MadCap Flare vs Oxygen XML Editor
MadCap Flare
madcapsoftware.comOxygen XML Editor
oxygenxml.comSide by side
| Figure | MadCap Flare | Oxygen XML Editor |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | $262.50/mo | $2.83/mo |
| Free plan | — | — |
| Free trial | Yes | Yes |
| Open source | — | — |
| Web | Yes | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | — | Yes |
| Plans published | 8 | 10 |
| Spec score · Help Authoring Tools | 8.0 (#9) | 8.1 (#8) |
| Founded | 2005 | 1998 |
| Headquarters | Denver, Colorado, USA | Craiova, Romania |
| Integrations | The product page says Flare can publish directly to Salesforce, Zendesk, and ServiceNow, and the pricing page lists ChatGPT integration for Flare Online authoring. | The editor integrates out of the box with Microsoft SharePoint and WebDAV-enabled content management systems. |
| Publishing | Flare publishes to multiple formats, including responsive HTML5, high-end print, Microsoft PowerPoint, PDF, Word, SCORM, and more. | It provides preset and configurable scenarios that produce PDF, ePUB, HTML and other outputs from the same source. |
| Security certification | MadCap’s About page displays a SOC 2 Type II Certified designation. | Syncro Soft SRL is ISO 27001:2022 certified, but the certification applies to its information security management system rather than the Oxygen desktop applications. |
| Trial | MadCap offers a free 30-day Flare trial without requiring a credit card. | The download page offers a free 30-day evaluation that requires a trial license key. |
Plans
MadCap Flare
- Starter — Flare Desktop Only$3,150 a year
- Flare Online — IndividualPrice not published
- Flare Online — TeamPrice not published
- Flare Online — BusinessPrice not published
- Starter — Flare Desktop Only$3,150 a year
- Flare Online - BusinessPriced on request
- Flare Online - IndividualPriced on request
- Flare Online - TeamPriced on request
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
MadCap Flare
MadCap Flare is an authoring and publishing platform for technical documentation, online help, knowledge bases, policies, training materials, and API documentation. Topic-based authoring and single-sourcing let teams reuse material across versions and output formats. Flare can publish responsive HTML5, print, PowerPoint, PDF, Word, SCORM, and other formats; it also imports content from Word, Excel, Confluence, FrameMaker, RoboHelp, and DITA. Flare Online adds browser-based review for subject matter experts and non-Flare users, concurrent authoring, and real-time collaboration. Publishing can connect directly to Salesforce, Zendesk, and ServiceNow. Flare supports Unicode, double-byte, Cyrillic, and right-to-left languages, while Flare Online analytics can track topic views, searches without results, and user behavior. The Starter desktop plan costs $3,150 a year, billed at $3,150 per author per year. A free 30-day trial is available without a credit card. Flare Desktop requires Microsoft Windows; Flare Online offers browser-based authoring and review.
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.