--- title: Author-It Reviews meta\_title: 'Author-It Reviews 2026: Details, Pricing, & Features | G2' meta\_description: Filter 40 reviews by the users' company size, role or industry to find out how Author-It works for a business like yours. aggregate\_rating: rating\_value: 4.0 review\_count: 40 scale: '5' date\_modified: '2026-08-08' parent\_category: name: Content Management url: https://www.g2.com/categories/content-management --- # Author-It Reviews & Product Details Claimed ###### Profile Status This profile is currently managed by Author-It but has limited features. Are you part of the Author-It team? [Upgrade your plan](https://my.g2.com/author-it/upgrade?utm_campaign=s3&utm_medium=claim-popup&utm_source=g2) to enhance your branding and engage with visitors to your profile! Create. Collaborate. Manage. Reuse. Translate. Publish. All on one platform. Author-it is a true and complete Component Content Management System (CCMS) for the creation, management, localization, and publishing of a wide variety of information products. Single sourcing is the core of Author-it, and with loads of functionality like multi-channel publishing, variant management, review and approval workflows, and authoring assistance, we offer a collaborative solution capable of dealing with the needs of any organization, from SMBs to Enterprise. Unlike DITA and XML solutions, Author-it makes importing and authoring content a snap. And with no coding expertise required, collaborating in real time with SMEs and non-technical writers breaks down silos and increases productivity. Manage large content libraries easily without losing control, create modern, personalized courses, reuse and translate content without leaving the platform, and publish to multiple outputs, including HTML5, mobile, PDF, print and more. Save time and eliminate content chaos with Author-it. * * * Seller [Author-It Software Corporation](https://www.g2.com/sellers/author-it-software-corporation) Discussions [Author-It Community](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/discuss) Languages Supported German, English, French, Dutch Solution Type All-in-One Overview by Ryanne Rosenlund Show More ## Value at a Glance Averages based on real user reviews. ### Time to Implement 3 months ### Return on Investment 20 months [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/pricing) ## Top-Rated Alternatives [ ![MadCap Flare](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "MadCap Flare") MadCap Flare 4.4/5(491) ](https://www.g2.com/products/madcap-flare/reviews) [ ![Heretto](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Heretto") Heretto 4.1/5(39) ](https://www.g2.com/products/heretto/reviews) [ ![Paligo](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Paligo") Paligo 4.6/5(57) ](https://www.g2.com/products/paligo/reviews) [ View All Alternatives ](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/competitors/alternatives) ## User Insights Average based on 40 real user reviews. Implementation Time 3 months Perceived Cost $$$$$ [Log in to unlock pricing and user insights](/login) ML Markus L. Dipl.-Ing. Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 8/5/2019 "Compact, powerful tool for device documentation" 4.5/5 What do you like best about Author-It? Using content for multiplied device documents. Easy compositing after finishing the content A wide workspace for customization the document by using own format and layout Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Some steps (like deleting objects) are not restorable Some times the database stuck with changes and you have to restart the author-it client. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: With the right support and installation and a basic learning, Author-it is a powerful tool for documentation. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? Difference between "one document content" and "multiply document content" solves a big amount of time. Content management instead of document management is a great opportunity for multiplied documents. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller ![Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain") IL Verified User in Logistics and Supply Chain Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 4/5/2020 "Its an okay tool but gets really slow with bigger files" 2.5/5 What do you like best about Author-It? Creating topic alias and cross referencing Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? The way images are handled and super slow behaviour with large files Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: I recommend it to people with smaller files Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? Solving updating a common topic across multiple guides Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Computer Software](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Computer Software") IC Verified User in Computer Software Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 8/8/2019 "Great for Large & Complex Documentation Projects" 4/5 What do you like best about Author-It? The ability to reuse content is extremely helpful. Combined with the ability to use variants for specific situations, Author-It really helps us deal with the complexity that our projects throw at us. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Caveat: I use the desktop version, not the cloud version. The UI is very cumbersome. Particularly windows management. In particular, following relationships is almost impossible when you have the level of sharing and embedding complexity that we do. Some sort of graphical, clickable relationship diagram (like in RoboHelp) would be extremely helpful. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: Have a look. While RoboHelp/FrameMaker have component management, its clunky by comparison. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? A way to keep up in a fast-paced, multi-team, software product development in an agile/scrum/dev-ops environment. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller ![Verified User in Machinery](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Machinery") EM Verified User in Machinery Enterprise (\> 1000 emp.) 10/8/2019 "professional content management" 4/5 What do you like best about Author-It? professional tool for content management. very skilled support and easy to use Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? user interface is a bit old style. there are few partners on local markerts and the cost of licences and consultant is quite expensive Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? centralize and standardization of contents that used to publish tecnhical documentation Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite AT Antonio T. Documentation Manager Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 8/2/2019 " Need more improvements" 2.5/5 What do you like best about Author-It? The easy way for translation all the documents Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? non-flexibility in the daily working, we cannot see page break before publication Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? manual creating work time ruduced Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite on behalf of seller ![Jacqueline L.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Jacqueline L.") JL Jacqueline L. Lead Technical Writer Computer Software Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 10/8/2015 "Using Author-it for User Guides, APIs and Release Notes" 3.5/5 What do you like best about Author-It? Author-it allows you to create standardized title pages, copyright notices and other formatting. Once everything is set up (which can be a painful process), you're in great shape for creating your docs. Once your Word and FrameMaker docs are entered into Author-it you can re-use sections easily. Changing it in one place changes every version of the same piece of text everywhere. This can save a great deal of editing, cutting and pasting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Reading Word docs into Author-it can be a very painful process. Graphics must be entered individually with a number of steps required to make them the right size and format. I had to use both Visio and Paint to convert a graphic and make it AI-ready to import. Forget about trying to import Excel spreadsheets into AI. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: It's good for vanilla type docs with fairly simple graphics and tables. Excellent for large pieces of docs that are repeated, like copyright pages and patent information. Not so good for complicated graphics and tables. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? We're trying to use AI to create docs that can be converted to PDF's or used for HTML help. So far we haven't used the full capabilities of AI to create object-oriented docs. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Sandra F.](/assets/transparent-ad5be28fbcd25b7b08d2cebe1d957125437fb5407d75ee717965ad22c8808791.gif "Sandra F.") SF Sandra F. Senior Technical Writer Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 10/8/2015 "Author-it: For the Organized Mind. Or the Mind that Would Be Organized." 4/5 What do you like best about Author-It? Author-it forces you to organize your content and to plan how smaller pieces of text and graphics will fit into the big picture. It's a database, and it relies heavily on templates. These things make it easy to apply global changes to style and formatting, and to maintain consistency among different authors. I like the flexibility. Author-it gives you many options for reusing content: embedded text, variables, and variants, as well as the basic technique of using the same topic in multiple "books." The Support staff is wonderful - friendly, prompt, and thorough. Support is usually done via email; many of the staff are in Author-it's home country of New Zealand (18-hour time difference from the East Coast of US), although they do have US support staff if you really need to talk to someone on the phone, which in my experience has been rare. They also offer online chat, which I haven't really used. I have rarely had technical problems; I have been using it for nearly six years and can't recall the database ever being down, unless one of our servers was having trouble. My experience has been with HTML Pages, .chm, Word, and .pdf (by way of Word) outputs. I just find it to be a fun tool, and I'm very fond of it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Author-it is great for enforcing consistent standards. This means that it is not as flexible when it comes to playing with the appearance of a Help system. If you are someone who likes to experiment with formatting on the fly you might find Author-it's template system for styles confining. There is basically no such thing as manual formatting in Author-it. Every change to formatting has to be defined in a Style object. It's easy enough to change things like font size or color as long as you do so through a Style object, but to get certain effects in Web-based or .chm Help - the most important in our case was image maps - you can't use Author-it. Author-it allows you to incorporate .js or .htm files, but the files themselves, unless you stick to the ones that are provided with your Author-it installation, would have to be produced separately in another tool. So if you are not content to stick with the templates Author-it provides, it helps to have some understanding of HTML, .css, and JavaScript. That being said, the Support staff have helped me with things like customizing an .hhp file (outside of Author-it) to modify .chm Help, even though these things may not specifically be Author-it questions. It is good that the Support staff is wonderful; documentation leaves some things to be desired. When they moved from the 4.x release to 5.0 line, they actually removed a lot of very helpful information from the Knowledge Center (their web-based Help. You can still get to the 4.0 KC but I don't know how much longer this will continue. The training manual we were given when we started is poorly organized and difficult to search. And error messages, though I know how to interpret most common ones now through experience, and they are usually attributable to something I did and can easily fix, are neither user-friendly nor well documented. For the past several years Author-it has been pushing their Cloud version. We have been using Author-it since 2009 and have the On Premises version. Because of the marketing push for Cloud I have fears that they will take On Premises away. When we got Author-it, we were told it supported WinHelp, which was of value to us because we are stuck producing WinHelp for certain products, for technical reasons. The WinHelp Author-it supports is formatted in a way I haven't seen since the 90s - single pane - so we had to stick with RoboHelp for Word for our WinHelp. I know WinHelp is old but if they were going to say they supported it they should at least have supported the latest version of old. This issue probably concerns almost no one in the world except my department. :-) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: The great thing about Author-it is that because it's a database, it enforces consistency and enables reuse of content. Author-it gives you many options for reusing content: embedded text, variables, and variants, as well as the basic technique of using the same topic in multiple "books." It can publish to Word, which makes it a good tool to have if you are working with reviewers outside the Docs team, since most of them will want to work in Word. It supports many other outputs, including TouchHelp. I think it helps to have a fascination with the more technical side of Help authoring when you use Author-it. I like being able to make it do different things by incorporating Java scripts and .bat files. I have been using it long enough that I know how to interpret most error messages, but when I was first learning the product I would sometimes get errors when I tried to generate output that ended up meaning something simple, but were worded cryptically. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? We produce Tech Manuals and Install Guides that share a significant amount of content but differ slightly across products. The products are often released together as a suite, so we are often generating multiple Tech Manuals and Install Guides within the space of a few weeks. Before we got Author-it we maintained the Install Guides in Word and the manuals in FrameMaker, and did a lot of copying and pasting, with multiple writers performing the same edit in multiple documents. It took a lot of planning, but I was able to break down the Install Guide and Tech Manual for each product into basic topics, using Author-it's embedded text, variable, and variant features to customize the topics for different products. Now, if we get a tech doc update that affects multiple products, we often only need to edit one topic. It takes a lot less time than before to apply feedback and re-generate these documents during a review cycle. We do a similar thing with Help and User Manuals. That was less complex to implement because there we did not have the problem of topics varying slightly across a number of products. Since our User Manuals duplicate content from the Help, once the Help content has been updated, a User Manual can be generated in a few minutes. Much better than copying and pasting. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Current UserValidated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Computer Software](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Computer Software") AC Verified User in Computer Software Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 10/8/2015 "Great staff who are always helpful, but with some points of frustration with stability." 3/5 What do you like best about Author-It? The workflow for writers is excellent. Having a CMS output to Word is, surprisingly, an advantage because most writers can adjust or create a Word Template. Working in Ant or other language to update document appearance can be far more challenging. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Their SLA offers 99.9% availability. That still high for a SaaS platform. They should be striving for 99.99, which is standard. They don't do much of anything to announce updates or improvements. The process for setting up and configuring the application's many objects to interact correctly is extremely complex. Setting up security is cumbersome. I don't like that Word Macros don't work on the SaaS platform. The publishing engine can be buggy. I don't know how much effort they are putting into fixing these types of issues. I've submitted tickets but years go by without change. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? We are able to manage a very large document set with both HTML Help and PDF components with a very small staff using AI. It now works with Mobile as well. Also we have started to use it for RFP processing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Consumer Electronics](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Consumer Electronics") IC Verified User in Consumer Electronics Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) 9/29/2015 "Very good solution when it works" 3.5/5 What do you like best about Author-It? Ability to easily re-use topics and see in which books those topics have been used, localize into over 30 locales, publish directly into different formats. Company is responsive and does its best to solve our issues. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Lack of direct interface with any decent layout tool for printing books on paper. Poor quality Localize module which is now being redeveloped by Author-it to make it fit for purpose. Total lack of user doc format for mobile devices being supplied despite a promise that it would be... Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: Good product if you need a CMS as well as an authoring tool. Test Localize FIRST before you buy it to make sure it fulfills your needs. NB. We do not use the reviewing module just now. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? Production of several books with overlapping content, we needed a CMS as well as an authoring tool. Ability to localize from one set of en-gb source into multiple languages using our preferred vendor. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ![Verified User in Information Technology and Services](/assets/icons/anonymous-avatar-purple-4ae1032bdb50ee5682003170c8184aee790d25958bd397abbd384ba52c596a7b.svg "Verified User in Information Technology and Services") II Verified User in Information Technology and Services Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) 10/1/2015 "It is very hard to learn but I enjoy the versatility of the output." 2.5/5 What do you like best about Author-It? Using common elements of text that can be stored centrally and reused. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What do you dislike about Author-It? Having multiple files and objects for every single graphic is cumbersome. Also, changing the look and feel of text elements has been difficult because they don't look the same in our dual outputs (.chm and .html). I don't feel much control over the look of the output, or maybe we just don't know how to change it, so it looks very bland. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Recommendations to others considering Author-It: Take a training class. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. What problems is Author-It solving and how is that benefiting you? We are writing customer-facing online help and converting that to a user guide in PDF form. We can do both outputs with little or no intervention. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com. Show More Validated ReviewerIncentivizedSource: G2 invite ## Questions about Author-It? Ask real users or explore answers from the community Get practical answers, real workflows, and honest pros and cons from the G2 community or share your insights. [ Ask about Author-It ](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/discussions/new) GU Guest User What is Author-It used for? 0 Upvotes 0 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-author-it-used-for) MR Marie Roemer • Last activity over 6 years ago Can I and if yes how create training tutorials? 1 Upvote 1 [ Join the conversation ](https://www.g2.com/discussions/16122-can-i-and-if-yes-how-create-training-tutorials) [ View all Discussions ](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/discuss) ## Pricing Insights Averages based on real user reviews. ### Time to Implement 3 months ### Return on Investment 20 months ### Perceived Cost $$$$$ [ View More Pricing Information ](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/pricing) Author-It Comparisons ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_d61ecfdb9b46ed822c4cfff4611b92eb/madcap-flare.png "Product Avatar Image") MadCap Flare 4.4/5(491) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/author-it-vs-madcap-flare) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_aabb2b912c3c7aca7646b1dac06f52ee/paligo.png "Product Avatar Image") Paligo 4.6/5(57) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/author-it-vs-paligo) ![Product Avatar Image](https://images.g2crowd.com/uploads/product/image/small_square/small_square_82d812f909bc367f5a46216c73c24ef5/heretto.png "Product Avatar Image") Heretto 4.1/5(39) [ Compare Now ](https://www.g2.com/compare/author-it-vs-heretto) ##### ##### Author-It Features Creation Features XML Authoring Workflow Management Collaborative Review Software Model On-Premise Cloud-based [ View More Features ](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/features) ##### Categories on G2 [Course Authoring](https://www.g2.com/categories/course-authoring)[Help Authoring Tool (HAT)](https://www.g2.com/categories/help-authoring-tool-hat)[Component Content Management Systems](https://www.g2.com/categories/component-content-management-systems) ##### Explore More [Top-rated purchasing apps for medium-sized companies](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-top-rated-purchasing-apps-for-medium-sized-companies)[What is the top-rated invoice management solution for enterprises?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-is-the-top-rated-invoice-management-solution-for-enterprises)[What are the most popular idea management tools that companies actually use to crowdsource and evaluate ideas from their own staff?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/what-are-the-most-popular-idea-management-tools-that-companies-actually-use-to-crowdsource-and-evaluate-ideas-from-their-own-staff) [Checkr vs HireRight for a mid-size company that needs reliable background screening with a clean candidate experience and solid ATS integration?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/checkr-vs-hireright-for-a-mid-size-company-that-needs-reliable-background-screening-with-a-clean-candidate-experience-and-solid-ats-integration%20)[Which Autodesk Construction Cloud integration partners offer customisable access permissions and workflow settings for large multi-discipline project teams?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/which-autodesk-construction-cloud-integration-partners-offer-customisable-access-permissions-and-workflow-settings-for-large-multi-discipline-project-teams)[Pros and Cons Details](https://www.g2.com/products/author-it/reviews?qs=pros-and-cons) [Show MoreShow Less](javascript:void(0);)