7 Best Free Learning Management Systems (LMS) for business in 2025
Our HR tech experts reveal the best free LMS software based on extensive research and testing. Find top vendors, pricing, features and more below.

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Making an effort to keep your team at the forefront of their game through in-house training programs doesn’t have to be super expensive. Several of the best learning management systems have free versions that are good and scalable bets for small businesses that want to enhance their talent.
The LMS options we list below are cost-effective because they at either have a free and unlimited version, or at least a lengthy free trial and then a moderately-priced basic plan.
Through hours of research and interviews with HR professionals in small and medium-sized companies, we’ve narrowed down the best options in the market when it comes to free LMS systems. These are some cost-friendly alternatives to software like Docebo, SAP Litmos, Absorb LMS, and Canvas. You can also checkout our article on the best learning management systems.
To identify the top free learning management systems (LMS), our team evaluated numerous options by signing up for free trials, exploring the platforms' features, and gathering user feedback. We also consulted experienced LMS admins and instructional designers and the free LMS we thought were best were simple and easy to use, had the core LMS features covered, and came with generous free tiers.
- Simplicity and ease of use: With free LMS, you often compromise on advanced features, but the platform should still be intuitive and easy for admins, instructors, and learners. We favored options with clean, uncluttered interfaces, drag-and-drop course builders with ready-ade learning materials, and straightforward workflows.
- Core LMS features: At a minimum, a free LMS should have tools for course authoring, grading, testing, recording completion, and basic reporting. Bonus points for gamification, mobile compatibility, and integration with other apps. The LMS on our list deliver baseline functionality without being overly complex.
- Free tier limitations: All free platforms have some limitations, but the best ones still enable meaningful usage within those constraints. We looked for free tiers with generous limits on storage, courses, users, and features. While capped, these LMS provide enough value for most small businesses and teams.
Our criteria ensure we cover the top free tools suitable for most use cases, balancing core functionality with simplicity. For more on our methodology, see our editorial guidelines.

Connecteam

Connecteam LMS tool is mobile-friendly and gives users the freedom to create as many courses as they want, group them into different categories, and track employee progress.
PROS
- Unlimited courses, course categories, and sections within a course.
- Supports various content types in courses: text, images, PDF, audio, YouTube embed, links, knowledge base, and quizzes.
- Real-time, searchable, and filterable insights into course completion status.
- Intuitive mobile apps.
- One of the only fully-mobile HR tech tools for deskless workers
- Very adequately-priced for all it entails, SMB-friendly
- Quite open to feedback, having implemented user suggestions as features in the past.
CONS
- Works as a self-hosted LMS, not for those seeking eLearning marketplaces.
- Only free for up to 10 users.
- Limited native integrations.
- In the communication hub, the app offers no confirmation that messages were sent and/or seen.
- Certain features that some teams consider essential, such as GPS-tracking, are only available in the higher-tier pricing plans.

We love how easy it is to obtain Connecteam's free LMS. You don’t need to input your credit card information—just your email address and phone number will do.
After finishing the signup, you'll be taken to a dashboard that we trust you’ll like. It’s intuitive and clear. More importantly, it gives you access to Course and many other handy tools for your day-to-day operations, from time off to recognition and rewards, job scheduling, communications, and surveys—all free.
We tested Connecteam as a course creator and learner and found it easy to use on both ends. You can make as many courses as you need as an admin and organize them however you want. The variety of course materials is also awesome. You can add links, YouTube videos, PDFs, audio, and even quizzes to make sure your team fully gets what they’ve learned.
Plus, you can break the courses into sections to make them easier to digest. One of our favorite features is the short survey at the end of the course—it truly is a good help for feedback gathering and training content evaluations.
From learner perspectives, the free LMS platform impressed us with a UI that works well regardless of the device.
To be clear, though, Connecteam doesn’t have an extensive ready-made course library like Coggno or LinkedIn. Instead, it gives you the freedom to create your own training content, and its free version is only for those with ten users at max.
Integration-wise, unlike SafetyCulture (EdApp), Connecteam doesn’t offer its API access for free, while its native integrations are limited to very few payroll apps.
36,000+ companies, including Mango, Edible, and Subway.
Connecteam has five plans. When billed annually:
- Small Business: free forever for up to 10 users
- Basic: $29/month for the first 30 users, $0.5/month for each additional user
- Advanced: $49/month for the first 30 users, $1.5/month for each additional user
- Expert: $99/month for the first 30 users, $3/month for each additional user
- Enterprise: Custom pricing.
Best For
Connecteam's free plan can work out just fine as both an LMS and an onboarding tool as long as you have no more than ten employees.

SafetyCulture (EdApp)

SafetyCulture’s platform covers a host of employee training tools. It includes custom course building, microlearning modules, tests, analytics, and mobile access to make training easy and effective. There’s a free version to their platform, and all of the features of their platform can be trialed for free for up to 30 days.
PROS
- The platform supports an unlimited amount of content creation and deployment. There’s a free plan and paid upgrades are fairly affordable.
- The onboarding for admins, coaches, and learners is easy and can be done in only 5 minutes.
- The open API allows you to connect several third-party tools and plug-ins.
- There’s an abundance 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
- The platform frequently rolls out updates, which is a good thing but you do have to frequently learn how to use features.
- You have to compress large videos because of the platform’s 10 MB video size limit.
- The analytics is slow at times, especially when exporting data to CSV.
- 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’s inspection platform packs a full-featured employee training solution that’s got everything you need to train your team on how to be safe and compliant. The system is designed to make training intuitive and engaging for hourly and shift-based teams through bite-sized microlearning lessons accessible on any device.
A key advantage of SafetyCulture is its entirely free tier which supports up to 10 users. The platform is also scalable and can support your team as it grows. Creating courses is easy with customizable templates, drag-and-drop interactions, image and video uploads, quizzes, and options to push lessons to employees. Legacy content can be transitioned into interactive modules through SafetyCulture's complimentary content creation service.
The platform simplifies scheduling and tracking training tasks, while providing administrator oversight through notifications and reports. Learners can view assigned lessons on desktop or mobile and mark progress. Managers can track compliance and training KPIs.
With deskless workers in mind, SafetyCulture opts for a user-friendly interface and makes training accessible offline via mobile. Content is designed for microlearning - short, focused, engaging lessons. This modern approach suits frontline teams who learn on the go.
For organizations with hourly, distributed workforces that require an affordable training system, SafetyCulture hits the mark with its specialized deskless focus, generous free tier, and tools to simplify the creation and delivery of interactive lessons to staff on-site or on the move.
SafetyCulture has been used to deliver over 77k lessons at companies like Marriott, DHL and AECOM.
SafetyCulture has three plans:
- Free: This plan is free of charge and is designed for individuals and small businesses of up to 10 users who want to digitize inspections and share resources with their team.
- Premium: Designed for larger growing teams needing more advanced features, this plan costs $24 per user/month when billed annually.
- Enterprise: This plan has custom pricing and is made for large corporations needing high customization and dedicated support. Contact SafetyCulture’s Sales team for a quote.
Best For
SafetyCulture's mobile-first training platform is most ideal for small and medium-sized blue-collar companies.

TalentLMS

TalentLMS is one of the most well-known, affordable, and versatile Learning Management Systems ever.
PROS
CONS

This highly-popular LMS is designed for organizations that want online learning for their employees, partners, and even customers. They strive to get rid of the complexity that comes with creating and distributing learning programs and help you launch courses in record time. Their claim is that people are able to share courses two times as fast as with similar software because of how easy they make it for you to reuse content from other sources.
HarperCollins Publishers, Rosetta Stone, and DeLonghi.
TalentLMS is free for up to 5 users as long as you don’t create more than 10 courses. Afterwards, the pricing is as follows:
Key Features of a Learning Management System
In order to determine the key features that a learning management system must have, one should start by reviewing the primary function that it will be fulfilling at an organization. Course building, distributing, and tracking is the most common use for an LMS, but depending on one’s needs, X or Y LMS could also prioritize remote learning, developing materials from scratch, or integrating with different content types.
A good LMS should work like a master archive where employees can access the company’s online training resources at any time. Instructor-led training could also be facilitated by an LMS. Overall, the primary hope with an LMS is that it’s user-friendly and effective for both the learner and the team that is distributing and updating the company’s content library.
With that in mind, these are the key features for a corporate LMS:
- Reporting & Tracking: Like any sort of relationship, online training is a two way street. It doesn’t end with choosing a learning platform and uploading course content. You have to be able to understand how people are interacting with said content in order to fine tune it as you go. Any LMS should come with some reporting, analytics, and tracking capabilities, such as learner progress, completion rates, time to complete each course, individual learning paths, etc. If they don’t, you can check and see if they’ll support any plugins that would help you get those reports.
- Integrations: The learning experience with any LMS is enhanced when it can communicate with the rest of your software stack. Depending on your needs, you might want to make sure that the new tool integrates with your HRMS or ATS.
- Assessment tools: While it may be up for debate if every course should come with a test or some kind of learning assessment at the end, it’s certainly better to have this tool than to lack it. Most of the training tools we’ve discussed come with one or another way of evaluating learning outcomes. They can be as simple as a multiple choice quiz or as complex as exams with several types of questions and assignments.
- Gamification: Features like points, badges, and leaderboards can be a fun way of increasing employee engagement during the learning process. If your company is already into these kinds of dynamics, it will certainly make your life easier if the LMS of your choice has these built-in tools. It is also worth mentioning that the benefits of gamification in eLearning are widespread.
- Compliance Training & Certification: If your business requires employees to remain compliant with government regulations or a corporate policy of your own, this can cover that need. The exact shape and form of these features will vary from vendor to vendor, but they may include a log of all training activity to easily download and present in the event of an audit, for instance.
Questions to Ask in Demos with Free LMS Vendors
We always recommend booking demos with a few vendors before committing to any LMS, even if it is a free one. Not only do you get a walkthrough of the tools, but you also can ask all questions you have in mind and get specific answers. To help you out, we’ve put together the following questions you can ask LMS vendors during demos:
- What features are included in the free version versus the paid version? Make sure the free version has the core LMS functionality you need.
- Is there a user or course limit on the free version? This will determine if it can scale with your organization's growth.
- What level of technical support is included with the free version? Limited or no support can make a free LMS harder to work with.
- How customizable is the LMS platform? Can you brand it and integrate it with other systems? More customization capabilities are better.
- What type of reporting and analytics are available? Reporting is key for tracking learning.
- Is the platform mobile-friendly and accessible across devices? More accessibility is better for learners.
- How easy is the LMS to use and configure? Simpler interfaces don't require as much training or IT overhead.
- What type of course authoring tools are included? Built-in authoring tools can simplify content creation.
- Is integration with other EdTech tools like video hosting straightforward? Integration expands capabilities.
- Can you migrate courses if you outgrow the free version and upgrade? Migrating your content to a paid version should be easy.
- How is user data and privacy handled? You'll want to make sure they're securely managed.
What Does the Implementation of a LMS Look Like?
As most of the best LMS software is cloud-based & from SaaS vendors, implementing these tools can be as quick as setting up an account and your company domain. After that, it all depends on the needs of your organization, but you should consider ample time to add users and other admins, manage permissions, upload the training materials and course content you already have, and set up certifications.
In other words, course building will likely be more time consuming than implementing the software. All of these are made with both the user and admin experience in mind, so often setting up an admin account will be almost as quick as it is for a future learner to set up theirs.
The obvious exception would be an open source system such as Chamilo or Moodle. The initial set-up process will be far more tech-intensive since it’s self-hosted. It will also be more time consuming for a user, since depending on how it’s set up, they may need to download their own version and then log-in to the company portal.
Free LMS FAQs
What does LMS mean?
LMS means learning management system.
What does a learning management system do?
Learning management systems allow your business to train new employees and teams on a variety of skills and topics. An LMS is typically used to efficiently onboard new hires and keep employees engaged, leading to increased productivity and higher retention rates.
How do you use a learning management system?
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.
What features should a learning management system have?
A learning management system can have the following features: administrative suite for instructors and managers, engaging training modules, tracking and reporting, course creation tools, evaluations, gamification, messaging capabilities, certifications, calendar management, mobile adaptability, and social aspects.
Last advice
We’re always big fans of software companies choosing to make some version of their product available for free. Nevertheless, you should always keep in mind that your organization’s current needs likely won’t stay the same. Even if you’d prefer a free tool today, you should make your decision considering how you might evolve with it as your business grows.
To put it differently, our last piece of advice would be to pick a free tool if you prefer to save money right now, by all means, but do it with a growth mindset. Many of the tools we outlined here offer quite a clear path to more capabilities and advanced features for competitive prices. This should also go into consideration in your decision making, as picking one tool or another and having to replace it in a year or two could be more time-consuming and expensive than going with a mildly-priced solution from the beginning. So to close off, we’d highly recommend taking a look at the full pricing models of each software outlined here and just how expensive they can become if you choose to upgrade.
In conclusion, when selecting your next & free LMS, make sure to keep the following steps in mind:
- Have clear objectives.
- Define your present & future training needs.
- Make a list of the deal-breaker features as well as nice-to-haves.
- Make a list of vendor options with all the relevant stakeholders.
- Demo them as a team
Best of luck!
About Us

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