Absorb LMS vs. LearnDash

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Absorb LMS
Score 9.0 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 8.0 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
8.6
159 Ratings
5% above category average
LearnDash
6.9
1 Ratings
17% below category average
Course authoring8.6125 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Course catalog or library9.2138 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Player/Portal8.3143 Ratings9.01 Ratings
Learning content8.9116 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Mobile friendly7.7113 Ratings10.01 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.5151 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Assignments9.9130 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Compliance management9.7125 Ratings4.01 Ratings
Learning administration9.5155 Ratings7.01 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics8.6152 Ratings5.01 Ratings
Social learning6.384 Ratings4.01 Ratings
Gamification5.581 Ratings6.01 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.8117 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Small Businesses
iSpring LMS
iSpring LMS
Score 9.5 out of 10
iSpring LMS
iSpring LMS
Score 9.5 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
iSpring LMS
iSpring LMS
Score 9.5 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 8.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 8.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(156 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
8.1
(9 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Usability
7.7
(61 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
8.9
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
8.4
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.7
(143 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.6
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
7.5
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Configurability
8.1
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
4.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
6.4
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
7.1
(5 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Professional Services
9.6
(2 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.6
(4 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Absorb LMSLearnDash
Likelihood to Recommend
Absorb Software Inc.
As a way to deliver eLearning content and track completion, I think Absorb handles our 7000+ users competently. In addition, their support team was always extremely helpful and responsive. When we went through the process of integrating Absorb with Skillsoft Business Advanced library, Absorb's team was very knowledgeable and helpful. I think teams needing more streamlined checklist-style OJT skills tracking will be disappointed by Absorb's feature. It takes 4-5 clicks for a user to trainer to sign off on one skill.
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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.
  • 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).
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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.
I have never built/managed an LMS platform before and I find it very user friendly and capable of doing 98% of what I need it to do. We have been in the system almost a year and one of the struggles I had using the reporting tool has already been resolved and updated!
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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.
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
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
We absolutely loved both our sales representative, Mike Kuphos, and our Implementation manager, Joe Zizian. Joe has continued to be a great resource, even since we went live with our LMS and were moved into the maintenance stage! I sent over a quick question recently when I was stuck in the platform... within hours, he responded with a video walking me through how to do what I was having trouble with. I truly cannot say enough wonderful things about Joe and the level of customer service he has provided throughout implementation and beyond. I haven't really had to use alternate support methods.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
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.
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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.
Absorb LMS is feature packed with small but smart elements (can have a username that isnt an email, can change the core language used in the platform, can change the font and layout) that offer greater security and accessibility for learners.
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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.
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.
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LearnDash
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Our ROI is yet to be determined as we haven't fully rolled it out yet. We hope that this will improve our customer loyalty and advocacy, set us apart from competitors, and appeal to prospects as something that is extremely valuable. ROI measurements will include customer participation, satisfaction from learners and their managers and any new customers who quote the platform as a reason they chose us.
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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.