Best Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Communication is key in any company, especially when it comes to keeping everyone on the same page. And as remote companies become more common—or as your company scales—you may find you need a little help communicating important company policies and procedures.

That’s where a learning management system (LMS) comes in. An LMS is the perfect tool to create, manage, and track training for your employees. From new hires to clients and everyone in between, a good LMS helps your organization communicate critical information and ensure it’s been understood.

Here are five of the best corporate LMS for your business, plus a look at what each one brings to the table in terms of price, deployment, learning styles, and more.

Price: $579/user/year
Learning style: Blended, instructor-led, and self-paced
Deployment: Cloud-based, mobile, and web-based
Business size supported: Small, medium, and large

Though not technically an LMS, Pluralsight offers numerous learning opportunities and can also integrate with other LMS software. With its Role IQ, Skill IQ, and Iris features, Pluralsight makes it easy for employees and managers alike to clearly plot a path to professional development.

Role IQ delivers an in-depth analysis of your entire company’s skill sets and proficiency levels through easy-to-read graphs and charts. This visual representation makes it easier to see where professional development should be focused or where you might need to hire outside talent. And Skill IQ uses simple quizzes to help employees determine their proficiency levels and identify skill gaps, while Iris delivers personalized next-step recommendations.

If you’re looking for LMS features like custom course creation, performance management, or gamification, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Pluralsight does integrate with some LMS software, including SumTotal, Cornerstone, and Absorb, that offer course creation tools. However, it mainly relies on more than 1,500 authors to create and deliver its e-learning content, which might be a boon to businesses without the free time to develop and build custom courses.

Price: Starts at $59.00/mo. for 40 users (free trial available)
Learning style: Live online and online articles
Deployment: Android, iOS, and web-based (cloud and SaaS)
Business size supported: Small and medium

TalentLMS offers a well-designed and easy-to-use interface. Its engaging functionalities and affordable price make this software a great fit for any company, no matter how many employees you have or training courses you need.

With several multimedia content options and file types, TalentLMS is versatile and offers 24/7 online support. Whether you’re creating an online course or your employees need guidance to navigate the system, an online representative will always be available to help.

If you’re considering learning management systems for the first time, TalentLMS’s flexible pricing plans provide a fantastic range of options. It also has a free trial to give you a chance to test the software and get a peek at the benefits of efficient employee training and how a software like this can boost your business.

Price: Contact vendor for pricing
Learning style: Instructor-led and self-paced online learning
Deployment: Android and iOS
Business size supported: Small, medium, and large

360training.com offers learning management software that specializes in food and beverage, real estate, environmental health and safety, and industrial and HR industries—and it has more than 6,000 courses available in its system library.

The classes and programs offered by 360training.com can help your employees and business with certifications, compliance requirements, pre-licensing, and general career development.
Training services are priced by course and industry, starting from $7 to $10 and up.

Price: $10 per test pay-as-you-go and fixed monthly pricing options
Learning style: Self-paced
Deployment: Web-based
Business size supported: Small, medium, and large

ExpertRating offers more than 800 certifications and tests to keep your employees, new hires, and prospective hires challenged (in a good way). And with an option to pay per test—including volume discounts—ExpertRating might be the most economical choice for your company.

If you’re looking for a customized testing interface, ExpertRating’s API integration gives you all the tools you need to do just that. While the test is hosted on ExpertRating’s site, your company’s header, footer, and custom site style makes it seem like test takers never left your site.

The same API integration allows you to link ExpertRating with your existing software, like FlexJobs, UpWork, or CrowdSource.

A good LMS allows you to update courses whenever your sales strategy changes or you bring on a new client and need to tell them what to expect. And when your next batch of new hires arrives, an LMS lets you easily assign those all-important introductory courses and then grade them to ensure your new employees understand the lay of the land.

To put it simply, an LMS lets you do the following:

1. Build e-learning lessons
2. Organize those lessons into courses
3. Assign and deliver courses to your employees, clients, or even a broader online audience
4. Track who needs to take which courses and when
5. Grade completed courses
6. Analyze course data through comprehensive reports

You’ve got lots of options when it comes to choosing an LMS for your company. Generally, the biggest difference will come down to how you want your LMS to be deployed.

Locally deployed (self-hosted)
A locally-deployed LMS is a purchased product that is installed and maintained on your company server. If you choose a self-hosted LMS, you’ll get the most control over how your LMS merges with your current IT infrastructure.

Note that a locally-deployed LMS requires someone to be in charge of installation and scaling installation as your company grows, security, data backups, software updates, and license renewal.

Hosted (private cloud)
If you can’t dedicate someone to managing software updates and installation, a hosted LMS might be a better solution for you.

You’ll still be able to customize your resources and code, making the private cloud LMS option a good compromise between a locally-deployed system and a fully cloud-based system.

Cloud based (SaaS)
A cloud-based LMS, sometimes called software as a service (SaaS), gives your company the freedom to focus on e-learning creation—or other priorities. This type of LMS is completely maintained by the third-party company you purchased it from.

Choosing a cloud-based option means you’ll give up some flexibility and customization in order to avoid the responsibility of maintaining your LMS.

It’s no surprise that price is one of the first things you should consider when choosing an LMS, but did you know that you might be able to find one for free?

The caveat here is that you’ll likely need to install and maintain a free LMS on your own. Otherwise, you’ll want to compare pricing models and figure out which one works best for your company.

Paying month-to-month or as-you-go may provide your company with some flexibility if you need to cancel your LMS subscription. But it’s always worthwhile to check the fine print and make sure you’re not signing up for a contract that charges a fee if you cancel early.

Some commonly used LMS pricing models include the following:

1. One-time setup fee + yearly maintenance fee
2. One-time setup fee + monthly subscription fee
3. No setup fee + monthly subscription fee
4. Pay-as-you-go
5. Custom pricing solutions

You could spend hundreds of dollars on an LMS oozing with features and customization capabilities, but if the user interface isn’t easy to follow, you’ll have wasted your money.

Your LMS should also support the following interface features:

Be sure to take any LMS you’re interested in for a test drive to see how the user interface works. Keep tabs on how easily you can build courses, whether completing training is straightforward, and what it’s like to view the analytics and reporting side of things.

It may also be worthwhile to ask about accessibility features for any employees who can’t easily access the content you build.

Different types of LMS offer varying degrees of customization, but more than likely you’ll want to brand your online courses. It’s worth asking whether this capability is offered—and whether having the option to brand your courses also requires you to build those same courses from scratch.

You may also want to check if the LMS allows personalized online training. This allows you to bundle various courses into separate training paths, so your employees can choose which path to follow with an end goal in mind.

If your company is reliant on certain software like MailChimp or Google Docs, you should look for an LMS that integrates with that software. This allows the LMS and the software to seamlessly communicate to each other, and it could reduce the need to manually transfer or link data.

Integrations can be simple if the LMS uses third-party services like Zapier or Okta. But if it doesn’t, software integrations require the LMS to support common ways of connecting third-party software, like single sign on (SSO), application programming interface (API), and JavaScript.

When you ask about LMS integrations, be as specific as possible about what software you want to integrate with it, so no surprise requirements crop up.

You may also want to check if the LMS allows personalized online training. This allows you to bundle various courses into separate training paths, so your employees can choose which path to follow with an end goal in mind.

Keeping your company data safe is important—as is keeping your employees’ information safe. Checking out what an LMS does to prevent data breaches and other security leaks is important.

If you can’t readily find this info online, ask the LMS vendor directly. You can also check online reviews, but it’s best to get this kind of info directly from the source.

Integrations can be simple if the LMS uses third-party services like Zapier or Okta. But if it doesn’t, software integrations require the LMS to support common ways of connecting third-party software, like single sign on (SSO), application programming interface (API), and JavaScript.

When you ask about LMS integrations, be as specific as possible about what software you want to integrate with it, so no surprise requirements crop up.

You may also want to check if the LMS allows personalized online training. This allows you to bundle various courses into separate training paths, so your employees can choose which path to follow with an end goal in mind.

While an LMS may have a clean and easy-to-use interface, that’s not helpful if it leaves you high and dry when it comes time to troubleshoot technical issues.

And though an LMS might provide an on-call representative to help you for the first few months, you’ll want to make sure you can reach out with any additional issues, questions, or concerns whenever you need to.

It’s worth asking whether you’ll have a representative assigned to your account or if you’ll need to resort to online forums and email forms to get an answer. The security of having a name, number, and email for a contact who’s familiar with your business and needs is priceless.

The best learning management system (LMS) is one that fits your company’s goals for its employees, but we think Simplilearn, ExpertRating, and SAP Litmos all provide unique benefits that make them excellent choices.