Open LMS Reviews

Pros

The team has been genuinely supportive and quick to help whenever questions come up. The platform itself works well but because there are a lot of settings, there are times you'll still want to reach out to support to get things sorted. The good part is that they're always responsive and willing to guide you. Compared to other LMS options, Moodle could improve on the design and overall look but each update seems to bring meaningful refinements. Since it's an open-source LMS, there's a wider community involved so more people can contribute ideas and improvements over time. OpenLMS also adds new features to our Moodle setup thoughtfully so the changes feel purposeful. On top of that it's a more affordable option and instructors can handle the core tasks needed to teach courses without feeling blocked.

Cons

Some bugs can take longer than you'd expect to get fixed and depending on how serious the issue is, it may require one or even a couple of updates before a real solution lands.

Pros

Open LMS is already used by a lot of institutions which makes it easier to keep courses transferable when you move between schools. It generally seems logical to work with, even if it isn't always effortless. Creating courses is something most people with basic computer skills can handle and compared with other LMS platforms, it's been described as practical and interactive. From an admin standpoint, it's reassuring that help is basically just an email away when you need service support.

Cons

The platform is fairly large so not every feature gets used in real deployments. Unless you're really dedicated as the admin manager some of the admin options can be hard to fully grasp. The built-in activities don't feel as flashy as what you see on a few other platforms, either. Also, the community resources are tough to search and it's rare to find a direct answer when you go looking.

Pros

The Personalized Learning Designer is a strong feature as using conditional rules to automate learning workflows feels capable and well thought out. Automations let you shape how learners progress without manually managing every path. I also like the overall intent behind PLD especially for teams trying to standardize course logic at scale.

Cons

Where it gets frustrating is course restoration. When you move a course into a new target environment, the inherited conditional rules don't consistently keep their intended behavior so you end up spending time re-checking functionality to get everything working as planned. On top of that the architecture seems closed and integration-heavy, with real backend restrictions as advanced SQL querying isn't something you can do and the ad-hoc reporting module runs slowly sometimes even crashing. Delayed-execution reports can take a long time to generate as well so reporting can become its own mini-project. If you want more powerful reporting, you're pushed toward third-party licensing that costs a lot often approaching or even matching the Open LMS license fees instead of being included as native advanced reporting for the price tier. Plugin deployment also is hard like if a plugin isn't already in their proprietary compatibility matrix, clients are charged for adaptation work to make it work with Open LMS. That really clashes with the Moodle open-source vibe especially since Moodle itself has thousands of free plugins available. Finally, the active-user pricing model feels lopsided as you're effectively paying to keep historical data for reporting and the cost doesn't make sense when that active user is actually an alumnus whose data has been sitting dormant for years, yet you pay at roughly the same rate as someone using the platform daily.

Pros

Its support team has been genuinely helpful and the platform itself seems dependable day to day. Since it's built on Moodle, we don't have to overthink maintenance or reliability as we can just focus on using it. Overall the site is functional and fits what we need for learning management.

Cons

The biggest downside is the theme. There aren't many theme options and the current look doesn't feel flexible enough for our needs. Also some of the changes that get rolled out feel unnecessary especially when other parts could use more attention. Updates have also tended to make the system less usable and less user friendly rather than improving it.

Pros

From an admin standpoint it stands out for its basically limitless flexibility. Since it's built on Moodle, we're not stuck in a complex setup. When we need something specific, there's usually a plugin, an LTI integration, or some configuration option to accomplish it. The Personalized Learning Designer has been a real game-changer for our team. It lets us automate administrative tasks, send targeted alerts and build custom learning paths without having to pull in a developer. On top of that the managed hosting gives us a lot of peace of mind. We still get the deep customization of open source but with the reliability, security and high-quality customer support you'd expect from a premium SaaS. Their support team is fast to respond, genuinely knowledgeable and seems more like a partner than just a help desk.

Cons

Because the platform is packed with features and power, there's a learning curve when you first step into backend administration. Getting granular role permissions and advanced reports set up properly takes a bit of initial time. That said it's a small trade-off considering how customizable the system is and their documentation and help desk are always available to walk you through more complex configurations.

Pros

It is very approachable for both students and instructors and it's simple to move around the platform without getting lost. For administrators, the overall setup is clear and the built-in course templates make it efficient to launch new courses. On the faculty side especially for course developers the content creation and organization tools work nicely and the broad selection of activities really helps drive collaboration and more meaningful student-teacher interaction. Support also deserves credit as when you submit a ticket, responses are typically quick and helpful. Overall it delivers excellent value for the money.

Cons

That said some workflows like course customization or system improvements can take longer than expected to get implemented particularly when they depend on support handling or backend related changes.

Pros

Customer support is hands down the best part. I can contact our account manager whenever I need and she either helps right away or points me to the correct person. On top of that it delivers good value for money, with an interface that's simple and reliable course management. We're also using tenancies and that has noticeably improved how we package and deliver our training overall.

Cons

The two parts I'm least satisfied with are the onboarding/training and the Tier 1 support. The initial welcome session felt too general and focused more on basic LMS concepts instead of drilling into what we actually needed to do. I've also had a few calls with the Tier 1 team where responses took a long time or they couldn't really resolve the issue.

Pros

Open LMS is the platform that hosts our learning management system and it's been working well for us. Updates and maintenance are planned in advance and they actually get completed with very little downtime on our site. On top of that the support team is quick to respond and the help they provide fits what we need rather than sending generic answers.

Cons

Before we switched to a new support ticket system, the turnaround times could be pretty slow. That problem seems to be fixed now as the updated ticket workflow is showing clear improvement.

Pros

Its personalized learning options, plus the integration-focused theme and other features that work alongside Moodle's native functionality, have really been a plus for me.

Cons

During setup, the limitation around an allowed plugin matrix and not being able to add more site themes, course formats, or other plugins makes the initial configuration feel restrictive.

Pros

Whenever a question comes up or we need technical help, the OpenLMS team jumps in right away. They're consistently available and genuinely focused on finding a solution, even when the problem isn't super clear at first.

Cons

After being with it for years, we haven't run into any problems that couldn't be resolved.

Pros

Our team turned to eThink to find a solution capable of accommodating a large number of concurrent users and it is when we discovered Open LMS. The entire migration process was expertly handled, thanks to a dedicated project manager and a highly skilled technical team that remained responsive throughout the entire process, from preparation to post-migration. By collaborating with them, we successfully transitioned the site over a single weekend, although it did take several weeks to pre-load a huge amount of data.

Cons

At the moment, we have no complaints. Overall, we were highly satisfied with the approach, technology and team. We did experience some loss of administrative access, but we expected this when opting for a managed platform solution.