10 Best Moodle Alternatives to Jumpstart Your Courses

Influencers, agencies, online schools, and experts involved in eLearning have probably come across Moodle, a learning management system widely used for distance education, flipped classrooms, and other online learning projects. It allows educators to create customized online courses, upload course materials, add assignments, quizzes, and interactive activities, as well as facilitate discussions and evaluate learners’ progress.

However, focusing solely on Moodle may limit your opportunities and hinder your ability to explore other powerful platforms. In this blog post, we’ll introduce you to the best alternatives to Moodle that might better match your requirements, budget, and other crucial factors.

Moodle features and capabilities

Before we dive into the best alternatives to Moodle, it’s worth examining some of its key features:

• Customizable design and layout. Users can access Moodle themes and easily customize them, including logo and color schemes, based on their needs.
• Secure authentication and mass enrollment. With 50 authentication and enrollment options, experts, online schools, and influencers can add and enroll many learners in their course at once.
• Direct learning paths. The platform allows users to define the type of courses they want to create. They can set them to be self-paced, instructor-led, blended, or fully online.
• Advanced grading. With its help, you can modify the gradebook based on your online course and examination criteria. Also, Moodle allows you to access the “Grader report” with all the grades collated, while “Grade settings” enable you to set up how the gradebook will be displayed to students.
• Integrated badges. This feature enables you to reward learners for their achievements during the learning process and motivate them for further lessons.
• Peer and self-assessment. Students can view, grade, and evaluate course members’ work as a group thanks to built-in activities such as workshops and surveys.
• Group management. Students can collaborate and share courses, comprehend activities, and ensure teamwork.
• Assessment and quizzes. The service provides various assessment options, including quizzes, surveys, and polls. When using Moodle, you can build quizzes with different questions, including multiple-choice, true/false, short answer, and essay questions.

While Moodle offers a bunch of impressive features for building your online course, it’s essential to consider its drawbacks before making a well-informed decision.

Moodle disadvantages

The platform and its reviews are great, but there are still some downsides that are worth paying attention to. We’ve compiled a list of potential drawbacks you can come across when using this service:

• High costs. Although Moodle is considered a free service, it carries expenses related to training, hosting, maintenance, data storage, customization, integrations, support, and plugins. These costs can add up quickly.
• Complicated onboarding. Setting up Moodle can be complicated, especially for those who are not tech-savvy. Users have mentioned difficulties uploading materials to the platform due to many buttons and features. It can force users to hire experts to deploy the advanced features they need.
• Clunky interface. Moodle’s interface is less intuitive than that of other course-building platforms. Several Moodle reviews mention difficulties navigating courses and accessing resources, as it lacks straightforwardness.
• Standardized content. Moodle has all the necessary tools to teach, evaluate, and reward students. However, it lacks features that let you provide materials based on students’ knowledge. It means that both beginners and advanced learners receive the same content and are treated the same way.
• Limited support. Moodle doesn’t provide instant real support when users experience issues with the service. You can only rely on forums or Moodle partners for additional help. Yet, collaborating with the platform’s partners to manage technical problems can be expensive.

In addition to the limited customization options and complicated interface associated with Moodle, some users have mentioned the lack of video conferencing and active chat sections. Others have encountered challenges with customization, namely a limited theme library.

Considering the drawbacks mentioned above, there are enough reasons to start looking for Moodle alternatives that may bring you to your targets faster and easier.

Popular Moodle alternatives

Now that we’ve considered this LMS platform’s key features and potential downsides, we understand what to look for when searching for tools like Moodle. Below, we’ve listed some of the best platforms for building your eLearning environment that cater to different business sizes, interface preferences, and budgets. Let’s check them out.

SendPulse

SendPulse is a free Moodle alternative designed for industry experts, creators, HR managers, online schools, beginning educators, and anyone with valuable knowledge or skills who desires to teach and monetize their professional experience.

The platform has a powerful, intuitive editor, allowing you to build your online course by adding various materials, such as videos, PDFs, documents, images, books, workshops, presentations, and podcasts, and dividing your content into sections and lessons.

Besides a user-friendly course builder, the platform has much more to offer. With its help, you can do the following:

• add up to 10 instructors to your course and assign them custom user roles with unique permissions and restrictions;
• create a personalized link leading learners to your online course;
• add a countdown timer to your course page and provide promo codes, encouraging potential students to buy your course faster;
• add assignments, tests, and quizzes after each lesson, section, or at the end of your course and evaluate the gained knowledge by grading learners;
• issue custom course completion certificates;
• create and send personalized push notifications to students;
• review course edit history;
• collect online payments through PayPal, Stripe, and other popular payment systems;
• set up your course completion time;
• customize your student account appearance;
• reach out to your learners through email campaigns and chatbot messages;
• incorporate the best student reviews on your course landing page;
• collect and store your students’ data in the built-in CRM system.

Pricing. SendPulse lets you create 1 course for up to 200 students with 1 instructor and use its course builder’s basic features for free. For more advanced features, you should consider a paid plan starting from $21/month, billed annually. It covers unlimited courses, 10 instructors, and 1,000 students.

Google Classroom

Google Classroom is a learning management system designed to simplify the process of exchanging educational materials and assignments between teachers and students. By incorporating this Google product, teachers and students can connect, collaborate, and manage assignments remotely without having to attend physical educational institutions.

The platform allows you to compile all types of materials into informative and good-looking online courses. You can attach your Google Drive documents, presentations, images, videos, sheets, and forms. Besides, you can add links to any type of content from other sources or upload materials from your computer to develop visually appealing courses filled with valuable data.

Here’s what you can do using Google Classroom:

• create class invite links and send them to students;
• add teachers by inserting their email addresses or names;
• develop and distribute assignments, quizzes, and questions to assess student’s knowledge and performance;
• utilize a stream page to share announcements or send your students reminders in real-time;
• set up the grading system and choose the overall grade calculation;
• ensure real-time collaboration between students;
• allow learners to work on documents simultaneously and provide peer feedback;
• use seamless integration with Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.

Pricing. Google Classroom is a free Moodle alternative. If you want to scale, this course builder will cost you $3.60 monthly per user, billed annually.

Frappe LMS

Frappe LMS is a comprehensive open-source learning management system designed for a wide range of experts and organizations seeking an easy-to-use tool for creating and distributing educational content, training programs, and online courses.

Its editor lets you easily build multimedia-rich courses easily by adding articles, videos, and quizzes to your lessons.

This Moodle alternative can help you improve both your teaching environment and student experience by letting you do the following:

• assign instructors to handle all issues related to your course;
• add a discussion section to each lesson to ensure seamless communication between instructors and students and answer learners’ questions faster;
• create quizzes to assess how well students comprehend each topic;
• access statistics of published courses, new sign-ups, enrollment count, completed lessons, etc.;
• use the scheduling feature that enables instructors to set training session dates and times;
• ensure that students have unlimited access to materials you upload daily;
• attach links to discussion forums and Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn groups.

Pricing. Frappe LMS offers a free plan that includes all features, unlimited users, and unlimited courses. You can also opt for the platform’s $50 per site monthly plan for additional benefits like a product warranty and managed hosting.

Classlife

Classlife is a Moodle alternative designed for educational institutions and teachers striving to establish academies, share their expertise, and provide training.

The platform’s user-friendly interface lets you easily add sections and lessons with various materials — documents, texts, videos, and images.

Here’s a quick overview of some features Classlife offers:

• a virtual campus, enabling collaboration among students and allowing you to manage submissions and evaluations;
• academic groups by school year, calls, and shifts;
• various training types, including online, blended, and face-to-face;
• note-sharing with students and private comments in their files;
• academic records for each student, covering your institution’s information, grades, and recognitions;
• real-time access for instructors to students’ performance;
• curriculum of learners’ training and their report card;
• online signature, allowing teachers to sign employment contracts within the service;
• online enrollment payment;
• video conferencing through Zoom and Google Meet;
• integration with Zoho CRM, Salesforce, HubSpot, ActiveCampaign, ContaPlus, Business Central, Flywire, Stripe, Redsys, WooCommerce, Magento, Prestashop, and many more.

Pricing. The platform offers pricing plans that range based on your business size and needs. For more details, you should contact customer support.

GoConqr

GoConqr is another LMS created for institutions, learners, educators, and companies eager to share their expertise and get paid for it. It features dedicated GoConqr Study Groups where you can access valuable resources in your field and collaborate on projects with teachers from all over the world. By connecting with like-minded people, you can improve your learning process with the latest teaching methodologies.

With its course builder, you can create dynamic courses by adding images, videos, and other content formats to modules and lessons.

With this learning management system, you can do the following and more:

• create mind maps;
• develop media-rich notes by adding images, videos, links, or other learning materials;
• give students direct access to your course via secure email links;
• build flashcards for revising and recalling students’ knowledge;
• create and use slides for a more engaging and interactive learning experience;
• evaluate students’ knowledge and skills through quizzes, tests, and assignments;
• develop process diagrams and models.

Pricing. This free Moodle alternative lets you create 1 course and store up to 50 MB of media, yet it has ads. Paid pricing plans start at $1.08 monthly, billed annually, for 2 GB of media storage and private resources.

TalentLMS

TalentLMS is a platform designed for businesses looking to build various training programs, including employee, sales, onboarding, compliance, cybersecurity, and more. It equips educators from healthcare, financial, manufacturing, retail, and other industries with the necessary tools to manage courses, collaborate, and learn online.

With its flexible drag-and-drop editor, TalentLMS allows you to add different media files, including videos, presentations, and documents. The platform also lets you upload SCORM, xAPI, and cmi5 files for elevated engagement.

Here’s what you can do with TalentLMS:

• access a library of over 900 unique ready-made courses developed by experts;
• run online or in-person training sessions;
• use interactive features, including gamification, points, levels, rewards, leaderboards, and badges;
• send students messages allowing self-registration;
• set up automated reminders about upcoming courses;
• create and add tests, surveys, quizzes, and assignments to assess student’s knowledge;
• build personalized certificates and send them to students upon course completion;
• use AI assistant to develop courses in no time;
• assign custom roles and permissions to different users;
• host real-time video conferences;
• launch discussions;
• share feedback with students;
• integrate platforms like Salesforce, GoToMeeting, Zoom, Zapier, etc.

Pricing. This Moodle alternative offers a forever-free plan that covers 5 users and 10 courses. To build more courses and have a custom homepage, you should consider a paid plan for $69/month, billed annually.

Odoo

Odoo is one of the best Moodle alternatives because it is easy to use for both educators and students. It allows the former to create comprehensive courses, promote, deliver, and sell them faster, and it helps the latter to effectively gain new knowledge and experience.

Its intuitive editor allows you to develop well-structured courses by adding sections and lessons with any content format — documents, images, articles, PDFs, presentations, infographics, web pages, and videos.

With this alternative to Moodle, you can do the following:

• upload your logo and extract the exact color palette from it, or select one of the pre-built palettes for your course;
• add quizzes, tests, and assignments;
• set the minimum score required to pass the test;
• send completion certificates to learners via email once they complete tests;
• set up a time limit for your quizzes, tests, and assignments;
• limit the number of attempts students can take to pass the test;
• provide learners with badges after they complete quizzes;
• build forums linking to your online course;
• reward your best students by showing their profiles on your homepage;
• gamify your online course by giving karma points to your community.

Pricing. You can use the platform’s LMS for free. However, to access all of Odoo’s apps, you’ll need to pay at least $12.83 per user per month, billed annually.

Canvas LMS

Canvas LMS by Instructure is a learning management system designed to maximize the learning process and enhance students’ knowledge. It has a Canvas mobile app, so you can monitor students’ responses and react to them quickly, see and add announcements, and track learners’ attendance on the go.

Canvas LMS’s key features allow you to:

• add numerous content types, including documents, links, images, videos, audio, presentations, and other educational materials to your course to design comprehensive lessons and modules;
• see how your course looks from students’ perspective;
• communicate with students through messaging, audio notes, video, and more;
• edit a syllabus page, which contains your course description, summary, schedule, etc.;
• create announcements to remind students of urgent tasks, bring learners to numerous resources to support their studies, and demonstrate events of interest;
• build assignments, quizzes, and tests, and determine specific due dates for certain sections or students;
• allow peer reviews so that learners can evaluate each other’s work;
• assign marks to students — points, percentages, complete/incomplete, etc.;
• integrate with 3Play Media, Google Assignments, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Education, ActiveClass, and more.

Pricing. Canvas LMS is a free Moodle alternative. However, if you need advanced features, you should pay for them. For more information on the paid plan pricing, you should contact the platform’s customer support.

EdApp

EdApp is a platform that can help you enhance corporate and professional training by delivering knowledge in a clear and concise form, offering engaging classes and gamified tasks.

The platform provides a robust library featuring over 1,000 ready-made courses that can be quickly customized to suit your brand’s visual identity. Moreover, it lets you use an AI assistant to generate course ideas or create content for your lesson.

With EdApp, you can do the following:

• convert your PowerPoint presentations into engaging courses;
• create gamified bite-sized courses by adding native phone elements like swipes, drag-and-drop, and match;
• access a library of gamification templates, including image-word match, true or false, tile matching, etc.;
• use customizable banners and badges to congratulate students on their achievements;
• add leaderboards to motivate learners and establish competition;
• develop custom certificates of completion and allow students to download them;
• enable social and peer learning;
• create assignments;
• facilitate open discussions and establish communities.

Pricing. The platform offers a free plan with unlimited courses and users. However, if you need advanced features like API integration, AI translation, group-based enrollment, custom certificates, and detailed analytics, you’ll need to pay $2.95 per user monthly.

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is another Moodle alternative that can help you develop and promote courses and monetize your experience, skills, and knowledge. With the platform’s AI technology, you can develop your course outline, create interactive activities, add well-structured sections, and improve existing content. There is also a course planner that lets you generate a course outline by simply providing a topic, learning model, and activities.

With its block builder, you can add videos, eBooks, PDFs, and audio to your course to make it more interactive and engaging.

LearnWorlds is a strong Moodle alternative that allows you to do the following:

• assess students’ knowledge and skills using exams, forms, and self-assessments;
• conduct live sessions, including webinars, 1:1, and group;
• create free, paid, private, drip-fed, or curated course pathways;
• automatically extract transcripts, quizzes, and tables of contents for a more interactive video experience;
• enable students to share their insights and learning journey with the course community;
• create text, file, video, or audio assignments;
• create custom course completion certificates;
• embed Slideshare presentations and external links;
• communicate with learners in real-time through Zoom and Webex;
• integrate with Google Analytics, Zendesk, Freshchat, Zoom, Vimeo, etc.

Pricing. The platform offers a 30-day free trial to test its features. If it suits your purpose, you can purchase a paid plan starting at $24/month + $5 per course transaction. Billed yearly, this plan includes unlimited courses, an eBook page builder, exams, quizzes, 1:1 and group sessions, and drip-feed courses.

Wrapping up

In this post, we’ve provided you with some Moodle alternatives worth considering because of their useful features for course building. Here’s a quick overview of each platform’s pricing options and best features.

If you’re looking for an affordable course-building solution, SendPulse may be your best bet for a number of reasons.

This platform offers a blend of multiple communication channels to help you promote and sell your courses, including chatbots, emails, and SMS campaigns. It also allows you to collect and store information about your learners in the built-in CRM system and set up automated workflows using its automation solution. These tools will help you not only create your educational product but also improve its visibility to your target audience. Plus, you’ll get round-the-clock support, onboarding tips, and a comprehensive help center for you to succeed and grow your eLearning business.

Sign up for a free account now and see for yourself!