A good learning management system (LMS) helps in maintaining a skilled, knowledgeable, and productive workforce. We look at the 7 best LMS for small businesses so you can make the right choice for your company.
In today’s fast-changing environment, companies are facing growing skills gaps and low employee engagement levels. This may result in low productivity, poor work quality, and an impact on profits. Businesses need to find a reliable way to train and re-engage their workers if they want to stay successful—but this can be tricky to achieve, especially for small businesses.
That’s where learning management systems (LMS) for small businesses can help. They enable you to create and assign custom training programs for new hires. You can also roll out training modules to upskill and re-skill your existing workforce. Plus, online learning keeps workers engaged on the go and enables you to track progress from anywhere.
In this article, we review the 7 best LMS for small businesses so you can pick the best one for your team.
If you don’t have the time to read through our research, jump down to our quick comparison table.
Our Top Picks
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Best all-in-one learning management system for small businesses
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Good for creating content with voiceover
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Good for collaborative learning
What To Look For in an LMS for Small Businesses
Good employee training software will enable you to customize courses, track progress, and measure training success. For small business owners, the main features to look out for in a good LMS platform are:
- Customizable training courses: Great LMS tools let you create a learning program on any topic and add colors, images, videos, PDFs, and more.
- Quizzes and assessments: These make the learning experience fun and engaging for workers. Plus, they help ensure that employees are understanding the content.
- Feedback tools: Gathering feedback on your training courses enables you to refine materials. Connecteam has built-in surveys and polls to help you do this efficiently.
- Knowledge base: This is a central location where users can store and access training materials—like standard operating procedures (SOPs), safety manuals, onboarding documents, and more.
- Reminders and tracking tools: These let you send employees training reminders and track progress in real time. You should also be able to view what courses workers have completed.
- Event management tools: These help you plan offline learning sessions, webinars, and more so you can offer blended learning—a combination of online and offline techniques.
- Work chat: This makes it easy to discuss content and share learning-related information in real time and on the go.
- User-friendly interface: Your LMS should be easy to navigate and provide an intuitive user experience. Connecteam, for example, lets you break courses down into bite-sized chunks, auto-save progress, and more.
The 7 Best LMS for Small Businesses for 2023
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Connecteam — Best all-in-one learning management system for small businesses
Connecteam is the best all-in-one learning management system for small businesses. It provides powerful tools that let you create highly customizable training courses. You can assign these to workers, send them reminders, and even track progress in real time.
Connecteam’s mobile app ensures that workers can access and complete their modules at their own pace. Moreover, Connecteam is very intuitive and comes with excellent customer support.
Let’s take a closer look at what Connecteam has to offer.
Create training courses quickly and easily, and in the format of your choice
With Connecteam, you can build custom training courses within minutes and without any coding experience. Its simple interface lets you add custom content on any topic and in any format, including PDFs, images, videos, audio clips, and more. You can divide courses into sections and control the flow of content so it’s easy for your workers to navigate.
Offer courses, send reminders, and track progress from anywhere with the mobile app
Connecteam can be accessed on computers and mobile devices, enabling workers to complete their courses from anywhere. Employees’ progress is automatically saved, so they can pick their course up from where they left it after a break.
You and your HR staff can also send push notifications to remind workers of upcoming deadlines so courses are never missed. You can also track employees’ training progress in real time using the admin dashboard, which offers insights into course completion statuses, quiz results, and more.
Evaluate effectiveness and keep workers engaged with quizzes, surveys, and polls
You can add quizzes to courses to make learning fun and engaging. Plus, they make it easy to assess how much workers are understanding and retaining the content you’ve created.
Connecteam’s surveys feature enables you to quickly gather feedback from workers so you can refine your learning program. Plus, with the live polls feature, you can get instant insights and votes on what workers want to learn so you can improve your offering.
You can also export training and survey data to Excel for further analysis.
The knowledge base puts key learning and onboarding materials at workers’ fingertips
Connecteam’s knowledge base can securely store an unlimited number of files of any size. It can house all your training and onboarding materials, including safety manuals, SOPs, company policies, and more.
You can also add images, audio, and video files. Plus, you can import materials from Google Drive and Dropbox, which seamlessly integrate with Connecteam.
In addition, Connecteam’s search functionality lets employees find what they need easily. Helpful resources are always at hand!
See historical training and certifications and plan ahead with a color-coded timeline
Connecteam has an employee timeline that lets you track key employee milestones. This includes pay raises, promotions, and even training history. Each milestone category is color-coded for easy understanding.
You can add refresher courses such as compliance training, customer training, and more to the timeline for employees to complete. You can also track the status of workers’ licenses and certifications and stay aware of expiration dates. Finally, quiz results—such as “passed” or “failed”—and training dates are also visible on timelines.
Event management features help you plan and manage social learning programs
You can make learning even more engaging by curating group training sessions, either offline or virtually. Connecteam offers event management features to make planning these sessions a breeze. You can send invites to register and track RSVPs for seminars, webinars, networking events, and other learning sessions.
You can also use these tools for any other company event you may want to hold—from team-building events to holiday parties and everything in between.
Keep workers involved with chat and company newsfeed, plus so much more!
Connecteam’s in-app chat can be used for seamless communications about training, as well as anything else important to your team. You can use one-to-one or group chats to inform workers about upcoming sessions, changes to programs, and more.
The newsfeed feature can also be used to send updates and announcements about company-wide learning sessions, events, or anything else happening at your business. Additionally, you can check workers’ availability using Connecteam’s scheduling tool. This helps ensure that you’re planning sessions for when people are available.
On top of training and communication tools, Connecteam also offers powerful operations tools such as GPS-enabled time tracking, task management, checklists and forms, and more. It also provides additional HR tools for recognition and rewards, document management, and so on. It truly is an all-in-one team management solution.
Free for small businesses with up to 10 workers
Connecteam is completely free for small businesses with up to 10 users. Larger companies can choose from multiple paid plans starting as low as $29 per month for up to 30 users.
Key Features
Highly customizable course creation
Engaging quizzes
Powerful surveys and polls features
Secure and searchable knowledge center
Oversight of courses and certifications with employee timeline
Effortless event management
Pros
User-friendly training interface that can be divided into sections
Fully mobile—courses can be completed and tracked from anywhere
Auto-saving of course progress
Push notifications remind users of assigned courses and deadlines
Cons
Doesn’t offer video conferencing yet
Pricing
Free-for-life plan availablePremium plans start at $29/month for 30 users
14-day free trial, no credit card required
Start your free trial -
iSpring — Good for creating content with voiceover
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
iSpring is next on our list of the 7 best LMS for small business teams. It offers a suite of authoring tools to create employee training courses. Training managers can create materials from scratch or use templates.
They can also convert PDF, Word, or PowerPoint files into training materials. In addition, managers can add images, videos, animation, and voiceovers to courses. Learning materials can be stored in a content library that can be accessed by workers.
The platform also lets managers add quizzes to training modules. However, performance on quizzes can’t be later reviewed by managers, as iSpring doesn’t save this data to a worker’s training history.
iSpring can be expensive compared to other solutions on the market. It’s most suited for businesses that need complex and interactive training courses and have a high budget.
Learn more about iSpringKey Features
- Training course templates
- Built-in quizzes
- Video lectures
- Content library
Pros
- Text-to-speech functionality for voiceovers
- 24/7 customer support
Cons
- Access to the full authoring toolkit is pricey
- No built-in tools for live training
Pricing
Starts at $3.66/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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360Learning — Good for collaborative learning
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
360Learning is another option for employee training software for small business teams. It allows any user—including employees—to create and deliver training courses. They can create courses using drag-and-drop functionality and templates.
The platform also offers gamification and video integration features. Workers can self-register for courses.
Employees can interact with each other by leaving comments on modules or upvoting courses they like. They can also leave questions or feedback for instructors. 360Learning is available as a mobile app and supports third-party integrations.
This tool is best suited for promoting peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. However, since employees can create courses themselves without approval, it’s difficult to control what content is shared.
Learn more about 360LearningKey Features
- Drag-and-drop functionality to create courses
- Pre-made templates
- Comments and feedback section
- Self-registration for courses
Pros
- Has a mobile app
- Supports third-party integrations
Cons
- Limited control over content and courses
- No in-app chat
Pricing
Starts at $8/user/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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MoodleCloud — Good for online learning
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
MoodleCloud is a cloud-based learning management system. It sits under MoodleLMS—a platform that’s typically used in schools and universities. Moodle enables educators to create, deliver, and track courses online. It offers templates for course creation, as well as quizzes and discussion forums.
With MoodleCloud, admins can house educational resources and training content. They can also store this information by creating a separate company website for training with their company domain name. However, custom domain names are only available on the more expensive premium plan.
MoodleCloud has a mobile app and integrates with third-party platforms. However, it can only be used in conjunction with MoodleLMS. It doesn’t house or host training materials from any other LMS platforms.
Learn more about MoodleCloudKey Features
- Templates for course creation
- Quizzes and discussion forums
- Custom domain name
- Storage center for training materials
Pros
- Mobile app that can be used from anywhere
- Supports third-party integrations
Cons
- Can only store materials from MoodleLMS
- 50-user and 250MB storage limits on the basic plan
Pricing
Starts at $9.16 per month ($110 annually) Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
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Trakstar — Good for integrating with other Trakstar products
Available on
- Web
Trakstar Learn is a learning management system that lets managers and admins create custom courses using training templates. They can assign and manage courses, track workers’ progress, and auto-enroll workers in training programs instead of manually assigning courses to each user. The platform also offers tools to distribute onboarding materials to new hires.
Additionally, Trakstar Learn offers a variety of reporting options. Managers can track certifications and course statuses.
Trakstar Learn also integrates with Trakstar’s performance management and applicant tracking systems. However, it doesn’t have built-in survey or chat tools to collect feedback.
Learn more about TrakstarKey Features
- Custom course creation
- Templates
- Can track employee certifications
- Reporting and analytics
Pros
- Integrates with Trakstar’s applicant tracking system
- Supports auto-enrollment
Cons
- No built-in survey or in-app chat features
- More expensive than some other LMS
Pricing
Starts at $417/month, for up to 30 users Trial: No Free Plan: No
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TalentLMS — Good for creating courses in multiple languages
Available on
- Web
- iOS
- Android
- Windows
- Mac
TalentLMS is a training software solution that enables managers to host video conferences and live training sessions.
Managers can also create custom online training courses using the platform’s drag-and-drop functionality. They can add PDFs, documents, images, videos, and other content formats as well. Plus, training managers have the option to create quizzes and tests to assess learning. However, the platform doesn’t offer templates for easy course creation.
Talent LMS supports content in more than 30 languages, but there’s no automatic translation. Existing courses will need to be translated into another language by a professional.
Learn more about TalentLMSKey Features
- Drag-and-drop course creation tools
- Video conferencing
- Quizzes and assessments
- Third-party integrations
Pros
- Supports multiple languages
- Content can be customized to match branding
Cons
- No in-app chat
- Only limited to training tools
Pricing
Starts at $59/month Trial: No Free Plan: Yes
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JoomLMS — Good for training-related communications
Available on
JoomLMS is a learning management system that lets training managers create and deliver online courses. It offers a range of features, including custom course creation, online quizzes and exams, progress tracking, and reporting. It also has survey tools to gather feedback on training materials.
The platform offers communication tools that enable managers to send announcements about new courses. All users have a built-in mailbox. Admins and instructors can also see a calendar view of their upcoming courses.
JoomLMS also supports third-party integrations with e-commerce platforms like PayPal and Stripe. This is useful for course creators who want to monetize their content. However, JoomLMS’s plans are more expensive than some other solutions.
Learn more about JoomLMSKey Features
- Quizzes and exams
- Course creation
- Reporting and analytics
- Surveys and other communication tools
Pros
- Supports third-party integrations
- Mobile app can be accessed from anywhere
Cons
- More expensive than other solutions
- Standard plan doesn’t have advanced reporting features
Pricing
Starts at $24.91/month Trial: Yes Free Plan: No
Compare the Best LMS for Small Businesses
| Topic |
Start for free
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reviews |
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N/A
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| Pricing |
Starts at just $29/month for the first 30 users
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Starts at $3.66/user/month
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Starts at $8/user/month
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Starts at $9.16 per month ($110 annually)
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Starts at $417/month, for up to 30 users
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Starts at $59/month
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Starts at $24.91/month
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| Free Trial |
yes
14-day
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yes
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yes
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yes
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no
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no
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yes
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| Free Plan |
yes
Free Up to 10 users
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no
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no
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no
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no
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yes
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no
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What Are Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Small Businesses?
A learning management system (LMS) is a software solution that enables small businesses to train employees.
These solutions make it easy for training managers and HR teams to create and deliver training courses on a wide range of topics. This could include new hire onboarding, compliance training, learning job-specific skills, and more. With these tools, managers can deliver courses in various formats including online quizzes, in-person sessions, live webinars, and so on.
Great learning management apps give managers complete visibility into workers’ training timelines, including past and upcoming courses. They also let managers assign modules, track progress, and gather feedback so they can refine the company’s training program.
How Do Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Small Businesses Work?
Learning management systems work by simplifying training course creation and delivery for businesses. Managers can typically use templates to build custom training courses on any topic. Alternatively, they can usually create courses from scratch using drag-and-drop features. Most platforms have options for adding images, videos, built-in quizzes, audio clips, and more to training modules.
Once courses are ready, managers can roll them out in different ways depending on the system used. For example, they can add courses to workers’ timelines, auto-enroll them, or share a registration link via a built-in work chat. Managers should also be able to send employees reminders about completing training, view quiz results, and track their team’s training progress on the app.
Within the LMS, workers can see their assigned training courses. Mobile-enabled courses can be completed by employees anytime, from anywhere. Some solutions also let workers self-enroll in training sessions that appear on their hub or dashboard within the LMS. The best training tools auto-save progress so workers can come back to their training at any time.
The Benefits of Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Small Businesses
A good learning management system can provide a host of benefits for your small business. These include:
Maintaining a skilled and knowledgeable workforce
Tools such as surveys, polls, and training quizzes help identify your company’s training needs. They then simplify the process of creating and delivering custom learning programs to bridge any skills gaps. This way, you can upskill and re-skill your workers with the changing times and always maintain a well-rounded workforce.
Onboarding new employees quickly and effectively
Learning software also helps bring new hires up to speed. You can have them complete their onboarding, compliance, and job-specific training courses right from within the app.
With an LMS, workers can also easily access important training materials such as SOPs, company policies, safety manuals, and more from a central knowledge base.
These tools enable them to start contributing to company goals quickly and effectively.
Staying compliant
Learning management systems give you, as a manager, complete oversight of your workers’ training histories, licenses, and certifications. You can identify what’s about to expire and what needs to be renewed or refreshed. Then, you can assign courses to workers accordingly. This helps keep your company compliant with local laws and regulations.
Increasing employee engagement levels
With survey tools and work chats, you can gather feedback on what your workers want to learn. You can then create and deliver courses that help your workers feel empowered and motivated. Built-in quizzes can also help make learning engaging and fun. Finally, mobile-friendly solutions are a great way of keeping workers engaged and learning from anywhere.
Saving time, money, and resources
Small businesses often work with limited budgets and resources when it comes to training and development. Online solutions help businesses save time by simplifying course creation and delivery.
Online training also saves travel costs for trainers and employees. Plus, with mobile-enabled learning, you don’t need to rent a training space either.
How Much Do Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Small Businesses Cost?
Learning management solutions use various pricing models and differ in their costs. For example, iSpring’s LMS uses two pricing models. It starts at $2.99/user/month for access to the LMS. But if you need access to its authoring tools, prices start from $770 per author, per year.
TalentLMS charges a flat fee, starting at $69/month for up to 40 users. JoomLMS is priced per user, starting at $49/user/month for 1-50 users. These can get expensive for small businesses working with a lower budget.
However, with Connecteam, you can access a suite of powerful learning tools at a fraction of the cost. Paid plans start at just $29 per month for up to 30 users. What’s more, small businesses with up to 10 users can access the app completely free of cost. You can also try Connecteam for free for 14 days before picking a plan.
FAQs
What is the main function of learning management systems?
Learning management systems are designed to simplify the creation and delivery of training courses. They offer tools that help you build custom courses either from scratch or by using templates. You can roll courses out through an online hub. Plus, you can send reminders and track progress on employees’ training modules.
Which is the best learning management system?
Connecteam is the best all-in-one learning management system. It provides powerful survey tools to help you identify training needs. You can then create custom courses within minutes and deliver them to employees’ mobile devices. You can also send training reminders, view workers’ training histories, and track progress in real time.
What is the best feature of a learning management system?
The best feature of a learning management system will vary from business to business. For example, mobile access is one of the best features for teams that operate from different locations. Connecteam optimizes all training courses and has a mobile-friendly app so workers and managers can access training on the go.
The Bottom Line On Learning Management Systems (LMS) for Small Businesses
With today’s talent shortages and low engagement levels, keeping your workers skilled and engaged can give you a competitive edge in the labor market. Plus, it can help keep your small business productive and profitable. Great learning management systems help you onboard new hires and upskill and reskill your staff with ease. They also offer tools for creating custom programs and tracking their effectiveness.
Connecteam is the best learning management system on the market today. It offers a range of powerful features such as customizable training courses, built-in quizzes, surveys, and more. And its pricing is great for small businesses working on a budget.