European Alternatives to Moodle
Looking for a European alternative to Moodle? The software is open source, but the company behind it, Moodle Pty Ltd, is in West Perth, Australia, and it is the contracting party for MoodleCloud and the other hosted Moodle products; Australia is outside the EU and the EEA.
Eleven European learning platforms cover the job for schools, universities, trainers and company learning teams: five open-source systems (ILIAS, OpenOlat, Chamilo, Stud.IP and the Opigno community edition) and six commercial platforms, from companies and associations in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Norway, the Netherlands, Cyprus, France and Ireland.
How we rank these tools — 4-step process
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1
European ownership, verified
The company is headquartered and incorporated in the EU, EEA or Switzerland, and processes customer data in Europe. A US parent company disqualifies a tool from this page regardless of where its servers are.
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2
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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3
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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Position on this page
Placement on this page can be paid, and that can affect which tools appear here and the order they appear in. It never buys a good review: a tool that fails the checks above is not here at any price, and payment does not change the shortcomings we write about. A vendor can ask us to correct a factual error — not to remove a criticism.
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11 European Alternatives to Moodle
ILIAS
Open-source LMS since 1998 for universities, schools, business and public bodies, run by a Cologne association
OpenOlat
Open-source LMS developed by frentix in Zurich, with hosting options and BigBlueButton built in
Chamilo
Free open-source LMS, governed by BeezNest Belgium (Nivelles) since January 2026
itslearning
Bergen LMS built for schools, with lesson planning, assessment and an AI toolkit; no public prices
Opigno
Drupal-based LMS from Connect-i in Switzerland, with a free community edition and a separate Enterprise product
Easy LMS
Delft LMS for trainers, with a free trial without a card and prices from €70 a month
LearnWorlds
Academy platform that starts free, contracts through a Cyprus company under Cypriot law
Stud.IP
Open-source learning system for universities and public bodies, run by a Göttingen association; German-language site
360Learning
Paris collaborative learning platform for companies, hosted on Microsoft Azure; pricing on request
Masterplan
Berlin learning platform for companies with a library of over 11,000 learning elements; German-language site
LearnUpon
Dublin corporate LMS with portals and integrations; its terms choose New York law
Key takeaways
- Moodle Pty Ltd is based in West Perth, Australia, and is the contracting party for the hosted Moodle products; the software itself is free to download and can be run anywhere.
- ILIAS (Cologne association), OpenOlat (frentix, Zurich), Chamilo (BeezNest Belgium) and Stud.IP (Göttingen association) are open-source LMSs from Europe that you can host yourself.
- itslearning (Bergen) is the school specialist among the eleven, and Easy LMS (Delft) and LearnWorlds (Cyprus) publish plans for trainers.
- Opigno, 360Learning, Masterplan and LearnUpon aim at company training; LearnUpon's terms choose New York law even though the contracting entity is Irish.
- Not one of the eleven matches Moodle's plugin ecosystem, and several have German-language sites or no public price.
Why people leave Moodle
Moodle is the learning management system that schools, universities and training teams reach for first. It is open source, free to download, modify and share, and by its own account used by hundreds of millions of people. Courses, quizzes, assignments, groups and roles are the core, and further functions are added through plugins and the project's community.
The company behind the project is Moodle Pty Ltd, with a post box in West Perth, Australia. The software is free, so a college can run it on its own server in Europe and never sign anything with Moodle.
The contract matters when you buy the hosted products: MoodleCloud, or a solution sold by Moodle itself. Then your counterparty is an Australian company, and Australia is outside the EU, the EEA and the UK. Moodle offers a data processing agreement and standard contractual clauses for transfers outside the EEA, so this is a contract question, not a ban.
This page is for people who want an LMS for teaching or staff training, with a European contracting party or no vendor at all. Eleven qualify. Five are open source (ILIAS, OpenOlat, Chamilo, Stud.IP and the Opigno community edition), and six are commercial platforms. They are not interchangeable: some are built for schools, some for universities, some for trainers and some for company learning teams.
- The hosted Moodle products are sold by an Australian company Moodle Pty Ltd gives its address as PO Box 303, West Perth WA 6872, Australia. For MoodleCloud and other products you buy from Moodle, that is the party you contract with. It offers a DPA and standard contractual clauses for data leaving the EEA, so it can be made lawful, but a European buyer who wants a counterparty inside the EU, EEA, UK or Switzerland will find one in every tool below.
- The cheap hosted tier is closed to plugins Moodle says that to keep MoodleCloud plans simple and stable, it does not allow plugin installation. Anyone who needs plugins or has specific data security requirements is sent to a Moodle Certified Partner for a quote. Custom domains on the Medium plan cost 160 AUD a year, billed annually in Australian dollars. Open-source alternatives such as ILIAS, OpenOlat and Chamilo can be installed on your own server without that limit.
- You can already leave the vendor out entirely If your IT team can run a server, self-hosted Moodle on European infrastructure removes the Australian counterparty. The same is true of ILIAS, OpenOlat, Chamilo, Stud.IP and the Opigno community edition, and and they come from associations and companies in Germany, Switzerland and Belgium (frentix, for one, sells OpenOlat hosting). The difference is the surrounding ecosystem, which is likely smaller than Moodle's.
- Education and company training are different jobs Moodle covers both, and so does little else. itslearning is built for schools, Stud.IP for universities, 360Learning, Masterplan and LearnUpon for company training, and Easy LMS and LearnWorlds for trainers who sell or certify courses. Choose by the group you teach, not only by the licence.
What you have to replace, not just match
Start from what you actually use in Moodle: how many courses and users, which activities (quizzes, assignments, forums, SCORM packages), which plugins, and whether you sign in through your school or company directory. A plugin that does something unusual is the part most likely to have no equivalent, so list those first.
Moving is mostly about content. Course files and quiz banks can often be exported, but grades, completion records and learner history rarely arrive intact in a new system. Run a pilot with one course, keep Moodle read-only for a term or a training cycle, and ask each vendor in writing what it can import.
The alternatives compared
| Position | Tool | Headquarters | Pricing | Jurisdiction |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #4 | itslearning | Bergen, Norway | Annual licence fee based on the number of users, quoted on request; itslearning states there are no hidden costs and an implementation fee applies only if requested | EEA, not EU (Norway); parent company Sanoma is Finnish (EU) |
| #7 | LearnWorlds | Limassol / Athens, Greece | From about $29 per month; higher tiers remove transaction fees | EU (Greece and Cyprus) |
| #9 | 360Learning | Paris, France | From about $8 per user per month; enterprise pricing on request | EU (France) |
| #10 | Masterplan | Essen, Germany | Per-employee licensing, quoted on request | EU (Germany) |
| #11 | LearnUpon | Dublin, Ireland | Quote-based, priced separately across three named plans: for Employees (from 100 users), for Customer Education (from 300 users) and for Associations (from 150 users); the vendor states it is not a fit for fewer than 100 users | EU (Ireland) |
How each alternative compares to Moodle
ILIAS
the closest open-source match in scope, from a Cologne association
Best for: Universities, schools and public bodies that want to self-host a broad LMS in Europe
ILIAS is developed by the ILIAS open source e-Learning e.V., an association with its office at Berrenrather Straße 177, 50937 Cologne, Germany. We did not find its register number. Its site says ILIAS is free open-source software published under the GNU General Public License and has been available since 1998.
The site lists solutions for higher education, business, schools and public service, with a demo and a download. Professional support is handled through providers, so the association is not the party that hosts your installation. That is a different arrangement from buying a service from one vendor.
What ILIAS does better than Moodle
- No Australian counterparty, and nobody to sign with at all if you host it yourself
- Developed by a German association that lists member institutions on its site
- Covers university, school, business and public-sector use in one product
Where ILIAS is a step down from Moodle
- A smaller community and plugin market than Moodle
- No single company that sells you hosting and support, so you arrange it with a provider
- The association's register number could not be checked
Standout against Moodle. Its own site lists separate solutions for higher education, business, schools and public service, and it has been available since 1998.
OpenOlat
open-source LMS with a Swiss company that hosts it for you
Best for: Universities and colleges that want open source with a vendor offering hosting and support
OpenOlat is developed by frentix GmbH, Okenstr. 6, 8037 Zurich, Switzerland (UID CHE-113.221.982, listed on the imprint). Its site shows hosting options run by frentix and an integrated BigBlueButton web-conferencing tool.
Most of the site we read is in German, and frentix says its customers voted it best LMS provider in the German-speaking area three times at the eLearning CHECK. That is its own claim. We could not read its terms, so its governing law is not stated here.
What OpenOlat does better than Moodle
- A Swiss company that can host an open-source LMS for you, where Moodle's hosted products come from Australia
- Open source, so you can leave the vendor and run it yourself
- Video conferencing is integrated through BigBlueButton
Where OpenOlat is a step down from Moodle
- A mostly German-language site and community
- Switzerland is outside the EU and the EEA
- Terms and hosting prices could not be checked
Standout against Moodle. The vendor and the open-source project are the same Zurich company, so the party that develops it is also the party that hosts it.
Chamilo
a free open-source LMS now governed from Belgium
Best for: Small institutions and training providers that want free software and a Belgian counterparty
Chamilo describes itself as a free and open-source e-learning platform, and says it has been governed by BeezNest Belgium since January 2026. The legal notice names BeezNest Belgium SRL, 5 Rue de Paris, 1400 Nivelles, with VAT number BE 0872.265.570.
The site also claims GDPR compliance and a Digital Public Good certification from the DPGA; both are its own statements. We did not find public hosting prices.
What Chamilo does better than Moodle
- Free software with a Belgian SRL as the governing company
- Can be installed on your own servers in Europe
- The company states GDPR focus in its own marketing
Where Chamilo is a step down from Moodle
- Governance changed hands in January 2026, so the arrangement is new
- A smaller ecosystem and fewer integrations than Moodle
- No published hosting price was found
Standout against Moodle. Its governance moved to a Belgian company in January 2026, which is recent enough that you should ask what changed.
- Which law reaches it. EEA, not EU (Norway); parent company Sanoma is Finnish (EU). Moodle is operated from Australia, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. For most European customers, itslearning processes personal data inside the EEA (per its own GDPR statement).
- Source code. Closed source, where Moodle publishes its code.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Schools and school groups that want a hosted LMS made for education
itslearning is run by itslearning AS, Edvard Griegs vei 1, 5059 Bergen, Norway, which is also the controller named in its privacy policy. Norway is in the EEA but not the EU. Its site calls it a European LMS designed for education and lists levels from primary to higher education.
The features it describes are lesson planning, assessment (quizzes, surveys, peer assessment) and an AI toolkit. We did not find a public price, hosting location or the terms of service, so those are not stated.
What itslearning does better than Moodle
- EEA-based contracting party built specifically for schools
- Lesson planning and assessment are presented as core features
- A hosted, supported service instead of running Moodle yourself
Where itslearning is a step down from Moodle
- We found no open-source edition, so you cannot self-host it
- No public price; you need a demo and a quote
- Aimed at education, so company training is not its pitch
Standout against Moodle. It is the only commercial platform here pitched purely at schools.
Opigno
a Drupal-based LMS from Switzerland, with a free community edition
Best for: Organisations that already use Drupal, or want an open-source LMS with a Swiss supplier
Opigno is developed by Connect-i Sàrl in Préverenges, Switzerland, founded in 2008 according to its site. The terms of service (March 2024 revision) are governed by Swiss law.
There are two editions: the open-source Opigno LMS at opigno.org, which it calls a free Drupal-based learning management system, and Opigno Enterprise, which it describes as a separate platform built from scratch. Prices for the enterprise edition were not on the pages we read.
What Opigno does better than Moodle
- A free open-source edition from a Swiss company with clear terms
- Fits teams that already know Drupal
- A separate Enterprise edition exists if you outgrow the community one
Where Opigno is a step down from Moodle
- Two different products under one name, which makes comparison harder
- Smaller community than Moodle
- No published enterprise price
Standout against Moodle. It is the one here where the free edition and the commercial edition are two separate codebases.
Easy LMS
a trainer's LMS from Delft with published prices and a free trial
Best for: Training providers and small teams that run courses and exams for external participants
Easy LMS is run by Easy LMS B.V., Oude Delft 48, Delft, the Netherlands. Its terms are governed by the laws of the Netherlands, with the courts of The Hague having exclusive jurisdiction. We did not find a Chamber of Commerce number.
Its pricing page lists a free trial with no credit card, Basic at €70 a month (€700 a year) and Advanced at €200 a month (€2,000 a year). Basic includes 3,000 started exams or courses a month and 500 simultaneous participants, and Advanced 10,000 and 1,000, with unlimited participants and unlimited content creation on both.
What Easy LMS does better than Moodle
- Clear prices and a free trial on a public page
- Dutch company under Dutch law
- Hosted and supported, with no server to run
Where Easy LMS is a step down from Moodle
- Built for trainers, not for school or university administration
- No open-source option and a smaller feature set than Moodle
- The entry price is €70 a month, which is a lot for a small school
Standout against Moodle. It is one of few here that shows a monthly price and a yearly price in euros on its public page.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Greece and Cyprus). Moodle is operated from Australia, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, where Moodle publishes its code.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Course creators and training businesses that sell or run branded academies
LearnWorlds (CY) Ltd, registered in Cyprus (company number HE380294, Gladstonos 120, Limassol), runs the platform, and the terms are governed by Cypriot law. Our existing tool page lists Greece, but the terms name the Cypriot company.
The pricing page says you can start for free. The Starter plan includes 1,000 active learners a month and a fee per paid enrolment, and Pro Trainer removes that fee. Its privacy policy states that data is stored on Google Cloud servers in Europe and in the U.S.A.
What LearnWorlds does better than Moodle
- A contracting company inside the EU, under Cyprus law
- You can start for free and sell courses from day one
- Hosted, with branding and payment tools built in
Where LearnWorlds is a step down from Moodle
- Aimed at selling courses, not at running a school or university
- Data sits partly in the United States
- Fees per enrolment on the lower plan can add up
Standout against Moodle. It is the only platform here that is mainly about selling courses to the public.
Stud.IP
a university system run by a Göttingen association
Best for: German-speaking universities and public bodies that want open source
Stud.IP is backed by Stud.IP e. V., Postfach 3815, 37028 Göttingen, registered at the Amtsgericht Göttingen under 8 VR 200146. The association describes itself as the non-profit behind the software.
The site presents Stud.IP 6 for universities, authorities, associations and companies and lists open source as part of the offer. It is in German, and we did not find the licence name. We did not find a price.
What Stud.IP does better than Moodle
- A German registered association with a public register number
- Built around the structures of universities
- Open source, so no vendor lock-in
Where Stud.IP is a step down from Moodle
- German-language site and community, with limited use outside Germany
- Not suited to corporate training
- The licence and price were not stated on the pages we read
Standout against Moodle. Its homepage says it is built to model academic structures, which makes it the most university-specific system here.
- Which law reaches it. EU (France). Moodle is operated from Australia, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. EU.
- Source code. Closed source, where Moodle publishes its code.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: Companies whose experts build the training for each other
360Learning is 360LEARNING, a French SAS at 12 rue Charlot, 75003 Paris (SIREN 512663733, created on 20 May 2009 per the French company register). Its homepage calls it an AI-driven enterprise LMS where collaborative learning meets agentic AI.
Its security page states ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II compliance and says it uses Microsoft Azure as its cloud provider. The terms and pricing page are rendered in the browser, so we could not check governing law or any price.
What 360Learning does better than Moodle
- A French company with a public register entry, unlike Moodle's Australian hosted products
- Collaborative course creation is its core idea
- Published security certifications
Where 360Learning is a step down from Moodle
- Hosted on Microsoft Azure, a US provider
- No public price; you buy through sales
- Corporate only: no fit for schools or universities
Standout against Moodle. The pitch is that subject experts inside the company author the courses, not a separate training department.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Germany). Moodle is operated from Australia, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. Germany.
- Source code. Closed source, where Moodle publishes its code.
- Independently checked. GDPR.
Best for: German-speaking companies that want a platform and ready-made courses together
Masterplan is operated by Masterplan com GmbH, Dircksenstr. 47, 10178 Berlin, registered at the Amtsgericht Charlottenburg under HRB 287758B. Our existing tool page says Essen, but the imprint says Berlin.
The homepage calls it a digital learning platform for companies, with a library of over 11,000 learning elements and video courses, and an AI coaching feature called PACE. The site is in German, and we found no price.
What Masterplan does better than Moodle
- A German GmbH with a public register number, where Moodle is Australian
- Ready-made course content included in the offer
- A hosted and supported service
Where Masterplan is a step down from Moodle
- We found no open-source edition, and it is aimed at companies, not at education
- German-language marketing and no visible price
- No plugin ecosystem was visible on the pages we read
Standout against Moodle. It bundles an off-the-shelf course library of over 11,000 learning elements with the platform.
- Which law reaches it. EU (Ireland). Moodle is operated from Australia, outside the EU and without an adequacy decision, so transfers rest on contractual safeguards rather than on the data staying inside the EEA.
- Where the data sits. Hosted on AWS in the EU, the US or Australia, depending on the customer's data residency requirement.
- Source code. Closed source, where Moodle publishes its code.
- Independently checked. ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019, SOC 2, GDPR.
Best for: Companies that need an established hosted LMS for customers or employees and accept New York law
LearnUpon is run by LearnUpon Limited, One Park Place, Hatch Street Upper, Dublin D02 FD79, Ireland. Section 19.11 of its terms says the agreement is governed by the laws of the State of New York, with disputes going to the courts of New York.
Its security page states ISO 27001:2022, ISO 27701:2019 and SOC 2 and says it is powered by Amazon Web Services. The pricing page shows no amounts in its text. It markets itself as an agentic learning platform with portals, reporting and integrations.
What LearnUpon does better than Moodle
- Irish entity inside the EU
- Portals for separate audiences and integrations with other tools
- Published ISO and SOC certifications
Where LearnUpon is a step down from Moodle
- Terms choose New York law and New York courts, which weakens the European argument
- Hosted on Amazon Web Services, a US provider
- No public prices and no open-source option
Standout against Moodle. It is the one here where the entity is European but the contract law is American, so read the terms before you sign.
What actually breaks when you switch
The hard part of leaving Moodle is the learning history. Courses and question banks can be rebuilt, but grades, completions and attempts rarely move across, so decide in advance what you will keep as an export and for how long.
Open source is not the same as free to run. ILIAS, OpenOlat, Chamilo and Stud.IP need servers and people, or a paid hosting contract, and the ecosystem of ready-made add-ons is smaller than Moodle's.
Several sites here are in German, and four of the six commercial tools show no price, so ask for a written quote and the contract before you shortlist.
Is there a European tool that works like Moodle?
Closest in scope is ILIAS: an open-source LMS developed since 1998, with solutions for universities, schools, business and public authorities. OpenOlat and Chamilo are the other two broad open-source systems, and Opigno is a Drupal-based LMS with a free community edition.
None of them has Moodle's reach. If a plugin you rely on has no counterpart, check that before you move, and ask for a trial installation.
Which of these are open source and free to install?
ILIAS describes itself as free open-source software under the GNU General Public License. Chamilo calls itself a free and open-source e-learning platform, Stud.IP and OpenOlat present themselves as open source, and Opigno publishes a free community edition on opigno.org.
Free software is not free to run. You pay for servers, updates and the people who do them, or for hosting and support from the project's companies, such as frentix for OpenOlat.
Which of these are made for schools or universities?
itslearning is built for schools and lists levels from primary to higher education. Stud.IP is aimed at universities, colleges and public bodies, and ILIAS describes solutions for both schools and universities. The Stud.IP site is in German.
The corporate platforms (360Learning, Masterplan, LearnUpon, Opigno Enterprise) are aimed at employee training and are a poor fit for timetables, grades and school administration.
Which can I try without talking to sales?
Easy LMS offers a free trial with no credit card, LearnWorlds lets you start for free, and the open-source systems can be downloaded and installed or tried on a demo. 360Learning, itslearning, Masterplan and LearnUpon steer you towards a demo or a quote, and none of the four shows a price in text we could read.
Which one to pick
If you want a broad LMS with no vendor to sign with, ILIAS is the nearest in scope, and OpenOlat and Chamilo are the other broad open-source choices. OpenOlat suits you if a Swiss company hosting it matters, Chamilo if you want a Belgian one.
For schools, itslearning is the specialist, and Stud.IP is for universities that read German. For trainers, Easy LMS and LearnWorlds let you try before you talk to sales, and for company teams, 360Learning, Masterplan and LearnUpon offer hosted services, with Azure, Berlin and Dublin-with-New-York-law as the things to check.
Be realistic about the gap. By its own count Moodle has hundreds of millions of users, far beyond what any of these report, and none of the eleven imports a Moodle course with its history. Switch if you need a European contracting party for a hosted service, and keep Moodle, self-hosted, if the plugins matter more.
Frequently Asked Questions
ILIAS is the nearest in scope: an open-source LMS for universities, schools, business and public bodies, free to install, from a German association. OpenOlat and Chamilo are the other broad open-source options. For a school-only service, itslearning is the specialist, and for training teams, Easy LMS and LearnWorlds publish plans you can try. Which is best depends on the group you teach.
No. Moodle Pty Ltd gives its address as PO Box 303, West Perth WA 6872, Australia. The project is open source, so you can run the software on your own European servers, but the company is outside the EU, the EEA and the UK.
The software is free to download, modify and share, by Moodle's own description. The hosted MoodleCloud service is paid and does not allow your own plugins; a custom domain on the Medium plan costs 160 AUD a year billed in Australian dollars. Other costs depend on your hosting, support and certified partner.
Moodle publishes a DPA covering all its products and standard contractual clauses for transfers outside the EEA, and a GDPR questionnaire for due diligence. That allows lawful use, but your contract is still with an Australian company for hosted products. If you self-host, none of that applies.
Easy LMS lists Basic at €70 a month (€700 a year) and Advanced at €200 a month (€2,000 a year), with a free trial and no credit card.
Basic allows 3,000 started courses or exams a month and 500 simultaneous participants, and Advanced 10,000 and 1,000. LearnWorlds lets you start for free, adds a fee per paid enrolment on its lower plan and drops it on Pro Trainer; we have not quoted its monthly amounts because the currency was not visible on the page.
The Chamilo site says the project has been governed by BeezNest Belgium since January 2026. BeezNest Belgium SRL gives its registered office as 5 Rue de Paris, 1400 Nivelles, Belgium, with VAT number BE 0872.265.570.
The contracting entity is LearnUpon Limited in Dublin, Ireland. Its terms, however, are governed by the laws of the State of New York with the courts of New York, and it runs on Amazon Web Services. That is stated in section 19.11 of its terms of service.
360Learning states that it uses Microsoft Azure as its cloud provider, which is a US company. LearnWorlds states that data is stored on secure Google Cloud servers located in Europe and in the U.S.A. Neither is Europe-only hosting, so check the data processing agreement for the exact region.
Course files and question banks can often be moved, but grades, completion records and learner history usually cannot be imported intact. Ask each vendor in writing what it can read from a Moodle backup, and test with one course first.
Stud.IP's and Masterplan's sites and the OpenOlat marketing pages we read were in German, while ILIAS, Chamilo, itslearning, Opigno, Easy LMS, LearnWorlds, 360Learning and LearnUpon publish English pages. Check the interface languages and documentation for your learners before you commit.
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