Finding out which of the LMS solutions will be the best for your corporate needs is never a walk-in-the-park decision.
We know that you’ve got several questions that are unanswered about how to choose the best LMS solution for your business. We know you’re concerned about your business budget and finance. We also understand that you may be having difficulties deciding on whether to opt for cloud-based LMS platforms or open-source LMS platforms.
Well, we have curated all you need to know to choose the best LMS solutions for your business in this article.
How to choose the best LMS solution?
There are several hundreds of LMS solutions in the world right now that can help your business grow. However, understanding the major reasons why you need an LMS platform is key to choosing what will work best for you.
What kind of training will you give?
- K-12 or university education,
- Onboarding training,
- Employee training,
- Tutoring in various fields,
- Private art classes and more.
Once you start defining your needs, your ideal product also will be easier to detect. For this, keep asking the good questions:
- How many attendees will you have in your classes?
- Do you need interactive technologies?
- Will you use extra course materials such as PDF documents, video training, and more?
- Will you hold exams and tests to evaluate your attendees?
- Do you want to give them certificates?
- Do you need to sell your courses online?
The good news is all these and more are possible with today’s technology. However, we are aware that it might sometimes be hard to define your own needs. Take your time. Consult professionals. Learn more about your options.
An LMS platform can help you drive more sales, ensure employees’ compliance, train, and guide clients and customers. It can also help you increase employee development and retention, ensure you hire the best talents, train new employees, among many other functions.
So, before you can accurately choose the best LMS solution for your business, you must first highlight your corporate needs.
This will help you in sifting through the hundreds of available top LMS platforms, to choose the ones that align with your business goals. This will then guide you to know what LMS features you should be on the lookout for.
Key LMS Platform Features to Watch Out For
When choosing the best Learning Management System for your company, there are several functionalities you need to put into consideration. Your focus must be on your unique online learning requirements.
This focusing will help you evaluate and look for the best LMS solution that can easily fulfil your business e-learning needs.
Highlighted below are some top LMS platform features you need to pay attention to in order to pick the right learning management system that delivers.
- Training content management,
- Interactive video,
- Data-driven results,
- Testing and assessment tools,
- Customization or reconfiguration,
- Responsive learning and cloud-based system,
- Course catalogue functions, and
- SCORM or xAPI Compliance and integrated side services.
A Cloud-Based LMS Or An Open-Source LMS Platform?
Most decision-makers often get confused on which LMS solution they should work with. We’ve found out that many businesses often wonder whether to choose an open-source LMS platform or a cloud-based LMS platform.
These two LMS options have several benefits and key features, which have technologically advanced over the years.
Highlighted below are the major benefits and features of both Cloud-based LMS platforms and Open Source LMS platforms.
Cloud-Based LMS Platforms
- Zero installation requirement
- Faster deployment
- Cost based on client’s needs
- Relatively more efficient and affordable
- Considerable low startup costs
- Efficient data security and maintenance by providers
- Limited IT hustle
- Automatic software update
- Highly Mobile responsive
- Subscription plan scalability and cost-effectiveness
- Free trial availability.
Open Source LMS platforms
- Installation and setup required
- Budget-friendly
- Free Solutions availability
- Set pricing model that might exceed budget
- Suitable for small organizations concerned about budget
- Maintenance and data security by the client, i.e IT effort
- Manual update required
- Limited customer support
- Limited features and courses
- Restricted number of users
- Modification and Enhancement possibility by clients.
Top Cloud-based and Open Source LMS Platforms in 2021
We have, with the help of top globally recognized LMS experts, reviewed and rated the best cloud-based LMS platforms and open-source LMS platforms for businesses in 2021.
This rating and review of these Learning Management Systems have been carried out with the following criteria;
- User Experience
- Customer Support
- Platform Features
- Platform Unique Innovation
- Business Growth
- Global Customer Reviews
- Platform Client Retention
Highlighted below are the best LMS platforms that make our top list of the best LMS solutions for businesses in 2021. Ensure you critically review the insights provided below to help you choose the ideal and best LMS solution for your needs.
Cloud-based LMS Platforms
Vedubox is number one among our top LMS platforms in 2021 due to its innovative and collaborative integrated e-learning platform. Vedubox is the best LMS solution that offers the most powerful, flexible, and advanced e-learning tools suitable for online courses, trainings, online exams, webinars, and video conferencing.
Vedubox is a multilingual virtual workplace suitable for international and intercontinental organizations for connecting, collaborating, training, meeting, and socializing. Vedubox is a globally recognized LMS platform, providing its service currently for more than 300,000 users worldwide. It is designed for freelancers, academic institutions, non-profit organizations, public administrations, small/medium businesses, and large corporations.
Vedubox LMS is a scalable and configurable SaaS tech that can be used as a white label for organizations. With its content management, interactive video, integrated e-commerce, exam and webinar modules, it offers an all-in-one service. It offers many innovative and market-leading features such as online education management, content presentation, live lecture – meeting – webinar, online payment, SMS, e-mail, questionnaire, and exam in an integrated way.
Vedubox in an attempt to cater for all organizations provides different versions and modules suitable for all tutors and businesses of all size. Vedubox Learning Management System offers users a free version, free trial, and efficient customer support.
The Best LMS platform provides integrated features, which enables the comprehensive service of Vedubox, making it stand out from every other top LMS platforms in the market. It comes with Zoom, Vimeo, Google and Microsoft tools integrated. When you start using it, you reach many features from one dashboard.
In short, with Vedubox, you can configure your Learning Management System to reflect solely your brand. Vedubox is easy to set up, adopt, manage, customize, and highly secured.
DOCEBO
Docebo Learn is a cloud-based LMS platform widely used for its ease of use, vigorous learning management, high configurability, and relatively affordable monthly active user pricing model. The cloud-based LMS platform can be used to train any audience, has over 35 native integrations and APIs, and widely configurable, and can be easily assessed.
Docebo Learn cloud-based LMS platform is currently being used by over 2000 organizations to hire, equip and train employees, empower sales reps, and educate customers.
Docebo has an Enterprise plan that charges $1,600 per month for 300 monthly active users, which is paid annually. With Docebo Learning Management System, you only get to pay for active users of the platform.
ADOBE CAPTIVATE PRIME
Adobe Captivate Prime is a cloud-based LMS platform that helps organizations train employees, partners, and customers without breaking a sweat. It is a cloud-based LMS platform highly recognized by leading analysts and industry bodies and adopted by several global corporations.
It is used to reduce skill and knowledge gaps to bring about an engaged, compliant, and updated e-learning ecosystem. The cloud-based LMS platform has an AI-based social learning capability that allows learning flow and peer learning.
Adobe Captivate Prime has two pricing model; Registered User Pricing and Monthly Active User Pricing.
The registered user pricing is accessible when you sign up for a fixed number of registered users within your account. The monthly active user pricing model offers active user pricing for organizations that have an unstable number of audience and does not require continuous use of the LMS platform.
TALENT LMS
Talent LMS is an innovative cloud-based LMS platform trusted by over 70,000 teams globally. Talent LMS is a cloud-based LMS platform built as a one-stop-shop for businesses interested in training programs.
With Talent LMS, you can set up trainings without manuals. It can be tried for free and then upgraded on a budget. Talent LMS is so easy to use that it allows anyone without any LMS knowledge to build courses without breaking a sweat. This cloud-based LMS platform offers a wide variety of pricing plan.
Open Source LMS Platforms
CANVAS
Canvas is an Open Source LMS platform that is free for educators and instructors. Canvas is well known for making online learning easier and faster with respect to installation, adoption, implementation, and customer support.
Canvas is popular and widely used due to its powerful community, personalized support, which makes it easy to use, and easy to implement Plug-In for Third-party tools.
This LMS solution is adaptable and customizable, as it is designed to easily allow you to make your modifications. The user interface is designed to save time and effort, which makes it one of the fastest learning Management Systems when it comes to adoption and implementation.
The Canvas LMS solution’s pricing for additional and advanced features are available upon request from the dedicated customer support.
MOODLE
Moodle is one of the most popular and widely used open-source LMS platforms. The Moodle LMS solution is free to use and mobile-friendly. The LMS solution places a high priority on client’s onboarding by providing several onboarding detailed guides for clients. The Software features guides on how to set up your personalized LMS, create online courses, and teach effectively.
Moodle also provides users with a large community of Moodle users who communicate and educate one another on various questions and issues. Moodle is one of the best LMS solutions, as it has no premium pricing option and does not require any subscription plan. This, however, places limits on the demands of the users, customer support, as well as advanced features.
CHAMILO
Chamilo LMS solution is an open-source Learning Management System built to improve access to online learning. This LMS solution offers easy-to-use and implements authoring and publishing tools that help create online learning courses that is suitable for several learning requirements.
Chamilo is highly mobile-friendly and provides a huge online community for its users to interact and get solutions. Chamilo has a customizable interface that can easily be modified for its clients for free.
The Chamilo learning management system software has, however, brought about a group of official providers, who offer expert operational and maintenance services for businesses and institutions with no in-house support team.
Key Takeaway
Choosing the best LMS solution for your business and organization needs should never be handled with kid’s gloves. You should always put more than your budget into consideration. Getting more than the imagined result should always be your focus as a business.
When checking out top LMS platforms for your business, you should always consider platforms that can offer more than a learning management system. Always put your budget, audience, organizational needs, easy integrations, customer support, payment and third-party integrations, webinars, video conferencing, among many other features that can put your organization and institution ahead of the market.
Cheers to your success!
