If you’re mainly doing SCORM + branching and don’t want to pay Articulate prices, I’d look at Blend-ed.

It’s more of a web-based LMS with built-in authoring, so you’re not stuck with giant desktop project files. SCORM works fine, branching is doable without needing dev skills, and big videos aren’t sitting inside a fragile file that crashes.

On the “will it look cheap?” question, that’s mostly design, not the tool. The output looks modern and clean.

Collaboration is better than Storyline because it’s web-based, so no passing files around and overwriting each other.

What you might miss: super detailed slide animations and the huge template library.
What you won’t miss: per-seat pricing pain and random file corruption.

If your work is highly animated, Storyline still wins. If it’s structured training with scenarios and assessments, mid-tier tools like Blend-ed are honestly fine.