Per-learner pricing, and the arithmetic institutions actually do
Why we count distinct logins rather than enrolments, what that means for a department running short courses, and the two cases where our model is worse for you than a competitor's.
Our pricing is one number multiplied by one other number, and the interesting part is entirely in how the second number is defined.
We count distinct learners with at least one login during the billing year, measured at year end.
Why not enrolments
Because enrolment counts reward the vendor for your administrative habits. An institution that enrols every student on a generic “study skills” course pays more than an identical institution that does not, for exactly the same teaching. We have seen quotes where a third of the billable number came from a single mandatory induction module.
Why not named accounts
Because accounts accumulate. Every institution has thousands of records for people who left years ago, and a licence priced on account count creates a quiet incentive not to clean them up — the opposite of what your data protection officer wants.
Why “at least one login”
Because a registered learner who never arrives has cost us nothing to serve. Short-course providers and continuing-education departments register far more people than turn up, and we would rather not charge for the gap between the two.
The two cases where we are worse than the alternative
I would rather you find these out from me than in month seven.
One: very high engagement, very small cohorts. If you run intensive programmes where 300 learners each generate enormous activity, a flat institutional licence from a competitor may genuinely cost you less than per-learner pricing. Our model is priced for breadth, not depth. Ask us for the comparison and we will do the arithmetic honestly, including the case where we lose it.
Two: you already own perpetual licences. If you have paid for something in perpetuity and it works, the honest advice is usually to keep running it until a specific thing forces the change — a standards obligation, an end-of-support date, an accessibility ruling. “Everyone is moving to the cloud” is not a specific thing.
The bit nobody asks about until renewal
If your learner number falls, so does the invoice. It is measured every year, in both directions, with no floor and no ratchet clause. This sounds obvious. It is not standard, and it is worth checking in any contract you are given — including ours, which is four pages, in plain language, and says this on page two.