePresenter vs Xerte
ActivePresenter
atomisystems.com
Xerte
xerte.org.ukSide by side
| Figure | ActivePresenter | Xerte |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | — |
| Open source | — | Yes |
| Web | Yes | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | Yes | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| iOS | Yes | Yes |
| Android | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 5 | 2 |
| Spec score · Course Authoring Software | 9.5 (#1) | 8.2 (#13) |
| Licence | The EULA grants a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable proprietary licence; the software is licensed rather than sold and may not be reverse engineered except for narrowly stated personal-use debugging. | The source code is released under the Apache License 2.0. |
| Limit: learning curve | Reviewers report that the interface can be difficult to learn and that some controls and workflows are too manual or advanced. | A comparative study found a moderately steep learning curve and gave Xerte zero points for an in-product help wizard. |
| Purpose | ActivePresenter is an eLearning authoring tool for recording screens, editing video, and creating eLearning courses. | Xerte is a browser-based authoring suite for creating interactive learning materials. |
| Support | The maker offers email support, a community forum, manuals, and video tutorials. | Support is offered through forums, technical and developer mailing lists, GitHub issues and listed commercial providers. |
| System requirements | Current requirements include Windows 10/11 64-bit or macOS 13+, a 2 GHz SSE2 CPU, at least 8 GB RAM and 10 GB disk space. | The release documentation lists Apache or IIS, PHP with PDO, zLib and SimpleXML, optional LDAP, and MySQL. |
| What it does | ActivePresenter combines screen and webcam recording, video editing, interactive eLearning authoring, quizzes, simulations, games and training-video creation. | Xerte is a browser-based suite for creating interactive learning materials and online learning objects. |
Plans
ActivePresenter
- Free editionFree
- Free EditionFree
- ActivePresenter Pro EDU$249, paid once
- ActivePresenter Standard$249, paid once
- ActivePresenter Pro$499, paid once
In their own words
ActivePresenter
ActivePresenter is an eLearning authoring tool for recording screens, editing video and creating courses. It supports slide-based lessons, interactive simulations, assessments and video-based courses. Screen recording can capture full-motion screen video, interactive simulations, webcam video, microphone audio and system audio. Editing tools cover cutting, cropping, splitting, joining, playback speed and volume changes, and freeze frames. Projects can be exported as HTML5, video, images or Office documents, with SCORM and xAPI output for learning management systems; projects can also be published directly to uPresenter LMS. Listed AI tools include image generation, text-to-speech, auto captions, AI writing and project auto-translation, and require credits. The Free Edition has an unlimited trial period but is intended for trial and non-commercial use; outputs using non-free features may be watermarked. ActivePresenter Standard costs $249, paid once, Pro EDU costs $249, paid once with educational eligibility and approval, and Pro costs $499, paid once. Paid licenses are perpetual, licensed per machine and include one year of free upgrades to new major versions.
Xerte
Xerte is a browser-based authoring suite for interactive learning materials, aimed at teachers and tutors as well as organisations delivering teaching and learning. Authors assemble content with forms and templates, while developers can use JavaScript and CSS to change its appearance and functionality. The Xerte Online Toolkit has over 70 templates. Output is responsive, standards-compliant HTML5 for modern browsers and devices, with keyboard accessibility, a colour contrast changer, and compatibility with text-to-speech and most screen-reader tools. Projects can be exported as standalone ZIP files for web-server deployment or as SCORM packages. Xerte also supports SCORM, LTI, and xAPI integrations, though xAPI reporting requires a configured Learning Record Store. The software is free and open source, but requires installation on a web server. The described setup uses Linux, Apache, MySQL or MariaDB, and PHP; Windows servers with IIS can also be configured. Community forums are the main support channel, and support there is voluntary.