H5P vs Moodle

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted learning & courses options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

Not the right match-up?
FeatureH5PMoodle
CategoryLearning & CoursesLearning & Courses
LicenseMITGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPPHP
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM1,024 MB2,048 MB
Deploymentbare-metal, sourcedocker, bare-metal, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 147★ 7,315
First released20132002
ReplacesArticulate StorylineCanvas, Blackboard

Why pick each one

Choose H5P if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in PHP
H5P details

Choose Moodle if…

  • Released under the GPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 7.3k GitHub stars
Moodle details

Frequently asked questions

Is H5P or Moodle better?

Neither is universally better. Moodle has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are H5P and Moodle free and open-source?

Yes. H5P is licensed under MIT and Moodle under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run H5P and Moodle with Docker?

H5P: check the project docs for container support. Moodle: yes.

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