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Blackboard Learning Management vs CYPHER Learning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

Blackboard Learning Management
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
CYPHER Learning
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
1st
Average Rating
9.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.6
Number of Reviews
54
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of Blackboard Learning Management is 2.3%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of CYPHER Learning is 4.9%, down from 6.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
 

Featured Reviews

James Phelps - PeerSpot reviewer
Expandable with good real-time live interactions but is very expensive
Initially, Blackboard had problems for faculty members who were forced to use it to try to get it set up and running. That said, over time, they improved that. Unfortunately, due to its licensing requirements on standalone systems, like at a university on our servers, we run into problems where we can only set it up in one way. The way you teach a biology class is not the way you teach a social science class, for example. It's not flexible. Often you are forced into compromising in such a manner that neither group would be happy. If you need help, the help desk in-house will provide 24-hour help to both students and faculty. That means you have eight people, eight hours a day, supervisors, and an overall manager. It takes at least 12 people to handle maintenance for a 10,000-person campus for 24-hour coverage.
Roland Lorenzo M Ruben - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers flexible learning and saves printing costs; it has been excellent for us
There is room for improvement in the CYPHER Learning mobile application because my students have given feedback that they are not using the mobile app as it takes time to open. I also use the app. For me, it is easier to use than using the browser, but some of the students do not use it because it takes a very long time to open. Most of our students are using smartphones. Some students do not have laptops, so if the mobile app is more responsive, it would be a great help for us. The peer feedback feature is not user-friendly. Some of our faculty members were very happy when CYPHER gave the news that there is already a peer feedback feature because we were asking for it, but when they used it, they found it complicated and not user-friendly. They were disappointed with the peer feedback feature. When students submit their outputs, we want their classmates to give feedback as well, but that is not very easy to use. After I tried it, I also did not find it very friendly to use. They have this assessment type where we can group our students. We create groups, and they can work and collaborate with the group. While grading the submissions of the groups, although we can see that the students are separated by groups, we still have to grade them one by one. We would like a way to grade the group as one. For example, if there are five members in a group, currently, we give each member a grade. It would be easier to be able to give the same grade to all the members of the group. The team assessment feature could be improved to allow grading the group as one.

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"The solution is easy to use."
"It encompasses various components, including course delivery modules, content management, community engagement features, digital classrooms, and mobile integration."
"One of Blackboard's strengths is its historical prominence as a leading LMS for universities in the US and Europe a decade or more ago."
"It is scalable."
"Blackboard enables instructors to collectively gather all the grading data into one place. If students upload content or post it to a Google Doc, I can do my grading and calculate the grades. It is an excellent holding place for all of that data"
"The modules and courses are flexible."
"One of the most important features is the possibility of creating unlimited subdomains."
"Creating courses for our resources is one of the best features of CYPHER Learning."
"The entire system is incredibly valuable, but one of the reasons we chose CYPHER Learning was the social interaction features, such as forums, student groups, and messaging."
"The first point is the ease of use. It is a very easy platform to use, especially for students and families, with a very friendly layout. It also has a series of support systems, including communication with parents, students, the ability to invoice for online courses, and other qualities that make the system very versatile and facilitate a teacher's work."
"The feature I use the most is the rubrics tool. I have built all my rubrics in the platform and, using them, I can mark the scores that the students have and it provides transparency between the students and the teachers."
"Initially, I was very excited about the automations. But when we started using the actual courses, I found that the ability to sync content and settings from parent courses to child courses is what I value the most. But both the automations and syncing are at the top of the list."
"It's just fully managed online and manages the whole process from the start of the student engagement all the way through their training, communicating with them via the platform, and completion of their training. It's one of the few platforms that just works."
"The ability to build and customize our own courses is one of the most valuable features. When we launched with CYPHER LEARNING, their team helped us build our courses. They took our paper-based coursework and developed a really engaging digital solution on the platform. The best part, for us, is being able to continue to customize and edit it."
"It has been a complete game-changer for our company to have our learning platform with CYPHER Learning."
 

Cons

"Blackboard has limitations in terms of delivering content and assessing student assignments because it can't handle large file sizes. It's also limited in its ability to track student activity. Instructors can see the student's most recent login, but they can't follow the activity."
"Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions."
"The solution must provide better integration with third-party software."
"It would be ideal to create a more responsive or more intuitive template for access from telephones or tablets."
"The solution is not flexible."
"The system falls short in terms of managing assessments and exams effectively."
"They are not the cheapest solution, but they are not the most expensive."
"In terms of face-to-face education, a suggestion for CYPHER LEARNING is that it give more presence to CYPHER Learning as an entity in the school by teaching more about how to exploit the tools: how to create games, and more about the use of SCORM."
"There is a great feature that enables self-registration for a user and it comes with an access code. Unfortunately, there is only one access code and it works for all portals. We would appreciate a dedicated access code for different portals."
"An important addition would be training so that we can exploit the platform much more. The platform is advancing and being updated. It is important to know and understand everything in more detail, and how to work with it."
"The user interface looks dated compared to more modern learning management systems, which are really clean."
"Due to the complexity of our business, we would welcome more options for access rights management."
"There could be improvements in the dynamic and accessibility tools for the youngest students. For example, I create or attach links from other pages, and I use activities and games, such as roulettes, that encourage student participation."
"One thing I find annoying is that the system is quite limited when it comes to roles. I was used to our old system where I could create custom roles to cater to specific users and that's not available in CYPHER Learning."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives."
"At the beginning, you can choose a basic plan. As your users grow you can buy a more expensive license."
"We are on a plan where we pay for 1,000 users every month. The pricing structure is pretty straightforward. It just depends on what you need. We are currently going with a monthly model because sometimes there are still months during the year where we will have a lot less students on the system, and we took that into consideration."
"It is cheap for us. We started with CYPHER Learning, and then when our contract was finished, we needed to undergo a bidding process. We had to look at other LMSs as well and compare it with them. Its price convinced us to stay with CYPHER Learning. The cost is low, but the quality is excellent. The lower price compared to other LMSs makes it perfect for us."
"The pricing is good. It's scalable, meaning you can start off at a cost level that is easy for a startup and then build on it from there."
"The price was fair for all the features we received."
"The pricing is somewhere in the middle. It's not too expensive and, for what it is, it's very reasonable."
"We actually want to look at other systems or develop our own system because the cost point of MATRIX is so high. It doesn't feel like we get any value for it."
"The system is not cheap but it's affordable. The pricing is fair... The cherry on top was that we received all the functionality with the simplest plan, the one with the minimal number of users. It couldn't be any better."
"Our satisfaction with the pricing is a 10 out of 10."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
21%
Educational Organization
20%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Educational Organization
20%
Computer Software Company
11%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Healthcare Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Blackboard Learning Management?
The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives like Canvas, making Blackboard more suitable for larger universities with substantial budgets.
What needs improvement with Blackboard Learning Management?
Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions.
What do you like most about NEO LMS?
Creating courses for our resources is one of the best features of CYPHER Learning.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NEO LMS?
I did not negotiate the pricing, but from what I gathered, it was a significant purchase for us at West Music. We recognize its value and potential for growth, making it worthwhile.
What needs improvement with NEO LMS?
The primary area for improvement is the reporting between courses and eCommerce, which currently use two separate reporting styles. Information can be accessed within the courses themselves, as wel...
 

Also Known As

No data available
MATRIX LMS, NEO LMS
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Derby, University of Warwick, John Moore's University
Millions of users across business, academia, and entrepreneurs - worldwide.
Find out what your peers are saying about Blackboard Learning Management vs. CYPHER Learning and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,651 professionals have used our research since 2012.