SHSelfHostIndex

Learning & Courses

Teach and learn with self-hosted learning management systems and course platforms.

50 self-hosted apps · 70 comparisons

All learning & courses apps

Last reviewed Aug 26, 2026 · 432 words

The spread in this category is a factor of 16: Open edX wants 8 GB of RAM minimum while Anki runs in 512 MB on your own desktop. The most common mistake is deploying a university when you needed a classroom, so size the platform to the actual number of learners before comparing features.

How to choose a learning platform

Axis one is scale. Teaching thousands with graded assessments and learner analytics is MOOC territory: Open edX (8,172 stars) powers edX itself and has the Tutor tool to tame deployment, but it is rated Hard and is a multi-service platform you will operate indefinitely. A school or company running normal courses lives comfortably in Moodle at 2 GB. A single team that needs "lessons, quizzes, completion certificate" is served by Frappe School at 1 GB.

Axis two is authoring depth. Moodle's plugin library covers nearly any quiz type, grading scheme, or integration a curriculum demands, which is why institutions keep choosing PHP software first released in 2002. The younger platforms (Learnhouse, ClassroomIO, both from 2022-2023) author faster and look better but have far shallower ecosystems, and ClassroomIO is rated Hard despite its modest 1 GB footprint.

Axis three is whether you need an LMS at all. If the learner is you, a course platform is procrastination. Anki (30,039 stars, AGPL) is a spaced-repetition flashcard program with two decades of proof behind it, rich media cards, and a huge add-on ecosystem. Desktop and Android are free; the iOS app is paid and funds development.

Where to start

Moodle (7,351 stars, GPL, since 2002) for any real school, training department, or accredited course: quizzes, gradebooks, mobile apps, and answers to every question already on the forums. Frappe School (3,163 stars, AGPL) for a company or creator delivering structured courses with progress tracking and certificates, without institutional baggage. Anki for solo learning, where it beats every server on this page.

The MOOC trap

Every year people stand up Open edX or Canvas LMS for a 20-person course. Canvas (6,783 stars) is genuinely the software behind many universities, and that is the problem: Ruby, 4 GB minimum, Hard rating, and operational expectations calibrated for staffed IT departments. Below several hundred learners, the heavyweight platforms cost more in administration than they return in features.

Default for a first-timer teaching other people: Moodle in Docker. It is not the prettiest option, but it is the one where every problem you hit has already been solved in public.

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Learning & Courses comparisons

70 head-to-head comparisons in this category.