Learning Management Systems (LMS) – The Top 10 Tools
Everything you need to know about Learning Management Systems so you can optimize new hire onboarding, increase employee engagement and retention, and build a better business in the process.
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!
Best Learning Management Systems
To pick the top learning management systems (LMS), our team evaluated dozens of options by attending vendor demos, analyzing user reviews, and leaning on advice from experts in our network. We believe the most critical components of a modern LMS are an intuitive user interface, robust reporting, mobile accessibility, and integration capabilities.
- Intuitive user interface: The LMS should be simple enough for admins to set up courses, enroll users, and track results without too much hassle. On the front end, learners should easily be able to browse courses, mark progress, take assessments, and access training materials. We looked for clean, uncluttered interfaces to benefit both groups.
- Robust reporting: Reporting and analytics are crucial for measuring the impact of your training programs. The LMS options on our list enable thorough tracking of metrics like course completion rates, learner satisfaction, certification pass rates, and more. They also let you customize reports to derive insights tailored to your organization.
- Mobile accessibility: Increasingly, learners expect to be able to access training on the go through mobile apps. Our top LMS picks allow learners to download courses, view content offline, take assessments, and receive notifications on mobile devices. Some even let admins manage and update course catalogs on mobile.
- Integration capabilities: We prioritized LMS platforms that integrate easily with your existing HR systems and tools, like applicant tracking, performance management, and payroll software. This level of connectivity eliminates data silos and provides you with a holistic view of your workforce.
To learn more about our methodology for evaluating software products, please visit our editorial guidelines page.
eloomi
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.
PROS
- Eloomi is easy to use and navigate, even for non-tech-savvy employees.
- Users praise Eloomi's responsive and helpful customer support team, resolving issues quickly.
- It is simple and fast to create new courses and programs and upload custom content in Eloomi.
- The platform provides informative reports and analytics to track learning progress and completion. Helpful for managers.
- You can customize Eloomi to match your organization's brand. You can also tailor it to different departments.
- Eloomi is quite comprehensive, with modules for onboarding, training/learning, performance management, employee engagement, and recognition.
- The platform comes with a library of ready-to-use templates to help you create online training faster. It also has a mobile app for your employees to access training materials on the go.
- Their surveys are customizable and private, helping you get specific and honest feedback from employees.
- You can request other members of the organization to provide feedback on certain skills of employees.
- You can make use of Eloomi’s micro-sized online training content to prevent overwhelming onboarding experiences.
CONS
- Some users experienced minor bugs or glitches, though these were typically fixed quickly.
- While analytics are generally good, report customization is limited.
- Eloomi’s pricing is custom; you won’t know how much it’ll cost you until you book a demo.
- The setup process involves a learning curve because of the sheer number of features it’s got.
- Support documentation is lacking for some features like Appraisals.
- Because of the sheer number of features Eloomi offers, there’s a steeper learning curve for the average user to get the hang of the platform and understand it to its fullest.
- A few users reported experiencing bugs and speed issues when generating reports, especially ones with a large volume of data, but have noted that Eloomi’s customer support team is quick to resolve such issues.
- The platform’s pricing isn’t transparent and free trials aren’t available at this time.
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’s customer list includes BONUS Vorsorgekasse AG, Breakout Games, Carne Group, ElectricBrands, Nufarm, Domino’s, and more.
Eloomi offers custom pricing, so the best way to find out how much it costs is to request a demo.
Best For
Eloomi is designed for mid-sized and large businesses seeking an effective LMS solution with broader employee experience management capabilities.
SafetyCulture (EdApp)
SafetyCulture offers robust employee training tools in an easy-to-use platform. With custom course builders, quizzes, analytics, and more, the platform facilitates creating, deploying, and tracking all sorts of workplace training and safety initiatives - all of which are accessible on mobile devices to suit the needs of today's distributed workforce.
PROS
- SafetyCulture supports unlimited content creation and deployment.
- There is a free plan and paid upgrades are reasonably priced.
- Onboarding for admins, coaches, and trainees can be done quickly in just 5 minutes.
- Several third-party integrations are possible through the platform's open API.
- There are lots of support resources and tips on how to use the platform.
- It is completely free to use for unlimited content creation and deployment. Their paid version is also one of the most affordable for learning management systems.
- Easy onboarding. It takes only about five minutes to get started on EdApp. Inviting trainees and coaches is just as easy.
- The software allows you to connect to your proprietary company tools with its open API functionality.
- EdApp provides a great deal of resources that gives you all the information you need about how the system works. There are also some tips made available to make your learning management process easier.
CONS
- Although their frequent feature updates are a good thing, this also means you have to frequently learn the platform.
- Large videos need to be compressed or split due to a 10MB file size limit.
- The reporting and analytics feature can be slow at times, especially as you extract data to CSV format.
- You always have to learn new ways to use the app as they release updates frequently.
- EdApp’s video limit is only 10 MB. This means you will have to shrink high-sized videos which, subsequently, reduces the quality of your videos.
- Some users complain about the analytics feature. It is usually slow and it sometimes takes a long time to pull out data into a CSV file.
SafetyCulture packs a full-featured employee training solution within their inspection platform. This solution is optimized for hourly and frontline teams, aiming to make microlearning lessons engaging and accessible on any device.
We appreciate how SafetyCulture can be used for free by teams of up to 10 users. The system is also scalable, so you can carry it with you as your company grows. We also like how course creation is made relatively straightforward with the help of templates, easy media uploads, and more.
Training content takes a modern microlearning format - short, focused lessons so they are easy to digest for deskless teams. Managers can administer and track training, as well as view insights on several metrics and compliance rates.
For organizations requiring an affordable training platform for distributed frontline staff, SafetyCulture is a strong fit with its free tier, deskless worker-focused features, and tools to easily create and deliver interactive training.
SafetyCulture is used by thousands of major companies like Marriott, Accor, DHL, and JetBlue to deliver over 77,000 lessons and counting.
- Free: This is a free-of-charge plan made for individuals and small teams of up to 10 users.
- Premium: For $24 per user per month (billed annually), this plan can be used by larger teams needing advanced features.
- Enterprise: The pricing of this plan is customized to the specific needs of larger companies. Contact SafetyCulture’s team for a quote.
Best For
SafetyCulture is best suited for small and medium-sized businesses with frontline workforces. Large global corporations can also take advantage of SafetyCulture's broad capabilities like the ability to easily create and distribute training content in multiple languages across international teams.
We create training modules in it. We send links to the users, and they complete the training. At the end they get a certificate and we get a notification of completion for their training files.
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- I like that users can complete the training on their own schedule (with deadlines of course).
- I like the mobile and PC-based learning options for office and field staff.
- I like being able to create training on any topic, make it interactive, and integrate quizzes.
- I like that I get a report of completion so that I know it has been done.
- I like that the employees get a certificate as proof they completed the training.
I bought it to provide training to client employees out of state or working remotely. We needed a way to ensure everyone was getting their required harassment, discrimination, and/or diversity training based on where they live. We started by downloading the standards and requirements for each state and realized a powerpoint was not going to suffice. Then we tried hosting large conference calls but had trouble getting the attendance we needed.
I cannot think of anything right away. It has worked perfectly to our needs thus far. The only thing I can think of is that I cannot share a course with an admin outside my company. My friend wanted to copy it (with my approval) for her business, but we couldn't.
I have not been an administrator for other training tools, so I really can't speak from that point. I have taken training in other programs and say that it is very similar and equally as robust.
Do you have someone to create the training for you (or do you have a PowerPoint to start with)? If not, you may not care for it. They have some templates, but it is a manual process to set up what you need. Time is a factor here, but I think it is worth it.
They have added new interactive pieces, quizzes, and assessments to keep it looking fresh.
Businesses that need to train people that are not on-site or work very different schedules.
Small businesses where a PowerPoint in a team meeting would suffice.
Lessonly
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.
PROS
CONS
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 is trusted by companies such as HelloFresh, Trunk Club, McAfee, Salesloft, Jostens, and Lending Home.
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.
Best For
Lessonly is a good bet for companies of all sizes, but the product might resonate particularly with distributed teams.
LinkedIn Learning
It's an eclectic eLearning ecosystem and LMS from the quintessential social network for work, and one of the top tools for recruiters.
PROS
CONS
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.
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.
As a professional, I find LinkedIn Learning to be an incredibly valuable resource that I use on a regular basis based on my learning objectives.
After designing my Personal Development Plan with my learning objectives, I begin by browsing the course library to find topics that are relevant to my work or development goals. I appreciate the flexibility of being able to choose from a wide variety of courses and learning paths, and I find that the recommendations provided by LinkedIn Learning are often spot-on.
Once I've selected a course, I usually watch the videos and complete the exercises at my own pace, taking notes and practicing the concepts as I go. I appreciate the interactive nature of the courses, which often include quizzes, assignments, and discussion forums to help reinforce the material.
I find that LinkedIn Learning is an excellent resource for keeping my skills and knowledge relevant and competitive in the fast-paced world of business.
Overall, I find LinkedIn Learning to be an invaluable resource that has helped me to improve my skills and knowledge in a variety of areas, including leadership, technical skills like excel reporting & data analytics, and business strategy. Whether I'm looking to learn a new skill or brush up on an existing one, LinkedIn Learning has been a great tool for me to achieve my learning goals.
- Learning from Experts: One of the best things about LinkedIn Learning is the opportunity to learn from experts in their fields. The platform hosts courses taught by industry leaders and practitioners, providing insights and best practices that are not available elsewhere.
- Flexibility: The platform provides flexible learning options, allowing users to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule. Courses can be accessed from any device, making it easy to learn on the go.
- Vast Library: LinkedIn Learning offers a vast library of courses covering a wide range of topics, including business, technology, leadership, and creativity, making it easy to find relevant courses for personal or professional development.
Our organization subscribed us to LinkedIn Learning to provide the team with access to high-quality, on-demand learning resources that would help them develop new skills as per existing industry trends.
Prior to using LinkedIn Learning, we faced the challenge of providing comprehensive and relevant training to our employees in a cost-effective and efficient manner. We were looking for a platform that would be personalized to individual development plans as well as be self-paced.
One of the key skills that we needed to polish among the HR team was proficiency in Talent Acquisition on how to build a talent pipeline for a succession plan, which is crucial to business continuity and growth. Additionally, as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold, I used it to learn about Crising Communication and Establishing Work from Home Policies.
With LinkedIn Learning, we were able to provide our employees with access to top-notch business and technical courses that helped to close the skills gap and improve our team's overall performance. The platform also allows us to track our employees' progress and provide personalized learning recommendations based on their interests and job roles.
I have been using LinkedIn Learning for almost four years now, and it has been a valuable resource for me to learn new skills and improve my knowledge in areas relevant to my role. I appreciate the flexibility of being able to learn at my own pace and on my own schedule, which allows me to balance my work and personal life more effectively.
- Limited Certification Options: While LinkedIn Learning provides certificates of completion for courses, it can't issue certificates for courses provided by vendors. An example would be a cyber security engineer who wants to do an exam for a Cisco Security certificate. They can only use LinkedIn Learning to prepare and then do the exam on the Vendors platform.
- Less Personalized: Although the platform provides personalized course recommendations, this might not replace an in-person or live class where you can ask questions and debate in real-time.
- Course Length: Some courses are at times too short to cover a topic in sufficient depth with some being only a few minutes long, providing only a basic overview of the topic, without delving into more advanced concepts or techniques. In such cases, users may not be able to gain a thorough understanding of the topic or develop the skills needed to apply the concepts in real-world situations.
LinkedIn Learning is integrated with the LinkedIn platform, providing a seamless experience for users to showcase their skills and learning achievements on their LinkedIn profile, which can be valuable for professional networking and career development.
It also uses data from the users' LinkedIn profiles and learning history to provide personalized course recommendations, making it easier for users to find courses that are relevant to their interests and career goals.
- Learning Objectives: Before selecting an e-learning tool, it's important to identify the specific learning objectives and goals you want to achieve, such as developing a new skill, improving existing competencies, or preparing for a specific certification.
- Course Variety and Customization: The tool should offer a wide variety of courses across different subject areas and skill levels, with options for customized learning paths based on individual needs and preferences.
- Pricing and Value: It is essential to look for a tool that gives you the best value for your money with affordable pricing options and ideally a free trial to try out the tool as well as favorable subscription plans.
It has introduced content on live office hours with experts where you can engage and learn from industry experts live.
LinkedIn Learning has made several updates to its user interface, including a more modern design and enhanced search functionality, to make it easier for users to find and engage with the content.
Professionals in business, technology, or the creative space looking to learn a new skill or improve their existing ones would do well.
It may also be quite beneficial for people who want to polish up their soft skills, negotiation, and communication skills.
Users with highly specialized training needs may not be covered by the platform's courses. In such cases, they may need to look for more specialized training solutions that are tailored to their specific needs. This may be the case when the learner needs to be certified by a vendor like IBM, Oracle, or Cisco.
Users with a preference for in-person training and those who prefer interacting with instructors and other learners may not be a good fit for this platform as it provides a self-paced and self-directed learning experience.
PluralSight
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.
PROS
CONS
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.
Companies that use Pluralsight to build up tech skills include Adobe, VMware, ADP, Fujitsu, and Nasdaq.
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.
Go1
Go1 provides an intuitive LMS with robust content libraries, analytics, and mobile access to empower employee learning. The platform makes it easy to create and share training content across the organization.
PROS
- Go1 offers a vast library of courses on diverse topics.
- The platform is intuitive and user-friendly.
- Users appreciate the ability to build courses and learning paths that are tailored to different employees.
- The customer service team is highly responsive and helps solve challenges.
- You can integrate Go1 with various HR/LMS systems to consolidate your learning data and workflows.
CONS
- The platform can be slow and glitchy at times.
- Some courses are too long which reduces engagement.
- Course options in certain domains like IT, regional compliance, etc., are currently inadequate.
- Searching and navigating the platform can be challenging with so much content.
- It is difficult to edit or remove user profiles once created.
Go1 offers an intuitive yet robust learning platform for organizations looking to improve employee training and development. The interface is modern and user-friendly, making it easy for learners, instructors, and administrators alike to create, share, and track training content.
One of Go1’s standout features is its extensive content library with over 1.5 million courses, videos, articles, and more on in-demand topics. This wealth of material means you can supplement internal training with relevant external content to engage employees. Course creation is also simplified with templates, assessments, and discussions.
The platform provides versatility in training delivery with features for live virtual classes, cohorts for structured learning, and bite-sized microlearning. It’s also got you covered with analytics so you can stay on top of completion rates, training ROI, and other important metrics.
Overall, Go1 offers immense value at reasonable prices. The extensive course catalog, flexible delivery formats, mobile access, analytics, and easy content creation capabilities make this an ideal one-stop LMS solution for organization-wide training needs.
Go1 is used by over 17k businesses, including Forever21, WarnerBros, Delta, and TikTok.
Go1 tailors their pricing to each customer's unique needs. The best way forward is to book a demo with their Sales team, discuss your challenges and the modules you need, and then request a price estimate.
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.
Trainual
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.
PROS
CONS
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.
The UPS Store, Harmon Brothers, RE/MAX, Stanford University, Design Pickle.
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.
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.
As the administrator, I uploaded training material to the library, organized the library and made assignments to the staff and new hires. I could add and remove documents and run reports to see how Trainual was being used.
- Very user-friendly
- Easy to organize
- Quick to learn
As an HR Consultant, I worked with a small business that used Trainual to store their training materials for new hires and employees as they grew. They used this platform instead of something internal as a library to house document files, onboarding material and make training easy for new and transitioning employees. I helped set up Trainual and onboard their new hires in the system. I was an admin for a year in the system.
- It didn't hold a lot of information.
- We needed to create everything from scratch. They don’t have a lot of templates.
It's really simple and user-friendly.
Consider how much training you need uploaded and how many users you need to have access. Trainual limits the number of people that can access the platform before it becomes VERY pricey.
Smaller businesses with limited amounts of training
Large businesses with a lot of data or talent movement
CornerStone OnDemand
Cornerstone OnDemand makes highly-acclaimed software for recruiting, training, and managing. Their LMS is a stellar solution for large enterprises and small businesses alike.
PROS
CONS
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.
This vendor is trusted by companies like Wendy's, Nestle, Dell, and New Belgium Brewing.
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.
As a recruiter, I use Cornerstone to access new applicant submissions. I review applications and send promising candidates to hiring managers so they can provide feedback via an automated email link from Cornerstone. I contact selected candidates for screening. As the hiring process continues, I move candidates through different points in the pipeline. When a candidate is moved to the hired stage, this triggers the beginning of our onboarding process.
Cornerstone is great at pulling applications from job boards. I like that everything is at one place and I'm able to clearly visualize where candidates are in the interview process. The frontend design is clean and clear.
I have been using Cornerstone for the past 2 years. It was in use prior to my joining the team. From what I have heard thus far, my organization being an international organization, needed a tool that could support 10s of thousands of surge hires. Cornerstone is an ATS system. Candidates apply via our job boards and their applications are automatically submitted via Cornerstone.
One of the greatest struggles with Cornerstone is the inconsistency. Sometimes the email and template functions are dysfunctional. Sometimes you move candidates to a new point in the pipeline and for some reason, it doesn't immediately reflect on the dashboard, so you have to do it again.
It's relatively easy to use compared to Greenhouse or Compass or BreezyHR. But with that ease, comes frequent lags or functions not working. I think it's good for the basic pipeline functions but not so great for more complex hires. For example, you can't send an assessment to a candidate via Cornerstone.
People should consider the complexities of their hiring processes. If the process is a multi-step process that requires frequent back and forth with candidates, you can't do it all on Cornerstone. If the hiring process is straightforward and functions like reference checking and assessment submission are handled outside of Cornerstone, then it makes sense.
In the past year, more work has been done to facilitate sending automated emails directly from Cornerstone.
Any organization with simple, straightforward hiring processes. I'm talking "screen, interview, hire".
Organizations with complex processes. For example, multiple interviews including panels, multiple assessments etc.
Docebo
Docebo is a robust and scalable LMS ideal for companies with more than 300 team members in need of some sort of training.
PROS
CONS
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 is used by companies like Walmart, Amazon Web Servies, Heineken, Thomson Reuters, Uber, and Bose.
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.
Bridge by Instructure
Bridge combines a learning management system and an employee performance & engagement tool into a single platform.
PROS
CONS
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.
Notable customers for Bridge include C Space, NHS, TCF Bank, Brewer Science, Domino's, and Catalant Technologies.
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.
Use-Cases: Why Use a Learning Management System
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:
- Improve Career Paths and Increase Retention: Learning management systems provide an excellent opportunity to engage your employees and allow them to improve their skills and grow professionally. When employees feel engaged and see a path for growth, they’re more likely to stay. In fact, Better Buys reports that companies with professional development opportunities like these see a 38% higher retention rate than those that don’t.
- Evolve with Changing Business Needs: If your business is growing rapidly or has pivoted in a way that will require you to train employees on a new system or set of values, for example, an LMS can help make the process more efficient.
- Increase Productivity: When employees can learn new skills and access employee training programs that will make them better at their jobs, they’ll work more efficiently. Not only that, but being able to learn on their own time and at their own pace will allow them to improve their skills without disrupting their normal workflow.
Considerations & Common Mistakes
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:
- Define Your Objectives: What is it that you want to achieve with an LMS? Do you want a more efficient onboarding process for new hires? Do you want to improve employee engagement? Do you want your employees to get their necessary certifications or compliance training? Do you want to train employees on work place safety? Do you want to provide leadership training for new managers? Whatever the case may be, you need to be clear on your objectives and the metrics you'll require to be able to tell whether you meet them. This way, you can choose the right LMS for your company — and the right content.
- Content is Key: Your content strategy needs to be as clear as your LMS objectives. If you don’t use the right content, the LMS or content authoring tool will end up being a wasted investment. So figure out what content you need to produce, both in terms of the format (like video vs. PDF vs. course modules vs. slides) and the subject matter. Then designate someone on your team to lead the content creation/execution and make sure the right stakeholders are keyed in— for example, if you’re creating trainings for new hires, you might want to connect with your marketing or communications lead to align on company messaging; that way, your new hires will learn the most accurate way to communicate with their specific audience(s).
Encourage Usage: There are two ways for your employees to actually use an LMS:
- Evangelize the Platform: Promote the LMS— and the results it will provide— to all employees. Send emails, make an announcement at your next all-staff, meet with individual teams to give demos, and empower managers to get their direct reports on board.
- Offer Incentives: In some cases, the incentive is already baked in (i.e. career advancement or a necessary credential). For others, you should consider what type of reward would work best for your employees (gift cards, extra time off, company-wide recognition, a cash bonus, etc.)
- Assess Customer Support: Keep in mind that some training management systems provide better customer support than others. So do your due-diligence ahead of time to see how your platform of choice handles customer issues and questions. In addition to asking a rep on your demo, you might want to ask existing clients or even go “under cover” by reaching out to customer support via phone, email, and/or live chat.
Benefits and ROI
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.
Pricing
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:
- Per Learner: In most cases, learning platforms will charge between $5-$15 per learner per month. This range accounts for what’s actually included for each learner. Most platforms also charge a setup or installation fee on top of the per learner per month rate.
- Per Usage: If you only want to be charged for what your employees are actually using, you can expect to pay wide ranges depending on how much pre packaged content you're using. Similar to the per learner pricing, where your price falls in that range will depend on what’s included.
- One-Time Licensing Fee: To purchase a license to install LMS software and use it in perpetuity, you could pay up to $50,000 or more. The licensing fee itself ranges from $500-$20,000 and then there is usually a hefty setup cost as well. Keep in mind that this option is really best suited for larger companies with a dedicated IT staff.
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.
Features: What You Can Expect from Learning Management Systems
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:
- Employee Training: Access new hire onboarding materials and employee training courses on everything from business skills, to compliance training, to workplace safety and more. If your industry requires certain certifications, you can administer the relevant tests to get your employees properly certified.
- Content Library: Many learning management systems have ready-made educational content that you can use for your company. Such content includes (but is not limited to) slides, videos and animations, PDFs, course modules, even gamification. Many of these will be specific to a given set of roles, industries or levels in the company (for example, sales training or management training).
- Content Development: If you want a learning experience that’s tailored to your specific company, you can use templates to create your own materials.
- Synchronous & Asynchronous Learning: You can decide if you want to provide learning opportunities in real-time (synchronous) or allow your employees to access on their own time (asynchronous).
- Mobile learning: Depending on the LMS, your employees can get complete course/learning access from mobile devices, allowing them to learn anytime, anywhere.
Questions to Ask in Demos with LMS Vendors
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:
Questions to ask in any demo:
- Can you overview the most important features and capabilities I should understand?
- What integrations do you offer to connect this system to my existing technology stack?
- What drawbacks or limitations have existing users of your products reported so far?
Questions to ask LMS vendors:
- Do you provide a library of training content or will we have to create our own?
- What type of content do you support and/or deliver?
- Is gamification built in, and if so, what kinds?
- Do you offer employee incentives/rewards for using the platform?
- How many team members can your solution support per company?
- Does your solution provide a training log, training records, and other sorts of reports?
- To what extent is your platform customizable?
- What are you doing to ensure accessibility and inclusivity in online learning?
- Does your solution provide video conferencing for instructor-led training and collaborative learning?
- How do some of your features promote social learning?
Implementation
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:
- Content Management: Figure out the type of content you need, who is going to run point, and how you will manage updates as needed.
- Rollout: Create a rollout strategy to introduce the platform to your employees and encourage usage. Make sure stakeholders especially are clued in so they can communicate the right messaging, incentives, etc. to their direct reports.
- Monitor Usage: Regularly check usage data to see how many employees are engaging with the content, whether courses have been completed fully, if there are any user-experience or functionality issues, etc. Depending on your findings, you may need to make adjustments to your content or rollout plans.
Learning Management System FAQs
What is a learning management system?
A learning management system (LMS) is software used to create, deliver, track, report on, and manage online training programs and educational courses. It centralizes all aspects of the learning process from registration to course delivery and analytics.
What are some key features of an LMS?
Typical LMS features include course authoring tools, competency management, skills gap analysis, automated notifications/reminders, certification management, gamification, social learning, mobile access, AI recommendations, compliance tracking, CRM integrations, and robust reporting on participation, completion rates, and training efficacy.
What are the benefits of using an LMS?
The benefits you gain from using am LMS include cost-effective delivery of training, faster onboarding of new hires, increased employee engagement, improved compliance, uniformity in training across locations, data-driven insights into learning needs and outcomes, and the ability to support continuous skill development.
How does LMS pricing work?
LMS pricing often follows a per-user-per-month structure, based on the number of active users or total learners. Additional fees may apply for extra features, storage space, number of courses, customer support, or enterprise functionality. Many vendors in this space offer free trials or freemium versions with limited features.
How long does LMS implementation take?
LMS implementation timelines vary based on their scope and complexity. You can expect it to take anywhere from 4-8 weeks for a standard configuration. If you require integrations, customizations, and data migration, the timeline can be extended further.
Next Steps
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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