A Detailed Look at Popular Commercial LMS Providers

Viren Kapadia November 20, 2023

Looking for commercial LMS providers to revamp your learning and development program?

The world of learning has come a long way since the days of traditional classrooms and handwritten textbooks. With the emergence of technology like learning management systems (LMSs), we no longer have to be physically present at a venue to learn. Today, there are approximately 73.8 million active LMS users.

Companies typically use commercial LMS to provide corporate training to their employees. They are offered as SaaS or self-hosted with advantages like easy scalability, reliability, security, and comprehensive support. In this blog post, we will explore the top three commercial LMS providers, along with how you can choose the right one for your business.

Criteria for Choosing the Right LMS

While choosing among the best commercial LMS providers, you should consider several factors, like scalability of the solution, user-friendliness, integration capabilities, tech support, and reviews.

Analytics: Getting regular analytics and reports helps you identify which parts of your training program are most engaging and which need improvement.
Security: Your LMS should have stringent measures to protect your data. It should comply with set industry regulations like GDPR.
Scalability: As your organization expands, your LMS would need to expand to meet the growing need as well. Therefore, select one that can smoothly accommodate an increasing number of users without performance issues.
User-friendliness: It should have a user-friendly interface. The LMS should be easy to use and enhance the learning experience.
Customization: The best LMS provides personalized learning paths and the ability to customize course content and user roles.
Integration: Another crucial factor while selecting an LMS is to check its third-party software integration capabilities. It should be able to integrate with your CRM and other essential platforms.

Top Commercial LMS Providers

Here are the top commercial LMS providers you can consider for your business:

GyrusAim

Gyrus is a leader in the LMS industry, with Talented Learning recognizing it in its Top 15 "All Purpose" Learning System Award Winners 2023. The LMS provides learning courses in several formats, including webinars, documents, videos, and more. You can develop customized programs to accelerate the new-hire onboarding process. GyrusAim also provides certifications and assessments to assess the skill development of the learners. It offers several innovative features to enable smart learning and a built-in authoring tool for easy content creation.

Key Features

Allows you to share knowledge with vendors, customers, and partners
You can offer customer training to understand your products and services better
Supports social learning and mobile learning
Provides a consistent process of assessment and evaluation
Shares certifications for successful completion
Offers robust gamification and analytics
Develops individual learning plans
Available in multiple languages
Supports third-party integration, including Zoom, Slack, Skype, etc.
Follows stringent security measures for data protection

Customer Reviews

A user on G2 said, "GyrusAim has a wonderful support team, which has been the highlight of our experience while using this LMS for our company. It is an amazing product and has all the important features that are required to create an effective employee training program and enable easy tracking and monitoring. The support team is super responsive and prompt with their answers in case of any questions or queries, which is a bonus!"

Pricing

GyrusAim provides custom pricing based on your specific needs and requirements.

iSpring Learn

iSpring Learn is a cloud-based LMS that streamlines your workflow and trains your employees at low costs. It has a built-in authoring tool that enables you to create new courses in minutes. The LMS also supports personalized learning along with gamification features and customization.

You can access the training material anywhere and through any device. You can create online assessments, conduct simultaneous webinars, develop role-play simulations, and much more. However, the tool lacks an eCommerce portal and discussion board.

Key Features

Integrated with an advanced authoring toolkit called iSpring Suite
Offers customized learning paths and a native mobile app
Integration with Zoom and MS Teams
In-depth reporting
Supervisor dashboards for better training management
Gamification options like badges and points

Customer Reviews

A customer on TrustRadius reviewed, "We didn't have an LMS platform to support automated learning to employees at scale. Currently, training sessions are instructor-led and in small staggered batches. We came across iSpring Learn's management solution, and the extent of features/functionalities it has is really good."

Pricing

iSpring Learn's pricing model is based on the number of active users. It offers the following plans:

100 users for $4.08 a month
300 users for $3.14 a month
500 users for $2.38 a month

Absorb

Absorb is an AI-powered LMS featuring an intuitive interface and several essential features. The platform is easy to use and offers features like a mobile app, social learning, robust reporting, a built-in authoring tool, and much more. It also includes an eCommerce portal that makes it easy to sell online courses. However, it is more expensive compared to other options.

Key Features

Has xAPI, SCORM, and AICC support
Offers observational checklists for quick skill verification
Allows custom reporting and scheduling
Features an eCommerce platform
Offers third-party integrations, including Salesforce and Zoom
Has thousands of pre-built online courses
Several gamification features
Enables social learning
Flexible customization options

Customer Reviews

A user on TrustRadius said, "Absorb LMS has completely transformed our business. I can honestly say that this has revolutionized the way we interact with clients in over 90 countries around the world. There are many providers out there, but Absorb LMS provides the customization that we need to do what we need to do to get real results for our clients. I highly recommend Absorb LMS!"

Pricing

Absorb offers custom pricing for all its clients. It considers the number of learners, learner types, course authoring, and several other features while building a pricing model.

Conclusion

There you go! Now you know the 3 most popular commercial LMS providers. Each of these LMSs - GyrusAim, iSpring Learn, and Absorb - offers similar yet unique features that cater to different audiences. Therefore, it is necessary to carefully evaluate each of them before selecting one.

LMS selection is a vital decision that requires a fair bit of time and resources. It will also define how learning takes place in your organization in the near future. Therefore, making an informed decision is crucial. Consider taking a demo of your preferred LMS. This will help you ensure it meets all your requirements.