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Comparison · EdTech

Chamilo vs ScholarLMS

A side-by-side editorial comparison of Chamilo and ScholarLMS — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.

Shared themes:lms

Chamilo vs ScholarLMS: at a glance

FeatureChamiloScholarLMS
SectorEdTechEdTech
Velocity score6.30.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themeslms, mcp, agentic-authoring, platform-rewritelms, moodle, smb, maintenance-mode
Last editorial update15d ago4mo ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is Chamilo?

Chamilo's 3.0 beta quietly turns the LMS into an MCP server agents can author courses through.

Chamilo runs three lines at once. The legacy 1.11 branch takes security and bugfix releases roughly quarterly, 2.0 reached GA in April and has drawn three patch releases since, and a 3.0 line opened on 13 August. The 3.0 beta is where the direction sits: 456 changes spanning 88 plugin fixes, a 44-item security sweep, and a new MCP server with OAuth 2.1 that exposes course authoring and review to outside clients. The feed's own bodies are unreliable here - both 3.0 tags arrived carrying a single line of text, and the 2.0 GA release reached it only as scraped page fragments.

Read the full Chamilo trajectory →

What is ScholarLMS?

Low-velocity Moodle reseller with sporadic batch releases — alive, but barely shipping.

ScholarLMS is a Moodle-based managed LMS for SMBs and educators. The available changelog is sparse: a March 2026 platform update (redesigned admin dashboard, new Learning Space nav, course-page improvements), a Winter 2025 batch that incorporated upstream Moodle releases plus their own course-builder tweaks, and then a multi-year gap back to 2017. The cadence reads less like an active product line and more like opportunistic catch-up releases tied to Moodle's own update cycle.

Read the full ScholarLMS trajectory →

Chamilo vs ScholarLMS: editorial side-by-side

Chamilo logo
Chamilo
EDTECH
6.3

Chamilo's 3.0 beta quietly turns the LMS into an MCP server agents can author courses through.

◆ Current state

Chamilo runs three lines at once. The legacy 1.11 branch takes security and bugfix releases roughly quarterly, 2.0 reached GA in April and has drawn three patch releases since, and a 3.0 line opened on 13 August. The 3.0 beta is where the direction sits: 456 changes spanning 88 plugin fixes, a 44-item security sweep, and a new MCP server with OAuth 2.1 that exposes course authoring and review to outside clients. The feed's own bodies are unreliable here - both 3.0 tags arrived carrying a single line of text, and the 2.0 GA release reached it only as scraped page fragments.

◆ Where it's heading

The rewrite has stopped being the story and the agent surface has started. 2.0 spent its cycle absorbing the legacy feature set - LTI, ONLYOFFICE, the plugin catalogue - and reached GA; 3.0's first beta spends most of its weight on that same restoration work but adds something no 2.0 release contains, an MCP server with OAuth 2.1 auto-connect and tools that write rather than only read. Model providers are being wired directly into the AI helper alongside it. Security remains constant across all three branches, with 44 security items in the 3.0 beta alone.

◆ Prediction

Expect the MCP tool surface to widen in the next 3.0 beta, since the first pass already moved past read-only lookups into course authoring and review. Whether 3.0 becomes the supported line or 2.0 keeps taking patches is the question the tags themselves do not answer.

S0.0

Low-velocity Moodle reseller with sporadic batch releases — alive, but barely shipping.

◆ Current state

ScholarLMS is a Moodle-based managed LMS for SMBs and educators. The available changelog is sparse: a March 2026 platform update (redesigned admin dashboard, new Learning Space nav, course-page improvements), a Winter 2025 batch that incorporated upstream Moodle releases plus their own course-builder tweaks, and then a multi-year gap back to 2017. The cadence reads less like an active product line and more like opportunistic catch-up releases tied to Moodle's own update cycle.

◆ Where it's heading

The product is in maintenance mode. Each release bundles a long list of small improvements rather than introducing new capability surfaces, and the months between releases are long enough that returning users may not notice changes between visits. The 'Add Sections Anywhere' framing in Winter 2025 — celebrating that sections no longer have to be added sequentially — signals an underlying UX still quite close to bare Moodle.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next release to continue the same pattern: a once-a-year-ish batch with admin/learner UX polish and the latest Moodle merge. AI features have not appeared and there is no signal in the entries that they will arrive soon.

Alternatives to Chamilo and ScholarLMS

Other EdTech products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Chamilo or ScholarLMS.

See all Chamilo alternatives → · See all ScholarLMS alternatives →

Recent activity from Chamilo and ScholarLMS

Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.

  1. 15d agoChamiloBeta 2 tagged with no release notes
  2. 1mo agoChamiloChamilo 3.0 beta 1 opens an MCP server with course-authoring tools
  3. 2mo agoChamiloChamilo 1.11.40: security and bugfix maintenance release
  4. 5mo agoChamiloStop logging AI base-provider fallback events
  5. 5mo agoChamiloBump tar dependency 7.5.3 to 7.5.6
  6. 5mo agoChamiloChamilo 2.0 RC3: LTI provider, ONLYOFFICE, and plugin revival
  7. 6mo agoScholarLMSPlatform Updates — March 2026
  8. 1y agoScholarLMSExciting New Enhancements Across the Platform – Winter 2025
  9. 8y agoScholarLMSReleasing ScholarLMS My Dashboard
  10. 9y agoScholarLMSMeet the New ScholarLMS Small Size – SMB Learning Management
  11. 12y agoScholarLMSJuly was a month of exciting updates at ScholarLMS

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between Chamilo and ScholarLMS?

Both compete on the same themes — lms — within EdTech. Chamilo is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.

Is Chamilo better than ScholarLMS?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Chamilo is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 6.3 vs 0.0), with 0 editorial sparks in the last 30 days against 0. For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other EdTech products to evaluate alongside.

What are the best alternatives to Chamilo?

Top Chamilo alternatives in EdTech are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Chamilo alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/chamilo for the full list with editorial commentary on each.

What are the best alternatives to ScholarLMS?

Top ScholarLMS alternatives in EdTech are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "ScholarLMS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/scholarlms for the full list with editorial commentary on each.