iSpring LMS vs. Sakai

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
iSpring LMS
Score 8.9 out of 10
N/A
iSpring LMS is an LMS developed by iSpring Solutions. iSpring LMS automates corporate training and helps to improve employee retention through quality onboarding, on-the-job training, gamification and engagement mechanics. With iSpring LMS, training and development professionals can launch eLearning fast, without any technical skills. Also, account owners can customize or white-label the learner portal to reflect their corporate branding. iSpring LMS's features…
$16,050
per year for 300 users (minimum)
Sakai
Score 8.7 out of 10
N/A
Sakai is an open source learning management system provided by the Apero Foundation. The LMS provides what it calls Core and Expanded Features. The Core Features encompass an integrated tool set that is tested by the Sakai community members and is then included with each new release. The tool set can be configured by: instructors, students, research investigators and project leaders. The other set of tools, known as “Contrib Tools” are specific to Sakai tools and innovations that are developed…N/A
Pricing
iSpring LMSSakai
Editions & Modules
Business - 300 users
$16,050.00
per year
Business - 500 users
$23,790.00
per year
Business - 1000 users
$42,930.00
per year
Enterprise
Custom Quote
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
iSpring LMSSakai
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeOptionalNo setup fee
Additional DetailsNo fees for storage or bandwidth.Must contact vendor for pricing information.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
iSpring LMSSakai
Features
iSpring LMSSakai
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
iSpring LMS
8.5
36 Ratings
4% above category average
Sakai
7.9
5 Ratings
4% below category average
Course authoring9.135 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Course catalog or library9.027 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Player/Portal9.532 Ratings8.02 Ratings
Learning content6.525 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Mobile friendly8.826 Ratings7.05 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.033 Ratings8.05 Ratings
Assignments9.330 Ratings10.05 Ratings
Compliance management7.727 Ratings7.04 Ratings
Learning administration9.933 Ratings9.05 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics8.934 Ratings6.05 Ratings
Social learning7.521 Ratings9.04 Ratings
Gamification7.023 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning8.117 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
iSpring LMSSakai
Small Businesses
Tovuti LMS
Tovuti LMS
Score 7.8 out of 10
iSpring LMS
iSpring LMS
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Tovuti LMS
Tovuti LMS
Score 7.8 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Score 9.6 out of 10
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User Ratings
iSpring LMSSakai
Likelihood to Recommend
9.5
(43 ratings)
9.0
(14 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.1
(3 ratings)
10.0
(3 ratings)
Usability
5.9
(3 ratings)
7.4
(3 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.7
(29 ratings)
8.1
(3 ratings)
In-Person Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
4.5
(2 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
9.1
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
iSpring LMSSakai
Likelihood to Recommend
iSpring Solutions Inc
iSpring Learn supports short, engaging courses ideal for corporate training programs, especially in finance-related industries. It pairs well with bite-sized content for compliance training, product knowledge, or soft skills development. For companies that need an LMS up and running quickly, iSpring Learn offers a simple setup process and an intuitive interface that doesn't require extensive technical knowledge. If a company needs extensive customization for branding or workflows, iSpring Learn may not be as flexible as some alternatives.
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Apereo
I've used Sakai to supplement my Public Speaking class. Public Speaking is very much a F2F type course, so I didn't use Sakai much for course content delivery. However, I did use it to post my syllabus, post my lecture slides, communicate any class announcements, and to conduct a final exam for the class. Building the final exam was very simple and I was easily able to swap out questions to vary it from term to term. Before I was a staff member and lecturer, I used Sakai as a student. My instructor used Sakai to varying degrees. I really appreciated it being the one-stop-receptacle for all-things class related. If I somehow lost an assignment instruction sheet, I could rely on it being posted there. For multimedia work it was lacking, at that time, but I know Sakai has been updated over time and I hope that part of it has improved. If I was ever frustrated by Sakai, it was because faculty used it in a piecemeal way. It's fine not to want to use the gradebook, but don't enter some grades and not others. It's wonderful to upload class documents to it; but don't do some and not others. Whatever way you're going to use Sakai, commit to it and use it well. Your students will thank you.
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Pros
iSpring Solutions Inc
  • Automatically re-enrolling employees when a certificate expires. Set it and forget it!
  • If set up properly from the beginning, you don't have to do much, with the roles and groups settings, you can automate a large portion of the course management.
  • I can provide visibility to anyone about any employee necessary, allowing me to put more responsibility on my managers, instead of doing it all myself.
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Apereo
  • Sakai is flexible, providing a way for our customers (instructors) to customize their courses while staying in line with consistency and continuity of course design. This has allowed our courses to be far less cookie-cutter and stale. This is mostly accomplished through Sakai's LTI functionality and it's Lessons tool. This is particularly notable because not every course is the same, nor should it be. Our faculty and course developers can draw from OER resources, course text publisher assessment quiz banks and pull in content from sources from our library databases and services like YouTube.
  • Sakai is customizable, allowing us to pair it with our student information system to automatically create and track with student registration data - including adding new students and removing students who have elected to drop a course. The customization features also include being able to create course templates for individual schools or courses using specific tools or sequences of tools as well as a way to personalize content for students when they engage with each lesson.
  • Sakai is stable in the market. We have been using Sakai for almost 10 years and continue to see it improve; responding to changing trends in browser technologies, mobile platforms and accessibility requirements. Multiple programs offered over the years have been recognized by outside organizations like BestColleges.com for our programs and given high marks by students taking the courses offered in Sakai.
  • Sakai allows our faculty to inform it's continued evolution. We work closely with the developers, having a front seat to how things can work and function for our faculty. There have been multiple occasions where faculty ask, "Can Sakai do this?" and the answer is never "No."
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Cons
iSpring Solutions Inc
  • Some limitations where you can't create exactly what you want either in the design of interactions or lack of varied interactions
  • Images cannot be moved to where you want them on the interaction slides
  • Layout of interactions can't be adjusted and overides your powerpoint background
  • If you have to edit a course and delete it off iSpring Learn then the records of all the people associated to that course are swiped and there's not a way of retrieving the information.
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Apereo
  • The coming upgrade will address many issues, the visual presentation of sites and courses
  • The Forums (discussion) tool is not natively integrated into the Gradebook, but needs another step to connect the two.
  • The Wiki tool is awkward and not WYSIWYG. But I understand that is common with wikis in most platforms
  • The Help documentation could use some focus on student needs rather that course developer needs
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Likelihood to Renew
iSpring Solutions Inc
In the past I could not encourage my students to take online training. The results and the questions were hard to be given. When I used the iSpring Suite along with iSpring Learn, my dreams came through and most of the time my students are online and take good training with my programme.
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Apereo
Sakai is a good general learning management system - it is not leading edge but rather a stable system with standard learning management system features. It can be fairly easily customized and is fairly easy to learn from both student learning and faculty administrative vantage points. New paradigms for online learning though are emergent so the current field should also be investigated with competitors.
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Usability
iSpring Solutions Inc
Sometimes, things just aren't intuitive enough. For example, burying the catalog in the settings area makes no sense at all. The same goes for permissions and year reviews. It was a massive oversight that really caused a lot of confusion for all of our managers. It caused distrust in the LMS simply because someone who designed and developed it did not think that an employee review should be private to them, their direct supervisor, or the supervisor above. Instead, ANY manager could read ANY employee review. I have mentioned this several times throughout these questionnaires, and as you can see, I still find it incomprehensible that a company that wants to promote its software as a multifaceted solution could be so blind to something so critical, especially in terms of privacy.
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Apereo
When faculty are preparing courses from term to term, a portion of the content is static within a specific discipline. The time it takes to import past lessons into new versions of Sakai can be an inefficient use of my time. When I want to add new content and edit from the old content, it's reliant upon me to cut and paste the content from term to term rather than simply import and edit from a backup.
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Reliability and Availability
iSpring Solutions Inc
I have to say ALWAYS.
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Apereo
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
iSpring Solutions Inc
Our account rep Katie Connor is fantastic. She is very responsive to our requests. She does not try to over sell. She has setup training sessions for us any time we asked. Finally, she is a very nice person we like working with. She also has been patient with us as we figure out our renewal
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Apereo
Since Sakai is open-source their documentation is often lacking and support is absolutely needed onsite. Internal documentation is more important with Sakai than other services. The Sakai community is fun, passionate, engaged, and absolutely doing their best, but it's an uphill battle against the current market and trends.
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In-Person Training
iSpring Solutions Inc
We can say that most of my students attend my classes twice a week and that's not enough for someone to learn. I put some training for them to do at home and they really enjoy doing them. The kind of progress they make is really satisfying for them and they are always learning.
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Apereo
No answers on this topic
Online Training
iSpring Solutions Inc
As a teacher, I used to spend a lot of time correcting my students' papers. Now with iSpring Learn, my time has been saved and everything is done automatically. All the time I can check my students' progress and I know which exams they have taken or they should take. On the whole, online training has really helped a lot of teachers
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Apereo
No answers on this topic
Implementation Rating
iSpring Solutions Inc
When I talked to my colleagues or informed them to search for a programme before iSpring Learn, they were not successful in designing and implementing a programme like this. I am sure they have done a lot to implement it in the best and educational way. That was not that easy as we thought.
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Apereo
No, I don't
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Alternatives Considered
iSpring Solutions Inc
I reviewed a few different LMSs before deciding on iSpring Learn. I can't remember the names, but I chose iSpring Learn primarily because I liked that it was just a PowerPoint add-on, which made it easy to use, and I liked the price!
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Apereo
As an adjunct professor, I didn't pick Sakai for the university. I have experience with Moodle, Blackboard, eCollege, iBoard and now Sakai. I would have to say that Sakai is one of my all time favorite LMSs to use as it is very easy to navigate.
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Scalability
iSpring Solutions Inc
Really perfect.
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Apereo
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
iSpring Solutions Inc
  • iSpring has enabled me to deliver professional education to very high-level learners.
  • Due to the reviews of my users, many more learners have purchased my courses.
  • Several professional colleagues have inquired about my experience setting up online courses on iSpring Learn. I told them it was easy, logical, and no hassle; they will love the level of support.
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Apereo
  • Sakai makes it easy for students to monitor grades which puts their minds at ease.
  • Sakai makes it easy for teachers to assign and receive assignments from students.
  • Communication is one of the most important and one of the most taxing parts of an educational system. Sakai makes this process just a little bit easier.
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ScreenShots

iSpring LMS Screenshots

Screenshot of iSpring LMSScreenshot of the native mobile appScreenshot of the user portalScreenshot of development plansScreenshot of the knowledge baseScreenshot of the AI assistant