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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    SumTotal (legacy)

    Score7.9 out of 10
    Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
    The SumTotal Talent Expansion Suite included SumTotal (LMS), and was supported by Skillsoft since the October 2014 acquisition. Acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand in 2022, it is a legacy product, and Cornerstone recommends upgrading to their modern platform.N/A

    Thinkific

    Score8.8 out of 10
    N/AThinkific Plus is a scalable learning platform that’s designed to be easy to use for teams and customers. Thinkific Plus offers enterprise-grade features that scale with the needs of enterprises, and the service includes a people seriously dedicated to helping users to reach their goals.N/A
    Pricing
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Free Trial
    NoNo
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    YesNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Considered Both Products
    Discontinued Products
    No answer on this topic
    Thinkific
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    88%
    Would buy again
    46 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    89%
    Delivers good value for the price
    40 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    94%
    Happy with the feature set
    49 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    87%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    39 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    85%
    Implementation went as expected
    40 Answers
    Features
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Onboarding
    Comparison of Onboarding features of SumTotal (legacy) and Thinkific
    Feature
    SumTotal (legacy)
    8.2
    2 Ratings
    12% above category average
    Thinkific
    -
    Ratings
    New hire portal8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Manager tracking tools8.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance and Goals
    Comparison of Performance and Goals features of SumTotal (legacy) and Thinkific
    Feature
    SumTotal (legacy)
    8.8
    1 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Thinkific
    -
    Ratings
    Corporate goal setting9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Individual goal setting8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Line-of sight-visibility9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance tracking9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance Management
    Comparison of Performance Management features of SumTotal (legacy) and Thinkific
    Feature
    SumTotal (legacy)
    8.2
    2 Ratings
    18% above category average
    Thinkific
    -
    Ratings
    Performance plans8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Performance improvement plans7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Review status tracking7.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Review reminders8.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Multiple review frequency9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Succession Planning
    Comparison of Succession Planning features of SumTotal (legacy) and Thinkific
    Feature
    SumTotal (legacy)
    7.0
    1 Ratings
    3% above category average
    Thinkific
    -
    Ratings
    Create succession plans/pools8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Candidate search7.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Candidate development6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Recruiting / ATS
    Comparison of Recruiting / ATS features of SumTotal (legacy) and Thinkific
    Feature
    SumTotal (legacy)
    7.8
    2 Ratings
    9% above category average
    Thinkific
    -
    Ratings
    Job Requisition Management8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Company Website Posting7.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Publish to Social Media7.92 Ratings00 Ratings
    Job Search Site Posting8.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Duplicate Candidate Prevention6.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Applicant Tracking8.02 Ratings00 Ratings
    Notifications and Alerts8.52 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning Management
    Comparison of Learning Management features of SumTotal (legacy) and Thinkific
    Feature
    SumTotal (legacy)
    6.5
    1 Ratings
    8% below category average
    Thinkific
    -
    Ratings
    Course authoring9.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Course catalog or library4.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Player/Portal10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Progress tracking & certifications6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Assignments6.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Compliance management8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning administration4.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Learning reporting & analytics5.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Small Businesses
    No answers on this topic
    iSpring Suite
    Score7.7 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    ClearCo
    Score7.9 out of 10
    Articulate 360
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Cornerstone Galaxy
    Score8.1 out of 10
    Articulate 360
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.5
    (9 ratings)
    9.2
    (54 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    6.0
    (5 ratings)
    8.6
    (8 ratings)
    Usability
    2.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.7
    (44 ratings)
    Availability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.5
    (2 ratings)
    Performance
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.5
    (2 ratings)
    Support Rating
    3.0
    (2 ratings)
    8.9
    (10 ratings)
    Online Training
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Implementation Rating
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.6
    (3 ratings)
    Configurability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    3.6
    (1 ratings)
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (1 ratings)
    Ease of integration
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    -
    (0 ratings)
    6.4
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor post-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    4.5
    (2 ratings)
    Vendor pre-sale
    -
    (0 ratings)
    5.5
    (2 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    SumTotal (legacy)Thinkific
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Discontinued Products
    Very good for learning and development and training of employees. For Applicant tracking, recuirement, onboarding, and enablement, I prefer SAP SuccessFactors or Skillate. I also found that the SumTotal app is not very friendly on android and crashes sometimes and it is not optimized for mobile. Hence I end up never using it.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    I think Thinkific is very well suited if you want more control and not a ton of competition. It is very well suited if you want to create courses because it does an amazing job with providing course outline examples for you to stay organized and so forth. The only thing I would say where the courses might be less appropriate is if someone is expecting it to be like an udemy where people can see a ton of different course creators all in one place with course recommendations. Thinkific is not that type of platform and I LOVE that. On Thinkific, it almost feels like our site is our own ya know. I tried out other platforms and it just felt like you were competing with so many other people and could see other courses. Felt like being on a platter served with others. Thinkific just feels more unique in the sense it feels like when people come to your page, they are only seeing your page.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Pros
    Discontinued Products
    • Assign complete learning plans to users so they don't have to spend time searching for courses.
    • Export learner's transcripts so managers can easily see their employee's progress.
    • Embed Social Media feeds that are relevant to their business.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    • Enables course creators to deliver high quality courses very fast
    • Offers unlimited hosting for videos included in the subscription price
    • Provides an easy to use administration interface that's powerful and accessible
    • Easy to scale subscription tiers on B2C plans, cost effective highly scaleable B2B plans (Thinkific Plus) ideal for companies who want to start a customer education program
    • Amazing support and account management team - great mindset and people in the teams.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Discontinued Products
    • Reporting
    • Mass importing of manual checks to be issued in California
    • Ability to fund pay cards immediately
    • Perform gross-up calculations within the payroll system automatically
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    • auto formatting of some course building content, does not format well on phone vs desktop
    • filter by group functionality for website based content, it's mostly filter by enrollments
    • the plug and play web building is convenient but really we need a UX/UI designer to build a super good looking website. Plug and play builder works but doesnt look SUPER sharp if done by someone with no dev skills or coding ability
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Discontinued Products
    I have transitioned from a position who supported the product to a position where I use the product. I continue to be impressed with the robustness of the product and how efficient it is. It is a user friendly software that can be used to navigate and accomplish tasks to meet organizational requirements.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    I'm very likely to renewal as long as Thinkific stays focused on helping small businesses like myself to stay in the know of new and more effective ways to use digital learning tools to help our students get better success. I will also stay with Thinkific if they do not intend to hike up the prices and keep the different price plans suit all businesses regardless of the size.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Discontinued Products
    I do not find SumTotal to be intuitive. I feel we need to adjust our needs to meet the functionality available in the tool.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    Under Site Builder, when trying to add a new section, so many templates appear; however, preview is not shown, which makes it super difficult and time consuming to identify a template that suits the purpose. Customization of certification designs is a bit difficult too. There are limitations to the type of quiz questions I can create - for example, there's no option to have fill in the blank questions.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Reliability and Availability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Thinkific
    I've never had any issues with accessing Thinkific but I can see when it has been a problem for others. When I get updates on when they are doing maintenance to their platform I tend to make sure that is not the day I plan to be working on my school so as not to get frustrated
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Performance
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Thinkific
    When it comes to the performance of Thinkific for me I find that it's good but could be better. I tend to think that the larger the files and videos you upload on your courses may add to the impact of it's uploading (not sure if that's actually true or not). But overall the performance of Thinkific via my tablet and desktop is very good when I have a fast speed broadband speed
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Discontinued Products
    We have our own IT support to assist in SumTotal issues, however, we have had to log in cases directly. Support is mediocre at best.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    I rate Thinkific a ten because of its excellent customer service, ease of use, high-quality product, fair price with excellent ROI, and because they keep making improvements. Using Thinkific solved the problems of piecing together our course with various WordPress plugins, iframes, and payment processing software. It's easy to create a course website for people who can't write code.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Online Training
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Thinkific
    It was good and easy to understand
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Thinkific
    I highly recommend utilizing the bulk importer for video content early on, as it saves a massive amount of time during the initial setup phase. Another insight is to set up your custom domain and email integrations (like Mailchimp or HubSpot) at the very beginning of the implementation
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Discontinued Products
    When I came to my company, they had been using a "light" LMS called Articulate. It was cheap and bare bones; i.e. not a lot of features, really just a platform to launch eLearning from and not real interface for student to utilize. When I began to overhaul the training department, this was one of the first things I changed. Articulate would only run courses built in their software, and the software was not 508 compliant. In addition, we had no ability to create learning plans, house transcripts, customize the interface, or manage the students. I made the choice to select and LMS that was a true LMS with all of the features that were critical to our clients' needs. Thus far, SumTotal has been able to support all of our needs, except one; mobile learning that is media rich
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    ClickFunnels is great for funnels, but as of now, it does not do well with e-learning. Maybe they'll change that in ClickFunnels 2.0. But for now, I use Thinkific because I need a place where the students can come into their own dashboard, find all the courses they have purchased on a single place and be able to track their progress.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Contract Terms and Pricing Model
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Thinkific
    Great use easy and simple
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Scalability
    Discontinued Products
    No answers on this topic
    Thinkific
    The opportunities to scale your online course business with Thinkific is endless. They provide a great range of plans with features, integrations and support to suit the needs of any business as different levels. The key here is knowing where to start with the budget you have and then knowing when it's time to scale up and the tools and resources it will require.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Discontinued Products
    • Clean front-end user interface for easier course catalog management.
    • Reporting has been more difficult than previous LMS.
    • Audience building has more variables making it more difficult to manage.
    • Slower overall client turnaround due to admin side interface.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Thinkific
    • No email marketing makes it more difficult to collect leads.
    • Price can be a barrier at time for small businesses who don't have revenue.
    • Easy to use and helps with my business needs vs platforms like Squarespace.
    • Community building through workshops and webinars Thinkific host.
    • Access to educational resources and mobile app.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    SumTotal (legacy) Screenshots

    Screenshot of SumTotal Learning Management: Deliver the learning your organization needs including skilling/upskilling/reskilling, career planning & development. All delivered with our engaging learner experience across all modalities (desktop, tablet & mobile) and in the flow of workScreenshot of SumTotal Onboarding: Foster learning before day one with our robust onboarding solution. Build culture, complete necessary paperwork and begin the path to productivity for all your new and returning employees.Screenshot of SumTotal Performance: Performance management that meets the needs of today’s forward-thinking organizations. Align the goals and performance of your entire workforce with those of the broader organization for better business outcomes.Screenshot of SumTotal Succession: Make succession planning an organizational strength. SumTotal allows you to better understand your workforce now and better plan for your future with our intuitive succession planning tools.Screenshot of SumTotal Recruiting: A modern recruiting solution that delivers a powerful candidate experience, recruiter productivity, job matching and internal mobility.Screenshot of SumTotal Compensation: SumTotal makes compensation planning easier and less time consuming. Build a pay for performance culture that meets your organizations goals and objectives while keeping you competitive in the ever-changing marketplace.