Dynamic Insights

The best LMS providers will help you choose the right platform

BY IAN GLOVER

7 MARCH 2025

When searching for the best LMS (Learning Management System) provider, it’s common to encounter numerous articles listing top LMS providers. But be wise to the fact that a number of these best LMS lists are from LMS providers, who simply position themselves prominently as number one.

Best LMS provider lists may offer a starting point. However, where an author cites themselves as the best LMS provider, the articles often lack the depth needed to make an informed decision. And that informed decision, if any of our current LMS clients are anything to go by, should be aligned to your organisation’s unique needs; your business case, the challenges you face and your ambitions.

So before relying solely on such compilations, it’s essential to consult with your wider teams, speak with key stakeholders, delve into the specific challenges your organisation faces and understand how a particular LMS can address them effectively. Only then will you understand not simply what the best learning management system is for you, but also the best LMS provider for you. Why do I make that distinction? Because while there are differences in features, there is also plenty of difference in terms of the service you might receive.

The best LMS providers can match your organisation's needs with the right features

An external view of your situation can give you not just an objective opinion, but an LMS solution tailored to your needs. And whilst at Dynamic we pride ourselves on providing one of the most cost-effective LMS platforms on the market, we are also very proud of the fact we partner with potential purchasers to pin down the correct configuration to provide the best enterprise-level LMS for your organisation. Naturally, your organisation has distinct requirements when it comes to training and development, but as a starter for ten, it’s worth considering the following aspects:

1. Your training objectives

Are you focusing on employee onboarding, compliance training, skill development, employee performance, or a combination of these? Each objective may necessitate different LMS features.

2. Your audience

Are your learners internal employees, external contractors, customers—or a mix? This influences the type of content and accessibility needed.

3. Content management

Do you need your LMS to allow for easy eLearning content creation? Does your organisation require content authors to update and keep training materials relevant? Do you want your LMS platform to suggest training content to employees?

4. Employee performance

Do you need your LMS platform to provide employee performance tools and empower employees to take control of their own development through feedback and experiential learning?

5. LMS integration capabilities

How does your new LMS integrate with your existing systems? Do you need single sign-on and seamless integration with HR platforms or communication tools?

6. Scalability

If you’re thinking of choosing a new LMS, you’re obviously thinking of the future. It’s a good idea to consider whether your LMS can grow with your organisation—on a couple of levels. For instance, can your LMS cater for an increasing number of users and can it accommodate expanding functionalities?

7. Manager access

Do you need to devolve your compliance and other reporting down to the managers in the business?

Automatically giving line managers and senior managers complete access to reporting on their parts of the organisation can free up a lot of time for training teams and empower managers to own the training requirements of their staff.

Ideally, you want to achieve all of this automatically without the need to manage your organisation’s hierarchy and employee positions in the LMS platform.

8. Service

The best enterprise LMS platforms, by necessity, have lots of functionality. Your LMS administrators will need to understand and manage that system functionality, so what level of support will they get from the supplier? Do you need unlimited support, i.e: to be able to email or telephone your LMS platform provider as often as you want without additional cost? What SLA (service level agreement) will you expect from your LMS provider? Do you need to speak directly to the LMS development team? Similarly, what pro-active support process are you interested in? Quarterly or monthly review meetings with an account manager? All essential factors when considering the best LMS provider for you.

So you think you need a new LMS? Let's take a closer look ...

An LMS can help to overcome all kinds of challenges or achieve certain aspirations. Understanding those challenges and aspirations in the context of your organisation will act as a good guide for you in terms of choosing the right LMS platform. At a basic level, some of those challenges and aspirations might include:

Consistency in training Choosing the right LMS can ensure uniformity in the delivery of your training, providing all learners with the same information regardless of location.

Tracking and Reporting Advanced analytics help you monitor learner progress, course completion rates, and knowledge gaps. With the right LMS, this in turn, can help you facilitate data-driven training decisions.

Compliance management If your organisation needs to maintain compliance with industry regulations, automated reminders and tracking can help you reduce the risk of non-compliance penalties.

Cost reductions We’ve yet to meet an organisation that isn’t interested in saving money. Digital training materials housed within an LMS can reduce the need for in-person sessions, leading to significant cost savings.

The key to finding the best LMS

Talking to and having good two-way conversations with a potential LMS supplier is the absolute key to finding the right LMS for you. And because you’ll hopefully have your LMS working hard for you for a long time, it’s often the case that one of the deciding factors is not necessarily the wealth of features or the flexibility of the system that’s the most important thing, but whether you can work with the LMS providers; whether their level of support or proactivity is right for you. How invested are they in the success of your learning and development ambitions?

So what are you looking for?

Choosing the right LMS is ultimately about the needs of the users who’ll help achieve your organisation’s ambitions. But you may want to consider your current circumstances as some LMS platforms are billed as best for different situations or aspirations. For example, some platforms will be sold as being the best LMS for:

1. Onboarding, compliance or product training
2. SME businesses to large businesses
3. Start-ups and small businesses looking for an LMS with the capacity to grow with them
4. Schools, academic and research based organisations
5. Organisations with a strong focus on collaborative L&D as a business function
6. Upskilling, certification and tracking

… and so forth. When ultimately, the most prudent conversation you could have is how your LMS provider can configure the platform to your exact needs.

So, by all means, read Top 10 LMS Provider articles. In fact, research all the Top LMS Providers posts you want, but our advice would be to yes, book in a demo—but definitely have an open, honest dialogue with your potential partner. In any conversations we have with potential LMS clients, if we don’t think our system is right for their unique needs, we will say so. After all, if an organisation goes ahead with an LMS supplier and that system is not right, it will ultimately reflect badly on the supplier.

INTRODUCING DYNAMIC LMS

An LMS, configured to meet your needs

At Dynamic, we recognise that a one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t always fit the bill in terms of addressing unique organisational challenges. Dynamic LMS is designed with flexibility and performance at its core including:

1. A CUSTOMISABLE USER EXPERIENCE

Fully adaptable themes and layouts allow you to create a branded learning environment that resonates with your organisation’s identity. You can configure your LMS by changing the user dashboard layouts, text and colours and can create a compliance-driven LMS or a learner experience portal (LXP), or a combination of various elements of each.

2. A POWERFUL MANAGER DASHBOARD

By simply including the line manager information in the user’s profile, Dynamic LMS can automatically create a full hierarchical reporting structure—giving managers access to the performance of their direct reports and for senior managers, the performance of their entire departments and divisions. This is all achieved automatically without any manual intervention by your LMS administrators.

3. ROBUST PERFORMANCE

Dynamic LMS lets you choose an LMS that works with you and for you. You can integrate your platform with single sign-on and HR systems. Not only that, but end-to-end secure hosting at our UK data centre provides 99.9% uptime and full GDPR compliance. Dynamic is also accredited as a Cyber Essentials Plus partner.

4. OUTSANDING FUNCTIONALITY

If you’ve read this far, you’ll know we recommend talking about your unique needs for an LMS. So whilst with Dynamic LMS, outstanding features and functionality are included as standard, you can also add additional functionality, including features like customisable appraisals, 360° feedback, employee recognition tools and talent management—all at a lower cost than you’re currently paying just for a basic training system. And we can always discuss any specific functionality of features that you don’t see on our LMS overview page.

5. UNLMITED SUPPORT

Dynamic LMS comes with unlimited helpdesk support direct from our systems experts. This includes unlimited email or phone access to our team of developers where you’ll benefit from quick troubleshooting allowing your teams to get on with business as usual. Not only that, we provide full training to your LMS administrators and provide detailed on-line reference materials, regular newsletters with hints and tips and feedback mechanisms via our client LMS surveys and direct discussions with our management team.

6. TRUSTED BY BIG-NAME BRANDS

We pride ourselves not just on the functionality our LMS can give your organisation and the unlimited and proactive nature of our support, but also our extensive list of long-standing clients. As well a working with many NHS trusts, we’re proud to have supplied Dynamic LMS to household brand names such as Next, River Island, The FA, Odeon and The English Cricket Board, to name just a few.

For a more detailed view of Dynamic LMS and how it can be tailored to your specific requirements, visit our services page.

Always here to help

Whilst the likes of top LMS companies lists can serve as a preliminary reference, we wouldn’t recommended they be used as the sole factor in your decision-making process. By thoroughly assessing your organisation’s unique challenges and objectives and having those investigative conversations with potential suppliers, you can make a more informed decision on the LMS that not only fits seamlessly into your existing infrastructure but also propels your training and development ambitions forward.

Book a free no-obligation demo

You can book a free no-obligation demo of Dynamic LMS using our contact form or simply call Ian Glover or Lisa Welch for an initial chat on 0113 323 0760. And as mentioned, if we don’t think Dynamic LMS and our supportive team can provide an LMS solution that aligns with your specific needs and contributes towards meaningful and lasting impact on your organisation—we’ll tell you.

No job too big or too small.

“The customer journey is as smooth as possible. They have an excellent support network and provide a professional and prompt service. I’d strongly recommend Dynamic as an excellent provider of learning management solutions.”

Michael Woodhouse

England and Wales Cricket Board

No other organisation comes close.

“My organisation requires a periodic review of competitors to ensure we are getting best value, and no other organisation comes close. Fast response, knowledgeable, friendly and always helpful.”

Neil Drury

Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Our mission is to:

Inspire human and organisational success through learning that achieves a lasting impact

Over 25 years of providing outstanding learning services

When clients choose Dynamic, they tend to stay with us. That’s because we’re as invested in your long-term growth through learning as much as you are. So as well as configuring the right LMS for you, we’re always on hand to provide unlimited support to help meet all of your organisation’s learning ambitions.

Dynamic Insights

The best LMS providers will help you choose the right platform

BY IAN GLOVER

7 MARCH 2025