LMS · alternatives
Alternatives to Totara
20 lms tools sit alongside Totara in this directory. Below is what separates each from Totara on the figures we hold, price, model, tier count and rating, and a direct comparison for every one.
- Alternatives listed
- 20
- With a free tier
- 6
- Cheaper to start
- -
- Totara starts at
- On request
Why people look past Totara
Only what the record supports. Each point below is a figure on the Totara entry measured against the tools listed beside it.
There is no free tier
The record for Totara carries no free tier, so evaluating it means paying first. 6 of the 20 alternatives below can be used without paying.
There is only one tier
Totara publishes a single plan, Totara subscription via partner at On request. There is no smaller tier to drop to if the fit is wrong or the budget moves.
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
- Can be used without paying; Totara cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $200/year, where Totara does not.
- 2 tiers to Totara's 1.
AI-powered learning platform
- Sold on a subscription model rather than quote.
- 3 tiers to Totara's 1.
Enterprise LMS for measurable business impact
- Sold on a subscription model rather than quote.
- 3 tiers to Totara's 1.
Asynchronous training video with AI avatars, quizzes and a searchable knowledge library
- Can be used without paying; Totara cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of $24/month, where Totara does not.
- Sold on a Per creator per month model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Totara's 1.
Open source French-language learning platform, now developed as Claroline Connect
- Can be used without paying; Totara cannot.
- Publishes an entry price of Free, where Totara does not.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Totara's 1.
Open source learning management system with no licence fee and a Latin American and francophone user base
- Can be used without paying; Totara cannot.
- Sold on a Open source, no licence fee model rather than quote.
- 2 tiers to Totara's 1.
Every Totara 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Totara (this page) | On request | Quote | 1 | |
| MoodleIf the requirement is academic course delivery rather than workplace compliance and hierarchy driven assignment. | Free, then $200/year | - | 2 | vs Totara |
| DoceboA hosted commercial alternative with less administrative burden, at the cost of source access and self hosting. | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Totara |
| Absorb LMSComparable enterprise compliance capability bought directly from one vendor, which removes the partner pricing variability. | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Totara |
| Weet | Free, then $24/month | Per creator per month | 2 | vs Totara |
| Claroline | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Totara |
| Chamilo | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Totara |
| Sakai | Free | Open source, no licence fee | 2 | vs Totara |
| Nearpod | Free, then $159/year | - | 3 | vs Totara |
| Degreed | On request | Quote | 2 | vs Totara |
| Skilljar | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| Sana | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| Echo360 | On request | Quote | 4 | vs Totara |
| Schoox | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| Thought Industries | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| Tovuti LMS | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| Whatfix | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| LearnDash | $199/year | Per site per year | 3 | vs Totara |
| CYPHER Learning | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| LearnUpon | On request | Quote | 1 | vs Totara |
| LinkedIn Learning | On request | Subscription | 3 | vs Totara |
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 Totara badges page.
Cheaper ways to solve the same problem
What you would be giving up
Totara is most often brought in for health services and government bodies that must evidence mandatory training by job role across a large hierarchy, organisations with data residency rules that require the platform to run on their own infrastructure, moodle users who need appraisal, competency and compliance features the academic product does not carry, buyers who want exit rights over the platform code rather than dependence on a single hosted vendor. 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 Totara is broadly right and the question is cost, the Totara 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.
Totara runs on web, ios, android, 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 Totara alternatives
- What are the main alternatives to Totara?
- 20 other lms tools are listed in this directory, led by Moodle, Docebo, Absorb LMS, Weet. They are ordered by the aggregated rating on each catalogue entry, not by any Softwr ranking.
- What is the best free alternative to Totara?
- 6 of the alternatives listed here can be used without paying: Moodle, Weet, Claroline, Chamilo, Sakai.
- Why do people look for an alternative to Totara?
- On the figures on record, 2 things stand out: there is no free tier; there is only one tier. Each is set out with the numbers behind it above.
- What would I give up by switching from Totara?
- Totara is most often brought in for health services and government bodies that must evidence mandatory training by job role across a large hierarchy, organisations with data residency rules that require the platform to run on their own infrastructure, moodle users who need appraisal, competency and compliance features the academic product does not carry, buyers who want exit rights over the platform code rather than dependence on a single hosted vendor. 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 Totara?
- 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 Totara 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 Totara against one of these directly?
- Every alternative below has a side-by-side page against Totara 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, 20 tools beside Totara. The category page lists the rest of the catalogue as it grows.