11 Best Templates for Moodle to Upgrade the Look of your LMS [Free + Paid] – 2021 Edition

Kiran

All set to kick-off your online course in Moodle?

A great starting point is to make sure you have figured out the best template or theme for your Moodle site.  

If you are really looking to build an e-Learning program with great aesthetic appeal and butter-smooth functioning at the same time, I can’t stress enough on how much difference the right theme for Moodle can make! 

The right theme for Moodle optimizes your e-Learning site to give you an intuitive learning experience, learner-friendly navigation, consistent design that works well on all devices and screen sizes, big or small, simple or advanced customizations, high-speed loading times, and much more! 

So, let’s get you started with the evaluation to help you pick the right theme for Moodle!

List of 5 Best Free Templates for Moodle [Updated]

#1 Moove

With 350 fans and 29k downloads, Moove remains an absolute favourite of most Moodlers and our top pick when it comes to choosing from among the free themes for Moodle. 

Moove provides an intuitive learning experience with layouts optimized to stay super-focused on the primary course content. 

Why should you opt for Moove?

• Cross-browser compatible and multi-platform design
• Single screen login on front-page
• Simple to embed videos, slideshows, and PowerPoint presentations without extra plugins
• Front-page grid to display your courses with a clean bootstrap look inside
• Inclusive and easy to use theme
• Fonts to improve readability for dyslexic learners
• Options for drag-and-drop customization of Moodle Calendar 
• Multiple preset styles, layouts, and course listing styles 

Things you should watch out for:

• The main menus on the front-page are not user-friendly
• The dashboard is only available for admins
• Quiz reports don’t provide section-wise reports
• The timer of the quiz is at the bottom of the section – makes tracking time inconvenient for students
• Very few settings to customize the login page, advanced customizations need changes in the source code
• The custom menu may disappear when resolution drops to a mobile device (menus could be improved on small screens)

Price of the theme

Free 

#2 Fordson

Fordson boasts of around 10k downloads and takes the second spot. It’s a modern theme, an extension of the core Boost theme, designed to easily transition from login to learning. 

The theme helps you build a professional-looking e-Learning platform on Moodle with impressive customizations.

Why should you opt for Fordson?

• Multipurpose theme with marketing capabilities 
• Simple navigation and good customization options
• Multiple preset styles, layouts, and course listing styles to customize your LMS
• 160+ layout and style combinations
• Jitsi Meet server integration on top of every course for interactive learning

Things you should watch out for:

• Separate plugin (Easy Enrollment Plugin) needed for the direct enrollment of learners to courses from the home page – additional overhead or settings to deal with
• No option to use the plain Moodle course category layout (it is replaced with the Tile-based look of Fordson)
• Learners are not able to see the full course description before deciding to enroll in or buy a course due to the tile-based layout
• Overload of settings can be overwhelming for new users
• You can’t have more than two images in the slider
• Limited font options

Price of the theme

Free 

#3 Adaptable

Adaptable takes the number three spot for its fully customizable interface and also the fact that it easily adapts to different settings – be it a business organization or a huge university. 

You can enjoy complete freedom and flexibility to brand and configure the theme according to your training requirements. 

With Adaptable, you can set up a great looking Moodle site without any CSS knowledge.

Why should you opt for Adaptable?

• A highly customizable and responsive theme 
• Multiple front-page course styles 
• 60 front-page marketing custom blocks with variations in layout
• Several custom menus catering to different types of users and personalized based on the custom profile field
• Additional layout settings for adjusting width, slider width, padding of various elements
• Better control over site-wide announcements with dismissible Bootstrap alerts

Things you should watch out for:

• Involves a steep learning curve
• The dashboard page does not highlight items that need attention, for instance, pending assignments to be graded

Price of the theme

Free

#4 Eguru

If you’re looking for powerful admin theme setting options, Eguru could be your go-to theme for Moodle with around 267 fans and 11k downloads. 

Eguru is a simple theme compatible across multiple devices and browsers. It offers an exhaustive colour palette and several features to help you customize your e-Learning site in Moodle, depending on your learning objectives or your institute’s educational goals or vision.

Why should you opt for Eguru?

• Simple yet ultra-responsive layout
• Gives a modern look to your LMS
• Supports multiple colour schemes/patterns
• Custom login page and front-page slideshow in multiple languages

Things you should watch out for:

• High loading times (Reported response time – 12 seconds)
• Maximum grade in the quiz can’t be edited
• Limited customization options

 #5 Academi

Academi takes the next spot on the list with 265 fans and 7k downloads. It could be your ideal theme for Moodle if you want a simple yet elegant theme with a minimalistic design. 

This theme is fully responsive and comes with all the necessary features to help you build an easy-to-use e-learning website on Moodle catering to modern learning needs.

Why should you opt for Academi?

• 100% responsive design and multi-browser support
• Support for multiple languages
• Simple to use with minimal settings

Things you should watch out for:

• The menu and structure can be improved
• Navigation does not have nested items
• Limited customization options

Price of the theme:

Free 

List of 6 Best Paid Templates for Moodle

#1 Edwiser RemUI 

When it comes to premium themes for Moodle, Edwiser RemUI is our top pick for its ability to simplify the interface and navigation without compromising aesthetics, power, and functionality. 

You could use Edwiser RemUI out-of-the-box or get it tailored to your learning/teaching needs as the theme is 100% customizable. 

The theme is great to build a concentrated space for effective e-Learning as it lets you create a distraction-free learning environment with the FOCUS MODE feature. 

Edwiser RemUI also offers seamless interactions, high-speed performance (quick loading times that’s as low as 890 milliseconds), multi-language support, and layouts optimized for search engines to give your students an ultra-intuitive e-Learning experience.

Best features of Edwiser RemUI:

• Focus Mode feature for removing on-screen distractions 
• Aesthetically appealing, clean, and responsive layout
• Customizable login page and a drag and drop home page builder
• Shortcuts for simplified user navigation
• 2 functional course formats and custom dashboard blocks
• Truly customizable and easy to set up
• Unlimited colour customization options for effective branding 
• A detailed knowledge base and excellent personalized support
• Supports emoji, H5P content 

Price of the theme:

Starter $99 , Pro $179, and Course Creator Suite $199 

#2 Maker 

The Maker theme takes the second position for its beautiful user interface and robust design. It’s built on Moodle’s core theme ‘Boost’. 

You can easily create a learning platform customized to your own needs using the 6 theme colour presets that come with the theme package or even experiment with different colours from the brand colour picker. 

With Maker’s impressive customization options and dedicated tech support, you can create a high-quality and professional LMS optimized for user experience.

Best Features of Maker:

• Responsive, intuitive and user-friendly layout
• Custom Google fonts available
• Simple, Boost-based navigation
• Supports multi-language content and RTL sites
• Custom icons for course activities and files
• Custom logo and colours for branding
• 12 featured blocks on front-page
• Support for 3 Course list layout styles (Default, Cards and Masonry)
• Up to 10 teachers can be added in the ‘Teachers’ section on front-page
• Supports Bootstrap 4 elements

Price of the theme:

$199 for one domain/subdomain (Single Application License)

#3 Lambda

Lambda is one of the most popular premium themes and also features on our most recommended list at the number three spot. Its ‘portal-like front-end with marketing capabilities’ as stated by Moonami is great for both educational institutions as well as corporates. 

Lambda lends a modern and fresh look to your LMS with multiple customization options for font, colour, header, footer, and the front page and alternatives to adjust the layout (box or full-width).

Best Features of Lambda:

• Fully responsive theme 
• Multiple block styles in theme settings
• Customization options for the header
• Customizable font, icons and colours
• Collapsible sidebar for full-screen mode
• Plugins included for slideshow and carousel with customizable effects
• Full and boxed layout options
• Customizable login form
• Full documentation and solid customer support

Price of the theme:

$59 (Regular License with 6 months support)

#4 Cognitio

The next one to make it to the list is Cognitio! Cognitio is a premium theme specifically designed to target user-friendliness and seamless customizability. 

It’s a Bootstrap 4 compatible and has tons of features and custom plugins to help you build an attractive Moodle e-Learning website.

The theme provides a wide range of layouts and headers to play with and these can be easily changed with a single click of a button. 

Cognitio’s drag and drop interface allows you to effortlessly build your desired front page on your Moodle site. It also lets you easily import, edit, and create new site elements. 

Best Features of Cognitio:

• Drag and drop front page builder
• Custom login page and login form
• Clean and modern 100% responsive design 
• Holistic course dashboard for easy navigation and better online class management
• Course search index (A-Z)
• Sticky navigation and user bookmarks
• Support for RTL languages with custom language flags
• Colour picker to choose from a palette of unlimited colours
• Supported course formats – Collapsed Topics, Grid Format and Button Format

Price of the theme:

$99 for Regular License

#6 New Learning

A relatively newer theme in the Moodle ecosystem, New Learning has several reasons to be in the list of the best themes for Moodle. It’s a great feature-rich, premium theme for beginners. 

The user-friendliness of this theme makes it an attractive option for those looking to improve the learning interface of their Moodle website on the usability front, with effortless ease. 

The theme stands out because of the Real Live Page Builder that lets you build visually appealing pages in just a matter of minutes. 

New Learning also has various shortcodes for adding accordions, buttons, box content, box image, slider carousel, YouTube or Vimeo web videos, and more, to build a more engaging layout.

Best Features of New Learning:

• First, live page builder in Moodle
• Drag and drop, easy-to-use interface
• Support for RTL languages
• High functionality with easy-to-use configuration panels
• Ability to save custom layouts, duplicate elements, and import blocks and layouts
• Extensive documentation and video tutorials

Price of the theme:

$99 for Regular License with 6 months support

On a Final Note…

The right theme for Moodle is the one that not only fulfills your learning and teaching needs or lets you customize it or present course content the way you want. 

It’s definitely more than that. A simple tip – Look through the lens of your students!

It’s not just about you, it’s also about:

☑️ How cost-effective the theme is 

☑️ How attractive it looks to your students 

☑️ How simple to use the interface is 

☑️ How intuitively it guides your students to find where they need to go next 

If you’ve checked these boxes, you’re almost there and prepared to decide your final pick.

Also, in case you plan to take the premium route, be sure to check out these theme comparisons to zero in on the right theme for your Moodle site:

Are you ready to take the next step? Hope you are able to set the ball rolling with the recommendations I gave you in this article. 

Let us know what you think about this post in the comments section below.