What are Totara Learn users saying about the software?
Read what people like you have said about using Totara Learn software through verified user reviews
User Review Highlights
4.41
51 Reviews
Ease-of-use
out of 5Customer Support
out of 5Value for money
out of 5Functionality
out of 5"Freedom to learn - still open source and it can grow with company needs. Support for blended learning and the possibility to create courses directly in LMS."
"Audience management for adaptive learning: programs & certifications, activity/course completion tracking. Design and navigation: responsive themes, dashboards, ... (branding)."
"The product is easy to implement - it is fairly intuitive for the learner and easy to brand and upkeep as an administrator."
"Configuration of the features, unstable roadmap and release of new versions / features is taking a long tome."
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Showing 1 - 25 of 51 reviews

Josefina
Verified reviewer
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
April 2018
Excellent tool for education and online training
Pros
I have tried this platform and I think it is very complete, since it allows you to educate other people individually and train both employees and clients, very good
Cons
Despite being very good, its interface is not competitive with other platforms, they have to develop a better interface because this platform has potential
Steve
Company size: 501-1,000 employees
Industry: Civic & Social Organization
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
Totara works for us
Really happy with the supplier support and the way the software keeps evolving
Pros
The product is easy to implement - it is fairly intuitive for the learner and easy to brand and upkeep as an administrator.
Cons
The moodle base means you have to be careful about retakes - it only records the first one - so if you need certifications updating then plan ahead
Reasons for choosing Totara Learn
Cost was a factor - cheaper - plus a organisation wish to go moodle based.
Reasons for switching to Totara Learn
Useability and uptake

Response from Totara
Hi Steve, thank you for the amazing review! Glad to hear that it was easy to implement and that you're happy with the support from your Totara Partner. We have lots of stuff coming up on our roadmap so stay tuned :)
Replied April 2021
Anonymous
Company size: 51-200 employees
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
July 2018
Our company implemented Totara through a third party reseller. We migrated from Moodle.
Pros
It is hosted off-site so we don't need to rely on our small Systems team. This is really the true value to me as an LMS administrator as previously it was impossible to upgrade our Moodle versions. Navigating to the courses is very simple. The look and feel is decent. So far it's been pretty stable.
Cons
I would like to see more features that are not already available in the free Moodle LMS system. I would like to see the Reporting features better implemented. I would also like to see support for plug-ins that are currently supported in free Moodle, particularly H5P.
Sahar
Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees
Industry: Non-Profit Organization Management
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
From Learnforce to Totara and beyond
We have been using Totara Learn for past 2 years (almost). We love it even more because of the exceptional customer support by our vendor Kineo. Since we moved from Learnforce LMS, which had a completely different interface, some ulearners find it difficult but LMS admins love the flexibility now they have to configure even things like custom fields etc.
Pros
The flexibility that an admin has in configuring this software.
Cons
Inconsistency in different reports. e.g. SCORM reports are filtered differently where as other USer reports are filtered differently.
Reasons for choosing Totara Learn
We chose totara by going through an extensive Tender process. Totara Learn fulfilled most of our functional/non-functional requirements.
Reasons for switching to Totara Learn
- Lack of configurability for Admins in Learnforce - Needed one platform for Face to face and eLearning courses, which learnforce didn't have. - Lack of accessibility for user reports

Response from Totara
Hi Sahar, thanks for the lovely review! Our partner Kineo will be delighted to hear that. I'll pass on your feedback about the user reports. Glad to hear your LMS admins enjoy the flexibility of the platform.
Replied May 2021
Rob
Company size: 2-10 employees
Industry: Human Resources
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
Great but lacking some aspects.
We love it. Our clients hate it. They find it difficult to navigate and over complex.
Pros
Payment gateway for access to courses is a major challenge. The use of HR import and a Wordpress shop make for a clumsy integration.
Cons
Better certificate issue and management for different instructor groups
Reasons for switching to Totara Learn
Needed a [professionally managed and stable environment. Moodle partner hopeless.

Response from Totara
Rob, thank you for your review of Totara Learn. We're happy to hear that you're enjoying the many adaptable features, functionality and value for money. We're always actively working on improving Totara Learn with every release (and gathering the required research and customer feedback in order to do so), so we really do appreciate your feedback. Speaking of which, we'd kindly suggest ensuring that you're using the latest version of Totara Learn, Totara Learn 13. It features multiple improvements to user experience for your learners and admins. This includes improvements to site accessibility, more streamlined navigation (particularly when viewing learning plans or creating user accounts) and much more.
Replied April 2021
Anonymous
Company size: 11-50 employees
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
Ideal für den Unternehmenseinsatz
Pros
Ideal ist der auf Unternehmensbedürfnisse ausgerichtete Funktionsumfang bis hin zum Reporting. Dazu kommt, dass Totara als Open Source Software fast beliebig anpassbar ist.
Cons
Totara benötigt am Anfang auf jeden Fall eine durchdachte Konzeption.
Reasons for choosing Totara Learn
Aufgrund der Flexibilität dank Open Source kombiniert mit den Unternehmensfunktionen.

Response from Totara
Thanks for the brilliant review! We're so happy you're loving the platform and the adaptability is something we're really proud of. Thank you!
Replied April 2021

Enrrique
Verified reviewer
Industry: Telecommunications
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
April 2018
Perfect application for corporate training and learning.
Have an application focused on business learning, with tools focused on the corporate area to prepare quality professionals who know the business and its function in the company is optimal.
Pros
Totara is one of the most complete learning applications for the business world, noting the great detail that it is free, extremely complete where you can manage face-to-face and non-face-to-face training, evaluate the performance of workers, create reports on the progress of each employee to evaluate their evolution, strengths and devilities and all with a very comfortable interface and all this for a fraction of the cost of a private application, as it is focused on the corporate area its functionalities are focused on the development of complete professionals, to teach them the rules of business and strengthen your company, use it!!!!
Cons
Being free may not have the service and attention problems of a proprietary software, this is why you need the support of software specialists for problems that may arise, or solve any inconvenience of the stability of the program.
Stephen
Company size: 51-200 employees
Industry: Medical Practice
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
February 2022
Totara Learn
Pros
We find Totara Learn to be incredibly versatile and we're always finding new ways to use its features.
Cons
You can configure just about everything in Totara, which we found a little overwhelming at first. But once you've set things up and gained a bit of experience, it's fairly straightforward to use.
Rebecca
Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees
Industry: Machinery
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
January 2022
Custom Tailored User Experience
Totara allows for custom tailored experiences for employees / extended enterprise. The system is highly configurable, and working with a Totara partner opened the door to creating a multi-layer learning ecosystem.
Pros
The software is highly configurable and allowed us to turn a Learning Mangement System into a Learning Experience Platform.
Cons
Advanced reporting / analytics would be desirable.
Reasons for choosing Totara Learn
Configuration and customization options, previous experience with the platform
Reasons for switching to Totara Learn
Outdated platform with extremely limited functionality.

Daniel
Verified reviewer
Company size: 11-50 employees
Time used: Less than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
June 2018
The open LMS with better support
For large companies I have recommended it since they allow to create individual development plans, so each person in charge of the team will be able to see the progress of their employees in charge and adjust the learning objectives needed within the platform.
Pros
This LMS has all the characteristics of the well-known moodle plus a set of extra functions for business training, among them the personalization of reports and the planning of individual and group objectives.
Cons
What did you like least about the software? Some plans can be expensive, but it depends on the provider. By having a subscription you can be calm before the failures or errors that arise, because the support team of the company will help you at any time to solve it.

Response from Totara
Thank you for your kind words Daniel. We really appreciate it!
Replied June 2018
Christian
Company size: 51-200 employees
Industry: E-Learning
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
November 2016
Feature rich and open source vs Complex handling
As a consultant for Totara LMS I would totally recommend Totara to other customers. In short... The Downside: - Very complex to learn for people who do not have any technical understanding - Usability very low because of too complex site-structure and permission management - Design very simple and overloaded with blocks, nobody knows what they are for in the first place - Documentation partially very poor, especially when it comes down to programming and adding advanced features - Many useful features are still lacking some important settings for establishing real logical learning workflows The Upside: + Very rich of standard features that make it easy to establish simple learning workflows + Open Source let the system be flexible by adding your own plugins and adjusting the system core to your needs + Great support in fixing bugs and advancing the system with new features (Evergreen) + Continuous Development All in all I would say it still needs some improvement, although I know that some requests are not as easy to programm as it might seem in the beginning. It is still a great tool, that can though still be adjusted to whatever someone likes it to be. If you have on the one side people who see the potential of TotaraLMS and have a great idea of how it can be used and on the other side people who can develop within that system, you can accomplish great things and have tremendous success by offering that tool to customers.
Pros
Open Source Great standard features Many possibilities of how it can be used
Cons
Poor Documenation (on the technical side) Missing important settings in detail (advanced use of features) Design not very user friendly (blocks overload)
Pablo
Company size: 51-200 employees
Industry: E-Learning
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
November 2016
Aura Gold Partner
Through the last 5 years, Totara leads us won opportunities that we might lost in case of not having an enterprise LMS like Totara. It has helped us as companie to incorporate our full e-learning solutions (consulting, content authoring tool and LMS) at important companies. It represents between the 5 or 10% of our incomes and it gives also to Totara trough the last 4 years more than $40,000 USD anual revenues. Eventhough we feel the growing of the tool (Totara) or their features expansion has been limited during the last 4 years. Example: It doesn't integrate x.Api compliance (with a LRS Module), and we do not see intelligence guideness trhough the training experiencie taked from the training sessions of the user. We do not have so much reference about how to explote gamification through it (and what kind of tools are they innovating related with this model) Why do not integrate an authoring tool with the LMS like Shift, so you just not focus on the user that take courses, and let the creators, build content. Doesn't offer options for the smaller companies because the ntermediate price between 500K and 3K has a huge difference, that always is letting us a big issue on how to deal wiht those price diffeerences.
Pros
Incorportate Coporative elements
Cons
The improvements or features grow slowly.
Patrick
Company size: 51-200 employees
Industry: Oil & Energy
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
November 2016
Totara Review
I mostly work with the Totara LMS from a server admin and web developer point of view and so far my experience has been ok. Not the easiest / most simple system I work with or have worked with, but manageable. I'm not sure if it's a good thing or a bad thing, but I find the support material and documentation from Totara to be pretty lackluster for server admins. If I find answers to my questions, 99% of the time I find it on Moodle documentation or forums. Bad thing because for the price of Totara I would expect much better, good thing that I am able to utilize a very large community. I do spend quite a bit of time developing themes and plugins for Totara for our clients, and I do have to say that I like and support your decision use the native Bootstrap class names as well as using Grunt as the task runner since use Bootstrap and Grunt quite often with other projects. I look forward to migrating to Totara 9 towards the end of this year / beginning of next year.
Pros
Fairly simple server setup
Cons
Almost never does what our clients' needs 100% out of the box. Every implementation we do for a client requires custom made plugins to fill the gaps
Anonymous
Company size: 201-500 employees
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
June 2020
Good LMS choice for heavily customized use cases
We are using it as a custom learning platform for our digital leadership development content. We have enjoyed using it to address the various business requirements of our end users and departments. We will continue to use it to address the evolving needs of the organization, because it is such a flexible system.
Pros
Totara is open source, so it is highly customizable based on your organization's use case. We are using it for leadership development content, and we have been able to implement custom themes to make the platform our own, and even co-brand content for our clients.
Cons
Its complexity and extensive functionality available can be a bit overwhelming, causing our users to mistakenly use a particular feature because it is very similar to one we built for custom use cases. It has required a ton of development to implement our processes.

Response from Totara
Thank you! We are happy to hear that Totara Learn is proving to be a versatile and adaptable platform that meets your complex needs.
Replied April 2021
Larry
Company size: 201-500 employees
Industry: Computer Software
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
January 2019
Totara LMS was used at a government agency I contracted for.
This is a very cost effective solution to organizations' Learning Management needs.
Pros
Totara is very flexible and easy to use. It provides many features that other LMSs don't have. The report building feature is top notch. You don' t have to be a database expert to create reports. It also allows you to brand the LMS easily. Learning Plans are built into the LMS, so creating things like Individual Development Plans were a breeze.
Cons
Some of the administrative features could use some work. Sometimes when you perform a search (within an administrative task), a list is provided that you have to scroll through. If you have thousands of courses, for example, it makes finding the right course cumbersome. Having search boxes for all administrative tasks would be very helpful.
Amir
Industry: E-Learning
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
November 2016
Powerful and Flexible Enterprise Open Source LMS
I have been using Totara since it started more than 6 years ago. It has developed tremendously and has truly become a modern, powerful, flexible and reliable learning and performance system. The Totara team are very responsive and keen to make the product move forward and the way they listen to and take to hear the needs of the user community is a great demonstration of the symbiosis of users, customers, developers and service providers. Looking forward for fast future developments of the platform.
Pros
Lots of learning tools and options to cater for all kinds of learning approaches, blends and strategies Flexible product with many options for configurating things via settings Responsive support and development team
Cons
Some of the older features and architecture are based on Moodle which is less geared for enterprise learning. I know this may change in the upcoming future though
Wim
Company size: 201-500 employees
Industry: Information Technology and Services
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
October 2019
Totara for Securitas Aviation
Pros
We recommended this software for one of our client to help them with their challenge. Totara offered us the required flexibility to setup and configure the system as required for the project. The easy way to create and maintain the content, the wide variety of learning activities, the forums etc. made Totata the perfect solution.
Cons
The possibilities offered within the system are vast and thus require some time to understand.

Response from Totara
Thank you for your feedback, Wim! Happy to hear that the LMS was perfect for one of your clients due to its adaptability and customizable features. If you have feature requests, please mention them in the Totara Community. We weigh our customer feedback very carefully and pay special attention to feature requests.
Replied April 2021
Louise
Verified reviewer
Company size: 1,001-5,000 employees
Industry: Education Management
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
Benefits of Totara Learn
Pros
- Possibility to adapt the learning platform based on the needs of the end-user (fully customizable) - Audience management for adaptive learning: programs & certifications, activity/course completion tracking, ... - Design and navigation: responsive themes, dashboards, ... (branding)
Cons
Recommend courses/programs to colleagues (features is not available) Add more standard features to the course page so that we (as an instructional designer) can create courses that are qualitative for end users. For example, the possibility for end-users to upload video's/podcast/pdfs.

Response from Totara
We're elated to hearing your 10 out of 10 recommendation! Thank you so much, Louise. We are also very big fans of the way Deloitte adapts our LMS to deliver a uniquely bespoke training platform for Deloitte learners. It serves as an inspirational example of adaptive training and adaptability in general! We want to make Totara Learn as good as it possibly can be, so please feel free to add any feature requests in the Totara Community.
Replied April 2021
Nermine
Company size: 10,000+ employees
Industry: Retail
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
March 2019
Friendly software
Long journey of learning, with a lot of useful features which interact with our employees in a friendly way. The dashboards cover wide numbers of tables resources which allow us to make a lot of reports.
Pros
Customizable software, easy navigation for administrator, friendly interface for the learners
Cons
Some notifications are hard coded , which prevent us from customizing them.

Response from Totara
Nermine, thank you for the kind words and 10 out of 10 recommendation ratings. We're always delighted to hear that Totara Learn is meeting the unique needs of our customers and are happy that Alshaya has been able to customize the platform to meet its unique enterprise training needs!
Replied April 2021
Frantisek
Company size: 11-50 employees
Industry: E-Learning
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
Totara Learn review
Pros
Freedom to learn - still open source and it can grow with company needs. Support for blended learning and the possibility to create courses directly in LMS.
Cons
There is no central notification center. But it is currently under development.

Response from Totara
Hi Frantisek! Thanks so much for the 5 star review! We love working with you guys at e-learnmedia. The central notification center is on the way and should be with you in a matter of days in Totara Learn V14 :) We love suggestions to improve Totara products so please feel free to keep them coming.
Replied May 2021
Daniel
Company size: 10,000+ employees
Industry: Hospital & Health Care
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This review was submitted organically. No incentive was offered
January 2022
Meets our needs
Pros
Totara is flexible, customisable and allows us to provide staff training the way we want to.
Cons
Past decisions (especially around the design of appraisals and certifications) have meant that the product isn't able to meet our needs as fully as we might like.
Reasons for switching to Totara Learn
The Oracle product (which the whole NHS has to pay for as part of the Electronic Staff Record) is substandard and didn't meet our needs.
Anonymous
Company size: 501-1,000 employees
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
This reviewer was invited by us to submit an honest review and offered a nominal incentive as a thank you.
November 2018
Totara LMS for small organizations
Very positive - it was a first LMS for our company and the set up and implementation were smooth. Users did not have much difficulty using this (construction workers) and it has been easy to maintain.
Pros
I liked the ability to customize and make the system work for our needs. We were able to work with our vendor to add some functionality to fit our business.
Cons
From an admin role it helps to be a little techie/geeky. But the support from our vendor really helped get through that.
Jason
Company size: 11-50 employees
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
November 2016
Flexible, scalable, and won't break the bank
Finally a commercially focused LMS that puts the user in control of the Learning experience and LMS functionality. Our organization has found Totara LMS to be feature rich and yet cost effective, while the open source aspect provides flexibility to mold the system where necessary to our specific needs. The UI is pretty basic, but again you have the flexibility to control even that and make it what you will.
Pros
Out of the box feature set and inherent flexibility of an open source platform.
Cons
The UI is very basic and outdated
Stephanie
Company size: 51-200 employees
Industry: Research
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
April 2021
Great customisable Learning Management System
Pros
It can do everything you expect an LMS can do and is customisable.
Cons
It would be great if it had an observation activity for practical tasks that the 'observer' could completed on behalf of the learner.

Response from Totara
10 out of 10, wow! Thank you so much, Stephanie! Glad you were able to fully customize your LMS. We want to make Totara Learn as good as it possibly can be, so please feel free to add any feature requests in the Totara Community.
Replied April 2021
Tony
Company size: 10,000+ employees
Industry: Computer Software
Time used: More than 2 years
Review Source: Capterra
November 2016
Excellent Product
Really good product, lots of good features which would cost a lot more from another vendor. Could do with more detailed release notes and help guides. For examaple, more written 'How to' guides
Pros
Cost
Cons
Lack of detailed release notes, how functionality should work, examples of using / implementing functioanlity
