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Best Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Advertiser Disclosure Updated: Apr 8, 2024, 5:57pm

Best Learning Management Systems (LMS) Of 2024

Katherine HaanContributor

Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.

Katherine Haan

Katherine HaanContributor

Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.

Contributor

Rob WattsManaging Editor, SMB

With over a decade of editorial experience, Rob Watts breaks down complex topics for small businesses that want to grow and succeed. His work has been featured in outlets such as Keypoint Intelligence, FitSmallBusiness and PCMag.

Reviewed

Rob Watts

Rob WattsManaging Editor, SMB

Managing Editor, SMB

Reviewed

Updated: Apr 8, 2024, 5:57pm

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on Forbes Advisor. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations.

Learning management systems, or LMS, are software platforms designed to manage, distribute and track employee training. They are often used in corporate settings to deliver online courses and track employee progress. However, they can also be used in other ways, such as to provide compliance training or customer education.

There are hundreds of LMS to choose from, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Forbes Advisor analyzed the best LMS options for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), so you don’t have to.

Best Of

Featured Partners

CYPHER Learning

Training, Career Dev’t, Compliance

Content Creation, Automated skills mapping, 50 + languages

HRIS, CRMs, Video Conferencing and more

CYPHER Learning

On CYPHER Learning’s Website

iSpring

Onboarding, Compliance, Training

30-day free trial, Courses authoring, Analytics

HRIS, CRMs, Video Conferencing and more

iSpring

On iSpring’s Website

Absorb

Enterprise and Mid-Market Training

Generative AI, 24/7/365 In-House Support, Custom Branded Learner Interface

HRIS/HCMs, Zoom, Webex, Teams, Headless LMS, and more

Absorb

On Absorb’s Website

LearnWorlds

Continuous education

30-day free trial, 24/7 support, SCORM

CRMs, Video Conferencing, 10+ payment gateways

LearnWorlds

On LearnWorlds’ Website

Show Summary

The Best Learning Management Systems of 2024

CYPHER Learning: Best for ease of use
TalentLMS: Best for small businesses
Absorb: Best for enterprise businesses
iSpring: Best for quick support
Docebo: Best for corporations
D2L Brightspace LMS: Best for educators
Blackboard Learn LMS: Best for higher education institutions
Canvas LMS: Best for Ivy League schools
Moodle LMS: Best open-source platform

Why You Can Trust Forbes Advisor Small Business

The Forbes Advisor Small Business team is committed to bringing you unbiased rankings and information with full editorial independence. We use product data, first-person testing, strategic methodologies and expert insights to inform all of our content to guide you in making the best decisions for your business journey.

Our team analyzed 14 learning management systems with 25 factors such as real-time reporting, certification and licensing options, gamification, course monetization features and whether or not it had a free app to organize this list of the 10 best LMS. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Best for Ease of Use

CYPHER Learning

Pricing

Not disclosed

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Yes

On CYPHER Learning's Website

Not disclosed

Yes

Editor's Take

MATRIX LMS has an intuitive UX, requiring little-to-no technical knowledge to create courses. Users can establish goals, and AI will help them choose a learning path that matches their goals. Its e-commerce tools make it easy to sell online courses, and the mobile app allows students to learn anywhere they’re at. It also includes features such as web conferencing, automation, content authoring and gamification.

Who should use it:

Businesses that want an LMS with an intuitive UX and robust e-commerce capabilities.

Pros & Cons

E-commerce features
Create learning paths based on goals
Instructors can enroll students in next level based on competency

Lacks transparent pricing
The calendar needs work
Support can take a while to respond

Best for Small Businesses

TalentLMS

Pricing

Free; $69 per month

(billed annually)

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Yes

Free; $69 per month

(billed annually)

Yes

Editor's Take

TalentLMS is one of the best learning management systems for small businesses. It’s easy to set up and use, and it has all the features businesses need to create and deliver online courses—all with a drag-and-drop interface, which helps minimize setup time. Features include live sessions, tests, quizzes, learning paths, completion rules, custom roles, customization, video conferences, task automation, reports and third-party integrations. If you have a really small team (under five users), you can even access TalentLMS for free.

Who should use it:

Businesses that want an LMS with a drag-and-drop interface and minimal setup time.

Pros & Cons

Free forever plan available for up to five users and 10 courses
Supports more than 30 languages
Easy platform for building courses to sell online
Offers TalentLibrary for soft skills training

Upload limits
No TalentLibrary option on the free plan
Must be on the $149 per month plan to use your own domain name

Best for Enterprise Businesses

Absorb

Pricing

Not disclosed

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Yes

On Absorb's Website

Not disclosed

Yes

Editor's Take

With its robust feature set and ability to support large groups of users, Absorb is one of the best learning management systems for enterprise businesses. It includes features such as single sign-on, an advanced reporting system, a mobile app, social learning tools, integration with popular HR systems and e-commerce capabilities. Its in-house customer service team operates 24/7/365, so you can always get the help you need, no matter which time zone your users reside in.

Who should use it:

Businesses that want an LMS with a robust feature set and the ability to support large groups of users.

Pros & Cons

Can brand by department
24/7/365 in-house customer support
SCORM compliance

Must fill out a lead form to get pricing
No search bar

Best for Quick Support

iSpring

Pricing

$4.08 per user per month for up to 100 users

(billed annually)

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Yes

On iSpring's Website

$4.08 per user per month for up to 100 users

(billed annually)

Yes

Editor's Take

iSpring has a wide range of features, including mobile learning, certification, compliance training, training on products, onboarding, reporting, integrations and SCORM support. It also offers quick turnaround times for customer support requests—an important consideration for businesses that need help setting up or using their LMS. Its support team responds to 83% of support cases within two hours.

Who should use it:

Businesses that need an LMS with quick customer support turnaround times.

Pros & Cons

Supports SCORM
Create learning tracks
Receive notifications upon student completion

No phone or chat support on weekends
No free option

Best for Corporations

Docebo

Pricing

Not disclosed

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Yes

Not disclosed

Yes

Editor's Take

Docebo is one of the best learning management systems for corporations, thanks to features such as social learning, Salesforce integration, mobile learning, e-commerce, free extensions, custom domains and artificial intelligence. Its more than 400 integrations include Adobe Connect, Confluence, Dropbox, Evernote, Facebook, G2, GitHub, Google Analytics, PayPal, Stripe, Trello and WordPress.

Who should use it:

Businesses that need social learning features will appreciate Docebo.

Pros & Cons

More than 400 integrations
Supports more than 40 languages
Works seamlessly with Salesforce

Pricing isn’t transparent
Not as robust as some of its competition

Best for Educators

D2L Brightspace LMS

Pricing

Not disclosed

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Yes

Not disclosed

Yes

Editor's Take

Whether you’re a higher learning institute, a K–12 school or a corporation, you’ll appreciate D2L Brightspace’s approach to creating a learning management system that’s accessible to all users and helps foster engagement. It includes features such as assessments, contextual feedback, delivering personalized feedback via video, portfolios, badges, age-appropriate icons for nonreaders and virtual classrooms. Its interface is highly customizable, so you can tailor the look and feel of your LMS to best fit your brand.

Who should use it:

K–12 and higher education institutions, as well as businesses, will find D2L Brightspace to be a helpful LMS.

Pros & Cons

Quick to set up
“Funster” mode is perfect for early and nonreaders
Works for K–12 and higher education

Its UI isn’t as nice as some of its competition
Pricing isn’t transparent

Best for Higher Education Institutions

Blackboard Learn LMS

Pricing

Starts at $9,500

per year

Certification and licensing

Yes

Gamification

Starts at $9,500

per year

Yes

Editor's Take

Blackboard Learn is a versatile LMS that is most often used by higher education institutions. Its evidence-based solutions can help colleges and universities identify and overcome barriers to student success. This will help increase student enrollment, retention, student engagement and outcomes. Additionally, it offers robust features such as mobile learning, single sign-on, collaboration and web conferencing.

Who should use it:

Higher education institutions will find Blackboard Learn to be the best LMS for their needs.

Pros & Cons

Easy to turn in assignments
Integrates with Zoom
Collaboration tools

Very expensive
Its UI isn’t great
Not as intuitive to use as some of its competition

Best for Ivy League Schools

Canvas LMS

Pricing

Not disclosed

Certification and licensing

For a fee

Gamification

For a fee

Not disclosed

For a fee

Editor's Take

Pick any Ivy League school, and you’ll find they all use Canvas LMS. This is because Canvas offers an array of features that these institutions need, such as mobile learning, a global community, open-source code and integrations. It has 99.9% system uptime and a whole host of communication tools to keep students, educators and administrators connected. Additionally, it’s easy to use and has excellent customer support.

Who should use it:

Ivy League schools and other institutions of higher education will find Canvas LMS to be the best LMS.

Pros & Cons

Simple to use
99.9% uptime
Unlimited file size

Lacks pricing transparency
Cumbersome to duplicate course content
Customization isn’t as robust

Best Open-Source Platform

Moodle LMS

Pricing

Free

Certification and licensing

Licensing is free; Certification for a fee

Gamification

Free

Licensing is free; Certification for a fee

Free

Editor's Take

Moodle LMS is the best open-source platform, has a user-friendly interface and a host of features, such as mobile learning, video conferencing, plagiarism detection, massive open online courses (MOOCs) capabilities and integrations. While the UI of its website isn’t great, its open-source capabilities make it a great customization platform for businesses, schools and universities.

Who should use it:

Businesses, schools and universities that need an open-source platform will find Moodle LMS to be the best LMS for their needs.

Pros & Cons

It’s a free, open-source platform
CPanel installation
Cost-effective

Its new UI still looks outdated
Lacks customer support

Forbes Advisor Ratings

Company	Forbes Advisor Rating	Pricing	Certification and licensing	Gamification	Learn More CTA text	Learn more CTA below text
CYPHER Learning	4.5	Not disclosed	Yes	Yes	Learn More	On CYPHER Learning's Website
TalentLMS	4.5	Free; $69 per month (billed annually)	Yes	Yes	View More
Absorb	4.4	Not disclosed	Yes	Yes	Learn More	On Absorb's Website
iSpring	4.4	$4.08 per user per month for up to 100 users (billed annually)	Yes	Yes	Learn More	On iSpring's Website
Docebo	4.4	Not disclosed	Yes	Yes	View More
D2L Brightspace LMS	4.4	Not disclosed	Yes	Yes	View More
Blackboard Learn LMS	4.3	Starts at $9,500 per year	Yes	No	View More
Canvas LMS	4.2	Not disclosed	For a fee	For a fee	View More
Moodle LMS	4.1	Free	For a fee	For a fee	View More

What Is a Learning Management System?

An LMS is a software application or web-based technology that is used to design, deliver and evaluate a learning process. It’s an all-inclusive platform designed to empower various educational and corporate organizations to facilitate learning.

Here are some key features and insights about LMS:

Content delivery: An LMS provides a central place for instructors or administrators to create and deliver content, and for learners to access it, usually anytime and anywhere. This content can take the form of text, video, audio and interactive content, among others.
Student management and interaction: LMS systems often provide ways for learners to interact with each other and their instructors. This can be through discussion boards, chat and other collaborative tools. They also manage learners by tracking their progress and performance, and providing feedback.
Assessment and reporting: LMS can be equipped with tools to create online quizzes or tests, either as stand-alone assessments or integrated within the learning content. They also provide reporting features that enable the tracking and analysis of learner performance. This data can be used to tailor learning paths or improve course content.
Integrations and standardization: Many LMSes are designed to integrate with other systems, such as human resources or school databases. They often support standards, such as SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) or xAPI (Experience API) to ensure compatibility with various types of content.
Customization and personalization: LMSes allow customization of the learning process to meet individual or group needs, ensuring a more personalized and effective learning experience. They can adapt to a learner’s skills, pace and learning preferences, and offer personalized learning paths.
Scalability: An LMS can scale to accommodate an increasing number of learners, which is especially valuable for growing organizations. It’s capable of handling large amounts of data and user accounts.
E-commerce: Some LMSes offer e-commerce functionality, allowing institutions to sell their courses online to a wider audience.

LMSes have become particularly significant in both academic and corporate environments, enabling remote and flexible learning, lowering training costs and promoting a culture of continuous learning and development. They can be especially valuable for training in large businesses, higher education institutions or K-12 schools, and for delivering online courses to the general public.

How To Choose a Learning Management System

When choosing a learning management system (LMS), it’s important to consider your needs and the needs of your learners. Here are some factors to keep in mind:

Essential LMS Features

The best LMS platforms offer a robust feature set that meets the needs of both businesses and learners. Here are some features to look for:

Content creation and management: An efficient LMS should allow you to create, manage and distribute content effortlessly. It should also support different content formats including text, video and audio.
Interactive learning tools: To enhance engagement, the LMS should offer interactive elements such as quizzes, surveys and discussion forums.
Assessment and reporting: A good LMS should have the ability to conduct online assessments and generate comprehensive reports to monitor learner performance.
Mobile learning: As learners often use mobile devices, the LMS should offer a mobile-compatible interface.
Personalized learning paths: To cater to the unique needs of each learner, the LMS should support personalized learning paths, taking into account the individual’s skills and pace.
E-commerce capabilities: If you intend to sell courses online, look for an LMS that comes with built-in e-commerce functionality.

Support and Ease of Use

Customer service should be a priority when choosing an LMS. You need to ensure that you can receive assistance whenever necessary, particularly in the education sector where you’ve got learners who might run into issues accessing modules after business hours. The ideal LMS should be simple to navigate and demand minimal training. The design should be logical and straightforward, which helps to make the learning experience enjoyable and efficient.

Scalability and Integrations

A sound LMS platform should adapt as your learning program expands. Ensure the platform you choose can manage increasing user loads and content volumes without compromising on performance. Additionally, your LMS should be compatible with other systems such as human resources databases or school management systems. This flexibility allows for streamlined information sharing and improved functionality.

Featured Partners

CYPHER Learning

Training, Career Dev’t, Compliance

Content Creation, Automated skills mapping, 50 + languages

HRIS, CRMs, Video Conferencing and more

CYPHER Learning

On CYPHER Learning's Website

iSpring

Onboarding, Compliance, Training

30-day free trial, Courses authoring, Analytics

HRIS, CRMs, Video Conferencing and more

iSpring

On iSpring's Website

Absorb

Enterprise and Mid-Market Training

Generative AI, 24/7/365 In-House Support, Custom Branded Learner Interface

HRIS/HCMs, Zoom, Webex, Teams, Headless LMS, and more

Absorb

On Absorb's Website

LearnWorlds

Continuous education

30-day free trial, 24/7 support, SCORM

CRMs, Video Conferencing, 10+ payment gateways

LearnWorlds

On LearnWorlds' Website

How Much Do Learning Management Systems Cost?

LMS costs differ depending on various factors such as organization size, feature requirements, customization, deployment type and customer support services.

Here are the factors that typically influence the pricing:

Number of users: Many LMS providers charge based on the number of active users or learners. As the number of users grows, your costs will often grow, too.
Features: Advanced features such as personalized learning paths, advanced reporting, mobile learning, e-commerce capabilities and others may drive up the cost of an LMS.
Customization: Customizing an LMS to align it with your organization’s branding, workflows and integrations may increase the cost.
Deployment type: Generally, cloud-based or SaaS LMS are less expensive upfront than self-hosted LMS because they don’t require dedicated hardware. With more users, the long-term costs can increase significantly.
Support and training: If you require extensive support, training for your staff or premium support options such as dedicated account managers, the cost of the LMS may increase.

There are free LMS options, though this isn’t common. You can expect to pay a fee per user, typically a few dollars per month. You can usually save money by paying annually, or if you have a large number of users, contacting its sales team can sometimes result in bulk pricing.

Methodology

To identify the best learning management systems (LMS), we utilized a rigorous methodology that involved evaluating a variety of LMS against a weighted set of categories. Each LMS was assigned a score in each category, and these scores were then used to calculate a product’s total score, with a possible maximum score of five stars.

Pricing (5%): This category, which accounts for 5% of the total score, focused on the cost of each LMS. We considered the starting price, the cost of the highest tier and whether the platform offered a free trial or a free version.
General features (25%): This category involved an evaluation of several key features commonly expected of an effective LMS. We assessed each system for its course customization capabilities, real-time reporting, academic/education and corporate/business features, certification and licensing provisions, and the quality of the student/employee portal. This category contributed to 25% of a product’s total score.
Additional features (20%): Accounting for 20% of the total score, this category examined an LMS for its gamification features, the availability of a resource library, e-signature capabilities, course monetization features and mobile app availability. Each feature was scored on its inclusion and effectiveness.
Reviews and recognition (10%): This section, contributing 10% to the total score, involved a thorough analysis of user reviews and ratings on trusted platforms including the App Store, Google Play Store, G2 and Capterra. We specifically looked for products with an average app rating of 3.5 or higher and significant numbers of reviews on these platforms, highlighting the LMSes that users found reliable, effective and easy to use.
Expert score (40%): The final category, accounting for 40% of a product’s total score, included our own expert evaluation. Here, we assessed each LMS for its features, value for money, popularity among users and ease of use. The aim of this category was to identify LMSes that offered something extra beyond the basics, whether that be innovative features, exceptional value or superior user experience.

Bottom Line

The best learning management system (LMS) makes it easy to build, launch and manage courses. Whether you’re selling self-paced online courses or using it to manage student coursework, there’s an LMS that’s designed to meet your needs, budget and skill level.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a learning management system used for?

A learning management system (LMS) is used to create, manage, and deliver educational courses or training programs. It is designed to help educators or trainers organize materials and effectively instruct learners, while also assessing learner progress. An LMS is used in various environments, including schools and universities for academic learning, and businesses for training employees or educating customers.

Can an LMS help with onboarding?

Absolutely, an LMS can play a crucial role in onboarding new employees, and can even make it fun if you use a platform that gamifies learning. It allows organizations to create comprehensive and consistent training programs that can be accessed by new hires, regardless of their location. The LMS can track each new employee’s progress, ensuring they complete necessary training modules and understand essential job functions. Furthermore, integrating quizzes and assessments into the onboarding process can help assess a new employee’s understanding of the materials. Thus, an LMS can greatly streamline the onboarding process and ensure new employees are well-prepared.

What are the benefits of using an LMS?

The benefits of using an LMS include improved learning outcomes, increased efficiency and productivity, reduced training costs and improved compliance.

What are the most important factors to look for in a learning management system?

When choosing an LMS, it’s important to consider your needs and the needs of your learners. Some considerations include your budget, the features that the platform offers, its ease of use for your staff, how scalable it is and how extensive are its customer support options.

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Katherine Haan

Contributor

Katherine Haan is a small business owner with nearly two decades of experience helping other business owners increase their incomes.

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