Absorb LMS vs. LearnDash

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Absorb LMS
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Absorb LMS aims to empower organizations to train employees with the skills needed to stay modern and relevant in today's fast-paced world. The LMS software focuses on aligning learning needs with business demands.N/A
LearnDash
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
LearnDash is a WordPress LMS designed to bring learning management and elearning delivery to the WordPress open-source platform.
$159
per year 1 site license
Pricing
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Basic
$159
per year 1 site license
Plus Package
$189
per year up to 10 site licenses
Pro Package
$329
per year up to 25 site licenses
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional DetailsAll plans come with a 30-day money back guarantee.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Features
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Absorb LMS
8.9
90 Ratings
9% above category average
LearnDash
-
Ratings
Course authoring8.073 Ratings00 Ratings
Course catalog or library9.678 Ratings00 Ratings
Player/Portal9.182 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning content9.263 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile friendly7.167 Ratings00 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.985 Ratings00 Ratings
Assignments9.974 Ratings00 Ratings
Compliance management9.969 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning administration9.687 Ratings00 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics8.885 Ratings00 Ratings
Social learning8.044 Ratings00 Ratings
Gamification6.839 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.661 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.5 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
Enterprises
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.7 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(92 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(6 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(78 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Likelihood to Recommend
Absorb Software Inc.
My (internal) project build team consisted of three people - one with experience setting up an LMS previously, and two with no experience. I have experienced 'out of the box' builds before and they are rarely intuitive and/or easy to navigate and set up. This was not the case with Absorb LMS. The eLearning modules and face-to-face support provided was thorough and there was a lack of unneccessary complexity to setting up the platform. My novices now know there way around every inch of the platform and love using it. This was not our first LMS, but it may well be our last. The functionality (from reporting for admins to ease of access for learners) far exceeds our previous experiences and we have a product that looks great, works seemlessly and that we are very proud of.
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LearnDash
LearnDash is perfect for starting out with your courses or if you're tired of paying exorbitant fees to third-party platforms. It allows you to create audio, video, or text-based training in a simple and intuitive way if you're familiar with WordPress. I don't recommend it if you're not comfortable editing or designing your own website. LearnDash es perfecto para empezar a crear tus cursos o si estás cansado de pagar comisiones abusivas a plataformas de terceros. Te permite crear formaciones en audio, vídeo o texto de una forma sencilla e intuitiva si sabes manejarte dentro de Wordpress. No te la recomiendo si no te sientes cómodo editando/diseñando dentro de tu propia web. This review was originally written in Spanish and has been translated into English using a third-party translation tool. While we strive for accuracy, some nuances or meanings may not be perfectly captured.
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Pros
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Customizing the user interface was fairly simple and our learners WANT to use the platform because it looks so nice.
  • Admins have so many tools at their fingertips to pull reports, create new users, author new courses, and more!
  • Absorb LMS has been the solution to so many problems we had experienced in our previous LMS: ease of use, course library, course authoring, tracking, reporting, etc.
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LearnDash
  • Integrate with the website and other plugins (woocommerce, etc.)
  • Simple lesson design
  • Offers different formats in which to offer your courses (free, paid, restricted access, with groups, etc.)
  • Integrarse con la web y con otros plugins (woocommerce, etc)
  • Diseño sencillo de las lecciones
  • Ofrece diferentes formatos en los que ofrecer tus cursos (gratuito, pago, acceso restringido, con grupos, etc)
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Cons
Absorb Software Inc.
  • The "And" and "Or" rules for self + automatic enrollment could be spelled out more to clarify who we're enrolling into courses
  • The thumbnail and poster "Upload photo" section is confusing. There should be a "Favorites" folder where we can easily find most commonly used posters and thumbnails
  • more education around Absorb analyze essentials
  • How the Featured courses section ranks courses is confusing on the back-end. I need to switch the primary one to second place to feature the new one first. But if the previous one now becomes second place, what happens to the old course that was in second place? I've noticed the order you select on the back-end for this isn't always reflected on user side
  • Same comment as Featured Courses but for appearance of billboards. Hard to position each in the right order
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LearnDash
  • I would like to see more options for creating activities (games, fill in the blanks, etc.)
  • It would be nice if the support section had a Spanish translation.
  • I miss that when you install the plugin they give you a small introduction to teach you how to use it.
  • Me gustaría que haya más opciones de creación de actividades (juegos, rellenar huecos, etc)
  • Estaría bien que la sección de soporte tuviera traducción al español
  • Echo en falta que en el momento de instalar el plugin te hagan una pequeña introducción para enseñarte a usarlo
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Likelihood to Renew
Absorb Software Inc.
We love the ability to have a user-friendly system that integrates well with our different HR interfaces (we have 3 systems that feed data/employees into the system). It makes it easy to track course completions and report out on metrics enterprise-wide. In addition, the ability to provide consistent education to staff who are geographically dispersed is a huge incentive for us, and Absorb LMS does this seamlessly.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Usability
Absorb Software Inc.
It is very intuitive, not just from an admin perspective to manage courses and track completions, but also from a learners' perspective. It is very easy to find courses, search for courses, and track personal course progress. The interface is well designed, which makes it simpler for our audience to navigate the portal and find what they are looking for
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LearnDash
Learndash is an intuitive tool with everything you need to create courses and present them in an engaging way. It's also surprisingly easy to use. I've deducted a few points because, while it offers quite a few options out of the box, you may need to integrate it with other plugins (bbpress, etc.) to get the most out of it. Learndash es una herramienta intuitiva con todo lo necesario para crear cursos y presentarlos de una manera atractiva. Además es sorprendentemente fácil de utilizar. Le he quitado unos puntos porque, aunque de base ofrece bastantes opciones, es posible que necesites integrarlo con otros plugins (bbpress, etc.) para sacarle el máximo provecho.
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Reliability and Availability
Absorb Software Inc.
We have never had any major issue with Absorb's availability. Any outages that have occurred have been planned an communicated. Any small issues that occur within the Absorb platform have been addressed efficiently and quickly by support and the development team
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Performance
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb LMS's performance is very reliable and consistent. Pages load quickly. Report are generated within a reasonable amount of time (even with significant amounts of data), etc. Nothing seems to slow it down.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
[...] is a ROCK star- having her as part of our support team has been a game changer. She is a true problem solver at heart and has an unique ability to retain who we are as a company and match that with what can help us most. She has been a game changer for our internal admin team and is supporting us through a business review to help guide us in the best direction on our constant growth.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb was able to provide an initial training of the platform, covering all our basic needs. Additionally, there are Absorb learning modules available for further learning that can be accessed at anytime. There is also the ability to review Absorb's extensive resource library to find the answers to questions/troubleshooting. Beyond that, we opted for the Premier Support so our organization has access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
The implementation of Absorb went very seamlessly. We previously had the Oracle LMS and importing user data and getting the new system up to speed was painless. The smooth transition helped leaders and staff gain confidence early in the application/company and we have had a successful partnership with Absorb since.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Absorb Software Inc.
All sites provided at least a basic LMS platform, and Talent was probably the closest in terms of features and like-for-like comparison. Ultimately, none of the others had the same level of course creation and it would either have meant outsourcing or spending a significant amount of time building the courses which was not ideal as we would still be paying for the service during this time. Absorb had the best course creation software of all evaluated which is why we chose it, although it was also by far the most expensive of those evaluated.
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LearnDash
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Absorb Software Inc.
Seems very expensive for limitations we have experienced.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Absorb Software Inc.
We have already scaled our LMS from a couple hundred users to 1000 users and have plans to scale even larger. We use the LMS across multiple internal departments. countries and user types. Absorb has made it easy to integrate and scale and we will continue to scale in the near future.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Professional Services
Absorb Software Inc.
I believe this question speaks to additional professional service hours that we had built into our contract to work with a set of staff members for purposes of changes or enhancements to our specific instance of Absorb. Again, I have nothing but positive things to say regarding our dealings with people at all levels of the organization. The PMs, the technical experts, the help desk staff are all friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and efficient
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Lighter administrative load, we went from 20-30 support tickets per month to 1 or 2.
  • Our course setup and configuration time now takes less than 5 minutes. In our previous system it took us close to 15 minutes to publish a course.
  • We have been able to push administrative responsibilities to department level administrators, because of the ability to have department level admins, who only have access and control of their department users and content.
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LearnDash
  • It has allowed me to transform materials that were previously only for my students into scalable digital products, multiplying the income generated with certain resources by up to 50x.
  • I have been able to amortize the cost of the plugin with just a few sales.
  • It's allowed me to present my courses in a professional manner and on my own website. Although the impact is difficult to measure, this has also contributed to increasing my sales.
  • Me ha permitido transformar materiales que antes eran solo para mis estudiantes en productos digitales escalables, multiplicando hata x50 los ingresos generados con ciertos recursos.
  • He podido amortizar el coste del plugin con unas pocas ventas
  • Me ha permitido presentar mis cursos de una forma profesional y dentro de mi propia web. Aunque el impacto es difícil de medir, esto también ha contribuido a aumentar mis ventas.
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ScreenShots

Absorb LMS Screenshots

Screenshot of a company's unique identity with a training interface that is custom-designed for the brand.Screenshot of a company's image and values with a training interface that is tailored to the brand's specific needs.Screenshot of the course creation workflow, that offer a diverse set of formats, including instructional videos, quizzes, and assessments.Screenshot of Absorb's course details page, accessible from the course catalog dashboard, used to give learners an understanding of the course material.Screenshot of learners' progress insights, used to make data-driven decisions with the reporting capabilities of Absorb LMS.Screenshot of course creation with Create AI Beta.