If you're in charge of customer education at a B2B SaaS company, picking a platform isn't just a checkbox. The right tool affects adoption rates, churn, and how many support tickets your team fields every week. The problem? Every vendor claims they're "intuitive," "flexible," and "built for scale." It's a lot of noise. This guide is for folks who want to cut through it and figure out if Skilljar or one of its competitors is actually the right fit. No fluff, no vendor talking points—just what matters.
1. Get Clear on What You Actually Need
Before you even look at platforms, get specific about your must-haves. “We need a good LMS” won’t cut it. Think about:
- Your audience: Are you educating end-users, admins, partners, or all of the above?
- Content types: Do you mostly use video? Need SCORM or xAPI? Quizzes? Certifications?
- Integrations: Which tools do you need to connect (CRM, SSO, analytics, support platforms)?
- Branding: Is white-labeling essential, or is your audience fine with a “powered by” footer?
- Team workflows: Who builds courses, who reviews, who reports? How technical is your team?
- Scale: Are you running small onboarding cohorts or thousands of learners across companies?
Write down your real needs—stuff you can’t compromise on. It’s easy to get distracted by features you’ll never use.
Pro tip: If you’re not sure what you need yet, talk to your support or customer success team. They hear the pain points every day.
2. Shortlist Real Alternatives to Skilljar
Skilljar is a popular choice for B2B SaaS, but it's not the only game in town. Here are the main categories and some honest context:
- Customer Training Platforms: Skilljar, Northpass, LearnUpon, Thought Industries. Built for external audiences.
- Traditional LMS: Moodle, SAP Litmos, Docebo. Often more complex, focused on employee training. Can work for customers, but expect more admin overhead.
- All-in-One or Lightweight Tools: TalentLMS, Teachable, Kajabi. Easier setup, but often lack the B2B features you’ll want (like SSO, advanced reporting, or integrations).
Some platforms blur these lines, but for B2B SaaS customer education, stick to tools built for external learners unless you have a really good reason not to.
Don’t get distracted by: Employee-only LMS platforms, generic course builders, or tools aimed at solo creators. They rarely handle the complexity of B2B SaaS customers.
3. Evaluate What Actually Matters (and What Doesn't)
When vendors pitch you, you'll get a firehose of features. Not all of them matter. Here’s what to actually pay attention to:
Must-Have Features
- Easy User Management: Can you automate user invites and segment learners by company (multi-tenancy)? Skilljar and most customer training platforms support this—traditional LMS often struggle.
- Integrations: SSO (SAML, Okta), CRM (Salesforce), analytics (Mixpanel, Google Analytics), and support platforms (Zendesk). Skilljar does well here, but check the specifics—some platforms charge extra for integrations.
- Content Support: Video hosting, docs, SCORM/xAPI, quizzes, certifications. Most in this space support these, but test for content import speed and usability.
- Branding: Can you fully white-label the platform and use your own domain?
- Reporting: Can you pull data by learner, company/account, and content? Is it exportable, or stuck in the UI?
- Customer Access Control: Can you lock courses by company, cohort, or role? This is huge if you serve different tiers or partners.
Nice-to-Haves (But Not Dealbreakers)
- Built-in course authoring (basic content editing is fine, but most companies prefer building in real eLearning tools)
- Discussion forums (most B2B SaaS companies use a separate community platform anyway)
- Gamification (badges, points—rarely drives real engagement in a business context)
- Mobile apps (most users access training from their desktop at work)
Ignore the Hype
- AI course builders: Fun to demo, rarely useful unless you have zero content.
- “Next-gen” engagement widgets: If your core content isn’t good, pop-ups and widgets won’t save you.
- Marketplace features: You’re not Udemy. If you’re not planning to sell courses publicly, skip it.
4. Run a Real-World Pilot
Once you’ve got a shortlist—maybe Skilljar, Northpass, and LearnUpon—time to get hands-on. Here’s the honest way to compare:
- Set up a sandbox: Don’t just watch a demo. Actually upload your content, set up user groups, and test integrations.
- Bring in a real learner: Have a customer or a support teammate go through the onboarding flow. Is it intuitive? Clunky?
- Ask about support: How fast do they respond? Is help included, or are you stuck with a bot? Skilljar tends to have solid support, but always test this.
- Check migration pain: If you’re moving off another LMS, how hard is it to import your old courses and learner data?
- Price transparency: Are there hidden fees for integrations, users, or storage? Some platforms are notorious for nickel-and-diming.
Pro tip: Don’t just let the vendor “drive” during the trial. If you can’t figure it out in an hour, your customers won’t either.
5. Price: Don’t Just Look at the Sticker
Pricing is all over the place in this space, and it’s rarely apples-to-apples. Consider:
- Per learner vs. per company: Skilljar and some competitors price based on active learners or “accounts.” Make sure you know what counts as a user.
- Integration and API costs: Some platforms charge extra for SSO, CRM, or API access. Get this in writing.
- Support and onboarding: Is implementation included? What about ongoing admin support?
- Growth: What happens if your user base doubles? Will you get hammered with a huge bill?
Red flag: If a vendor won’t give you a straight answer on pricing, or pushes you into a multi-year contract right away, walk away.
6. Ask for References—But Not Just the “Happy Path”
Vendors love to give you their happiest customers. Ask for:
- A reference who recently migrated from another platform (what went wrong?)
- A customer with similar scale and use case to yours
- Someone who’s left the platform—if they’ll tell you why
You’ll get a much more honest picture of day-to-day annoyances and what actually works in the real world.
7. Make the Call—and Keep It Simple
When you’ve done all this, don’t overthink it. No platform is perfect. If Skilljar nails 90% of your needs, has decent support, and isn’t going to bankrupt you, that’s probably good enough. The same goes for any competitor.
A few final reminders:
- Don’t buy features you don’t need "just in case."
- Avoid long implementation timelines—if it’s taking months, something’s off.
- Plan to revisit your platform in a year. Your needs (and your customers’ needs) will change.
Picking a customer education platform is important, but it’s not a once-in-a-lifetime decision. Get clear on what matters, trust your hands-on experience over flashy demos, and don’t be afraid to change course later if things don’t pan out. Keep it simple, launch, and iterate—your customers will thank you.