MadCap Flare Online unites robust authoring with cloud-based collaboration, AI assistance, hosting and publishing—all within an innovative, modern platform built for today’s documentation teams
Denver, CO, May 07, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — MadCap Software, Inc., the leader in multi-channel content authoring, management and publishing, backed by global investment firm Battery Ventures, today introduced MadCap Flare Online—the industry’s only documentation platform combining full desktop authoring with real-time cloud collaboration and artificial intelligence (AI) powered content generation and optimization. As a result, documentation teams no longer need to choose between cloud flexibility and authoring power. With MadCap Flare Online, they get everything needed to write, manage and publish state-of-the-art, AI-enhanced content anywhere.
Now available, MadCap Flare Online combines the power of MadCap Flare with MadCap Central and access to advanced AI assistance. MadCap Flare is the industry’s leading desktop authoring software for technical communications professionals—trusted by thousands of organizations worldwide to produce single-source content for multiple channels, including modern documentation websites, online Help, print brochures, knowledge bases, support sites, training and development resources, and compliance reporting, among others. MadCap Central is the widely adopted, cloud-based content management platform that complements MadCap Flare by delivering robust functionality for publishing, project management, collaboration, translation, hosting, analytics, and AI-powered assistance.
MadCap Flare Online is the next-generation documentation platform that is built on and replaces MadCap Central. Key new capabilities include:
- Concurrent authoring with near-desktop-level functionality to enable collaboration while meeting most modern technical communications and documentation demands.
- A MadCap Flare desktop install with seamless Flare Online integration, providing both the flexibility to work offline and features for advanced, specialized use cases.
- Access to advanced AI functionality via MadCap Syndicate, including AI tool integration, semantic search, and retrieval augmented generation (RAG) chatbot support.
“For years, enterprise documentation teams have had to choose between the collaboration and flexibility of cloud platforms and the robust advanced technical authoring features provided by desktop software. With MadCap Flare Online, there’s no longer a need to compromise,” said Anthony Olivier, MadCap Software founder and CEO. “By bringing the best of MadCap Flare and Central into a unified, next-generation documentation platform, Flare Online simplifies content development and delivery from start to finish without sacrificing control, scalability or structure. It’s flexible enough for technical authors, structured enough for enterprise teams, and smart enough for the AI-driven future of content.”
Collaborative, Cloud-Based Authoring
MadCap Flare Online makes it easier than ever for team members to collaborate. It allows authors and subject matter experts (SMEs) to create and edit content concurrently, leveraging the best-in-class technical authoring capabilities of MadCap Flare in the cloud. Meanwhile, a new intuitive interface designed for all skill levels makes it easy for anyone in the organization to create, contribute and review content.
Using MadCap Flare Online, enterprises can maximize content reuse, streamline the creation of technical documentation, and enable single-source multi-channel publishing. The platform promotes modular writing for consistent, scalable documentation via robust topic-based authoring and snippet management, and it provides customizable project templates to help teams get started quickly. MadCap Flare Online also maintains full support for Flare desktop projects—including conditional text, variables, and tables of contents (TOCs)—so existing MadCap Flare projects can be pushed to the cloud and edited with full fidelity.
Additionally, MadCap Flare Online automatically includes a desktop installation of Flare with the online version. This unique hybrid model of online and desktop authoring gives teams the flexibility to work online or offline—no Internet connection required for continued productivity. The MadCap Flare desktop version also handles complex, advanced authoring tasks not supported by cloud authoring tools. These include importing and leveraging existing content from across the organization, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, etc.; building events and batch targets; integrating documentation with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows; and extending functionality via advanced scripting and plugin support.
“Flare Online makes it easy for authors and SMEs to collaborate in real time, through the web on any device,” said Scott DeLoach, ClickStart founder. “Whether you’re conducting technical reviews or need to make a quick update, Flare Online is fast, efficient, and built for today’s content management workflows.”
Comprehensive Content Management and Publishing
The comprehensive, cloud-based MadCap Flare Online documentation platform complements Flare authoring features with robust functionality for publishing, project management, collaboration, translation management, AI-assisted authoring, hosting and analytics. The result is an all-in-one solution that enables teams to author, manage and publish content directly from their browsers—no downloads or installations required.
- One-click, multichannel publishing provides the power to instantly push updates live to desired channels, such as HTML5 and other responsive outputs, PDF, ePub, Microsoft Word, and Microsoft PowerPoint, among others.
- Role-based permissions enable organizations to maintain control with user roles and collaborative workflows.
- Version control and review empower teams to track changes and maintain governance throughout the content lifecycle.
- Content usage analytics provide insights on how to improve content quality and users’ experiences.
- Advanced translation management reduces the cost and complexity of localizing content.
MadCap Flare Online also gives enterprises a future-proof approach for creating, delivering and managing content.
- Built for scale: MadCap Flare Online provides the ability to adapt to teams as they evolve, from a solo writer to a global documentation department.
- Freedom from lock-in: Both MadCap Flare Online and MadCap Flare are based on open industry standards, so unlike proprietary products, there is no vendor lock-in.
AI-Driven Assistance and Insights
MadCap Flare Online also features AI Assist, which allows customers to leverage ChatGPT from within the Flare Online interface. For example, using AI Assist, authorized users can train ChatGPT on their existing content to receive responses in the company’s voice; edit and format the ChatGPT responses in the AI Assist interface; click to insert the text directly into a document in Flare Online; view the difference between original content and text edited by ChatGPT; and translate content directly in the Content Editor. Importantly, MadCap Flare Online allows administrators to control how much or whether to use AI Assist at all, depending on their corporate policies.
In addition to AI Assist, MadCap Flare Online provides access to the advanced AI features provided by MadCap Syndicate, an enterprise-scale, cloud-based content delivery and aggregation platform. Using the Publish to Syndicate feature, teams can publish content directly from Flare Online to Syndicate. Once the content is stored in MadCap Syndicate:
- AI tool integration is supported through the ability to feed Flare content into large language models (LLMs).
- AI-powered semantic search lets teams use natural language to find the content most relevant to their needs across all their organization’s content, even if there are no exact text matches.
- RAG chatbot support allows RAG chatbots to leverage Flare content in a secure, access-controlled way without exposing it to external AI services, such as ChatGPT.
Beyond the AI capabilities, MadCap Flare Online customers with Publish to Syndicate can also take advantage of Syndicate for advanced search and content filtering, seamless integration with other systems and applications, role-based permissions and content governance, enhanced analytics, and robust compliance support.
Availability and Pricing
MadCap Flare Online is available today. Product pricing is based on team size and implementation. Visit MadCap Software at https://www.madcapsoftware.com, or contact MadCap Software at [email protected] or +1 (858) 320-0387 to learn more.
About MadCap Software
MadCap Software powers the world’s leading companies with state-of-the-art content creation and AI-readiness knowledge management solutions. Our products and services streamline content creation, management, delivery, translation, and syndication for both technical documentation and learning assets—ensuring mission-critical knowledge is always accurate and up to date. By optimizing content for AI and maximizing reuse across the enterprise, we help organizations reduce costs, improve efficiency, and accelerate productivity. Explore how MadCap Software helps enterprises harness AI, streamline content operations, and transform their content strategies at www.madcapsoftware.com. Connect with us on LinkedIn, X and Facebook.
MadCap Software, the MadCap Software logo, MadCap Central, MadCap Flare, MadCap Syndicate, and Publish to Syndicate are trademarks or registered trademarks of MadCap Software, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Other marks are the properties of their respective owners.
CONTACT: Rebecca Hurst Kinetic.PR for MadCap Software [email protected] Mobile: 650-544-5059
