LMS · head to head
Degreed vs Sakai
Degreed
LMS
Learning experience platform that indexes skills and third-party content rather than hosting courses
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Sakai
LMS
Open source learning management system governed by the Apereo Foundation
- From
- Free
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Sakai has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: Degreed pricing is entirely quote-based with no public rate card, and third parties report annual floors around 25,000 USD and licence minimums as high as 150 seats, so a mid-sized organisation frequently cannot buy it at any sensible price.; Sakai the zero licence fee is misleading: running Sakai needs Java operations, database administration and upgrade testing capacity, and universities that costed only the hardware have ended up paying a hosting partner anyway.
- They diverge on capability: Degreed covers Content aggregation, Sakai covers Course sites.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Degreed and Sakai actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (LMS).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in Degreed
- Content aggregation
- Skills framework
- Pathways and plans
- Skill gap analytics
- Career mobility
- Learning records
- Academies
- Integrations with content providers
Only in Sakai
- Course sites
- Tests and Quizzes
- Gradebook
- Lessons
- Assignments
- Forums and messaging
- LTI support
- Self-hosting
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
Degreed
- A large enterprise that already spends heavily on Coursera and LinkedIn Learning and cannot tell which of it is used or usefulnot Sakai
- An organisation planning a workforce transition and needing a defensible view of which skills exist internally before it hires externallynot Sakai
- A company running compliance training in an LMS that wants a separate, voluntary development experience employees actually choose to opennot Sakai
- A group building internal mobility, matching people to open roles and stretch projects on evidenced skills rather than job titlesnot Sakai
Sakai
- A university whose data protection policy or national regulation requires student coursework to stay on institution-controlled infrastructure inside a specific jurisdiction.not Degreed
- An institution that has been repriced twice by a commercial LMS vendor after ownership changes and wants a platform with no owner to sell it.not Degreed
- A university with an existing Java and Tomcat operations team, where the marginal cost of running one more Java application is genuinely low.not Degreed
- A consortium of institutions sharing one deployment and one set of local integrations rather than each paying separate per-student licences.not Degreed
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
Degreed
- Pricing is entirely quote-based with no public rate card, and third parties report annual floors around 25,000 USD and licence minimums as high as 150 seats, so a mid-sized organisation frequently cannot buy it at any sensible price.
- Degreed is a layer, not a replacement: you keep paying for the learning management system that runs compliance training and for the content subscriptions it indexes, so the licence is a third line on top of two you already have.
- The skills data leans heavily on employee self-assessment, and self-rated skill is a weak signal; if managers do not validate ratings consistently the workforce capability picture that justified the purchase is not reliable enough to make hiring or redeployment decisions on.
- Adoption is voluntary in most deployments, so unless the organisation ties learning to something consequential, usage decays after the launch campaign and the platform becomes an expensive search box.
- Integrations with content providers vary in depth: some surface full metadata and completion write-back while others index only titles, so the unified record of learning the business case assumed can be patchy in exactly the sources employees use most.
Sakai
- The zero licence fee is misleading: running Sakai needs Java operations, database administration and upgrade testing capacity, and universities that costed only the hardware have ended up paying a hosting partner anyway.
- The third-party teaching tool ecosystem builds and tests for Canvas first, so Sakai adopters do their own LTI integration work and occasionally wait for a vendor to certify against a platform it does not prioritise.
- Because governance is a foundation of member institutions rather than a company, a feature only gets built if some institution funds an engineer to build it, so roadmap commitments are weaker than a vendor contract provides.
- The interface, while improved through the version 20 to 25 cycle, still reads as older than Canvas or Brightspace, and academic staff who have used a commercial LMS elsewhere notice it immediately.
- Adoption is concentrated in specific regions and sectors, so the pool of people who have run Sakai in production is small, making it harder to hire an administrator than for Moodle or Canvas.
Pricing, plan by plan
Degreed
On request- Degreed for Enterprise$undefined/year
- Content aggregation across internal and third-party sources
- Skills framework and gap analytics
- Pathways, plans and academies
- Degreed Free (individual)Free
- Personal learning profile
- Track learning from any source
- For individuals rather than organisations
Sakai
Free- SakaiFree
- Educational Community Licence, no licence fee
- Full source on GitHub
- Community support through Apereo lists and Jira
- Commercial hosting and support$undefined/year
- Provided by Apereo affiliates such as Longsight
- Hosting, upgrades, backups and support
- Quoted per institution, commonly by student headcount
Which should you pick?
Choose Degreed if
- You need content aggregation.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want skills framework.
Choose Sakai if
- You need course sites.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Linux, iOS, Android.
- You also want tests and quizzes.
Questions people ask
- Is Degreed or Sakai better?
- Neither clearly leads. Degreed starts at On request and Sakai at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Degreed or Sakai?
- Sakai has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at On request for Degreed and Free for Sakai.
- Does Degreed or Sakai run on more platforms?
- Degreed runs on Web, iOS, Android. Sakai runs on Web, Linux, iOS, Android.
- Can I use Sakai for free?
- Yes. Sakai has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Degreed starts at On request.
- What is Degreed best used for?
- Degreed is most often used for a large enterprise that already spends heavily on coursera and linkedin learning and cannot tell which of it is used or useful, an organisation planning a workforce transition and needing a defensible view of which skills exist internally before it hires externally, a company running compliance training in an lms that wants a separate, voluntary development experience employees actually choose to open, a group building internal mobility, matching people to open roles and stretch projects on evidenced skills rather than job titles. Of those, a large enterprise that already spends heavily on coursera and linkedin learning and cannot tell which of it is used or useful and an organisation planning a workforce transition and needing a defensible view of which skills exist internally before it hires externally are not what Sakai is typically brought in for.
- What can Degreed do that Sakai cannot?
- Degreed covers Content aggregation, Skills framework, Pathways and plans, Skill gap analytics. Sakai covers Course sites, Tests and Quizzes, Gradebook, Lessons.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
Degreed: Does Degreed replace our LMS?
No. It is a discovery and skills layer over content. Compliance training, assignment and certification records generally stay in the LMS, and you pay for both.
Sakai: Is Sakai still actively developed?
Yes. Version 25.0 shipped in 2025, 25.1 followed in November 2025, and further maintenance releases in the 25 line are planned, with commits continuing through 2026.
Degreed: What does Degreed cost?
It is quote-only. Third-party reports put annual floors around 25,000 USD with licence minimums that can reach 150 seats.
Sakai: Who owns Sakai?
No company does. Governance sits with the Apereo Foundation, a membership organisation of institutions, and the code is under the Educational Community Licence.
Degreed: Is the skills data trustworthy?
Only as far as your validation process is. It is built on self-assessment plus peer endorsement, so without manager validation it should not drive redeployment decisions.
Sakai: What does it actually cost to run?
The software is free. The cost is Java hosting and staff, or a commercial hosting agreement with an Apereo affiliate such as Longsight, typically quoted by student headcount.
Degreed: Can individuals use it free?
Yes, Degreed offers a free personal profile for tracking your own learning, separate from the enterprise product.
Sakai: How does it compare to Moodle?
Moodle has a far larger plugin ecosystem and installed base; Sakai has a cleaner assessment and gradebook model and is more common in research-intensive universities. Moodle is easier to hire for.
Sakai: Can we migrate off it later?
Yes, but course content export fidelity through Common Cartridge is imperfect, so budget for manual rebuilding of assessments as you would leaving any LMS.
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