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Google Classroom vs Moodle comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 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

Google Classroom
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
3rd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
25
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Moodle
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
2nd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.1
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of Google Classroom is 4.8%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Moodle is 11.6%, down from 16.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
 

Featured Reviews

Susan Nash - PeerSpot reviewer
It's free and integrates seamlessly with many tools
When students don't have Gmail accounts, it creates a lot of hiccups, but the main issue is that the interface is somewhat primitive. It’s intuitive and you can be up and running in no time at all. However, it is not very attractive. But that may be because I installed it myself and I'm not using any fancy templates. It's primitive because that's how I've been able to get it going. I would like to see a better user experience, a prettier interface, and more templates. Google could make templates readily available or users could design and share them. As it is, you’ll only get a basic framework when you create a new course. You don't have different themes to choose from like you do in Moodle. Most learning management systems also have a dashboard. It would be useful to have a dashboard with blocks on the side that lets you navigate all of your courses. It would like to have the ability to navigate at a glance and breadcrumbs. By breadcrumbs, I mean it should be designed to leave you a trail like you would use to find your way out of a forest. Go back to where you were and pick up where you left off. So, instead of going back, it shows you where you were. Moodle does something like this, but you don't see it in Canvas or Blackboard. I think that that would be a big advantage. And then, a dashboard would just be when you go to the front page, in addition to having your courses listed there, you would have something like other activities, as well. Further, the dashboard would include your calendar, you could have a calendar there, you could have different productivity apps.
Ertan Aslan - PeerSpot reviewer
Plenty of modules, highly flexible, and advantageous different user types
It would be a benefit if there was an easy single sign-on with social media services for Moodle. There are some plugins that I tried, but they didn't work seamlessly. it is a work in progress. Having the single sign-on with social media services would be appreciated because in my school we are using Google suite and the main reason why we use Google Classroom is that it is integrated seamlessly with the suite. If I have the same seamless integration with Google suite with Moodle, I would use Moodle more often. I'm using it for myself, but school-wise, it's limited because of the ease of access. Google Classroom is very simple, and straightforward for teachers. It has many features with most being basic. It's easy for everyone to learn. Moodle has a lot of advanced features which can scare people who are not advanced users. If Moodle could improve user-friendliness or more people would use it. This includes the user interface and the overall user experience could improve. When comparing it to Google, it's a bit more difficult. For example, with Google Classroom, as long as you have a Google account any teacher can go there and create a classroom. However, with Moodle, it's a bit difficult. You need to have a system first. It has to be installed, and then you need to know how to create a classroom. You need to know how to use those tools. It requires some getting used to and some training.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"I like that Google Classroom is free and integrates with the entire Google Suite, which includes Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, etc. I also like its flexibility, which makes it perfect for synchronous, asynchronous, and blended courses, and including live and archived webinars, as well as other kinds of content."
"The product's UI is good and user-friendly."
"What I liked most about Google Classroom is it was very easy to communicate with the students and simple for me to learn even though it was the first time I was using it. I was able to learn the features very well by navigating through the different discussions forums and becoming proficient, not necessarily a master but knowledgeable in using the solution. The ease of use was the best feature."
"I would rate the initial setup a nine out of ten. It is very straightforward."
"Company-wise, the most important feature is that it is a product of Google. It is a part of Google Suite. With Google Classroom, you can easily embed a Google Sheet, Google Doc, or Google Form. You can easily create a quiz in Google Form. It is integrated with Google Drive. So, everything is on Google Drive, and you can easily use it. With single sign-on, you can use it with Google Apps as well."
"The most valuable features of Google Classroom are the meetings, mark book, and assignments."
"I can see all the submissions in a central place."
"The most valuable feature of Google Classroom is the ability to share my lectures with many students, assign tasks to be completed, and overall student engagement."
"The best thing about Moodle is that it is open source and has many useful plugins. It is a great solution for an organization that needs modifications and customization."
"The customization features of Moodle significantly enhance the learning experience for our users."
"The valuable features of Moodle include its open-source nature, which makes it free to use, and the supportive community that assists with any issues."
"What I liked most about Moodle was that I could create nice online quizzes. It takes very little time to do. You don't have to even read the paper, it automatically evaluates the quizzes. It gives the student grades and provides a lot of useful statistics. For example, it indicates which question was the hardest, easiest, and where students made the most mistakes. Everything is available to you. You couldn't do this in regular paper test hard copies. This was my first use case."
"The ability to insert a variety of tools, create and organize course content, and share large volumes of materials, written, audio, or visual, is very valuable."
"The product's most valuable feature is the ability to import and export documents for courses, assessments, and questionnaires in any format."
"The most valuable features of Moodle are the ability to create assignments, divide them into teams, and the course delivery. In Cornerstone, I need to reach out to the team, and it is not as simple, a little more involved. Additionally, the solutions is easy to manage."
"Moodle integrates with many third party plugins, which has enabled us to make use of the latest technology. During the Covid 19 period, we used a plugin called BigBlueButton to facilitate online learning which was quick and easy to do."
 

Cons

"There's room for improvement in the offline functionality. When you're working with a class, you can't close the class or perform certain tasks when you're offline."
"The solution's GUI is an area of concern currently that can be considered for improvement in the future."
"The initial setup is not very easy. It has modern complexity."
"The product must provide different plans for different customers so that we can pay for only what we use."
"I like Google Classroom the way it is, but an area for improvement could be its dashboard."
"The product's UI needs improvement."
"Initially, the product's initial setup phase may not seem user-friendly."
"There are certain things that I can do on PowerPoint that I cannot do on Google Presentations and Google Slides, such as using PowerPoint's animation feature, I have found that PowerPoint is generally more feature-rich and offers a wider range of tools that I can use to prepare and enhance my presentations."
"The multi-tenancy system within Moodle could be improved. IOMAD is what makes the multi-tenancy possible but this comes with many issues."
"Moodle is missing a subscription-based system where learners can subscribe to available courses and make the payment for those courses."
"Where Moodle could definitely improve is the user interface. You have a lot of themes and you can customize themes, but if you are going to use Moodle off the shelf, even with a hosting company, a lot of training is involved. Training is available, but if your faculty or your development team isn't highly technical, it's going to be a challenge, whereas there are other interfaces that are much easier, but they don't do as much. So, there is a give and take there. If Moodle could find a way to make the user interface for the instructional designers and the learners more intuitive, it probably would be a huge improvement. The manager area and the admin area are fine, but when it comes to the people who are using the system but might not be highly technical, it needs improvement."
"Its interface design could be more user-friendly."
"Sometimes, discrepancies arise when the information is not updated or lacks precision, potentially leading to the model producing misleading or incorrect outputs based on its training."
"The solution should have more student-centric details in the modules."
"Setting up groups and allocating privacy settings to different groups is quite complicated."
"The solution architecture could be improved."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"My child's school made payments on a subscription-based model to use Google Classroom."
"The product offers a yearly based license."
"I use the free version of Google Classroom."
"Google Classroom is a free solution. There is paid version that has more options, the cost is approximately eight dollars per student per month."
"Google Classroom is a free solution."
"I'm using a free version of Google Classroom, so it's a product I don't pay for."
"The tool is available for free."
"We are an educational institution, and it is free of charge for us. Normally, if you are a private company, you have to pay a lot of money to get this service, but they are giving it for free to schools."
"Moodle is free. It should probably stay free. There isn't really any support for Moodle unless you pay an astronomical amount, which is weird."
"Moodle have a very robust licensing system that is user friendly. It's not very expensive."
"In terms of cost, it is available at no charge."
"It is open source, and it has a lot of free documentation. It can be by far the least expensive option, but it depends on how one decides to use it. It can be free if you download it and host it on-prem, and you don't count your time as being worth anything. So, it can be almost free, or it can be very expensive just depending on if you get a package with a provider and if it is a huge solution."
"The licensing cost is quite high and it operates on an annual basis."
"It is a free-of-cost solution."
"Moodle offer a 14 day free trial and then requires payment."
"It is a one-time registration with the Moodle site. There isn't a yearly or monthly fee."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
24%
University
12%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
9%
Educational Organization
14%
Comms Service Provider
13%
Manufacturing Company
9%
University
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Google Classroom?
The product's UI is good and user-friendly.
What needs improvement with Google Classroom?
There is room for improvement in AI integration, specifically in the education sector. Google Classroom could benefit from tools that help correct coding errors for students, thereby enhancing lear...
What is your primary use case for Google Classroom?
We are using Google Classroom for assessments, homework, and providing resources to students. We also use it for tuition and online interaction, focusing on IT subjects such as computing and progra...
What do you like most about Moodle?
The customization features of Moodle significantly enhance the learning experience for our users.
What needs improvement with Moodle?
The customization of the interface could be improved. Although we can load and change themes, it still always looks like Moodle. We have not found a way to significantly alter its appearance.
What is your primary use case for Moodle?
We use Moodle to manage our students' information, the classes, and the course catalog, which are mainly related to education. It serves as a learning management system for teaching in class.
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Google Classroom is used in major urban school districts throughout the United States, including: * Los Angeles Unified School District * Chicago Public Schools * New York City Department of Education * Houston Independent School District * Miami-Dade County Public Schools * Dallas Independent School District * Broward County Public Schools * Clark County School District (Las Vegas) * Philadelphia School District
Acacia University, Alliant International University, American University of Health Sciences, Anaheim University Online, Aspen University, Cal State University San Bernardino, California State University Los Angeles, Chattanooga Fire Training, City of Humble Fire Department, George Washington University, Georgia Institute of Emergency Medical Services, Michigan Online Classroom, Virginia Beach Sheriffs Office, Washington Post
Find out what your peers are saying about Google Classroom vs. Moodle and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.