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Comparison · EdTech

ILIAS vs openSIS

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

ILIAS vs openSIS: at a glance

FeatureILIASopenSIS
SectorEdTechEdTech
Velocity score5.00.0
Sparks · 30d00
Top themeslms, security-patches, self-hosted, multi-branchstudent-information-system, k12, open-source, annual-releases
Last editorial update7d ago18d ago
WebsiteVisit →Visit →

What is ILIAS?

Three supported majors, one security fix, patched in lockstep every month.

ILIAS maintains versions 9, 10 and 11 simultaneously and patches all three on the same day. The August drop (11.3, 10.10, 9.22) and the July drop (11.2, 10.9, 9.21) are identical in shape: a maintenance release per branch, each described only as containing security fixes with the details held behind the project's security blog. Release notes carry no changelog at all, just a pointer and a warning to download the packaged tarball rather than GitHub's auto-generated source archive, which breaks composer.

Read the full ILIAS trajectory →

What is openSIS?

A student information system that ships once a year and barely says what changed.

openSIS Community Edition releases roughly annually, and the notes rarely say more than 'bug fixes and security fixes.' The substantive changes across the window are platform-level: PHP 8 and MySQL 8 compatibility in 9.0, right-to-left support in 8.0, and the multilingual merge that closed out the English-only line at 7.5. The last release was October 2025.

Read the full openSIS trajectory →

ILIAS vs openSIS: editorial side-by-side

I
ILIAS
EDTECH
5.0

Three supported majors, one security fix, patched in lockstep every month.

◆ Current state

ILIAS maintains versions 9, 10 and 11 simultaneously and patches all three on the same day. The August drop (11.3, 10.10, 9.22) and the July drop (11.2, 10.9, 9.21) are identical in shape: a maintenance release per branch, each described only as containing security fixes with the details held behind the project's security blog. Release notes carry no changelog at all, just a pointer and a warning to download the packaged tarball rather than GitHub's auto-generated source archive, which breaks composer.

◆ Where it's heading

The pattern is a disciplined coordinated-disclosure cadence rather than a development roadmap — roughly monthly, all branches together, no feature content in the feed. Keeping three majors on the same patch schedule tells you the installed base is spread across all of them, which is what you would expect from self-hosted university deployments that upgrade on academic-year boundaries. Nothing observable here indicates what version 12 might contain.

◆ Prediction

Expect the next coordinated triple in roughly a month, again with the substance published on the security blog rather than in the release notes.

O
openSIS
EDTECH
0.0

A student information system that ships once a year and barely says what changed.

◆ Current state

openSIS Community Edition releases roughly annually, and the notes rarely say more than 'bug fixes and security fixes.' The substantive changes across the window are platform-level: PHP 8 and MySQL 8 compatibility in 9.0, right-to-left support in 8.0, and the multilingual merge that closed out the English-only line at 7.5. The last release was October 2025.

◆ Where it's heading

The arc is internationalization followed by platform modernization, both of which now appear complete, followed by two releases reporting nothing but fixes. With no feature content in the most recent entries and nine months since the last tag, the community edition reads as maintained rather than developed — the usual shape when a commercial edition carries the roadmap.

◆ Prediction

These entries do not support a confident prediction. If the annual pattern holds, a 9.3 described the same way as 9.2 and 9.1 is the most likely next event, but the window for it has already passed once.

Alternatives to ILIAS and openSIS

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 ILIAS or openSIS.

See all ILIAS alternatives → · See all openSIS alternatives →

Recent activity from ILIAS and openSIS

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

  1. 7d agoILIASILIAS 11.3 security maintenance release
  2. 7d agoILIASILIAS 10.10 security backport
  3. 7d agoILIASILIAS 9.22 security backport
  4. 1mo agoILIASILIAS 11.2 security maintenance release
  5. 1mo agoILIASILIAS 10.9 security backport
  6. 1mo agoILIASILIAS 9.21 security backport
  7. 9mo agoopenSISopenSIS Community Edition version 9.2
  8. 2y agoopenSISopenSIS Community Edition version 9.1
  9. 3y agoopenSISopenSIS Community Edition version 9.0
  10. 5y agoopenSISopenSIS Community Edition version 8.0
  11. 5y agoopenSISopenSIS Community Edition ver 7.6 - Multilingual
  12. 5y agoopenSISopenSIS Community Edition Ver 7.5 - Last English only release

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between ILIAS and openSIS?

They serve adjacent needs but don't currently overlap on shipped themes. ILIAS is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 ILIAS better than openSIS?

Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. ILIAS is currently shipping more aggressively (velocity 5.0 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 ILIAS?

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

What are the best alternatives to openSIS?

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