LMS’s like Thinkific and Learnworlds seem like highly polished, feature-rich, robust and have very pleasing user interfaces.
However, reading internet forums like this, for some reason, they don’t seem to be “go to” LMS platforms.
I cannot understand this. What makes some LMS platforms “go to” whereas other seem almost forgotten about?
Not as familiar with Learnworlds, but when I was looking at it Thinkific a few years ago:
is expensive
uses proprietary course creation, so if you need to move it to somewhere else, that involves completely recreating the course
can’t bulk enroll all employees or have employee groups.
has limited reporting/tracking.
It’s great for one segment of the LMS market (individuals who have no background in course creation, need little tracking, and sell to the public) but it’s not one size fits all.
I use Thinkific and you can do bulk adds via customer service, which is wonderful, and you also can create groups. It’s pricey yes and you can’t move the courses easily no. I’ve considered going to a lower cost solution even though I’m quite happy with Thinkific. So I’m curious about this thread.
So you can’t do the add yourself, and have to have their customer service do it? I mean it’s good that they have that option now, but having to have their CS do it seems clunky and also that means you have to give Thinkific all your learner’s info.
I am curious too. I was seriously considering LearnWorlds, but was unsure what the catch was with it being so much cheaper. In the end I let it go as I struggled to get the info from them I needed to pass our internal financial and values checks.
I am curious too. I was seriously considering LearnWorlds, but was unsure what the catch was with it being so much cheaper. In the end I let it go as I struggled to get the info from them I needed to pass our internal financial and values checks.
They have a cap of 2,000 active learners per month or you have to go to the enterprise plan - pricing unclear. They upsell a lot of add-ons, such as a mobile app. They are based in Limassol, which has a low cost of living.
A lot of people use them for customer-facing education. They’re also great for influencers that are trying to sell (hopefully not scam!) courses. But when you search for top LMSs, you’re seeing the bulkier systems that have better reporting capabilities. These LMSs are good for employee training, especially compliance.
I am a Thinkific customer, a quite unhappy one. Their answer to any issue is to clear the cache. I can bulk upload students and bulk enroll them into my training subscription, but it doesn’t allow me to set an expiration date. To do this I have to click each student and manually change each student. There are features that many of us have requested for years and there is no progress towards them For instance, if there is a yearly compliance class, you can’t reset the student’s progress. You have to make another copy of the class, leading to a lot of extra content and confusion. I am in the process of finding a better solution as I recently posted my concerns and called them out for their ineffective troubleshooting and they blocked me from their FB group. No transparency allowed.
Thanks for that.
I’ve contemplated solutions based on LearnDash but if you’ve ever dealt with WordPress -powered software, it can be a head wreck especially if you not proficient with the intricacies of WordPress.
The problem with this market seems to be “consumer level” and “enterprise level” with very little in between. It would be nice if there was a middle-ground solution.
The preference for certain LMS platforms over others often depends on specific user needs, industry reputation, and established market presence. While platforms like Thinkific and Learnworlds offer appealing features and user interfaces, the popularity of “go-to” LMS platforms may stem from their extensive integrations, scalability, customer support, and a history of successful implementations. The choice between LMS options should align with an organization’s unique requirements and goals, which can vary widely, thus influencing the popularity of different platforms.