If you’re deliberating which LMS to choose, you might find yourself wondering which is better: Totara or Moodle. If so, you’ve come to the right place.
Totara vs Moodle, Moodle vs Totara.
It’s a question that’s been on the lips of L&D professionals for a while.
And it’s no surprise. Totara was born out of Moodle after all.
As a platinum partner of Totara, we’re frequently asked what the difference is between Totara and Moodle, and which is better.
At their core, it might seem like they’re the same platform but they do have their nuances.
And knowing the difference is important.
Finding the right learning platform for your organisation is vital as you will get access to features that may or may not be useful.
So, without further ado, let’s look at:
- What Moodle is
- What Totara is
- The difference between Totara and Moodle
- And Moodle vs Totara, which is better?
Let’s get started.
What is Moodle?
Moodle is an open-source learning management system (LMS) that provides educators with a robust platform for creating online courses and managing digital learning environments.
Originally developed in 2002, Moodle has since become one of the most widely used e-learning platforms worldwide.
It offers a range of features including course management tools, discussion forums, messaging systems, assessment and grading capabilities, as well as support for multimedia content integration.
Moodle’s flexibility and customisability make it suitable for various educational settings, from K-12 schools to higher education institutions and corporate training environments.
Its open-source nature also means that it can be adapted and extended to meet specific needs, making it a versatile solution for online education.
What is Totara?
Totara is a dynamic learning management system (LMS) designed for forward-thinking organisations serious about employee growth.
It’s used by companies spanning industries, from tech giants to healthcare providers, seeking customisable, feature-rich platforms.
Totara’s appeal lies in its adaptability, empowering businesses to create tailored learning experiences and track progress effectively.
It’s the go-to choice for those prioritising flexible, impactful training solutions.
Moodle vs Totara: What’s the difference?
While they’re both LMSs, that doesn’t mean that Moodle and Totara are the same.
There are a whole range of differences between the two, and understanding these is the way to glean which is the best choice for you.
Here’s some key differences between Moodle and Totara, looking at Totara V18, Moodle 4.1 and Moodle Workplace:
- Course management
- Catalogue management
- Audience management
- Adaptive learning
- Globalisation
- Gamification
- Survey and evaluation
- Social and collaborative learning
- Enrolment management
- Reporting
- Assessment and achievement
- Team management
- GDPR and admin
- Hierarchies
- Learner personalisation
- Learning plans
- Content management
- Extended enterprise
- Compliance management
Jump to the section that is most relevant to you, or skim through our handy comparison tables:
Course management
For the most part, course management between Moodle and Totara is pretty similar.
Where Totara shines is by offering records of prior learning and sharing notifications about courses and activity completion.
On the whole though, course management is pretty interchangeable.
 |  |  | |
| Multiple course formats |  | | |
| Activity completion criteria | | | |
| Activity completion editor | | | |
| Course completion criteria | | | |
| Course completion upload | | ||
| Course completion editor | | ||
| Bulk course creation | | | |
| Recycle bin | | | |
| Bulk update activity completion settings | | | |
| Record of prior learning | | ||
| Download course content | | | |
| Course notifications | | ||
| Activity completion notifications | | ||
| Pathway course format | |
Catalogue management
As you can see from the comparison table below, Totara offers a lot more in the way of customisation when it comes to catalogue management.
Whether it’s fields for programs or certifications, or setting a featured learning navigation or catalogue homepage; you’ll find more tools to play with.
 |  |  | |
| Categories and subcategories | | | |
| Clone and copy courses | | | |
| Clone and copy programs | | ||
| Course and activity tagging | | | |
| Custom course fields | | | |
| Custom program fields | | ||
| Custom certification fields | | ||
| Customisable learning catalogue | | ||
| Catalogue homepage | | ||
| Featured learning navigation | | ||
| Custom course and program icons | | ||
| Custom course images | | | |
| Configurable display | | |
Audience management
Audience management is one of the bigger administrative jobs for an L&D team. And it’s something Moodle and Totara work hard to support with.
They offer plenty of options when it comes to set audiences, but only Totara offers dynamic and rule-based audiences.
Moodle Workplace is more competitive than Moodle 4.1 in this category, but neither offer the depth of tools that Totara has.
| | | |
| Cohorts/set audiences | | | |
| Cohort-based themes | | | |
| Dynamic/rule-based audiences | | ||
| Course, certification, program visibility | | ||
| Course and program enrolment | | | |
| Certification enrolment | | | |
| Learning plan enrolment | | ||
| Audience-specific navigation | | ||
| Access rights assignment | |
Adaptive learning
Delivering custom learning experiences is a priority for all three systems. All of them offer solutions that can help with activity completion tracing and activity access restrictions.
Where Moodle falls short is supporting access based on parameters like audience, organisation etc.
| | | |
| Program management | | | |
| Conditional dividers between course sets | | ||
| Activity completion tracking | | | |
| Activity access restrictions | | | |
| Activity access based on audience, position, organisation, and preferred language | | ||
| Activity access based on time since completing activity | |
Globalisation
If you’re supporting employees across the world, or working in different languages, then globalisation is key.
Comparing Totara to Moodle, it’s clear to see that both fully support globalisation initiatives in learning.
| | | |
| Language translations and customisations | | | |
| Right-to-left display support | | | |
| Multiple timezone support | | | |
| Multiple date and calendar formats | | | |
Gamification
Gamification is a trending topic, and for good reason.
While gamification options are becoming an increasingly important topic for LMS providers, it’s important to understand the limitations of gamification provider to provider.
At BuildEmpire, we offer gamification elements as part of our core Totara offering. That includes points based on set activities, as well as curateable leaderboards.
This however, is not a core Totara feature, and so is specific to us.
| | | |
| Course access keys | | | |
| Badges for completed courses | | | |
| Available badges | | ||
| Leaderboards | | | |
| Quiz access password | | | |
| Hidden activities | | | |
Survey and evaluation
We know how important feedback is in the workplace.
But how can you use Totara and Moodle to achieve it?
While both offer a range of options in delivery for feedback, only Totara offers a results analysis.
| | | |
| Feedback (multiple choice, conditional questions) | | | |
| Feedback results analysis | | ||
| Automated feedback reminders | | | |
| Options around anonymity and results display | |
Social and collaborative learning
Engaging with colleagues is a key way to encourage better learning retention and engagement in learning content.
But how can you create a learning culture?
With Moodle or Totara, there are plenty of additional features you can make use of to start conversations in the LMS.
| | | |
| Live chat | | | |
| Workshop | | ||
| Forum | | | |
| Peer-based assessment | | | |
| Messaging | | | |
| Emojis in messaging | | | |
| Group conversations | | | |
| Wikis | | | |
| Course groups and groupings | | | |
Enrolment management
There are many different ways users will engage in your learning content based on your business type, your learning content, and your users.
Covering all bases might not be key for you, but Totara and Moodle cover a lot of bases.
All of them allow for manual and self enrolment. Totara allows for guest access and automated enrolment.
With BuildEmpire, you can also include paid-for enrolment where learners can purchase learning content.
While Totara does now have some capability when it comes to eCommerce functionality, you need a fully robust eCommerce plugin to do the job.
Related: Why an LMS is key to selling learning content
Learn more about our eCommerce plugin that allows you to build SEO rankings to your course content, share related courses and seamlessly integrate to Stripe for secure checkout experiences.
| | | |
| Manual and self enrolment | | | |
| Cohort-based enrolment | | | |
| Dynamic audiences and rules based enrolment | | | |
| Competency-based enrolment | | ||
| Learning plan-based enrolment | | ||
| Program and certification assignment | | | |
| Paid-for enrolment | | | |
| Automated enrolment | | ||
| Guest access | | ||
| Meta courses | | |
Reporting
Proving the ROI of L&D is essential, but it’s difficult to achieve without the right reports in place.
Moodle and Totara both offer built-in admin reports and course reports. Moodle offers learner drop analytics which could be essential for understanding where intervention is required.
Totara offers a range of extras such as custom report builders, graphical reporting and templates to make setting up and distributing reports a little easier.
| | | |
| Built-in admin reports and course reports | | | |
| Learner drop out/at-risk analytics | | | |
| Learner last login reporting | | | |
| Custom report builder | | ||
| Scheduled custom reporting | | ||
| Graphical reporting | | ||
| Reporting dashboards | | ||
| Report templates | | ||
| Intelliboard integration | |
Assessment and achievement
When learners finish their courses, you want to show them their scores and celebrate their success.
With Totara and Moodle, you have access to a range of tools and features.
| | | |
| Open Badges 2.0 | | | |
| Badge issue for course, program and activity completion | | | |
| Badge for audience membership | | | |
| Bade issue for competency completion and group membership | | | |
| Custom certificates | | | |
| Quiz tool | | | |
| Gradebook and grading | | | |
| Anonymous graders | | | |
| Marking rubrics and workflows | | | |
| Assignments | | | |
| Timed assignments | | | |
| Question bank reporting | | |
Team management
Your managers need to manage their team’s learning.
Totara offers a range of options to help them better track where their team are up to. Plus other useful tools like seminar attendance approval and learning plans.
| | | |
| Team dashboard | | | |
| Temporary manager(s) | | ||
| Team alerts, tasks and statistics | | ||
| Seminar attendance approval | | ||
| Learning plans | |
GDPR and admin
GDPR is essential in your LMS, so it’s important to consider what you have in your system.
There are also added extras like single sign-on, passkeys, multifactor authorisation and more.
| | | |
| Site policies and site policy versioning | | | |
| Multi-language site policies | | ||
| Consent records | | ||
| Data export | | | |
| Data deletion/purge | | | |
| Scheduled user deletion | | ||
| Single sign-on | | | |
| Multi-factor authentication for Site Administrators | | ||
| Passkey capability | | ||
| Alerts for system checking; system status report, site performance overview report and security overview report | | ||
| ISO 27001 compliant | | | |
Hierarchies
Positional and organisational hierarchies functionality allows you to build a picture of your organisation within your site, but many organisations don’t have a structure easily represented by a single framework and often have informal reporting lines not captured in a traditional organigram.
With Totara and Moodle, you can implement a hierarchy into your LMS.
| | | |
| Organisational hierarchies | | | |
| Positional hierarchies | | | |
| Competency hierarchies | | | |
| Import and export competency hierarchies | | | |
| Competencies linked to courses | | | |
| Competencies linked to activities | | | |
| Custom competency completion scales | | | |
| Positions and organisations linked to competencies | |
Learner personalisation
Learner personalisation is easy when you have the right tools to support it.
Both Totara and Moodle offer a range of different features. From timeline blocks and user tours to alerts and tasks and specific learning dashboards.
| | | |
| Alerts and tasks | | ||
| My learning dashboard | | | |
| Multiple dashboards | | ||
| Record of learning | | | |
| Current learning/course overview | | | |
| Last course accessed block | | | |
| Activity completion-based progress display | | | |
| Timeline blocks | | | |
| User tours | | | |
| Duplicate user tours | | |
Learning plans
Learning plans are an option in both Totara and Moodle, with a range of templates available.
Take a look at the features and options available in each below:
| | | |
| Learning plans | | | |
| Multiple templates | | | |
| Custom workflows | | ||
| Assigned by position, organisation or dynamic audience | | ||
| Assigned by cohort | | | |
| Priorities & due dates for learning plan items | | ||
| Add competencies to plans | | | |
| Add courses, programs & certifications to plans | |
Content management
When it comes to creating learning content, you want a system that can support whatever tool you prefer.
Moodle and Totara both cover all the big ones; SCORM and H5P, but there are a bunch of extra features worth comparing too:
| | | |
| SCORM 1.2 compliant | | | |
| LTI v2 support | | | |
| IMS support | | | |
| H5P support | | | |
| H5P integration | | | |
| Static content creation | | | |
| File, folder and link upload | | | |
| External repository APIs | | | |
| Glossary | | | |
| Database (knowledge banks) | | | |
| Content marketplace | | ||
| LinkedIn Learning | |
Extended enterprise
Multi-tenancy is important for larger corporations that need to create separate messaging, branding or content for its learners.
Whatever you want to achieve with multi-tenancy, you can achieve it with Totara as it offers a wider range of tools and solutions.
| | | |
| Branded tenant login pages | | | |
| Tenant selector on login | | ||
| Tenant theme settings | | | |
| Tenant branded emails | | ||
| Tenant administrators | | | |
| Tenant bulk user upload | | ||
| Tenant number limits | | ||
| Tenant dynamic audiences | | ||
| Tenant dashboards | | ||
| Tenant reporting | | ||
| Tenant isolation | | ||
| Tenant-level notifications | |
Compliance management
Compliance is statutory and mandatory training, and is essential to track in your LMS.
Ensure your learners are up to date with learning, and organise recertification easily.
| | | |
| Set programs of study | | | |
| Adaptive programs of study | | ||
| Certifications | | | |
| Basic recertification management | | | |
| Advanced recertification management | | ||
| Program notification management | |
Which is better? Totara vs Moodle
Ultimately, the “better” choice depends on factors such as the nature of the learning environment, specific requirements, budget considerations, and the level of support needed.
Remember, this choice is bespoke to you. Just like your LMS should be.
It’s worth looking at the sectors that matter most to you, and seeing how the two platforms differentiate.
At their core, they offer the same solution.
Related: How a Totara LMS can help you achieve your goals
But each diversifies their offering based on their customer requests.
Totara for example, offers a whole suite of tools for those looking for extended enterprise and multi-tenancy that Moodle does not.
Why BuildEmpire is the best Totara partner for you
In case you didn’t already know, BuildEmpire is a platinum partner of Totara.
For over 20 years, we’ve been building learning solutions for customers across a range of sectors.
After all, we pride ourselves on being able to ‘build anything’.
A bold statement, we know.
But one we stand by.
We use Totara as our foundation to create smart, scalable and secure learning solutions.
Whether you’re selling content to users, or if you’re creating in-house learning content for your employees, we can help.
Some reasons why we rate ourselves:
Expertise and experience
BuildEmpire has extensive experience, we’re talking over 20 years.
We’ve worked with many clients to deliver successful migrations, new builds and customisations, always using Totara as our base.
Customisation and innovation
We excel in customisations.
Our customers come to us with their problems, and we solve them. Whether that’s using a solution that already exists in Totara, or creating something brand new, we’ll find a way!
Client-centric approach
Our customers are our lifeblood. We prioritise client satisfaction and that runs through everything we do. From our unlimited support, to our collaborative processes.
Comprehensive services
You want it? We got it.
From hosting, to integrations, to LMS migrations and completely bespoke custom builds, we can help. In fact, we’re one of very few Totara partners that can create custom development.
We work hard to ensure a seamless and successful Totara deployment.
Ready to learn more? Book a demo with us to see how it works in practice and how we could support you.