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#87

SmarterU is ranked #87 in the Online Course Platforms product directory based on the latest available data collected by SelectHub. Compare the leaders with our In-Depth Report.

SmarterU Pricing

Based on our most recent analysis, SmarterU pricing starts at $7,999 (Annually).

Price
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Starting From
$7,999
Pricing Model
Annually
Free Trial
Yes, Request for Free

Training Resources

SmarterU is supported with the following types of training:

Documentation
In Person
Live Online
Videos
Webinars

Support

The following support services are available for SmarterU:

Email
Phone
Chat
FAQ
Forum
Help Desk
Knowledge Base
Tickets
Training
24/7 Live Support

SmarterU Benefits and Insights

Why use SmarterU?

Key differentiators & advantages of SmarterU

  • Creates a Unique Training Journey for Each Learner: You can customize navigation menus and landing pages to cater to varying roles and experience levels. Place elements like videos, quick links, event reminders, drag-and-drop elements, and more on learners' landing pages or menus for quick access. Provide multilingual support to accommodate learners' location or language preferences, making the platform accessible to all.
  • Improves Accessibility: Convert your course content slides' narration into spoken audio, making it easier for learners who are visually impaired or have difficulty reading text. They can choose to listen to the audio narration or read the text, giving them flexibility in how they access the material. Other accessibility features include high-contrast mode, alternative text for images and intuitive keyboard navigation.
  • Compatible With Multiple Content Formats: Integrate diverse eLearning materials effortlessly and provide external stakeholders with easy access to your training resources. SmarterU LMS supports a wide range of eLearning content formats, ensuring compatibility with various vendors and authoring tools. Key Features include:
    • Broad Compatibility: Accept content created using SCORM, xAPI, AICC and cmi5 standards.
    • Vendor Flexibility: Easily incorporate courses from different vendors into your LMS.
    • Content Control: Retain complete control over your content without being limited to a single proprietary method.
  • Enhances Training with Pre-Made Course Supplements: The LMS can integrate pre-made courses from various course libraries, supporting all standard eLearning formats like AICC, SCORM and xAPI.
    • Plug-and-Play: Quickly set up your LMS or enrich existing courses with content from popular libraries such as SmarterU Essentials, Skillsoft, OpenSesame, LinkedIn Learning, Go1, and BizLibrary.
    • SmarterU Essentials: Access over 8,000 professional-quality video-based courses on high-demand topics.
    • Library Filtering: Narrow your search by topic to find the most relevant courses for your learners.
    • Expert Assistance: Consult with experts to select the best course library for your specific needs.
    • Automatic Updates: Receive automatic content updates, ensuring your learners always have access to the latest material without additional administrative effort.
  • Manages Your Training Investment: You can track all your costs by simply inputting training expenses and letting the LMS handle the calculations. Monitor wages for learners and instructors, venue costs for in-person sessions, and any other miscellaneous expenses.

Industry Expertise

SmarterU offers industry-specific training solutions tailored to sectors like banking, financial services, hospitality, manufacturing and retail. The platform supports compliance training, employee development and onboarding processes, making it suitable for organizations of all sizes.

SmarterU Reviews

Average customer reviews & user sentiment summary for SmarterU:

User satisfaction level icon: excellent

41 reviews

95%

of users would recommend this product

Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Based on an aggregate of SmarterU reviews taken from the sources above, the following pros & cons have been curated by a SelectHub Market Analyst.

Pros

  • Excellent Customer Support: Users praise SmarterU for its outstanding customer service. Many reviews highlight the support team's responsiveness and helpfulness, noting that they’re quick to address issues and provide assistance.
  • User-Friendly Interface: Many users find SmarterU to be user-friendly, especially regarding course assignments and grading capabilities.
  • Customization and Branding Options: The ability to customize the platform to reflect company branding is another strong point. Users appreciate the effort SmarterU puts into implementing their colors and logos throughout the interface, enhancing the overall user experience.
  • Comprehensive Features: SmarterU offers a wide array of features, including compliance training, certification management, and a course creation suite. Users have noted the effectiveness of the platform for managing complex training needs, particularly in larger organizations.

Cons

  • Steep Learning Curve: Some users have reported that the platform can be complex and not very intuitive, particularly for smaller businesses or those with fewer training needs. This complexity leads to a steep learning curve, making it challenging for new users to master the system quickly.
  • Limited Administrative Rights: A recurring complaint involves the platform's limitations of administrative rights. Users have expressed frustration over the inability to efficiently manage course assignments and user profiles, stating that removing a course from someone's profile can be cumbersome.
  • Course Builder Limitations: The course builder feature has been criticized for being nonresponsive and time-consuming. Users have noted that it doesn’t allow for easy cut-and-paste functionality, which can significantly slow down the course creation process.

Researcher's Summary:

SmarterU is designed to address diverse training needs with its comprehensive feature set and user-friendly interface. It stands out for its excellent customer support, which users consistently praise for responsiveness and helpfulness. Its support team enhances the overall user experience by promptly addressing issues and providing effective assistance.

Another notable strength of the platform is its user-friendly interface, especially in areas like course assignments and grading. Users appreciate the intuitive design, which simplifies these processes and enhances usability.

Users appreciate its comprehensive features, including compliance training, certification management, and an advanced course creation suite, which make it particularly effective for managing complex training needs in larger organizations.

However, some challenges have been reported. The platform has a steep learning curve, which can be particularly difficult for smaller businesses or those with more straightforward training needs. New users may find the system complex and not immediately intuitive, leading to a challenging onboarding experience.

Another concern is the limited administrative rights, which can hinder the efficient management of course assignments and user profiles. Users have noted that tasks like removing a course from someone's profile can be cumbersome, impacting administrative efficiency.

The course builder feature also faces criticism for being nonresponsive and time-consuming. Users have experienced difficulties with its functionality, such as the lack of easy cut-and-paste options, which can slow down the course creation process significantly.

SmarterU is a powerful and versatile tool with excellent customer support and a wide range of features suited to complex training needs. While the platform’s learning curve, administrative limitations, and course builder challenges may pose hurdles, its strengths in user-friendliness, customization, and comprehensive functionality make it a strong candidate for organizations seeking an effective and adaptable LMS.

Key Features

  • Course Creation: Create and customize courses easily with SmarterU's user-friendly course builder, which uses rich media, knowledge check activities, quizzes and exams.
    • Create courses using an intuitive, customizable visual editor that mirrors the final learner experience.
    • Design content quickly using custom templates that include your logo, messaging and brand colors.
    • Incorporate a variety of knowledge check activities to enhance learner engagement and retention.
      Embed videos or add video slides, all optimized for smooth, high-quality streaming without buffering.
    • Upload PDF training documents directly into your courses or knowledge base for easy access.
    • Add audio narration effortlessly by uploading an audio file or using SmarterU's text-to-speech generator, ensuring your content meets accessibility standards.
  • Knowledge Checks: Boost learner interaction and retention with a range of engaging knowledge check activities. Customize and integrate these activities throughout your training content to create an enjoyable and practical learning experience. Each activity provides instant feedback and allows multiple attempts, ensuring comprehensive understanding. Types of knowledge check activities include:
    • Multiple-Choice: Test learners' knowledge by allowing them to select one or more correct answers. Ideal for assessing product knowledge, safety standards, and company policies.
    • Matching: Challenge learners to drag and drop items into their correct spots. Perfect for matching terminology, product descriptions, and procedural sequences.
    • Fill-in-the-Blank: Assess learners' ability to complete statements with missing words or phrases. Useful for customer greetings, practical applications, and memorization exercises.
    • Labeling: Provide images with hotspots and a word bank for learners to match labels to the correct spots. Suitable for anatomical diagrams, maps, and equipment parts.
    • Flashcards: Facilitate quick recall and memorization with customizable flashcards. Arrange cards in sequence or random order to aid in learning terminology and definitions.
    • Game Show: Create an immersive, interactive experience with a “Jeopardy!-style” game. Combine various question styles and track learner progress using avatars and points.
  • Notifications: Schedule regular reminders for learners and team members, covering deadlines, upcoming exams and certification expiries. Customize email notifications using pre-designed templates and set reminders for specific times or intervals. Automatically notify learners about course completions, missed sessions, and instructor-led sessions.
  • User Management: Quickly add users with the Quick User Add or import large lists with ease. Organize users into groups, teams and organizations, tailor permissions, and oversee activity effectively. Track user engagement and progress with detailed activity reports and assign unique permissions to administrators, managers and instructors.
  • Branding and Customization: Personalize every aspect of your learner experience with the drag-and-drop custom page builder. Customize your LMS portal, account, and URL to align with your organization's branding. Choose from a wide range of colors and themes that support up to 10 languages and adhere to accessibility standards.
  • ILT Sessions: Offer multiple session options and create multi-part sessions to accommodate various learning needs. Control enrollment efficiently and maintain detailed records of both external and in-person sessions. 
  • Webinars: Host your webinars effortlessly with popular webinar platforms like Zoom, Webex, GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting or GoToTraining.
  • Quiz Builder: Design quizzes and exams to appear at any point in your training modules, matching any subject or expertise level.
    • Question Variety: Use multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, true/false, long answer and short-answer questions. Enhance questions with multimedia elements like images, audio and video.
    • Randomizer: Deliver questions in a random order to ensure fairness and prevent predictability during assessments.
    • Lock Answers: Control answer order in multiple-choice questions and include options like “all of the above”.
    • Multimedia Integration: Enrich your questions with multimedia content for a diverse and engaging testing experience.
    • Narration: Add text narration options to improve accessibility for all learners.
  • Ecommerce: Sell your courses or course packages directly from your account with integrated eCommerce tools. Manage subscription durations to control how long your subscribers have access to your content. Customize pricing options to fit your needs and integrate with popular platforms like Shopify, WooCommerce, or your preferred eCommerce platform.
  • Reusable Learning Plans: Create and assign comprehensive learning plans that outline training requirements clearly and consolidate all necessary courses and action items into a single plan tailored to each learner's role and needs.
    • Provide learners with a clear roadmap of what training to complete and when, streamlining their preparation and progress.
    • Organize and consolidate all training materials, job aids and resources into a single knowledge base.
    • Allow learners to quickly locate relevant information by scanning beyond just titles using the search interface.
  • Gamification: Gamify your training using points, leaderboards and rewards to make learning more engaging, motivate learners and promote continuous participation.
    • Reward learners with points for completing training modules, encouraging progress and participation.
    • Display scores and allow learners to compare their performance with others.
    • Enable learners to exchange points for rewards from your store, adding an extra incentive to complete training.
  • Compliance & License Management: Define, monitor and automate compliance programs to track and manage complex requirements. Customize licensing programs by agency and regio, and monitor CEU credits to keep certifications current. Automatically deliver branded compliance and license certificates upon course completion, providing instant proof of achievements.
  • Discussion Forums: Integrate discussion forums into your LMS environment to leverage social learning. These forums enable learners to share ideas, ask questions and collaborate on training-related topics. You can:
    • Facilitate discussions focused on individual courses, enhancing course-related interactions.
    • Foster competitive or collaborative interactions among team members through gamified elements in discussions.
    • Allow course instructors to join forums and provide timely responses to learner questions.
    • Keep learners informed about new comments and updates with subscription notifications.
  • Course Catalog: Provide learners with an organized overview of available courses using a grid or list format. Enhance navigation with filtering and search options, allowing learners to find courses based on various criteria such as course types, dates, names, topics, tags and locations.
  • Personalized Completion Certificates: Design unique certificates for each course and module, highlighting your branding and key information. Send certificates automatically upon course completion and enable learners to download their certificates immediately and at any time in the future.
  • Learner Feedback: Gain insights into your training programs by collecting feedback from learners. Design course evaluation surveys using the integrated form builder and include surveys from tools like Typeform or SurveyMonkey. Use this feedback to refine your content and show learners that their opinions matter.

Approach to Common Challenges

  • Creating a Unified Learning Environment: By connecting SmarterU with third-party content libraries, microlearning tools, webinar platforms and virtual classrooms, you can create a unified environment where learners can effortlessly access diverse training options. 
  • Managing All Team Members at Every Level: SmarterU LMS allows you to define roles and set detailed permissions for every employee, ensuring that each person’s access is tailored to their responsibilities within your organization.
  • Creating Rapid Training Content: The integrated course builder allows you to develop engaging training modules quickly. This streamlined process helps keep learners motivated and ensures your content is ready when you need it.

Cost of Ownership

Frequently asked questions about SmarterU’s pricing include:

Q. What is the starting price for SmarterU LMS?
A. The starting price for SmarterU LMS is $7,999 per year for up to 1,000 users.

Q. Are there different pricing plans available for SmarterU LMS?
A. Yes, SmarterU LMS offers various pricing plans, including options for larger organizations and custom solutions based on specific needs.

Q. Is there a free trial available for SmarterU LMS?
A. No, SmarterU LMS doesn’t offer a free trial. However, you can request a free demo or a 20-minute, free consultation to discuss your requirements.

Q. What payment options are available for SmarterU LMS?
A. SmarterU LMS typically offers annual subscription payments, and organizations can inquire about multi-year plans for discounts.

Q. Does SmarterU LMS offer discounts for prepayment?
A. Yes, SmarterU LMS offers prepayment discounts for annual and multi-year plans, making it more cost-effective for organizations.

Q. What features are included in the SmarterU LMS pricing?
A. The pricing includes access to all core features, such as customizable learning paths, reporting and analytics, and customer support services.

Q. Can SmarterU LMS be customized based on organizational needs?
A. Yes, SmarterU LMS can be customized to fit your organization's specific training needs, and pricing can be adjusted accordingly.

Q. Are there any additional costs associated with SmarterU LMS?
A. Additional costs may arise for premium support services, custom integrations or specific training needs, which can be discussed with the SmarterU team.

Q. What is included in the customer support for SmarterU LMS?
A. SmarterU LMS provides exceptional customer support, including a dedicated Success Desk, unlimited administrator training and quick response times.

Q. Is there a limit to the number of learners on SmarterU LMS?
A. The base plan supports up to 1,000 users, but organizations needing to accommodate more learners can contact SmarterU for custom pricing.

Q. How often does SmarterU LMS release new features?
A. SmarterU LMS releases new features quarterly, ensuring that users have access to the latest tools and updates.

Q. Can I get a detailed quote for SmarterU LMS?
A. Yes, interested organizations can request a detailed quote based on their specific requirements and the number of users.

Training Resources

  • SmarterU LMS Blog: Stay informed with the latest updates, employee training tips and best practices for leveraging an LMS within your digital learning ecosystem.
  • SmarterU Academy: Access a comprehensive series of eLearning modules designed by the SmarterU Client Success team, covering every aspect of the LMS. This resource is available for free to all SmarterU clients.
  • Success Center: Explore thousands of detailed articles on SmarterU's features, including best practices to maximize the platform's potential for your organization.

Limitations

  • Limited Admin Workflows On the Mobile App: You should use a desktop device for SmarterU's admin functions, as the app isn't optimized for these tasks. The online courses you've created with the SmarterU course builder aren't designed for mobile use, and SCORM courses published using Flash may not work properly. Additionally, SSO isn't supported on the mobile app.

FAQs

Frequently asked questions about SmarterU include:

Q. How does SmarterU LMS enhance the learner experience?
A. SmarterU LMS enhances the learner experience by providing:

  • Access to necessary training materials through custom pages.
  • Gamification elements like leaderboards, points, rewards and online discussions to keep learners engaged.
  • A combination of courses, actions and requirements in a single package for earning certifications.

Q. What industries have SmarterU LMS served?
A. SmarterU LMS provides tailored training solutions for organizations in various sectors, such as banking, financial services, hospitality, manufacturing and retail.

Q. What type of support does SmarterU LMS offer?
A. SmarterU LMS offers exceptional customer support, with a responsive Success Desk that provides a meaningful response within an average of 17 minutes. The platform also offers various support channels, including email, phone and live chat.

Q. How does SmarterU LMS help with compliance training?
A. SmarterU is designed with licensing and compliance management features that help organizations meet even the most complex regulatory requirements.

Q. Can SmarterU LMS integrate with other systems?
A. Yes, SmarterU LMS offers integrations with various third-party platforms, including ADP, Google Calendar, GoToMeeting, GoToTraining, GoToWebinar, Magento, Okta, OneLogin, Outlook Calendar, PayPal, Stripe, WebEx, WooCommerce and Zapier.

Q. How does SmarterU LMS support mobile learning?
A. SmarterU LMS provides a mobile-friendly interface, allowing learners to access training materials anytime, anywhere.

Q. What type of content can be created and delivered through SmarterU LMS?
A. SmarterU LMS supports the creation and delivery of diverse training materials, including PowerPoint presentations, SCORM packages and custom content.

Q. What type of reporting and analytics does SmarterU LMS offer?
A. SmarterU provides advanced reporting and analytics, including at-a-glance charts and data that key into performance targets. You can create basic or custom reports to monitor training progression and effectiveness.

Q. How does SmarterU LMS ensure data security and privacy?
A. SmarterU LMS employs many security measures to protect user data and ensure compliance with relevant regulations. The platform is hosted in secure, redundant data centers and undergoes regular security audits.

Q. What are the pricing options for SmarterU LMS?
A. SmarterU LMS offers flexible pricing options to suit the needs of organizations of different sizes and budgets. Pricing is based on factors such as the number of users, features required and the level of support needed. Interested parties can request a personalized quote.

Q. How long does it take to implement SmarterU LMS?
A. The implementation timeline for SmarterU varies depending on the size and complexity of your organization. The SmarterU team works closely with clients to ensure a smooth and timely implementation process, providing guidance and support throughout.
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