TalentLMS is a standalone LMS designed with individual teams and small businesses in mind. It stands out for its intuitive user interface and easy setup compared to other platforms. Of course, what works in micro won’t necessarily help on the macro scale. Some alternatives to TalentLMS can be more enterprise-friendly, along with a host of other advantages.

Let’s look at what today’s “Alternatives to…” subject does right, and where it could improve, to figure out which TalentLMS alternatives are worth considering.

Learning management is a rising star

Before we start exploring alternatives to TalentLMS, let’s look at the state of the learning management sector. Developments in the last few years, like the remote work boom, mass employee dissatisfaction, and quickly changing workplace tech, have led to an increased prioritization of employee learning.

According to this analysis from Fortune Business Insights, the global market value of learning management systems in 2023 was $20.33 billion (USD). If that wasn’t enough, they estimate its value will reach as much as $82 billion by 2032 with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17%.

This reflects the rate at which businesses are embracing these platforms. Your chosen LMS can massively impact the quality of L&D and employee onboarding for your business. To stay competitive and ahead of the curve, it’s important to find your most suitable learning management software.

About TalentLMS

TalentLMS is developed by Epignosis as a SaaS-based platform for SMBs and teams (provided said teams have the autonomy to adopt their own learning tools). The aforementioned dev company was originally founded in 2012, and markets a few other pieces of distinct learning management software.

TalentLMS has more than 11,000 customers, totaling around 13 million users. Some customers include OpenAI, eBay, and the chocolate maker, Lindt. On top of that, despite their focus on SMBs and teams, their biggest clients include giants like Google and Amazon (though it’s possible these clients are actually specific teams within those companies).

Core features of TalentLMS

TalentLMS has some great features, with the added bonus that it emphasizes simplicity. Here are a few of the functions that can make it tough for TalentLMS alternatives to compete:

  • Course builder with Graphic User Interface (GUI): Since TalentLMS is a standalone platform, this GUI is basically a centralized hub for various L&D admin tasks. There are clearly labeled options and quick actions for managing courses and users, as well as report viewing and group management.

    As you can probably guess, learners use the same GUI with limitations to engage with courses and content. It’s also worth noting that TalentLMS’ interface has (at the time of writing) recently undergone a revamp.
  • Course assignment automation: Although it’s easy enough to assign courses using the GUI, you can go a step further with easy-to-use automation features. These let you automate course assignments based on conditions like time, deadline expiration, or completion of prior material.
  • Gamification features: Gamification features are present in a number TalentLMS alternatives, but they can be found here too. The course builder supports badges, leaderboards, levels, points and rewards. All pretty standard, but like everything else, they’re easy to implement.
  • Categories and Paths: Categories help you set rules and manage groups with things like access controls. Paths, as the name suggests, provides an order to course content for users to engage with.
  • Branded platform customization: TalentLMS offers decent support for brand-based customization. This includes:
    • Logo upload and color customization
    • Theming control using CSS, HTML, and JavaScript

Aside from these core features, you might be wondering about content. After all, what good is an LMS without course material, right? TalentLMS provides content through their optional add-on, TalentLibrary, which offers a growing body of materials.

Strengths and selling points of TalentLMS

Even if you’re considering alternatives to TalentLMS, there’s no denying it comes with plenty of advantages for suitable clients. The teams in major corporations using it today lend the platform weight as it considers how to more effectively meet the needs of enterprise-level clients.

The major strengths and selling points of TalentLMS include:

  • An easy and low-friction LMS: TalentLMS’ biggest strength is arguably its simplicity. After all, ease-of-use is an essential part of evaluating learning management software.

    The GUI system makes it easy for learners and admins to use. The platform also boasts a very quick rollout time compared to the TalentLMS alternatives we’ll be covering. This is because it doesn’t need much configuration to use.
  • Serves SMBs as a standalone platform: The other thing giving TalentLMS a lightning-fast rollout time is its standalone nature. Since it’s self-contained, it doesn’t need to integrate with your other systems.
  • In-built automation: Though simple, the automation features TalentLMS provides are very useful for keeping large course catalogs and groups running smoothly. This means you can offer a diverse range of courses and learning paths without too much effort.
  • Transparent and flexible price structure: As you’d expect for a platform mainly targeting teams and SMBs, TalentLMS is priced quite flexibly and affordably. Of Course, we’ll be talking about that more in our next section…

TalentLMS is best-suited for teams or businesses employing 500 or less, although they are attempting to move upstream. A free version of their platform is available with support for up to five users and ten courses. The TalentLibrary add-on is available for an additional fee on top of all service packages.

Pricing and best fit of TalentLMS

Each TalentLMS subscription package comes in two types: Standard or Active, depending on how users are counted. The pricing structure is as follows:

  • Starter ($): Provides unlimited course access, ideal for smaller teams.
  • Basic ($$): Includes single sign-on (SSO) and custom domain support, designed for growing businesses.
  • Plus ($$$): Adds advanced features like custom reports and support for multiple branches (up to three).
  • Premium ($$$): Offers enhanced functionality, including priority email support, an account manager role, automation tools, live chat, and support for up to 15 branches.
  • Enterprise (Custom): Designed for larger organizations, offering unlimited branch support with tailored pricing.

This tiered approach allows organizations to select the plan that best fits their size and feature requirements.

Drawbacks and limitations of TalentLMS

TalentLMS is definitely an impressive platform, but it falls down in a few key areas. Here are its major limitations as we see them:

  • Doesn’t support flow-of-work learning: Although the standalone nature of TalentLMS is beneficial in some ways, it also holds the system back in other ways. As an isolated system, it doesn’t lend itself well to flow-of-work learning.

    Alternatives to TalentLMS, on the other hand, at least have some integration with commonly used tools like Microsoft Teams. Its separation in this regard also means it struggles to support social learning.
  • Poor scalability: We’ve repeatedly highlighted TalentLMS’ emphasis on SMBs and teams, so you probably saw this coming. Despite its effective automation features being great for scaling, it doesn’t have the granularity of control enterprise businesses need.
  • Limited content options: TalentLMS does offer its TalentLibrary service, which is growing. That said, it doesn’t compare to the alternatives in terms of big-name content providers. TalentLMS may be better suited to organizations that already have large content libraries to import.
  • Doesn’t stand out much: TalentLMS is distinct on this list for its focus on SMBs, and its affordability. That said, compared to other services at its price point, it doesn’t really wow us.
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1. Learn365

Learn365 is one of the alternatives to TalentLMS that shares its emphasis on usability, although they achieve it in different ways. Whereas TalentLMS is completely standalone, Learn365 was built from the ground up to work as part of Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Teams in particular.

Learn365 is just one part of Zensai’s Human Success Platform, which connects employee learning with engagement and performance for a more holistic approach. The other two platforms are Engage365 and Perform365.

Alternatives to TalentLMS Learn365

Core features of Learn365

Learn365 has everything you need in a modern, agile LMS. In addition to being part of the broader Human Success Platform, Learn365 provides several vital features by itself:

  • Accessed in Microsoft Teams: Whereas TalentLMS centralizes learning management separately, Learn365 does so by bringing it into your workspace. Full Teams integration negates the need to give learners LMS usage training if they already use Microsoft services. It also means nobody’s stuck with yet another username and password to remember.
  • The world’s largest content libraries: LMS functionality is only half the battle. Learn365 also stands out from other TalentLMS alternatives because of the sheer amount of content access it offers. On top of Content365, integrations with a range of world-class content providers are also available.
  • Our mobile app: The full range of Learn365’s features are available through its mobile LMS app, right down to branding customization. This app ensures learning and development are accessible to all staff, including deskless employees and frontline workers. All they need is a phone or tablet.
  • Tracking and reporting dashboards: Set up dashboards with customizable tracking to get continuous updates packaged in bespoke L&D reports. These offer a real-time view of course engagement and learner performance. You can even use Power BI to visualize your findings for shareholders.
  • AI-powered course management: Course creation in Learn365 starts out with its drag-and-drop course builder. Then you can power it up with AI, which pulls from learning libraries, like Go1, LinkedInLearning, and of course, Content365.

    If you can’t find the content you want, you can import it yourself by using our AI assistant, Orbie, to quickly convert existing documents into course materials.

Strengths and selling points of Learn365

Whether you use the whole Human Success Platform or just Learn365, it stands apart from other TalentLMS alternatives as the complete package. Here are its major strengths and selling points.

  • Learn365 scales for enterprises: Scalability is arguably the most relevant thing to bring up for alternatives to TalentLMS. Between its centralized nature and its high level of admin automation, it’s the ideal platform for enterprises and quickly growing businesses.
  • Supports social learning: As part of Microsoft Teams, Learn365 is perfectly positioned to enable social learning. It’s easy to share and course materials in relevant Teams channels, whether you need help with course content or see areas for improvement.
  • Provides a skills framework: Unlike TalentLMS, Learn365 uses a framework to identify skills gaps in your organization. Admins can use this as a reference point for which training assignments to assign automatically.
  • Enables learning in the flow of work: By eliminating the barrier between your LMS and your virtual workspace, Learn365 makes it much easier to organically apply the skills learned from course content. Isolated training in artificial learning spaces doesn’t always prepare employees for the real demands of their jobs.
  • End-to-end automation: Learn365 allows your L&D team to automate behind-the-scenes processes to keep everything running smoothly. Not only does this support the scaling up of learning management, it also helps your team to reclaim valuable time that would otherwise be lost to upkeep.

Pricing and best fit of Learn365

Learn365 is a great solution for businesses of all kinds. Price flexibility and a Freemium option make it viable for even small start-ups, while comprehensive automation and scaling make it suitable for enterprise organizations too.

The Freemium version provides access to just one course catalog, eight course and learning modules and 100 user enrollments a month. You also get access to Learn365’s skill manager, audit trail, third party integrations, and basic data security and recovery.

The platform offers three paid service packages:

  • Standard ($): Includes unlimited course catalogs, modules, and enrollments, along with success planning and basic data security and recovery.
  • Professional ($$): Adds offline mobile synchronization and the ability to copy courses across catalogs, in addition to all Standard-tier features.
  • Select ($$$): Learn365’s premium package includes advanced features like audit penetration and reporting, as well as enhanced data security and recovery.
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2. Cornerstone

In some ways, Cornerstone is as different as potential TalentLMS alternatives can get. However, where TalentLMS has primarily focused their platform on SMBs and team-scale learning support, Cornerstone’s platform is built with mid-to-large organizations squarely in mind. They serve a wide variety of major companies, including Dell, Nestlé and Visa.

Core features of Cornerstone

In other ways, Cornerstone still has plenty in common with TalentLMS. Both platforms have modern, intuitive user interfaces to keep learners engaged. Let’s take a look at the main features Cornerstone has to offer:

  • Five modules: Learn, Recruiting, Core HR, LXP and Performance
  • A card-based navigation UI
  • Cornerstone Content Anytime for third party integrations
  • AI-personalized learning paths

Strengths and selling points of Cornerstone

As a modern LMS emphasizing scalability, Cornerstone brings a lot to the table. Here are its main strengths and selling points:

  • Strong UI design: Cornerstone’s card-based navigation is easy to use, meaning that new learners don’t need special training to engage with the LMS.
  • Great for HR compliance: Between Cornerstone’s five modules, there are plenty of features for monitoring learning development, as well as your business in general. This makes Cornerstone’s platform a great centralized HR hub that also supports employee learning.
  • Effective process automation: As a platform targeted at mid-to-large businesses, Cornerstone brings scalability through process automation. Unlike several alternatives to TalentLMS, Cornerstone effectively helps to streamline L&D admin work.
  • A wide variety of content integrations: With the Cornerstone Content Anytime add-on, businesses gain access to content libraries from a decent number of high-quality sources.

Pricing and best fit of Cornerstone

Cornerstone is tailored for mid-to-large-sized clients, with a pricing structure that scales based on user count. They do not offer a separate package specifically for small to medium-sized businesses.

  • Small groups ($): Supports up to 1,000 users.
  • Medium groups ($$): For organizations with 1,001 to 5,000 users.
  • Large groups ($$$): Designed for organizations with 5,001 to 20,000 users.
  • Enterprise ($$$$): Tailored for companies with more than 20,000 users.

Each module’s cost decreases as the number of users increases, making it more accessible for larger enterprises.

Drawbacks and limitations of Cornerstone

Although Cornerstone’s range of modules are quite versatile, they’re far from perfect. Here are the main issues with it as an LMS as we see them:

  • Its custom requirements are hard to support: Setting up Cornerstone involves managing multiple user groups, coordinating custom workflows, and an increasing number of optional add-ons. As a result, implementation can be complicated and time-consuming.
  • You more or less need all the modules: While you don’t technically have to subscribe to all the modules, they’re specifically designed to work with each other.
  • Modules have redundant features: Overlap between functions on different modules creates unnecessary clutter. It also makes it harder to intuitively find the most optimum approach.
  • Doesn’t allow learner-generated content: While Cornerstone does empower internal skills experts, general learners aren’t able to create content.
Gartner Cool Vendor

3. Docebo

Docebo is a fairly flexible LMS that uses page customization to create virtual learning spaces for course management. With major clients including AWS and Heineken, they’re as well represented as any of the other alternatives to TalentLMS.

Core features of Docebo

Besides the drag-and-drop page design system, Docebo includes a respectable selection of core features for you to consider:

  • Social learning with Coach and Share
  • An AI-powered coach bot
  • Process automation using rules and triggers
  • Extended enterprise for multiple user groups
  • Data-driven Learning Impact reports

Strengths and selling points of Docebo

Docebo is a fairly flexible piece of learning management software with a strong reputation among employee learning communities. Its particular strengths include:

  • A wide array of features: Docebo provides plenty of different features to support learning and development, including its impact analysis capabilities, social learning support, and multi-portal functionality.
  • Plenty of add-ons to suit your needs: Docebo supplements its core LMS with a number of affordable add-ons, each costing only a few dollars per person on the 500 user level.
  • Strong AI implementation: Docebo leverages AI in its service to coach users, guide learning paths, and create its Learning Impact reports.
  • Replacing legacy enterprise systems: As enterprise companies seek to replace their outdated digital architecture for L&D, Docebo has started to gain traction.

Pricing and best fit of Docebo

As alternatives to TalentLMS go, Docebo has quite a broad target market: Companies with between 500 and 10,000 employees. They charge on a per-module basis, starting with their core module, Learn LMS.

Other functions, like Coach & Share and Learning Impact, constitute additional modules. As noted, these are much cheaper than the core LMS, but are still priced based on the number of users.

Drawbacks and limitations of Docebo

Like most alternatives to TalentLMS, Docebo sadly doesn’t squeak by without criticism. Here are the most important drawbacks to using Docebo:

  • New add-ons keep increasing platform complexity: New add-ons can be great, but they can also be clutter. Rather than add features to the core LMS, Docebo has gated them off behind paywalls.
  • Outdated creation and management tools: Despite promoting its UI as user-friendly and engaging, Docebo’s content creation and course management tools could use an update.
  • Misses the mark for customization and compatibility: Docebo doesn’t support integrations with common workplace systems, and has little in the way of platform customization.
  • Yet another platform with no flow-of-work learning: The custom content pages are another example of learning management completely isolated from actual employee tools like Microsoft Teams.
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4. 360Learning

360Learning lives up to its name by being all about collaborative learning management. Instead of promoting a hierarchical approach to L&D, they empower learners as content creators. All kinds of businesses use this LMS, from Aircall to Pizza Hut.

Core features of 360Learning

Beyond its basic course creation tools, 360Learning’s core features include:

  • LXP learning hub
  • Co-authoring tools for content and courses
  • Academies to bring learning groups together
  • Reactions and reporting
  • Mobile app functionality

Strengths and selling points of 360Learning

360Learning sports a healthy selection of useful LMS features, which drive the following major selling points:

  • Collaborative content design: Of all the TalentLMS alternatives on our list, 360Learning is arguably the most dedicated to empowering learner-generated content.
  • Continuous feedback: 360Learning’s reaction system creates a flow of real-time feedback to inform course management decision-making.
  • Enterprise-level L&D: 360Learning’s broad range of functions supports scalability to the enterprise level.
  • Price scaling and flexibility: As we’ll discuss in the following section, 360Learning’s flexible pricing makes them a decent fit for companies of any size.

Pricing and best fit of 360Learning

Designed for organizations with 500 to 10,000 users, 360Learning offers flexible subscription packages based on user count. While smaller subscriptions allow monthly billing, most plans require annual billing with a minimum three-year contract.

  • Team ($): For up to 100 users, this plan includes basic features like co-authoring, reactions, and mobile app access.
  • Business ($$): Includes advanced functionality such as nested groups, user roles, SSO, email support, a 99% uptime SLA, and API access.
  • Enterprise ($$$): Adds additional features like project and learning needs management, Volunteering for a Need, achievements, and expanded customization options.

Drawbacks and limitations of 360Learning

Capping things off for 360Learning, let’s look at its drawbacks and limitations compared to other TalentLMS alternatives:

  • Struggles with larger libraries and course catalogs: While navigation is easy enough at first, growing content and course options become time-consuming to browse.
  • Overly simplistic course creation: The course creation tools are pretty basic, presumably to more easily enable learner contributions.
  • High admin overhead: Despite the simplicity of its creation tools, 360Learning is actually quite complex. This means a lengthy rollout and a lot of work for admins.
  • Little flow-of-work integration support: Another LMS that doesn’t support learning through your actual work tools.

What makes an LMS scalable?

If you need alternatives to TalentLMS, then you probably want an LMS that can scale with company growth more easily. Otherwise, you’ll need to change systems again if things take off. So, to finish up, let’s go over some key criteria for LMS scalability.

AI-powered learning tools

AI is becoming increasingly common in modern learning development tools, and with good reason. As your business grows, course leaders inevitably become responsible for more and more learners. It gets to the point where it isn’t feasible to give each person one-to-one guidance at all times.

AI-powered learning tools guide people through course selection and engagement. They help to develop personalized learning paths, to keep people learning while filling critical skills gaps for your emerging enterprise.

L&D admin automation

A few alternatives to TalentLMS just don’t do enough to streamline admin work. Again, the more learners you have, the more busywork it generates for your team. Without proper automation, you’ll soon hit a hard cap with the number of learners your LMS can support.

Bulk pricing flexibility

Bulk pricing makes your services cheaper on a per-user level as a means of encouraging companies to buy large numbers of user licenses. Without these options, enterprise L&D budgets would quickly grow out of control. If you’re aiming to upskill a huge corporation, you need a platform that offers good value for money.

Test your LMS options

As always, the advice we want to leave you with is: Take your time. Don’t just pick an LMS because it looks flashy. Do the research on alternatives to TalentLMS.

If a platform offers a Freemium version, road test it. If they don’t, see what demo options they provide and start scheduling them. Ultimately, the best way to test LMS suitability is to get to grips with it yourself.

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