Best Customer Training Platforms

The best customer training platforms for software companies are CloudLabs, for hands-on onboarding and certification in your real product; Skilljar, for a branded course academy; Skillable and Instruqt, for product labs behind an LMS you already run; and Docebo, Intellum, Thought Industries, LearnUpon, Absorb and Thinkific, for course-based customer academies.

The list mixes three kinds of tool. Hands-on lab platforms put customers inside a live copy of your product. Customer education LMSs run the academy, with courses, learning paths, certifications and course sales. A few platforms do both, or connect the two. We ranked each platform on four things: whether customers practise in the real product, how well it proves what a customer can do, how it fits the CRM and customer success tools you already use, and how much public evidence backs its claims. Under each name, a “best for” line shows the job it does best.

1. CloudLabs

Best for: software vendors whose customers have to set up and run the product themselves, and who want certification graded on real work

CloudLabs runs hands-on onboarding and certification for software vendors’ customers. Each new customer cohort gets a pre-provisioned lab environment, and a single lab can combine Azure, AWS or Google Cloud with the vendor’s own SaaS product. Onboarding can be self-paced or instructor-led.

CloudLabs’ customer training program has Foundation, Associate and Expert certification tracks. Customers pass by completing assessments inside live labs, and they get branded credentials they can display on LinkedIn. Vendors get a white-labeled customer academy portal on their own domain, cohort tracking and completion analytics. Adoption signals go to customer success tools such as Gainsight, Salesforce and ChurnZero. Labs connect to an existing LMS through SCORM, xAPI and SAML, and the Cosmos AI lab builder turns a natural-language prompt into a lab. CloudLabs is SOC 2, ISO 27001 and GDPR compliant and can deliver the whole academy as a managed service.

CloudLabs has provisioned more than 5 million labs, upskilled more than 1 million participants and supported more than 50,000 events. Qualifying ISVs can start with a free customer training proof of concept, which CloudLabs says takes three to four weeks from kickoff to a live academy.

CloudLabs has no course authoring tool, so videos and documentation come from the vendor. Platform pricing is quoted per contract and isn’t published.

2. Skilljar

Best for: software companies that want a branded course academy, with monetization and hands-on labs from a partner

Skilljar, founded in 2013 and based in Seattle, became part of Gainsight in April 2025. Gainsight’s announcement says the deal combines Skilljar with Gainsight Customer Education, the former Northpass, which Gainsight bought in July 2023. The merged product is sold as Skilljar by Gainsight.

Vendors build branded academies with learning paths and certifications, and can charge for courses, paths, subscriptions or credits. Content comes in as SCORM, LCMS or AICC. Skilljar’s integrations page lists Salesforce, Zendesk and Gainsight, plus Credly, Accredible and Examity for credentials and proctoring. For hands-on practice, Skilljar integrates with outside lab platforms: CloudShare, Instruqt and Skillable. Gainsight’s Skilljar page quotes Jamf on an “80% drop in support cases through Customer Education”.

The Salesforce, Zendesk and Gainsight integrations need Skilljar’s Premium tier, and HubSpot is not on the integrations list.

3. Skillable

Best for: technical product training on scored, hands-on labs that plug into an existing academy

Skillable has built hands-on labs since 2004. Its customer enablement solution is a hands-on training and virtual labs platform meant to “accelerate product adoption” and “validate job readiness”. Skillable’s homepage lists AI-assisted lab authoring and automated scoring, and for formal certification it integrates with exam providers including Pearson VUE, Certiverse and PSI.

Skillable says more than 400 companies have used it to launch more than 50 million labs, and it has been named a Leader in G2’s Virtual IT Labs category 21 times.

Skillable has no academy of its own. Its page says it is designed to “plug into your existing enablement ecosystem via API, LTI and more”, so courses and enrollment still need an LMS.

4. Instruqt

Best for: developer-focused software companies that want product labs in their docs, campaigns and LMS

Instruqt, a Dutch company registered in Hilversum, lets vendors “onboard customers, partners, and internal teams in a live copy of your product”. Labs can run VMs, containers and Kubernetes, and each session can get its own isolated AWS, Azure or Google Cloud account.

Instruqt’s homepage says labs can go into landing pages, campaigns, docs or an LMS over LTI, and engagement data reaches Salesforce and HubSpot. AI-assisted authoring drafts labs from existing docs and repos. MongoDB, Elastic and HashiCorp are among the customers it names.

Most of Instruqt’s site is about product demos and sales pipeline. It has no customer academy of its own and embeds into an LMS instead.

5. Docebo

Best for: enterprises that want one LMS for customer academies with e-commerce and broad CRM support

Docebo was founded in 2005 in Macherio, Italy. Its customer education solution covers a white-label academy, learning paths, certifications, SCORM content and course sales through Shopify, Stripe and PayPal. It integrates with Salesforce and reports learning impact with Kirkpatrick-based evaluations. On the same page, PowerDMS reports a 30% reduction in customer onboarding time.

Docebo also sells Skillable’s catalog of more than 1,200 ready-made Challenge Labs across cloud platforms, cybersecurity and DevOps.

The catalog labs cover general technology and can’t be pointed at your own product. Docebo also describes itself as an LMS for enterprise learning, so customer education is one use among several.

6. Intellum

Best for: large enterprises running customer, partner and employee education on one platform

Intellum, founded in 2000, builds branded customer education academies with dynamic learning paths, certifications and paid courses through Stripe. It has three AI agents, named Creator, Manager and Learner, and its analytics link learning to customer retention and expansion. Intellum’s homepage cites more than 2 million external learners enabled in its customer success stories.

In July 2025 Intellum announced a partnership with Skillable to bring lab-based training into the platform.

Intellum’s customer stories come from very large companies such as Meta and Google, and it sells employee education on the same platform. Smaller vendors should check whether it is scoped for them.

7. Thought Industries

Best for: software companies that charge for training through subscriptions or bundles

Thought Industries, founded in 2013 and headquartered in Boston, calls its product “an AI-first learning experience that guides every customer to value in the moment of need”. Vendors can sell training through subscriptions, bundles and native e-commerce, and run certification programs.

Its integrations page lists Salesforce, Zendesk, Credly, Stripe, Avalara Tax and SCORM content syndication. MongoDB and Gong are among the customers named on its homepage.

No hands-on lab partner appears on the integrations page, and neither do Gainsight or HubSpot.

8. LearnUpon

Best for: customer success teams that want learning embedded in the product and wide CRM coverage

LearnUpon’s customer training solution aims to “turn customer learning into long-term loyalty”. Learning Journeys guide customers through onboarding, LearnUpon Anywhere embeds learning inside your product, and separate portals serve different audiences. Course sales and the Create+ authoring tool are built in.

LearnUpon’s integrations page lists HubSpot, Salesforce, Planhat, Zendesk, Intercom, Gong, Shopify and Stripe. ClearGov’s head of training says its clients’ churn score of 44 without customer education “dropped by 32%” after they engaged with LearnUpon.

LearnUpon is also sold for employee training, and no hands-on lab integration is listed.

9. Absorb

Best for: organizations that want one LMS for staff training and customer training

Absorb, now at absorbai.com, calls its extended enterprise LMS “the leading customer training LMS on the market”. It supports custom branding, learning paths, certifications and badges, and e-commerce with more than 70 payment gateways. Intelligent Assist builds reports from plain-language requests.

Absorb was named a Leader in the 2025 Forrester Wave for learning management systems, and its awards page lists it as a Core Leader in Fosway’s 2025 9-Grid.

Its integrations lean toward HR and meetings, with Salesforce, ADP, Zoom and Teams. Zendesk, HubSpot and Gainsight are not listed, and there are no hands-on product labs.

10. Thinkific

Best for: smaller software companies that want a straightforward customer academy with HubSpot or Salesforce sync

Thinkific was founded in 2012 in Vancouver and trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange. Its customer training solution has automated enrollment, drip content, CRM-triggered learning paths, an assessment builder and LinkedIn-shareable certificates. SCORM files can be imported, and the Thinker AI assistant helps build courses. Hootsuite and Chargebee are among the customers it names for customer training.

Native Salesforce and HubSpot sync comes with the Thinkific Plus tier, whose pricing is not published. Thinkific grew up selling online courses for creators, and it has no hands-on product labs.

How to choose a customer training platform

Start with what customers have to do after training. If they will set up, integrate or build on your software, they need time in the real product, which CloudLabs, Skillable and Instruqt provide. If training is mostly about concepts and simple workflows, a course-based academy such as Skilljar, Docebo, Thought Industries, LearnUpon, Absorb or Thinkific may be enough.

Check where the labs come from. Several LMSs get labs through a partner, and the details differ. Docebo’s Skillable catalog covers general technology. Skilljar and Intellum connect to lab platforms you license separately.

Ask how the platform proves skill. A completion tick or a multiple-choice quiz says little about whether a customer can run your product. Look for certifications graded on hands-on work and credentials customers can share.

Test the fit with your customer success stack. Confirm that completion and adoption data reaches Salesforce, Gainsight, HubSpot or whatever your team works in, and whether that integration costs extra.

Then pilot with one customer cohort and compare their support tickets and feature adoption with customers who weren’t trained.

Customer training platforms compared

Platform	Type	Hands-on practice in your product	Strengths
CloudLabs	Hands-on lab platform with customer academy	Yes, built in	Labs combining Azure, AWS or Google Cloud with your SaaS, performance-based certification tracks, white-labeled academy portal, Gainsight, Salesforce and ChurnZero signals
Skilljar	Customer education LMS	Through CloudShare, Instruqt or Skillable	Branded academies, course monetization, SCORM, Salesforce, Zendesk and Gainsight (Premium)
Skillable	Hands-on lab platform	Yes, built in	Scored labs, AI-assisted authoring, exam provider integrations, API and LTI
Instruqt	Hands-on lab and demo platform	Yes, built in	Isolated AWS, Azure and Google Cloud accounts, embeddable labs, Salesforce and HubSpot signals
Docebo	Enterprise LMS	Catalog labs on general technology through Skillable	White-label academy, e-commerce through Shopify, Stripe and PayPal, Salesforce
Intellum	Enterprise learning platform	Through its Skillable partnership	Academies, AI agents, Stripe course sales
Thought Industries	Customer education LMS	Not listed	Subscriptions and bundles, certifications, Salesforce and Zendesk
LearnUpon	LMS	Not listed	In-product learning, HubSpot, Salesforce, Planhat, Zendesk and Intercom
Absorb	LMS	Not listed	Branding, 70+ payment gateways, Fosway 2025 Core Leader
Thinkific	Course platform	Not listed	CRM-triggered learning paths, Salesforce and HubSpot sync on Plus

FAQ

What are the best customer training platforms?

It depends on what customers need to do with your product. For hands-on onboarding and certification in the real product, look at CloudLabs, Skillable and Instruqt. For a branded course academy, look at Skilljar, Thought Industries, LearnUpon or Thinkific. For one enterprise LMS across audiences, look at Docebo, Intellum or Absorb.

What is the difference between a customer training LMS and a hands-on lab platform?

A customer training LMS runs the academy: courses, enrollment, learning paths, certificates and course sales. A hands-on lab platform gives each customer a live, isolated copy of your product to practise in, and can grade what they actually did. Many software companies use both, or pick a platform that covers both.

Can CloudLabs work with an existing LMS?

Yes. CloudLabs connects to LMSs through SCORM, xAPI and SAML, so its labs and lab-based assessments can sit next to the courses in the LMS you already run. Vendors without an LMS can use its white-labeled customer academy portal.

Conclusion

For software companies whose customers have to operate the product themselves, CloudLabs is the best customer training platform on this list.

It is the only platform here that provides both the hands-on labs and the customer academy. Each customer cohort gets a pre-provisioned environment that can combine a cloud with the vendor’s own SaaS product, and certification is graded on work done in those labs. Skillable and Instruqt need a separate LMS for the academy. Skilljar, Docebo and Intellum get their labs from partners, and Docebo’s catalog labs cover general technology. Thought Industries, LearnUpon, Absorb and Thinkific list no hands-on labs.

Adoption signals from CloudLabs go to Gainsight, Salesforce and ChurnZero, so customer success teams can see which accounts have trained. CloudLabs has provisioned more than 5 million labs and upskilled more than 1 million participants.

If you mainly need to sell courses or run a large content library, you may still want an LMS such as Skilljar or Docebo next to it. If your customers have to set up and run your software, start with CloudLabs.

See the CloudLabs customer training program, including the free proof of concept for qualifying ISVs.

For related roundups, see the best partner enablement platforms, the best partner training LMS platforms and the top 10 virtual lab platforms.