CYPHER Learning vs Google Classroom comparison

CYPHER LEARNING and Google are both solutions in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category. CYPHER LEARNING is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.7, while Google is ranked #3 with an average rating of 8.3. CYPHER LEARNING holds a 4.6% mindshare in LMS, compared to Google’s 4.8% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of CYPHER LEARNING users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 96% of Google users who would recommend it.

CYPHER Learning

Read 54 CYPHER Learning reviews

2,481 Views
474 Comparison Views

100% willing to recommend

Google Classroom

Read 25 Google Classroom reviews

1,974 Views
758 Comparison Views

96% willing to recommend

CYPHER Learning

Google Classroom

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

CYPHER Learning and Google Classroom compete in the educational technology category, focusing on providing comprehensive solutions for learning environments. While CYPHER Learning offers advanced features and customization, Google Classroom is recognized for its seamless integration and ease of use, providing simplicity for users familiar with Google services.

Features: CYPHER Learning includes personalized lessons, gamification, and a robust rules engine, allowing extensive customization and adaptability in teaching methods. It also provides certificates and a comprehensive support system. Google Classroom integrates smoothly with Google Suite, offering powerful communication tools and simplicity, which is ideal for quick adoption and basic functionality without complex customization.

Room for Improvement: CYPHER Learning could enhance its reporting and automation, as some users find these areas complex. Integration with more third-party platforms is also limited. Google Classroom needs improvements in grading capabilities and offline access, particularly to better support interactive learning experiences. Enhanced video conferencing integration could also benefit users.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: CYPHER Learning supports multiple deployment options, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, offering flexibility and excellent customer support with fast response times. Google Classroom is primarily cloud-based, facilitating straightforward deployment and integration with Google apps, though it lacks a personalized support structure compared to CYPHER Learning.

Pricing and ROI: CYPHER Learning offers competitive pricing with flexible plans based on active users, delivering significant ROI through reduced administrative costs. It provides substantial value, especially for institutions requiring advanced LMS features. Google Classroom is free for educational institutions, which is highly appealing. The paid version offers additional features at a low cost but may lack the comprehensive capabilities necessary for more demanding educational environments.

To learn more, read our detailed CYPHER Learning vs. Google Classroom Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

CYPHER Learning vs. Google Classroom

April 2025

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Helped 845,589 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

CYPHER Learning

Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)

1st

Average Rating

9.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Google Classroom

Ranking in Learning Management Systems (LMS)

3rd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Learning Management Systems (LMS) category, the mindshare of CYPHER Learning is 4.6%, down from 6.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Google Classroom is 4.8%, down from 11.4% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Learning Management Systems (LMS)

Featured Reviews

Roland Lorenzo M Ruben

Philosophy Professor at De La Salle University - Dasmariñas

Offers flexible learning and saves printing costs; it has been excellent for us

There is room for improvement in the CYPHER Learning mobile application because my students have given feedback that they are not using the mobile app as it takes time to open. I also use the app. For me, it is easier to use than using the browser, but some of the students do not use it because it takes a very long time to open. Most of our students are using smartphones. Some students do not have laptops, so if the mobile app is more responsive, it would be a great help for us. The peer feedback feature is not user-friendly. Some of our faculty members were very happy when CYPHER gave the news that there is already a peer feedback feature because we were asking for it, but when they used it, they found it complicated and not user-friendly. They were disappointed with the peer feedback feature. When students submit their outputs, we want their classmates to give feedback as well, but that is not very easy to use. After I tried it, I also did not find it very friendly to use. They have this assessment type where we can group our students. We create groups, and they can work and collaborate with the group. While grading the submissions of the groups, although we can see that the students are separated by groups, we still have to grade them one by one. We would like a way to grade the group as one. For example, if there are five members in a group, currently, we give each member a grade. It would be easier to be able to give the same grade to all the members of the group. The team assessment feature could be improved to allow grading the group as one.

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Susan Nash

Director of innovation at AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PETROLEUM GEOLOGISTS

It's free and integrates seamlessly with many tools

When students don't have Gmail accounts, it creates a lot of hiccups, but the main issue is that the interface is somewhat primitive. It’s intuitive and you can be up and running in no time at all. However, it is not very attractive. But that may be because I installed it myself and I'm not using any fancy templates. It's primitive because that's how I've been able to get it going. I would like to see a better user experience, a prettier interface, and more templates. Google could make templates readily available or users could design and share them. As it is, you’ll only get a basic framework when you create a new course. You don't have different themes to choose from like you do in Moodle. Most learning management systems also have a dashboard. It would be useful to have a dashboard with blocks on the side that lets you navigate all of your courses. It would like to have the ability to navigate at a glance and breadcrumbs. By breadcrumbs, I mean it should be designed to leave you a trail like you would use to find your way out of a forest. Go back to where you were and pick up where you left off. So, instead of going back, it shows you where you were. Moodle does something like this, but you don't see it in Canvas or Blackboard. I think that that would be a big advantage. And then, a dashboard would just be when you go to the front page, in addition to having your courses listed there, you would have something like other activities, as well. Further, the dashboard would include your calendar, you could have a calendar there, you could have different productivity apps.

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Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"We love the group feature allowing students to have peer-to-peer learning experiences. In our case, it is for students, but this feature could also be useful for a business to provide peer-to-peer learning experiences for employees. The group tool provides an opportunity for students to connect with their peers inside of their own digital space. One of the aspects that we love about the group tool is that it allows students to leave the course but engage in a digital space where they access materials that are personalized to their group."

"The ability to integrate it with a lot of our third-party service providers like Turnitin, through a plugin, is helpful. There aren't many learning management systems that integrate so well with different APIs and LTIs, especially when a school has various tools in its tech stack."

"The lessons we offer in each course can be both in written format and in audio or video format. This dramatically helps participants to choose their best way of learning."

"It brings students together in one place with teaching materials. Also, it has a social capability to it by way of forums and groups. That is definitely important for our programs. There has been a lot of engagement in our programs."

"There are so many valuable features: The structure of the platform is fantastic and the learner experience is very good."

"It provides an easy way to report who has taken the courses, how long they have been out, how long they were on when they logged in, and when they logged out. It is very easy to pull up data and run reports."

"It has 100% helped me organize my time. It provides more time for interaction and feedback with my students, both in the classroom or personally. This is why I consider the solution as an achievement. It feels more collaborative in the sense that planning not only depends on me, but also on my students."

"In terms of the user availability, there is access to the platform 24 hours. So, we don't need to determine a specific time for training. We just give them a link, password, and period for them to complete, e.g., four days, then it is up to them. What is important is they pass the minimum requirements needed to pass the exams and certification process."

More CYPHER Learning pros

"The product's initial setup phase was easy."

"This solution integrates with all the other Google apps including Google Calendar and Google Docs. This makes it very easy to manage."

"Google Classroom is easy to use and intuitive, and it's not difficult to set up."

"I would rate the initial setup a nine out of ten. It is very straightforward."

"Company-wise, the most important feature is that it is a product of Google. It is a part of Google Suite. With Google Classroom, you can easily embed a Google Sheet, Google Doc, or Google Form. You can easily create a quiz in Google Form. It is integrated with Google Drive. So, everything is on Google Drive, and you can easily use it. With single sign-on, you can use it with Google Apps as well."

"The product is easy to use."

"The product's UI is good and user-friendly."

"The most valuable feature of Google Classroom is its clouds based. It can be accessed anywhere. Additionally, the GUI is good, we have not had any complaints and the platform has built-in security. For example, email has protection."

More Google Classroom pros

Cons

"One thing I find annoying is that the system is quite limited when it comes to roles. I was used to our old system where I could create custom roles to cater to specific users and that's not available in CYPHER Learning."

"An important addition would be training so that we can exploit the platform much more. The platform is advancing and being updated. It is important to know and understand everything in more detail, and how to work with it."

"In terms of face-to-face education, a suggestion for CYPHER LEARNING is that it give more presence to CYPHER Learning as an entity in the school by teaching more about how to exploit the tools: how to create games, and more about the use of SCORM."

"The user interface looks dated compared to more modern learning management systems, which are really clean."

"Some of our faculty members were very happy when CYPHER gave the news that there is already a peer feedback feature because we were asking for it, but when they used it, they found it complicated and not user-friendly."

"The user interface looks dated compared to more modern learning management systems, which are really clean. There is so much functionality that it almost becomes too much for the user, so the user interface could be improved."

"As an administrator of our LMS, there are a lot of things that could be improved, but these are not seen by students or professors. One is the admin features for adding students."

"I would like to see greater integration with some programs that are not natively integrated. Google is a standard. Everything integrates with it. Integration with Google is a key task."

More CYPHER Learning cons

"Google Classroom could improve by having better integration with other platforms, such as Google Meet."

"It would be useful if this solution had its own online teaching platform with an integration with a Google video conferencing tool."

"The product must provide different plans for different customers so that we can pay for only what we use."

"It would be helpful to add voice or audio capabilities to the classrooms instead of text only."

"There are some websites where you can create activities and guide students to do them in a sequence. You can guide them to do an activity first and then go to the next one. You can automatically link activities, and there is a flow, but in Google Classroom, you don't have that feature. All you can do is put the material and tell students what to do. For example, I have an assignment, but I want my students to read a particular text before that. They need to tick it, or they need to click next before they start doing the activity. After that, I want them to do comprehension questions or something else. In Moodle, there are activities such as assignments, quizzes, etc. There is a lesson module in which you can put all of the activities in a flow. So, you can decide what they need to do first. If students answer a question incorrectly, you can decide and design to which page do they need to go next, and which part do they need to review. This is currently missing in Google Classroom."

"The user interface of Google Classroom could improve by being more user-friendly."

"The initial setup is not very easy. It has modern complexity."

"We found that Google Classroom is it is missing a lot in current engagement. We know it has got guardian access, where it sends the reports to the guardian at the end of either the week or the month, depending on how you set it. However, it lacks collaboration between the teacher, student, and parents. The engagement is mostly between the student and the teacher. If you have a school similar to ours, where you're dealing with little children where the parent is supposed to be engaged, you need a system that can engage them as well. It's good for senior students, but not for our students."

More Google Classroom cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"It's affordable, but they have doubled the pricing at random times. That's a problem. They have to change that for forecasting purposes."

"CYPHER Learning is more cost-efficient for us compared to others."

"We are on a plan where we pay for 1,000 users every month. The pricing structure is pretty straightforward. It just depends on what you need. We are currently going with a monthly model because sometimes there are still months during the year where we will have a lot less students on the system, and we took that into consideration."

"Our satisfaction with the pricing is a 10 out of 10."

"The system is not cheap but it's affordable. The pricing is fair... The cherry on top was that we received all the functionality with the simplest plan, the one with the minimal number of users. It couldn't be any better."

"Their plans are based on enrollment numbers. We're at the silver level with 100 active learners. So, you're really beholden to how many learners you're going to accommodate. There are no extra costs in addition to the standard licensing fees."

"It's a little bit more than I want to pay, but I'm okay with it."

"CYPHER Learning is a bit more expensive than our previous solution."

More CYPHER Learning pricing and cost advice

"There are competitors that offer free solutions, making the price of Google Classroom high."

"We did not need a license to use Google Classroom."

"The solution is affordable."

"The price of Google Classroom has been reasonable."

"We are an educational institution, and it is free of charge for us. Normally, if you are a private company, you have to pay a lot of money to get this service, but they are giving it for free to schools."

"I use the free version of Google Classroom."

"The tool is available for free."

"I'm using a free version of Google Classroom, so it's a product I don't pay for."

More Google Classroom pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

19%

Computer Software Company

11%

Comms Service Provider

Government

Educational Organization

22%

University

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Manufacturing Company

10%

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about NEO LMS?

Creating courses for our resources is one of the best features of CYPHER Learning.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NEO LMS?

I did not negotiate the pricing, but from what I gathered, it was a significant purchase for us at West Music. We recognize its value and potential for growth, making it worthwhile.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NEO LMS?

The primary area for improvement is the reporting between courses and eCommerce, which currently use two separate reporting styles. Information can be accessed within the courses themselves, as wel...

See all answers

What do you like most about Google Classroom?

The product's UI is good and user-friendly.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Google Classroom?

There is room for improvement in AI integration, specifically in the education sector. Google Classroom could benefit from tools that help correct coding errors for students, thereby enhancing lear...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Google Classroom?

We are using Google Classroom for assessments, homework, and providing resources to students. We also use it for tuition and online interaction, focusing on IT subjects such as computing and progra...

See all answers

Comparisons

Canvas LMS vs CYPHER Learning

Compared 38% of the time

Moodle vs CYPHER Learning

Compared 33% of the time

Cornerstone Learning vs CYPHER Learning

Compared 29% of the time

More CYPHER Learning Competitors

Moodle vs Google Classroom

Compared 57% of the time

Blackboard Learning Management vs Google Classroom

Compared 26% of the time

Canvas LMS vs Google Classroom

Compared 16% of the time

More Google Classroom Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

CYPHER Learning

April 2025

Download CYPHER Learning product report

Buyer's Guide

Google Classroom

March 2025

Download Google Classroom product report

Also Known As

MATRIX LMS, NEO LMS

No data available

Overview

CYPHER Learning® exists to give learners the power to succeed in a rapidly changing world. Trainers, learning and development (L&D) pros, HR pros, and educators get everything they need in one platform to deliver faster, more personalized, and better learning outcomes. We provide the only all-in-one AI-powered learning platform that is easy-to-use, beautifully designed, and built to power hundreds of millions of learning moments every day. Create courses faster. Train and teach better. Learn even quicker. Experience our "just in time, just for you, just the way you want to learn" approach that puts people first.

Brandon Hall Group says:

"CYPHER Learning is not your typical “way inside the box” parochial learning tech. This is a supercharged next-generation technology platform that rocks competency and skills-based learning.”

“The best way to describe the tech is to say it anticipates the moves of the learner. And it’s super powerful. Like a Ferrari, the tech effortlessly combines beauty with the beast to deliver an elegant and stylish learning environment. This is what modern learning is supposed to be.”

Forbes Advisor says:

“The intuitive user interface (UI) and multiple ways to award learners for using the CYPHER Learning platform scores major points—it’s visually pleasing and keeps learners engaged. Aside from the user experience (UX) though, it’s a comprehensive platform that’s simple to use to create courses and track analytics of learner performance.”

Enduring benefits of the CYPHER human-centric approach
Learners desire and demand modern, holistic learning - to keep competitive, entertained, and ready for what’s ahead. Our human-centric approach delivers benefits and outcomes that have lasting positive effects on their personalized school path, career path, and life path.

CYPHER for Business
- Increased employee engagement
- Better employee lifecycle outcomes
- Increased competitive advantage
- Stronger culture of continuous learning
- Increased trainer and admin productivity

CYPHER for Academia
- Increased student engagement
- Better workforce preparedness
- Increased enjoyment of learning
- Stronger sense of purpose
- Increased teacher and admin productivity

Millions of users look to CYPHER everyday to deliver dynamic and personalized learning solutions like:

- Personalized skills development
- Hybrid learning
- Teacher and trainer productivity
- Training (employee, partners, customers, product, + more)
- Onboarding
- Employee lifecycle management
- Compliance
- Extended enterprise

and so much more!

The CYPHER platform has it all. Sophisticated automation, leveled-up gamification, insightful reporting and analytics (ROI), skills development, smart learning paths and proactive recommendations, customization, personalization, toolsets for every user.

“...users discover what great looks like when they use CYPHER."
- Brandon Hall Group

See the modern learning platform at: www.cypherlearning.com

CYPHER LEARNING

Google Classroom is an online learning platform that allows teachers to create and manage virtual classrooms. With Google Classroom, teachers can easily distribute assignments, communicate with students, and provide feedback. Students can access their assignments, submit their work, and collaborate with their peers all in one place. The platform integrates seamlessly with other Google tools like Google Drive and Google Docs, making it easy for students to create and share their work. Google Classroom also provides a streamlined workflow for teachers, allowing them to save time and stay organized. Google Classroom is a user-friendly and efficient tool that enhances the learning experience of teachers and students alike.

Google

Sample Customers

Millions of users across business, academia, and entrepreneurs - worldwide.

Google Classroom is used in major urban school districts throughout the United States, including: * Los Angeles Unified School District * Chicago Public Schools * New York City Department of Education * Houston Independent School District * Miami-Dade County Public Schools * Dallas Independent School District * Broward County Public Schools * Clark County School District (Las Vegas) * Philadelphia School District

Buyer's Guide

CYPHER Learning vs. Google Classroom

April 2025

Free Report: CYPHER Learning vs. Google Classroom

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