Canvas LMS
Instructure's LMS for schools and universities, open source at its core and sold as a hosted service.
- Verified facts
- 4 of 4
- Alternatives ranked
- 6
- Approved reviews
- 0
- Visits sent from here
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About Canvas LMS
Canvas, made by Instructure, is one of the most common learning management systems in North American universities and schools. Teachers build courses with modules, assignments, quizzes, discussions and a SpeedGrader for marking, and the platform connects to a large catalogue of external tools through LTI. Students, teachers and parents each have dedicated mobile apps. The core Canvas LMS code is open source under the AGPL, so technically capable teams can self-host it, but most institutions buy Instructure's hosted cloud service, which adds support, analytics and extra products. Pricing is by institutional quote; individual educators can use Canvas Lite, a free account for building and teaching a course without an institutional licence. Canvas is generally seen as easier to use than Moodle or Blackboard, though advanced features often come as separate paid products.
Best for: Universities and school districts that want a modern, widely supported LMS.
Pros and cons
What works
- Clean, teacher-friendly interface
- Large catalogue of LTI tool integrations
- Separate mobile apps for students, teachers and parents
Why people leave
- Institutional pricing is quote-only
- Self-hosting the open-source code is demanding
- Many extras are separate Instructure products
Top Canvas LMS alternatives
See all 6- 1
Moodle66.5Fully open source with no licence fee, for institutions willing to self-host.
- 2
D2L Brightspace62.6Enterprise LMS with strong analytics and competency-based learning.
- 3
Blackboard59.6Long-established LMS that many universities compare directly with Canvas.
- 4
Google Classroom57.2Simpler and free for schools already using Google Workspace.
- 5
Open edX55.3Open-source option for institutions running large online programmes.
Why people left Canvas LMS
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Reviews
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Canvas LMS: common questions
Is Canvas LMS free?
No, Canvas LMS is a paid product.
Is Canvas LMS open source?
Yes. The source code is on GitHub at instructure/canvas-lms. You can also run it on your own server.
What platforms does Canvas LMS run on?
Canvas LMS is available for Web, iOS, Android and Self-hosted.
What are the best alternatives to Canvas LMS?
The highest-ranked Canvas LMS alternatives right now are Moodle, D2L Brightspace and Blackboard. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.