Looking for an employee Learning Management System (LMS)? Good news! We’ve got three to recommend right off the bat: eloomi, CornerStone OnDemand, and Trainual stand up to our strict criteria and research methods. There’s more good news! They aren’t the only employee LMSs that caught our eye. Read on to find out who else makes the cut, and, more importantly, why.
We test our vendors with user research, expert input, and in-house HR tech nerd knowledge. This guide will teach you how to research like a pro: you’ll learn what to look for, what to look out for, and much more.
Hand picked by our HR Technology experts after product testing, user research, and much debate - enjoy!
Learning management systems (LMS) are becoming increasingly popular at companies large and small. An LMS will allow your business to train new employees and teams on a variety of topics and skills. With an LMS, you can more efficiently onboard new hires and keep employees engaged, which will lead to increased productivity, higher retention rates, and a more successful company in the long run.
To really reap the benefits of e-learning, you need to make sure you invest in an LMS or employee training tracker that’s the right fit for your needs and budget. In this guide, we’re going to help you figure that out with a short list of the best learning management systems along with everything else you need to know when buying new software. Let’s get started!
We take research seriously. To make sure we’re offering our readers the very best solutions in a given software category, we are methodical, rigorous, and expansive in our research. We consult with HR professionals, vendors, and industry experts. We cut through the noise to bring you a carefully curated list of vendors, along with other essential information, to help you find the right software platform for your business.
Here’s how we chose who makes the cut:
Product: We believe in gaining a comprehensive understanding of a product before we recommend it, so we start by getting to know the software. Whenever possible, we meet with a senior executive (CEO or Head of Product) for a demo and Q&A. We also test the product ourselves to make sure it has a solid UI, intuitive workflows, and the features to make it a best-in-class offering.
User feedback: We go straight to the source and compile feedback on user experience. Real-world input supports our commitment to diligence in our software evaluation methods and the products we recommend. Keeping up with the everyday experience of HR pros also puts new vendors on our radar, and it keeps us close to our community so we can better connect the right products to the right people.
Financial metrics: We are certified finance nerds, so we use all the data we can get our hands on to make selections for our guides. We comb through data for concrete statistics like retention rates, growth, profitability, and scalability. We evaluate the bottom line of each product because we know making a software purchase can put your reputation on the line.
Best for a use case: Software is never a one-size-fits-all product. Sometimes the best solution is free or cheap. Other times it’s the one that is best for global companies or the one that’s sized right for early-stage startups. Keeping this in mind, we include solutions across the spectrum so our readers can find the best fit for their unique needs.
Here's more detail if you want to read more about how we research vendors. Our dedicated staff writers rely on hard data, impartial experts, and user feedback to ensure our reviews are helpful, truthful, and hopefully a pleasure to read!
After surveying the landscape, we came up with this short list of top learning management system vendors for you to talk to.
Why we love it
:
Eloomi's LMS helps teams deliver great learning experiences. Through it, you can assign training to certain roles, import learning materials, or create your own from scratch with the course builder.
eloomi
Review:
Eloomi streamlines the training process both for your new hires and existing employees. You can use the platform’s pre-built content and templates or build your own training from scratch. You can also inject other content delivery formats such as quizzes, images, and videos, into your training materials to make the learning experience more interactive and fun. Learning sessions can be automatically assigned to your employees according to their roles and you can track the progress of each employee’s learning journey and evaluate their skills.
eloomi
Customers:
Eloomi’s customer list includes BONUS Vorsorgekasse AG, Breakout Games, Carne Group, ElectricBrands, Nufarm, Domino’s, and more.
Eloomi’s customer list includes BONUS Vorsorgekasse AG, Breakout Games, Carne Group, ElectricBrands, Nufarm, Domino’s, and more.
eloomi
Pricing:
Eloomi offers custom pricing, so the best way to find out how much it costs is to request a demo.
Eloomi offers custom pricing, so the best way to find out how much it costs is to request a demo.
Best For
Eloomi is for HR leaders and managers of mid-sized and large businesses to make onboarding easier for employees, engage them through frequent feedback, and track the progress of their personal development.
Why we love it
:
This LMS offers customization at levels we have yet to see in other platforms. Its AI translation and content creation services are uncommon features you would hardly find in other learning and coaching systems.
SafetyCulture (EdApp)
Review:
EdApp is a learning management system designed for deskless workers. It provides useful features that help create bite-sized interactive lessons that can be accessed by anyone on any device, for free.
Speaking of free, they also provide free content creation services that involve turning old powerpoint slides, pdfs, and other learning materials into engaging and interactive content — all within the space of 48 hours.
SafetyCulture (EdApp)
Customers:
Audi, Deloitte, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
Audi, Deloitte, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR).
SafetyCulture (EdApp)
Pricing:
As far as content creation for educational purposes is concerned, EdApp is completely free. But you can get additional features across two paid subscriptions. Here is a breakdown of their price plans:
Note that EdApp offers a 30-day free trial period for all paid plans.
As far as content creation for educational purposes is concerned, EdApp is completely free. But you can get additional features across two paid subscriptions. Here is a breakdown of their price plans:
Note that EdApp offers a 30-day free trial period for all paid plans.
Best For
SafetyCulture’s EdApp works best for small-medium sized blue-collar companies as it is a mobile-first platform. Larger global companies can also benefit from its numerous features, such as multilingual content deployment.
Why we love it
:
We love Lessonly because it's an interactive and beautiful-looking product with all the features you'd expect from a fully-fledged LMS; course authoring, quizzes, forums, SCORM, and more.
Lessonly
Review:
Lessonly allows teams from L&D to Sales to create and deploy effective learning materials to help new employees ramp faster through consistent training, and existing employees to get on the same page with best practices for their roles. It's very intuitive and easy to use, and has advanced features like an open API and webhooks for teams that want to have a deeper integration with existing technologies.
Lessonly
Customers:
Lessonly is trusted by companies such as HelloFresh, Trunk Club, McAfee, Salesloft, Jostens, and Lending Home.
HelloFresh, Trunk Club, McAfee, Salesloft, Jostens, Lending Home
Lessonly
Pricing:
Although Lessonly has two available plans (Pro & Pro+Coaching), the pricing for them isn't disclosed on their website. The difference between one plan or another is mainly having additional modules and features like Lessonly Practice, conversations, and certifications.
Lessonly has two plans:
The pricing of the above plans isn't disclosed on Lessonly's website. Contact their sales team for a price quote accordingly to the size and scope of your operation.
Best For
Lessonly is a good bet for companies of all sizes, but the product might resonate particularly with distributed teams.
Why we love it
:
It's an eclectic eLearning ecosystem and LMS from the quintessential social network for work, and one of the top tools for recruiters.
LinkedIn Learning
Review:
LinkedIn Learning has a strong backbone of content from Lynda, one of the first online businesses from back in the 1990s that had several decades to assemble content around all types of business knowledge from soft to hard skills. With LinkedIn Learning, employees can get training on three main areas, business, creative, and technology. Together, these categories can display topics on anything from SCRUM and Excel to photography and non-verbal language for leaders.
LinkedIn Learning
Customers:
LinkedIn Learning
Pricing:
With LinkedIn Learning, you can buy individual courses or subscribe to the whole catalogue as you would do for a streaming service. The latter option is priced for a single account, and starts at $29,99 per month if you pay monthly, or $19,99 if you pay for the whole year. If you'd like to purchase the service for a team, they offer custom pricing.
With LinkedIn Learning, you can buy individual courses or subscribe to the whole catalogue as you would do for a streaming service. The latter option is priced for a single account, and starts at $29,99 per month if you pay monthly, or $19,99 if you pay for the whole year. If you'd like to purchase the service for a team, they offer custom pricing.
Best For
Companies or individuals that want a simple solution with ready-made content that won't break the bank.
Why we love it
:
It's an eCommerce ecosystem specifically geared towards technology workers. They also have their own platform where ways to learn, such as skill assessments, certifications, and cloud labs, are offered.
PluralSight
Review:
Technology is changing rapidly and it doesn't take long for even the best technical teams to fall behind. Pluralsight provides assessments, courses and testing for technologists to stay sharp on the latest in skills, languages, and the softer side of how to get work done. Their expert-authored courses are offered on their own software product, Skills.
PluralSight
Customers:
Companies that use Pluralsight to build up tech skills include Adobe, VMware, ADP, Fujitsu, and Nasdaq.
Companies that use Pluralsight to build up tech skills include Adobe, VMware, ADP, Fujitsu, and Nasdaq.
PluralSight
Pricing:
There are two plans for Skills by Pluralsight, Professional, which is $579 per user per year, and Enterprise, at $779. With the former plan, you can start a team trial. With the latter, you can start a pilot. Both of them include the entire course library.
There are two plans for Skills by Pluralsight, Professional, which is $579 per user per year, and Enterprise, at $779. With the former plan, you can start a team trial. With the latter, you can start a pilot. Both of them include the entire course library.
Best For
Skills by Pluralsight is an excellent choice for companies that want a solution specific to their technology workers, regardless of company size or industry. It's also great for individuals, as they even offer a pricing scheme for freelancers or consultants which starts at $29 per month.
Why we love it
:
It's an enormous eLearning library that lets you choose between your existing LMS or theirs. You can access all their content for a a low-priced subscription.
Go1
Review:
Go1 provides thousands of online courses to HR teams looking to help their people maintain certifications, grow their hard skills, and become more productive colleagues. While they do provide tools to manage learners, Go1 also integrates with many of the major LMS players so you can access their content from your existing or new learning management system - or just use them as the way your employees access content directly.
Go1
Customers:
Go1 is trusted by organizations like Delta, TikTok, ATP Media, and Hays.
Go1 is trusted by organizations like Delta, TikTok, ATP Media, and Hays.
Go1
Pricing:
Go1 is priced differently depending on whether you want the content hub (which includes their platform) or just the platform. To give you an idea, the content hub plan starts at $10 per user per month and is for teams with less than 20 users. Their next plan is for growing teams (21+) and is $12 per user per month. If you just want the platform to use your own content with, the basic plan is free for unlimited users, while the enterprise plan is priced based on your needs.
Go1 is priced differently depending on whether you want the content hub (which includes their platform) or just the platform. To give you an idea, the content hub plan starts at $10 per user per month and is for teams with less than 20 users. Their next plan is for growing teams (21+) and is $12 per user per month. If you just want the platform to use your own content with, the basic plan is free for unlimited users, while the enterprise plan is priced based on your needs.
Best For
Go1 is used by small businesses and startups, but also enterprise clients and government organizations. Naturally, it's best-suited for teams looking for ready-made content instead of creating their own, regardless of size and industry.
Why we love it
:
More than an LMS, Trainual aspires to become a playbook, a way of organizing who does what and how, for each business they serve. They do this by encompassing onboarding, training, documentation, a wiki, and other tools, all within a single platform.
Trainual
Review:
Trainual is a simple to use tool that allows organizations to document standard operating procedures across anything from pushing code to re-stocking. This is a great solution for smaller organizations that want to structure the necessary organizational knowledge for people to do their jobs, but that don't want to invest the time and money into a full-on learning management system.
Trainual
Customers:
The UPS Store, Harmon Brothers, RE/MAX, Stanford University, Design Pickle.
IronMan, UPS, Stanford University, Design Pickle, Harmon Brothers.
Trainual
Pricing:
Mainly, Trainual is offered in two plans; Pro and Premium. The former is either $99 per month if you pay for one year or $119 if you go monthly. The Premium plan is either $149 or $179 per month. Both plans include the first 25 users. Afterwards, you'd pay more for each user, but the fee is currently not disclosed upfront, likely because it varies according to the number of additional accounts. If you've got more than 100 users, they offer custom pricing from the get-go. And, in case you're a nonprofit, they may offer you 50% off any plan for as long as you use the tool. They also offer a free trial.
Trainual has two plans with fixed pricing:
A custom plan can also be created for larger companies upon request.
Best For
Trainual was designed for smaller companies that, unlike enterprises, perhaps don't need a very robust LMS. Instead, they've combined certain features of an LMS with modules like a company wiki, process documentation, and SOPs.
Why we love it
:
Cornerstone OnDemand makes highly-acclaimed software for recruiting, training, and managing. Their LMS is a stellar solution for large enterprises and small businesses alike.
CornerStone OnDemand
Review:
Cornerstone OnDemand's LMS is best known for servicing large enterprise customers who need a dependable solution to ensure employees stay up to date with certification requirements, evolve their skill sets, and can get access to a blended learning model of both in person and virtual learning.
CornerStone OnDemand
Customers:
This vendor is trusted by companies like Wendy's, Nestle, Dell, and New Belgium Brewing.
This vendor is trusted by companies like Wendy's, Nestle, Dell, and New Belgium Brewing.
CornerStone OnDemand
Pricing:
Pricing for the Cornerstone OnDemand LMS is not disclosed publicly. However, they do offer a free trial.
Pricing for the Cornerstone OnDemand LMS is not disclosed publicly. However, they do offer a free trial.
Best For
Judging from their stats, customer list, and reputation, we could say that Cornerstone OnDemand could be a good fit for organizations of all sizes, industries, and postal codes.
Why we love it
:
Docebo is a robust and scalable LMS ideal for companies with more than 300 team members in need of some sort of training.
Docebo
Review:
Docebo allows employees to drive their experience by choosing their learning paths based on skills they'd like to acquire. Managers can then understand the progress made by employees through a unified dashboard. Docebo is used by companies like Uber and WalMart.
Docebo
Customers:
Docebo is used by companies like Walmart, Amazon Web Servies, Heineken, Thomson Reuters, Uber, and Bose.
Docebo is used by companies like Walmart, Amazon Web Servies, Heineken, Thomson Reuters, Uber, and Bose.
Docebo
Pricing:
Pricing for Docebo is undisclosed.
Pricing for Docebo is undisclosed.
Best For
Docebo is best-suited for medium to large enterprises. Typically, they work best with companies that want to train more than 300 customers, partners, and employees on a monthly basis. It's also ideal for those organizations that want to expand rapidly and whose learning needs span several business units.
Why we love it
:
Bridge combines a learning management system and an employee performance & engagement tool into a single platform.
Bridge by Instructure
Review:
Companies like Chemical Bank and Livongo use Bridge to engage employees with a learning management system that is tightly integrated to performance management. This means managers can assign continuing education materials that align directly with goals. You can leverage Bridge's content, third party content, or create your own courses.
Bridge by Instructure
Customers:
Notable customers for Bridge include C Space, NHS, TCF Bank, Brewer Science, Domino's, and Catalant Technologies.
Notable customers for Bridge include C Space, NHS, TCF Bank, Brewer Science, Domino's, and Catalant Technologies.
Bridge by Instructure
Pricing:
Bridge has four potential pricing plans. The first three are priced per user and billed annually. The "Learning" plan starts at $3 per user per month, and then you have the "Learning+Performance" and "Learning+Performance+Engagement" plans which are priced at $9 and $12, respectively. For larger companies, Bridge offers enterprise and custom solutions with unique pricing models.
Bridge has four potential pricing plans. The first three are priced per user and billed annually. The "Learning" plan starts at $3 per user per month, and then you have the "Learning+Performance" and "Learning+Performance+Engagement" plans which are priced at $9 and $12, respectively. For larger companies, Bridge offers enterprise and custom solutions with unique pricing models.
Best For
Companies of all sizes may benefit from Bridge's LMS. This vendor is especially suitable for companies that may be looking for a performance and/or engagement tool as well.
Learning management systems provide a great opportunity for companies to engage their employees and track employee training through processes like new hire onboarding, specific skill augmentation, and certifications, to name a few. The type of learning you’d offer your company depends on a number of variables, but overall, you should consider an LMS if you want to do any of the following:
As with any new system, common challenges exist with an LMS. But if you can anticipate and prepare for them, your ramp-up will be much smoother. With that, here are four LMS considerations:
Encourage Usage: There are two ways for your employees to actually use an LMS:
By now, you should have a solid understanding of the benefits that learning management software provides, like increased employee retention, providing opportunities for professional growth and internal mobility, and boosting overall productivity.
One more to add to the list: recruiting. Give your employer branding the competitive edge it needs to attract the best candidates to your company — by showing potential hires that you provide corporate training opportunities and want to help them succeed and grow within your organization, they’ll most likely accept an offer from your company.
Want to know what type of return you can expect from benefits like increased productivity and retention? Check out our ROI calculators to get an estimate.
How much learning management software costs depends on a number of factors, including the actual vendor you choose as well as how you want to be charged. In other words, do you want to be charged per learner per month or per usage per month? Or, do you want to just pay a one-time fee to access course content or a learning environment in its entirety and in perpetuity?
While actual pricing varies by platform, here is an idea of what you can expect:
As you do your own research, you might see that there are also free options (which are typically the most basic and not very user-friendly). There are also open-source products, which are free in theory, but you need to pay for your own hosting. With more modern SaaS solutions, watch out for free trials. Be sure to discuss pricing packages on your demo so you can get a clear sense for what an LMS will cost your company.
LMS solutions offer a variety of features depending on your needs and budget. You’ll see that some offer a full suite of them (and usually command a higher price as a result), while others are more niche. So once you figure out what kind of online training you want to provide your employees, you’ll be able to pick a vendor that meets your needs.
Generally speaking, learning management systems offer some or all of the following LMS features:
Demos are a great opportunity for you to see how an LMS works and ask questions before you actually invest. To get the most out of your demo, make sure to ask the following questions:
General questions to ask on any demo:
Questions specific to learning management systems:
Using an LMS will most likely require a team of stakeholders from across the company. This includes executive management (for buy-in), IT (for tech integrations), HR/People Ops (for learning content), team leads (to encourage usage), etc. It goes without saying, then, that you’ll need to regularly communicate so everyone is on the same page in terms of what needs to get done, who needs to do it, and when it should be completed. You can get a general idea of all of this during your demos, so make sure to ask about all things implementation — and see if they offer on-site or virtual trainings.
Additionally, you need to focus on these key elements:
LMS means learning management system, although some people also use learning management software.
Learning management systems allow your business to train new employees and teams on a variety of skills and topics. An LMS platform is typically used to efficiently onboard new hires and keep employees engaged, leading to increased productivity and higher retention rates.
You use a learning management system to provide numerous functions for employees, including efficient and effective onboarding, skill augmentation, certifications and incentive-based learning. In addition, employers can use an LMS to track employee progress and performance.
A learning management system can have the following features:
Using a learning management system can lead to many advantages, such as increased employee retention, professional growth and internal mobility opportunities, and boosted productivity. An LMS can also help recruiting efforts by showing prospective hires that their potential employer wants them to learn, succeed and grow in their organization. The best LMS vendors also offer employee training tracking software within their platforms, which is necessary to measure the effectiveness of the tool. For example, you can see metrics like training sessions per user, time to complete a course, enrollment rates, etc.
At the end of the day, a learning management system can be great for your company as long as the platform you choose aligns with your learning/engagement objectives. So make a list of your must-haves and then run through that list on your demos so you can be confident in your investment.
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