Rise 360 vs. Rise.com: What’s the Difference?

If you are looking into authoring tools or learning management systems, you may come across Rise 360 and Rise.com. It is incredibly common to wonder what the difference between Rise 360 vs. Rise.com is and which one you need. We’ll clear up the differences for you.

What’s the difference between Rise 360 and Rise.com?

#1. Rise 360 and Rise.com are different tools

The big difference between Rise 360 vs. Rise.com is what their primary functions are. Rise 360 is an authoring tool, so you use it to create an online course. By contrast, Rise.com is a learning management system (LMS) with its own authoring tool. A stand-alone authoring tool, contrary to an LMS with an authoring tool, doesn’t host and distribute your course. To get an in-depth look at the differences between native and stand-alone authoring tools, check out our article “What is an authoring tool?”

So, whether you use Rise 360 or Rise.com, you will get access to an authoring tool. But that’s all you get with Rise 360, while Rise.com is primarily an LMS.

#2. Only Rise 360 is a part of Articulate 360

The other big difference between Rise 360 vs. Rise.com is where you will get access to them. You can’t get Rise 360 by itself, as it is part of Articulate 360. Articulate 360 is a suite of eight pieces of software from Articulate. So, if you want Rise 360, you will also have to pay for the other seven programs in Articulate 360.

Rise.com is a standalone product you can buy separately from Rise 360 and the rest of Articulate 360.

To make it even more confusing, you can technically integrate Rise 360 and Rise.com if you have both programs. But if you did so, you would not need the authoring tool in Rise 360 as Rise.com has its own.

Why did Articulate make Rise.com?

When you closely compare Rise 360 vs. Rise.com, it’s common to wonder why Articulate made Rise.com when it already had Rise 360.

The reason comes down to the learning management system. Before Rise.com, Articulate didn’t have an LMS. The company had a lot of other apps, including the authoring tool Rise 360, but there was no LMS. This was important because competitors had learning management systems, so Articulate was worried it was left behind.

So, by creating Rise.com, Articulate created an LMS and expanded its product offerings. This expanded its appeal to course creators and increased the functions you can complete with Articulate programs.

The Naming Is Confusing

The reason Articulate created a separate LMS makes sense. This is a completely different product that it hadn’t already offered. But the naming doesn’t make much sense and is incredibly confusing. Many people in the eLearning space feel that Articulate should have named Rise.com something completely different instead of using the “Rise” name again. But for now, at least you know the differences. 

Conclusion

Rise.com is a standalone product from Articulate that is primarily an LMS but also includes an authoring tool. Rise 360 is solely an authoring tool you can only get as part of the eight-app Articulate 360 suite. The two products can integrate, but if you have Rise.com, you don’t need Rise 360 as you already have an authoring tool.