A Learning Management System (LMS) is a software application that is created, distributed, and efficiently managed to deliver educational content.
An LMS improves the learning process by making it productive, cheaper, faster, and trackable.
LMS is helpful for educational institutions and businesses where they need to monitor registration and training.
The budget for a learning management system often includes costs such as licenses, installation, maintenance, and fees per user.
Training costs can be expensive, which is why it is valuable to source a free LMS.
Here are twelve free LMS platforms that you can explore. You can use these websites to offer courses or to learn from course providers.
Enhance your income by offering courses on these platforms or use these websites to improve your knowledge.
These twelve highly rated free LMS contain open-source tools that can benefit you.
1. Thinkific
The best free LMS websites also include Thinkific.
You can build any courses that you are proficient in and offer these on your site.
On the free Thinkific LMS plan, you can track or survey student details, import existing courses, and host discussions for up to one hundred students.
The Thinkific free LMS also accommodates small to medium-sized businesses.
You can hold meetings and share ideas for development through surveys, videos, and discussion boards.
Thinkific has proven simple to use since you drag your content to organize it in a design that you like.
Thinkific has made learning more engaging through increased student engagement via video and message hosting, which is convenient to include in courses.
Thinkific (see also ‘What Is Thinkific? Overview, Features‘) has a templated library that comes with usage instructions. These instructions outline how to use the library effectively and provide users with the best e-learning practices.
These templates are also a library with options for webinars, mini-course creation, and various valuable resources.
If you want to consider upgrading to a paid version on Thinkific, the choice should be easy.
Thinkific LMS offers the cheapest paid membership is under $55 monthly. Until then, you can enjoy the free Thinkific LMS plan, as it includes the option to register up to 100 students.
You only need to pay approximately $0.10 for each extra user.
The Thinkific basic plan provides you with access to an unlimited number of courses, making this one of the best free LMS websites.
Further reading: check out the full Thinkific review here.
2. GoSkills
GoSkills is among the list of highly-rated free LMS services.
You can use the GoSkills website to create your own courses and brand these under your name. You can also track learner progress on this platform.
You can get several free features on GoSkills. These free features include managing the course and catalog, course authorization, and access to analytics and reports.
Analytics and reports from tools are crucial since they measure the effectiveness of a course, registrations, and other metrics.
GoSkills is cloud-based, which means that it can support teams of any size.
This element is vital since users have total access to all enterprise-level features no matter their size. GoSkills also has a gamification feature.
This feature provides a forum for interaction and better engagement between the teacher and student through games and conversations.
If you want to upgrade your GoSkills membership, you will have to pay around $29 for each user per month.
Upgrading comes with the benefit of users accessing GoSkills` corporate course library, which contains no less than 50 corporate learning courses that are ready-made.
3. Moodle
Moodle is another one of the best free LMS available.
This platform provides users with standard features, including custom certifications, course authorization, and learning analytics.
Moodle supports lecturers, students, and businesses who can use the platform at no cost on a plan for up to fifty users or learners.
Moodle is a social learning-enabled website that allows tutors and users to send messages directly on course forums.
Moodle also contains themes that are mobile-friendly and support third-party plugins such as Office 365.
The free Moodle LMS is customizable so that you can sell your courses to the user through PayPal.
Because Moodle is customizable enough to link with various payment methods, it makes the selling of courses more transparent and legitimate.
If you want to upgrade your Moodle free plan, you can pay a fee of approximately $120 annually.
This upgraded plan gives you access to a maximum of fifty users, which is far better than the free version.
This improvement includes a personalized learning platform, custom certificates, unlimited courses, and web conferencing, enabling better interactions.
4. TalentLMS
TalentLMS is included in this list of the best free LMS because it gives you unlimited access to several features and functions.
Users receive email support, admission for five users, and delivers up to 10 courses on their websites.
The best part is that TalentLMS also allows you to use the free version for an unlimited amount of time.
TalentLMS is also a cloud-based free Learning Management System.
It helps small, and big businesses grow their brands, create courses and host live sessions for better interactions.
Overall, this LMS platform supports new business growth and promotes individual knowledge acquisition.
TalentLMS also allows you to download custom reports, which enhances the tracking of learners’ progress.
TalentLMS also gives users the appropriate customized tools to generate reports at the end of the day, simplifying the monitoring of many variables.
TalentLMS is unique because it has different versions of software tools that suit specific industry users. These tools are suitable in general but also for the automation and technology fields.
TalentLMS contains a library feature known as the Talent Library.
This virtual library includes a collection of up to 50 courses covering marketing, HR, customer service, and project management.
For you to upgrade from the free TalentLMS, you will need to pay around $60 monthly.
This upgrade accommodates up to forty users with unlimited email support and courses.
5. EdApp
EdApp has proven to be among the best free LMS websites.
It contains open-source tools for your online courses. EdApp is also used by leading organizations including Shell, Marley Spoon, and the United Nations to train global teams.
The free LMS courses allow for use by an unlimited number of users. You can also customize your courses to satisfy your customer’s learning needs.
The free EdApp LMS uses a template for creating lessons and offering these to other users.
EdApp contains four main elements in its Editable Course Library, which manages more than one hundred courses.
One of these elements is that its courses are designed by leading experts in the industry, which are editable to suit individual learning needs.
Another element is the Free LMS Canva Integration that translates your courses to any language.
The third element is the free LMS Administration, which contains reports and analytics for monitoring progress and branding.
Lastly, the free LMS Authoring tool enables you to design your course page without any coding.
EdApp enables the training of large teams through the help of Gamechanger, which allows for platform customization to reach many people simultaneously.
EdApp also has a Learner App that has inbuilt features. These features help in the maximization of the learning process, which contributes to better outcomes.
The Learner App in the free LMS also contains a gamification feature.
Gamification allows you to interact with your students through exciting games. It also has a leader board to reward student performance.
Effectively, the free EdApp LMS is your all-in-one training solution.
6. ATutor
ATutor is a highly ranked free LMS with open source that is widely used for educational purposes.
You can create, develop, and distribute online courses under your business brand.
The free ATutor learning management system provides tools for learners, administrators, and instructors to use as they need.
These tools are geared towards designing content and making it suitable for customers.
As an open-source LMS platform, ATutor is known as an inclusive platform. It facilitates the use of messaging, file storage, and tracking progress.
Lastly, this technology is appropriate for use by differently-abled people, making this free LMS a go-to solution for multiple customers.
7. Chamilo
Chamilo is another premium open-source, free LMS, which attracts a large target market.
Here you will discover a range of basic features that make this platform ideal for rapidly creating courses and providing a virtual training campus.
Chamilo also contains a course catalog that enables you to record your students and skills management.
The open-source tools in this free LMS equip learners with essential managerial skills. One of the appealing aspects of this free LMS is that it also generates certificates after course completion.
Chamilo has cloud compatibility to accommodate more than three thousand users simultaneously, without any traffic congestion.
This level of functionality delivers an ideal training solution for multiple global companies.
The free Chamilo LMS eases the creation of training content and guarantees results.
One drawback of this free LMS is that there is a limitation on some template integration.
8. Sakai
Sakai is a free LMS that came about from a joint corporation of resources from universities, colleges, and some commercial firms.
These commercial firms help design, build, test and make sure the platform is suitable for free use.
Customers will find that this free LMS elevates its level of user-friendliness, making it a reliable destination for community use.
The Sakai free LMS constantly upgrades to meet the needs of its growing community.
Users will appreciate how Sakai regularly works on delivering modern learning, training, research, and general knowledge sharing.
9. CourseSites
CourseSites open-source, free LMS is ideal for teachers who are looking for new outlets for their courses.
This platform ensures that instructors can readily engage with their students at any time and anywhere through its interactive e-learning functionality.
CourseSites uses a unique feature called Blackboard Learn.
You can customize this platform for your students in multiple ways.
You can upload content, update it, promote your products, increase collaboration, interact with your students, and assess their performance whenever necessary.
This free LMS is a shared digital learning environment that allows instructors from all study levels to add content relative to their curriculums.
With URL customization potential, it is easier for students to find your online classes and build your brand.
You also get to manage your classes actively and engage with students to deliver a quality learning experience.
10. NextThought
NextThought is an open-sourced learning management system dedicated to making sure students and organizations attain next-generation learning.
This free LMS is thriving because it incorporates many digital aspects to support a unique online learning experience.
NextThought free LMS contains online communities, gamification, and collaborative features such as contextual conversations.
You can use the free 14-day trial period on NextThought while accessing all its valuable tools.
If you want to continue using this LMS platform, you will need to upgrade to a paid plan after your free trial.
Unfortunately, the cheapest monthly plan is about $100, making it quite expensive for small-scale users.
11. Knowmax
Knowmax does more than deliver an eLearning LMS.
It offers a customer experience that is worthwhile due to the consistent creation and distribution of knowledge.
This knowledge appeals directly to the customer touchpoints, which Knowmax identifies and leverages to its advantage.
This free LMS boasts a significant catalog of employee contacts across contact centers.
It can also be proud of its range of digital channels, including websites, chatbots, and multiple fields. Knowmax offers free trial plans to users together with paid monthly and annual plans.
The 14-day free trial consists of a limited number of features, and users will have to choose a paid plan to access all the platform’s features.
Notably, this LMS is customizable and can flexibly integrate with third-party platforms such as Zendesk and many others.
12. Employment Hero
Employment Hero is among the best free learning management systems (LMS sites) on the internet.
The site delivers a convenient eLearning experience that supports the management of your payroll.
It also helps support performance management, HR, recognition, and employee benefits–all in a single cohesive platform.
This free LMS is self-serving in that you can easily manipulate its tools to achieve desirable results without any technical help.
You can use the platform to perform transactional tasks such as submitting requests for assistance, submitting work, and viewing payslips.
Employment Hero is not entirely free since it gives users a 14-day free trial.
Customers can use this period to familiarize themselves with features like paperless onboarding, applicant tracking, accelerated collaboration, and electronic Visa checks.
Conclusion
With the constant demands for online learning, the use of learning management systems continues to grow.
Understand what you want from a learning platform and then identify which one will accommodate your needs.
The best free LMS website should offer quality, reliability, and usability to help you integrate your coursework and training sessions.
You should also explore those LMS sites that deliver sufficient space to organize and store learning materials. Also, consider your options regarding the range of courses that you can provide, together with course customization potential.
Over time, these free LMS platforms adapt to the user and understand their learning process, making learning more enjoyable.
Select a free LMS that also includes this type of functionality to help grow your online business.
Resources:
