What is the most widely used course authoring software?

Among commercial products, Adobe Captivate draws the most Wikipedia readers, counting its maker's article when it has none of its own, followed by iSpring Suite and Articulate 360.

What is the most popular open-source course authoring software?

By GitHub stars, Scorm-again, with 362. Adapt Framework and Adapt authoring follow.

E-learning authoring tools and SCORM runtimes in 2026

4 commercial products, ranked by how many people read about each, or about its maker, on Wikipedia's mobile site. Of those with an article of their own, Adobe Captivate has the most readers, about 117 a month. 12 open-source projects, ranked by GitHub stars and how recently each was worked on. Scorm-again leads with 362 stars, ahead of Adapt Framework. 4 had code pushed in the last three months. Most common licenses: Apache-2.0 (6), GPL-3.0 (4) and MIT (2).

Commercial e-learning authoring tools and SCORM runtimes

1
Adobe Captivate Adobe Inc.
The all-new update to Adobe Captivate offers ease to beginners and speed to professionals for creating mobile-ready courses in minutes.

Developer tool Production-ready A training team needs software simulations or already works in Adobe's tools.
117 readers a month Commercial
2
iSpring Suite iSpring Solutions
Create interactive eLearning courses and quizzes right in PowerPoint. iSpring Suite works perfectly with any LMS. Free download.

Developer tool Production-ready Trainers already comfortable in PowerPoint want to build LMS courses without learning a new tool.
19 readers a month Since 2001 Commercial
3
Articulate 360 Articulate Global
Discover the #1 AI-powered platform for workplace training.

Developer tool Production-ready Instructional designers build workplace training courses for an LMS and want the industry-standard toolkit.
Commercial
4
Elucidat Elucidat
Explore how Create, formerly Elucidat, enhances frontline training through AI-driven content creation for effective learning.

Developer tool Production-ready A large L&D team needs many non-specialist authors producing consistent courses.
Commercial

Open-source e-learning authoring tools and SCORM runtimes

Complete systems you can adopt 5

1
Adapt authoring adaptlearning
A server-based user interface for authoring eLearning courses using the Adapt framework.

Complete system Usable Your training team builds SCORM courses and wants a free alternative to Articulate Rise.
★ 562 GPL-3.0 JavaScript Slowing, pushed 3 months ago
2
Numbas numbas
A completely browser-based e-assessment/e-learning system, with an emphasis on mathematics

Complete system Production-ready A university or school needs online maths assessments that run in any LMS via SCORM or LTI.
★ 216 Apache-2.0 JavaScript Active, pushed 5 days ago
3
Lrsql yetanalytics
A SQL-based Learning Record Store

Complete system Usable You need a lightweight, maintained LRS you can self-host.
★ 144 Apache-2.0 Clojure Active, pushed 7 days ago
4
ADL_LRS adlnet
ADL's Open Source Learning Record Store (LRS) is used to store learning data collected with the Experience API.

Complete system Usable You need a conformant reference LRS for testing or a small pilot.
★ 334 Apache-2.0 Python Slowing, pushed 12 months ago
5
LearningLocker LearningLocker
Learning Locker - The Open Source Learning Record Store. Started in 2014.

Complete system Usable Only for existing installs; the open version is no longer actively developed.
★ 585 GPL-3.0 JavaScript Quiet, pushed 2 years ago

Frameworks and platforms to build on 1

1
Adapt Framework adaptlearning
A toolkit for creating responsive, accessible, multilanguage HTML5 e-learning courses.

Framework or platform Production-ready An e-learning team wants open-source course authoring that works on mobile and in any LMS.
★ 627 GPL-3.0 JavaScript Slowing, pushed 3 months ago

Building blocks for your own system 3

1
Scorm-again jcputney
A modern SCORM JavaScript runtime library.

Building block Production-ready You are building an LMS or course player and need SCORM support in the browser.
★ 362 MIT TypeScript Active, pushed 5 days ago
2
H5P-Nodejs-library Lumieducation
h5p-nodejs-library is a collection of server and client-side packages that help you use H5P with a NodeJS backend

Building block Usable Your learning platform runs on Node.js and needs H5P editing and playback.
★ 207 GPL-3.0 TypeScript Active, pushed 7 days ago
3
H5P Standalone tunapanda
Display H5P content without the need for an H5P server

Building block Usable You want to embed H5P activities in a static site or app.
★ 346 MIT TypeScript Slowing, pushed 7 months ago

Lists, courses and other material 1

1
xAPI-Spec adlnet
The xAPI Specification describes communication about learner activity and experiences between technologies.

List, course or other material Production-ready You are implementing xAPI in an LMS, course or learning record store.
★ 956 Apache-2.0 Quiet, pushed 16 months ago

All 12 open-source course authoring projects

Compared head to head

Adapt authoring vs Numbas Adapt authoring vs Lrsql Lrsql vs Numbas

Open-source licenses

Permissive: 8. Use it anywhere, including in closed products. You keep the copyright notice; Apache-2.0 also grants patent rights.
Strong copyleft: 4. If you distribute the program or anything built on it, you must release the whole source under the same license.

Languages

JavaScript 6, TypeScript 3, Clojure 1 and Python 1.

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