State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Year-End 2022 Edition

Author

Phil Hill
January 31, 2023

It has now been more than 13 years of sharing the LMS Market share graphic, commonly known as the squid diagram. With the release of our Year-End 2022 report last week for schools and for vendors / investors, it’s time for us to look at updates on the institutional LMS market for North America (US and Canada) higher education. Note that our coverage for the market analysis includes Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and surrounding island countries) as well as North American K-12. [full-page audio link]

We present the following data by institutions, with market share as a percentage of the total number of institutions using each LMS as a primary system. Let’s look at an updated LMS market share graphic for US and Canadian higher education. The original idea remains – to give a picture of the LMS market in one page, highlighting the story of the market over time. The key to the graphic is that the width of each band represents the percentage of institutions using a particular LMS as its primary system. Note that rounding and data adjustments over time may hide some year-over-year changes (e.g., D2L Brightspace) in the headline numbers, but the graphic will capture the direction of change.

With the current data, Canvas leads with 36% of US & Canadian higher ed institutions, followed by Moodle and Blackboard at 19%, and D2L at 14%.

  • Canvas clearly defines the North American LMS market with its consistent growth over the past decade. That system still leads in terms of installed base, but their win rate is nearly tied with D2L Brightspace in 2022.

  • Both Moodle and Blackboard Learn are decreasing in market share, but Blackboard is doing so more quickly; thus Moodle has virtually tied Blackboard in institution count.

  • We are separating Open LMS (formerly known as Moodlerooms, and formerly owned by Blackboard but now by LTG Group) as its own line, even though it runs on Moodle, and the 19% number above includes both providers.

  • We are also separating out Populi from the Others category, as its win rate with small institutions is worth tracking.

Scaled by Enrollment

Looking at market share scaled by enrollment as a snap shot, which represents how most LMS companies determine their prices for each school, we can see a different picture in terms of market position. Note that Canvas, Blackboard Learn, and D2L Brightspace all have greater share in terms of enrollment than institution counts, whereas Moodle, Open LMS, and Populi have smaller share.

For North America, Canvas has a 44% share when scaled by enrollment, followed by Blackboard Learn at 21%, D2L Brightspace at 17%, and Moodle at 9%.

Disclosure: Instructure, Anthology (Blackboard), D2L, Moodle, and Schoology are all past or current subscribers to our LMS Market Analysis service.