OpenLMSHong Kong
FAQ

Questions about choosing a Hong Kong LMS

The questions HR, IT and procurement teams ask us most often about open-source learning management systems, answered plainly.

Key facts

What is OpenLMS
A Learning Management System and Training Management System for Hong Kong organisations and schools, built on 100% open-source technology and free for every customer.
Is it really free
The platform is HK$0 for everyone, permanently. If you want us to host it, HK$30 per user per year. On-premise installation is HK$30,000. Every price is published on the pricing page.
What standard does it support
SCORM 1.2 and 2004, xAPI, H5P and YAML packages, with REST and GraphQL APIs, SAML 2.0 and OpenID Connect.
Who is it for
Corporate HR, L&D and training teams; school administrators, teachers and course providers.
Can we leave
Yes. Full database access, standard export, GPL open-source code and no proprietary data format.

Licensing, cost and ownership

Is OpenLMS really free?

The platform is HK$0 for every customer, permanently, with no seat cap and no trial period. The core runs on GPL-licensed Drupal and Drupal LMS code with no per-seat, per-module or annual renewal fee. What you can pay for is optional: hosted service at HK$30 per user per year, on-premise installation at HK$30,000, or customisation at HK$1,500 per man-day. All of those prices are published.

Is there a catch with free open-source software?

There is a capability expectation, not a licensing trap. Somebody has to run the platform, apply security updates and configure it around your organisation. That is what our implementation and support services cover, and they are priced at published rates — installation at HK$30,000 and customisation at HK$1,500 per man-day.

Who owns our training data?

You do. The database sits in your infrastructure or your chosen hosting, in a standard relational schema, exportable at any time. No vendor can hold your records hostage or raise the price to release them.

What happens if you stop working with us?

The site keeps running. You keep the code, you keep the data, and you can export everything. Custom development lives in your own repository. We would rather be useful than unavoidable.

Do you offer a free trial?

The platform itself needs no trial — it is free and permanent. We offer a demonstration environment configured around your own scenarios rather than a generic sandbox: bring a training process, a form, an approval chain and a report your management asks for, and we will show you the platform handling them.

How do you make money if the software is free?

From hosted subscriptions, custom courseware development and implementation work. All three are needed regardless of which platform you own, and all three are priced openly. Because we are not recovering a licence cost, we can quote them more competitively than an agency that also resells software — and the margin we keep goes back into building more open-source software.

Why publish your prices when competitors do not?

Because a price you cannot see is a price you cannot compare or budget for. Publishing ours means you can work out your cost before you talk to anyone, and it means we cannot quietly raise it later and hide behind "it depends on scope".

Platform and deployment

What is Drupal LMS?

Drupal LMS is a Learning Management System for Drupal, designed to be extensible and modular and to integrate with other Drupal modules and content. It began as a fork of the Opigno distribution and has been rewritten from the ground up on Drupal 10.3 and above.

Can it run on-premise?

Yes. On-premise, private cloud and managed hosting are all supported. On-premise is often the right choice where employee training records need to stay inside your own network under the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance.

Does it support SCORM?

Yes — SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004, via the LMS SCORM module. xAPI packages are supported through LMS Xapi, which also provides a minimalistic LRS for storing scores and activity states.

Can we migrate our existing Opigno site?

Yes. The LMS Migrate module provides migration plugins and template examples for moving from Opigno to Drupal LMS. Courses can also be exported and imported as YAML zip packages.

What languages are supported?

English, Traditional Chinese (Hong Kong) and Simplified Chinese. Hong Kong Traditional Chinese uses local terminology rather than a literal conversion, and content can be maintained in all three from one course model.

How does it integrate with our HR system?

Through configured HRIS data exchange, single sign-on and API-based flows. Specific connections depend on your systems and agreed scope — bring your HRIS name, identity provider, fields and update requirements so we can confirm the approach.

Can it run examinations without internet?

Yes. Examination computers can connect over a private local network with no public internet during the session, and isolated workstations are supported with controlled exam loading and result collection.

What are the known limitations?

Configuration effort is real, and some polish that commercial products ship out of the box costs implementation time here. Advanced features may need custom development. We will tell you this during scoping rather than after.

Schools, courseware and AI

Is this suitable for a school?

Yes. There is no per-student licence cost, unlimited student accounts, teacher-facing authoring through H5P in the browser, and PDF certificates. Deployment on-premise at the school is supported, which helps with student data handling under the PDPO.

Can you produce our courseware as well?

That is a core service. We provide instructional design and trilingual production — instructional design, English / 繁體中文(香港)/ 简体中文 authoring, H5P interactive content, SCORM packaging, question banks and randomised exam papers.

What does implementation cover?

Environment setup, data migration from your existing system, HRIS and SSO connection, role and permission configuration, reporting setup, and handover training for your administrators. We design for Hong Kong enterprise and school deployments.

How do you check course content before it goes live?

Every course passes a review before publication: subject accuracy against the source material, assessment design, and accessibility of the material itself. The reviewer is a named person, not a checklist tick.

How do we get started?

Bring examples of your training process, employee groups, approval policies, existing systems and required reports. Identify any historical records you want to carry over and your target rollout date. We will come back with a fixed scope and an honest timeline.

Still have a question we have not answered?

Ask it directly. If it is something we cannot do, we will tell you that too.