CANVAS vs Skyward Student Management Suite

Moodle

Blackboard Learn

Schoology

Thinkific

PowerSchool

ACADEMIA ERP / SIS

Very positive, many features that Google classroom is missing.

Standard LMS

It is best tool for the teaching institution with advanced features for teachers and students helping them better learning. It detects cheating and plagiarism as well.

Best learning management software 

Turn your LMS into a work of art

Pros/cons to canvas

Great LMS

We have used it to manage a large amount of courses and students with good success.

Good platform for building courses

It has been good for my first experience with a learning management system. It had everything we needed in a basic sense. Although, we have since moved over to Cloud assess, and the support, and features certainly outweigh CANVAS.

Good Basic System 

Overall, I love Canvas. Yes, I know that's odd for a student to say about Education Management software, but it's simply true.

Best Educational Software Tool

Classroom Management With Canvas

I have used Canvas both as a student and as an admin. In both scenarios I have used it successfully as a platform to promote learning and online connections. 

Canvas - Higher Education Use

Great tool for schools and students

Canvas has been a solid app for my educational experience, and is recommended for a multipurpose learning tool, though perhaps not as a grade book, as Skyward accomplishes that better.

Canvas - A valuable learning tool

Canvas is a dynamic platform that allows collaboration amongst students and teachers.

Easy for Students as well as Faculty

Does What It's Supposed To

CANVAS- Learning Management System

It was saviour during COVID in tracking and assessing students performance 

Canvas-LMS 

A powerful tool for course management

Best Course Management software

I have found Canvas to be the best solution for course management during my time as a student. The software is complete and easy to use for both educators and students. 

Great for Educational Institutions

Learn online with a powerful and easy-to-use platform

I use Canvas for making announcements to notify students about anything going on in class, making assignments, and putting their grades on it. 

the best class management tool for academic institutions

I use canvas on a daily basis to track student work, manage student grades and facilitate group interaction.

Canvas For Educators

Easy To Use For a Graduate Student

CANVAS has helped so much in our eLearning institute

This help keep grades, lunch accounts, and attendance  

Not ideal

Compare CANVAS and Skyward Student Management Suite based on features, pricing, verified reviews, integrations & more on GetApp. Find out which software is best for your business in 2025.

Help learners, instructors and institutions achieve their goals with Blackboard Learn by Anthology, a market-leading Learning Management System (LMS) that integrates with the world’s most holistic EdTech ecosystem.

With hundreds of millions of users around the globe and translated into over 100 languages, more organisations choose Moodle to support their education and training needs than any other system in the world.

Schoology connects all the people, content, and systems to advance what’s possible in education.

Canvas is a modern, cloud-based LMS that helps organizations of all sizes deliver impactful learning. Whether you're teaching students, onboarding new hires, or running a training program, Canvas makes it simple to build, manage, and scale engaging learning experiences.

Academic/Education

Access Controls/Permissions

Activity Dashboard

Activity Management

Activity Tracking

Alerts/Notifications

Assessment Management

Assignment Management

Asynchronous Learning

Attendance Management

Attendance Tracking

Audio/Video Recording

Blended Learning

Block Websites/Applications

Built-in Course Authoring

Built-in LMS

Calendar Management

Certification & Licensing

Chat/Messaging

Class Scheduling

Class Summary

Classroom Management

Collaboration Tools

Commenting/Notes

Communication Management

Compliance Tracking

Content Library

Content Management

Corporate/Business

Course Authoring

Course Library

Course Management

Course Publishing

Course Tracking

Curriculum Management

Curve Scores

Customizable Branding

Customizable Questions

Customizable Reports

Customizable Templates

Data Import/Export

Discussions/Forums

Document Management

Document Storage

Drag & Drop

eLearning Companies

Email Management

Employee Training

Engagement Tracking

Enrollments/Onboarding

Event Calendar

Faculty/Staff Management

Feedback Management

For Higher Education

For Schools

Gamification

Grade Calculations

Gradebook

Individualized Assessments

Instructor-Led Courses

Interactive Content

Interactive Learning

Learner Portal

Learning Management

Learning Paths/Tracks

Lesson Planning

Media Import

Media Management

Mobile Access

Mobile Learning

Multi-Language

Multimedia Support

Parent Portal

Progress Reports

Progress Tracking

Quizzes

Real-time Broadcasting

Real-Time Data

Real-Time Notifications

Real-Time Reporting

Remote Access/Control

Report Cards

Reporting & Statistics

SCORM Compliance

Screen Sharing

Self Service Portal

Self-paced Learning

Skills Assessment

Skills Tracking

Social Learning

Storyboarding

Student Information/Records

Student Management

Student Portal

Support Audio/Images/Video

Surveys & Feedback

Synchronous Learning

Teacher Dashboard

Template Management

CANVAS

Android

Web-based

Windows

iPad

iPhone

Design Studio Program Manager

It has been good, and I would highly recommend it over the previous system we used. I like most of the newer features and believe it will continue to get better over time.

Strategy Analyst

Canvas has a great overview page and is nice that all of your materials are in one place. I appreciated that it was the main form of communication, document location & even some quizzes and tests.

Research Assistant

The overall experience during my last two years of undergraduate school was very pleasant and I sincerely hope that I encountered this software again in graduate school.

Teacher/Educator

Nothing is intuitive, it's extremely hard to change or fix a mistake on an assignment if you make a mistake, grade syncing with our electronic gradebook is very glitchy.

Counselor

The parent canvas app is confusing and difficult to navigate. It is hard to discern what assignments are due to strange naming structures.

grad student

The Graphical user interface is pretty good and visually appealing and the color-coded course help differentiate it from other courses. Timely updates to the participating courses are also helpful.

Myself

Canvas is a great platform from a student perspective. It is extremely easy to use and makes learning a little more fun.

EdTech Coach

I loved Canvas as a student, I loved using it as a teacher, I love making trainings for it for my teachers.

Designer

I love how it isn’t overwhelming. I love the calendar, it is super easy to understand and use.

I love that it is super user friendly. I love how easy it is to find what your are looking for.

Business Owner

I love that Canvas allows me to create beautiful, eye catching ads with ease. I never thought myself much of an ad designer but Canvas makes it easy to advertise my business and stay on budget.

Classroom Teacher

I like how once you create a template for your classes, it is easy to repeat and reuse this for future classes. I also like how all course documents are easy to link and integrate to your home pages.

Sales Representative 

As a parent, it was difficult to understand where some items were but I feel that was user error and not the platform.

Student

There are times where Canvas will be down for maintenance and it can be inconvenient.

Analyst

It was easy to use and easy integrate with my other tools. It was perfect to interact and see the feedback from people who used it for testing and exchanging comments.

Exceptional, I used Canvas as an instructor and have built integrations into Canvas as a software developer. Canvas has a great dedication to customer service that is less common these days.

eLearning Developer

I love the community forums (you can find help for literally anything), and the numerous tools that are. Either provided by Canvas, or.

Teacher

The easiest option for novice users, and one of the most complete for professionals who don't want to spend a lot of money.

CANVAS screenshot: CANVAS mastery paths

CANVAS screenshot: CANVAS blueprint course settings

CANVAS screenshot: CANVAS instructor dashboard

CANVAS screenshot: CANVAS student dashboard

CANVAS screenshot: CANVAS quiz outcomes analysis report

Large Enterprises

Mid Size Business

Public Administrations

PowerSchool is a cloud-based K-12 platform, which helps small to large schools and district organizations conduct assessments, collect student data, digitize survey forms, recruit teachers, and track student progress.

Academia ERP software for schools, colleges, universities, and training institutes. It comes with 30+ modules that assist the academic and administrative staff in managing, monitoring, and administering all the operations in an institute. Includes - admissions, attendance, examination, MIS, etc.

Thinkific is a online course platform that empowers businesses to create, market, and sell engaging learning experiences. With its set of features, Thinkific enables users to monetize expertise and build thriving online communities.

Skyward’s Student Management Suite is a student information system that helps schools manage curriculum, student records, grades, attendance, reporting, and more. The platform stores student data in a centralized repository, so multiple users can access the information simultaneously

Skyward Student Management Suite

CANVAS vs Skyward Student Management Suite Comparison (2025)

CANVAS vs Skyward Student Management Suite Comparison (2025)

CANVAS

Skyward Student Management Suite

Overview

Video & Screenshots

Pricing

User reviews

Key features

Integrations

Alternatives