Open edX

Open-source platform behind many MOOCs, for universities and organisations running online courses at scale.

Open sourceSelf-hostableOnline course platforms

Verified facts: 4 of 4
Alternatives ranked: 5
Approved reviews: 0
Visits sent from here: 0

About Open edX

Open edX is the open-source learning platform originally built for edX by Harvard and MIT and now stewarded by the nonprofit Axim Collaborative. It includes a learning management system for learners and Studio for authoring courses, with video, problem types, grading, certificates and discussion, and it is designed to serve very large numbers of learners. Universities, governments, NGOs and companies use it to run their own course portals. The software itself is free under open-source licences, but running it is a real engineering project, so most organisations either have an in-house team or pay one of many certified Open edX providers for hosting and customisation. It is overkill for a small business selling a few courses. It runs in the browser on self-hosted or provider-hosted servers, with mobile apps available. It suits institutions that need an open, scalable platform for public or large internal programmes.

Best for: Universities and large organisations running MOOCs or big online programmes.

What works

Free, open source and proven at very large scale
Rich course authoring with many problem types
Many certified providers for hosting and support

Why people leave

Complex to install, run and upgrade
Overkill for small course businesses
Customisation usually needs developers

Top Open edX alternatives

See all 5

1
Moodle
Easier to host and better suited to classroom-style courses.
66.5
2
Canvas LMS
Hosted service with a friendlier interface for semester-based teaching.
62.6
3
Chamilo
Much lighter open-source LMS for smaller organisations.
59.6
4
LearnWorlds
Hosted, branded academy without needing an engineering team.
57.2
5
Docebo
Enterprise SaaS LMS for large corporate training programmes.
55.3

Why people left Open edX

In reviewers' own words, from reviews of the apps they moved to. These are their opinions, not ours.

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Open edX: common questions

Is Open edX free?

Yes. Open edX is free, open-source software that you can host yourself.

Is Open edX open source?

Yes. The source code is on GitHub at openedx/edx-platform. You can also run it on your own server.

What platforms does Open edX run on?

Open edX is available for Web, Self-hosted, iOS and Android.

What are the best alternatives to Open edX?

The highest-ranked Open edX alternatives right now are Moodle, Canvas LMS and Chamilo. See the full ranked list for pricing, platforms and verified facts.

See all 5 Open edX alternatives

Open edX facts

4 of 4 verified

License: AGPL-3.0; Checked Oct 25, 2026github.com(opens source in a new tab); “License: AGPL-3.0 (GNU Affero General Public License v3.0).”
Steward: Axim Collaborative (nonprofit); Checked Oct 25, 2026openedx.org(opens source in a new tab); “The Open edX platform is a free, open-source online learning platform stewarded by Axim Collaborative, a nonprofit founded by Harvard and MIT.”
Free to use: Yes; Checked Oct 25, 2026openedx.org(opens source in a new tab); “Is the Open edX platform free to use? Yes.”
Reach: 70,000+ courses, 140M+ learners; Checked Oct 25, 2026openedx.org(opens source in a new tab); “Powering 70,000 courses and supporting over 140 million learners.”