Auto-updates, no upgrade weekends
New features roll out continuously without scheduled downtime. No CMS version pin, no plugin compatibility matrix, no major-version migration. The product you signed up for keeps getting better in the background.
Cloud LMS
Cloud-native LMS. No servers to manage. Live in 5 minutes.
Self-hosted Moodle or Open edX means an ops engineer on call, a Postgres you tune yourself, and upgrade weekends. Canvas Cloud and Docebo charge enterprise prices for the same managed convenience. Classentra is the cloud LMS that ships live + blended courses on public pricing with auto-updates on a fully managed stack. Set up in 5 minutes, scale without rebuilding.
What hosted teams deal with
Self-host or enterprise contract. The middle was missing
Self-hosted LMS platforms (Moodle, Open edX, Canvas LMS open source) work, if you have an ops engineer to patch the OS, tune Postgres, swap TLS certs, and burn a weekend every major upgrade. Most teaching teams don't. The 'free' download is the expensive option once you count the infra bill and the engineer's time.
Going managed solves the ops problem but hands you the procurement problem. Canvas Cloud, Docebo, and the larger SaaS LMSs price for the enterprise. Sales-gated quotes, per-seat surcharges, multi-year contracts. A 50-teacher org or a fast-growing course business can't justify either the contract or the implementation window.
Classentra is the cloud LMS for the in-between. Hosted, auto-updated, uptime-monitored, but on public pricing you can read on the website, with a 5-minute signup that gets you to a working live class the same day. No DevOps engineer required, no procurement office required.
What you get
Six things a cloud LMS should ship
Most features below ship today. Data residency and contractual uptime SLAs are organization-agreement conversations. Talk to us for the IT-reviewed deployment.
No infra to manage
No Postgres to tune, no S3 bucket to provision, no Redis to monitor. Storage, compute, video transcode, email delivery, all included on every plan. The bill is the one you read on the pricing page.
Scales with your headcount
From solo Educator plans to Studio teams (up to 10 staff) and organizations from $2,399/yr, all on the same managed stack. Adding learners doesn't require a re-architecture or a new infra tier. Capacity flexes automatically.
Uptime, monitored
Uptime monitored around the clock, incidents communicated transparently. Contractual SLAs with service credits are part of organization-plan agreements. Talk to us for the deployment your IT team can sign off on.
Data residency via org agreement
Default hosting is in the US with standard contractual clauses today. Data-residency needs (GDPR, PIPEDA, Law 25) are handled via organization agreements. Talk to sales. Live video routes through the nearest edge automatically for sub-100ms join latency.
5-minute onboarding
Sign up, create a course, send a sign-up link, run a live session. No staging environment to provision, no DNS to wait on, no CI to set up. The same workflow at 5 students and at 500.
How we compare
Classentra Cloud vs Moodle, Canvas Cloud, TalentLMS
No servers to manage
- Classentra
- ✅
- Moodle (self-host)
- ❌
- Canvas Cloud
- ✅
- TalentLMS
- ✅
Public pricing
- Classentra
- ✅
- Moodle (self-host)
- Free
- Canvas Cloud
- ❌ (sales-gated)
- TalentLMS
- ✅
Live in 5 minutes
- Classentra
- ✅
- Moodle (self-host)
- ❌ (provision infra)
- Canvas Cloud
- ⚠️
- TalentLMS
- ✅
Auto-updates, no upgrade weekends
- Classentra
- ✅
- Moodle (self-host)
- ❌
- Canvas Cloud
- ✅
- TalentLMS
- ✅
Live cohort sessions
- Classentra
- ✅
- Moodle (self-host)
- ⚠️ (plugin)
- Canvas Cloud
- ⚠️ (Zoom embed)
- TalentLMS
- ⚠️
Academic rigor (gradebook + rubrics)
- Classentra
- ✅
- Moodle (self-host)
- ✅
- Canvas Cloud
- ✅
- TalentLMS
- ⚠️
Data residency options
- Classentra
- ⚠️ (org agreement)
- Moodle (self-host)
- DIY
- Canvas Cloud
- ✅
- TalentLMS
- ⚠️
Contractual uptime SLA
- Classentra
- ⚠️ (org agreement)
- Moodle (self-host)
- DIY
- Canvas Cloud
- ✅
- TalentLMS
- ✅
FAQ
Common questions about cloud-hosted LMS
- Do I need a server or DevOps engineer?
- No. Classentra is fully managed. Hosting, database, file storage, video transcode, email delivery, TLS certificates, backups, and upgrades all run on our infrastructure. You sign in through the browser, you don't ssh into anything. The smallest single-teacher plan and the largest organization deployment run on the same managed stack.
- Can I migrate from a self-hosted Moodle or Canvas LMS?
- Yes. We support CSV imports for users, courses, and gradebook entries; SCORM 1.2 export ships today (ingest is on the roadmap); and white-glove CSV migration from Skool, Teachable, and Thinkific. For a complex Moodle migration with custom plugins, talk to sales. Most orgs we onboard rebuild a handful of high-impact courses inside Classentra so the live-session + auto-attendance flow works end-to-end.
- Where is my data hosted? Can I pick a region?
- Default hosting is in the US (Vercel + Neon Postgres, North America regions) with standard contractual clauses for international transfers. Data residency under GDPR, PIPEDA, or Quebec Law 25 is handled via organization agreements. Talk to sales for a residency conversation. Live video routes through the nearest edge automatically.
- What's the uptime SLA?
- All paid plans target 99.9% monthly uptime, and we monitor around the clock with transparent incident communication. Contractual SLAs with service credits are available via organization agreements. Talk to us if your IT review needs one in writing.
- How is this different from self-hosted Moodle or Open edX?
- Same outcomes (courses, gradebook, certificates, live sessions, completion tracking) without the ops overhead. Self-hosted Moodle is free to download but expensive to run once you count engineer time, infrastructure, plugin compatibility, and upgrade weekends. Classentra is the same LMS workload on a fully managed cloud stack with auto-updates, uptime SLA, and public pricing. If you have a dedicated DevOps team and want full code control, Moodle may still be the right call.
- Do I have to pay to test it?
- No. The Free plan is $0/mo with 2 courses and 30 free roster spots, and no credit card. Paying students don't count. Organizations start from $2,399/yr. Talk to us. You can downgrade or cancel at any time; no multi-year contract.
Run your LMS on a cloud stack you don't have to babysit
Free for solo teachers. Organization plans from $2,399/yr. Talk to us about SSO, data residency, and SLAs. Set up in 5 minutes.
Start free
Public pricing · No servers to manage · Your data exports in CSV any time.