10 Credly Badges Alternatives Worth Considering

Credly is a popular solution for issuing badges. But it’s not the best one. If you are looking for some alternatives, this article is for you.

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Author

Sergey Butko

Updated: April 09, 2024

22 min read

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It's understandable that you want your digital badges and certificates to be useful at every step. As a result, you're searching for the best tools.

Credly may have come to your attention. 

But is Credly the right tool for you? If you are not sure, in today's post, we will try to verify Credly and its alternatives and present you with as many as 10 tools that you can successfully choose instead of this expensive software.

Let's not prolong any more and get started!

What is Credly?

Credly is a business tool that provides credentials to individuals in seconds and enables big organizations to scale global credentialing programs.

With Credly software, you can, for example:

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create, manage, issue, and monitor digital badges

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gain insights about your workforce

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verify employee skills

This platform can be helpful for training providers, employers, as well as for badge earners who can share their achievements on social media sites and thus increase their job opportunities.

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However, Credly offers a lot of features but for a high price. It is a relatively expensive software that not every company will be able to afford. For this reason, it is not an ideal solution for small businesses.

Credly pricing

Although it is difficult to know Credly's price list, as there is no such information made public on their official website, we managed to obtain some details. You can find them in this article:

So if you're not satisfied with Credly badges, need a more flexible solution for your digital credentials, or can't afford to buy this system, take a look at the Credly badges alternatives we've listed below.

#1 Certifier

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Our first choice is Certifier – a professional certificate maker that can build, manage and issue your certificates in real time. 

Certifier knows that paper-based certificates are no longer helpful in the online world and that digital representations of a person's credentials are now much more effective (and eco-friendly!).

People can easily create and manage all certificates, credentials, diplomas, etc. And even individuals and small companies can issue certificates and badges for achievements.

Best features

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Certifier provides you with analytics, marketing insights, recipients’ management, and with a lot of templates for certificates. Therefore, your work with this program will be even faster and more productive, and badge holders can enjoy their awards quickly, as delivery is done in a flash. 

In other words, you can focus on more important tasks instead.

Once your recipients give you their email addresses, you can automatically send them their certificates. When they receive an email notification with badge details, they only need to open the message and then save the document or share it on social media platforms.

If you were not familiar with Certifier until now, now is your opportunity to change that.

Pricing

You set up the account for free. Then, you can use the free plan or opt to upgrade to the Standard or Professional plan. Either way, Certifier is not an expensive software compared to Credly. You can start any of the plans for free.

A free plan is available.

Create and Send CertificatesTake your digital certificate creation process to the next level!

#2 Open Badge Factory

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Open Badge Factory is a digital badge maker that also deserves your attention. OBF can be used by small companies, which is a big plus, as with Certifier. In addition, you can work on a variety of badges alone or with a team, as this tool provides you with unique collaborative features.

Best features

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This tool has many necessary functions for managing electronic badges so that you can use it successfully to validate competencies and achievements, motivate employees, volunteers, and students, set up learning pathways, monitor individual or company development goals. Moreover, the application is easy to use and intuitive. 

Pricing

Open Badge Factory offers four plans: Free, Basic, Premium, and Pro. So, you can start using the platform for free, but the highest plan is already quite expensive – you have to pay €1,260 per year for it. There is, however, a free trial period available.

A free plan is available.

#3 Sertifier

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Source: sertifier.com

Sertifier is a tool you can consider if you want to deliver meaningful achievements, meaning both badges and certificates.

Best features

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Working with this system is straightforward. Easily design badges with Sertifier's designer, then create your credential details to add further information about the achievement. In the end, publish badges in bulk. 

Sertifier also gives you access to powerful analytics, tracking campaign metrics, measuring badge earner profile and engagement, and calculating the marketing contribution of your badges. With the Enterprise plan, you'll also be able to access custom integrations. 

Pricing

Pricing for Sertifier is very clear. You have four plans to choose from – Free, Essentials, Pro, and Enterprise. The Free plan is completely free, while you will pay $225 for the Essentials plan. The Pro and Enterprise plans offer custom pricing, so you'll need to contact the company to know how much they'll cost you.

A free plan is available.

#4 BadgeCert

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Source: badgecert.com

If you are interested in recognizing accomplishments with 100% verifiable digital badges, you can check out BadgeCert.

Best features

This platform will provide you with all the functions you need to design and send badges, as well as many badge-sharing options. It also offers technical support, which is available for any pricing plan. 

Here you can also benefit from analytics and real-time data such as badge sharing, badge clicks, and overall earner usage. You'll also have access to an API that will enable your LMS, CRM, or other enterprise systems to generate badges, manage rosters, update settings, and much more.

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BadgeCert stresses that it cares about your security and that it does not share your data with other companies. Together with this tool, your company can meet its professional goals, and your customers will be satisfied with the rewards they receive.

Pricing

You can use BadgeCert in two versions: up to 500 earners and more than 500 earners. If you choose the first plan, you will pay $1,000 per year. But if you choose the second plan, you will pay $1 per earner. So you need to do your research and decide whether such a scheme is profitable for you.

A free plan is NOT available.

#5 Accredible

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Source: accredible.com

Accredible is a very popular tool when it comes to issuing digital credentials and badges. It will enable you to professionally manage certificates, diplomas, badges, blockchain credentials, and wallet cards. And all this in one place.

Best features

Accredible has many advanced features. For example, it enables you, as an issuer, to be at the center of the recipient experience through its branding and white labeling options.

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What's more, Accredible works with credible organizations, so many integrations are waiting for you to enhance your capabilities. It is a tool that organizations and universities can consider. Unfortunately, for small businesses, it may be a too complex platform.

Pricing

Accredible's pricing consists of three plans: Launch, Connect, and Growth. But we only know the value of the first plan. The others have custom pricing, so you'll have to contact the sales team to find out how much they cost.

A free plan is NOT available.

#6 Open Badges

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Source: openbadges.me

It's time for Open Badges – an intuitive tool you might have heard of, too. Originally developed by Mozilla, Open Badges is now managed by IMS Global Learning Consortium®. 

Best features

With Open Badges, you can design, award, manage, and store badges and access powerful analytics and reporting tools. It simply makes your learners' qualifications more widely recognized.

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Open Badges provides a versatile, secure, and easy-to-use way of quickly implementing your badges and credentials. If you have no experience with creating such online badges, you don't need to worry, as it will explain in simple steps how to take the first steps.

Pricing

The platform provides four plans. Free, Teams, Embrace, and Custom. So you can use it for as little as free (with considerable limitations), up to $150 per month. The Custom plan offers individual pricing.

A free plan is available.

#7 Virtualbadge.io

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Source: virtualbadge.io

With VirtualBadge, your users are transformed into loyal brand advocates by receiving unique appreciation tokens and credentials. In addition, such documents are 100% social media-friendly.

Best features

What does this system offer? Among other things, easy certificate management, building your online reputation, saving time, or increasing your brand recognition.

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VirtualBadge.io works in a simple way, but that doesn't mean it's a basic tool – quite the opposite. Whether you want to send a badge to an email address, verify skill tags on a badge image, or track user engagement, this system will support you every step of the way.

Pricing

The price list also consists of four plans. You have a choice of Starter, Pro, Expert, and Scale. There is no free plan here, but there is a free trial. The Scale plan offers personalized pricing.

A free plan is NOT available.

#8 eNetBadges

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eNetBadges is a simple-to-use platform with which you will be able to create and manage digital badges. 

Best features

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This tool can be used by your company for a variety of purposes, such as for real-time verification, elevating hiring practices, and promoting engagement. It helps to promote positive learning behavior by incentivizing learners and enables employers to determine whether candidates meet standards where badges are aligned.

Pricing

eNetBadges do not provide pricing information. In order to obtain these details, you will need to contact them directly.

A free plan is NOT available.

#9 HyperStack

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You don't need any experience to use the HyperStack tool. Although it offers many design options, it is easy to use.

Best features

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Hyperstack allows you to take customization and branding to a whole new level with a variety of features. From your own domain and email address, you can issue digital certificates and badges with completely customizable branding and verification pages.

With such possibilities, you will be able to issue thousands of badges in just a few minutes. So you save a lot and gain even more.

Pricing

At Hyperstack, you can choose from four plans: Free, Growth L1, Growth L2, or Enterprise. But most importantly, you also have the option to build your own plan. You can customize your package according to your organization's size and need. 

A free plan is available.

#10 Canvas Credentials

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Source: instructure.com

Our last but not least suggestion is Canvas Credentials from Instructure. Canvas Credentials is an inclusive digital credentialing network. It allows you to issue badges to everyone, not just your employees or students, for their learning outcomes.

Best features

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Canvas Credentials provides customization, documentation, training, analytics, data security, badge management, and much more. It's not just a seamless way for skills and achievement validation.

What's more, Instructure has more learning products in its portfolio that you can take advantage of. So, if you think this whole case of creating and issuing badges is complicated, you may change your mind thanks to Canvas Credentials.

Pricing

You can use Canvas Credentials for free, but you can also test the platform thanks to the free trial. Anyway, you need to request a demo to learn more information.

A free plan is available.

To sum up

So as you can see, Credly is not the only digital badging platform for your badge requirements. We hope this article will help you make the right decision and choose a satisfactory badging program. 

To increase customer success and issue badge certificates, bet on Certifier.

FAQ

Manage badges with ease under one Certifier roof.
Sergey Butko avatar

Sergey Butko

Tech entrepreneur. Forbes 30 Under 30 Europe. At Certifier, Sergey’s work focused on revolutionizing the way credentials, certificates, and badges are issued and managed through cutting-edge APIs and software infrastructure.

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