Nowadays learning management systems are one of the most in-demand tools after the online course platforms. It is projected that the online learning market is expected to cross $375 billion by 2026.
After the pandemic as more and more people are relying on home and less on-premise learning, the demand for catering to the same classroom-like experience is growing.
Now which are the top LMS platforms that offer the best virtual learning experience can be overwhelming to find due to so many options available in the market.
So to make your decision a bit easier I have ranked and reviewed the best LMS tools based on their support, pricing, features, integrations, payment gateway support, and more.
So let’s get started.
What are the Best Learning Management Systems?
Here is my list of the best learning management systems to use this year.
1. LearnDash
Learndash is one of the best LMS for WordPress sites as it offers easy-to-use and customizable post types to create course modules.
Moreover, it powers you with their official as well as third-party plugins so that you don’t miss any single feature you were probably looking for. Also, its cloud-based LMS platform allows businesses to post an unlimited number of online courses.
For beginners, the platform provides a drag-and-drop interface to create new courses and post eLearning content online easily. Plus, it also offers multiple ways for businesses to monetize their content in a lucid manner.
Key Features
- Course Bundle – Offers to stack your courses in a specific category to monetize your eLearning content in a better manner.
- Focus Mode – Provides a dedicated virtual learning environment to your learners to eliminate any distractions.
- Flexible Prerequisites – This allows you to decide the sequence of the courses for the learners that they will decide to learn.
Pros
- 30-day money-back guarantee
- Provides integrations with WordPress and social media channels
- Supports payment integrations like PayPal, 2Checkout, and Stripe for monetization
- Offers eight different types of options for questions in the quizzes
- Provides a course point feature that rewards learners with points as they complete a course module
- Offers a responsive platform on all mobile devices including laptops, tablets, and smartphones
- Offers a well-designed private forum for the learners to exchange ideas and solutions
Pricing Plans
LearnDash offers three paid plans for its creators.
- Basic Plan – $159 per year (Offers unlimited courses, unlimited users, and 1 site)
- Plus Package – $189 per year (Offers unlimited courses, unlimited users, and 10 sites)
- Pro Package – $329 per year (Offers unlimited courses, unlimited users, and 25 sites)
2. TalentLMS
TalentLMS is also one of the best LMS to consider which offers a cloud-based learning management system. It provides its creators with a ready-to-use solution that requires signing up and adding courses to the platform.
TalentLMS offers virtual host training that integrates your virtual conferences with video conferencing software like Zoom to the platform. Plus, it offers engaging templates to create your courses to make sure your engagement remains relevant and high.
Key Features
- Assessment Engine – This feature allows you to test the progress of learners with multiple test types like ordering, drag-and-drop matching, multiple-choice, and open-end questions. You can then access these results in data reports.
- File Repository – This allows you to organize, and share files with users seamlessly. You can also reuse the shared learning modules easily.
- Cmi5 – This is an xAPI-based specification that offers a smart eLearning data exchange. It defines interoperability rules for content viewing, authentication, session management, reporting, and course structure between Learning Management Systems and Learning Record Stores.
- Mass Action – This feature allows you to take mass action on the courses and other functionalities available on the platform
Pros
- The platform follows a hybrid learning technique which is both instructor-led training and eLearning
- Provides you to create curriculums for learners automatically with restricted access
- Provides complete control over content creation and content management
- Offers you to monetize content via Payal and Stripe
- Supports discussion forums, calendars, and personal messages
- Allows you to divide your learning channel into branches. Every branch acts as an independent module having its own users, courses, and theme.
- Provides levels of controls for course management, course authoring, and course materials
Pricing Plans
TalentLMS offers four plans apart from its free plan that offers up to 5 users and up to 10 courses:
- Starter – $59 per month (if billed annually and offers unlimited courses and up to 40 users)
- Basic – $129 per month (if billed annually and offers unlimited courses and up to 100 users)
- Plus – $249 per month (if billed annually and offers unlimited courses and up to 500 users)
- Premium – $429 per month (if billed annually and offers unlimited courses and up to 1000 users)
3. SkyPrep
SkyPrep is the best LMS for the business as it provides the best eLearning interface suitable for corporate training. The prominent features provided by the platform include choosing themes and adding a business logo, welcome messages, images, and icons based on branding requirements.
Additionally, it allows you to reuse the content already created saving a ton lot of time. Plus, it allows you to upload content in formats like PDFs, MS Office files, embedded links, multimedia presentations, and videos.
Also, it allows you to personalize custom URLs and eLearning certificates.
Key Features
- Enterprise Level Security – Provides robust secure access to the platform and all its associated data is stored in secure SSL-certified cloud infrastructure
- Integrations – Offers a lot of social media, payment, and other third-party integrations to help you integrate with your already existing systems
- Analytics and Reports – This feature provides you to compare course performance profiles, multi-level visual reporting, and more to access learners’ performance easily.
Pros
- Provides easy login through other social platforms, including Windows Live, Facebook, Linkedin, and Gmail
- Allows you to restrict the flow of the course and customize the learning path according to different learners
- Provides secure transactions and is a PCI-DSS compliant
- Gives you the option for a self-managed recurring training
- Offers several pre-packaged courses to help you get started quickly
Pricing Plans
SkyPrep offers three pricing plans for its customers
- Lite – $299 per month (if billed annually)
- Professional – $529 per month (if billed annually)
- Enterprise – Custom Quote Based
So now let’s cover the basics.
What is a Learning Management System?
Learning Management System (LMS) is a software that allows you to organize, track, document, report, administer, and deliver your educational programs online.
These tools are widely used incorporates for learning, upskilling, and training employees. Higher education schools use it to make harder topics more interactive and easy to understand.
Additionally, LMS not just only offers online teaching and content delivery but also offers monetization options for both teachers and students for their content.
You can also personalize your course experience the way you want and get access to marketing automation tools offered by the platform to scale your income. Some of the best LMS today that support this are LearnDash, TalentLMS, Blackboard, and more.
What Are the Advantages of a Learning Management System?
Learning management systems are widely adopted by every sector from schools, corporates, and other organizations. However, every industry has its unique requirements and specific challenges that are not catered to by all LMS.
But there are a few important features that regardless of the LMS must be there to benefit from this system.
1. Scalability
An LMS should be highly scalable to meet your growing users’ needs. You know that tomorrow if you are course, becomes popular and more people start signing up you want the platform to support that. This is to ensure the long-term sustainability of your online course business.
2. Customization
The learning management system should offer a lot of customizations like using your own templates, own logos, distinctive colors and fonts, and other brand elements. This puts you in a better position to distinguish yourself from the rest of the people in the marketplace.
For example, SkyPrep is one of the LMS that offers amazing customization options.
3. Selling Courses Online
This is important as you as a content creator should be able to sell courses via e-commerce platforms. This adds more flexibility as well adds extra income needed. Moreover, the more platforms you can sell on the better the returns on your investment.
4. Reports and Analytics
LMS should allow you to integrate with data analytical tools like Microsoft Clarity or Google Analytics. Data visualization reports allow you to understand how your business is performing and what actions are necessary to further improve the statistics.
5. Payment Integrations
This feature should allow you to take advantage of multiple payment gateway service providers. This ensures that you can save some cash on every operation conducted by switching to more profitable payment gateways.
6. Multi-Language Compatible
Having courses that cater to a variety of languages will allow you to expand your reach beyond the traditional audience. This helps you raise your revenue and further spread your teaching capabilities to wider geographies.
7. Bulk Course Creation
A good LMS should allow you to create your content courses in bulk. This is especially needed if you are running an educational center or an organization.
8. Cost-Effective
It is always better to choose one of the best LMS tools instead of designing the platform entirely yourself. It involves a lot of technical expertise and a dedicated team which ultimately costs a lot of money.
Best Learning Management Systems – Final Summary
This wraps up my list of the best learning management systems. I will keep updating the list with other relevant learning management platforms available in the market.
Remember that every learning management platform will have its own strengths and weaknesses. All you have to do is research and see which system caters to your budget and requirements.
Finally, go through every platform in the above learning management systems list before making the final decision of purchase.
Which learning management system tool are you inclined to? Let me know in the comment section below.
More from Smashitbuck: Do check out my other articles on the OKR software, Instagram viewer’s profile, and becoming a digital nomad to use this year.
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