DITA Exchange vs Dr.Explain
DITA Exchange
ditaexchange.comDr.Explain
drexplain.comSide by side
| Figure | DITA Exchange | Dr.Explain |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | — | $24.17/mo |
| Free plan | — | Yes |
| Free trial | — | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | — |
| Self-hosted | Yes | — |
| Plans published | 0 | 8 |
| Spec score · Help Authoring Tools | 7.5 (#18) | 8.5 (#4) |
| Audience | Dx5 is aimed at organizations with regulatory, legal, financial, or operational consequences from inconsistent content and an existing Microsoft environment. | both |
| Headquarters | Aarhus, Denmark | New York, New York, USA |
| Product | DitaExchange manages DITA components in Microsoft SharePoint and lets subject matter experts author in Microsoft Word. | Dr.Explain is a help authoring tool for creating user guides, operating instructions, help files, and manuals. |
| Support | The contact page says inquiries typically reach the right person within one Danish or US east-coast business day. | The maker offers multilingual technical and sales support by email and toll-free voicemail. |
Plans
Dr.Explain
- FreeFree
- Business Temporary$290 a year
- Business Perpetual v.7$690, paid once
- Home Perpetual v.7$9,000, paid once
- Free Restricted LicenseFree
- Business License — Temporary$290 a year
- Business License — Perpetual for v.7$690, paid once
- Home License — Perpetual for v.7$9,000, paid once
In their own words
DITA Exchange
DITA Exchange is a DITA component-management platform built around SharePoint and Microsoft Word. DxAuthor+ is a Word add-in that applies DITA structure while authors tag content, link topics, and reference other content. Dx5 handles review, approval, quality checks, and publishing. Reusable components retain version history and approval records; changing an approved component can update every document assembled from it. DxMigrationTool imports Word, HTML, Markdown, and plain-text files, captures metadata, repairs links, and turns documents into topics. DxChecker runs configurable, machine-checkable terminology, metadata, and controlled-language rules against Word documents or SharePoint repositories. Dx5 publishes to Word, HTML, XML, PDF, JSON, Markdown, plain text, portal pages, and APIs, with REST endpoints for downstream consumers. Listed integrations include Teams, OneDrive, Power Automate, Power Apps, Loop, and Microsoft Entra ID single sign-on. It supports SharePoint Online and SharePoint Server 2019 or Subscription Edition, inside the customer’s Microsoft 365 tenant. Pricing is on request.
Dr.Explain
Dr.Explain is a Windows help authoring tool for creating user guides, operating instructions, help files, and manuals. It captures application windows or web pages and adds numbered callouts to interface elements. Documentation can be exported as HTML, CHM, PDF, or DOCX; imports include CHM, HLP, HTML, XML, DOC/DOCX, and TXT, with project structure and formatting preserved. For software integration, it supports Help Context IDs and creates map files in.h,.vb, and.inc formats. Multiple authors can work on a project through the free Tiwri.com service or a corporate server on the company's internal network. An in-program AI Assistant offers generation, translation, and proofreading. The desktop application requires 64-bit Windows 11, 10, 8, or 7. The free license has no time limit but restricts project size and watermarks exported images; it includes 20 topics. Business Temporary costs $290 a year for five users, and Business Perpetual v.7 costs $690, paid once for five users. Home Perpetual v.7 costs $9,000, paid once for one user and excludes commercial use.