Table of Contents
If you asked me what goes into the perfect learning management software (LMS), I’d say flexibility, scalability, and ease of use.
But these are just starting points.
In 2025, your company needs an LMS that meets changing training needs, with complete integration into existing tools. Be it training courses for employees, onboarding new hires, or education done for customers, the right LMS will optimize the very way in which you manage courses to support your learners’ retention.
To help you select the best LMS for your business, we are going to break the process down through every step.
Why your business needs LMS software
While an LMS isn’t exactly the first thing you add to your tool stack, you should consider one when:
You may find your business facing one of these or multiple problem scenarios at the same time. So, what do you do then?
Choose an LMS that’s right for your business
The best learning management system ever is the one that’s right for your business.
Choosing an online training management system shouldn’t be a rushed decision just because you heard a cool company uses a certain LMS.
Start with the needs of your company. For example, if compliance training, onboarding, or assessments for continuing employee development are the focus, pick an LMS software that specializes in that.
Likewise, if you manage a remote team, a mobile-friendly LMS is key when your business is quite obviously on the upswing.
Key factors to consider when choosing an LMS
Not sure how to choose an LMS that works best for you? Once you figure out which business and training needs the tool can cater to start looking at their capabilities. What can they do for you and how are you planning to use them?
When choosing an LMS make sure to explore key factors like their ease of use, their AI capabilities, integrations, gamification, reporting and analytics tools, and pricing.
To help you, here are all the main elements you need to keep an eye on:
Business size and training needs
If you’re a small business, my recommendation is to opt for an inexpensive and simple platform with essential features. In contrast, for a growing business or a large corporation, a scalable solution is a must to achieve business growth.
When you choose your LMS, look for one that will support the needs of multiple users, has custom learning paths, and advanced reporting. I’ve seen businesses outgrowing their LMS way too quickly because they didn’t plan ahead.
Picking the right one isn’t just a question of what you need today. It’s about that very learning platform evolving with your business.
User experience and ease of use
A confusing and clunky LMS won’t prompt people to use it. So many teams abandon training programs simply because the platform is too hard to navigate.
A good LMS should be intuitive, mobile-friendly, and integrated nicely with the tools you use every day. Your learners should be able to log in and start learning without needing a manual or hour-long tutorial.
AI-powered personalization and automation
AI customizes learning paths based on user behavior, recommends suitable courses, and automates managerial things, like scheduling and reporting—on your behalf.
The main reason why I for one like using AI as part of training content management is that it gives me realistic and detailed insights into learners’ needs. All this without me having to directly ask every learner one by one for feedback and updates on their progress.
Integration capabilities
You’d wasting hours just on transferring data manually if your LMS wouldn’t connect with HR software, communication tools, or CRM.
The sad truth is that most companies still struggle with systems that don’t connect well. This is not only frustrating for the course provider but also impacts the experience learners get. And, no one wants to receive updates and training materials that aren’t adapted to their learning stage (or style) right?
Gamification and engagement tools
Badges, leaderboards, and rewards make for a great starting point for trying out gamification. You can use these tactics to promote engagement and get learners more eager to participate in competitions while contributing to the lesson more frequently.
Don’t forget social learning tools like communities and forums as well. Learning is a social activity and LMSs that offer robust learner engagement tools are in for the win.
Analytics and reporting
A good learning management system will track progress, completion levels, and knowledge gaps so you can improve your training strategy. It can also help you track any issues with your course content and allow you to adjust what’s not working to improve performance. That’s all you have to remember.
Cost consideration
Cost is a big one for me given you can find tools with similar feature sets at polar opposite pricing plans. You’ll only find yourself regretting a “cheap” LMS choice when the platform doesn’t cater to your needs as you try to scale your elearning business for example.
That’s why it’s important to prioritize feature capabilities, usability, and common workflows before the fees.
💡Pro tip on how to choose an LMS: Take your time to try out as many platforms as you want and need to. It’s best to get a demo or a free trial and read several reviews of the tool you are considering investing in before making a decision.
Learning management system example for businesses
Now that you have a solid look at what goes into choosing a learning management system, let’s look into what options you have to test the best learning management software.
The table above lists the most popular LMS platforms along with their key features, target audience, and starting price. This should help you get an idea of what to look for in the process of choosing a learning management system.
But let’s see what each one offers in greater detail.
1. LearnWorlds
Business size and training needs
LearnWorlds is the best learning management system that works for small to medium enterprises, especially those targeting online course monetization, and employee and customer training.
For entrepreneurs, coaches, or a company looking to sell courses for their online business, this platform packs powerful tools to help you develop, market, and scale your elearning efforts.
LearnWorlds also acts as a corporate training platform with enhanced security, advanced course insights and analytics, AI Assistant, and a no-code website builder.
User experience & ease of use
With the use of a drag-and-drop editor and customizable templates, you can create interactive courses without needing a single line of code. On the learners’ side, they get a user-friendly platform that offers mobile-friendly access, guaranteeing uninterrupted, and personalized learning.
AI-powered personalization & automation
With native AI-driven course creation recommendations and workflow automation, LearnWorlds lets you personalize learning for everyone (not just a couple of learner segments). Automated grading, progress tracking, and the ability to create personalized learning paths help you keep the users engaged.
Integration capabilities
Choose from plenty of integrations with your favorite marketing, CRM, and analytics tools and support the communication of data between all your systems.
Gamification & engagement tools
LearnWorlds supports you with interactive videos, quizzes, and certificates you can use to create a gamified learner experience. Assessments, live sessions, and collaborative learning tools can also contribute to this. With it, you get a built-in community where you can create learner groups and forums to help your learners communicate with each other and their instructors.
Analytics and reporting
Robust analytics provide deep insights into learner progress, course performance, and engagement. Use them to support business growth, track completion rates, quiz scores, and even video engagement analytics to keep refining your training strategy.
Cost consideration
LearnWorlds’ starting price is $29/month with the Starter Plan that’s great for course creators.
The plan comes with unlimited paid courses, building ebook pages, and the inclusion of exams and quizzes. It also lets you host live sessions, drip-feed courses, and design a website.
The plan supports multi-language sites with Weglot, integrates with 3 payment gateways, and offers flexible checkout options. It also comes with marketing and accounting tool integrations, a free SSL certificate, a tag manager, and 24/5 email support.
2. Litmos
Business size and training needs
Litmos is designed only for corporate training, being good for companies that want to optimize internal employee development and automate compliance training. While Litmos can provide a flexible corporate learning solution, it’s not a great fit if you are a creator or brand that wants to sell online courses.
User experience & ease of use
This is one of the learning management systems for businesses that have an intuitive interface, so admins and learners alike can access it and learn to use it without much of a learning curve.
AI-powered personalization & automation
While this LMS platform provides learning management systems features for automation like progress tracking and training assignment notifications, it doesn’t deliver strong AI capabilities like some of the best LMS systems on this list. The AI is mostly used to speed up administrative work rather than for tasks like creating customizable learning paths based on user behavior or offering detailed course guidance.
Integration capabilities
Although Litmos integrates into a diverse range of tools, some users report that setting these up can be complex and may require technical skills during the onboarding process.
Gamification & engagement tools
This workforce development platform has gamification elements such as badges, certificates, and leaderboards.
Analytics and reporting
Litmos has reporting essential features that give insights into employees’ progress, course completion rates, and engagement.
Cost consideration
Pricing isn’t publicly displayed on the website but you can expect to pay based on the LMS features you‘ll need, making complex requirements more costly.
*Pricing retrieved from Litmos in March 2025.
3. TalentLMS
Business size and training needs
TalentLMS offers elearning software solutions that are quite versatile but it’s important to note that like Litmos, it’s best suited for corporate training, employee development needs, and customer education. This makes it more inappropriate for anyone wanting to sell a course or use online learning to grow a personal brand.
User experience & ease of use
The setup process is pretty simple and it’s easy to create courses and manage users. However, like with many other elearning and employee onboarding software, you’ll still need to go through an extensive learning process to get used to the app.
AI-powered personalization & automation
While TalentLMS offers some automation essential features, such as automated notifications and progress tracking, it lacks deep AI-driven personalization seen in other platforms.
Integration capabilities
The LMS solution integrates well with several third-party applications, including HR software, CRMs, and tools like Zapier.
Gamification & engagement tools
There are gamification must-have features such as badges, certificates, and leaderboards designed to engage learners.
Analytics and reporting
Though this LMS platform does provide useful analytics, these are quite basic. So companies that need more complex and granular reporting might find this reporting tool less compelling.
Cost consideration
Plans start at $139/month based on the number of users and features needed, but as you scale, you can expect the cost to rise if additional features or more users are added.
*Pricing retrieved from TalentLMS in March 2025.
4. iSpring Learn
Business size and training needs
iSpringLearn is a good pick for small and medium-sized enterprises looking for support with a new hire onboarding process, compliance training, employee performance appraisal, and similar. This doesn’t make it a great fit for coaches, training content creators, and similar tough. Certain segments and sectors such as finance, healthcare, or the fitness space might lack representation too.
User experience & ease of use
We’re talking about another LMS where setting up courses (and conversely using them) is easy, requiring just as much time to learn the interface as with some of the other solutions on this list.
AI-powered personalization & automation
iSpring’s AI can write and format text, generate ideas for course design, develop quiz questions, and improve the visual side of the course itself. Still, this is where the AI capabilities for this learning management system for employee training end.
Integration capabilities
iSpring Learn integrates with a variety of popular third-party tools, including CRM systems, HR software, and collaboration platforms.
Gamification & engagement tools
This LMS platform offers some gamification via quizzes, badges, and certificates.
Analytics and reporting
This LMS solution does stand out because of its strong analytics and reporting tools to track learner progress. However, some users have expressed that the reporting capacities could be more customizable and provide deeper insights into learner behaviors or training effectiveness.
Cost consideration
iSpring Learn offers competitive pricing, with two main plans: iSpring Learn Start and iSpring Learn Business. The Start plan is priced at $6.70 per user/month when billed annually. The catch is you can’t pay for the tool on a monthly basis and the fees will add up as your team grows.
*Pricing retrieved from iSpring Learn in March 2025.
💁🏻Looking for the best learning management system for employee training? Check out this list of LMSs for small businesses.
5. Docebo
Business size and training needs
Docebo is another more versatile LMS solution, helping businesses of all sizes with various use cases like onboarding, talent development, compliance training, and more. It even comes with basic ecommerce capabilities so you can sell courses.
User experience & ease of use
Docebo has one of the most modern interfaces on this list (thanks to regular updates). Still, as always, with a vast range of features, new users may face a more difficult learning curve.
AI-powered personalization & automation
This LMS platform has AI-based personalization features for content creation and authoring. You’ll also find it works for automating course assignments, certifications, and reminders.
Integration capabilities
You’re dealing with one of the most popular learning management systems for businesses that have a vast marketplace for integrations with popular tools like Zapier, Salesforce, and Microsoft Teams.
Gamification & engagement tools
Leaderboards, badges, points, and challenges. This is what falls under gamification as part of this LMS solution.
Analytics and reporting
Docebo’s analytics give you insights into learner progress, course completion, and performance metrics. Meanwhile, reporting is limited to creating custom reports and segmenting data in detail.
Cost consideration
Docebo’s pricing is on the higher end as users report but they lack pricing transparency as costs aren’t displayed on the website.
*Pricing retrieved from Docebo in March 2025.
Final thoughts
My advice when looking for the best learning management software for your business?
Never rush into choosing one.
Remember, the best learning management system is one that:
Start working on your next courses with LearnWorlds. Get your 30-day free trial to learn how you can give learner engagement a boost and make the most of your elearning business.
Alexandra Cote
Alexandra Cote is a SaaS growth marketer and online instructor who's worked with dozens of brands in the MarTech, HR tech, and productivity space. She's also a strong supporter of staying happy at work and choosing a healthy career path.
Back to blog
Scroll to top
FAQ
Everything you have ever wondered, but where too afraid to ask...
Related Articles
