Totara does not publish a price list, and no Totara partner can honestly quote you from a web page. What we can do is show you exactly how a Totara quote is built, so that any number you receive, from us or from anyone else, is one you can read line by line.
This page is written by Lambda Learning, a Totara Platinum Partner. Everything below about how Totara is licensed comes from Totara's own published subscription agreement, linked at the end.
A Totara deployment has one cost set by Totara and several set by whoever delivers it.
Totara sets the subscription. It is an annual fee, priced in tiers by the number of active users on each production site.
Your partner sets everything else: hosting, implementation, support, upgrades and any custom development. Those lines usually account for more of the first-year total than the subscription does, and they vary far more between partners.
So when two Totara quotes for the same user count look very different, the subscription is rarely the reason. The scope around it is.
The Totara LMS is built from two parts, and only one of them is paid for.
Totara Core is open source under the GPL version 3. Totara Enterprise Extensions are proprietary modules that sit on top of the core, and they are what the subscription buys. The product Totara markets as Totara Learn, Perform and Mobile is the combination of the two, so in practice organisations evaluating Totara are evaluating the subscription.
Three details from Totara's subscription agreement shape your cost more than most buyers expect.
Totara defines an active user as a unique account that has logged in. In the first year that means since your go-live date. After that it means any login during the preceding 12 months, on a rolling basis.
Two consequences follow. A learner who logs in once in March still counts in February. And the agreement is explicit that an account still counts even if it is later deactivated or suspended, so switching off leavers does not reduce the number.
For a stable internal workforce this rarely matters. For an association, a training company or any extended enterprise audience with high turnover or seasonal cohorts, it is the single biggest variable in the subscription, and it is worth modelling before you pick a tier.
Your order sets a maximum number of active users per production site. If you go over it, the agreement allows Totara or your partner to charge additional fees. Ask any partner how overages are measured, when they are billed, and whether the tier can be moved up mid-term at a pro-rated rate.
The agreement states plainly that no support services are provided under it. Support comes from a separate agreement, usually with your partner. That is not a hidden fee so much as a structural fact, but it means a subscription-only quote is not a complete quote.
Here is every line that commonly appears in a first-year Totara budget, who charges it, and what drives it.
| Cost line | Charged by | One-time or recurring | What drives the number |
|---|---|---|---|
| Totara subscription | Totara, usually billed through your partner | Annual | Active user tier, number of production sites, which Totara products you license |
| Hosting | Your partner, Totara Cloud, or your own IT | Monthly or annual | Concurrency, storage, uptime commitment, data residency, security requirements |
| Implementation | Your partner | One-time | Hierarchies and audiences, certifications, HRIS and single sign-on integration, data migration, theming |
| Support | Your partner, under a separate agreement | Annual | Response times, hours of coverage, whether administrator how-to questions are included |
| Upgrades | Your partner, or your IT team if self-hosted | Recurring | How far behind the current version you are, and how much custom code has to be retested |
| Custom development | Your partner | One-time, plus maintenance | Anything the platform does not do out of the box, and the cost of carrying that code through every upgrade |
| AI usage | Your AI model provider | Usage-based | How heavily your team uses the optional AI features |
| Reporting beyond the built-in report builder | Your partner or an analytics vendor | Annual | Whether learning data has to be joined with HR, CRM or finance data |
| Learning content | Content vendors | Annual | Whether you license off-the-shelf libraries or build your own |
| Internal ownership | Your organisation | Ongoing | Administrator time. Totara rewards an owner, and it is the cost most often left out of the business case |
Totara Learn, Totara Perform and Totara Mobile are components of the Totara Suite. Licensing more than one adds to the subscription. If performance management is on your roadmap, price it now rather than discover the uplift at renewal.
Totara releases major versions regularly, and the current line is version 20. Every customisation has to be retested when you upgrade. Organisations that skip versions to save money in the short term tend to pay for it in one large, risky upgrade later. A good quote says how upgrades are scoped, and whether they are included or billed separately.
Totara's open core means a partner can change the platform to fit your process, which is one of its strongest advantages over closed SaaS. It also means that code has to be maintained. Ask for custom work to be itemised, and ask who carries the cost of keeping it working through future versions.
Totara's AI features are optional and switched off by default. When enabled, they run against your own AI model provider account, so you pay the provider directly for what you use, and Totara adds no margin. That makes AI cheaper to control than a metered credit system, but it is still a cost line, and it belongs in the budget if you plan to turn the features on.
Totara's report builder answers questions inside Totara well. The cost appears when leadership wants learning data alongside HR, CRM or revenue data. Some organisations build that themselves in a BI tool; others add a dedicated analytics layer. Lambda Learning adds Zoola Analytics for that job.
Huron Perth Healthcare Alliance, four partner hospitals in Ontario, runs managed Totara with Zoola Analytics. Before, a compliance report took half a day to produce. Reports are now available on demand, with hundreds of hours recovered annually. Read the case study: https://www.lambdalearn.io/hpha-case-study
Partly. Totara Core is open source and can be downloaded and self-hosted without a subscription fee. The Enterprise Extensions, which include the Tui front end framework and the recommendations engine, are proprietary and require a subscription.
Running the open source core yourself moves the cost rather than removing it. Your team takes on hosting, security patching, upgrades and support, and the platform is not the one Totara markets. For most organisations weighing Totara, the realistic comparison is between partner quotes, not between paying and not paying.
Moodle LMS has no subscription fee for the software itself, so on paper it starts cheaper. Once hosting, implementation and support are added, the gap narrows, and the deciding question becomes capability rather than price: whether you need Totara's hierarchies, certification and recertification management, and performance tools. If you do not, Moodle is usually the better purchase, and we will say so.
Use these on every quote you receive, including ours. Most of them apply equally if Totara is up against Docebo, Cornerstone and Absorb on your shortlist.
We scope Totara against your real requirements and quote it as one number covering hosting, implementation, support and upgrades. You see what is fixed, what scales with users, and what changes at renewal.
Every deployment is scoped individually, so there is no standard price and no useful starting figure. Bring your user numbers and your requirements and we will build the quote against them.
Lambda Learning has delivered enterprise learning platforms since 2002 for associations, healthcare organisations, compliance teams and training companies, and we run both Totara and Moodle, so the recommendation is not predetermined by the only product we sell. If you are still working out whether Totara belongs on the list at all, start with What is Totara.
How much does Totara cost? Totara does not publish pricing. The subscription is an annual fee based on active user tiers, and it is sold through Totara's partner network, with hosting, implementation and support priced by the partner. Any figure you see online without a scope attached is an estimate rather than a quote.
How is Totara LMS priced? By subscription, in tiers of active users per production site, billed annually. The subscription covers Totara Enterprise Extensions. Support, hosting and implementation are separate.
What counts as an active user in Totara? Any unique account that has logged in during the first 12 months after go-live, and after that any account that logged in during the preceding 12 months on a rolling basis. Accounts still count if they are later deactivated or suspended.
Does the Totara subscription include support? No. Totara's subscription agreement states that no support is provided under it. Support is provided under a separate agreement, usually with your Totara partner.
Do Totara's AI features cost extra? Totara does not charge a margin on AI. The features are optional and run against your own AI model provider account, so you pay the provider directly for usage.
Can I buy Totara directly from Totara? Totara's agreement allows a subscription to be purchased directly from Totara or through a Totara partner. In practice, implementation, hosting and support come from a partner either way.
Is Totara more expensive than Moodle? Totara carries a subscription fee and Moodle LMS does not, so the software cost is higher. Total cost depends on hosting, implementation and support, and on whether you need the capabilities Totara adds.
We will scope Totara against your requirements and walk through every line. If Totara is not the right fit for what you need, we will say so.
Book a demo: https://www.lambdalearn.io/schedule-a-meeting-lambda-suite
Talk to a specialist: https://www.lambdalearn.io/schedule-a-meeting-lambda-suite
Totara is a registered trademark of Totara Learning Solutions Ltd. Moodle is a trademark of Moodle Pty Ltd. Lambda Learning Inc. is a Totara Platinum Partner.