Ceros Reviews

Pros

Many of my interactive designs have complicated carousels, click-to-reveals, navigation, menus, etc. Some of these things can really give you grey hairs at a young age, but Ceros makes detailed interactions easy to build out. The tools are laid out easily so that you know what each button is going to do and how it's going to interact with other objects on your canvas. It can be tedious, but it beats having to learn coding and deal with the HTML myself. A few other honorable mentions: Ceros has an excellent array of templates that users can take and build onto; Ceros also is very receptive to feedback from users, and I've found in my 3+ years using the platform that a lot of idea I've added to the suggestion box have been implemented.

Cons

The lack of functionality for quizzes and assessments is a bummer. To define what I mean by quizzes, I'm strictly talking about assets where you're posed with a question, you select an answer (possibly multiple choice) and the end result after a handful of questions is to be dumped into a specific bucket category. I've talked to many Ceros reps about making quizzes, and while it's doable, it's extremely convoluted and the output of metrics is unorganized. With that said, the analytics you receive from any experience isn't really all that much to brag about. The Ceros platform has a really nice display of visuals for users to see, but once it's time to pass the data onto a client or anyone outside of the Ceros platform, you get this extremely messy and hard-to-read CSV file. I don't love that. It would be better if you could export the graphs and data visuals straight from the backend of Ceros.

Pros

Ceros has been a fantastic option to enhance a lot of our content management that existed as an ebook, technical document or report. It gives us another way to communicate key assets in a unique and smart way. There are endless options and it can be a blank canvas or template, depending on our needs.

If you know Adobe, it can be a seamless transition on the design side and then some learning on animations and different web options to optimize the experience for visitors. They have a good analytics section as well that we are still learning but it's great to have that available.

The customer service thus far has been excellent. There are regular check-ins, tutorials and you have access to their team to help you walk through some of the more complicated aspects of the tool.

The Pro features have access to white labeling and dedicated URL handling which is a good feature as well.

Cons

If you are a beginner to Adobe, it can be difficult to learn and there is an investment. However, for organizations that are content marketing-focused, it's a fantastic tool to have at your disposal.

Pros

As a service provider our industry is based on relationships, so finding new and interactive ways to reach our clients and influencer base is so important. Now we create content through the lens of user interaction and functionality instead of static web and white pages – we're seeing a dramatic increase in our engagements rates across the board, not only in click rates but time spent on the pages themselves.

Cons

The learning curve from static to interactive content can be steep, especially for teams that don't have designers available to work solely on this software. Even with Ceros' ability to simplify the process, it can still feel like a heavy lift for teams with high pressure deadlines that already run lean.

Pros

I love that we can build immersive content experiences for all our clients, with tools that help us accomplish just about anything we think of when it comes to cool callouts, animations, layouts. And of course, it's great that we can then dig into the data to see what the users are actually responding to.

Cons

I wish metrics were available in a more customizable dashboard, and easier to download or share a custom report with a client... although I suspect Ceros is focusing more on one-on-one client relationships vs. agencies, so I won't hold my breath for that. Still cool that we can learn so much about what users are looking at.

Pros

I love its ability to create great web experiences, without the coding knowledge.

Cons

It can be quite buggy at times, but it seems to be improving over the year.

Pros

What I like most about this software is how easy it is to use. As soon as you start a experience it feels familiar.

Cons

The Desktop to Mobile conversion. I thought it was going to be an easier transition between the two versions and I feel like Im building an entire new experience.

Pros

The software is unique in that it allows you to create your own content without being a graphic designer or writing a lot of code. It was also nice that analytics were collected on the content to gauge user interaction.

Cons

It took awhile to learn--especially for our student workers who were used to Adobe creative suite applications.

Pros

Familiarity in experience with other apps like Photoshop, Sketch, Figma. An app capable of handling the design and the coding.

Cons

At times you just need to refresh the experience to clear out any bugs.

Pros

Gives agencies and marketing teams the ability to make complex, interactive content without the need for a developer; tools simply require a skillset similar to Adobe Creative Suite; excellent customer support and onboarding; outstanding visuals; easy to embed; lets anyone view a live preview link for a project in process.

Cons

Fairly expensive, but you get your money's worth; not easy to create certain forms of content (like quizzes); responsiveness can be tricky on certain websites.

Pros

Easy to use, responsive account management and product team.

Cons

The desktop app could stay logged in! Sometimes a pain with translation tools.

Pros

Ceros is SO EASY to use. It's been my secret weapon for three years now ... especially when I need to make a project really sing.

Cons

The worst things about Ceros are that the experiences crash when left untouched for several months, there are a ton of bugs, and sometimes the pixels are off. I wish there were more advanced typography settings.

Pros

Overall I'm very happy working with this software - once you get to know it and have a better understanding of the tools and how they can help you, it's pretty simple to create great animated content whether it's a landing page, quiz or a article embedded graph. You can make it as simple or complex as you want and additionally you can embed other code (like JS or forms) to add features that might not exist within Ceros. Ceros has a lot of various standard JS type animations which can transform a page into something that is fun or exciting to scroll through. I'm very impressed with the Inspire gallery showing so many different applications and fun projects using the software and it gives us ideas to use in next project.

Cons

While there are not a lot of things I am not happy with, I do wish there were more shape features and line options ( octagon, maybe a free form shape, dotted or double line - sort of like Photoshop ). I also would like to see a masking tool. There are occasional bugs.

Pros

If you're any good at creating PowerPoint animations, Ceros is a really cool tool that can help take your infographics to the next level. It uses a similar approach to animations as PowerPoint (fly in, fly out, fade in/out, etc) with an interface that is similar to Adobe Illustrator.

Cons

Ceros is very expensive for what it can do. The short trial costs too much, and you don't get to keep the assets you create. Animation options are also somewhat limiting. You can't really combine multiple animations on the same object simultaneously. It's also very time consuming to create assets that are worthwhile.

Pros

WYSIWYG interface with lots of animations and tools to create content. The support for embedding other code and objects (and even embedding ceros experiences inside other ones) has been great. Makes it quick and fairly easy to create simple interactive pieces of microcontent as well as has the depth to create really in-depth, interactive experiences with minimal coding involved.

Cons

A few bugs here and there, and is a little on the pricier side.

Pros

Create animated projects for clients and not have to worry about elaborate coding begin the scenes. Some of the 'hacks' i had as shortcuts several year ago have become standard tools (color palettes, layers) to make initial project setup much easier.

Cons

Been waiting 4+ years for some fine details, specifically rotating items at a percentage...for example, a 1/4 (90˚) turn, or 10% rotation. Found some workarounds, but there have been numerous instances when a client wants a clock-type motion and have been unable to produce exactly what they have in mind.

Pros

The interface is very user friendly. Very similar to Adobe CS. Allows the designer to experiment with layout scaling and sizing easily. Gives you the ability to work off the pasteboard. The interactive controls are very intuitive and allow for many complex interactions with minimal programming.

Cons

Haven't found to many as of yet. Some of the effects transitions could be a litttle smoother. They are choppy at times.

Pros

I like the easy animations and the new crop tool makes it easy to edit photos without having to go back to Photoshop.

Cons

The way it handles text isn't consistent with other design programs. I mostly use Adobe InDesign, Illustrator, PremierPro, Photoshop where the text is scalable & viewable when zooming in or zooming out. While updating new product descriptions on our lookbooks, Ceros crashed almost every time. So simple text changes took way longer than they should have. I found that if I ungrouped the text it seemed to work a little better but then I have to regroup & re-apply the animations.

Pros

I like the help cuz when starting some people may be their first time to use venngage.

Cons

The cost, cuz some students are in high school they don't have the money to pay for it.

Pros

The amount of interactions and templates stored on the tool makes it easy to create almost any kind of project.

Cons

Sometimes a little complicated with all the designing, as a beginner it is easy to get lost. But once you get the hang of the tool there are many more opportunities.

Pros

We've only just started using this service, but it is so easy to pick up and start creating content. The navigation and tools feel like most other design tools out there. Plus, there are easy to use controls for content animation and interactions.

Cons

Not gonna lie, it feels awfully expensive, but when we started comparing what we'd spend elsewhere to get similar content created, it starts to make a lot of sense. They make a lot of examples available, but not all are available to copy the source files (which would be really nice). They are just visual inspiration.

Pros

As an Adobe based designer, the Ceros platform is easy to create a layout with previous Adobe InDesign experience. Ceros Inspire is an amazing tool for quick layout templates to get your ideas following and also features some custom created sites for inspiration. The animation is easy to add and elevate any layout as someone who hasn't worked much with After Effects or other timeline animation tools.

Cons

The functionality could use some work. Features like paragraph and character styles are missing in the capabilities. The latest major update added some capabilities like "adaptive" layouts, meaning not quite responsive, but better than nothing mobile layout conversion from desktop designs. The platform isn't great for customizing SEO or social sharing.

Pros

Ceros has basically made a WYSIWYG HTML 5 Animation tool that is a fairly easy and friendly jump for those experienced with Adobe tools. It requires no coding and I was able to get my designers up and using it fairly quickly. The tool has a good number of features and basic analytics. Support has been helpful getting us up and running.

Cons

There is still a decent learning curve. It takes some time to get ramped up. By default, the code runs on their servers and we are still assessing impact to SEO (there is an option to download and run on our side, but that makes updating harder).