PrairieLearn
Shares rank 3 of 4 learning management systems by recommenders
Open-source assessment platform developed at the University of Illinois and used by universities across the US, recommended for making exams easier to manage than locally hosted systems.
Open-source assessment platform developed at the University of Illinois and used by universities across the US, recommended for making exams easier to manage than locally hosted systems.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 6
- criticize it
- 0
- approval share
- 100%
Recommended in 7 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 6 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- Nobody criticizes itNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 7 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Open-source platform used by universities
“an open-source assessment platform originally developed at the University of Illinois”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)” “an open-source assessment platform used by universities across the US”
Comment from 2 Mar 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (March 2026)” Developed at a university with faculty involvement
“an open-source assessment platform originally developed at the University of Illinois”
Comment from 3 Nov 2025 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (November 2025)” “It's fantastic to have a university professor involved in this project.”
Comment from 2 Oct 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (October 2026)” Users love it, strong word of mouth
“Our users love us and we have very high retention and rapid spread through word of mouth.”
Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)” “Absolutely love this, amazing platform”
Comment from 2 Jun 2026 in “Ask HN: Who is hiring? (June 2026)”
Other learning management systems people recommend
The three most recommended other learning management systems, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Canvas by Instructure | 16 | 66 | 20% | 3 | 9 yrs4 owners | — |
| Moodle | 10 | 6 | 63% | 5 | — | — |
| PrairieLearnThis page | 6 | 0 | 100% | 7 | — | — |
| Google Classroom | 6 | 10 | 38% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
7 of the 11 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's fantastic to have a university professor involved in this project.”
“Those are a lot easier to work with than, say, having to load exams onto a machine accessible on a private LAN.”
“This sounds like an exciting product!”
“Absolutely love this, amazing platform”
“Our users love us and we have very high retention and rapid spread through word of mouth.”
“an open-source assessment platform used by universities across the US”
“an open-source assessment platform originally developed at the University of Illinois”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.