Blackboard Learning Management vs Cornerstone Learn comparison

Blackboard and Cornerstone OnDemand are both solutions in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category. Blackboard is ranked #7 with an average rating of 8.0, while Cornerstone OnDemand is ranked #5 with an average rating of 9.0. Blackboard holds a 1.0% mindshare in LMS, compared to Cornerstone OnDemand’s 4.4% mindshare. Additionally, 90% of Blackboard users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 100% of Cornerstone OnDemand users who would recommend it.

Blackboard Learning Management

Read 10 Blackboard Learning Management reviews

1,424 Views
1,196 Comparison Views

90% willing to recommend

Cornerstone Learn

Read 29 Cornerstone Learn reviews

2,908 Views
1,076 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Blackboard Learning Management

Cornerstone Learn

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 7, 2025

Blackboard Learning Management and Cornerstone Learn compete in educational technology. Cornerstone has the upper hand due to its engaging learning experience and advanced analytics.

Features: Blackboard offers versatile content management, robust assessment tools, and centralized grading data collection. It provides tools like online quizzes and accessibility checks that comply with universal design laws. Cornerstone Learn features a highly interactive learning environment, integrated performance management, and comprehensive content management. It supports social collaboration, mobile accessibility, and robust reporting capabilities.

Room for Improvement: Blackboard could enhance user experience by improving its interface design and flexibility for module and course layout. There is potential to integrate more AI-driven features and ensure better mobile compatibility. Cornerstone Learn could refine its analytics features as some users have noted inaccuracies. The initial setup process requires time-intense customization, and better integration with third-party tools can further enhance user experience.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Blackboard offers simple deployment and strong customer service, known for prompt resolution and comprehensive online help. Cornerstone Learn is noted for its flexible deployment options and intuitive setup but needs time-intensive customization. Customer service is praised for its attentiveness and seamless support experience.

Pricing and ROI: Blackboard is cost-effective with lower setup costs, catering to budget-conscious institutions. It offers a strong ROI through its integration capabilities and resource management features. Cornerstone Learn involves higher initial costs but provides great ROI by modernizing learning frameworks and offering advanced feature sets that justify the investment for long-term value.

To learn more, read our detailed Blackboard Learning Management vs. Cornerstone Learn Report (Updated: December 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Blackboard Learning Management vs. Cornerstone Learn

December 2025

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Helped 881,082 peers since 2012

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

Blackboard Learning Management

Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)

7th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

5.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Cornerstone Learn

Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)

5th

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Virtual Training (5th)

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of Blackboard Learning Management is 1.0%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cornerstone Learn is 4.4%, up from 4.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Learning Management Systems (LMS) Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Cornerstone Learn	4.4%
Blackboard Learning Management	1.0%
Other	94.6%

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Featured Reviews

Jennifer Sveigdalen

Senior Consultant / Security Consultant at a tech services company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Consistently supports dynamic learning environments and strengthens educational interactions

Since I've been working with Blackboard Learning Management for an extended period, I've witnessed its evolution and consistent dedication to pedagogy. The platform's ability to deliver exams and content in a technical way is superior to most other platforms. This delivery system allows for establishing checkpoints before progressing to new content, ensuring students understand current material before moving forward. The platform offers various conditions for content progression and exams. Students can take exams multiple times at the instructor's discretion, requiring specific passing scores for content release. Additionally, peer-reviewed paper submissions can be required before accessing new content. If a student struggles with an exam section, the system halts the exam and allows review of the specific content they might not understand. The adaptive release feature is particularly interesting as it customizes the learning environment for individual students, including those with special needs or delivery requirements. The platform checks documents for accessibility, sending alerts for missing alt text in images and can generate automatic alt text. This ensures compliance with universal design laws, similar to U.S. 508 compliance. While specific measurable benefits cannot be specified since this course has always been delivered through Blackboard Learning Management, the course has grown from 12 students to nearly 200 at semester start. The structured delivery enables incorporation of additional teaching assistants due to uniform methodologies. The platform's compatibility for data export to other institutions opens interesting revenue streams through course sharing agreements, which has influenced my consistent choice to work with it.

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Vibha Mishra

Global L&D Lead at Tieto Sweden AB

Streamlined compliance training and efficient session creation empower diverse industries

Creating a session requires just one click, which makes data ready efficiently. Reporting-wise, Cornerstone is the best. It allows internal content management, playlist creation, using external links for learning, and supports various AI training. All the compliance training, code of conduct, and audits are handled through Cornerstone, making it beneficial.

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"One of the most important features is the possibility of creating unlimited subdomains."

"The platform's ability to deliver exams and content in a technical way is superior to most other platforms, allowing for establishing checkpoints before progressing to new content and ensuring students understand current material before moving forward."

"One of Blackboard's strengths is its historical prominence as a leading LMS for universities in the US and Europe a decade or more ago."

"Meeting dynamic educational requirements with Blackboard Learning Management's adaptability and personalized learning environments is the main reason for success in academic performance in this business school."

"The solution is easy to use."

"The modules and courses are flexible."

"Blackboard enables instructors to collectively gather all the grading data into one place. If students upload content or post it to a Google Doc, I can do my grading and calculate the grades. It is an excellent holding place for all of that data"

"It encompasses various components, including course delivery modules, content management, community engagement features, digital classrooms, and mobile integration."

More Blackboard Learning Management pros

"Their integration features with other platforms are valuable. It is also relatively easy to use. Their library of training modules is fairly robust as well."

"There are new releases every three months that keep up with industry standards and meet the needs of the customer."

"Stability and scalability are good. They have four releases every year of which learning is a big portion of that. They're constantly refining and defining and they're embedding a lot of new technology into it all the time."

"The most valuable features of Cornerstone Learning are the welcome page and the learner's home. It is user-friendly and graphically appealing."

"Cornerstone Learning's most valuable features are the keyword search, filters, and add-to-favorites option."

"Its user-friendly interface is most valuable. You can configure your welcome page and design it the way you want on your own."

"The most valuable feature is how easy it is to learn and use. It's built off the Microsoft Word format, so if you can use Word, you'll be able to figure this out."

"It is a complete suite of solutions and features. Compared to other solutions which are more niche solutions, which may be as good as Cornerstone or even better in certain parts of it, like discerning user experience. You will not find another solution that has the same completeness of features in all different areas of learning."

More Cornerstone Learn pros

Cons

"The solution is not flexible."

"It would be ideal to create a more responsive or more intuitive template for access from telephones or tablets."

"The solution must provide better integration with third-party software."

"Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions."

"The system falls short in terms of managing assessments and exams effectively."

"Blackboard has limitations in terms of delivering content and assessing student assignments because it can't handle large file sizes. It's also limited in its ability to track student activity. Instructors can see the student's most recent login, but they can't follow the activity."

"Cornerstone needs to be more adaptable by generating content by just giving keywords, similar to other LMS in the market."

"Even though the system has a number of features, design wise the user interface is a little bit complicated. It is hard for the user to navigate properly. Because the system has so many features, it has a lot of tabs and links. Sometimes, people get confused as to where to go and search."

"The support for this solution could be improved."

"Its dashboard and analytics must be improved. Currently, we get the data, but we don't get anything from the insightfulness perspective. Analytics is where it requires a lot of work. We definitely expect some good dashboard features, which are currently lacking in this solution. From a technical perspective, they need to open access to all HTML tags. It currently doesn't support many HTML tags, which makes it challenging to create HTML pages."

"The automated ticketing system for technical support often has a response time that is quite long, which is something that should be improved."

"Cornerstone Learning can improve reporting. If they had a harmonization of the administration UIs it would be great."

"The recruitment module needs to be improved in Cornerstone Learning."

"There are some configuration elements that require Cornerstone engineering resources. It would be nice if we could self-serve. I would like the ability to manage the user interface or the navigation and layout of the pages that are displayed to end-users."

More Cornerstone Learn cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives."

"At the beginning, you can choose a basic plan. As your users grow you can buy a more expensive license."

"This is a cost-effective solution."

"The pricing of Cornerstone Learning is reasonable, but my knowledge of the cost is limited. I've had some discussions about licenses. I suppose we've had to push them a little bit to be more flexible about the licensing. For example, someone said they could only give us licenses in a batch of 500, but we found out that it wasn't true. We were able to negotiate a different amount."

"I would rate the price at four on a scale from one to five because it's a very expensive product."

"Quality always comes at a cost. I would not rate it as expensive. It provides value for money."

"It is a premium product, and it is on par with its competitors. It isn't out of scale with what the market is demanding. We're always looking at ways of trimming costs, but we haven't had a lot of flexibility with pricing and/or options with Cornerstone. So, its price is decent. There are ad hoc engineering costs when we are required to use a Cornerstone resource. Additionally, when we choose to integrate with third-party platforms, there is a setup and maintenance fee for these data integrations. They need to be built into our ongoing budget as we expand our offerings."

"The solution's pricing depends on the specific requirements."

"This solution offers competitive pricing."

"I was not involved in the financial negotiation for our contract with this company, but in the past, I have seen the fees run between $10 USD and $11 USD per user."

More Cornerstone Learn pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

University

20%

Educational Organization

19%

Government

12%

Comms Service Provider

24%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Healthcare Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	2
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	5

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	9
Midsize Enterprise	3
Large Enterprise	20

Questions from the Community

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Blackboard Learning Management?

The product pricing tends to be higher than alternatives like Canvas, making Blackboard more suitable for larger universities with substantial budgets.

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What needs improvement with Blackboard Learning Management?

To make Blackboard Learning Management better, I believe maintaining, updating, and upgrading the content is the key success factor for the platform to provide value to students.

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What is your primary use case for Blackboard Learning Management?

I use Blackboard Learning Management in a business school. I utilize it to take courses and lessons in a virtual way.

See all answers

Is Cornerstone Learning reliable for content organization?

I think the organizational management of Cornerstone Learning is great. My organization uses this learning software and the way different content types are managed is very useful for our training ...

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Does Cornerstone Learning provide you with good reports?

Cornerstone Learning provides great reports for your training programs and the performance of your employees on them. What's more, you get skills graphs which my company finds the most valuable for...

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Why would you recommend Cornerstone as a platform for virtual training?

Hello, I think that Cornerstone is more than suitable for virtual training. For one, it gives you a really big array of tools and customizations to be able to deliver your employees high-quality t...

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Classroom vs Blackboard Learning Management

Compared 53% of the time

CYPHER Learning vs Blackboard Learning Management

Compared 26% of the time

ELITE LMS vs Blackboard Learning Management

Compared 21% of the time

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Workday vs Cornerstone Learn

Compared 12% of the time

SAP SuccessFactors vs Cornerstone Learn

Compared 7% of the time

Pluralsight vs Cornerstone Learn

Compared 7% of the time

Skillsoft vs Cornerstone Learn

Compared 5% of the time

CYPHER Learning vs Cornerstone Learn

Compared 5% of the time

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Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Blackboard Learning Management

January 2026

Download Blackboard Learning Management product report

Buyer's Guide

Cornerstone Learn

January 2026

Download Cornerstone Learn product report

Also Known As

No data available

Cornerstone Learning Suite, Saba Cloud

Overview

Blackboard Learning Management System (LMS) is a comprehensive platform designed to enhance the teaching and learning experience in educational institutions. With its user-friendly interface and robust features, Blackboard LMS enables educators to create, deliver, and manage online courses effectively. Blackboard LMS is facilitates communication and collaboration among students and instructors. The platform's built-in discussion boards, chat rooms, and messaging systems enable real-time interaction and engagement, fostering a sense of community and allowing students to participate actively in the learning process.

Blackboard LMS also provides a full set of tools for content creation and management. Educators can easily upload and organize course materials, including documents, videos, and multimedia resources. The platform supports various file formats, making it convenient for instructors to deliver diverse content to their students.

Assessment and grading are simplified with Blackboard LMS. Educators can create online quizzes, assignments, and exams, and even set automated grading criteria. This saves time and effort, while also providing students with immediate feedback on their performance. The platform also offers grade book functionality, allowing instructors to track and manage student progress easily.

Blackboard LMS features robust analytics and reporting capabilities. Educators can access detailed data on student engagement, performance, and participation, enabling them to identify areas for improvement and tailor their teaching strategies accordingly. This data-driven approach enhances the effectiveness of instruction and supports personalized learning.

Blackboard LMS is also highly customizable, allowing institutions to tailor the platform to their specific needs. It integrates seamlessly with other educational tools and systems, ensuring a smooth workflow and enhancing the overall learning experience.

Blackboard Learning Management System is a powerful and versatile platform that empowers educators to deliver engaging and effective online courses. With its comprehensive features, user-friendly interface, and customizable options, Blackboard LMS is a valuable tool for educational institutions seeking to enhance their teaching and learning environment.

Blackboard

Cornerstone Learn offers a comprehensive learning management system designed to enhance educational experiences with a focus on user-friendliness, reporting, analytics, and automation capabilities.

Cornerstone Learn provides a robust platform for learning management, ensuring efficient content delivery and knowledge retention. It offers tools for digital, classroom, and blended learning environments. Users have access to custom reporting tools, performance analytics, and seamless integrations with APIs. Despite its rich features, there is room for improvement in interface updates, navigation simplification, and mobile app enhancements. The platform is suited for diverse training needs, especially in large organizations.

What are the key features of Cornerstone Learn?

User-Friendly Interface: Intuitive design simplifies navigation.
Custom Reporting Tool: Allows detailed insights into learning metrics.
Performance Tracking Analytics: Monitors progress effectively.
Proxy Enrollment: Facilitates bulk user enrollments easily.
Automation: Streamlines repetitive tasks in learning workflows.
Mobile Accessibility: Learn on the go with mobile platform support.
API Integration: Connects with other software for extended functionality.
Playlist Capabilities: Organizes content into personalized playlists.

What benefits can users expect from Cornerstone Learn?

Seamless Onboarding: Smooth transitioning for new users enhances experience.
Dynamic Assignments: Adapts to varying learning needs efficiently.
Email Digests: Keeps learners updated without overwhelming them.
Comprehensive Learning Experiences: From virtual meetings to certifications.
Broad Configurability: Adapts to diverse learning environments.

Cornerstone Learn is widely adopted in healthcare, manufacturing, and automotive industries for employee training and e-learning initiatives. It supports compliance training and certification management, integrating with platforms like LinkedIn Learning to deliver on-demand and professional skills training. Companies in corporate and governmental sectors utilize it to maintain their workforce's knowledge up to date, accommodating up to 10,000 users per organization.

Cornerstone OnDemand

Sample Customers

University of Derby, University of Warwick, John Moore's University

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Buyer's Guide

Blackboard Learning Management vs. Cornerstone Learn

December 2025

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