11 Best LMS Hosting Services (Feb. 2024)

Learning Management Systems have revolutionized how we learn new skills and polish existing ones. You’ve probably interacted with these systems on numerous occasions in your life. My first experience with an LMS was back in 2017 during an employee training program.

Even as LMSs revolutionize the learning process in almost every industry, we can’t forget the unsung heroes — web hosting companies. In reality, LMS learning wouldn’t be possible without hosting companies hosting these online course platforms on your local computer, a remote server, or somewhere in the cloud.

In this article, I’ll review 11 of the best LMS hosting services and why they are worth your attention. Let’s get the wheels rolling.

Cloud hosting is one of the best ways to get the most out of your learning management system. Cloud servers are elastic and scalable, meaning they give you the opportunity to grow quickly without overusing your resources. Here are some of my personal favorites.

I’ll start with Kamatera, a highly customizable cloud hosting provider. Known for supporting a wide range of applications, including Moodle, Kamatera isn’t your ordinary cloud host.

This LMS provider has 18 datacenters strategically located across the globe, ensuring your LMS is readily available to the desired target audience.

Add that to the 99.95% uptime guarantee, load-balancing technology, and cross-platform compatibility (Windows and Linux), and you’ll realize you’re dealing with a cloud hosting provider that’s way ahead of the competition.

IONOS supports several LMSs, including ABC, Canvas LMS, and JupyterLab. This is the cloud hosting provider you need if you’re looking for an affordable yet reliable way to host your LMS. What makes this host affordable is that you can predict the pricing.

That’s because it charges by the minute and for the time your cloud server is active. Even better, IONOS offers a price lock guarantee, meaning you may pay less than the listed price (but not more).

Affordability aside, IONOS also supports unlimited traffic, perfect for large organizations that want to provide learners with a stable learning environment regardless of the number of users logged in at any given time.

Stability is something you cannot ignore when looking for the right LMS. It’s the bare minimum, but you can expect the most when you have Cloudways in the picture. This host partners with three of the biggest cloud hosting providers today by market share: Digital Ocean, Amazon Web Service, and Google Cloud Platform.

No matter which cloud hosting platform you choose under Cloudways, you’ll benefit from a stable cloud environment. Think about it this way: When was the last time you heard that Google’s cloud servers were down? A scenario like that is almost impossible to visualize.

That’s what you get at Cloudways. For smaller learning environments, I recommend starting with DigitalOcean. Then, as your platform grows, you can scale up to AWS or GCP, whichever works for you.

With Hostwinds, Softacalous is all you need to unlock many eLearning platforms on its servers. I’m talking about the likes of Moodle, Chamilo, TCExam, Omeka, Gibbon, and ATutor; you name it, and you’ll find it.

Hostwinds’ redundancy is what brings it to this list. This host goes beyond to ensure your LMS stays up and sailing even in murky waters and unexpected turbulence in the cloud.

It achieves high levels of redundancy by monitoring its servers 24/7, conducting nightly backups, and investing in enterprise-level technologies.

Hostinger‘s suitability for LMS hosting boils down to its feature-rich plans. It doesn’t really matter what type of hosting you opt for when you choose Hostinger; they all come with powerful resources.

Here, you’ll get unlimited bandwidth, unlimited free SSL certificates, free emails, and WordPress integration for your LMS.

For higher availability, Hostinger will also give you a free content delivery network no matter the hosting plan you choose. This brings your online training platform closer to its target audience and increases the loading speeds up to five times faster.

InterServer is the LMS hosting provider you need if you want more variety. It supports Moodle, CHamilo, Claroline, TCExam, ATutor, TCExam, and about seven other LMSs.

This host offers many different hosting packages, making it the perfect hosting partner for a growth-oriented eLearning project.

Whether you want to host an eLearning platform that can accommodate two to three employees or one for an agency of more than 100 employees, InterServer always has the resources you need wrapped in the perfect hosting plan.

Hosting your LMS on a virtual private server comes with many benefits. You’ll have more control, better customization, and, in most cases, predictable costs. Does that sound like what you’re looking for? If so, here are some great options.

Kamatera wears many different hats, this time as a cloud VPS provider. With a cloud VPS, you get all the benefits of traditional VPS plus one: scalability. In other words, you’ll have more control and dedicated resources, but with scalability as an added advantage.

This makes it a great LMS hosting platform for a small business with growth in mind. The more your workforce grows, the higher you can scale your resources without migrating to a new host.

On top of that, blending a VPS with a cloud server means even better reliability and uptime — precisely what your LMS needs to serve its users.

IONOS offers unmanaged VPS hosting services, which has its fair share of pros and cons. The biggest advantage of unmanaged VPS hosting for your LMS is its wallet-friendliness. That explains why VPS hosting plans at IONOS are cheap yet powerful.

Since you’re in charge of managing your hosting environment, the host only has to take care of things like availability, security, reliability, and so on.

On the downside, though, you’ll need to know a thing or two about setting up your VPS environment. Fortunately, IONOS won’t leave you in the dark; it offers many tutorials and dedicated hosting support to get our LMS off the runway.

It’s nearly impossible not to mention speed when discussing A2 Hosting. Speed is to A2 Hosting as Tom Brady is to the Super Bowl. Regarding VPS hosting, A2 has two options: managed or unmanaged servers.

Both are powerful and ideal for almost any LMS you can think of. The only difference is how much work you must put in to set up and maintain your VPS environment. As with IONOS VPS, the unmanaged option is cheaper and offers more control but requires additional work.

On the other hand, the managed option offers more control. But you’ll need to dig deeper into your pockets since the web host manages the server on your behalf, which lets you focus on running your LMS.

InterServer makes a reappearance on our list. But this time, we’ll focus on its virtual private server offering. WordPress enthusiasts will be pleased to know this host lets you integrate your WordPress website with an LMS all under one roof and with powerful features to support this integration.

LMSs such as LearnDash, LifterLMS, WP Courseware, and Sensei LMS interact seamlessly with WordPress.

Adding InterServer to the picture means you’ll have a WordPress VPS plan fine-tuned to accommodate the unique needs of WordPress websites and support the functionalities of your favorite WordPress LMS.

If you’re a beginner to VPS and LMS hosting, Hostinger will make you feel right at home. This is one of the most beginner-friendly VPS providers in the market, thanks to its AI-powered features.

With this host, you’ll have an AI assistant by your side, ready to get you started on your LMS hosting journey. Whether you want to craft a beautiful website to integrate with the LMS or create web content, you can count on the AI assistant to be at your service.

Hostinger has also automated most of its processes, from setting up the virtual server with a single click to installing applications within minutes.

LMS (or learning management system) hosting is exactly what its name implies. A web host sets up a hosting environment for your learning management system. In this hosting environment, you’ll find educational content, learner data, and the tools necessary for eLearning.

Think of it as a digital college. The LMS is the main campus, and hosting is the plot of land where the college is located. In this digital college, you’ll find text, videos, quizzes, student information, and more.

You can either host these servers on your own premises (known as on-premise or local hosting) or rent space at a web hosting provider. The latter is usually the best option since you won’t have to worry about keeping your local computer up and running at all times, managing hosting infrastructure, and all the technical aspects of hosting.

Instead, the web hosting company you rented the server with takes care of the technical aspects as you focus on running your LMS.

LMSs are usually quite resource-intensive. For this reason, you should choose a VPS, cloud, or dedicated server. That said, there’s no standard pricing for these types of hosting plans. The price depends on the features a particular hosting plan offers.

You’ll find plenty of cheap LMS hosting providers out there, starting with the likes of IONOS, Kamatera, and InterServer, which are best for small and medium-sized eLearning platforms.

Other hosts, such as A2 Hosting, InMotion, and Cloudways, suit enterprise-level clients looking to set up LMSs for social learning and corporate or customer training.

Moodle is the self-proclaimed world’s most widely used LMS. With more than 400 million users, this eLearning platform dominates both the academic and business worlds.

Blackboard is also popular among college campuses. It boasts roughly 100 million users and more than two decades’ worth of experience in the eLearning field.

The LMS industry isn’t slowing down any time soon. It’s projected to generate $20.3 billion in 2023.

Hosting an LMS shouldn’t be that difficult. Here are some quick steps to guide you:

Keep in mind that you need to update and maintain the system to keep it functional. Depending on your skill level, you can either do it yourself or hire a professional.

Kamatera is the best Moodle hosting service in 2024 if you’re looking for affordability, scalability, and reliability all under one roof.

It is also worth mentioning that Moodle offers its own web hosting service, MoodleCloud. But the standard hosting plan at MoodleCloud costs up to 20 times more than what a typical web host offers for almost the same amount of resources or even more.

For context, five gigabytes of storage at MoodleCloud costs almost $2,000 a year. On the other hand, IONOs, Kamatera, A2 Hosting, Cloudways, InterServer, InMotion, and other hosting providers I’ve recommended above will give you hundreds of gigabytes worth of SSD storage for the price of one or two cups of coffee a month.

Finding an LMS hosting service is easier when you know the qualities to look for. Below, I’ve outlined the most important characteristics of a good LMS host and a brief description of each.

1. Scalability: Ability to handle increasing numbers of users and courses.

2. Consistent uptime: Don’t opt for any host that offers less than a 99.9% uptime guarantee.

3. Speed and responsiveness: Check for SSD storage (as the bare minimum), high-performance hardware, content delivery network (CDN), multiple datacenter locations, load balancers, and more.

4. Advanced security features: These include protection against data breaches and unauthorized access.

5. Overall expenses involved: Think about the setup, subscription, and maintenance fees and check if they align with your budget.

6. Availability and quality of customer service: You need live chat, email, and phone support at the bare minimum.

7. Beginner-friendliness: This refers to the ease of use and navigation for administrators and learners.

8. Compatibility with LMS software, plugins, and integrations: Think of WordPress as an example of a CMS you would want to integrate with your LMS. In that case, the host should support both.

Personally, when building an LMS, I usually write down what the client expects the learning platform to achieve. I’ll review the number of expected users, the specific LMS they want to use (or choose one for them if they don’t have anything in mind), and their budget.

These three factors and those outlined above should help you choose the right eLearning platform for your specific project.

LMSs have changed how we learn new things or polish existing knowledge. Without LMS hosting providers, all these would be impossible to achieve.

Hosting your LMS on a remote server is the smartest way to get the most from your online learning experience, access any training material, track progress, interact with other learners or tutors, and preserve this digital fountain of knowledge for others to drink from.

Fortunately, you now know where to start when looking for the best learning management system for different use cases. Happy learning!