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D2L Brightspace Outranks Moodle*
Leveling up your learning platform is easier than you think. Use D2L Brightspace, an award-winning learning platform and get the support you deserve every step of the way.
Moodle alternative
Big and Small. The Top Higher Education Institutions Partner with D2L. Here’s Why:
You’ll easily deliver a best-in-class learning experience with the tools, services, and support you deserve. And with all the reasons listed below, choosing D2L as your new partner should be a no-brainer.
Likelihood to Recommend
Product Going in Right Direction?
Meets Requirements
Ease of Admin
Ease of Doing Business With
Quality of Support
Ease of Setup
Ease of Use
*Ranking from Grid® Report for Learning Management System (LMS) | Summer 2025
Viducon has made every effort to provide complete and accurate information. The content above is based upon information available as of December 23, 2025, and it is to be used for informational purposes only. If you identify any information outlined on this page that is inaccurate, please contact us at [email protected] with details so we can make the appropriate modification.
Why Forward-Thinking Institutions Are Leaving Moodle Behind
While open-source systems like Moodle once offered flexibility, they can pose significant risks and hidden costs that hinder institutional growth:
- Rising maintenance and hosting costs
- Resource-intensive upgrades
- Fragmented learning experiences for students and faculty
- Limited data insights and automation
Brightspace can deliver those things your teams value most about open source: flexibility, extensibility, and control but with enterprise-grade reliability, continuous innovation, and expert support built in.
”The impact that Brightspace has probably most had is peace of mind for everybody, all parts equal across the organization. Peace of mind for students knowing that the experience that they’re getting is top-notch and consistent across all their courses. Peace of mind for faculty to know that it’s a cloud-based product that has good infrastructure, that’s solid, reliable, it doesn’t go down. Peace of mind for administrators to know that they’re not having to build anything, to check code before upgrade. Peace of mind for leaders of the organization to know that the product is going to allow us to continue to grow and that it’s a product that is world-leading.
Mark Schneider, Director of learning technology and AI strategy, NAIT
A Proven Path from Moodle to Brightspace
Migrate with Confidence
For D2L, transitioning from Moodle to Brightspace is seamless, secure, and supported every step of the way. D2L’s migration specialists have helped hundreds of institutions transition smoothly, so that courses, users, and data arrive intact.
“We completed a VLE unification project where we migrated 9,000 students, 650 staff and two and a half thousand Moodle courses to our Brightspace instance, so we now have a single VLE for TU Dublin and the level of support from D2L made all the difference in our transition.”
Eammon O’Brien, Senior Manager VLE, TU Dublin
Month 1
Discover and Assess
- Assess current needs and pain points
- Change management planning
- Define project timeline, roles and vision
Month 2
Plan and Build
- Create your migration roadmap
- Configure Brightspace and integrations
- Begin content migration with expert support
Month three
Launch and Grow
- Test, troubleshoot, and launch Brightspace
- Provide training and post-launch support
- Map next steps for continued success
Build More, Maintain Less
Empower Your Developers
Developers managing open-source VLEs are often burdened with maintenance and firefighting. Brightspace liberates them to focus more on innovation and impact. Brightspace doesn’t replace that. It amplifies their impact.
Freedom to Innovate
Build new learning experiences, not maintain legacy systems
Security and Compliance
Platform security is handled by D2L automatically
More Control, Not Less
Through robust APIs and data transparency
Collaborative Partnership
D2L team as an extension of yours
”I worked in a very highly developed version of Moodle, and it was quite obvious that certain files had been put together in a certain way. The big difference with Brightspace is that it doesn’t look like or feel like a traditional VLE. It’s intuitive, visually appealing, and just easier for students.
Dr. Carmen Miles, Digital Education Strategic Lead, De Montfort University
Focus on Learning, Not Workarounds
Brightspace is built for modern pedagogy and AI-enhanced learning. While Moodle may rely on plugins and workarounds to achieve certain functionalities, Brightspace is designed to deliver seamless, intuitive, and adaptive learning experiences out of the box.
Educators love Brightspace for:
Course Design Flexibility
Intuitive, visual tools that don’t need coding
Adaptive Learning
Can automatically tailor content to student progress
Real-time Analytics
See engagement and outcomes instantly
Purposeful AI
Enhances learning and efficiency while safeguarding your data and privacy
Accessibility
EAA-compliant and mobile-first by design
Why ‘Free’ Isn’t Free
The Hidden Costs of Moodle
Open source can come with a high price tag—especially when factoring in hidden costs. Running Moodle internally often hides a long tail of expenses: hosting, maintenance, upgrades, support, and developer time.
Brightspace minimises complexity with a unified, transparent model that can reduce total cost of ownership while delivering unmatched value and innovation.
