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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Absorb

    Score9 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

    Coursera

    Score7.6 out of 10
    N/ACoursera is an online catalog of learning content, available to businesses to help them to strengthen critical skills, Develop, retain, and advance critical talent, or use role-based assessments to identify skills gaps and advancement opportunities.

    $399

    per year per user

    Khan Academy

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AKhan Academy is a non-profit organization headquartered in Palo Alto that offers free online course content for students.N/A
    Pricing
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    Coursera for Teams
    $399
    per year per user (for less than 125 employees)
    Coursera for Business
    Contact Sales
    Learners
    Free
    Teachers
    Free
    Districts
    Free
    Parents
    Free
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Free Trial
    YesYesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details———
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Considered Multiple Products
    Absorb Software Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Coursera
    Chose Coursera
    Coursera certainly has the best content for courses of interest to our organization.
    Incentivized
    Khan Academy
    Chose Khan Academy
    Khan academy is free, that’s a big plus. Also, it is way less fragmented than Coursera for example. There are a lot of diverse topics I can select from and even if it’s not related to my job, I sometimes look at the history section. One missing feature compared to other …
    Incentivized
    Chose Khan Academy
    Khan is better to take shorter learning modules. Coursera is a considerable investment as it is whole college courses. Khan is great to learn certain concepts and refresh learnings or trouble shoot problems. Khan is better for high school students to use to reinforce and …
    Incentivized
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    98%
    Would buy again
    170 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    8 Answers
    100%
    Would buy again
    10 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    99%
    Delivers good value for the price
    144 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    8 Answers
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    9 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    98%
    Happy with the feature set
    170 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    8 Answers
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    10 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    95%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    117 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    6 Answers
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    7 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    93%
    Implementation went as expected
    126 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    8 Answers
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    6 Answers
    Features
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Absorb and Coursera and Khan Academy
    Feature
    Absorb
    8.6
    171 Ratings
    4% above category average
    Coursera
    8.8
    4 Ratings
    2% above category average
    Khan Academy
    -
    Ratings
    Course authoring9.0134 Ratings8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Course catalog or library9.3150 Ratings9.14 Ratings00 Ratings
    Player/Portal8.6153 Ratings8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning content8.5127 Ratings9.54 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile friendly8.0124 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications9.4163 Ratings9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
    Assignments9.7141 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance management9.5136 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning administration8.8167 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics8.5164 Ratings8.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social learning6.391 Ratings8.94 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gamification6.085 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.7128 Ratings00 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Small Businesses
    Tovuti LMS
    Score6.6 out of 10
    Pluralsight Skills
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Pluralsight Skills
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    iSpring LMS
    Score9.6 out of 10
    365 Data Science
    Score9.4 out of 10
    365 Data Science
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Bridge LMS, Skills & Performance Management
    Score7.4 out of 10
    A Cloud Guru (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    A Cloud Guru (discontinued)
    Score8 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.1
    (174 ratings)
    8.5
    (17 ratings)
    8.1
    (10 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.7
    (10 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Usability
    9.1
    (79 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Availability
    9.2
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Performance
    8.8
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.6
    (160 ratings)
    9.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    8.2
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (4 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.3
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Configurability
    7.8
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    7.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    7.9
    (3 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    7.9
    (6 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Professional Services
    9.6
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    9.1
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    8.8
    (5 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    AbsorbCourseraKhan Academy
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Absorb is highly intuitive for end users. The resources feature allows for uploads of materials that are not marked as part of any training but rather available for users to review at their convenience. Scheduling reports so they are sent to users via email has been a pain. Reports are duplicated and there is also no start and end date, which causes the portal to continuously push the reports unless they are manually cancelled
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    The Coursera platform can be a useful part of your overall learning content portfolio if utilized correctly. It's fantastic for asynchronous courses that don't necessarily need a dedicated faculty member (though I'd highly recommend at least having some discussion moderators/student workers) and for offering MOOCs. The ability for the learners to contribute translations really makes it ideal for the international learning community - I am always amazed to see a course we launched with 2-3 languages to quickly have 10-12 more added. This feature really helps expand the audience reach and Coursera has such a large following already that it can grow seemingly overnight.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    Khan Academy is a great supplement for things you already have learned, or as a mid-level course (versus a deep dive or high school/university level course). It is great for a paced learning environment if you want to casually refresh yourself on a subject or learn something new. I don't think this should be a replacement for structured learning, or if you struggle in self-paced learning environments. There have been times I would like to have been able to ask a professional (like an instructor) when struggling with a subtopic, which is possible in a classroom setting.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Absorb Software Inc.
    • Overall, Absorb LMS is pretty easy to use for learners and especially for admins. It's practical to create and manage course content - it provides the most crucial options and yet is lean enough not to overcomplicate the admin's life. The consistent and customizable "table-view" in most of the admin-areas is very helpful and easy to follow.
    • Using Enrollment Rules, Absorb LMS let you define who a course applies to and how they get enrolled. You can build rules based on learner attributes, such as department, location job role, group, to include or exclude specific audiences. The way Absorb LMS is using enrollment attributes, no other LMS actually can fulfill our requirements easier. Enrollment rules are mainly embedded in individual course options (you can also create scheduled enrollments outside of the courses).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    • Interaction: the student learns by doing. For programming courses, this means programming!
    • Assessments: the courses I'd taken ask students to grade each others work with a rubric. This is hugely effective and permits tests and quizzes to be other than multiple choice.
    • Creativity and enthusiasm of the instructors. Some of the approaches demonstrated real out-of-the-box thinking by the instructors. For example, the Rice Python course was a self-contained website requiring no installation of IDE on one's computer, and the final project was a working version of Asteroids.
    • Low cost of entry: most of the course I enrolled in were free, with an optional fee for certifications. This really gives people the freedom to explore learning. It's almost like a Public Library of Learning.
    • Coursera forces a weekly discipline on the user with lectures and assignments and this really motivates one to put in the effort.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    • The UI is great and easy to use.
    • There is a broad selection of courses, subjects, and instructors.
    • The classroom integration option is awesome.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    • Some of the courses (very few) have some old information (more than 2 years), and in some areas like technology the information has to be very new and updated.
    • Some professors or people doing videos are not good in front of the camera, they should train their people a little bit more for those things.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    • On my iPad, to change the language of Khan, I need to change the language of my iPad in the settings
    • It can be a bit messy and the category are a bit too generic, not enough per level category
    • Sometimes the quizz are too simple, it would be nice to have an extra difficult one as a bonus
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    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.
    Read full review
    Coursera
    Constantly renewing already. One of my favourite MOOC platforms.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    Usability
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Our company has performed many software implementations over the last few years. Getting Absorb LMS up and running was one of the easiest and most pleasant by far. The process is fairly straightforward, but you are also given excellent support in instances when it is needed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    User-friendly and developer-friendly Web UI.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    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
    Read full review
    Coursera
    No answers on this topic
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    Performance
    Absorb Software Inc.
    We have experienced infrequent issues with things like load times on reporting, or pages timing out, but for the large majority of our time within the system things have worked as they should
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    No answers on this topic
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    Support Rating
    Absorb Software Inc.
    My client success manager had to reach out once for our company once. Although it was not an Absorb issue (it was an issue on the course vendor side), Absorb offered a resolution while the vendor was fixing the issue. We were very happy with the resolution and feel like Absorb went above and beyond for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    I’ve used it a couple of times and... that did great. They take their time, but in the end they solve your issues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    I've only had to seek support one time. There was a glitch in one of my lessons and I submitted an email. The glitch was fixed by support within a few days, but I would've liked for it to be faster. However, I don't have a big complaint there because it is a free service.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Absorb Software Inc.
    The training was comprehensive - there were existing modules to learn functionality but working with Absorb staff, and receiving recordings of those walk-throughs, made a rapid understanding of the LMS achievable and covered the necessary material that was needed and allowed for specific questions to be addressed.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    No answers on this topic
    Khan Academy
    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.
    Read full review
    Coursera
    Coursera is familiar, intuitive, compatible and easy to use and implement.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Absorb offers a more flexible and robust experience for managing learning ecosystems. The user interface is more modern and provides a stronger user-centric learning experience. Absorb is at parity for social learning, which most learning platforms struggle with. The admin capabilities within Absorb are stronger than those of each of these providers. The notifications are strong, too.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    I think Coursera has the best overall interface. I think you will find that different platforms go in different directions, and have different specialities. For the most part the differences are more in the types of courses they offer than one being particularly better than the other, so it comes down to content for me.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    I personally found Khan Academy much better suited for adult learning of difficult or larger topics. Not so much for smaller changes that can be communicated via email. But it was more engaging and I found the information easier to digest. Change management can be tough but with the right tools it can be a breeze.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Absorb Software Inc.
    Clear and easy to understand. Of course, I would love to have seen these costs during my research of different LMSs, but I understand why they don't share this information.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    No answers on this topic
    Khan Academy
    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.
    Read full review
    Coursera
    No answers on this topic
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    Professional Services
    Absorb Software Inc.
    We work directly with Kirsten Spak, who has continuously
    provided timely and quality help for myself as the lead and our organization.
    Kirsten has helped us ensure that we are going about things as efficiently and
    is always willing to walk through things to demonstrate suggestions and
    functions. As we look to expand our offerings further, Kirsten has helped
    strategize for the best approach, which has helped our workflow and the
    end-user experience. As we are still relatively new users, but using the LMS
    every day, Kirsten has been very patient and provided clear instruction on
    processes when we were unsure of what to do and has been able to troubleshoot,
    with her team, functions that were desired but not availability at the time, to
    provide us with solutions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    No answers on this topic
    Khan Academy
    No answers on this topic
    Return on Investment
    Absorb Software Inc.
    • We used Absorb LMS to track Annual Safety Training to ensure compliance with inspectors and ensure our teammates understand the risks and how to mitigate them safely. We were never able to track this before and thus, we simply didn't have mandatory annual training.
    • A huge drawback prior to implementation of Absorb LMS was our inability to offer more than our 40 purchased e-courses to our employees. These were mostly safety and equipment based courses, so we didn't have any soft skill development happening. Now we have hundreds of courses available from the Absorb library that cover the safety aspects, but we also have dozens of leadership courses, communication and influence courses, etc. It has been a huge gamechanger for our employees and their development opportunities! When I look at our course library, there are 400 courses, which over 300 being available through Absorb library (the other 80+ were made using Absorb Create).
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Coursera
    • The greatest benefit of Coursera is access to quality courses on various subjects that you can either browse or dive in deeply. Customizable, flexible and accessible.
    • Helps our department to recommend trainees courses on this website and gain important knowledge. Also, the courses are provided by big-name universities which helps students in their careers
    • Developing and exploring professional skills.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Khan Academy
    • It's has helped a lot of my coworkers to grasp some basic finance and computer science stuff when previously they have no idea.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    Absorb Screenshots

    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 course creation with Create AI Beta.Product screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshotProduct screenshot