Canvas LMS
Learning management system (LMS) that is revolutionizing the way we educate.
Description from awesome-selfhosted (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Still maintained? Slowing: no commits in the last 90 days, last push Apr 2026.
Also an alternative to Moodle Cloud.
At a glance
Canvas LMS quick facts
- Health score
- 25/100 STALE
- Stars
- 6,890
- Last commit
- 6 months ago (Apr 2026)
- Latest release
- No tagged release
- Licence
- AGPL-3.0
Top alternatives to Canvas LMS
Full rankings: Moodle Cloud alternatives
In its own words
The project's README opens: "Canvas is a modern, open-source LMS developed and maintained by Instructure Inc. It is released under the AGPLv3 license for use by anyone interested in learning more about or using learning management systems."
Why it ranks here
Health score explained
Canvas LMS scores 25/100, #14 of 16 in Learning and Courses: 0 commits in the last 90 days earn 0.0 of 35 points, the absence of a tagged release forfeits all 25 release points, 6,890 stars add 15.4 of 20, an active, unarchived repository keeps 10 and no advertised Docker image leaves the final 10 unclaimed. That places it in the stale band (below 40). The biggest shortfall is commit activity, worth 35.0 more points.
Recomputed nightly from the GitHub API. How the score is calculated.
- Commit activity biggest shortfall 0.0 / 35
0 commits in 90 days (30+ scores full marks)
- Release recency 0.0 / 25
No tagged release found
- Stars 15.4 / 20
6.9k stars on GitHub (logarithmic)
- Not archived 10.0 / 10
Repository is active
- Docker support 0.0 / 10
No Docker support advertised
Commit activity
- 0
- Last 90 days
- 4,416
- Last 12 months
- 6 months ago
- Last push
Ranked #14 of 16 tools in Learning and Courses by health , between Digitools (#13) and Moodle (#15) .
Details
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 |
| Platforms | Ruby |
| Latest release | No tagged release |
| Stars | 6,890 |
| Open issues | 424 |
| Docker | Not advertised |
| Repository | instructure/canvas-lms ↗ |
Canvas LMS vs its top 5 alternatives
Active tools that share a comparison page or a category with Canvas LMS (Learning and Courses), scored on the same five terms.
| Tool | Health | Stars | Licence | Last commit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chamilo LMS | 82 | 1k | GPL-3.0 | today |
| ILIAS | 81 | 506 | GPL-3.0 | today |
| Open eClass | 79 | 170 | GPL-2.0 | 7 days ago |
| Gibbon | 77 | 635 | GPL-3.0 | today |
| edX | 61 | 8.2k | AGPL-3.0 | today |
| Canvas LMS (this tool) | 25 | 6.9k | AGPL-3.0 | 6 months ago |
Canvas LMS: common questions
What does Canvas LMS replace?
Repoly lists Canvas LMS as an open-source alternative to Moodle Cloud. Each comparison page ranks every alternative by the same health score, so you can see where Canvas LMS stands against the others.
Is Canvas LMS still maintained?
Canvas LMS had 0 commits in the last 90 days and its last push was 6 months ago. Repoly recomputes this nightly.