LMS · head to head
Degreed vs Totara
Degreed
LMS
Learning experience platform that indexes skills and third-party content rather than hosting courses
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
Totara
LMS
Open source learning, performance and collaboration platform derived from Moodle and sold through partners
- From
- On request
- Rated
- -
The short version
- 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.; Totara you cannot buy from the vendor. Every purchase runs through a partner who sets its own hosting, services and support pricing, so identical platforms are quoted at materially different totals and buyers must run a partner comparison as well as a product comparison.
- They diverge on capability: Degreed covers Content aggregation, Totara covers Organisational hierarchies.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which Degreed and Totara actually diverge.
Identical on both: starting price (On request), pricing model (quote), free tier (No), 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 Totara
- Organisational hierarchies
- Compliance and certification
- Totara Perform
- Totara Engage
- Self-hosting
- Programs and learning plans
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 Totara
- An organisation planning a workforce transition and needing a defensible view of which skills exist internally before it hires externallynot Totara
- A company running compliance training in an LMS that wants a separate, voluntary development experience employees actually choose to opennot Totara
- A group building internal mobility, matching people to open roles and stretch projects on evidenced skills rather than job titlesnot Totara
Totara
- Health services and government bodies that must evidence mandatory training by job role across a large hierarchynot Degreed
- Organisations with data residency rules that require the platform to run on their own infrastructurenot Degreed
- Moodle users who need appraisal, competency and compliance features the academic product does not carrynot Degreed
- Buyers who want exit rights over the platform code rather than dependence on a single hosted vendornot 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.
Totara
- You cannot buy from the vendor. Every purchase runs through a partner who sets its own hosting, services and support pricing, so identical platforms are quoted at materially different totals and buyers must run a partner comparison as well as a product comparison.
- Open source does not mean cheap. Subscription plus partner hosting plus implementation and version upgrade services commonly lands near commercial system cost, and the saving is in control and exit rights rather than in the invoice.
- The administrative interface carries its Moodle lineage and is dense, so administrator training is a real project cost rather than an afterthought.
- Major version upgrades are projects, especially where a partner has customised the deployment, and organisations that customise heavily find upgrades slower and dearer over time.
- The learner facing experience is functional rather than engaging, and organisations wanting a consumer grade learning experience usually front it with something else.
Pricing, plan by plan
Degreed
On request- Degreed for Enterprise$undefined/year
- Content aggregation across internal and third-party sources
- Skills framework and gap analytics
- Pathways, plans and academies
- Degreed Free (individual)Free
- Personal learning profile
- Track learning from any source
- For individuals rather than organisations
Totara
On request- Totara subscription via partner$undefined/year
- Sold only through distribution partners
- Partner sets hosting, implementation and support pricing
- Source available under the GPL, but subscription required for supported releases
Which should you pick?
Choose Degreed if
- You need content aggregation.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android.
- You also want skills framework.
Choose Totara if
- You need organisational hierarchies.
- You work on Web, iOS, Android, Linux.
- You also want compliance and certification.
Questions people ask
- Is Degreed or Totara better?
- Neither clearly leads. Degreed starts at On request and Totara at On request, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, Degreed or Totara?
- Degreed starts at On request and Totara at On request.
- Does Degreed or Totara run on more platforms?
- Degreed runs on Web, iOS, Android. Totara runs on Web, iOS, Android, Linux.
- 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 Totara is typically brought in for.
- What can Degreed do that Totara cannot?
- Degreed covers Content aggregation, Skills framework, Pathways and plans, Skill gap analytics. Totara covers Organisational hierarchies, Compliance and certification, Totara Perform, Totara Engage.
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.
Totara: Is Totara free because it is open source?
No. The source is available under the GPL, but supported releases require a subscription, and it is sold through partners who add hosting, implementation and support costs.
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.
Totara: How is it different from Moodle?
Moodle is built around courses and academic delivery. Totara adds organisational hierarchies, role based automatic assignment, recurring certification and appraisal, which is what workplace compliance reporting needs.
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.
Totara: Can we host it ourselves?
Yes. Self hosting is a genuine option and is one of the main reasons regulated and public sector buyers choose it over a hosted only competitor.
Degreed: Can individuals use it free?
Yes, Degreed offers a free personal profile for tracking your own learning, separate from the enterprise product.
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