Moodle is the one most schools land on if they want the widest range of plugins and a project that has been around for two decades. Canvas LMS is the better fit if your institution already thinks in terms of a polished, commercial-grade interface, since it is the same open-source codebase behind Instructure's paid product. Chamilo and ILIAS are worth a look if you want something lighter to set up and run.
What to look for
Google Classroom is simple on purpose: assignments, a stream, grades, and tight integration with Google Docs and Gmail. A self-hosted LMS usually does more, which means more to configure. Before you pick one, decide what you actually need:
- Course structure: a flat list of assignments like Classroom, or full courses with modules, prerequisites and learning paths.
- Assessment: simple grading, or quizzes with many question types, rubrics and plagiarism checks.
- Scale: a single class, a school, or a university with thousands of students and many instructors.
- Plugins and standards: SCORM, LTI and xAPI support matter if you already have course content built for another platform.
Quick comparison
| App | License | Best for | GitHub stars (Oct 2026) | Latest release |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Moodle | GPL-3.0 | Schools and universities that want the largest plugin ecosystem | not on GitHub | - |
| Canvas LMS | AGPL-3.0 | Institutions that want a polished, commercial-grade interface | about 6,900 | - |
| Chamilo LMS | GPL-3.0+ | Training teams that want an easier setup | about 1,000 | v3.0.1 (19 September 2026) |
| ILIAS | GPL-3.0 | Universities and companies in Europe, especially Germany | about 500 | v11.5 (6 October 2026) |
Moodle
Moodle has one of the largest open-source communities of any learning platform. It covers course delivery (instructor-led, self-paced or blended), forums, wikis, glossaries, assignments with marking workflows and inline annotation, quizzes, and workshops for peer and self-assessment. Grading supports rubrics and competency-based marking tied to a learner's personal plan.
Administration is where Moodle shows its age in a good way: over 50 authentication and enrolment options, bulk course creation, backup and restore, and a plugin system with thousands of community add-ons. It supports SCORM and IMS-LTI for content built elsewhere, and the interface is mobile-responsive, with an official mobile app.
Moodle's code lives on its own Git server rather than GitHub, so there is no star count to compare here. That also means fewer of the usual community signals (stars, forks) to judge activity by. Look at its own release notes and forums instead.
It suits a school or university that wants the most configurable option and is willing to spend time on setup, or that has IT staff or a hosting partner to manage it.
Moodle also runs a demo site where you can try the student and teacher views before committing to an install, which is worth doing since the admin interface takes some getting used to.
Canvas LMS
Canvas LMS is built and maintained by Instructure, which also sells a hosted commercial version of the product. The open-source repository is released under the AGPL-3.0 license and has about 6,900 GitHub stars.
Canvas aims for a cleaner, more modern interface than most LMS projects, which is part of why many universities already know it from Instructure's commercial offering. Self-hosting the open-source version gets you the same interface without the subscription, but expect to do your own setup, upgrades and support that a paid plan would otherwise cover.
It suits an institution that wants Canvas's interface and is comfortable running and maintaining a Ruby on Rails application itself. Setup takes more steps than Moodle's packaged installers, since you are working with the same stack Instructure runs in production rather than a turnkey distribution built for self-hosters.
Chamilo LMS
Chamilo LMS focuses on ease of use. The project says it has been used by over 40 million people since 2010, which is a claim from Chamilo itself rather than an independent count, but it has years of history behind it.
Features include course administration, assignments, attendance tracking, calendar events, document collaboration (with OnlyOffice), forums, learning paths, gradebooks with badges and certificates, quizzes with more than 20 question types, SCORM/QTI/LTI/xAPI support, two-factor authentication, and videoconference integration. It is translated into more than 60 languages.
The project is licensed under GPL-3.0+, has about 1,000 GitHub stars, and shipped v3.0.1 on 19 September 2026, so it is still actively maintained.
It suits a training team or smaller school that wants most of what Moodle offers with a shorter learning curve to set up.
ILIAS
ILIAS started at the University of Cologne and has been in active use since 1998. It is licensed under GPL-3.0, has about 500 GitHub stars, and its latest release, v11.5, shipped on 6 October 2026.
ILIAS is used by universities, companies for staff training, schools and public-sector organizations, with professional service providers across Europe to help with hosting and support. Its documentation and community lean German, which shows in where most of its service providers are based.
It suits a European institution, especially in Germany, that wants local support options and a project with a long track record in higher education. The interface is less visually polished than Canvas, but what it lacks in design it makes up for in how much of the platform you can configure to match an institution's existing processes.
How to run them
All four are self-hosted, so the usual routes apply:
- Your own server with Docker. Moodle, Chamilo and ILIAS all publish Docker setups; Canvas's install is more involved and documented for a dedicated server.
- A rented server, if you don't want to run hardware yourself but still want to manage the software.
- A hosting partner. Several providers specialize in Moodle and ILIAS hosting for schools, including setup, backups and upgrades, which is worth the cost if you don't have IT staff.
If you are new to running your own apps, our self-hosting for beginners guide is a good starting point.
FAQ
What is the best open-source alternative to Google Classroom?
It depends on the size of your institution. Moodle has the widest plugin ecosystem and suits schools and universities. Chamilo is a lighter option for smaller training teams. ILIAS fits European institutions, particularly in Germany, that want local support.
Can I import courses from Google Classroom?
Google Classroom does not offer a built-in export to these platforms. Course content (documents, assignments) can be exported individually through Google Takeout, but rebuilding the course structure in a new LMS is manual work.
Which of these is easiest to set up?
Chamilo and ILIAS both publish Docker setups and are generally quicker to get running than Moodle, which has more configuration options to work through during setup.
Do any of these need a commercial license?
No. All four are released under open-source licenses (GPL-3.0, GPL-3.0+ or AGPL-3.0). Canvas's maintainer, Instructure, separately sells a hosted commercial version, but the code in the repository is free to self-host.
Is there support if something breaks?
None of these come with a vendor support contract by default. Moodle and ILIAS both have hosting partners that sell support plans; for the others, you are relying on community forums and documentation unless you hire a partner yourself.