Absorb LMS vs. SilkRoad Learning

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Absorb LMS
Score 9.2 out of 10
Enterprise companies (1,001+ employees)
Absorb LMS aims to empower organizations to train employees with the skills needed to stay modern and relevant in today's fast-paced world. The LMS software focuses on aligning learning needs with business demands.N/A
SilkRoad Learning
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
SilkRoad Learning is a web-based LMS. The vendor advertises enterprise-level platform for addressing skills gaps and regulatory compliance, as well as ecommerce and mobile support. It can integrate with other SilkRoad offerings and 3rd party content.N/A
Pricing
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Considered Both Products
Absorb LMS

No answer on this topic

SilkRoad Learning
Chose SilkRoad Learning
Less good than Adobe, doesn't look as good, and less mobile/agile with fewer customizable features. Easier for people to learn how to use but slightly boring and didn't seem to be particularly popular with people. A system that is fun to use does get used more and more …
Features
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Learning Management
Comparison of Learning Management features of Product A and Product B
Absorb LMS
8.9
90 Ratings
9% above category average
SilkRoad Learning
8.6
3 Ratings
6% above category average
Course authoring8.073 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Course catalog or library9.578 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Player/Portal9.182 Ratings7.63 Ratings
Learning content9.163 Ratings8.53 Ratings
Mobile friendly7.267 Ratings8.53 Ratings
Progress tracking & certifications9.985 Ratings9.03 Ratings
Assignments9.974 Ratings7.13 Ratings
Compliance management9.969 Ratings8.13 Ratings
Learning administration9.687 Ratings7.63 Ratings
Learning reporting & analytics8.885 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Social learning8.044 Ratings10.02 Ratings
Gamification6.839 Ratings00 Ratings
Single Sign On (SSO) Enabled Learning9.561 Ratings00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Small Businesses
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
iSpring Learn
iSpring Learn
Score 9.6 out of 10
Enterprises
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
Axonify
Axonify
Score 10.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Likelihood to Recommend
9.3
(92 ratings)
8.1
(12 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(6 ratings)
3.6
(2 ratings)
Usability
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Availability
10.0
(2 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.6
(78 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Online Training
8.2
(1 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
10.0
(2 ratings)
4.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
10.0
(2 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
8.2
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Absorb LMSSilkRoad Learning
Likelihood to Recommend
Absorb Software Inc.
My (internal) project build team consisted of three people - one with experience setting up an LMS previously, and two with no experience. I have experienced 'out of the box' builds before and they are rarely intuitive and/or easy to navigate and set up. This was not the case with Absorb LMS. The eLearning modules and face-to-face support provided was thorough and there was a lack of unneccessary complexity to setting up the platform. My novices now know there way around every inch of the platform and love using it. This was not our first LMS, but it may well be our last. The functionality (from reporting for admins to ease of access for learners) far exceeds our previous experiences and we have a product that looks great, works seemlessly and that we are very proud of.
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SilkRoad
It is very well suited as a web based LMS. They have excellent customer service and support. Ask about the reporting features - these are challenging in many LMS applications. The training they provided for administrators is also very good. Overall a great company, and they are constantly working to improve the product
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Pros
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Customizing the user interface was fairly simple and our learners WANT to use the platform because it looks so nice.
  • Admins have so many tools at their fingertips to pull reports, create new users, author new courses, and more!
  • Absorb LMS has been the solution to so many problems we had experienced in our previous LMS: ease of use, course library, course authoring, tracking, reporting, etc.
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SilkRoad
  • GreenLight is very good at keeping track of employee requirements through the use of qualifications. It is the backbone of how courses, classes, requirements and activities are assigned and monitored.
  • The content objects (development) portion of GreenLight is robust. It allows you to mix various content objects from different sources. For instance if you import a SCORM ecourse, an AICC ecourse and want to add an HTML page as an introduction, the software will allow you to combine all seamlessly into one course. In addition, the navigation and sequencing tools offer considerable functionality.
  • The reporting feature of this software is very good (but not best of class). The number of standard reports is fairly extensive and cover most needs. Having the ability to output files for further analysis and manipulation in Excel takes care of a number of areas where the standard reports fall short.
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Cons
Absorb Software Inc.
  • The "And" and "Or" rules for self + automatic enrollment could be spelled out more to clarify who we're enrolling into courses
  • The thumbnail and poster "Upload photo" section is confusing. There should be a "Favorites" folder where we can easily find most commonly used posters and thumbnails
  • more education around Absorb analyze essentials
  • How the Featured courses section ranks courses is confusing on the back-end. I need to switch the primary one to second place to feature the new one first. But if the previous one now becomes second place, what happens to the old course that was in second place? I've noticed the order you select on the back-end for this isn't always reflected on user side
  • Same comment as Featured Courses but for appearance of billboards. Hard to position each in the right order
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SilkRoad
  • 'my profile' has been a little glitchy for us but we are a very small team and don't use that element much, photos don't load or stay loaded
  • Sometimes the main list with due dates, type of training etc. seems hard for people to completely understand some more customizable sections here would be useful for us
  • On the whole, is not a customizable as other platforms we've used. Is good at tracking but not so much the kind of cataloging we need.
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Likelihood to Renew
Absorb Software Inc.
We love the ability to have a user-friendly system that integrates well with our different HR interfaces (we have 3 systems that feed data/employees into the system). It makes it easy to track course completions and report out on metrics enterprise-wide. In addition, the ability to provide consistent education to staff who are geographically dispersed is a huge incentive for us, and Absorb LMS does this seamlessly.
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SilkRoad
Our training director has determined that the customer service and ease of use is too difficult. She intends to check into other LMS systems and end our contract with Silkroad.
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Usability
Absorb Software Inc.
It is very intuitive, not just from an admin perspective to manage courses and track completions, but also from a learners' perspective. It is very easy to find courses, search for courses, and track personal course progress. The interface is well designed, which makes it simpler for our audience to navigate the portal and find what they are looking for
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SilkRoad
I have a better understanding of the system and so it is easier for me to use. The student side is very easy and simple for anyone to use.
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Reliability and Availability
Absorb Software Inc.
We have never had any major issue with Absorb's availability. Any outages that have occurred have been planned an communicated. Any small issues that occur within the Absorb platform have been addressed efficiently and quickly by support and the development team
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SilkRoad
There have been many times when the site was unavailable for a short time. Also, glitches and unexplained ed activity such as sending training notifications out to terminated employees.
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Performance
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb LMS's performance is very reliable and consistent. Pages load quickly. Report are generated within a reasonable amount of time (even with significant amounts of data), etc. Nothing seems to slow it down.
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SilkRoad
It works well most of the time.
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Support Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
[...] is a ROCK star- having her as part of our support team has been a game changer. She is a true problem solver at heart and has an unique ability to retain who we are as a company and match that with what can help us most. She has been a game changer for our internal admin team and is supporting us through a business review to help guide us in the best direction on our constant growth.
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SilkRoad
The questions regarding how to implement in the system are answered quickly and efficiently. If there is an issue with the technical side or integrations it takes forever to get results and after much escalating.
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Online Training
Absorb Software Inc.
Absorb was able to provide an initial training of the platform, covering all our basic needs. Additionally, there are Absorb learning modules available for further learning that can be accessed at anytime. There is also the ability to review Absorb's extensive resource library to find the answers to questions/troubleshooting. Beyond that, we opted for the Premier Support so our organization has access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager.
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SilkRoad
some are thorough and others are not. I like that they are available for review.
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Implementation Rating
Absorb Software Inc.
The implementation of Absorb went very seamlessly. We previously had the Oracle LMS and importing user data and getting the new system up to speed was painless. The smooth transition helped leaders and staff gain confidence early in the application/company and we have had a successful partnership with Absorb since.
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SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Absorb Software Inc.
All sites provided at least a basic LMS platform, and Talent was probably the closest in terms of features and like-for-like comparison. Ultimately, none of the others had the same level of course creation and it would either have meant outsourcing or spending a significant amount of time building the courses which was not ideal as we would still be paying for the service during this time. Absorb had the best course creation software of all evaluated which is why we chose it, although it was also by far the most expensive of those evaluated.
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SilkRoad
SilkRoad Learning is much easier to customize and roll out globally. The Skillsoft product was expensive, cumbersome, and required a large ramp up time. When working with clients on Skillsoft, too much had to be predetermined, the languages were not fully developed and learners had to pay each time they accessed a module and get reimbursement from the company - it was not effective.
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Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Absorb Software Inc.
Seems very expensive for limitations we have experienced.
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SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Absorb Software Inc.
We have already scaled our LMS from a couple hundred users to 1000 users and have plans to scale even larger. We use the LMS across multiple internal departments. countries and user types. Absorb has made it easy to integrate and scale and we will continue to scale in the near future.
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SilkRoad
The system went down/offline for 5 or 6 days in January. This is the month we have 3400 employees taking annual required training. It had several glitches afterwards that took months to correct.
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Professional Services
Absorb Software Inc.
I believe this question speaks to additional professional service hours that we had built into our contract to work with a set of staff members for purposes of changes or enhancements to our specific instance of Absorb. Again, I have nothing but positive things to say regarding our dealings with people at all levels of the organization. The PMs, the technical experts, the help desk staff are all friendly, knowledgeable, helpful and efficient
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SilkRoad
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Absorb Software Inc.
  • Lighter administrative load, we went from 20-30 support tickets per month to 1 or 2.
  • Our course setup and configuration time now takes less than 5 minutes. In our previous system it took us close to 15 minutes to publish a course.
  • We have been able to push administrative responsibilities to department level administrators, because of the ability to have department level admins, who only have access and control of their department users and content.
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SilkRoad
  • GreenLight has provided an easy route for our users to receive training online and in-class. They can quickly and easily search and sign up for anything on the catalog. Being in healthcare, we provide a lot of training on a constant basis. GreenLight has provided a great foundation for our company to accomplish it's training needs and goals.
  • Employees can quickly access and complete online trainings so that they can get back to their jobs.
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ScreenShots

Absorb LMS Screenshots

Screenshot of a company's unique identity with a training interface that is custom-designed for the brand.Screenshot of a company's image and values with a training interface that is tailored to the brand's specific needs.Screenshot of the course creation workflow, that offer a diverse set of formats, including instructional videos, quizzes, and assessments.Screenshot of Absorb's course details page, accessible from the course catalog dashboard, used to give learners an understanding of the course material.Screenshot of learners' progress insights, used to make data-driven decisions with the reporting capabilities of Absorb LMS.Screenshot of course creation with Create AI Beta.