What users are saying about
74 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.6 out of 100
Based on 74 reviews and ratings
Top Rated
248 Ratings
<a href='https://www.trustradius.com/static/about-trustradius-scoring' target='_blank' rel='nofollow noopener'>trScore algorithm: Learn more.</a>Score 8.3 out of 100
Based on 248 reviews and ratings
Feature Set Ratings
- Brightspace ranks higher in 1 feature set: Learning Management
Learning Management

9.4
Brightspace
94%
7.6
Google Classroom
76%
Brightspace ranks higher in 10/13 features
Brightspace ranks higher in 10/13 features
Course authoring

9.4
94%
9 Ratings
8.1
81%
41 Ratings
Course catalog or library

10.0
100%
6 Ratings
7.7
77%
31 Ratings
Player/Portal

9.7
97%
7 Ratings
8.5
85%
29 Ratings
Learning content

9.4
94%
9 Ratings
8.1
81%
35 Ratings
Mobile friendly

9.7
97%
8 Ratings
8.1
81%
47 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications

9.4
94%
9 Ratings
7.3
73%
37 Ratings
Assignments

9.7
97%
9 Ratings
8.6
86%
48 Ratings
Compliance management

8.0
80%
1 Rating
7.9
79%
24 Ratings
Learning administration

9.7
97%
8 Ratings
8.2
82%
37 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics

9.7
97%
9 Ratings
7.7
77%
34 Ratings
Social learning

8.4
84%
9 Ratings
8.5
85%
42 Ratings
Gamification

N/A
0 Ratings
4.0
40%
1 Rating
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning

N/A
0 Ratings
6.0
60%
1 Rating
Attribute Ratings
- Brightspace is rated higher in 4 areas: Likelihood to Recommend, Likelihood to Renew, Usability, Support Rating
- Google Classroom is rated higher in 2 areas: Implementation Rating, Product Scalability
- Brightspace and Google Classroom are tied in 2 areas: Availability, Performance
Likelihood to Recommend

9.2
Brightspace
92%
44 Ratings
8.5
Google Classroom
85%
69 Ratings
Likelihood to Renew

9.0
Brightspace
90%
25 Ratings
1.0
Google Classroom
10%
3 Ratings
Usability

6.4
Brightspace
64%
11 Ratings
3.0
Google Classroom
30%
4 Ratings
Availability

9.0
Brightspace
90%
2 Ratings
9.0
Google Classroom
90%
2 Ratings
Performance

9.0
Brightspace
90%
4 Ratings
9.0
Google Classroom
90%
2 Ratings
Support Rating

10.0
Brightspace
100%
11 Ratings
4.5
Google Classroom
45%
29 Ratings
Online Training

4.0
Brightspace
40%
2 Ratings
Google Classroom
N/A
0 Ratings
Implementation Rating

1.6
Brightspace
16%
6 Ratings
2.0
Google Classroom
20%
3 Ratings
Product Scalability

9.0
Brightspace
90%
1 Rating
10.0
Google Classroom
100%
1 Rating
Likelihood to Recommend
Brightspace
If you're an educational institution (K-12, Higher Ed, etc.), this is an amazing tool, and it will provide you all the functionality to support anything you may want and need it to do.If you are looking at Brightspace as a tool for corporate training, I'm not sure exactly how good or bad it will be for you. My guess would be that it likely depends on your organization's size. Along that line, what I can speak to is how we use it for our customized training and in-house professional development/training, and it works fantastically for that. While we primarily use it for normal higher ed coursework, we regularly do training and professional development for all of our employees and I manage those along with our HR department. Because we use it for many other things as well, all of our employees are familiar with the product, which makes our trainings go that much smoother and makes my job that much easier.
Director of Teaching Excellence
Minnesota State College SoutheastHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom is a great solution for remote learning when school budgets don’t allow for more robust platform purchases, such as Blackboard. It’s free! It’s customizable, but you’ll need to get a small group of users/teachers trained up on all the nuances so they can be your Champion group and help the other teachers. Love the ability to set slides as landing pages for a fun classroom picture. Kids enjoy the autonomy they have but struggle with remembering to complete all assignments if they don’t have more direct supervision. Lots of integration with other tools like Kira to allow for writing exercises and assignment submission. It’s a great stop-gap for schools not intending to remain in a remote setting, a permanent solution for organizations with low budgets that are fully remote, but not my first choice if you have a software budget and are operating fully remote at all times.
PTA Board of Directors
Theodore Roosevelt Elementary PTAEducation Management, 51-200 employees
Pros
Brightspace
- Allowing users to embed content links from YouTube or Google Drive enables learners to experience a richer lesson.
- Providing a powerful editor that allows developers to also include content from Adobe Stock as well as textbook publishers and cloud storage companies gives more power and creative ability to instructors.
- Providing scaling for mobile and traditional computer systems ensures students will not have issues on the go.
- The customization of home pages and groups enable courses to be used for small training sessions with breakout groups, large courses with separate sections, and even just more engaging courses that present themed icons and logos.

Verified User
Professional in Professional Services
Higher Education Company, 10,001+ employeesGoogle Classroom
- Student-teacher communication - I love using Classroom for this because my students can always go back and check what was on Classroom by looking through the stream. This way they don't have to go dig through emails to find what they're looking for.
- Posting to multiple classes - I can post the same announcement or assignment to multiple classes at once without having to repeat the process or send separate emails.
- Streamlining grading - when students turn work in on Classroom, it all goes to one place and then when I'm grading I can open their documents directly from Classroom or my Drive folder. This way, I'm not looking through emails and Google Doc shared files for their assignment.

Verified User
Employee in Other
Education Management Company, 51-200 employeesCons
Brightspace
- One can feel a bit rushed on the Brightspace platform during the log-out period. Security requirements may require this, but it makes end-users more conscious about getting through content than taking notes.
- From my experience, there is not a direct connection between the platform and Outlook.
- Some content on the platform can feel redundant.
Process Optimization Analyst
QuadPrinting, 10,001+ employees
Google Classroom
- Although usually in the discussion with other LMS apps such as Schoology and Canvas, Google Classroom doesn't possess as in-depth of a platform. There is no ability to set individual learning paths, pace student work with completion settings, or embed other apps directly into teacher-created assignments.
- The assignment creation options are limited. Teachers can only choose from creating an assignment (usually a link with directions), a material (usually a doc/slide/website, etc), a question, and a quiz.
- With gamification taking on a new lens in education, there really isn't any way to use gamification elements with Google Classroom. There isn't any way to create Individual learning paths, or use badges and micro-credentials within Classroom. Outside programs would have to be used.

Verified User
Employee in Information Technology
Education Management Company, 201-500 employeesPricing Details
Brightspace
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Yes
Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
—Brightspace Editions & Modules
—
Additional Pricing Details
Must contact vendor for pricing information. 30-day free trial is available.Google Classroom
General
Free Trial
Yes
Free/Freemium Version
—Premium Consulting/Integration Services
—Entry-level set up fee?
No
Starting Price
$0 per month
Google Classroom Editions & Modules
Edition
Google Workspace for Education Standard | $31 |
---|---|
Teaching and Learning Upgrade | $42 |
Google Workspace for Education Plus | $53 |
Education Fundamentals | $04 |
- per student/per year
- per license/per month
- per student/per year
- per license/per month
Additional Pricing Details
Education Fundamentals Version - 30-day free trial for qualifying institutions.Likelihood to Renew
Brightspace
Brightspace 9.0
Based on 25 answers
I would never give any system a perfect score. In the technology environment today we need to be constantly looking at ways to improve the user experience and LMS companies like Desire2Learn need to know that we have options today with other systems and they need to stay current with features and listen to their customers.
Director, Distance Learning
Johnson County Community CollegeHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom 1.0
Based on 3 answers
Testing is particularly important in online learning, and Google Classroom falls far short of other learning management systems in this regard. Security is also a concern: while account control is reasonable for the account used with Google Classroom, the person controlling a particular account is often able to, for example, forward or download proprietary materials.
Instructor
Plum Hill ProductionsE-Learning, 5001-10,000 employees
Usability
Brightspace
Brightspace 6.4
Based on 11 answers
Overall, the learning environment works as expected. However, there are plenty of bugs. For example, for a few versions, trying to print out a PDF from the Content screen in several browsers would produce a blank page. We inform D2L support about these issues, most of which are known issues. However, they are very slow to respond. D2L seems to spend more time selling than actually coding and testing their product. Most of the issues are not major -- however, there have been a few that are unbelievable. In fact, this past week we had a sudden issue where the "Submit" button in quizzes would not appear if users had a certain browser/operating system combination. This is a major problem, if students cannot submit their exams! D2L is slow to respond to these kinds of situations, which do occur more often than I would like.

Verified User
Program Manager in Information Technology
Higher Education Company, 501-1000 employeesGoogle Classroom
Google Classroom 3.0
Based on 4 answers
This is only a product I would recommend to a humanities teacher. Math and science teachers cannot use this product the same way that I can as an English teacher. It is great for word process and for reading, but unable to handle the demands of math and science. Therefore, I would highly recommend this product to English or Social Studies teachers, but NOT math or science teachers

Verified User
Professional in Other
E-Learning Company, 11-50 employeesReliability and Availability
Brightspace
Brightspace 9.0
Based on 2 answers
Both students and instructor enjoy the 24-hoiur access. After, all isn't that the point of online learning. As an instructor located in an Eastern time zone state it is great to connect with students located in a Pacific time zone state. I have gotten comments about the early hours I am in the course room grading assignments . . . 4:00 a.m. PST; 7:00 a.m. EST So, it's sleep time for my students and "first cup of coffee" time for me.
Online Course Professor
Trine UniversityHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom 9.0
Based on 2 answers
We have had very little trouble in accessing Google Classroom. Our issues, if any, have risen from our server and not the Google servers.

Verified User
Employee in Other
Education Management Company, 11-50 employeesPerformance
Brightspace
Brightspace 9.0
Based on 4 answers
Easy to navigate; little to no delay from one section of the course room to another; actually fun to use after overcoming the learning curve.
Online Course Professor
Trine UniversityHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom 9.0
Based on 2 answers
No answer on this topic is available.
Support Rating
Brightspace
Brightspace 10.0
Based on 11 answers
I have had excellent support from Desire2Learn. Any ticket that I submit is acknowledged immediately and the correction is usually almost as quick. We use this for thousands of classes and it is pretty well liked by both faculty and students. We have been using it for almost 4 years now and most of our instructors have become pretty proficient with it.
Microcomputer Systems Specialist II
Southern Illinois UniversityHigher Education, 5001-10,000 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom 4.5
Based on 29 answers
Since this platform is provided by Google, the technical support is better than any others, and we are not required to bother about the space constraints for adding the contents. If we have a good uninterrupted internet facility we can access Google Classroom without any delay or lag. They have app support in both Android and iPhone.
Assistant Professor
Mar Baselios Christian College of Engineering and Technology, PeermadeEducation Management, 201-500 employees
In-Person Training
Brightspace
Did not participate in the in-person training due to distance; training was completed online
Online Course Professor
Trine UniversityHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Google Classroom
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Brightspace
Brightspace 4.0
Based on 2 answers
The training provided online did not, necessarily, fit the version of the system that I was using. Screens were somewhat different and not all options were readily available. This could have been due to customization on the part of my institution however, I rather believe it was due to version changes and training materials not yet being updated.
Instructional Development Specialist
The Ohio State UniversityHigher Education, 10,001+ employees
Google Classroom
No score
No answers yet
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
Brightspace
Brightspace 1.6
Based on 6 answers
The D2L implementation team listened to our concerns and built a system based upon our needs. We wanted to keep them after the initial implementation.
Director, Distance Learning
Johnson County Community CollegeHigher Education, 1001-5000 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom 2.0
Based on 3 answers
It was relatively easy to implement due to the simplicity of the platform. Even our more technology challenged teachers found it easy to get started with Google Classroom.

Verified User
Employee in Other
Education Management Company, 11-50 employeesAlternatives Considered
Brightspace
I have used Blackboard Learn 8 and 9. I am currently learning about Canvas. Blackboard is overall much clunkier and lacks the intuitive feel in some parts of D2L. Its grade book is much harder to control and manipulate than D2L's. Its navigation menu can be more radically modified from the default than D2L's, but this doesn't seem that useful to me. Discussions in Blackboard can be more easily reorganized than in D2L, but no grading of discussions is possible. Blackboard Assignments is a good innovation which allows markup directly in the students' submissions, but it displays student work in a confusing manner that doesn't allow for any customization, and its markup options need further tweaking. Furthermore, no rubrics can be used in Blackboard in any way to grade any kind of work (that I am aware of). Overall, I would choose D2L over Blackboard.
Instructional Academic Staff
University of Wisconsin-Eau ClaireHigher Education, 501-1000 employees
Google Classroom
I haven't tested or evaluated another digital classroom website or application. I feel like Google Classroom is convenient for many reasons such as compatibility to Google docs, slides, etc. I also love the ability to link to YouTube and other sites. I don't know if there would be a site that is easier to maneuver.
Teacher
Kosciusko School DistrictEducation Management, 51-200 employees
Scalability
Brightspace
Brightspace 9.0
Based on 1 answer
During my first semester working with Desire2Learn the integrated learning management system was more down than up. This meant reconfiguring assignment due dates, frustration for both the instructor, students, and help desk staff. After an upgrade, Desire2Learn has been reliable.
Online Course Professor
Trine UniversityHigher Education, 201-500 employees
Google Classroom
Google Classroom 10.0
Based on 1 answer
It is very easy to push out this program across our buildings. Teachers are able to use it without much trouble.

Verified User
Employee in Other
Education Management Company, 11-50 employeesReturn on Investment
Brightspace
- I cannot speak to whether this system is less expensive than the more fully featured Blackboard, but employees are far less efficient, frustrated, and require frequent calls to the help center to set up fairly simple course templates.
- I have been asked to consider teaching courses which will be completely online at my current institution. I have done such online courses several times at other universities, but I have decided Desire2Learn is too frustrating and cumbersome to do so. I am now exploring using Google Drive to teach a course online. Otherwise, I will not teach online until required or I find an alternate system.

Verified User
Professional in Research & Development
Higher Education Company, 5001-10,000 employeesGoogle Classroom
- Student engagement is high when using Google Classroom. Students are more willing to work on projects continually when provided a digital platform.
- Since teachers have instant access to student work, they can pinpoint weak areas for remediation, thus increasing test scores for mastery.
- Google Classroom also saves time for teachers when used as an organizational tool as student work is all in one place with easy access.
Technology Integrator (ITRT)
Hanover County Public SchoolsPrimary/Secondary Education, 501-1000 employees