Best Learning Management System Software of 2026

Here’s what we’ll cover:

What you need to know about LMS software

What is a learning management system?

Essential features of LMS software

Benefits and competitive advantages of using LMS software

How to choose the best LMS software for your business

Software related to LMS

More resources for your LMS journey

What you need to know about LMS software

Learning management system (LMS) software helps organizations deliver digital learning courses to students, employees, customers, or other stakeholders. Used by both K-12 and higher education institutions to teach students, LMS systems are also popular in industries that require workers to stay on top of important certifications, such as manufacturing and healthcare.

With over 800 vendors on our site and more than 9,000 product reviews published in the past year alone, the LMS market offers a wide array of options for organizations of different shapes and sizes. But how do you find the right LMS for your needs?

Firstly, buyers need to budget for the cost of an LMS. For a more advanced system with hundreds of users, organizations can spend upwards of $6,000 per month, while an entry-level system for a small number of users can cost as little as $2 per month. [1] Many vendors also offer free versions of their products. 

But, buyers also need to consider a number of other factors during their LMS purchase, such as features, integrations, useability, and support. Some critical questions to answer as you consult with stakeholders and evaluate different systems are:

• Do we already have learning content, or do we need tools to create content?

• Can the system track the different learning activities we offer, both online and offline?

• What features can we take advantage of to better engage our learners?

• Can the software integrate with our other HR or school administration systems?

• What level of support does the vendor offer, and at what cost?

Because there are so many options, choosing the right LMS can be a long and daunting process. In this guide, you’ll learn about the essential components of LMS software and get step-by-step guidance on how to choose the right solution for your organization. To help, we’ll tap into the expertise of two of our software advisors, Ryan Eschenburg and Daniel Harvey, who together have been helping buyers find the right LMS software for over 15 years. If you’re ready, you can schedule a consultation with them or any of our other advisors right now.

What is a learning management system?

Learning management system software, or LMS software, helps organizations better manage their learning programs. Whether you’re a business trying to train employees or a school or university trying to teach students, an LMS is the ideal tool to create, administer, and monitor the effectiveness of your digital learning courses.

Common features of LMS software include content authoring, course management, proficiency testing, and certification management. In addition to delivering engaging learning content, LMS software can also help trainers or teachers track learner progress and leverage data-driven insights to improve their courses over time.

Essential features of LMS software

While LMS software for businesses and LMS software for schools have some specifics that set them apart, they also share a lot of the same functionality. You’ll find core features, such as course management and assessments, in every LMS on the market. Other features, such as content management and blended learning support, are quite common as well. 

Based on an analysis of thousands of reviews, here are the essential features of LMS software. [2]

Core LMS features

Common LMS features

According to Harvey, a lot of buyers also look for “some type of timed element” that requires learners to be in a section of a learning course for a set amount of time before they can move on to another section. This ensures learners can’t just skip through a course quickly without learning the material.

Benefits and competitive advantages of using LMS software

Having employees with the right skills is critical to succeeding as a business. In a Gartner survey, 57% of HR leaders said skills shortages were undermining their ability to sustain corporate performance. [3] Businesses need better tools to upskill their employees and prepare them to face new and more complex challenges. 

When buyers call us looking for LMS software, a majority of them (56%) are using manual methods or no methods at all to deliver training courses. [4] An LMS offers clear benefits here, as it allows companies to deliver their employee training more efficiently and effectively.

Eschenburg adds that an LMS allows businesses to offer more “on-demand type training” that doesn’t require instructors and trainees to be together in a room at the same time—allowing for more flexibility.

In addition, reviewers say having LMS software has other benefits, including:

• Bringing learning into the digital age: Digitizing course materials ensures increased scalability and efficiency on the administration side (no more printing out hundreds of tests and reading materials each week!) and makes the courses more interactive and engaging for learners.

• Improved collaboration and knowledge sharing: Teaching or training staff can use course authoring tools to align more closely on learning content, while social learning features like forums and user-generated content allow learners to contribute their own thoughts or knowledge more seamlessly.

• Better insights and learning personalization: Analytics features allow administrators to see more clearly which learners are struggling across different courses, allowing them to customize a learning path to bring learners up to speed. 

Integrating an LMS with other software has advantages, too. For example, if a business integrates its LMS with a performance management system, it can use performance metrics and reviews to recommend specific training courses to employees to improve upskilling initiatives.

How to choose the best LMS software for your business

Step 1: Define your requirements

We surveyed 3,500 software buyers for Software Advice’s 2025 Tech Trends Survey, and found that the most common thing regretful software buyers would do to avoid regret on their next purchase is to define their goals and desired outcomes more clearly. [5]  

Meeting with stakeholders and outlining your specific needs at the outset is critical, as it will guide you toward the system that aligns with your present operational demands and supports your long-term goals. Here are some things to keep in mind.

Understand the total cost of LMS software

While the cost to license the software is the biggest component baked into the LMS price, it’s not the only one. Other factors that can impact the cost of LMS software include:

• The number of users you have

• The features you require

• How much storage you need

• Implementation or data migration costs

• The level of technical support offered

For context, the average budget of the LMS buyers our advisors have spoken to in the past year is $2,434 per month. Here’s a chart of how this breaks down for some common LMS buying industries:

Focus on important features

LMS platforms often have a lot of functionality, some of which you might not even need or want. Before you invest in a system that’s too complex and expensive for your needs, work with stakeholders to home in on the features that matter most. Here are some examples:

• Heavily regulated industries that require workers to keep up with their certifications should prioritize features that can remind employees when certifications need to be renewed and track when they’re completed.

• Companies looking to upskill their employees and teach them high-productivity strategies should look at social learning and gamification features to incentivize them to use the system more than necessary. Mobile learning features are also important for this group.

• Schools looking to improve quizzing and testing administration should consider assessment features, anti-cheating measures, and reporting capabilities.

Be aware of potential LMS challenges

Implementing an LMS has several benefits, but there are also some challenges. According to reviewers, some of the most common challenges with LMS software include uploading large files, getting courses to display correctly on different types of devices, and setting the right filters to generate accurate reports.

Knowing these are common issues, you can consider them when researching products or talking to vendors. You can also start looking into workarounds (like using a compression tool on those larger files).

Plan around your integration needs

Depending on what type of buyer you are, you may want to integrate your new LMS with existing software systems.

If you’re a part of the school authority, you may have a student information system that houses grades, attendance, and other important data. Integrating the tool with your LMS is critical to getting a full picture of a student’s performance.

Businesses can also consider a few possible integrations. If you have compliance software that tracks worker certifications, you’ll need to pull certification data from your LMS. Integrating your LMS with a performance management system can tie training progress to performance goals. And an integration with your collaboration software can make your LMS more prominent and accessible to employees during their day-to-day. 

Leverage the knowledge of your IT department and keep your integration needs top-of-mind when weighing your options.

Step 2: Make your LMS software shortlist

With over 800 different LMS options to choose from on Software Advice alone, it can be daunting to make a shortlist of options that fit your needs and budget. But with the right resources and support, it doesn’t have to be.

Get qualified help from an advisor

At Software Advice, our advisors, like Ryan Eschenburg and Daniel Harvey, have experience helping hundreds of schools and businesses identify LMS solutions that match their needs and budgets.

If you need help, you can either schedule a phone call with an advisor or chat online with one right now. In just a few minutes, your advisor will help you identify a shortlist of LMS options that best align with your requirements.

Explore our list of LMS FrontRunners

If you’re not ready to speak to an advisor, or simply want to do the research yourself, we recommend checking out our LMS FrontRunners report. Only products that are rated highly by verified users qualify to make this list, so you can use it to get an idea of what the most sought-after LMS products are on the market.

Step 3: Pick your best option

Once you have your shortlist finalized, it’s time to talk to vendors, schedule demos, and take advantage of free trials. Here are some tips to draw benefits at this stage.

Have actual users attend demos and use the software

Ease of use is a critical factor in software adoption, and no one will understand how easy a system is to use than an actual user. So, if you have an employee or learner on hand who can take the time to attend demos and get their hands on different products during the free trial period, take advantage of it.

Ask the right questions

Vendors use demos as an opportunity to show their products in the best light possible. To truly understand if an LMS is worthwhile or not though, you need to ask vendors important questions like: 

• What security features do you have in place to protect our data?

• What kind of customer support do you offer during implementation and afterward?

• How often do you update your LMS software and what updates are you planning for your next release?

• What kinds of pre-made training content assets do you offer? And, is there a cost to using them?

• How do the analytics and reporting functions work?

Eschenburg says the pre-made content aspect is especially important, as some vendors may not offer certain types of courses, or may only provide them through a partner.

Don’t dawdle

We find that most successful buyers (57%) take three months or less to evaluate software options, while most regretful buyers (54%) take five months or more. While it’s important to gather all the information you need and give each product a fair shake, you’re more likely to make a bad purchase if you wait or can’t make up your mind.

Once you’ve done your due diligence, make a purchase decision quickly.

To help you keep track of how vendors answered questions and how you can rate your different options, check out our ultimate software vendor evaluation guide.

Step 4: Make the most of your LMS software

Once you’ve made your LMS purchase, you’ll begin the implementation process. Whether you’re switching from one LMS to another or going from manual methods to your first digital system, here are some important considerations you’ll want to pay attention to during this process:

• Data migration: If you have existing training courses, you need to ensure they’re in the right format to work with your new LMS. The most common formats for LMS courses are SCORM, AICC, and xAPI—of which, we prefer xAPI.

• Training: Once you have the new system in place, you’ll want to make sure both your instructors and your learners fully understand how to use it. If possible, lean on your new LMS provider to run staff training sessions and provide training materials. Be aware that this will take some time, so plan on holding multiple training sessions and refresher courses until everyone feels confident.

• Marketing: As weird as it sounds, new software needs to be marketed internally—especially when it’s first implemented. Schedule regular emails to inform learners about the new system's benefits and what kinds of courses they can take. If users constantly bring up the same issues, talk to your vendor immediately to see if they can be remedied to avoid user dropoff.

For more information, read our five critical steps to a successful software implementation.

Software related to LMS

Depending on which LMS you choose, you may need to supplement some features with related software systems to provide the best learning experience. Some types of software that are closely related to LMS, but may or may not be included in your LMS system, include:

• Course creation software: These are tools specific to creating engaging learning courses that can then be delivered through an LMS.

• Learning content management system (LCMS): Geared toward learning content developers and designers, an LCMS is a software platform where learning content can be stored and managed.

• Mobile LMS software: These are LMS platforms built solely with the mobile user experience in mind.

• School management software: School management software goes beyond LMS functionality to help school administrators with day-to-day operations.

• Talent management software: These are more comprehensive HR software suites that usually include LMS functionality alongside other applications to manage, engage, and develop employees.

• Employee training software: Employee training software includes LMS tools and other platforms that can help with training employees.

More resources for your LMS journey

• What Is Hybrid Learning? A Look at the Future of Learning

• 5 Benefits of Gamification in Education and Learning

• 5 Top-Rated Free Learning Management Systems

About our contributors

Author

Brian Westfall is an associate principal analyst at Software Advice, covering human resources, with a focus on recruiting, talent management, and employee engagement. Over the past decade, Brian’s research on the intersection of talent and technology has been featured in Bloomberg, Fortune, SHRM, TIME, and The Wall Street Journal. Brian’s research and analysis is informed by more than 250,000 authentic user reviews on Software Advice and over 20,000 interactions between Software Advice software advisors and HR software buyers. Brian also regularly analyzes market sentiment by conducting surveys of HR leaders and practitioners so he can provide the most up-to-date and helpful information to small and midsize businesses purchasing software or services.

Editor

Parul Sharma is a content editor at Software Advice with expertise in curating content for various niches, including SaaS, digital marketing, and search engine optimization. With over half a decade of experience in content writing and editing, Parul has the expertise to simplify complex terms into engaging, valuable content for targeted audiences. She completed her graduation and post-graduation in English literature from Delhi University and was awarded the Dr. Asha Sahni Memorial Award for being the highest scorer in her graduating class.

Parul has contributed to the news, lifestyle, education, and health verticle of DNA India, India’s premier media channel. Outside of work, she can be found curating healthy recipes, coloring in mandala books, and spending quality time with her family.

Advisors

Ryan Eschenburg is a senior advisor. He joined Software Advice in 2014, and he is based in Austin, TX.

Ryan works directly with small-business leaders to connect them with best fit software providers. He assesses the technology needs of small businesses seeking HR and learning management software through one-to-one conversations and provides a short list of potential matches. 

His favorite part of being a software advisor is helping buyers ease their stress and save time during their software search.

Daniel Harvey is a software advisor. He joined Software Advisor in 2015, and he is based in Austin, TX. Daniel works directly with small business leaders to connect them with best fit software providers. He assesses the technology needs of small businesses seeking HR and learning management software through one-to-one conversations and provides a short list of potential matches. His favorite part of being a software advisor is providing insight and information to individuals who are typically very busy and crunched on resources and time.

Sources

1. Software Advice software pricing data: Only products with publicly available pricing information and qualified software products within the category, as of the production date, are included in the pricing analysis. Read the complete methodology.

2. Software Advice reviews data: Software Advice reviews are collected from verified users for individual software products. For this report, we analyzed reviews from the past year as of the production date. Read the complete methodology.

3. Market Guide for Corporate Learning Technologies, Gartner

4. Software Advice advisor call notes: Findings are based on data from telephonic conversations that Software Advice’s advisor team had with small-to-midsize businesses seeking LMS software. For this report, we analyzed phone interactions from the past year as of the production date. Read the complete methodology.

5. Software Advice’s 2025 Tech Trends Survey was conducted online in August 2024 among 3,500 respondents in the U.S. (n=700), U.K. (n=350), Canada (n=350), Australia (n=350), France (n=350), India (n=350), Germany (n=350), Brazil (n=350), and Japan (n=350), at businesses across multiple industries and company sizes (five or more employees). The survey was designed to understand the timeline, organizational challenges, adoption & budget, vendor research behaviors, ROI expectations and satisfaction levels for software buyers. Respondents were screened to ensure their involvement in business software purchasing decisions.