Absorb LMS

How learning is built and delivered: a course builder with video, documents, quizzes and assignments, import of SCORM 1.2 and 2004, xAPI, cmi5 and LTI packages, learning paths with prerequisites, assessments and question pools, certificates, blended learning with classroom or virtual sessions, a mobile app with offline access, multilingual courses and interface, accessibility (WCAG), AI-assisted authoring, and an off-the-shelf content library.

0 — Not a learning management system; courses cannot be delivered or tracked with it.

3 — Courses with video, documents and quizzes and a completion record; content standards, learning paths and mobile use are basic or not described.

5 — A course builder with quizzes and certificates, SCORM import, learning paths with prerequisites, scheduled instructor-led or virtual sessions, a responsive or native mobile app, and courses and interface in several languages.

8 — SCORM, xAPI and cmi5 or LTI documented, question pools and graded assignments, adaptive or branching paths, an offline mobile app, automatic translation of courses, accessibility conformance stated against WCAG 2.1 or 2.2, and AI authoring with the model and data use explained.

10 — A content platform an L&D team runs on: every major standard with a published conformance statement, a learning record store or xAPI export, skills tagged to content, multilingual versions managed as one course, and course content exportable as packages another LMS imports.

Whether mandatory training can be run and proven: automatic assignment by role, department, location or legal entity, due dates with reminders and escalation to the manager, recurring recertification (annual data protection, IT security, anti-money-laundering, occupational safety instruction), attestations and acknowledgements of policies, attendance records for classroom sessions, course versioning with who completed which version, expiry of certificates, and audit-ready reports and exports for regulators or auditors.

0 — No way to assign mandatory training or record completion.

3 — Courses can be assigned with a due date and completions reported; recertification, escalation and audit evidence are basic or not described.

5 — Rule-based assignment by group or attribute, due dates with automatic reminders, recurring recertification with certificate expiry, policy acknowledgements, attendance for live sessions, and completion reports exportable for an audit.

8 — Escalation to managers, course versioning with the completed version stored per learner, an unalterable audit trail, e-signatures or attestations with timestamp, ready-made compliance dashboards by entity and location, and named regimes supported (occupational safety instruction, GxP or 21 CFR Part 11, FINMA or BaFin requirements).

10 — Compliance evidence that holds in an inspection: validated or certified for a named regulated use, every assignment, reminder, attempt and completion traceable to a timestamped record, retention of training records configurable per regulation, and the audit trail exportable in a documented format.

Which audiences the product serves and how much runs without an administrator: onboarding journeys enrolled automatically from the HR system on the start date, manager and buddy tasks, frontline staff without a company email, multiple branded portals or tenants for customers, partners, franchisees or members, self-registration and SSO for external users, selling courses with checkout, subscriptions and coupons, partner certification programmes, and groups, branches and delegated administration.

0 — Serves no organisational audience; a personal course viewer only.

3 — Users can be grouped and enrolled by hand; automated onboarding and external audiences are basic or not described.

5 — Onboarding paths assigned automatically on creation of the user, groups or branches with their own administrators, a branded portal for external learners with self-registration, and either course sales with payment or several portals for different audiences.

8 — Onboarding triggered by HR-system events with manager tasks and checklists, login for frontline staff without email (username, QR code or kiosk), several branded tenants with separate content, reporting and administrators, course sales with subscriptions, bundles and invoices, and partner certification with renewal.

10 — Internal and external learning run from one platform at scale: unlimited tenants with their own domains and data separation stated, e-commerce with VAT handling and accounting integration, onboarding journeys that span HR, IT and the manager, and every audience reported on separately and together.

What the system shows about learning and about each learner, and how far the customer can limit it: dashboards and reports for L&D, managers and auditors, custom and scheduled reports, which learner data is recorded (completions, scores, time spent, logins), role-based visibility so managers see only their team, aggregated or pseudonymised reports, the option to switch off time tracking or scoring, retention and deletion rules, learner access to their own data, and material for a works agreement under §87(1) no. 6 BetrVG or the vendor's description of codetermination. Where the data is processed is scored under sovereignty.

0 — No reports, or individual learner activity shown to every administrator with no settings at all.

3 — Completion and progress reports exist and a privacy policy covers the product; what is recorded per learner and who sees it are basic or not described.

5 — Dashboards and custom reports with scheduled delivery, roles that restrict managers to their own team, the learner data recorded described, retention and deletion of learner records configurable, and a data processing agreement offered.

8 — Granular visibility per role and organisational unit, aggregated or pseudonymised reports for analytics, tracking of time spent or scores that can be switched off, automatic deletion after a set period, a learner data export, and a works council or codetermination guide, template works agreement or data protection impact assessment supplied.

10 — Learner data under the customer's full control and documented as such: every recorded field and every report listed with who can see it, privacy settings per country or entity, an audit log of who viewed learner data, and the codetermination position confirmed by a named works council, law firm or certification.

How the system fits the company and what leaving would cost: single sign-on (SAML, OpenID Connect) and user provisioning (SCIM) from Entra ID, Google or Okta, sync with HR systems (Personio, SAP SuccessFactors, Workday), Microsoft Teams, Slack and video conferencing integrations, a documented REST API and webhooks, CRM and e-commerce connectors for academies, export of users, completions and certificates, export of courses as SCORM, open-source code, and a self-hosted or on-premise edition.

0 — No integrations and no export; users and records exist only inside the product.

3 — CSV import of users and an export of reports; SSO, an API and HR-system sync are basic or not described.

5 — SAML or OpenID Connect single sign-on, a documented REST API, a connector or documented sync for at least one named HR system, Microsoft Teams or video conferencing integration, and export of users, completions and certificates.

8 — SCIM provisioning, prebuilt connectors for several named HR, CRM and identity systems, webhooks, a public API reference with rate limits, a sandbox or test instance, courses exportable as SCORM, and a self-hosted or private-cloud edition with its own documentation.

10 — The customer can run, extend and leave the platform freely: open-source code under a named licence that runs fully self-hosted with feature parity stated, a complete export of users, history, certificates and content in open formats, and the return and deletion of all data on termination documented.

Who the contracting entity and the parent company are, where learner data (names, completions, scores, certificates) is stored and processed, and who the subprocessors are (hosting, video streaming, email, AI features, support and payment tools). Independently sourced by the sovereignty pipeline; learner records are employee data, so the whole chain counts, not only the database. A self-hosted or open-source edition the customer runs on its own European servers counts as the customer's chain, whatever the vendor's seat.

0 — Non-EU vendor and contracting entity, hosting unstated, subprocessors unnamed, and no data processing agreement offered.

3 — A privacy policy and a data processing agreement exist, but hosting location is unstated or non-EU and the subprocessors are not listed.

5 — EU hosting available and an EU contracting entity or EU representative, but parts of the chain (video, email, AI features, support, payment) run through non-EU providers without a stated safeguard.

8 — EU hosting on named infrastructure, EU contracting entity, subprocessors listed with their locations, a data processing agreement published, and security certifications (ISO 27001, SOC 2) stated — or a self-hosted edition documented that keeps every learner record on the customer's own servers.

10 — Sovereign end to end and evidenced: European ownership, entity, hosting and every subprocessor, or a self-hosted open-source edition with no call home, data export and deletion documented, and certifications published with their scope rather than implied.

Whether a buyer can compute the real annual cost from public pages alone: price per tier by active or registered users, what counts as an active user, what happens above the tier, which features (SSO, API, HR connectors, extra portals, e-commerce, custom domain, content library) cost extra, the free tier or trial and its limits, implementation and support fees, the self-hosted edition and its licence, minimum term and VAT treatment.

0 — No public prices at all; every customer is a sales call.

3 — A starting price or a free tier exists, but how cost scales with users, portals or features is unclear.

5 — Tiers are public with their price per user band and main inclusions, but at least one commonly needed piece (SSO, API, extra portals, HR connector, implementation) is unpriced or "on request".

8 — Every tier priced publicly with its scaling rule (active or registered users, portals), the definition of an active user and overage stated, add-ons priced, the self-hosted edition's cost or licence stated, minimum term and VAT treatment stated.

10 — Complete price computability: annual cost derivable for a given number of learners, portals and features, with every add-on, implementation, support and overage fee and the cancellation and data-return terms published.