Head-to-head comparison by Personal Academy·Checked 19 Oct 2026
Written by Personal Academy, a competitor of both.
TalentLMS vs MoodlePrices, plans and who each suits
Which should you choose: TalentLMS or Moodle?
TalentLMS and Moodle are both learning management systems: TalentLMS is hosted and self-serve, while Moodle is open source, self-hosted or on MoodleCloud. TalentLMS sells user brackets from $119 a month; MoodleCloud annual plans start at A$230 for 50 users, both checked 19 Oct 2026. Personal Academy publishes per-active-user pricing with no minimum. Choose Moodle for server-level control.
TalentLMS
Competitor 1Pricing Model:
Free plan up to 5 users, no time limit, no card. Paid plans sold in user brackets: Core from $119 a month for the 1-40 bracket, Grow from $229 (1-70), Pro from $449 (1-100); brackets run up to 801-1,000; 20% off for yearly billing; billed on unique users who log in each month (talentlms.com/prices, checked 19 Oct 2026).
Suits: Teams that want self-serve course delivery and a ready-made course library.
Strengths:
- Free plan for up to 5 users, with no time limit and no card
- SSO (SAML, LDAP, OpenID Connect) on every paid plan
- TalentLibrary add-on of over 1,000 ready-made courses
Points to check:
- Priced by user bracket: per-bracket prices beyond the entry bracket are not shown on the pricing page
- SCIM is not mentioned on the pricing page
Moodle
Competitor 2Pricing Model:
MoodleCloud annual plans billed in Australian dollars: Starter A$230 (about US$170) for 50 users, Mini A$380 (US$270) for 100 users, Small A$700 (US$490) for 200, Medium A$1,700 (US$1,190) for 500, Standard A$3,000 (US$2,100) for 750 users; 28-day free trial of Starter, no card. Moodle Workplace: pricing not published, sold through partners. Self-hosted Moodle: no licence fee; hosting, maintenance and security patching are the organisation’s own cost, which Moodle does not publish (moodlecloud.com/pricing, checked 19 Oct 2026).
Suits: Organisations with an in-house team that runs its own servers, and academic programmes.
Strengths:
- Open source: self-hosted Moodle has no licence fee
- Plugin-level control for teams that run their own servers
- MoodleCloud annual plans by user cap, with a 28-day free trial of Starter
Points to check:
- Self-hosted: hosting, maintenance and security patching are the organisation’s own cost
- MoodleCloud plans are annual and capped by user count, up to 750 users on Standard
TalentLMS vs Moodle vs Personal Academy: prices and plans
Each vendor's cells come from its public pricing page; the Personal Academy column is read from our published price list.
| Criterion | TalentLMS | Moodle | Personal Academy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price basis | User brackets, billed on unique users who log in each month; 20% off for yearly billing | MoodleCloud: annual plan by user cap; self-hosted Moodle: no licence fee, hosting is your own cost | Per active user: each person who signed in that month, counted one by one, no brackets |
| Entry price | Core from $119 a month for the 1-40 bracket | MoodleCloud Starter A$230 (about US$170) a year for 50 users | from $1 per active user a month, no minimum |
| 100 learners | Pro lists $449 a month for its 1-100 bracket; Core and Grow bracket prices for 71-100 are not shown on the page | Mini, US$270 a year for 100 users (US$22.50 a month) | $100 a month for 100 active users on Basic |
| Free plan or trial | Free plan up to 5 users, no time limit, no card | 28-day free trial of MoodleCloud Starter, no card | 14 days of Premium with 5,000 AI credits. No card required. Afterwards you stay on Free until you choose a plan. |
| Single sign-on and SCIM | SSO (SAML, LDAP, OpenID Connect) on every paid plan; SCIM not mentioned on the pricing page | Not stated on MoodleCloud's pricing page | SAML and OIDC single sign-on and SCIM 2.0 provisioning on every paid plan |
| Course library | TalentLibrary add-on of over 1,000 ready-made courses | Not stated on MoodleCloud's public pricing page | A small open library of sample course outlines (CC BY 4.0) |
| Authoring | Not stated on TalentLMS's public pricing page | Not stated on MoodleCloud's public pricing page | 28 lesson block types and the AI Course Studio |
Sources
- TalentLMS: https://www.talentlms.com/prices, checked 19 Oct 2026
- MoodleCloud: https://www.moodlecloud.com/pricing/, checked 19 Oct 2026
Competitor information from public sources, checked 19 Oct 2026. Verify current terms before buying.
When each is the better choice
When TalentLMS is the better choice
- Five or fewer people will use it: the Free plan has no time limit.
- You want a ready-made course library on day one (the TalentLibrary add-on).
When Moodle is the better choice
- You have an in-house team that runs and patches servers and wants plugin-level control.
- You run academic grading workflows.
- MoodleCloud suits a small, fixed-size cohort on an annual budget.
When neither fits
- You want to pay for each person who signed in that month, with no bracket and no minimum.
- You want SSO and SCIM from the entry paid plan (see the pricing page for its price).
- You want the AI Course Studio, where a locked blueprint keeps generated lessons to the outline you approved.
If neither bracket pricing nor running or renting a capped Moodle site fits how many people actually sign in each month, Personal Academy bills per active user with no minimum. The pricing page shows every plan and a calculator. See pricing