Interakly vs H5P

Overview

H5P is an open-source content creation framework, released under the MIT license, that enables educators to build a wide range of interactive learning activities. The name stands for "HTML5 Package," and the project's scope is broad: over 50 content types spanning interactive video, presentations, branching scenarios, timelines, memory games, drag-and-drop exercises, virtual tours, and much more. It is one of the most widely used open-source e-learning tools in the world, with particularly deep roots in European higher education and the Moodle community.

H5P can be deployed in several ways. The most common is as a plugin for an existing platform — Moodle, WordPress, or Drupal — where it runs on your own infrastructure. There is also H5P.com, a managed cloud service with paid plans for organizations, and Lumi, an open-source desktop application for creating and viewing H5P content offline. This flexibility is a genuine strength: educators who want full control over their infrastructure can self-host, while those who prefer a managed experience can use the cloud service.

Interakly is a different kind of tool. Where H5P is a general-purpose content framework that includes interactive video as one of many capabilities, Interakly is built exclusively around interactive video. It provides 25 interaction types designed specifically for video, built-in analytics, code workspaces, live streaming, LTI 1.3 integration, and a fully hosted platform that requires no server management. This comparison examines how these two tools compare when the goal is creating interactive video content — the area where their capabilities overlap.

Feature comparison

H5P and Interakly approach interactive video from fundamentally different angles. H5P is a content framework that happens to include an interactive video module. Interakly is a platform built entirely around making videos interactive. The following table compares their capabilities specifically for interactive video use cases.

Where Interakly excels

Deeper interactive video capabilities

When it comes specifically to interactive video, Interakly offers significantly more depth. H5P's Interactive Video module supports around 10 interaction types — solid basics like multiple choice, fill-in-the-blanks, drag and drop, and summary questions. Interakly offers 25, including interaction types that H5P does not support in video: hotspot clicking on specific regions, ordering sequences, matching pairs, numeric input with tolerance ranges, rating scales, polls with real-time results, image labeling, audio responses, drawing submissions, and workspace checks that validate code output.

The auto-grading system in Interakly is also more sophisticated. Nine interaction types are graded automatically with support for partial credit on multi-select questions and matching, score decay on hotspot retries, and keyword-based grading for free text. H5P does grade its supported types, but grading behavior and reporting depend heavily on the host platform. In Moodle, grades flow into the gradebook natively. On WordPress, you may need additional plugins to collect and report scores meaningfully.

Built-in analytics without infrastructure

This is one of the most significant practical differences between the two tools. Interakly includes a built-in analytics dashboard that shows per-question response distributions, completion heatmaps (where viewers rewatch or drop off), individual session timelines, score breakdowns, and exportable data. This works out of the box — every interactive video you create automatically has analytics.

H5P takes a standards-based approach: it emits xAPI statements that describe learner interactions. This is architecturally elegant and supports interoperability, but it means you need somewhere to collect and analyze those statements. In Moodle, the built-in reporting provides basic completion and scoring data. For richer analytics, you need a Learning Record Store (LRS) like Learning Locker or Watershed, which adds infrastructure, configuration, and often cost. On WordPress, analytics are even more limited unless you add a dedicated xAPI plugin and LRS.

Zero-setup hosting

Interakly is a fully hosted platform on Cloudflare. You sign up, paste a YouTube URL or upload a video, add interactions, and share a link. There is no server to provision, no plugin to install, no PHP version to worry about, and no database to maintain.

Self-hosting H5P requires a functioning Moodle, WordPress, or Drupal installation. For institutions that already have one of these platforms, the H5P plugin installs easily. But for an individual educator or a small team without an existing CMS, standing up and maintaining a server just to use H5P is a non-trivial commitment. H5P.com removes the hosting burden but introduces a recurring cost starting at roughly $50 per month for organizations.

Live streaming and corporate features

Interakly supports live interactive video — broadcast via browser (WHIP) or OBS (RTMPS), fire interactions in real-time while streaming, and automatically convert the recording to a VOD with baked-in interaction timestamps. This enables live training sessions, webinars, and interactive lectures that H5P cannot replicate.

Other features that serve corporate and professional training include password-protected content (server-side PBKDF2), webhook integrations (HMAC-signed with auto-retry), completion certificates, code workspaces for developer training, and branching scenarios built directly into the video timeline. H5P was designed primarily for educational content creation and does not include these enterprise-oriented features.

Where H5P wins

H5P has genuine, substantial advantages that deserve honest acknowledgment. For many educators, these strengths are decisive.

Open source and community-driven

H5P is released under the MIT license. You can inspect the source code, modify it, contribute to it, and run it on your own servers with no licensing fees. For institutions that prioritize open-source software — whether for philosophical reasons, vendor lock-in concerns, data sovereignty requirements, or budget constraints — this is a fundamental advantage that no proprietary platform can match. The H5P community is large, active, and international, with particularly strong representation in Scandinavian and European higher education institutions.

Content breadth far beyond video

H5P supports over 50 content types. Interactive Video is just one. If your needs extend beyond video — and for most educators they do — H5P can also create interactive presentations (Course Presentation), branching scenarios, timelines, memory games, image hotspots, virtual tours (360-degree), accordion panels, dialogue cards, flashcards, arithmetic quizzes, crossword puzzles, find-the-words games, essay grading, documentation tools, and many more. This breadth means a single tool can cover a wide range of pedagogical approaches. Interakly does one thing — interactive video — and does not attempt to create non-video content types.

Native Moodle integration

For Moodle users, H5P's integration is as good as it gets. Since Moodle 3.9, H5P is supported as a native activity type. Teachers create H5P content directly within Moodle, grades flow into the gradebook automatically, and everything lives in the same system students already use. There is no external service to configure, no LTI setup to negotiate with IT, and no additional accounts for students to manage. Interakly integrates with Moodle via LTI 1.3, which works well but requires an administrator to register the external tool — a step that can be a barrier in some institutions.

Content portability

H5P content is saved as .h5p files — self-contained packages that can be downloaded, shared, and imported into any H5P-compatible platform. An interactive video created in Moodle can be exported and imported into WordPress, or shared with a colleague at a different institution who uses Drupal. This portability is valuable in collaborative environments and protects against platform lock-in. If you leave one LMS for another, your H5P content comes with you. Interakly content lives on the Interakly platform and is accessed via share links, LTI embeds, or iframe embeds — it cannot be exported as a standalone file.

Self-hosting control and data sovereignty

When you self-host H5P, all data stays on your servers. For institutions bound by GDPR, FERPA, or internal data governance policies that restrict sending student data to third-party cloud services, self-hosting H5P on institutional infrastructure can be the simplest path to compliance. Interakly is hosted on Cloudflare, and while it implements security best practices, some institutions may have policies that preclude the use of external SaaS platforms for learner data.

Pricing and hosting

The pricing comparison between H5P and Interakly is not straightforward because the two tools use fundamentally different distribution models.

H5P pricing

Self-hosted H5P is free. The software is MIT-licensed, and the Moodle, WordPress, and Drupal plugins cost nothing to install and use. However, "free" here means "no software licensing fee" — you still need a server to run your CMS, and you are responsible for hosting costs, maintenance, updates, security patches, and backups. For institutions that already run Moodle or WordPress, the marginal cost of adding H5P is genuinely close to zero. For someone starting from scratch, the total cost of ownership includes server hosting ($5–50+/month depending on scale), domain, SSL, CMS setup, and ongoing maintenance time.

H5P.com, the managed cloud service, removes the hosting burden. Plans start at around $50 per month for organizations (pricing varies based on the number of content authors and usage). This is a reasonable price for teams that want H5P without managing infrastructure, but it is significantly more expensive than Interakly's free tier for teams that only need interactive video.

Lumi, the desktop application, is free and open-source. It allows offline creation and viewing of H5P content but does not provide hosting, analytics, or LMS integration on its own.

Interakly pricing

Interakly is free during early access — every feature is included. Unlimited YouTube-based interactive videos, 3 video uploads per day (up to 40 minutes each), all 25 interaction types, code workspaces, live streaming, and built-in analytics, all on the free plan. There is no server to manage, no plugin to install, and no minimum commitment. A paid Pro tier will arrive later for team workspaces and priority support.

Who should choose what

H5P and Interakly serve overlapping but distinct audiences. The right choice depends on what you need beyond interactive video and what infrastructure you already have.

Choose H5P if:

• You need more than just interactive video. If your workflow includes interactive presentations, timelines, branching scenarios, memory games, drag-and-drop exercises, and other non-video content types, H5P is the clear choice. Interakly does not create non-video content.
• You run Moodle and want native integration. H5P's Moodle integration is seamless — it is a built-in activity type. No LTI configuration, no external service, no additional student accounts. For Moodle-centric institutions, this simplicity is a major advantage.
• Open source is a requirement. If your institution mandates open-source software, or if you need full source code access for auditing, customization, or data sovereignty reasons, H5P is the only option here.
• You need content portability. If you need to share interactive content as downloadable files that work across different platforms and institutions, H5P's .h5p file format provides a level of portability that SaaS platforms cannot match.
• Data sovereignty is non-negotiable. If institutional policy requires all learner data to remain on your own servers, self-hosted H5P satisfies that requirement. Interakly is a cloud service hosted on Cloudflare infrastructure.

Choose Interakly if:

• Interactive video is your primary focus. If your main goal is adding rich interactions to video, Interakly's 25 interaction types, purpose-built editor, and video-specific features (chapters, branching, timed reveals, viewer variables) provide significantly more depth than H5P's Interactive Video module.
• You need built-in analytics without extra infrastructure. Interakly's analytics dashboard works immediately — per-question stats, heatmaps, session timelines, and data export. With H5P, comparable analytics require setting up an LRS and configuring xAPI reporting.
• You do not want to manage servers. If you are an individual educator, a small team, or a department without dedicated IT support, Interakly's fully hosted model eliminates the operational overhead of running a CMS with H5P plugins.
• You teach coding or technical subjects. The code workspace feature — nine languages running in sandboxed VMs alongside the video, with workspace check interactions that validate code output — has no equivalent in H5P or most other platforms.
• You need live interactive sessions. Interakly supports live streaming via WHIP and RTMPS with real-time interaction firing and automatic VOD conversion. H5P is designed for pre-built content, not live delivery.
• You work in corporate training. Password protection, webhook integrations, completion certificates, and LTI 1.3 for enterprise LMS platforms are features that H5P does not provide.

Using H5P and Interakly together

H5P and Interakly are not mutually exclusive, and for some educators the best approach is using both. The tools complement each other well because they occupy different niches: H5P excels at diverse, non-video interactive content, while Interakly provides deeper interactive video capabilities.

A practical combined workflow

Consider a university course that uses a mix of content types. The instructor might use H5P for interactive presentations with embedded quiz questions, drag-and-drop vocabulary exercises, timeline activities for historical subjects, and branching scenarios for case-based learning. For video-heavy modules — recorded lectures, lab demonstrations, or expert interviews that need rich interaction overlays with detailed analytics — the same instructor uses Interakly. Both tools can be embedded in Moodle: H5P as a native activity, Interakly via LTI 1.3 or iframe embed.

This approach uses each tool for what it does best. H5P covers the breadth of non-video interactive content that it handles well. Interakly provides the depth of interactive video features — 25 interaction types, completion heatmaps, per-question analytics, code workspaces, certificates — that go beyond what H5P's Interactive Video module offers. Students access both through their LMS without needing to know or care that different tools power different activities.

When to consolidate

If you only need basic multiple choice questions on a few videos and already use H5P extensively for other content types, there may not be enough reason to introduce a second tool. H5P's Interactive Video handles simple quiz overlays adequately, and keeping everything in one system reduces complexity. The case for adding Interakly becomes stronger when you need advanced interaction types, detailed video analytics, live streaming, code execution, or features like branching and certificates that H5P's video module does not support.

FAQ

Is H5P free to use?

H5P is open-source and free when self-hosted via Moodle, WordPress, or Drupal plugins. The software itself carries no licensing fee. However, self-hosting requires a server, which has its own costs (hosting, maintenance, updates). H5P.com, the managed cloud service, has paid plans starting at around $50 per month for organizations. Interakly offers a free tier with no self-hosting required — unlimited YouTube-based interactive videos, built-in analytics, and all 25 interaction types at no cost.

Can H5P create interactive videos?

Yes. H5P Interactive Video is one of H5P's 50+ content types. It allows you to add around 10 interaction types within a video, including multiple choice, single choice, true/false, fill-in-the-blanks, drag and drop, drag text, mark the words, summary, statements, and free text input. This covers basic assessment needs well. Interakly offers 25 interaction types focused exclusively on video, including hotspots, ordering, matching, numeric input, polls, rating scales, code workspace checks, image labeling, audio responses, and drawing submissions.

How do H5P and Interakly compare for Moodle users?

H5P has native Moodle integration — since Moodle 3.9, it installs as a built-in activity type. Teachers create H5P content directly within Moodle, and grades flow into the Moodle gradebook automatically. No external configuration is needed. Interakly connects to Moodle via LTI 1.3, which provides automatic grade passback and works well, but requires an administrator to register Interakly as an external tool. The trade-off: H5P integration is simpler to set up, while Interakly provides richer video analytics and more interaction types once configured.

Does H5P have analytics?

H5P generates xAPI (Experience API) statements that describe learner interactions — what questions were answered, how they were answered, and whether the answers were correct. However, H5P itself does not include a built-in analytics dashboard. To visualize and analyze this data, you need a Learning Record Store (LRS) such as Learning Locker, SCORM Cloud, or Watershed. In Moodle, the platform provides basic activity completion and grade data, but detailed per-question analytics typically require additional plugins. Interakly includes a built-in analytics dashboard with per-question breakdowns, response distributions, completion heatmaps, individual session timelines, and data export — no additional infrastructure needed.

Can I migrate H5P content to Interakly?

There is no automated migration path between H5P and Interakly. The two platforms use different content formats — H5P stores content as .h5p packages (JSON + assets), while Interakly stores interaction data in its Convex backend. To move an interactive video from H5P to Interakly, you would need to recreate the interaction layer manually. The good news: since H5P interactive videos reference external video URLs (YouTube, Vimeo, or uploaded files), you can use the same video source in Interakly. Only the interactions need to be rebuilt, and Interakly's broader interaction type library may let you improve the content in the process.

Which is better for non-video content?

H5P, without question. H5P supports over 50 content types spanning presentations, timelines, branching scenarios, memory games, virtual tours, drag-and-drop exercises, crossword puzzles, flashcards, arithmetic quizzes, documentation tools, and much more. Interakly is focused exclusively on interactive video. If you need to create non-video interactive content, H5P is the appropriate tool. If you need both video and non-video interactivity, using H5P for non-video content alongside Interakly for video-specific content is a practical combination.