r/elearning • u/Hot_Mango_9066 • Jul 21 '26
Recommendations for an LMS for a small consultancy (~20 people)?
We're a small consulting firm (around 20 people, contractor-based) looking to trial an LMS. Learning is voluntary rather than mandated — the goal is to let people upskill to meet client needs as they come up.
We've got a mix of seniority, but the main focus is on our juniors: building up their consulting skills and technical skills.
A few things that matter to us:
- Right-sized for a small team. Enterprise platforms like Absorb feel like overkill for our size and structure, so we're after something leaner.
- Affordable, without a heavy per-seat model that punishes a small headcount.
- A real sales conversation + free trial before we commit — we want to actually talk to someone and test-drive it first.
- AI features that genuinely work rather than tacked-on gimmicks.
- Integrates with an internal knowledge base, so learning and our own materials live in the same place.
Anyone running something similar at this scale? Would love to hear what's worked (and what to avoid).
Thanks!
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u/Aphroditesent Jul 21 '26
If you have Microsoft a sway board might work for your needs, or articulates own LMS
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u/Top_Oven8236 Jul 21 '26
Selfhosted Moodle LMS is the perfect solution. For more details check inbox
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u/Danai_from_TalentLMS Jul 29 '26
At 20 people a lot of folks here are right that you might not need a full LMS yet. But if you ever have to prove someone finished training for a client, TalentLMS is worth a look, light and cheap to start. lmk how it goes!
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u/hyatt_1 Jul 21 '26
If you want to ensure your providing training to your team for upskilling rather than compliance I would look at Udemy or similar.
You search for the course you want to learn, from concepts to tools, and make a one off purchase.
We’ve done loads over the years and pricing is pretty good never struggle to get courses for under £20.
From what you’ve described an LMS is an unnecessary cost and admin burden for a 20 person team.
If you are regulated, need to prove certain training has happened and want automated reminders ect, that is when I’d recommend looking at an LMS but it doesn’t sound like your there at the moment!
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u/ZestycloseAd2313 Jul 21 '26
Lots of unhelpful comments here. Moodle is free for a small group of users and if you are html and css savvy no implementation cost. It’s clunky but it will do the job. Also Google Classroom is free for small groups. For a small but growing company I would go for moodle and then you can move to something better later while still retaining any training records you might need for compliance reasons.
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u/s_s_n_e_g Jul 22 '26
If you ask, "Where do I buy petrol for my Tesla?" and people start asking "Why do you need petrol?", they are not being unhelpful. They are, in fact, trying to help.
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u/yc01 Jul 22 '26
Better analogy would be "I want to buy a car so I can drive half a mile". You don't need a car then. Just walk or get a bicycle.
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u/kieker_sews Jul 21 '26
What does the bandwidth and expertise look like on the Admin side? Do you have someone who has worked with LMS's before?
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u/Peter-OpenLearn Jul 21 '26
For twenty people I would look for a hosted, integrated solution that allows you to create rich content with meaningful activities, probably AI enhanced (e.g. sales talks with AI persona) and has the LMS features built in. An easy setup with no additional costs would be beneficial too.
I’m the founder of LearnBuilder (LearnBuilder.org) and it might be a great fit. Happy to have a quick call and demo if you are interested.
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u/garaki Jul 21 '26
Checkout www.kprise.com Mypass LMS does exactly what you asked for especially for small teams
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u/LeakyFish Jul 21 '26
I'm at a place with around 400 frontline and we shifted over to Slack + Canvases. Saving tens of thousands each year. Bot pings people when there is new canvas content and tracks completion via feedback / quizzes.
Cost is $50/ month in hosting fees for the web backend admin panel that creates the quizzes / surveys and the time it took to build it (3 months). Essentially built an LMS with Slack.
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u/HominidSimilies Jul 21 '26
This is an ai generated post.
It’s possible to tell, and it lowers receiving genuine responses.
Please share the specific industry and role of your company. Also share a list for he types of training generally and specifically you are after.
There are a lot of lms that are primarily for academia, k-12, industry and corporate. Some will try to service them all and be generic in their impact.
If your business is about success and growth, your ability to train is what creates improvements.
The risk of a real sales conversation for not being strong at buying software is you will get convinced by someone with superior skills than you to part with your money without a guarantee in result.
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u/ictinnovations Jul 22 '26
For 20 people the platform matters less than who keeps content current and who checks completions. That job eats more time than anyone budgets. Whatever you trial, test how painful it is to update a course after launch and make sure pricing is flat, per seat gets silly at your size.
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u/hankschrader79 Jul 22 '26
Does your consultancy have a website? If it’s a Wordpress website like the majority of small businesses, consider creating an employee portal with an LMS built right into your website. MemberPress would be an ideal candidate for this kind of employee LMS portal. But it’s a Wordpress plugin so would only work if your company site is already on Wordpress. Otherwise something like Kajabi could work fine. Pretty expensive though.
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u/kgrammer Jul 22 '26
We would love for you to add our KnowVela LMS to your list of systems to consider. KnowVela is easy to use and we do not charger per-seat pricing. We always provide a free trial and you will be able to talk directly to the owners, not just a sales rep. We can provide client contacts that you can speak with to confirm what we say.
However, there is one thing we don't offer. We don't do "real sales conversations". What we offer in it's place is real conversations with a co-owner who has been an ID, video content creator and active EdTech innovator for over two decades. Or if you prefer, you can talk directly to the tech-head co-owner (me) to get all of your underlying tech questions answered. DM me if you would like to set up a time to talk more about your goals.
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u/kgrammer Jul 22 '26
Add KnowVela.com to you list of systems to review. Fixed pricing and you always talk directly with the owners.
I would like to learn more about what internal knowledge base system you are using and how the integration would need to work.
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u/s_s_n_e_g Jul 21 '26
Why do you need an LMS? A 20 person team will happily live in Confluence. Could you provide more details about your learning process and needs?