How Much Does an LMS Cost in the UK? 2026 Pricing Guide

Prices checked 4 November 2026, excluding VAT unless stated. USD prices are shown in USD; we have not converted them because no reliable same-day exchange rate was available. “As of October 2026” marks figures we could not re-check today. Vendors’ own pages are the authority: use this table to shortlist, not to sign.

Two platforms with the same sticker price can cost very different amounts, because “per user” can mean five different things. These are the six models in use, who each suits and what to watch for.

1. Per registered (named) user. You pay for every account that exists, active or not. iSpring Learn ($6.91 per user per month at 100 users) and the bracket plans from TalentLMS and MoodleCloud work this way. It suits a stable workforce where everyone trains, such as 80 employees who all complete induction. The trap: leavers, volunteers and dormant members stay on the bill until someone deactivates them, and a bracket jumps in price when you cross a threshold by one account.

2. Per active user. You pay only for people who actually use the platform in a defined period. 360Learning ($8 per user per month, Team plan, up to 100 users), Docebo and Continuum Learn use some version of this. It suits organisations with a long tail of occasional learners, such as members or volunteers. The trap: “active” is defined by the vendor. Monthly active, yearly active and registered active are three different bills, so get the definition in the contract.

3. Flat tiers. A fixed monthly or annual price per band of learners, with the same features throughout. Continuum Learn (£49, £99, £150), Thinkific, LearnWorlds and CharityGo work this way. It suits small organisations that need a predictable budget. The trap: check what the cap actually counts (students, active learners, sessions) and what happens at the boundary. LearnWorlds Starter, for example, adds a $5 fee per course enrolment that the higher plans drop.

4. Usage or transaction-based. Pricing that follows consumption: sessions, enrolments, storage, video bandwidth or a cut of course sales. It suits irregular training peaks. The trap: costs spike exactly when you succeed. Thinkific’s plans, for instance, carry video bandwidth caps, and payment gateways take their own fee on every sale.

5. Open source plus hosting. The software is free; you pay for servers, a hosting partner or a managed service. Moodle is the main example: free to self-host, £120 to £1,560 a year on MoodleCloud, or £8,000 to £9,135 a year and up through UK partners such as Titus Learning and Accipio. It suits organisations with technical staff or a partner budget and a need to customise. The trap: the licence is the cheapest line item. Security patching, upgrades, theming and support are where the money goes.

6. One-off licence. Buying the software outright and running it yourself. It is now rare for mainstream learning platforms, which have moved almost entirely to subscription, but it survives in some on-premise products. It suits organisations with strict hosting rules. The trap: the upfront price excludes upgrades and maintenance, which are usually an annual percentage, so the “one-off” rarely is.

The pricing page is the start of the bill. Ask each vendor, in writing, about every item below.

These examples use only the published prices in the table above, ex VAT, and show our arithmetic so you can rerun it. Vendors that publish no price are left out rather than guessed.

Example 1: a membership association with 300 members and about 60 active learners a month. Assume about 90 different people sign in across a year (members who dip in occasionally). Continuum Learn counts people who signed in over the year, so 90 falls in the 51–100 tier at £99 a month, or £1,188 a year; a registered non-profit with a 40% discount would pay around £59 a month. On a registered-user basis you pay for all 300: MoodleCloud Medium (500 users) is £890 a year, but that tier is capped on accounts, not activity, and has no plugins. TalentLMS’s Grow plan starts at $229 a month and the price rises by bracket, so 300 members will cost more than that headline; use its calculator. A managed Moodle service starts at £8,000 to £9,135 a year. For a membership-specific breakdown, see LMS cost for membership organisations.

Example 2: a 50-person SME training its own staff. Everyone trains, so registered and active pricing converge. Continuum Learn: 50 active learners is £49 a month, £588 a year (the 51st learner moves you to £99). MoodleCloud Starter: £120 a year for 50 users, which includes any administrators and leaves no headroom. 360Learning Team: 50 × $8 × 12 = $4,800 a year. iSpring Learn starts at 100 users, $8,286 a year, so you would pay for 50 unused places. TalentLMS Core is $119 a month for the 1–40 bracket and rises for 41–70 users; its page does not state the 41–70 price, so get it from the vendor.

Example 3: a charity with 20 staff and 80 volunteers, replacing about 30 volunteers a year. If the charity carries about 130 accounts over a year, MoodleCloud Small (200 users) is £370 a year and Mini (100 users) at £200 is too small. On active billing, if 100 or fewer people sign in during the year, Continuum Learn is £99 a month (about £59 with a charity discount of up to 40%), or £49 (about £29) if 50 or fewer do. CharityGo, aimed at compliance training, is £49 or £99 a month subject to VAT. TalentLMS offers registered non-profits 20% off annual plans, claimed through its free plan. More on this case in the UK charities guide.

The pattern: for organisations with many occasional learners, active-user or flat-tier pricing is usually cheapest. For a fixed team where everyone trains, per-user and flat prices land close together, and the extras decide it.

Quotes only compare if every vendor prices the same scenario. Send each shortlisted vendor an identical brief and ask these questions:

A vendor that answers these plainly is usually one that will bill plainly. If you are comparing a published-price platform with a quote-only one, ask the quote-only vendor to put a number on the same scenario in writing.

Continuum Learn is priced on active learners in flat tiers: £49 a month for 1–50, £99 for 51–100, £150 for 101–250, and custom above that, ex VAT, with every feature on every plan and up to 40% off for registered charities and non-profits. Billing is based on people who actually signed in over the year, not seats, and there is a free trial with no card required. It is built for small and mid-size UK organisations; it does not offer on-premise hosting or SAML single sign-on (it uses OpenID Connect), and very large enterprises with bespoke development needs will be better served elsewhere. See Continuum Learn pricing, the affordable LMS page and our membership organisation roundup, or the best LMS for small UK organisations if you are still choosing.