Top 5 LMS to Host/Run A Business Bootcamp 

ill bootcamps remain in demand any time soon? Yes, they are. As the business landscape changes and new technologies arise, the academies will likely continue to apply a boot camp business model to provide courses.

In particular, digital bootcamps are to take a large share of the future eLearning pie. Just imagine! By 2025, Tech Bootcamps are expected to re-skill and up-skill more than 380,000 professionals. 

Yet, to succeed, bootcamp business managers and owners need a solid LMS or learning platform to implement and handle the learning process. What are the decent bootcamp hosting solutions in this regard?

Read on to find the answer and learn more about the best platforms for bootcamps.

What is a Bootcamp? 

Before all, an online bootcamp is an intensive training course providing the participant with job-ready skills and experience related to the specific field or industry. 

Bootcamp's primary focus is on skills, experience, intensity, and student workload. That’s why a regular business bootcamp, offering specific skills and industry knowledge, allows a person to switch from one profession to another, or even start a new enterprise, in just half a year. 

It explains the necessity for well-developed and fully-packed curriculums. They force instructors to form a very tight schedule and offer tons of assignments. 

That way, the bootcamp model is entirely different from other learning models, implying that you need specific tools to handle and implement it well. 

Which ones? 

Management, collaboration, and engagement tools, with the last two being essential for collaborative learning. 

Bootcamp benefits

Now, you see that the online bootcamp hosting largely depends on the tools that allow the students to dive deep into the practice. It is a demanding process that, yet, brings significant benefits to instructors and students:

• Full immersion. Boot camps can pack the knowledge that students would usually study for years in a 2-month course. For edupreneurs, an immersive course is a way to target students during the low season and offer skills to job switchers.
• Focus on practical knowledge. Any business bootcamp aims to provide business or job-ready skills for students. There, as the academy’s specialists see students’ skills and needs, they can better understand the market and workforce challenges. 
• Networking. Bootcamps are a win-win strategy for all because of networking. Instructors may find future talents; students get to know future colleagues, have recommendations, and grow a professional network; academies create communities to support future programs and knowledge sharing.
• Positive effect on the image. The successful boot camps allow academies to improve their image, add to the authority, and get partners for their programs. Simultaneously, Indeed’s study underlines that the bootcamp certificate is as good as the degree certificate, showing the benefits to the students.

Read more: How Partnerships Benefit Bootcamp Business

How to Choose the LMS to Run Bootcamp Business

It is too easy to justify using the cohort-based model for hosting bootcamps with the learning tendencies toward the student and social centricity. Thus, an edupreneur or academy manager should consider other factors when picking the best platform.

We have defined the most important ones: 

• Suitability for your boot camp. Let’s be clear, coding and business bootcamps are different, as well as the ones referring to marketing or UX/UI design. Thus, consider your goal, number of people, curriculum, and length. Based on your needs, define what you need more control or collaboration.
• Platform’s functionality. Besides, your choice should reflect the scope of bootcamps you run. You may be okay without advanced quiz or assessment options, but you will likely need Zoom integrations and solid collaboration tools. So, make a list and lay it out to the LMS salespeople.
• Flexibility. Moreover, your academy will likely expand and run different types of business boot camp training. Therefore, seek a platform that is flexible in terms of content management and communication.
• Branding options (white label LMS). If you value your brand voice and want to contribute to the connection with students, consider the platforms with white label options. They will help you to look and sound like you even on the third-party platform.
• Pricing. Lastly, LMSs offer different pricing. Some offer costly packages with marketing support and a marketplace. Others define the cost based on the enrolled students enrolled. Pick wisely and prioritize options with a transparent policy.

Bootcamps and student cohorts: Why Collaboration Matters

Recent learning trends show a strong tendency toward learner and social centricity, interaction, and assessment within tech and business bootcamps. Focusing on participation, networking, and knowledge sharing allows students to dive into the process and soak the new information. There, collaboration principles act as supporting tools to help the students learn and deal with high intensity.

It contemplates that the bootcamp providers will continue to use the frameworks and formats that are similar to the ones used for collaborative learning. 

What should an admin or bootcamp owner do, then?

Prioritize social or collaborative learning platforms that have advanced assessment and reporting tools.

Yet, do not use cohort learning blindly for a bootcamp business, without a strong management backup, it can bring the whole course down.

Best Bootcamp Platforms for Your Learning Business

1. EducateMe: Bootcamp platform with strong management and cohort learning options
2. Teachfloor: Adaptable learning platform with rich features
3. Thinkific: Comprehensive tool with multiple content creation and marketing features
4. Kajabi: All-around solution with profound promotion support
5. Open edX: Open source platform for advanced courses

With all the boot camp business peculiarities in mind, the decision on the platform is not an easy one to make. You will want to reduce risks, optimize costs and have an easy-to-use platform to manage the learning process. 

The safest strategy is to stick toward adaptable and flexible bootcamp hosting solutions with which you can have advanced options and tools. 

Here is our list of the best business bootcamp platforms to host an intensive course:

1. EducateMe: Bootcamp Platform with Strong Management and Cohort Learning Options

Of course, we place our platform above all the others cause we know it is excellent for bootcamp business. So what is it about?

EducateMe is a powerful bootcamp platform with a taste of cohort learning, an intuitive interface, and solid tools to manage workload and communication effectively. 

It has everything you need for efficient bootcamp creation and administration, from the course builder and activity calendar to essential communication and task management tools. 

Here is what Olesia Malevanaya, the Chairman of the Ukrainian Hub, says about how collaborative features add to task management and moderation.

“The platform allows our students to form cohorts independently and do practical assignments as a group. It eases the burden on our instructors and helps a lot with moderation, group tasks, and even examination. Besides, a common activity calendar is a life-saver. With it, informing is much easier, so we worry less about such things as time-zone considerations.”

Moreover, it is adaptable and offers powerful branding options to connect your brand and the learning experience. 

EducateMe features for a bootcamp business:

• Intuitive course builder. Create and customize courses and assignments with various content types and activities via available content blocks. Also, it allows very useful integration with Notion as well as the inclusion of code blocks for advanced options.
• Task management and tracking. With the Kanban approach, instructors and students can monitor the status of assignments and manage the workload better. Also, the instructor can track attendance and task completion via a dashboard or reporting feature. Automated tools allow handling live sessions via Zoom or Jitsi. 
• Engagement kit. Apart from integrations, EducateMe has an in-built messenger to drive engagement and support the community. With it, admins can send direct messages to different members, launch Slack-like channels to moderate separate groups, and even set email notifications.
• White label LMS. Lastly, this bootcamp platform has powerful branding options to customize the interface the student engages with. Academies can upload logos, change the shapes of elements, adjust colors and fonts, integrate their domain, and personalize the signup process.

Best for: medium and large academies, as well as institutions providing short-term bootcamps related to business and creative subjects.

Read more: How Projector Institute Uses EducateMe To Launch Courses

2. Teachfloor: Adaptable Learning Platform with Decent Features

Teachfloor is another platform using collaborative learning principles, having various course-building features and valuable integrations. Its course builder is very intuitive and flexible. That way, you can support curriculum structure and content variety. 

Also, it has good community learning capabilities that may add to student engagement and communication. The downturns refer to pretty basic reporting and analysis. 

As a result, Teachfloor offers great integrations and proper communication and content options yet, it lacks reporting features. Moreover, all the solutions are only available under the Advanced Package.

Teachfloor features for a bootcamp business:

• Course builder. Teachfloor provides easy-to-use features to upload SCORM files and use uploaded content, live sessions, activities or quizzes within one curriculum. The platform’s approach is about focusing on structure, being helpful for managing courses with high workloads.
• Integration options. It has essential integrations like Zoom, Stripe and Zapier, while the embed code feature allows using third party apps in the Techfloor. It helps instructors to find interesting solutions.
• Community developing tools. The platform offers strong communication tools to organize 1:1, live video sessions and interactive community spaces. For instance, the instructor can create a channel looking like a social media feed, where users can post and engage in the discussion. 

Best for: Small academies and corporate trainers looking for platforms to host a short small business bootcamp or intensive social learning community course.

Pricing: 15 days free trial, Pro Package costs $49, Business Package is $299, Advanced Package price is determined upon the call with the sales team.

3. Thinkific: Comprehensive LMS with Multiple Content Creation and Marketing Features

Thinkific is a universal solution for creating and promoting content-rich courses and engaging with the student community. This platform has a user-friendly course editor, advanced integrations for better interaction, and robust marketing functions. 

In addition, it offers solid branding options and a website builder. It makes Thinkific a good option for a UX/UI design or digital business boot camp. 

Even though such virtual bootcamp platforms as Mento Academy use Thinkific, it may be unsuitable for the actors wanting advanced reporting, task, and assessment features. Yet, a user can compensate for them with powerful integration tools. In the end, some of the tools are too simple.

Thinkific options for a bootcamp business:

• Course editor: Multiple reviews underline the ease of use of this tool. Besides, it offers multiple templates for courses and content blocks that can be customized. That way, the instructor has excellent variety in terms of formats and types of content to share. 
• Marketing support: This option can be a great advantage when launching your business bootcamp online. It is concerned with the ability to create landing pages, launch email campaigns via integrations and develop bundles or whole systems from existing materials. 
• Tools for community development: Among other things, Thinkific has decent engagement tools that support students and create spaces for discussions.
• Branding options: Also, the platform offers a basic white label LMS customization, being a worthy solution for a digital academy and its business boot camp.

Pricing: offers limited free plan; Basic plan costs $49 per month; Start, Grow, and Expand Plans are $99, $199, and $399 per month, respectively. Thinkific+ is the most advanced plan, with the price defined upon the call with sales. 

Best for: Academies and actors that want to create diverse and complex courses and focus on content. The small business bootcamp owners can benefit from course editor features, promotion tools, and flexible pricing.

4. Kajabi: All-Around Solution With Profound Promotion Tools

Before all, Kajabi is an all-around solution with an adaptable and flexible system backed by a solid course builder and multiple instruments to monetize your courses and improve sales. Notably, the focus on promotion and sales funneling does not stop the platform from offering practical tools.

It has excellent branding and customization options for white-label LMS and landing page development. At the same time, communication and collaboration capabilities are on-point, making the platform suitable for an online bootcamp hosting. 

The downturns refer to limited expert and re-upload functions and the lack of advanced content management options.

Kajabi features for a bootcamp business:

• Drag-and-drop course builder. It is one of the most prominent Kajabi features, allowing it to develop optimal structure and cover diverse products. The platform is very flexible and helps you create digital products, from self-paced courses to a podcast or community. It provides multiple templates and recently added an AI hub to support course creation.
• Community learning features. The collaborative aspect of bootcamp implementation is concerned with instruments to develop and manage communities. The academies can easily create a hub for collaboration, handle live sessions, and curate the discussion.
• Support in bootcamp promotion. Additionally, the platform helps a lot with the monetization of courses. On Kajabi, you can create landing pages and use a separate automated email software for course promotion. Via a funnel feature, a course provider can optimize and scale business.
• Proper segmentation, management, and tracking. Being an all-in-one platform, this solution offers an excellent tag system for segmentation and course management. It goes beyond the curriculum activities and ensures the support with payments of students.

Best for: academies or experts looking for a simple and effective way to host a business school bootcamp, without the promotion headache.

Pricing: 2-week free trial with credit card required; Basic, Growth, and Pro Plans cost $149, $199 and $399 per month, respectively.

Read more: Kajabi Best Alternatives

5. Open edX: Open Source Platform for Advanced Systems

From allThe particular platform takes an entirely different approach to intensive course or bootcamp creation.

Open edX is an open-source learning management system that offers advanced, yet flexible options for building courses using front-end development for instructional design. Open edX is the project of edX, the larger platform offering university-level classes created by Harvard and MIT. So, various large academic and business organizations use it to develop their systems.

Yet, why is it suitable for online bootcamp hosting? First, it offers an X-block system allowing users to build units, lessons, or tasks with a custom code and thus create unique experiences. So, it has enormous customization options and provides all the features for course building, management, and delivery, not to mention great supporting features. 

The Open edX is a free and very extensible cloud-based environment. Yet, because of its open-source principle, it is not easy to use and can be complicated for admins and managers. Luckily for academies, it has a list of service partners and providers to help with hosting, installation, and course development.

Open edX features for a bootcamp business:

• Content studio. Use it to create a well-thought structure by dividing your curriculum into sections, subsections, and units. For the latter, you have multiple options to add text and video content, discussion, polls, open questions, tasks, and other blocks. With them, you can do activities and curate the course. 
• Discussion features. The discussion components allow the creation of a particular space for communication, like groups and forums or live discussions under each task. For interactions in specific groups, you can create content groups and assign students to the cohorts.
• Powerful embedding. Notably, the platform offers great freedom for embedding components and integrating other tools due to the open-source principle. Via a code, an instructor can add a live session or a third-party tool to improve engagement. 
• Enrollment, grading, and reporting management. The platform has tools to set a student's agenda, organize exams and grading criteria, and assess the student's progress.

Best for: all kinds of institutions and academies that have enough resources or knowledge to master front-end methods for course building

Pricing: free, unless you will want to resort to service partners

Vital tools for your online bootcamp hosting 

Simultaneously, if you decide to stick to the third boot camp business model, we created a list of essential instruments that you can use to ensure proper immersion and a great learning experience.

• Notion. Almost universal tool for organization of any work. Yet, for learning providers it is a great tool to lay lessons and lectures, give guidelines, organize curriculums, manage data and collaborate.
• Zoom Events. It is great for holding meetings with multiple speakers and different cohorts, having great widgets for managing speakers' time or adding live quizzes.
• Slack. Powerful collaboration tool, where you can create channels, groups, write direct messages and make calls.
• Miro. The whiteboard tool that has multiple features for online collaboration, bringing interactive experiences.
• Figma. If not for a design course, one can use it for presentations and information sharing.
• Hopin. A suite of event management tools, having multiple functions for streaming a live, hosting events, and launching a community.
• Quizizz. Great tool to design assessments and tasks, track the student’s progress, and offer data-driven instructions. 

Read more about: Collaborative Learning Tools

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Guide on How to Start a Bootcamp Business

To run a bootcamp business, you need to do research, validate ideas, and plan and implement courses. Here’s how to launch your bootcamp bootcamp in five key steps:

Step #1. Define your target audience

Before all, you should understand the needs of your audience. Whether you’re teaching coding, marketing, or design, know who your students are and what challenges they face.

At this stage, find and validate your bootcamp ideas. Once you are ready, tailor your bootcamp's content and intensity level to your learners’ specific goals, whether they are beginners or advanced professionals.

Step #2. Create a clear curriculum and schedule

Next, plan your bootcamp with precision. Set clear learning objectives, timelines, and deliverables. Outline what students will achieve by the end of the program. Your curriculum should be exciting but manageable within the bootcamp’s timeframe.

Step #3. Assemble a team of experts and guest speakers

Yet, starting a successful bootcamp requires more than just a great curriculum—it also demands a strong team of experts. Identify skilled professionals in your field who can bring real-world knowledge to your bootcamp. 

This expert-driven approach will also help differentiate your bootcamp from competitors.

Step #4. Choose the right platform

Select a learning management system (LMS) that supports your bootcamp’s format. You'll need features like video conferencing, live chats, and progress tracking. The right platform will streamline the delivery of your intensive courses while making it easy to manage student engagement.

Step #5. Foster open communication 

Build strong lines of communication from day one. Use collaborative tools to create a supportive community where participants can interact with each other and you. Feedback loops are crucial for helping learners improve quickly in the bootcamp setting.

What are the Common Models for Bootcamp Business Owners?

You may wonder whether choosing the 3rd party platform is the only option. Well, the truth is that it is not. 

The general practice shows that bootcamp business owners use three models: 

1. Create/buy a custom LMS platform.
2. Rely on many different tools to provide a learning experience (for instance, Zoom, Notion, Slack etc.)
3. Use third-party platforms to host boot camps.

Yet, what is our “starting a boot camp business advice” to you? Use third-party learning and bootcamp platforms to run your intensive courses.

#1. Custom Platform Model

Firstly, creating a custom LMS is a pretty long and expensive road that learning leaders with a large budget and audience take. 

Note. Brainstation turned its own LMS into a separate Synapse data-driven tool, while Multiverse acquired Eduflow to serve the needs of its instructors. 

In pursuit of control over course development, they hire designers and developers and make complex instructional design solutions. But is it worth chasing a side product, instead of channeling the funds into improving an already beneficial course product? 

#2. Suite of Tools Model

Secondly, relying on the proven bootcamp suite of tools can be a real pain for admins and instructors, especially in terms of onboarding and implementation. Imagine that one person needs to set up all the event management, content, engagement, communication tools. It may be pretty stressful for moderators and instructors, right?

#3. Third-party or cloud-based LMS

Using a third-party platform to host boot camps is the right solution for many edupreneurs, small, medium, and large academy founders, and niche actors. 

Usually, it is much cheaper to implement and maintain, meaning they can spend their precious resources to improve course content, learning experience and answer students’ needs better. In addition, such business bootcamp platforms can help with instructional design, communication, and proper assessment. 

Note. Mento Design, TheFutur, and Ironhack are academies and virtual bootcamp platforms that use third-party white-label LMSs for online courses and bootcamps. 

Summary: Best business bootcamp platforms 

A creative or business bootcamp is impossible without lots of assignments and collaboration. To provide the best learning experience, admins and bootcamp business owners should look toward the learning platforms designed for collaborative learning. Simultaneously, the top platforms for business bootcamp hosting offer advanced assessment tools, adaptable navigation and support peer collaboration.

EducateMe is just one of them, with powerful management and communication features. It is intuitive and easy to use. Why not book a demo right now? Also, there are Teachfloor and Thinkific, focusing on content and structure, and Kajabi offering powerful marketing options. Lastly, Open edX differs from all due to its front-end approach, making it great for advanced options but not as easy to use.