Chamilo LMS is a free, open-source e-learning platform for schools and businesses. Explore its features, PRO pricing, and how it compares to Moodle.
Chamilo LMS is an open-source learning management system built for schools, universities, training organizations, and corporate learning teams that want to run online courses without paying per-seat SaaS fees. The project descends from the Claroline and Dokeos e-learning platforms and was established under its current name in 2010 by the nonprofit Chamilo Association, registered in Belgium and headquartered in Spain since 2014.
The platform is free to download, self-host, and modify under its open-source license, and it has been recognized as a Digital Public Good by the UN-backed Digital Public Goods Alliance. Chamilo reports usage by tens of millions of learners globally, spanning public education systems, NGOs, and enterprise training departments.
Chamilo covers course creation and delivery end-to-end: authoring tools for lessons and learning paths, configurable exams and assessments, SCORM and xAPI compliance for importing and exporting standards-based content, certificate generation, and skills/competency tracking tied to course completion.
Social and collaborative features — forums, real-time chat, and wikis — are built into every course space, and integrated video conferencing supports live virtual classroom sessions. A course catalog with shopping-cart functionality lets institutions sell courses directly, and recent versions have added AI-assisted tools for content generation and grading.
The core Chamilo LMS software is free open-source software with no license cost; organizations can download and self-host it on their own infrastructure indefinitely. Real-world total cost of ownership comes from server hosting, IT administration, and any custom plugin development an organization takes on itself.
For organizations that prefer not to manage hosting and maintenance internally, Chamilo PRO is a paid enterprise services offering that bundles managed hosting, technical support, upgrades, migrations (including from Moodle), integrations, and consulting. Chamilo PRO pricing is quoted individually and is not published publicly.
Yes, the core Chamilo LMS software is free and open-source. Optional paid enterprise services (Chamilo PRO) cover hosting, support, and maintenance for organizations that don't want to self-manage the platform.
Chamilo is maintained by the nonprofit Chamilo Association, founded in Belgium in 2010, with development and enterprise services led by BeezNest since January 2026.
Yes, Chamilo supports both SCORM and xAPI (Tin Can) standards for importing and exporting e-learning content.
Both are open-source LMS platforms, but Chamilo positions itself as a lighter-weight, simpler-to-deploy alternative to Moodle, with built-in social tools and a course marketplace feature.
Yes, Chamilo includes a course catalog with shopping-cart functionality so institutions can publish and sell course access.