LMS · alternatives
Alternatives to Claroline
19 lms tools sit alongside Claroline in this directory. Below is what separates each from Claroline on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 19
- With a free tier
- 5
- Cheaper to start
- 0
- Claroline starts at
- Free
Why people look past Claroline
Nothing on the record flags a reason to move. Claroline has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $179/month. People still switch over fit and workflow, and those are not things a catalogue entry can measure, which is what the comparisons below are for.
What each alternative does differently
Ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry. Differences are drawn from price, pricing model, tier count and rating, the fields the category listing carries. For a feature-level difference, follow the head-to-head link on each card: those pages read both full records.
Open-source LMS designed by educators for educators
- Starts $200 a year dearer, at $200/year.
Open source learning management system governed by the Apereo Foundation
Priced and rated the same as Claroline on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
AI-powered learning platform
- No free tier, where Claroline has one.
- Sold on a subscription model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
- 3 tiers to Claroline's 2.
Asynchronous training video with AI avatars, quizzes and a searchable knowledge library
- Starts $24 a month dearer, at $24/month.
- Sold on a Per creator per month model rather than Open source, no licence fee.
Open source learning management system with no licence fee and a Latin American and francophone user base
Priced and rated the same as Claroline on the figures we hold. The difference, if there is one, is in the feature records.
Interactive lessons that engage every student
- Starts $159 a year dearer, at $159/year.
- 3 tiers to Claroline's 2.
Every Claroline alternative at a glance
A dash means the catalogue entry carries no figure, not that the answer is nothing.
| Tool | Entry price | Model | Tiers | Head to head |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claroline (this page) | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | |
| MoodleIf you want open source with a large plugin ecosystem, multilingual documentation and a broad commercial partner network. | Free, then $200/year | - | 2 | vs Claroline |
| SakaiIf you need an open source platform for higher education with foundation governance and stronger assessment tooling. | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Claroline |
| DoceboIf you would rather buy a commercial hosted platform for corporate training and not run infrastructure at all. | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Claroline |
| Weet | Free, then $24/month | Per creator per month | 2 | vs Claroline |
| Chamilo | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Claroline |
| Nearpod | Free, then $159/year | - | 3 | vs Claroline |
| Degreed | On request | Quote | 2 | vs Claroline |
| Skilljar | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| Sana | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| Echo360 | On request | Quote | 4 | vs Claroline |
| Schoox | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| Thought Industries | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| Tovuti LMS | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| Whatfix | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| Totara | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| LearnDash | $199/year | Per site per year | 3 | vs Claroline |
| CYPHER Learning | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| LearnUpon | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Claroline |
| LinkedIn Learning | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Claroline |
Ratings are aggregated from third-party sources and imported with each catalogue entry; Softwr hosts no reviews of these products. How each figure is used is set out on the Claroline badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
What you would be giving up
Claroline is most often brought in for a french or belgian training organisation that needs a francophone platform where the interface and support are french-first rather than translated., a public body required to keep learner data on european infrastructure under an open licence it can audit., a training provider assembling learning paths from a shared library of reusable resources across many client workspaces rather than duplicating courses., an institution already running the abandoned claroline 13 line that needs to plan a migration onto the maintained connect codebase before its dependencies become unsupportable.. Anything replacing it has to cover the ones you actually depend on, and a cheaper tool that misses one of them is not cheaper.
Two things this page cannot settle. It compares on price, model, tier count and rating, because those are the fields the category listing carries, feature-level differences need both full records, which is what the head-to-head pages load. And the ratings are third-party aggregates imported with each entry rather than reviews written here, so a 0.2 difference between two tools is noise rather than a finding.
If Claroline is broadly right and the question is cost, the Claroline pricing breakdown covers every tier and what each one adds. If you want the whole field rather than a shortlist, the LMS category lists everything the directory holds, and best lms tools ranks them.
Claroline runs on web, linux. Platform coverage is not carried on the category listing for the alternatives, so it is one more thing to check on each head-to-head page rather than here.
Questions about Claroline alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Claroline?
- 19 other lms tools are listed in this directory, led by Moodle, Sakai, Docebo, Weet. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Claroline?
- 5 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Moodle, Sakai, Weet, Chamilo, Nearpod.
- Is there a reason to switch away from Claroline?
- Nothing in the data flags one. Claroline has a free tier, and starts at Free against a category median of $179/month. Fit and workflow are the usual reasons to move, and those are not things this record can measure.
- What would I give up by switching from Claroline?
- Claroline is most often brought in for a french or belgian training organisation that needs a francophone platform where the interface and support are french-first rather than translated., a public body required to keep learner data on european infrastructure under an open licence it can audit., a training provider assembling learning paths from a shared library of reusable resources across many client workspaces rather than duplicating courses., an institution already running the abandoned claroline 13 line that needs to plan a migration onto the maintained connect codebase before its dependencies become unsupportable.. Anything you replace it with has to cover the ones you actually rely on, the side-by-side comparisons linked from each alternative below put the two feature records against each other.
- Is there an open-source alternative to Claroline?
- None of the lms tools listed here are recorded as open source. That is what the licence field on each entry says, and the field is not always filled in, so it is worth checking directly for any tool you are serious about.
- How were these Claroline alternatives chosen?
- They are the tools filed in the same category, LMS, ordered by the aggregated rating on each entry. There is no editorial shortlist, and nothing on this page is paid: no sponsored placement runs on alternatives pages and the order cannot be bought. Softwr has not used these products.
- Where can I compare Claroline against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Claroline covering price, platforms, features and what each one is used for. Those pages read the full record for both products rather than the summary shown here.
- Does this list cover every lms tool?
- No. It covers what this directory holds in the LMS category, 19 tools beside Claroline. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.