A staggering 90% of organisations are worried about dwindling employee retention rates, according to recent LinkedIn research. To mitigate this issue, these companies are scaling up their learning and development opportunities.
When you dig into the data, it’s easy to see why.
80% of employees that receive compelling training opportunities are more likely to feel a greater sense of purpose in their work. They’re also more likely to feel connected to their business and their role within it. All of this to say, employee training can have a significant positive impact on your people and your business.
But in order to provide this level of training, you’ll first need to find the right learning management system (LMS). And that’s precisely what we plan on helping you with today.
11 features of the top LMS platforms
Learning management systems allow businesses to build, manage and track personalised training programs for their employees, stakeholders, customers, contractors and more.
Typically, corporate LMS platforms will provide the following features:
- Course and module building
- Multimedia content integration
- Learning pathways
- Tutor assignment
- Training events
- Gamification and quiz features
- Certifications
- Discussion threads and FAQs
- Reporting and analytics
- User permissions
- Automated features, such as data access triggers
The use cases for LMS platforms will naturally vary, but many organisations harness them for mandatory training, such as HR and IT security courses, as well as personalised employee development pathways.
The 13 best learning management systems in 2025
Now comes the all important question: which LMS platform should your organisation pick?
To help you narrow down your options, we’ll spend the rest of this article comparing 13 of the top LMS platforms on the market today. To avoid bias wherever possible, we’ve sourced advantages and disadvantages from real user reviews on the trusted software comparison website G2.
1. Claromentis
Overview:
The Claromentis learning management system is a secure, SCORM-compliant platform that empowers you to build e-learning content for any audience and use case at scale. With granular reporting, advanced customisations, and action-based triggers, Claromentis ensures your learning experiences are effective as well as engaging.
It’s worth noting that the LMS is one of four platforms within the full Claromentis digital workplace solution. When purchasing the LMS, your business will also benefit from two out of three of the remaining platforms: an intranet platform and a project management tool.
This allows you to augment your e-learning experiences with additional features, including (but not limited to):
- Design panel. Craft an e-learning portal that aligns with your unique branding, messaging, and colour scheme. You can also create distinct themes for specific courses, onboarding experiences and external audiences.
- Content management. Take advantage of our drag-and-drop content management features (including themes, pages, and a menu builder) to create easily navigable course catalogues and e-learning homepages.
- Buttons. Give your users fast access to relevant courses, pathways, resources and training progress pages.
- Knowledge base. Provide your learners with a repository of step-by-step articles and FAQs to support their learning journey.
- Document management. Create, upload and edit version controlled e-learning materials in one centralised location.
- News and announcements. Communicate new or updated courses, celebrate training achievements, and inform employees of upcoming mandatory training.
- Badges. Reward training completions, high performance, and learning milestones with badges that can be displayed on your users' profiles.
- Discussion rooms. Give users a dedicated space to ask questions, seek subject matter expert support, and share insights with their fellow learners.
- Single sign on (SSO) and granular permissions. Provide seamless access to training content via SSO, and ensure users can only interact with the right materials for their role with configurable user permissions.
- AI-powered policy manager. Upload your business’s policies onto the Claromentis platform and add them as training modules within your courses, if needed. The built-in AI policy chatbot can help users to digest the information and improve their understanding.
- LMS triggers. Set automated rules and actions for when a user completes a training course, such as changing their permissions settings or assigning them a badge. You can also use these triggers to reveal hidden content on your e-learning portal or display a new theme. This is particularly useful for onboarding and progressing new hires.
You also have the option to add on a comprehensive business process automation software, too. This can be used in conjunction with the e-learning portal, separately for other business functions, or a mixture of both.
Advantages: Customers enjoy the diverse, integrated capabilities of the LMS and digital workplace. Users also appreciate Claromentis’s helpful customer support services and team.
Disadvantages: Some users are awaiting additional integrations with third-party platforms, such as Zapier.
2. Absorb LMS
Overview: Absorb LMS is a cloud-based learning management system with gamification, social learning, and learner engagement features.
Advantages: The platform centralises all learning materials and is easy to customise.
Disadvantages: The backend of the platform is manual and complex, with certain features taking a while to get to grips with. Some users say the reporting features are underdeveloped.
3. Canvas LMS
Overview: Built by Infrastructure, Canvas LMS is a platform specifically designed for higher education institutions, featuring teacher-to-student messaging and annotation functionalities.
Advantages: The platform is intuitive and it’s easy to track student assignments.
Disadvantages: Some users report problems with software crashes, performance issues, and difficulties with assigning courses to students.
4. Docebo
Overview: Docebo is a learning management platform for businesses that provides headless, gamified and immersive learning experiences.
Advantages: The platform feels very modern and there are plenty of resources to get users started.
Disadvantages: Some modules are underdeveloped or don’t interact well with the platform’s other modules. What’s more, permissions can be tricky to set up.
5. Blackboard
Overview: Designed by educators, Blackboard by Anthology is an LMS for education institutions, businesses, and government bodies.
Advantages: The interface is very intuitive and users find the use cases very versatile.
Disadvantages: Users cannot make announcements to specific groups and some students find it difficult to view tutor-provided feedback.
6. D2L Brightspace
Overview: D2L Brightspace offers LMS platforms for various use cases, including higher education, corporate training, and professional development.
Advantages: Users like how customisable and decluttered the interface is.
Disadvantages: Admin and platform knowledge base documents can be difficult to find. Unlike many other LMS platforms, D2L Brightspace has limited analytics and reporting features.
7. 360Learning
Overview: The 360Learning platform offers automated user management, course building, and multilingual learning capabilities.
Advantages: The platform is easy to adopt and is very engaging for end-users.
Disadvantages: The built-in authoring tool has limitations and some users cite difficulties with inserting content and quizzes into courses.
8. CYPHER Learning
Overview: CYPHER Learning is an LMS, LXP (learning experience platform) and course management software containing some AI functionality.
Advantages: It’s easy for new users to navigate the platform and personalise their learning experiences.
Disadvantages: The platform lacks some advanced customisation capabilities and may be costly for smaller organisations.
9. LearnUpon LMS
Overview: Like many of the LMS platforms in this list, LearnUpon allows businesses to build courses, deliver training, and manage user engagement.
Advantages: Users enjoy the platform’s design and the frequent software updates.
Disadvantages: The UX isn’t very intuitive and course navigation can be difficult for some users.
10. eduMe
Overview: eduMe is a training platform, specifically built for training frontline employees across the hospitality, retail, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics industries.
Advantages: Users like the ability to break down information into bitesize courses. Employees find the platform very easy and convenient to use.
Disadvantages: There’s a lack of course customisation, which makes creating employee learning pathways difficult.
11. TalentLMS
Overview: TalentLMS is an AI-powered learning management system that streamlines course generation and distribution.
Advantages: Users appreciate the range of features on offer, particularly for the low pricing point.
Disadvantages: The basic course builder is quite limited, reporting is inaccessible, and there are some performance and UX issues with certain features.
12. Litmos
Overview: Litmos is an LMS platform with in-platform content authoring and some AI functionality.
Advantages: The content authoring tool and built-in templates make course generation easy.
Disadvantages: The platform can be difficult to get to grips with and there are certain features that are underdeveloped, such as reporting and user permissions.
13. Seismic Learning
Overview: Seismic Learning, formerly known as Lessonly, is a training, coaching and skills development platform, specifically designed for upskilling sales representatives.
Advantages: It’s easy to use and is particularly useful for product training and onboarding.
Disadvantages: The platform suffers from some glitches and UI problems and lacks typical LMS features, such as quizzes.
Finding the best learning management system
If you’re one of the many organisations striving to improve employee engagement and retention, investing in an LMS is a brilliant next step. With the right platform, you can deliver compelling e-learning experiences that’ll benefit your employees and boost your bottom line.
Of course, the key word here is ‘right’.
No two learning management system vendors are the same. What works for one business may not work for yours. Therefore, it’s essential you conduct some further independent research to find the perfect fit for you.
This means looking beyond platform features and technicalities and assessing:
- Platform pricing
- Customer support packages, as well as platform training and onboarding support
- Cloud and on-premise deployment options
- Additional platform services, such as custom development work
- Third-party integrations
- Security and permissions controls
- Vendor security certificates and compliance standards
- Customer case studies
- Learning management system reviews and ratings on sites such as G2
We would also recommend requesting a personalised demo of your shortlisted learning management systems. In these demos, you can gain a better understanding of the look and feel of the software. You also have the invaluable opportunity to ask questions and ensure your vendor of choice ticks all the right boxes.
Achieve more with the Claromentis LMS
To get the most ROI out of your software investment, you might want to consider a platform that provides additional digital workplace functionality.
This is where Claromentis outperforms every other learning management system on the market.
That’s because our solution comes ready-made with powerful intranet and project management capabilities on top of our learning management system. You’re free to use these platforms however you like, whether it’s to support your e-learning portal or your other business initiatives.
What’s more, you also have the option to add on our business process automation platform, InfoCapture, to enhance your investment even further. With the ability to automate any complex process, you can make additional improvements to engagement, compliance and productivity across your business.
Ready to learn more? If you’d like to see Claromentis in action, schedule a demo with one of our digital workplace experts today. We’ll give you a branded, personalised tour of the learning management system and any other platform you’re eager to explore.
