Dr.Explain vs Oxygen XML Editor
Dr.Explain
drexplain.comOxygen XML Editor
oxygenxml.comSide by side
| Figure | Dr.Explain | Oxygen XML Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $24.17/mo | $2.83/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 10 |
| Spec score · Help Authoring Tools | 8.5 (#4) | 8.1 (#8) |
| Founded | 2004 | 1998 |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, USA | Craiova, Romania |
| Support | The maker offers multilingual technical and sales support by email and toll-free voicemail. | The Oxygen community forum has over 30,000 posts from more than 12,000 users, and the support team and community respond daily. |
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
Oxygen XML Editor
- Professional 12-month subscription$34 a year
- Enterprise (AI-ready) 12-month subscription$53 a year
- Professional user-based · 1-year SMP$942, paid once
- Professional user-based · 2-year SMP$1,080, paid once
- Enterprise (AI-ready) user-based · 1-year SMP$1,465, paid once
- Enterprise (AI-ready) user-based · 2-year SMP$1,678, paid once
- Professional Floating · 1-year SMP$2,827, paid once
- Professional Floating · 2-year SMP$3,240, paid once
- Enterprise (AI-ready) Floating · 1-year SMP$4,397, paid once
- Enterprise (AI-ready) Floating · 2-year SMP$5,037, paid once
In their own words
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.
Oxygen XML Editor
Oxygen XML Editor is a desktop XML authoring and development tool for users from beginners to experts. XML files can be edited in Text, Grid and Author modes, while as-you-type validation and context-sensitive editing help keep XML, JSON and HTML documents valid. Ready-to-use editing and publishing support covers DITA, DocBook, XHTML and TEI. Publishing scenarios can produce PDF, ePUB, HTML and other formats from one source. The editor integrates with Microsoft SharePoint and WebDAV-enabled content management systems, and its Apache Subversion client supports repository browsing, commits, updates and revision history. It is available for Windows, macOS and Linux, and as an Eclipse plugin. A free 30-day evaluation requires a trial license key; there is no free plan. Annual subscriptions are $34 a year for Professional and $53 a year for Enterprise (AI-ready). Enterprise adds support for IBM DB2, Oracle 10.2 and Microsoft SQL Server; Professional excludes commercial database support. On Linux, the bundled Java requires X.org, and Wayland is unsupported.