HowToo.
HowToo is an Australian-built authoring tool with strong accessibility credentials, an AI course creator, and a built-in "Learning Academy" feature for hosted delivery. Customers include HubSpot, American Express, and CyberCX.
What it's great at.
WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility baseline
HowToo's strongest pitch: accessibility is built in, not retrofitted. Output meets WCAG 2.1 AA standards by default, with a built-in accessibility checker flagging issues as you author. For government, healthcare, and regulated industries where accessibility certification is required, this is genuinely valuable.
AI course creator
Similar in concept to Mindsmith — point HowToo at source content and it generates a structured course. The output is competent and the editing experience is friendlier than starting blank. Less aggressive than Mindsmith's all-AI workflow, more of an accelerator on top of conventional authoring.
Built-in Learning Academy
Higher-tier plans include a hosted delivery platform — branded landing page, learner accounts, completion tracking, certificates. For organisations delivering training to people outside their LMS (contractors, customers, partners), this can replace a small LMS purchase.
Easy enough for non-designers
Templates are guided and opinionated. Non-designer authors (HR, ops, subject matter experts) can produce passable-looking courses without help. The tool's design choices keep them from making the worst layout mistakes.
Australian support and time zone
Like Chameleon Creator, HowToo is ANZ-based, so support runs on Australian hours. For local teams, this is materially better than US-based support windows.
Where it struggles.
Limited layout flexibility
Users consistently flag the same complaint: HowToo's layouts are too constrained. The trade-off for accessibility-by-default is less freedom to position elements. Power users from Storyline or even Rise will feel boxed in.
Per-user pricing scales fast
The published base is per user per year. For solo authors it's cheaper than Articulate 360. For teams of 5+, the per-user model starts to bite — and Enterprise pricing isn't published, so budgeting requires a sales conversation.
No deep branching or simulation
Like most modern web-based authoring tools, HowToo handles linear and lightly-branched content well. Complex branching scenarios with state tracking, or interactive simulations, need Storyline.
Smaller ecosystem
Compared to Articulate's mature community, template marketplace, and freelance talent pool, HowToo's ecosystem is small. Help is more likely to come from the support team than the community.
The Learning Academy adds platform lock-in
The hosted-delivery features are convenient, but courses built to take advantage of them don't port cleanly to another LMS. SCORM export still works, but the hosted experience is part of the product's value.
When HowToo is the right call.
Pick HowToo when
- Accessibility (WCAG 2.1 AA) is a hard requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- You're an ANZ-based L&D team that values local support.
- You need a hosted delivery option without buying a full LMS.
- Non-designer authors will use the tool and need guardrails.
- You're a freelancer or small consultancy and the per-user pricing works.
Pick something else when
- You need pixel-level layout control — Storyline or Chameleon Creator.
- You need complex branching or simulations — Storyline.
- You're scaling a large team and the per-user pricing becomes uncompetitive.
- You want a fully AI-native workflow — Mindsmith is more committed to that pattern.
- The team is already on the Articulate ecosystem and switching cost outweighs HowToo's strengths.
In practice.
Accessibility-mandatory content
Government, public-sector, healthcare, and other regulated environments where WCAG compliance is non-negotiable. HowToo's built-in checker makes audit-ready output the default.
External-audience training
Customer education, partner enablement, contractor onboarding — where the Learning Academy hosting eliminates the LMS-access problem cleanly.
Citizen-developer L&D teams
Where the L&D function is one person plus part-time SMEs. HowToo's templates and guardrails keep the output professional even when authors aren't full-time designers.
Compliance training with certificates
Modules that need a completion certificate the learner can download and present. HowToo bundles this into the Learning Academy feature without bolting on a separate tool.
Need a course built
in your tool?
We can build your eLearning in HowToo, or advise on what other tools may suit you. Three-week delivery, transparent pricing, zero drama.