Dr.Explain vs Paligo
Dr.Explain
drexplain.com
Paligo
paligo.netSide by side
| Figure | Dr.Explain | Paligo |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $24.17/mo | $416.67/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | — | Yes |
| Windows | Yes | — |
| API | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 6 |
| Spec score · Help Authoring Tools | 8.5 (#4) | 8.6 (#3) |
| Spec score · Technical Documentation Software | 8.4 (#8) | 8.5 (#5) |
| Spec score · Knowledge base software | 8.0 (#81) | 8.9 (#9) |
| Publishing audience | both | Paligo says it serves organizations in software, manufacturing, and regulated industries, including companies managing technical documentation, policies, procedures, and knowledge content. |
| Collaboration | Multiple authors can work on a project using the free Tiwri.com service or a corporate server on the company’s internal network. | Authors, contributors and reviewers work through role-based workflows, assignments, comments and review interfaces. |
| Founded | 2004 | 2015 |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Headquarters | New York, New York, USA | Solna, Sweden |
| Product | Dr.Explain is a help authoring tool for creating user guides, operating instructions, help files, and manuals. | Paligo is a cloud-based component content management system for authoring, managing, translating, and publishing technical documentation and knowledge assets. |
| Support | The maker offers multilingual technical and sales support by email and toll-free voicemail. | Business includes standard support; Enterprise includes priority support and guaranteed SLAs, with stated target response times of two hours for urgent and four hours for high-priority issues. |
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
Paligo
- Business$15,000 a year
- Nexus Portal$5,000 a year
- Nexus Portal free tierFree
- Nexus Answers$6,000 a year
- Nexus Answers free tierFree
- EnterprisePriced on request
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.
Paligo
Paligo is a cloud-based component content management system for creating, managing, translating, and publishing technical documentation and knowledge assets. Structured authoring includes topic-based content, reuse, variables, version branching, revision history, and workflow management. Teams can publish to PDF, HTML5, eLearning, and GitHub Flavored Markdown. Paligo says it serves organizations in software, manufacturing, and regulated industries managing technical documentation, policies, procedures, and other knowledge content. Listed integrations include Zendesk, Freshdesk, GitHub, GitLab, Amazon S3, Slack, Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Phrase; some may require a separate subscription. A REST API supports external connections and task automation. Paligo states its information security management system is certified to ISO 27001:2022, and that service data is encrypted at rest with AES-256 and in transit with TLS. Business costs $15,000 a year, billed annually per author, from $15,000 per year; it includes two authors and two languages. There is no free plan, but a free trial is available. Upload integrations have a 500 MB limit, except GitHub at 100 MB; the general limit can be raised on request.