Docebo Versus Grovo: Battle of the Online Learning Platforms

Online learning platforms typically come in two specific varieties—tools designed for training companies, and tools designed for companies that manage their own in-house training. Beyond that massive distinction there are dozens of other less important elements you need to consider when choosing an online learning platform. Things like price, user interface, features, hoq simple it is to create course content—these are all distinct characteristics of any platform and each needs to be weighed in concert before making a final purchase decision.

In this article, I'll pit two of the best online learning platforms against one another. I'll examine their pricing structures, their best features, how they look and feel, and zero in on the tasks for which they're best suited. Although I'll make a final recommendation at the end of the piece, you should keep in mind that every business has a specific use case for their learning platform, and as a result, my recommendation may not be the best pick for you. Happy hunting.

Pricing

Docebo's pricing structure is based on how many active users will be taking courses within the system each month. For up to 50 users, you'll pay $230 per month. For up to 100 users, you'll pay $390 per month. For up to 250 and 350 users, you'll pay $530 and $600 per month, respectively. Docebo allows you to pay upfront, on an annual basis, which will knock two months' worth of payments off of your price. This pricing structure is in line with what most other vendors charge, especially those that are catered to businesses (as opposed to vendors that cater to companies that conduct training sessions full-time).

Grovo is a bit more expensive, especially as your team grows. The tool starts at $69 per user, per year for the Starter plan. As you climb the ladder, there are Plus and Premium plans available for $109 and $139, respectively. Grovo offers an Enterprise plan for unspecified pricing.

At its base pricing, Grovo becomes more expensive than Docebo once you get past three users. As Grovo's pricing escalates, you're getting things you would ordinarily get from Docebo without any price increases. For example: Custom branding and unlimited storage are standard on any Docebo plan, whereas you'll only receive these feature from Grovo if you upgrade past the Starter plan. Edge: Docebo.

Interface

Docebo's user interface is loaded with clearly marked buttons and labels that help you navigate the system with ease. Regardless of how many courses, portals, and content items you have in your system, finding content within Docebo is a snap for administrators. The universal search feature pulls terms anywhere the term is mentioned within the system. Learners also have access to universal search, but administrators can limit their ability to source terms to only the courses to which they've been assigned. The administrator dashboard is metric-driven. You'll see charts and graphs detailing your most recent activities, including course completions, most and least completed courses, and the status of students you choose to follow. Docebo's left-hand navigation offers access to apps and features, including dozens of integrations with tools like PayPal and Salesforce.

The Grovo Dashboard provides an overview of a team's learning progress, including a chart of training status as well as some filtering tools. Administrators can track top performers through a leaderboard. Whether you're learning or administering courses, Grovo's interface is chock full of colorful buttons and drop-down menus that help you stay focused and on your path. When it comes to building courses, which we'll touch on in-depth later, both systems rely on very simple navigation, data entry, and course material placement. Edge: Tie.

Features

Learners will absolutely love Docebo's gamification feature, which awards badges for completing courses. Those with the most badges appear on company leaderboards, which everyone can see on the console's home page (should you enable this widget). Creative administrators can even design badges from scratch. Administrators can also create a badge system for the entire company or just limit it to certain teams. They can choose how badges are awarded (either manually or automatically) as well. For curmudgeonly administrators, gamification can be turned off at any point. Unfortunately, while Grovo offers gamification, it isn't nearly as built out or fun to use as the package provided by Docebo.

Docebo's reporting is exhaustive and easily customizable. You can filter reports by date, course, status updates, user completions, and more. The graphs and charts feature big, bright numbers, and colors, which is especially helpful for quickly pulling relevant data. Unlike most of the systems we tested, you can create custom reports by taking data from the eight standard reports built into the system and whittling it down or including additional measures. Grovo offers some reporting, including the basics, like learning progress, training status and data filtering. You can also use the tool to browse logins by day, top training materials.

Docebo integrates with customer relationship management (CRM) tools like Salesforce and e-commerce tools like Shopify to help you manage your data across any other software you might be using. These integrations are as simple as clicking a button and matching up the systems. Grovo has an open application programming interface (API), but it doesn't provide pre-existing integrations out of the box, so you'll have to make these happen on your own. Edge: Docebo.

Course Creation

Course and test creation is a cinch with Docebo. Within two screens you're asked to add your training materials and describe your new course. Training materials include everything from Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) files, files on your desktop, webpages, tests, and surveys. Creating tests and questions is super easy. You simply write in your question and then you write in possible answers. You'll tick off the correct answer. Docebo offers dozens of ways to frame questions, including multiple choice, survey, fill in the blank, inline choice, etc. You can configure the time allowed for each question or for the test as a whole. Unlike some systems, which make you create questions outside the context of your new course, you don't have to leave a new course to add questions or quizzes to the overall Docebo question bank. You can just tick a box and the questions will be saved for later use on other quizzes. Toggling between Learner view and Administrator view is as simple as clicking a button that lives on your console. This feature is an absolute timesaver that makes it easy to see how courses are laid out before they're live.

Grovo's platform is built on the theory that micro-learning is better than large lessons in terms of data retention. As a result, it provides complex and nuanced step-by-step training for its users. It even provides pre-built micro-lectures, depending on which price tier you've bought into. If you'd like to create your own content, you can upload courses using a handful of well-designed templates. You can add, reorder or supplement Grovo content, and you can preview it without leaving the admin page. You can share your course as a one-time assignment with a due date or set it as a default assignment for a group. If you update a course, you can also assign it retroactively. Grovo also supports Instructor-Led Training and Events, which allow you to schedule live training sessions with your learners. Edge: Tie.

The Bottom Line

You can't go wrong with either of these systems. They're both easy to use, beautifully designed, and they offer most of the bells and whistles you'd typically find on any of the other training systems we've reviewed. However, Docebo offers just a bit more detail, customization, and flexibility than Grovo. Docebo is also significantly less expensive than Grovo, which is why it receives my overall recommendation. Recommendation: Docebo.

This article originally appeared on PCMag.com.