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Canvas LMS vs Cornerstone Learning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 19, 2024

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

Canvas LMS
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
5th
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.3
Number of Reviews
10
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cornerstone Learning
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Talent Management (10th), Virtual Training (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of Canvas LMS is 5.4%, up from 5.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cornerstone Learning is 4.5%, down from 5.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
 

Featured Reviews

James Phelps - PeerSpot reviewer
Intuitive, easy to learn, and easy to adapt to various teaching methodologies
It is scalable. There must be 20,000 people using it on that campus. We run a medical college, a public health department, and the hard sciences department. We also have a lot of things that are spread out across the state of Florida through Canvas. So, it is pretty scalable. In terms of our plans to increase its usage, I don't know what the university is going to do, but right now, the university is saturated with Canvas. Even if you're doing classes in a regular standard classroom, all of your exams, all of your quizzes, all of your practicals, and all of your teaching are recorded and loaded into the Canvas system for future review by accreditors. So, it is pretty well saturated on that particular campus.
Vibha  Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
Streamlined compliance training and efficient session creation empower diverse industries
Creating a session requires just one click, which makes data ready efficiently. Reporting-wise, Cornerstone is the best. It allows internal content management, playlist creation, using external links for learning, and supports various AI training. All the compliance training, code of conduct, and audits are handled through Cornerstone, making it beneficial.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It's easy to follow. It flows well, and it's easy to use."
"Its easy adaptability to whatever form or methodology you are using to teach is valuable. It tends to be seamless, and it is very much a self-intuitive product. It requires almost no instruction, and you can be fully up to speed and ready to run on it. You can bring someone in who has never worked with any online learning or LMS system, and in a week's timeframe, they would almost be fully functional because Canvas is so simple to use."
"They have a more extensive support base in terms of infrastructure."
"We have been using Canvas LMS, and overall, it has served our needs well for managing courses and general settings."
"I used a lot of other systems in my IT career and Canvas LMS truly has everything that I would look for in an enterprise system."
"The solution is easy to access."
"The product's flexibility is exceptional."
"The assessment tools in Canvas significantly contribute to educational outcomes by allowing instructors to create and manage assessments effectively."
"It is a complete suite of solutions and features. Compared to other solutions which are more niche solutions, which may be as good as Cornerstone or even better in certain parts of it, like discerning user experience. You will not find another solution that has the same completeness of features in all different areas of learning."
"The Meeting feature is similar to a conference call facility that can be used for virtual meetings."
"The most valuable features are the Playlists, Learning Assignment Tool, Earner Experience Platform, Machine Learning, and Reporting 2.0."
"Their integration features with other platforms are valuable. It is also relatively easy to use. Their library of training modules is fairly robust as well."
"What I like the most about Cornerstone is that it is agile. It has good built-in processes and the implementation is rapid."
"There are new releases every three months that keep up with industry standards and meet the needs of the customer."
"If you want to make the job easier, go for Cornerstone Learning."
"Stability and scalability are good. They have four releases every year of which learning is a big portion of that. They're constantly refining and defining and they're embedding a lot of new technology into it all the time."
 

Cons

"In our working, we are encountering many challenges with Canvas LMS. One of the major area is their business model which is having a very different pricing structure. The structure is made in such a way that the license fee is needed to be paid for the complete year even if the student has been enrolled for a programme of short duration. This structure is not conducive with our needs and hence, in the past few years, been increasing our costs manifold. Along with this, Canva LMS also lacks many functionalities such as notifications and adaptive learning. There is a specific issue with the licensing model that affects us in continuous education. The inability to reuse a license for the same course in different terms hinders our cost efficiency. For instance, if a program runs from January to April, we are required to pay for the license twice within the same academic year. This contrasts with other platforms like Hyper, where reusing a license is possible, allowing us to use the same license multiple times in different terms. Along with the use, we are exploring the integration of artificial intelligence into our processes, and Canvas LMS falls short in this regard. While some platforms allow connections with external AI services, Canvas does not currently offer built-in artificial intelligence capabilities, a feature we find valuable for enhancing the learning experience."
"The high-tech interactivity with other software, like ArcGIS or RSA Archer, can be better. It is not as easily compatible with them. You can put apps in it that the students can then access, but the routing of apps through the Canvas system slows down functionality on the other types of products."
"It would be good to be able to do teleconferencing within the LMS."
"The learning curve is not steep, but it is intermediate."
"It would be nice to be able to do more real-time comprehensive reporting with Canvas LMS."
"The solution could be upgraded and improved."
"There are a couple of areas that could be improved. Firstly, the discussion feature is not very interactive and can be slow to respond, making it less intuitive at the moment. This is an aspect that needs substantial improvement. Another point to consider is related to the cost of the LMS system. It's perceived as relatively expensive, which has led to discussions about transitioning away from Canvas, potentially to a more cost-effective alternative. This cost-related aspect is a significant factor to consider when implementing such a system."
"The product could be integrated with a talent management system."
"The user interface is in need of improvement."
"The automated ticketing system for technical support often has a response time that is quite long, which is something that should be improved."
"Cornerstone Learning could improve the curriculum function by giving it more flexibility. I'm managing the solution and I adding content to the system, and overall, the backend of the system looks a bit dated. Cornerstone Learning has focused a lot on the user experience and less on the backend operational administrative experience. This could be improved overall."
"In general, some of the portal pages have an outdated look and feel."
"There is a need for quite a bit of improvement. The reporting side of things definitely needs a lot of improvement. At the moment, it gives you a data dump. You have to open it up in Excel and filter out the bits that you don't want and need."
"Cornerstone needs to be more adaptable by generating content by just giving keywords, similar to other LMS in the market."
"Cornerstone Learning can improve reporting. If they had a harmonization of the administration UIs it would be great."
"Its integration with Microsoft Teams for virtual sessions could be better"
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The pricing of Canvas is satisfactory for my university. We have negotiated a good price, especially considering that we are a large university with twenty-six campuses across the country. Canvas offers a favorable pricing model for academic institutions, and the cost is reasonable. However, in continuous education, the challenge lies not in the price itself but in the business model. The requirement to pay for the entire year when our students may only use the license for a shorter duration creates challenges. The inability to adjust the licensing based on actual usage is a significant drawback for us, making the effective cost higher compared to other platforms like Hyper Learning"
"The platform can be expensive for smaller organizations with fewer students."
"Canvas LMS is low-priced compared to other vendors."
"Canvas LMS is an affordable solution."
"Quality always comes at a cost. I would not rate it as expensive. It provides value for money."
"The pricing of Cornerstone Learning is reasonable, but my knowledge of the cost is limited. I've had some discussions about licenses. I suppose we've had to push them a little bit to be more flexible about the licensing. For example, someone said they could only give us licenses in a batch of 500, but we found out that it wasn't true. We were able to negotiate a different amount."
"I rate the price of Cornerstone Learning a four out of five. There are not any additional costs other than the standard licensing fees"
"I was not involved in the financial negotiation for our contract with this company, but in the past, I have seen the fees run between $10 USD and $11 USD per user."
"It is a premium product, and it is on par with its competitors. It isn't out of scale with what the market is demanding. We're always looking at ways of trimming costs, but we haven't had a lot of flexibility with pricing and/or options with Cornerstone. So, its price is decent. There are ad hoc engineering costs when we are required to use a Cornerstone resource. Additionally, when we choose to integrate with third-party platforms, there is a setup and maintenance fee for these data integrations. They need to be built into our ongoing budget as we expand our offerings."
"The solution's pricing depends on the specific requirements."
"The price of Cornerstone Learning depends on many factors, such as size and negotiations."
"I would rate the price at four on a scale from one to five because it's a very expensive product."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
23%
University
13%
Government
9%
Non Profit
7%
Educational Organization
62%
Comms Service Provider
7%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Canvas LMS?
We have been using Canvas LMS, and overall, it has served our needs well for managing courses and general settings.
What needs improvement with Canvas LMS?
Integrating more AI capabilities for the product could enhance its functionality, particularly in automating repetitive tasks and personalizing learning experiences.
Is Cornerstone Learning reliable for content organization?
I think the organizational management of Cornerstone Learning is great. My organization uses this learning software and the way different content types are managed is very useful for our training ...
Does Cornerstone Learning provide you with good reports?
Cornerstone Learning provides great reports for your training programs and the performance of your employees on them. What's more, you get skills graphs which my company finds the most valuable for...
Why would you recommend Cornerstone as a platform for virtual training?
Hello, I think that Cornerstone is more than suitable for virtual training. For one, it gives you a really big array of tools and customizations to be able to deliver your employees high-quality t...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cornerstone Learning Suite, Saba Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Pragmatic Group, MRWED Training and Assessment, RedHill Education
Advantage Sales and Marketing
Find out what your peers are saying about Canvas LMS vs. Cornerstone Learning and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
839,319 professionals have used our research since 2012.