What is our primary use case?
I am a developer. If anyone wants to customize their Totara, I do that. I am a software engineer. I know how to customize Totara.
Some clients want to use Totara. They buy a subscription from Totara and hire developers to customize it according to their requirements. I fulfill those requirements as a developer. I am not a Totara partner. Totara is a paid LMS. Anyone who wants a multi-tenancy learning system can use Totara. It can manage colleges, universities, and more.
How has it helped my organization?
Totara's compliance is very good. They are maintaining GDPR and other regulations. Compliance is okay; there is no problem with compliance. They are maintaining compliance.
What is most valuable?
It's already an LMS. I can install it as a web application. It's a plug-and-play LMS. You can buy a subscription, create users and learners, feature courses, and enroll students who will then be able to access their courses.
The multi-tenancy features of Totara Learn are the most useful for training efficiency.
Multi-tenancy is helpful because it allows for separate instances for different organizations or departments within a larger institution. For example, a university with multiple colleges can use Totara Learn to create separate instances for each college, with each college having its own courses and resources. These courses are not shared with other universities but are given to the super admin who controls Totara.
All colleges have their separate identity, and resources can be shared with other colleges if desired. This functionality is very helpful in Totara to distribute and separate resources effectively.
What needs improvement?
The look and feel is not good. Totara Learn needs to improve its look and feel and make it easier to use and more user-friendly.
The interface is okay, but sometimes it's messy. Totara needs to improve the UI part as well and make it easier to use for the admin side.
AI capabilities are in beta phase. I think they have implemented some AI features in the model, but right now, I'm not aware of what AI features have been implemented. So, Totara also needs to implement some AI things in the model, like suggesting courses according to users' needs or interests.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for six to seven years now.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is a software, so we might face issues in almost all areas. We might need to choose a lot of things according to the loading problems, sometimes image loading problems. These types of things need to be improved.
So, I would rate the stability a seven out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Totara supports all types of businesses, so we also cover all business models, including small, medium, or enterprise businesses.
I would rate the scalability of this solution a nine out of ten because it's very easy to scale the system. You can scale it anytime.
How are customer service and support?
Totara has support, but I think we need to buy it. If you have a developer, you can easily manage without Totara's support. In the case of Totara, if you want support, it means you can scale six out of ten.
They don't have good documentation. They don't have a lot of appropriate answers in their forum. They don't have a good support team. You need to depend on your developer.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
How was the initial setup?
It is very easy to setup. It's in the cloud. It takes four hours maximum.
I would rate my experience with the initial setup a nine out of ten, with ten being easy and one being difficult set up.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
It's not expensive. It's user-based. If you want to plug in, you can use that plan. It's not expensive. I think it's around $100 or something if you want to use it.
You can buy the system and implement it on your hosting. If you want to use their hosting, it will cost more.
What other advice do I have?
For people who need a highly scalable, multi-tenant LMS on a low budget, this is a good option. It's a very good option in the market, low-priced, and a very good LMS.
Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
*Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.