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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Canvas

    Score8.6 out of 10
    N/AInstructure is an educational software company based in Sandy, Utah. It is the developer of the Canvas learning management system, which is a comprehensive software package that competes with such systems as Blackboard Learning System, SumTotal and Saba.N/A

    Plone

    Score10 out of 10
    N/APlone is a free and open source content management system built on top of the Zope application server. Plone can be used for any kind of website, including blogs, internet sites, webshops, and internal websites.N/A
    Pricing
    CanvasPlone
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    CanvasPlone
    Free Trial
    YesNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    YesNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional DetailsMust contact vendor for pricing information.—
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    CanvasPlone
    Considered Both Products
    Instructure
    No answer on this topic
    Plone
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    88%
    Would buy again
    21 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Delivers good value for the price
    95%
    Delivers good value for the price
    18 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Happy with the feature set
    88%
    Happy with the feature set
    21 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    13 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Implementation went as expected
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    14 Answers
    No answers on this topic
    Features
    CanvasPlone
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of Canvas and Plone
    Feature
    Canvas
    9.0
    42 Ratings
    11% above category average
    Plone
    -
    Ratings
    Course authoring8.142 Ratings00 Ratings
    Course catalog or library9.838 Ratings00 Ratings
    Player/Portal9.932 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning content9.035 Ratings00 Ratings
    Mobile friendly9.041 Ratings00 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications8.138 Ratings00 Ratings
    Assignments8.142 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance management9.033 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning administration9.037 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics9.039 Ratings00 Ratings
    Social learning9.034 Ratings00 Ratings
    Gamification9.62 Ratings00 Ratings
    Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.03 Ratings00 Ratings
    Security
    Comparison of Security features of Canvas and Plone
    Feature
    Canvas
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    19% above category average
    Role-based user permissions00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Platform & Infrastructure
    Comparison of Platform & Infrastructure features of Canvas and Plone
    Feature
    Canvas
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    10.0
    5 Ratings
    25% above category average
    API00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Internationalization / multi-language00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Web Content Creation
    Comparison of Web Content Creation features of Canvas and Plone
    Feature
    Canvas
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    9.4
    6 Ratings
    18% above category average
    WYSIWYG editor00 Ratings10.06 Ratings
    Code quality / cleanliness00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Admin section00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Page templates00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Library of website themes00 Ratings5.05 Ratings
    Mobile optimization / responsive design00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Publishing workflow00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Form generator00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Web Content Management
    Comparison of Web Content Management features of Canvas and Plone
    Feature
    Canvas
    -
    Ratings
    Plone
    9.4
    5 Ratings
    22% above category average
    Content taxonomy00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    SEO support00 Ratings10.04 Ratings
    Bulk management00 Ratings10.05 Ratings
    Availability / breadth of extensions00 Ratings8.05 Ratings
    Community / comment management00 Ratings9.05 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    CanvasPlone
    Small Businesses
    Google Classroom
    Score8 out of 10
    Umbraco CMS
    Score7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Schoology Learning
    Score8 out of 10
    Square Online
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Enterprises
    D2L Brightspace
    Score7.8 out of 10
    RWS Tridion Sites
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    CanvasPlone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    9.3
    (84 ratings)
    10.0
    (13 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    9.3
    (5 ratings)
    10.0
    (11 ratings)
    Usability
    9.4
    (10 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.0
    (11 ratings)
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    In-Person Training
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Online Training
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    8.5
    (2 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    CanvasPlone
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Instructure
    It is really well suited for school situations like knowing what [assignments] need to be done when, getting feedback, getting points, finding the slides that the teacher used for explaining an [assignment] or theory. I think It would be less suited in business situations because it's [primarily] made to be a [one-way] communication tool for schools. Businesses need more control on individual levels I think[.]
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    The larger your organization, the more appropriate Plone will be. This is not to say that Plone is a worse choice for small websites, only that the minimum investment for a Plone site is certainly higher than for other platforms. If you already use Plone for your site and are looking for a redesign or an overhaul, I would only advise switching to a different platform such as WordPress or Drupal if your organization is downsizing. For any other situation, Plone is the natural choice for your growth.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Instructure
    • Creativity options for teachers to create a virtual space that still has fun graphics and accessibility options.
    • Canvas has versatility in viewing options for assignment due dates such as the calendar built in feature as well as the dashboard options to display upcoming and due assignments.
    • Allowing teachers to create community with each other and collaborate in each-other's space.
    • Discussion platforms within classrooms for students to communicate with each-other and with their teachers.
    • Easy messaging portal within each virtual classroom.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    • Plone is a folder-based system, organising content in a similar way desktop-users are doing for the last two decades. No need to teach non-tech customers some relational-database like paradigm for content management.
    • Plone is secure. It is the most secure CMS you can get your hands on.
    • Plone is flexible, and makes fast development easy.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Instructure
    • Their integration with Big Blue Button was a bust for distance learning. Would be great to see them collaborate with Zoom or Google Meets.
    • Their "feature request" process is slow and cumbersome at times because it relies on user "up votes" to get ideas addressed by the developers.
    • They seem to have a lot of turn-over with their staff. We get a new Customer Success Manager far more frequently than with other vendors.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    • Not everything is configurable or editable by Plone, and when you need to adjust or add custom pieces in, you need to deal with Zope. Zope has an ugly, confusing and difficult UI and structure as a backend.
    • Using 3rd party products is difficult to do - there are a few different ways to get them installed, all of which take a bit of luck to get right.
    • Building custom products for Plone is not fun. You've got to deal with an archaic framework to tie in that is not well documented (there is documentation about many things, but not great documentation and there are a lot of holes in the documentation).
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Instructure
    The other LMS tools have fallen behind. One reason is they are not able to update their systems, features, toolsets in a timely manner. While other LMS providers release bug fixes and new features several times a year, schools struggle to install and implement them in a timely manner. It is not uncommon for a school to take 6 months to a year to fully install and implement new releases on other LMS platforms. With Canvas, those features are released every 3 weeks, and there is nothing for a school to do other than choose to turn them on once released. This has allowed Instructure to innovate faster, and get new features and tools to customers quicker. Other factors include great pricing, customer support, and the innovative way in which LTI is implemented in the tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    We have critical systems running on Plone so will need it in the future.
    Free to use since its Open source, so we don't have to worry about licence costs.
    We know how to use and develop Plone and it has no limits.
    Read full review
    Usability
    Instructure
    The functions in Canvas are well integrated and consistent across the application, and mostly intuitive. Overall navigation and setup is streamlined through integrated features and navigation. The feedback we've gotten from our program participants is that it is easy to learn to use. It also integrates well with third party software like Google Docs and Blackboard Collaborate web conferencing software
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    Compared to the amount of Plone sites, users and customizations we have in our organization, the amount of support requests and training needed is really small.
    The new user interface in Plone 6 is even better, it is super fast, has lots of different blocks for enhancing the page, has flexible layout system and is easy to extend with more features.
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Instructure
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Our Plone sites are very robust. We have critical systems on Plone and we have been running sites on Plone for over 20 years with very little unexpected downtime.
    Read full review
    Performance
    Instructure
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Plone is very intensive in its operations, and if not configured well it can be slow. However it is designed and built with speed in mind and with proper use of coding, templates and caching can perform extremely well under high loads. It is capable of scaling to very high load availability environments with no specific coding requirements.
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Instructure
    I do not personally use Canvas support since we have a central office that helps us. However, our central office always has the answers we need and are always able to solve our issues - so I would assume that get great support from the Canvas team on their end. They also offer great training, which uses materials directly from Canvas
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    There are not too many Plone companies in the world. But the ones who are, are high level professionals
    Read full review
    In-Person Training
    Instructure
    The training sessions were broken down into several days as well as different levels depending upon the knowledge of the user
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    I have been participating Plone training and the trainers have always been professional. Materials were good and the instructions clear
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Instructure
    The online tutorials and videos are very clear and addressed the issues/questions that I had about using the system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    Well organized, professional training with good materials and instructions
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Instructure
    Once you purchase and sign the contract there is nothing to install or hardware to buy. You can almost immediately start using it and have courses up and going within weeks. We signed in December and had pilot courses online ready to go for the start of school in January
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Instructure
    Canvas is more secure, has a cleaner design, and has more features. For the features, they have in common canvas still stacks up against [Smart school] by going for the extra mile. Besidfor e that, [the] canvas looks a lot more [professional] than [Smart school]. I didn't make the decision myself to get canvas instead of [Smart school] but I'm happy they did.
    Read full review
    Plone
    Drupal: Plone is cheaper, so with Drupal is more complex to reach the required ROI. However, Drupal has a lower learning curve WordPress: For our necessities it has a more expensive learning curve than plone. Joomla, is easier to use. However, it have some issues on security and web content where Plone is much better
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Instructure
    No answers on this topic
    Plone
    Plone has no limits. We have massive sites and can run them just fine
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Instructure
    • Canvas has helped us provide a more robust online component to our courses.
    • Canvas has helped us better adapt to a rapidly changing educational landscape.
    • Canvas has reduced the time that we have to spend training faculty on how to use our learning management system.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Plone
    • The impact Plone has had at the University of Oshkosh is as follows: this software allows student workers to learn about IT departments and CMS's in a user-friendly way. It gives many students great jobs that look great on their resumes.
    • Since there are great training manuals for Plone, there is increased employee efficient in the workplace. Training doesn't take long, and if there's ever a question, the Plone manual is a great tool to refer to.
    • If an employee using Plone quits, its easy to find someone to replace them with quick training and great resources.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots