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Blackboard Learning Management vs Cornerstone Learning comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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)
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.6
Number of Reviews
8
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Cornerstone Learning
Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)
7th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
29
Ranking in other categories
Talent Management (8th), Virtual Training (4th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of Blackboard Learning Management is 2.4%, up from 2.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Cornerstone Learning is 5.0%, down from 5.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Learning Management Systems (LMS)
 

Featured Reviews

James Phelps - PeerSpot reviewer
Expandable with good real-time live interactions but is very expensive
Initially, Blackboard had problems for faculty members who were forced to use it to try to get it set up and running. That said, over time, they improved that. Unfortunately, due to its licensing requirements on standalone systems, like at a university on our servers, we run into problems where we can only set it up in one way. The way you teach a biology class is not the way you teach a social science class, for example. It's not flexible. Often you are forced into compromising in such a manner that neither group would be happy. If you need help, the help desk in-house will provide 24-hour help to both students and faculty. That means you have eight people, eight hours a day, supervisors, and an overall manager. It takes at least 12 people to handle maintenance for a 10,000-person campus for 24-hour coverage.
Vibha  Mishra - PeerSpot reviewer
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.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"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."
"The modules and courses are flexible."
"It encompasses various components, including course delivery modules, content management, community engagement features, digital classrooms, and mobile integration."
"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"
"The solution is easy to use."
"One of the most important features is the possibility of creating unlimited subdomains."
"It is scalable."
"It is a one-stop shop solution, where you can actually log in using your Windows username and password, and the single sign-on can be configured with this LMS."
"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."
"Combining everything together, our on-time completions have gone from the mid-sixty percentile to over 99% on-time completion."
"There are new releases every three months that keep up with industry standards and meet the needs of the customer."
"The most valuable features of Cornerstone Learning are the welcome page and the learner's home. It is user-friendly and graphically appealing."
"The most valuable feature of Cornerstone Learning is the reporting and learner transcripts."
"The most valuable features are the Playlists, Learning Assignment Tool, Earner Experience Platform, Machine Learning, and Reporting 2.0."
"The most valuable features of Cornerstone Learning are how they organized the management of the different content types is good. They are done in different ways which is a benefit. Additionally, the reporting 2.0 and playlist functionality are very good."
 

Cons

"The system falls short in terms of managing assessments and exams effectively."
"The solution must provide better integration with third-party software."
"It would be ideal to create a more responsive or more intuitive template for access from telephones or tablets."
"The solution is not flexible."
"Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions."
"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."
"In the next release, I would like to see improvement in the dashboards and reporting."
"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."
"The existing test functionality is really old-fashioned, basic, and limited."
"Cornerstone Learning's initial setup was complex, but I don't see that as a downside. It was complex because there is a lot of customizing and a lot of settings that can be done in the setup."
"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 recruitment module needs to be improved in Cornerstone Learning."
"The support for this solution could be improved."
"In the next release, I would like to see a Hybrid architecture and to be able to customize the look and feel."
 

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."
"The price of Cornerstone Learning depends on many factors, such as size and negotiations."
"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."
"The solution's pricing depends on the specific requirements."
"The solution cost approximately $47,000 annually."
"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."
"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."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
University
20%
Educational Organization
20%
Government
10%
Computer Software Company
7%
Educational Organization
57%
Comms Service Provider
8%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

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.
What needs improvement with Blackboard Learning Management?
Blackboard could benefit from significant improvements in its data storage and software functionality to remain competitive with more innovative LMS solutions.
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 ...
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...
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...
 

Also Known As

No data available
Cornerstone Learning Suite, Saba Cloud
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

University of Derby, University of Warwick, John Moore's University
Advantage Sales and Marketing
Find out what your peers are saying about Blackboard Learning Management vs. Cornerstone Learning and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
849,963 professionals have used our research since 2012.