State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: Year-End 2024 Edition

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It has now been more than 15 years of sharing the LMS Market share graphic, commonly known as the squid diagram. With the release of our Year-End 2024 report last week for On EdTech Enterprise subscribers, 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, Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, and surrounding island countries) as well as new coverage in Asia and Africa.

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 in the headline numbers, but the graphic will capture the direction of change.

• It is remarkable how long this market has dominated by the Big Four - Instructure Canvas, D2L Brightspace, Anthology Blackboard, and Moodle have retained the top four spots in market share (by institution count and by enrollment) for fifteen years in North America. And the only other competitor gaining real share is Populi, which is used amongst very small, mostly-private colleges.

• The market continues to be a matter of Canvas and Brightspace winning new accounts, Anthology Blackboard losing accounts (with the notable exception of Centennial College), and Moodle holding steady for the past two years, with more variety for smaller institutions.

By way of comparison and for fun, compare this year’s chart with the original 2009 version of the graphic.

By Institutions and By Enrollment

To capture the two primary metrics used for market share, this year we have started a new butterfly chart, where the left side shows current market share by count of institutions and the right side shows by enrollment (i.e., scaling each institution by its enrollment; we do not have a way to measure student registrations or activity).

• For North America, 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.

• Instructure Canvas has a 50% share when scaled by enrollment, followed by D2L Brightspace at 20%, Anthology Blackboard at 12%, and Moodle at 9%.

• Compared to last year, D2L Brightspace has overtaken Anthology Blackboard in second place for enrollment metrics, moving from a rough tie over the past two years (plus or minus 1%) to an 8% lead. Much of this gain comes from the SUNY and CUNY system-wide migrations that were decided in 2022-23 but mostly implemented in 2024.

Disclosure: Instructure, Anthology (Blackboard), D2L, Moodle, and Schoology are all past or current subscribers to our On EdTech Enterprise service.

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