LMS Advisor vs Skilljar: which one fits your training?

Built for customers, or for every audience

Skilljar’s structure runs from organization to training domains, catalog pages, courses and lessons, with one to three academy sites depending on plan, groups with auto-enrollment rules and 14 dashboard roles. Everything points outward: SSO from your product by OAuth, SAML or token, Credly badges, Salesforce and Gainsight connectors, Marketo and Intercom, and built-in checkout with Stripe or PayPal. For a software company whose customer success team owns training, that is a coherent product.

LMS Advisor serves the same customer academy with token SSO from your product, a public help center, a branded AI Tutor and courses sold through WooCommerce, and it serves employees and partners from the same install: branches, organizations with their own sign-in page, SCIM provisioning, HR sync and manager views. If you want one LMS for customers and staff, that is the difference.

Exams and proctoring

Skilljar’s quiz has six question types, unlimited question banks with random draw, randomized order, a passing score, attempt limits, a time limit and manual grading through tasks. Proctoring comes through partners: ProctorFree records and audits the exam with photo and optional ID capture, and Examity, Caveon, Kryterion, PSI and Talview are listed as integrations. That works, at the cost of a second vendor and a second contract.

LMS Advisor’s question bank has 14 types including coding questions that run against test cases, image hotspot, audio and video answers, with pools, difficulty levels, negative marking and nightly item analysis. Proctoring is configured per exam: periodic webcam snapshots, AI face monitoring, fullscreen lockdown, logged tab switches and copy or paste, ID photo capture, device lock and violation limits that can end an attempt. The Test Center examines candidates who are not enrolled anywhere, with an appeal step and a results page you control.

Standards, mobile and AI

Both products run SCORM 1.2 and 2004 and cmi5. Skilljar takes xAPI only as cmi5 packages and SCORM without sequencing rules, acts as an LTI 1.3 consumer, and exports courses as cmi5 for syndication to other LMSs, a feature we do not have. LMS Advisor keeps xAPI statements in a built-in LRS and acts as an LTI 1.3 tool with grade passback, the opposite role.

Skilljar is a mobile-responsive web application and states no native apps. LMS Advisor has iOS and Android apps with offline video, audio and documents and an optional branded app. Skilljar AI generates descriptions, objectives and quiz questions, and its AI Tutor is in beta for HTML, video and audio lessons. LMS Advisor’s AI drafts courses, lessons and questions, grades with suggestions, captions and translates video, and its tutor covers every lesson type, with the provider chosen by you or switched off.

Pricing, hosting and certification

Skilljar quotes three annual plans, Essentials, Professional and Enterprise, plus an active-user fee, and lists add-ons at $10,000 for content syndication, from $25,000 for the data connector and from $10,000 for five language packs (October 2026). It runs on AWS, processes data in the United States only, and completes a SOC 2 Type II audit each year.

LMS Advisor is quote-based on learner numbers, modules and hosting. The cloud is a subscription; a standard self-hosted install on ordinary cPanel or VPS hosting, in any country, can be bought on a one-time license. We hold no attestation and will say so on your questionnaire.