Choosing Your Authoring Tool
Storyline or Rise? Sometimes both!
Both tools come with one Articulate 360 license. Picking between them is a per-course design decision, not a purchase decision, and the best courses often use each where it is strongest.
One sentence each
What each tool can do
This is not a versus. Most of what teams need is possible in both tools. The real differences are the learner experience and what your Learning Management System (LMS) gets to see.
Interactions and assessment
| Capability | Rise | Storyline |
|---|---|---|
| True/false and multiple-choice questions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Matching and fill-in-the-blank questions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Flashcards, sorting, and process interactions | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hotspot questions | ✓ | |
| Drag-and-drop activities | ✓ | ✓ |
| Branching scenarios that respond to learner choices | ✓ | |
| Recorded voiceover synced to screens | ✓ | |
| Software simulations and practice environments | ✓ |
Tracking and your LMS
| Capability | Rise | Storyline |
|---|---|---|
| Module completion reported to the LMS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Block and lesson completion tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pass/fail scoring | ✓ | ✓ |
| Question responses stored in your LMS (choice, matching, fill-in) | ✓* | ✓ |
| Transmission of open-ended responses via the Experience API (xAPI) | ✓ |
*Rise reports question-level responses, including the matching drag-and-drop type, from Quiz lessons published for xAPI, SCORM 2004, or cmi5. Knowledge check interactions inside lessons show feedback to the learner but do not report to the LMS.
Experience and delivery
| Capability | Rise | Storyline |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile-friendly playback | ✓ | ✓ |
| Content reflows to fit any screen | ✓ | |
| Scrollable, web-style reading experience | ✓ | |
| Slide-by-slide experience, learners click Next | ✓ | |
| Learners choose their own pathway from a menu or homepage cards | ✓ | |
| Translation and localization export | ✓ | ✓ |
| Custom code blocks (JavaScript, embeds) | ✓ | ✓ |
| Storyline interactions embedded inside a Rise course | ✓ | ✓ |
The consultative question is not "can the learner do it." It is "can you see that they did it." In Rise, flashcards and sorting activities engage learners but stay invisible to your LMS. In Storyline, anything can report. When tracking matters, design the interaction in the tool that can tell you about it.
You don't have to choose
This is the punchline: the two tools are built to work together. Blending them is one option among several, especially when budgets are focused. A fully Rise or fully Storyline course is often exactly right.
Real examples in each tool
We build in both. Two from our portfolio: notice where the polish comes from in Rise (pace, media, layout) versus what only Storyline can do (respond to a learner's choices). Ask us for a walkthrough of either.
Bring us the course, we'll pick the tool
Tool choice is one decision inside a bigger ecosystem: what to build, for whom, and where it will live. Learn more in our guide to authoring tools, universal formats, and Learning Management Systems.
Integral eLearning is a division of Integral Ed Services, an educator-led learning and media design firm for mission-driven organizations.