Learning management systems (LMS) are a hot commodity in today’s corporate world. According to Global Market Insights, the LMS e-learning market is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2027.
With so much growth on the horizon, it’s crucial to understand the key features and options available. In fact, 45% of LMS buyers report “purchase regret” due to feature mismatch—making it even more important to clearly define your needs and prioritize essential functionality.
In this blog, Leighton Nelson, Senior Director of Education and Technical Enablement at Delphix, Miki Ishikawa, Learning Experience Director at OpenText, and Haley Bates, Solutions Engineer at Skilljar, provide insights into what an LMS is, why LMSs are important, and how to choose the right LMS for you.
What is a learning management system (LMS)?
A learning management system (LMS) is a learning technology used to deliver and host online courses for education, training, and learning and development (L&D) programs.
It acts as the interface that connects instructors and learning content with learners—employees, customers, and partners. As a result, LMS platforms play an important role in helping organizations scale training efficiently while supporting business growth.
Why use an LMS?
In recent years, companies have increasingly shifted toward online training methods such as eLearning, microlearning, and remote instructor-led sessions.
However, as companies grow and need to train larger audiences across employees, customers, and partners, traditional one-to-one or small-group training models become difficult to sustain.
An LMS provides a scalable and cost-effective way to train high volumes of learners. It also allows organizations to deliver customized training for different audiences quickly and consistently.
As 42% of organizations struggle to close talent gaps, LMS platforms are now evolving beyond training to support broader employee development and retention strategies.
What can an LMS do?
Learning management systems are highly versatile and support a wide range of training use cases. But what exactly can an LMS be used for?
Onboarding, training and engaging employees
Major companies need to train large numbers of new hires at once and continuously upskill employees as roles evolve. Training through an LMS is more resource-efficient, as the content is created once and reused—reducing the reliance on repeated, expensive, and time-consuming workshops.
Trainers can also monitor large groups of new hires and track individual progress more easily with the help of an LMS, requiring less manual oversight. Employees gain a consistent, programmatic experience, enabling leaders to set specific expectations for the skills and knowledge they gain upon completing a particular training path.
In addition, international companies, or companies spread across regions, often cannot use traditional training due to distance, time zones, and costs. Using an LMS allows organizations to deliver consistent training experiences to employees regardless of location or time zone.
Customer training
Due to their efficiency and lower costs, companies can use an LMS to help teach skills or knowledge to customers as well. By using an LMS, a company can reduce the time required to onboard customers to use its product or service and instead reserve trainers for advanced or custom training engagements.
Customers benefit in a similar way. With on-demand access to training materials, they can learn at their own pace without waiting for limited training resources or coordinating group sessions in-person.
Partner enablement
Since an LMS is an online resource, it is easily accessible to anyone granted permission. This allows companies to train internally and share training with external partners.
Not only is the training itself shared—enabling partners to benefit from the training material—but editing capabilities can also be shared, allowing other companies to improve on existing content or contribute their own training.
Compliance training
Compliance training can also be done using an LMS. Having one centralized system allows companies to easily deliver retraining or recertification courses to large numbers of employees at a time while tracking individual progress at scale.
Mandated courses can also be created once within the LMS and then distributed as needed, minimizing time and resource costs.
Sales enablement
Another usage for an LMS is sales training. As the market changes, salespeople constantly need new training or updated information to maintain their competitive edge.
An LMS can train salespeople much faster than conventional training and keep up with market changes. Preparing salespeople is as simple as making small edits to courses on an LMS, rather than rushing to schedule meetings and book time for large groups within a narrow time frame.
Before you choose an LMS for your business
With so many LMS options, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Here are some general key factors to consider when choosing an LMS:
Identify your business needs and goals – Ask yourself what your company hopes to achieve and what features and functionality are essential. Consider factors such as the size of your organization, the number of learners, the type of content you’ll be delivering, and any specific compliance requirements.
Evaluate the features and functionality of different LMS options – Look for a solution that offers the essential features and functionalities that align with your business needs and goals. For example, you may need compliance tracking and reporting, mobile compatibility, user management, or multi-lingual support.
Consider the user experience and interface – Look for an LMS with a clean, intuitive interface, easy-to-use navigation, and clear instructions for navigating and completing tasks within the platform. You may also want to consider the customization options, such as the ability to brand the LMS with your company logo and colours. Reviews on platforms like G2, Gartner, and Capterra can help you learn what other users think of the product and interface.
Look at pricing and support options – Look for transparent pricing with no hidden fees or charges but also consider the full cost of implementation. Budgeting for hidden costs is key, as 61% of buyers face unexpected disruptions during rollout due to overlooked costs or unclear planning. Also consider the level of support provided, such as customer service availability and technical support, and whether additional services, such as training, POC (proof of concept) and implementation assistance, are offered.
Check for integrations and customization options – Look for an LMS that can integrate with your existing systems, such as your HR software, social media sites, certification platforms, payment providers, reporting software, CRMs, survey software, and web applications.
This will streamline your processes and make it easier to manage your training programs. The level of customization available, such as the interface, branding reports, dashboards and training metrics, should also be considered.
Review company financials – In addition to the LMS, consider key factors such as revenue growth, profitability, and cash flow of the LMS provider to ensure financial stability. Debt levels, customer retention rates, the company’s investment in product development, a diverse customer base, and strong market share will help gauge the provider’s capacity for sustained support and innovation.
What features to look for
With so many LMSs on the market, choosing the right one for your company can be challenging. When selecting an LMS, we recommend focusing on the following key functionalities:
Ease of use – Users must be able to use the interface and navigate the course with minimal effort. Ideally, the chosen LMS should also be mobile-compatible, accommodating busy schedules and allowing new hires to take the training courses wherever they are.
Simple learning content uploading – Uploading content to and downloading content from an LMS should also be easy and hassle-free. Choose an LMS that supports learning content packaged in accordance with interoperable standards such as SCORM and xAPI.
Course management – The LMS must be simple to manage. Instructional designers and trainers should be able to modify and remove content without trouble, quickly navigate the course, filter the content or plans they need, and change advanced settings as necessary—all without taking excessive time.
Simple and configurable training path management – Most learners will require more than one course to gain the skills or knowledge they seek, so your LMS should allow you to combine multiple courses into structured, easy-to-navigate learning paths.
AI – Modern LMS platforms now use AI to personalize learning by adapting content, pacing, and assessments to each learner while recommending courses based on skill gaps and goals. AI also automates administrative tasks, translation, accessibility features, and offers chatbots or virtual tutors for real-time learner support.
Media compatibility – When conducting online training, it is essential to break up long text sections with other media types, such as interactive courses, videos, audio, and images. This ensures that the training doesn’t become a long, tedious reading exercise. When looking for an LMS, you want one that integrates these aspects for a more immersive training experience.
Quizzing and testing – Knowledge checks and quizzes accompanying a training course can help learners retain information and let leaders know how well they grasp the content. An LMS should be able to provide exams and record data on assessment performance.
Reporting and analytics – This capability is often overlooked or treated as an afterthought, but it is an essential aspect of an LMS. Gaining accurate information from your LMS will provide leadership with insight into customer success and engagement, employee skill development, and partner engagement, to name a few.
Reporting capabilities in an LMS can be extremely powerful if they provide the insight needed to measure success. Consider what reporting will be most valuable to your organization and ensure your chosen LMS delivers it.
Gamification capabilities – Online training can easily become repetitive and boring, so gamification is often used to increase trainee engagement. Integrating games, interactive activities, and quizzes into online training makes the overall experience more engaging and encourages learners to take more courses in the future.
Some LMS platforms also extend gamification into structured recognition systems, such as digital badges, certificates, and achievement awards. These elements can reinforce progress, improve engagement, and provide learners with visible milestones as they move through training pathways.
Globalization and localization – If your organization is global, your LMS should be accessible worldwide and able to adapt to localizations in other regions. It should also support multiple languages and allow content access to be managed by region or user group.
Social connection – Learners should be able to interact with instructors via discussion forums, messaging, or live sessions to ask questions or seek clarification on material. Another consideration is the ability to collaborate with other learners, depending on the content and skills being taught.
Mobile learning – An LMS’s benefit is its ability to be used on a mobile device, allowing users to complete training anytime, anywhere.
Automated admin tasks – To ease the workload on instructors or admins, an LMS should automate many simple tasks, like group enrollment/deactivation, sending notifications, and activating recurring course activities.
Platform integrations – An LMS that offers third-party integrations and plugins with other platforms, such as Salesforce CRM, enables it to become part of your organization’s enterprise tech stack. Similarly, WordPress LMS plugins allow organizations to create and run online courses with WordPress.
Security – While many platforms offer strong data privacy features, they often require manual activation, which can lead to configuration gaps and potential system vulnerabilities. Essential security features such as mandatory multi-factor authentication, data encryption, automatic updates, and data-sharing restrictions should be enabled by default.
These built-in protections significantly reduce security risks, as even a single feature such as MFA can reduce the likelihood of a breach by 99%.
LMS training – Look for solutions that offer videos or knowledge articles to get started with the platform and troubleshoot any issues.
LMS pricing models
Pricing models for learning management systems vary significantly depending on the company, number of learners, desired features, and the level of customization, control, and ownership required.
Beyond understanding pricing structures, it’s also important to consider how each model aligns with real-world usage, engagement levels, and long-term scalability needs across different types of organizations.
Below are some of the most widely used pricing structures:
Per-learner, per-month
The per-learner, per-month pricing model is a common approach where the cost is based on the number of learners enrolled in the system during each billing cycle.
Typical elements of this pricing model include:
- Flat rate per learner: A fixed fee is charged for each learner using the LMS within a month.
- Tiered pricing: The cost per learner might decrease as the number of learners increases.
- Usage-based pricing: Some LMS providers charge based on the usage intensity. This can include factors such as the number of courses accessed, the duration of course access, or the content learners consume.
- Volume discounts: Discounts are offered for higher numbers of learners.
- Additional features: Basic plans may cover essential features, while advanced plans with additional functionalities (like enhanced reporting, integrations, or custom branding) might cost more per learner.
- Annual commitment discounts: Some LMS providers offer discounts if an organization commits to a yearly contract instead of a monthly one.
- Setup fees: An initial service fee may exist for creating an account.
Fees are generally $5 or less per learner per month.
This model is often best suited to organizations with stable training populations and predictable usage patterns, such as compliance-heavy industries or structured internal learning programs.
However, it may become less efficient in environments where large numbers of enrolled users are inactive or where external audiences fluctuate frequently.
Per-learner, per-use
The per-learner, per-use pricing structure charges on individual learner interactions with the LMS rather than a flat monthly fee. This model is particularly beneficial for organizations with fluctuating training needs or those that prefer to pay only when the LMS is actively used.
Typical elements of this pricing structure may include:
- Cost per Use: A fee is charged each time a learner accesses or completes a course.
- Activity-based pricing: The cost can vary depending on the type of activity, like viewing a video lesson, downloading course materials, or completing a course.
- Tiered pricing based on usage: Like bulk discounts, higher usage might come with reduced per-use costs.
- Caps and thresholds: Some LMS providers might set a maximum cap on charges per learner to ensure costs don’t exceed a certain limit.
- Bundles: Offering packages with a set number of uses for a discounted rate.
This approach may be less cost-effective in organizations where most users are consistently active, making engagement levels an important factor to assess before choosing this model.
Open-source LMS
An open-source LMS provides access to the platform’s underlying code, typically without upfront licensing costs, allowing organizations to fully customize and extend the system. While this offers significant flexibility, it also shifts responsibility for hosting, maintenance, security, and ongoing development to the organization.
This model is most commonly used by organizations with strong technical teams that require a highly tailored learning environment or need full control over system architecture and functionality.
Unlimited plans
Some LMS providers offer unlimited plans which offer organizations a fixed cost structure. These models can vary based on the organization’s size, the number of users, and the features included.
LMS providers often also provide additional services, such as dedicated support, custom integrations, and enhanced security features, at an additional cost. This model is often used by organizations that prefer predictable budgeting and simplified cost structures, particularly when user numbers or training volume fluctuate over time.
Ultimately, the right pricing model depends on organizational context rather than cost alone.
Examples of learning management systems
If you are looking for an LMS to start using, here is our guide to LMSs that may be worth exploring:
- SkillJar: An LMS often used for external training (e.g. for business partners) that works with various add-ons and other tools.
- TalentLMS: An LMS often used because it is simple to use for both the trainer and the learner and is highly customizable.
- Moodle: A secure, open-source LMS that can be integrated with other external products, like other platforms or additional plugins.
- 360Learning: An LMS that allows for lots of collaboration between trainers and learners that is often used to teach employees additional skills.
- Adobe Captivate Prime (now Adobe Learning Manager): One of the LMSs that is very mobile friendly and is usually used for training both employees and partners.
- Cornerstone Learning: An LMS that takes a personalized learning approach and connects learners to relevant opportunities and content.
- Skillcast: A cloud-based LMS that can be preloaded with course libraries or other eLearning apps and used offline or on mobile devices.
- Docebo: An LMS that can be easily scaled for larger companies to train high volumes of learners.
- Easy LMS: Another simple LMS for training that includes assessments or tests.
- iSpring LMS: An LMS that focuses on a fast launch time for last-minute needs and requires minimal setup to create courses.
- Absorb LMS: A flexible LMS that focuses on course management and can be used for internal and external training.
- Thinkific: An LMS that allows companies to create their own branded site for training while maintaining a quality service.
- SAP Litmos: A versatile LMS with strong system integrations and built-in automations that reduce manual effort across routine processes.
- Rise: Another easy-to-use LMS that takes very little time to learn and contains plenty of prebuilt content, making course creation faster and more efficient.
Remember that many other options are on the market, so don’t limit yourself to an LMS you see here.
Focus on your company’s goals and training objectives, then look for an LMS that meets those needs while delivering the best possible service.
Things to decide on before purchasing
While we are sold on the benefits of an LMS, organizations should do a little planning before they purchase or upgrade their learning management systems.
An LMS helps organizations produce, publish, and deliver courses. However, it will NOT create the learning content for you. Organizations should plan how they will generate their learning content before investing in an LMS.
Things to decide on before purchasing an LMS include:
Mapping out your learning strategy – Who do you want to train? What do you want to teach? What courses do you want to offer (100 percent online or blended learning)?
Mapping out learning paths – Decide the courses and learning content for each learner role, subject, field, or domain for a systematic and progressive learning process.
Assigning responsibility for learning content creation – Decide who will create the content and what resources will be available to them. Remember to find resources for creating images, animations, and videos.
Deciding how courses will be produced – Once you have the content, you can import it into an LMS. Decide who will be responsible for producing the courses, what the style of the courses (flow, branding, etc.) will be, and what the basic framework for each course will be.
Providing learning support – Decide who will be responsible for administering the courses in the LMS and answering any questions from your learners. Failure to do so means that you may be paying for LMS license fees without gaining the benefits of an active training program.
Ensuring accessibility and inclusivity – Evaluate whether the platform supports assistive technologies, multiple content formats, and personalization features that allow learners to adjust interfaces or learning preferences to suit their needs. The LMS should also be complaint with the relevant Web Content Accessibility Guidelines.
Alignment with long-term learning strategy – Ensure the LMS not only meets immediate training needs but can scale with evolving business requirements, different stakeholder groups, and changing learning environments over time.
Efficient content creation for LMS
Our experience has been that people underestimate the time it takes to create course content, which can hinder the success of an LMS-enabled training program.
Many organizations still use a traditional process where learning and development staff interview subject matter experts (SMEs) and translate their knowledge into course content using word processing tools (like Word or PowerPoint). This is a long and manual process that requires time and expertise, usually done before working with an LMS.
To increase the speed and success of course creation, we developed LEAi, our learning content creation tool. This AI-enabled tool allows companies to use the material they already have to create well-structured knowledge-sharing and training programs.
Key benefits of LEAi include its ability to:
- Use content that exists in your organization, such as SOPs, policies, videos, and internal knowledge bases, to automatically generate learning objectives, course content and test questions
- Apply built-in best practices through our LearnAdvisor
- Repurpose content easily for different modules and courses
- Enable one-click microlearning
- Translate content into multiple languages
- Automatically create test questions to assess how well the content was understood
The output from LEAi can be used to produce the content in an LMS. It will significantly reduce the course creation process by as much as 50 percent and help you capture the benefits of a learning management system more quickly.
If you are in the market for an LMS, talk to us before making that commitment. We can help you streamline both LMS selection and content creation, so you see value faster.
