European Alternatives to Credly
Looking for a European alternative to Credly? Credly by Pearson publishes a Pearson privacy policy whose address for legal notices is NCS Pearson Inc., 5601 Green Valley Drive, Bloomington, Minnesota, so the contract sits within a US group. Its own pages describe it as hosting the largest and most-connected digital credential network, and they list no public prices in the text we read.
The European platforms below issue Open Badges, certificates and European Digital Credentials through companies in Poland, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Slovenia, France, Sweden and the UK, and most publish their prices.
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European ownership, verified
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Category fit and hands-on review
What the tool actually does, who it suits, and where it falls short — checked against the vendor’s own documentation, changelog and pricing page rather than its marketing copy.
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Compliance and pricing check
GDPR posture, hosting location and the prices quoted on this page are verified against the vendor’s public pricing before publication, and re-checked when we revisit the category.
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10 European Alternatives to Credly
Certifier
Kraków certificate maker with a free plan and bulk email
Open Badge Factory
Finnish Open Badges platform with public yearly prices
Virtualbadge
Mannheim badge and certificate tool hosted in Germany
Awero (Badgecraft)
Vilnius Open Badges platform with quests and a free tier
Velocert
Slovenian issuer of European Digital Credentials with Europass
BCdiploma
Paris white label certificates and badges, priced per recipient
VerifyEd
Dorset credential platform with blockchain proof and free start
Open Badge Passport
Free Finnish wallet to store and share Open Badges
TRUE Original
Stockholm certificates with blockchain anchor from €100 a month
Openbadges.me
York badge service from MyKnowledgeMap for verified credentials
Key takeaways
- Credly by Pearson publishes a Pearson privacy policy whose legal-notice address is NCS Pearson Inc. in Bloomington, Minnesota.
- Credly's pages describe the largest and most-connected digital credential network; none of the ten European tools on this page claims an employer network of that kind.
- Open Badge Factory in Finland, Awero in Lithuania, Virtualbadge in Germany and Velocert in Slovenia each publish a price, which the Credly pages we read did not.
- Velocert is the tool on this page built for European Digital Credentials, and Virtualbadge is the one whose privacy notice names a German host, Hetzner.
- Certifier, Awero, Velocert, VerifyEd and Open Badge Passport all offer a free entry point, from 5 credentials a year at VerifyEd to 250 at Certifier.
Why people leave Credly
Credly is the product people meet when an employer, a vendor or a professional body hands them a digital badge. The pages of Credly by Pearson describe a network in which an organisation issues a credential, the earner keeps it in a profile, and employers can search and verify it. Credly's own wording is that it hosts "the largest and most-connected digital credential network", and its legal page speaks of thousands of clients, from Fortune 500 enterprises to small businesses.
The company behind it is American. The privacy policy on Credly's site is a Pearson policy, version 2.5 of September 2024, and the address it gives for legal notices is NCS Pearson Inc., 5601 Green Valley Drive, Bloomington, Minnesota. A European school, association or training company that issues through Credly therefore signs up to a service run inside a US publishing group, whatever country its own learners live in.
The reasons to look elsewhere are mostly practical. Credly shows no price list in the pages we read, its sales route is a "talk to sales" form, and a lot of its page space is given to employer products such as talent acquisition and workforce planning that a small issuer may never use. Smaller European organisations often want a published price, a contract under their own law and a platform sized for certificates rather than for a skills marketplace.
- The contracting party sits inside Pearson, in the United States Credly's privacy policy is written by Pearson, and its legal notices go to NCS Pearson Inc. in Bloomington, Minnesota. For a public university, a chamber of commerce or a training body in the EU, that means the data of its learners is processed under a US group's policy. The policy exists in a Portuguese version, which suggests an international audience, but the contracting entity we could read on the site is American.
- No public prices in the pages we read Credly's site routes every buyer through "Talk to Sales" and a demo form. We found no plan table, no per-credential rate and no free tier. For a school that issues 300 certificates a year this makes budgeting harder than with the Finnish, Lithuanian, Slovenian or German vendors on this page, which each print at least an entry price. Credly may well quote fairly; it just does not show it.
- It is shaped around employers, not only issuers Credly's navigation lists solutions for employers, talent acquisition, workforce planning and higher education, and products named digital credentials, workforce skills management and professional services. That breadth is a strength for a large company that wants to connect credentials to hiring. A small association that only needs to send out a verifiable certificate pays attention to a lot of product it does not use.
- Compliance statements are corporate, not local Credly's data security page says the service keeps multiple ISO certifications and is audited by third parties, and says that people should own and control their achievements. The text we read was cut off before the list of standards, so we cannot name them. European vendors on this page answer instead with a register number, a named data protection officer or a supervisory authority in the buyer's own language.
What you have to replace, not just match
Replacing Credly means replacing three things, and not every European tool covers all three. The first is issuing: designing a badge or certificate, loading recipients and sending the credential.
The second is the earner's profile, where a person collects badges from many issuers and shares them. The third is the employer side, where a hiring team searches for people by credential. Every platform on this page does the first; two or three do the second well; none of them describes a talent network like the one Credly markets.
Start with the format your recipients need. Open Badges is the common standard for badges, and Open Badge Factory, Awero, Open Badge Passport and Virtualbadge speak it.
European Digital Credentials are the format of the EU's Europass infrastructure, and Velocert is built around them. Plain verifiable certificates, with a blockchain record or a white label page, are the territory of BCdiploma, TRUE Original, VerifyEd and Certifier. Then count your existing badge classes and earners, because those are what you have to carry over.
Finally, decide whether the employer network matters to you. If your badges are mainly shown on LinkedIn, in an email signature or on a course page, you give up little. If your programme depends on employers finding certified people inside Credly, no tool here reproduces that, and you should treat the move as a change of strategy, not just of vendor.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Certifier | Kraków, Poland | Starter plan stated as free forever with an annual issuing limit of 250 certificates or badges; paid tiers up to 50,000 a year and an Enterprise option on request (paid prices not shown in the text we read) | EU (Poland) |
| #2 | Open Badge Factory | Oulu, Finland | Basic €220 a year (5,000 badges), Premium €700 a year (15,000 badges), Pro €1280 a year (50,000 badges), Enterprise on quote; prices exclusive of VAT; 60-day free trial | EU (Finland) |
| #3 | Virtualbadge | Mannheim, Germany | Essentials €49 a month billed yearly (€588) with 1,200 credentials a year, 1 user seat and 5 templates; higher tier shown as Professional, price not read; 7-day free trial | EU (Germany) |
| #4 | Awero (Badgecraft) | Vilnius, Lithuania | Personal issuer free; Starting issuer €110 a year; Advanced issuer €550 a year; Institution issuer €950 a year; more than 5,000 users or API use on request | EU (Lithuania) |
| #5 | Velocert | not stated on the pages we read (courts in Ljubljana), Slovenia | Free €0 for up to 10 credentials a year; Business €1 per credential for 10 to 2000 credentials; Enterprise on request; stated to be in public preview | EU (Slovenia) |
| #6 | BCdiploma | Paris, France | Essentials Pack starting at $1.50 per recipient a year (shown against $2.50 as a limited-time web offer), minimum 200 recipients; White Label Pack as annual plan plus add-ons | EU (France) |
| #7 | VerifyEd | Poole, Dorset, United Kingdom | 5 free credentials on sign-up without a credit card; subscription calculator shows £1.50 average price per credential at 50 credentials a year (£75 a year excluding tax); custom quote above 1000 credentials a year | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
| #8 | Open Badge Passport | Oulu, Finland | Free for badge earners; organisation environments are mentioned in the terms but their prices are not shown on the pages we read | EU (Finland) |
| #9 | TRUE Original | Stockholm, Sweden | Plans start from €100 a month with a yearly contract; above that priced by volume, flows and hosting; per-document pricing above 8,000 documents a year; no fixed price list | EU (Sweden) |
| #10 | Openbadges.me | York, United Kingdom | Subscription page exists, prices not shown in the text we read | United Kingdom (adequacy decision, outside the EEA) |
How each alternative compares to Credly
Best for: Course providers that want to issue hundreds of certificates from a list without a sales call
Certifier is run by Certifier sp. z o.o. in Kraków, with a Polish court register number in its terms and a registered office on Dolnych Młynów. An issuer uploads a CSV or Excel file, matches the columns to a template, and every recipient receives a personal link to view, download and share the credential. Certifier says no account is needed on the recipient side.
Against Credly the difference is the entry point. Certifier states a free Starter plan with 250 credentials or badges a year and a ladder of paid tiers up to 50,000, where Credly sends you to a sales form. The paid prices are not in the text we read, and Certifier describes no employer network, so it replaces Credly's issuing side only.
What Certifier does better than Credly
- A free plan of 250 credentials or badges a year, stated on the pricing page
- Bulk issuing from CSV or Excel with email delivery in one flow
- Contract with a Polish company that names its court register number
- A template library of more than 3,000 designs plus your own upload
Where Certifier is a step down from Credly
- Paid prices and hosting location are not visible in the text we read
- No employer search or workforce analytics like the ones Credly markets
- Annual issuing limits apply on every tier
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here that lets a new issuer start with 250 credentials a year at no cost and no demo call.
Best for: Schools, associations and companies that want the Open Badges format with prices they can read
Open Badge Factory is operated from Oulu, Finland, and its terms fall under Finnish law. The platform handles badge applications, endorsements, meta badges that bundle several badges into one, PDF certificates, a report generator and API integration, and it is the issuing sibling of the free Open Badge Passport wallet.
Where Credly asks you to contact sales, Open Badge Factory prints four levels: €220 a year for Basic with 5,000 badges, €700 for Premium, €1280 for Pro, and a quote for Enterprise, all excluding VAT. A standard data processing agreement is accepted on Basic to Pro. Extra sub-organisations cost another €220 plus VAT, which adds up for federations with many units.
What Open Badge Factory does better than Credly
- Prices printed for three tiers, from €220 a year
- A 60-day free trial before any commitment
- Standard data processing agreement accepted on Basic, Premium and Pro
- Endorsements and meta badges, which suit competency frameworks
Where Open Badge Factory is a step down from Credly
- No talent marketplace or hiring-side search
- Annual badge caps of 5,000, 15,000 or 50,000 depending on plan
- Hosting location is not stated in the pages we read
Standout against Credly. It is the one tool here whose whole product is the Open Badges standard, with endorsements and meta badges on top.
Best for: German-speaking providers that want a Hetzner-hosted service and wallet cards for recipients
Virtualbadge belongs to FutureNext GmbH, whose imprint puts it in the Mannheim technology centre under Handelsregister number HRB 736146. Its privacy notice lists Hetzner Online GmbH for hosting in Germany and Bird B.V. for email in the EU. Recipients open a badge in one click without an account, and can add it to Apple or Google Wallet.
The Essentials plan costs €49 a month billed yearly, which is €588, and covers 1,200 credentials, one user seat and five templates. That price is where Virtualbadge competes with Credly's quote-only model, but a team with several staff issuing from separate seats will need the Professional tier, whose price we did not read. The notice also lists US-incorporated processors such as Cloudflare, Inc.
What Virtualbadge does better than Credly
- Hosting named in the privacy notice as Hetzner in Germany
- Entry price of €49 a month visible without contacting sales
- Wallet cards for Apple and Google Wallet
- A free Open Badge 2.0 validator on the site
Where Virtualbadge is a step down from Credly
- One seat and five templates on the entry plan
- US processors in the sub-processor list, with transfers resting on the Data Privacy Framework
- Open Badges 3.0 is not mentioned in the pages we read
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here whose privacy notice names a German data centre operator for hosting.
Best for: Youth organisations and schools that guide earners through activities and want many interface languages
Awero is the new name of Badgecraft and is run by Awero, VšĮ in Vilnius, with a company code and address in its terms and Lithuanian governing law. The team says it has worked on learning recognition for 15 years. Earners complete quests, upload evidence in several formats and progress through levels and milestones, and a Badge Wallet app is part of every plan.
Compared with Credly, Awero is designed around a learning programme rather than a hiring network. Plans run from a free Personal issuer with 100 badges, through €110 and €550, to €950 a year for the Institution issuer with up to 5,000 people. The rebrand is still under way, so names and URLs mix Badgecraft and Awero, and API access needs a separate agreement.
What Awero (Badgecraft) does better than Credly
- Quests and evidence upload built into the badge flow
- Prices printed from free to €950 a year
- Interface in English, Lithuanian, German, Estonian, Spanish, Dutch, French and more
- Free Badge Wallet app for earners on all plans
Where Awero (Badgecraft) is a step down from Credly
- Paid tiers cap the number of people at 500, 2,500 or 5,000
- API only by arrangement, where larger Credly customers get integrations
- The Badgecraft to Awero rebrand makes legal texts inconsistent for now
Standout against Credly. It is the one tool here that treats a badge as the end of a quest with uploaded evidence, not as a certificate sent after the fact.
Best for: Universities and vocational bodies that must issue European Digital Credentials with their own eSeal
Velocert is provided by Netis, d.o.o. of Slovenia, whose terms choose Slovenian law and the courts of Ljubljana. It issues diplomas, micro-credentials, attendance and skill certificates as European Digital Credentials from a template builder, sends them to Europass, keeps an archive of what was issued and can extend a credential's validity. Institutions can bring their own eSeal.
Credly centres on its own network, whereas Velocert centres on the EU's credential standard. The Free plan covers 10 credentials a year, Business charges €1 per credential up to 2000, and Enterprise is by request, with an on-premises option. The vendor states that the service is in public preview, and the pages do not name a city, a hosting location or a register entry for Netis.
What Velocert does better than Credly
- Built around the European Digital Credentials format with Europass delivery
- A flat €1 per credential on the Business plan
- Bring-your-own eSeal and an on-premises installation option
- Slovenian law and courts, stated in the terms
Where Velocert is a step down from Credly
- Public preview status, so features and prices may change
- No Open Badges, public gallery or earner wallet in the text we read
- Business plan stops at 2000 credentials a year
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here designed from the start for European Digital Credentials rather than for Open Badges.
Best for: Universities and awarding bodies that want credentials on their own domain and a French contract
BCdiploma is operated by BCdiploma SAS, registered in Paris under RCS 994 492 700 with share capital of €800,000, and the privacy policy names a data protection officer appointed with the CNIL. The service issues certificates, badges and micro-credentials, supports stackable learning pathways, attaches certified files and produces print-ready certificates. The vendor says it won a Gold Award at the 1EdTech Learning Impact conference in 2023.
Its White Label Pack puts the institution's domain and emails on everything the recipient sees. Essentials starts at $1.50 per recipient a year, with a minimum of 200 recipients, and prices are in dollars. The site is hosted by Microsoft Ireland, and the privacy policy mentions EU to US transfers, so the data location is a point to settle in the contract.
What BCdiploma does better than Credly
- White label domain and emails, so recipients see the issuer and not the platform
- Per-recipient starting price published, from $1.50 a year
- A named data protection officer registered with the CNIL
- API, connectors and analytics listed for larger institutions
Where BCdiploma is a step down from Credly
- Prices are in US dollars and Essentials needs 200 recipients at minimum
- Hosting runs through a US group subsidiary in Dublin
- White Label Pack price is not shown
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here whose white label option covers the domain, the emails and the certificate in the issuer's name.
Best for: Bootcamps and small institutions that issue a few dozen credentials and want a public ledger
VerifyEd is provided by VerifyEd Ltd of Poole, Dorset, and English law governs its terms. It stores each credential on the XRPL blockchain and runs a Lifelong Learning Ledger in which a learner gathers credentials from several providers. The site says new institutions are reviewed by hand to confirm they are legitimate, which is a different trust model from Credly's open network.
New accounts get five free credentials without a credit card. The calculator shows an average of £1.50 per credential at 50 a year, so £75 excluding tax, and a custom quote above 1000. VerifyEd is a UK company, outside the EU, and a public blockchain needs a privacy review before personal data goes onto it.
What VerifyEd does better than Credly
- Per-credential price shown in pounds, with five free credentials on sign-up
- Tamper-proof record on a public blockchain
- Learner ledger that combines credentials from several providers
- Manual review of new institutions
Where VerifyEd is a step down from Credly
- UK entity outside the EU, under English law
- Calculator suits small volumes; larger issuers need a quote
- Hosting location and Open Badges support are not stated in the pages we read
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here that publishes an average price per credential from a calculator and records every credential on a public blockchain.
Best for: People who hold Open Badges from several issuers and want one free place to keep them
Open Badge Passport is a free earner service from Open Badge Factory Oy in Oulu, whose privacy notice names the company as controller under Finnish law. A person creates an account, receives badges from any issuer that follows the Open Badges standard, stores them and shares them. A public Gallery lists badges one can apply for.
This covers the part of Credly where an earner keeps a profile, and it is free. It does not issue badges for organisations, so an issuer still needs Open Badge Factory or another platform. The site says it is certified by 1EdTech and supports versions 2.0 and 3.0 of the standard, but its news stops in January 2021 and the privacy notice dates from 2021.
What Open Badge Passport does better than Credly
- Free for earners with no limit stated on the number of badges
- Finnish controller named in the privacy notice
- Stated 1EdTech certification and Open Badges 2.0 and 3.0 support
Where Open Badge Passport is a step down from Credly
- Earner service only, with no way for an organisation to issue
- No employer search or analytics described
- Site news and the privacy notice date from 2021, so current terms need checking
Standout against Credly. It is the only free wallet on this page, and the only one that issuers of any platform can send badges to.
Best for: Associations and training firms that want a custom set-up, blockchain anchoring and an API connection
TRUE Original is provided by True Value Software AB at Valhallavägen in Stockholm, and its general conditions fall under Swedish law. The team builds a template from the issuer's text or PDF design, sets up bulk issuing, gives about one hour of onboarding, and then the issuer uploads a participant list or switches on the API. Every document gets a blockchain anchor and a page on the issuer's own domain.
Plans start from €100 a month on a yearly contract, and the price then follows volume, flows and hosting, with per-document pricing above 8,000 documents a year. That is a quote model much like Credly's, but with a euro starting point. The pages we read mention no Open Badges, no free plan and no hosting location, and the link to the GATE name in the footer is not explained.
What TRUE Original does better than Credly
- Euro entry price of €100 a month stated on the site
- Document pages on the issuer's own domain
- A blockchain anchor on every document
- Onboarding that builds the template and API flow for you
Where TRUE Original is a step down from Credly
- No fixed price list, so cost depends on a quote
- Open Badges and a free plan are not mentioned in the pages we read
- Hosting location is not stated
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here that sets up your template and API flow during onboarding instead of leaving that to the customer.
Best for: UK colleges and training providers that already use other MyKnowledgeMap tools
Openbadges.me comes from MyKnowledgeMap Ltd of York, company number 03954387 according to the maker's privacy policy, which states more than 20 years of learning technology. The service issues verified, portable badges that earners can share on LinkedIn, and it has a developer section and a subscription page.
Against Credly, the case is mostly familiarity for UK users: support runs Monday to Friday, 09:00 to 17:00 UK time, and the maker also sells the MyProgress ePortfolio. The weak spot is transparency. We found no prices, no hosting location, no standards statement and no legal pages specific to Openbadges.me, and the UK sits outside the EU.
What Openbadges.me does better than Credly
- Support hours stated, UK time, with a help centre
- Company number visible in the maker's privacy policy
Where Openbadges.me is a step down from Credly
- No prices, hosting location or standards statement in the text we read
- UK entity outside the EU, with no legal pages of its own for the service
- No employer network or analytics described
Standout against Credly. It is the only tool here that comes from an ePortfolio maker, which is why it suits colleges already using that product.
What actually breaks when you switch
The first thing that breaks is the link between a badge and its earner. A badge sits in the earner's profile, and the earner's copy on Credly does not move by itself.
Export what you can from Credly, ask earners to accept the new badge, and keep both versions live for a while so that an old LinkedIn post does not point at a page that has gone. Budget for a bounce rate on the emails, because earners change jobs and addresses.
The second is integrations. If Credly feeds your learning management system, your CRM or your certification database, check which of those connectors exist on the European side.
BCdiploma and Open Badge Factory mention an API, TRUE Original builds the API link during onboarding, Velocert documents an API, Awero hands out API access only by arrangement, and Virtualbadge lists app integrations. Then check contracts: notice periods and what happens to issued credentials if you stop paying. Ask each vendor in writing how long a public verification link stays alive.
Can I move the badges I have already issued on Credly to another platform?
It depends on the format and on what Credly lets you export, and we could not read Credly's export terms. Badges issued as Open Badges are designed to be portable, so Open Badge Factory, Awero and Open Badge Passport are the natural targets. Ask Credly's support for a full export of your badge templates, the earner list with email addresses and the evidence links before you cancel anything.
Even with a clean export, the earner has to accept a new copy of the badge, because a badge lives in the earner's own profile. Plan a short email campaign, keep the old badges valid until the new ones are accepted, and decide whether to re-issue only current holders or the full history.
Do the European tools verify credentials the way Credly does?
Each tool gives the recipient a public page or link where a third party can check the credential. Certifier states a verification page for every certificate and badge. Virtualbadge offers QR codes and validation pages. TRUE Original and VerifyEd add a blockchain record, on a blockchain anchor and on XRPL respectively. BCdiploma, Velocert and Open Badge Factory follow their own formats.
What differs is who recognises the check. Credly's verification sits in a network that employers already know. A European tool verifies the document itself, and recognition then depends on your industry and on whether recipients post the credential to LinkedIn. Test one real verification link with an employer before you commit.
Which one to pick
If the format you issue is Open Badges, start with Open Badge Factory for an organisation with prices you can budget, add Open Badge Passport as the free wallet your earners can use, and look at Awero when the badges belong to a learning pathway with evidence. If you need European Digital Credentials delivered to Europass, Velocert is the specialist, with the caveat of its public preview status.
If you only need verifiable certificates, Certifier is the lowest-friction start with its free 250 credentials, Virtualbadge suits German-language teams that care about the hosting provider, and BCdiploma suits an institution that wants its own branding throughout. TRUE Original and VerifyEd add a blockchain record. Stay with Credly if your programme lives on employer discovery inside its network, because none of the European tools replaces that.
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends on the credential. For Open Badges with published yearly prices, Open Badge Factory from Oulu, Finland is the closest specialist. For certificates sent from a spreadsheet, Certifier from Kraków has a free plan of 250 credentials a year. For European Digital Credentials, Velocert from Slovenia. For white label diplomas, BCdiploma from Paris. For German hosting, Virtualbadge from Mannheim.
Credly's own site presents it as Credly by Pearson, and the privacy policy on it is Pearson's. The address for legal notices is NCS Pearson Inc. in Bloomington, Minnesota. We did not read any corporate filing, so we do not describe the group structure beyond what the site says.
Several tools have a free tier with limits. Certifier's Starter plan is free with 250 certificates or badges a year, Awero has a free Personal issuer with 100 badges, Velocert is free for 10 credentials a year, and VerifyEd gives 5 credentials on sign-up. Open Badge Passport is free for earners, but it is a wallet and does not issue badges for an organisation.
For about 50 credentials a year, Velocert at €1 per credential on its Business plan is cheap, but the vendor says it is in public preview. VerifyEd shows £1.50 per credential, or £75 a year at 50. Awero's Starting issuer is €110 a year and Open Badge Factory's Basic is €220 a year. Virtualbadge starts at €588 a year and BCdiploma needs at least 200 recipients.
Two of the ten are British: VerifyEd in Poole, Dorset, and Openbadges.me from MyKnowledgeMap in York. The UK has an EU adequacy decision, but it is outside the EEA and English law governs their terms. The other eight contract through companies in Poland, Finland, Germany, Lithuania, Slovenia, France and Sweden.
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