Joomla! CMS is known as the second most used Content Management System on the Internet after blogging WordPress. JoomLMS is on its way to take a prominent second position on LMS-market after Moodle. We certainly think it is possible thanks to 100% compatibility with open source Joomla! CMS used by Harvard University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Notre Dame, eBay and more.
To access the latest JoomLMS vs Moodle comparison please go to JoomLMS and Moodle Comparison [Updated]
Joomla! CMS is known as the second most used Content Management System on the Internet after blogging WordPress. JoomLMS is on its way to take a prominent second position on LMS-market after Moodle. We certainly think it is possible thanks to 100% compatibility with open source Joomla! CMS used by Harvard University, University of Alabama at Birmingham, University of Notre Dame, eBay and more.
We are frequently asked to provide a comparison of JoomLMS with Moodle.
We don’t think it is possible to provide an unbiased detailed comparison of the solutions on every feature that might be implemented because both solutions are highly extendable and adoptable for a broad spectrum of users. This post will atte mpt to give you an idea of core differences which will stay up-to-date at least for several years meanwhile the improvement cycles will go on.
The first and the most important difference is a licensing model of the e-Learning solutions. Moodle is a completely open-source software project (GPL). JoomLMS is a proprietary software having open source Content Management System at the heart and provides 99% open source code. Both Moodle and JoomLMS being totally or partially open source contribute a lot to open source communities and ultimately benefit the end user.
Opportunities and Limitations of Open Source
For Moodle:
The most attractive feature of Moodle is its open source architecture promising flexibility and adaptability to users. Being open source the solution code is available for free and you are encouraged to participate in a global community of teachers and e-Learning designers for the LMS support, implementing new features and custom development.
Realistically, there’re some limitations that can prevent taking full advantage of being open source. First of all there is obviously a limitation of technical support and the solution code adaptation. Low and middle level technical support from the open source community is free. Meanwhile high level technical support and programming support are paid. So, information and communication technologies (ICT) department must be in place for evaluating and prioritizing requests for paid modifications requested by your LMS users. All in all, many e-Learning establishments find the benefits of Moodle’s open source nature worth of more staff recruitment.
Please note that Moodle is an e- Learning specific application lacking the ability to manage and maintain web portal content not included into e-Learning process directly.
For JoomLMS:
JoomLMS is a proprietary software developed as an extension for the open source Joomla! Content Management System. It allows our clients to exploit the complete set of advantages of open source for CMS and partly for LMS.
You can use free open source Joomla! CMS to manage and extend your web portal enjoying more than 9,000 extensions in stock and support from the global community of developers.
Joomla! Learning Management System works smoothly with Joomla! CMS as a native extension. It is partially open source. Only 2 files which contain the license information are encoded. So, it allows for the integration with other systems using open source code including Joomla! extensions which can be used to create meaningful online communities and integrate any new feature you can dream up into your e-Learning environment.
As support service is included into the license price JoomLMS team will be your external ICT department ready to discuss, estimate and schedule implementation of requested improvements on demand for free. So, you will not need to recruit additional technical staff for LMS adaptation requests estimation. Integration or other customization can be implemented by the core JoomLMS team or by Joomla! Community on paid basis.
Besides JoomLMS team provides Joomla! CMS website and 3-rd party extensions installed on maintenance services on a paid basis. So, you can order full blown e-Learning website and we will develop it from scratch. In this variant you will get one-place support for the whole package of Joomla! CMS and JoomLMS.
Being a Joomla! CMS native component allows JoomLMS to stay one of the cheapest Learning Management Systems available.
Note that you can always take an opportunity to go open source by buying a perpetual license of JoomLMS to get JoomLMS code completely open and rely on Global Joomla! Community support or prepay 1 5 % of basic license price per 1 year of support and updates of JoomLMS directly from the vendor.
Actually your choice of an e-Learning solution depends on your budget and technical capability of your staff. Before you choose you need to estimate what initial investment into Learning Management System can be covered from your budget and what amount is available for every year investment. With Moodle your initial investment is low, meanwhile remember that adaptation, improvement and maintenance services might request high budgeting. JoomLMS requires initial investment, but gives you an opportunity to save on technical staff recruiting costs considerably. Besides it is cheaper to use existing Joomla! extensions integrated with JoomLMS on the paid basis according to your requirements than develop new features from scratch.
If you have any questions, please feel free to ask in the comments, send a ticket to our helpdesk support or contact JoomLMS Support online.
What to read next?
JoomLMS and Moodle Comparison [Updated]
JoomLMS vs Guru LMS vs King LMS vs Shika LMS
10 Reasons to Build Your ELearning Project With JoomLMS [Infographic]
