20 Best Learning Management Systems (LMS)- 2021 Edition

Learning Management System, in short LMS, is a web-based medium to train or upskill employees by delivering educational courses, training programs, or learning and development programs. It gives the administrator or the manager access to track, monitor, and assign the materials to the team members.

The purpose of the LMSs varies depending on the different organizations' requirements, objectives, and functioning. Some LMS also provides inbuilt contents of various departments that are ready to use.

What is LMS?

A learning management system is a software application used by educational institutions and organizations to train their employees and customers. The application is used for training, tracking, reporting, and administering the learning activities.

Advantages of LMS

• Eliminates the learning and skill gap
• Advanced reporting and analysis of the learner's progress
• Employee Engagement
• Recent and updated on training materials through content customization
• Monetize courses through an e-commerce platform
• Continuous and robust learning
• Mobile learning

Features of LMS

1. Certification: When the learners complete a course or perform well in the assessment, they are awarded a certificate to boost their morale to learn more.

2. Gamification: Learning needs to be inclusive and fun. With the use of badges, leaderboards, points, and a lot more, the admin can motivate their learners by rewarding them.

3. Customization: Customize the software according to your needs and white-labeling the platform with your company logo, images, and primary colors.

4. Mobile learning: Most vendors offer mobile applications that allow their learners to access their learning content anywhere and anytime.

5. Multi-Lingual Support: For organizations bearing office in many corners of the world must consider having this feature to steer clear of the language barrier.

6. Real-time reporting and analytics: Daily, weekly, monthly, and custom reports of the learners based on their performance and progress can be generated. The administrators can also view the activity status.

7. API and Third-party integrations: Some vendors allow their LMS platform to integrate with third-party applications like HRMS, Adobe Flash, Gmail, mobile applications, etc.

8. Social Learning: With options like live chat, group chats, the learners can share and collaborate learning materials and information with their peers. This also encourages teamwork and informal communication.

9. Content Marketplace: At an additional cost, one can avail of off-the-shelf contents of different departments, ranging from Human resources to software technology, readily available on request.

10. Blended learning: For better engagement of the learners, some platform allows traditional classroom training and also modern ways of teaching like Webinars, podcasts, ILT, use of multimedia, SCORM courses, etc.

11. eCommerce: Integrating the LMS with an eCommerce facility can sell their in-house contents to the learners at large at the best price that the users can pay through inbuilt online payment gateways.

Follow these 6 simple steps to choose the best LMS for you-

1. Identify the number of users.
2. List down the features that your learners would best benefit from.
3. Explore the vendors based on your requirements.
4. Note for customer support and user experience.
5. Request for demo and evaluate the platform of the shortlisted ones.
6. Request for commercials, and if that suits your budget, you are good to go!

Top 20 Learning Management Systems in 2021:

The following listed LMS software is considered based on its efficiency for small and medium businesses.

TalentLMS

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TalentLMS is a cloud-based learning management system founded in the year 2012 in California. It outranks the most popular learning management systems in the market now. The simple user interface makes the learning and training experience much more accessible and user-friendly. It is suitable for the organization of every size. The users can determine their pricing plan by the number of active users in their organization.

Clientele:

Oyo, Infosys, Triton, BST, Rosetta Stone, etc.

Features:

- Gamification

- Surveys Engine

- Rich communication tool

- Video conference support

- Content marketplace

- eCommerce

- SCORM and xAPI compliant

LinkedIn Learning For Business

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LinkedIn Learning is a peripheral unit of LinkedIn, the world's largest professional network. In the year 2015, it was acquired by Lynda. The platform consists of tailored and ready-made content by subject matter experts around the world. It is widely accepted for its authenticity and content quality. It also provides the scope for an organization to upload its own content and be accessible to its in-house users.

Clientele:

Kelloggs, Novartis, Sundt, Levi’s

Features:

- Measure learning engagement

- Accessible to global learners

- Content Library

- Built-in course authoring

Udemy For Business

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Udemy for Business provides high-quality on-demand content for the organization of different sectors. It caters to the learner’s needs of various departments of an organization. The high-quality courses cover a wide range of topics. It also gives the organization a scope to host and allocate its own contents.

Clientele:

Booking, Adidas, General Mills, Survey Monkey, etc.

Features:

- Certification

- Multi-lingual

- Real-time tracking

- Content Library

Skillsoft Percipio

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Skillsoft Percipio is an intelligent learning experience platform (LXP) launched in 2017 and has more than 2 million users worldwide. The platform consists of a broad spectrum of content channels like microlearning courses, audiobooks, video books, etc. The courses are developed by industry experts and also reviewed by in-house experts. Personalized Learning helps the learner create a playlist of their area of interest from the content library. They can access it anytime.

Clientele:

Flir, Brunswick, Tata, Rizing, etc

Features:

- Micro-Learning

- Self-selected playlists

- Drive content discovery

- Content Library

Docebo

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Docebo was founded in the year 2005 with its headquarters in Toronto, Canada. The company now has over 2 million users in over 68 countries. Since its founding, the company has grown in its functionality and extended its features. Moreover, Docebo is an ISO 9001-27001 certified company. The content marketplace on the platform gives the user access to third-party content providers ranging from LinkedIn learning to Skilla and a lot more. It also facilitates integration with HRMS for onboarding and retrieving employee details.

Clientele:

Walmart, Uber, Starbucks, Cineplex, Bloomberg, etc.

Features:

- Audit trail

- Custom domain Https

- Enrolment rules

- Extended training

- MOOC builder

Paradiso Solutions

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Paradiso LMS, headquartered in San Francisco, is very well suitable for small and medium businesses. It is more famous for its more than 100 integrations with various applications ranging from CRM, CMS, HRMS, Web conferencing, e-commerce, and sharing tools. It further extends to a course library of 5000+ contents that are available at additional cost. The in-built chatbox accelerates the problem resolving process. The platform offers limited modules that facilitate easy navigation for its users.

Clientele:

Toyota, Croma, Berger, Beyond learning, etc.

Features:

- Mobile Compatible

- Advanced reports

- Performance management

- SCORM and Tincan compliant

Upside LMS

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Upside LMS is a Pune, India-based company but is widely used in Europe and other parts of the world. Having over 15 years of experience, Claiming to be the best value SaaS LMS, it provides a good value for money for the industry of any size. Free cloud hosting on Microsoft Azure, free upgrades, and 365 X 24 X 7 support are the USPs that make Upside LMS stand out from other vendors. Its comprehensive library partner, Plethora, renders off-the-shelf contents, from behavioral to technical skills, at additional cost.

Clientele:

Doha Bank, Gulf, HDFC bank, Bridgestone, Bajaj Finserv Etc

Features:

- AI-empowered engagement

- Multiple client management

- SCORM and AICC compliant

- GDPR compliant

Adobe Captivate Prime

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Developed by Adobe, Adobe CP is widely used for its simple interface and hassle-free navigation. The content curation powered by Adobe Sensei reads the learner's activity and automatically assigns the relevant courses to them; this may be disabled as well. The platform also allows the users to create polls encouraging social Learning among their peers. The availability of the fluidic player facilitates the learners to view any type of eLearning content.

Clientele:

Dominos, GE healthcare, Publicis Media, Columbia Ship Management, etc

Features:

- Live device preview

- Powerpoint to mobile Learning

- Adobe Captivate draft

- Geo-location support

- Gamification

- SVG Support

Trainual

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Trainual was founded in 2018, with its headquarter based in Arizona. Its simple and user-friendly interface makes it easy for a non-computerate person as well. The library of templates gets the job done in a brief span. The platform provides customization of the platform with your company logo and color scheme. It also allows the admin to customize the terminologies. The solution is integrated with Zapier, which automates connecting to external applications.

Clientele:

Kobe Digital, Century 21, Warrior, Bodify, etc.

Features:

- Discussion boards

- Certification

- Training management

- Self-service portal

- Activity feed

Abara LMS

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Abara LMS is an ISO 27001:2013 certified company based out of Illinois, US, and India office is based in Pune. It provides solutions for customer training, onboarding, compliance training, sales training, and much more. Having 14 years of experience in the eLearning industry, Abara has been awarded by several reviewing websites and experts. The platform contains various features which meet the admin and learner requirements.

Clientele:

GSK, Jack&Jones, Tony&Guy, Grab, RBI Academy, etc.

Features:

- Self-registration via emails

- Power-user roles

- Knowledge repository

- Leaderboards

- API and eCommerce integrations

Disprz

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Founded in 2015, the Disprz has its offices in three major cities: India, South East Asia, and the Middle East. Recently, the app won the Atma Nirbhar App Innovation Challenge in the eLearning category conducted by the Govt of India. This growing SaaS product is now serving more than 66 countries. What sets apart Disprz from many other LMS vendors is its skill-based training management system. The updated AI gives "Netflix" like course suggestions to its users.

Clientele:

Godrej, Firm Mea, Sula Vineyards, Motilal Oswal Financial Services, etc.

Features:

- Multi-Dimensional microlearning

- Online and offline learning

- Leaderboards

- Media Management

Courseplay

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Courseplay is an Indian eLearning company created by its parent company, Firstventure Corporation Private Limited, an ISO 9001:2015 and ISO /IEC 27001:2013 certified company. The rich features in the platform almost fulfill the needs of an LMS. Its extensive selection of user-based reports, courses, accounts, announcements, and many more are remarkable in Courseplay.

Clientele:

Spicejet, Caratlane, Raymond, Amazon, etc.

Features:

- Event Calendar

- Performance metrics

- Customer Engagement

- Employee awards

- Progress reports

eFront Learning

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eFront is created by Epignosis, which is also the parent company of TalentLMS. eFront is most suitable for large enterprises, and the base plan starts from 1000 users. It facilitates self-hosting as well as private cloud deployment. Their course marketplace contains ready-made content with one year license from third-party content providers. The platform can be fully customized according to the client's needs.

Clientele:

Fujitsu, Novomatic, Honeywell, Schneider Electric, Glencore, Autodesk, etc

Features:

- Assesment engines

- Course rules

- Video conference support

- Website and plugin builder

- Competency Management

SAP Litmos

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Founded in 2007, SAP Litmos has broadened its learning management services to more than 130 countries. The platform allows the clients to expand their learning experience to partners, contractors, suppliers, and other external partners. The SAP Litmos offers two types of plans with LMS and LMS along with more than 2500 off-the-shelf contents. With the open API, it allows you to integrate with external applications for a seamless experience.

Clientele:

Hewlett Packard, Reynolds, Lions Club International, Playtech, etc

Features:

- Decision tree

- Microlearning

- Surveys and feedback

- Multilingual

- Off the shelf content

Moodle

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Moodle, founded is an open-source learning management system that is available free of cost. Since it is an open-source software platform, the customization is flexible to your needs. It facilitates both self-hosting in the client's premises and cloud hosting by Moodle, called Moodle Cloud. Moodle provides certified partners from different parts of the world for deployment, consulting, certification, analytics, etc. Moodle workplace can only be accessed through the partners of Moodle.

Clientele:

Vodafone, Concentrix, Pearson, Cisco, Teri University, etc.

Features:

- Secure authentication and mass enrolment

- Bulk course creation

- Regular security updates

- Inline feedback

- Integrated badges

- Peer and self-assessment

Open edX

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Open EDX is an open-source learning platform compiled with edX, founded by Harvard and MIT, comprises contents from leading universities globally. It is freely available and is equipped with service, technical, and other miscellaneous solution providers worldwide to assist in hosting, consulting, and other services. This non-profit eLearning company comes in a self-managed format. The users can customize their own learning platform based on their requirements and a fully managed platform by service providers.

Clientele:

Vision Marketing, Stanford University, Thales, Airbus, etc.

Features:

- Customizable

- Cross-platform course management

- Built-in reports

- Rich eCommerce capabilities

- Reusable contents

uQualio

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Founded in the year 2017, UQualio was started in Denmark. With a team of limited members, they are extending their services across the world. The service support is very responsive, with a maximum response time of 6-8 hours. The platform gives the user access to make their profile channels public or private. The contents of a public profile are accessible to anyone around the globe. With its open API, integration with any external application is allowed. For every badge earned, the learner can share them in their social media handles. uQualio is not SCORM supported.

Clientele:

Rehab, Exerp, Treasury Wine Estates, Kapi, NRT, etc.

Features:

- Customisable

- Multilingual

- Third-Party integrations

- Unlimited course

- Online user community

iSpring Solutions

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One of the leading companies in the eLearning industry, iSpring, is a cloud-based LMS and allows self-hosting. Since 2001, it has widened. It has been a receiver of many awards for customer satisfaction and performance in the eLearning industry. With their product iSpring Suite, the content creators can create content using their broad spectrum of template libraries. You have as many registered users as you want and pay for active users. Additionally, deactivating a user will restrict their further login efforts. With its free mobile application, the learners can access their courses anywhere anytime.

Clientele:

L’oreal, Acer, Forever Direct, Drone Class, Central One, etc.

Features:

- Course templates

- Online User community

- Authoring tool for micro-courses

- 14 question types

- Screen recording

- Protect content

- Choose player

ProProfs

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ProProfs LMS is a cloud LMS with over 1 million users on its platform. It lets users create, design, share, and track online courses and tests seamlessly. The tool offers a premium library of 100+ professionally designed and ready-to-use courses and templates to help users get training up and running in minutes. Also, you get an eLearning authoring tool, a virtual classroom, quizzes, and a collaboration platform as a part of its online training package. Other in-demand features in the LMS include reporting & analytics, 100+ settings & configurations, white-label integrations, and an eCommerce site.

Clientele:

Dell, DHL, Cisco, Yale University, Sony, etc.

Features:

- Course Library

- Mobile LMS

- eLearning Authoring tool

- Testing & Assessment

- Security & Permissions

- Certification

Absorb LMS

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Since its inception in the year 2003, Absorb LMS has won victories over the eLearning sector due to its enriched features, flexibility, and scalability. According to the departments, the platform allows managers to send enrollment ids to the user, which is a better approach than manually bulk uploading the users. It supports SCORM, Tincan, and AICC files.

Clientele:

Sony, Global eTraining, Tiffany & Co., Johnson&Johnson, Red Robin, etc.

Features:

- Customisable analytics dashboard

- Question banks

- Actionable reports

- Automated enrolments

- Smart Ranking

- Observation checklists

LMS Comparison Based On Pricing

Pricing is an important factor in choosing the right Learning Management system for your organization. Here is a chart comparing the above 20 LMS software based on their pricing criteria:

Frequently Asked Questions- FAQs

What is Gamification?

Gamification is a feature of LMS that enables the admins to add game principles to increase learner engagement, create a competitive environment, and encourage social Learning. This works as a motivating tool for the learner to get feedback on their performance and enhances fun learning engagement.

What is SCORM?

SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model that is primarily used in the LMS software. It is a technical standard that the programmers use to share content across various systems. It makes sharing e-learning content more efficient and time-saving. There are three versions of SCORM released, namely, SCORM 1.1, SCORM 1.2, and SCORM 2004.

How much does it cost?

Pricing Models:

1. Active users: This is priced according to the total number of active users during the billing cycle. This is the most commonly used as it is very cost-effective. The cost levels up if the organization grows and wants to enroll more users into the system. It works best for small businesses and start-ups.
2. Registered users: You pay for a fixed number of users registered in the system. It doesn't take into account if the users are active or inactive in the system. The pay per person is relatively lesser in this mode. Still, the problem arises when your employee count lessens down. You end up paying the initial amount until the billing cycle ends. It is mainly used in small and medium businesses.
3. License fee or subscription: The licenses are purchased for a specific duration. The user pays for the features, services they opt for and sometimes also based on the number of users. This model is not so flexible as you end up paying a hefty amount if your users are remarkably less. This is best suited for large enterprises.
4. Perpetual License: This is a permanent license that you purchase from the Vendor and install in your private servers and gain complete ownership. This is a one-time purchase, but you might need to pay for the maintenance and upgrades. This is best for the large organizations that seek to pay a fixed amount irrespective of the usage.
5. Custom pricing: Some vendors also provide custom pricing. The buyers only need to pay for the limited features they find helpful for those who don't see any models suitable to their budget. This cuts down to the limited functionality of an LMS.
6. Freemium and open source: Certain services are provided free of charge in the freemium models, and, in open-source systems, the number of users is not a concern. These plans are generally self-hosted and require an in-house IT specialist.
7. Unlimited users: Some vendors provide a fixed amount irrespective of the total number of users in the system. There are minimal vendors in the eLearning industry that offers this pricing plan.

Most vendors charge additional costs for support, maintenance, training, content marketplace, cloud-hosting, implementation, etc.

Can we integrate the LMS with other software?

It is crucial to see that your LMS allows third-party integrations via API to ease data management. This allows your software to integrate with other applications like HRMS, CRM, Video conferencing, SSO, payment gateways, content management, eCommerce, calendar, etc. It will help in automating tasks and save time.
Zapier is a third-party web automation tool that allows you to integrate with over 2000 apps.

Where do I get access to ready-made content?

There are various options of which you get get your contents for your LMS, some of which are:

1. Inbuilt content library: Some eLearning companies like Udemy for business, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning for business, Percipio provides high quality and on-demand content that are created and verified by the industry experts. New contents are added regularly.
2. Content marketplace: According to your organizational needs, if you do not have any curated content, the learning materials can be purchased from the content marketplace. It offers off-the-shelf content from qualified content producers.

Can I sell my content?

Integrating your LMS with an eCommerce platform enables you to sell your in-house content, webinars, podcasts, etc., to the users at large. The following points need to be considered while creating the course:

1. Determine the requirements of the users.
2. The courses need to be engaging for the learners.
3. The contents need to be rich and updated.
4. Break down the contents into modules and chapters.
5. Needs to be SCORM compliant, as this format is widely used in the LMS platforms.
6. Add pictures, videos, and presentations to make it more exciting and appealing.
7. Add quizzes, assessments, or assignments to check the learner's progress.

After creating the contents, you determine the price of the course materials and publish them on the eCommerce platforms. For better sales, content marketing on social media and other platforms is crucial.

Best LMS for Small Businesses

For small enterprises having a limited number of employees and a limited budget for eLearning software, the following LMS providers can be considered:

Best LMS for Medium Businesses

For medium industries having more than 300 employees and less of a tighter budget, might consider the following LMS providers:

Best LMS for Large Businesses

For organizations having more than 1000 employees and wants to provide and manage eLearning contents for their employees in a more efficient way might consider the following providers:

This comparison is written by Pratyakshi Goswami who works as a Human Resource Executive at Vantage Circle. Pratyakshi is actively involved in the strategic side of managing people better and was previously engaged with the operational work of human resources. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com