One platform instead of three
Save a Life replaced WordPress, a standalone LMS and a separate store with one system for content, commerce and certification.
Course Management Software
Your learning management system and commerce engine. One platform.
Core dna runs your courses, certifications, memberships, checkout and website on one platform, with one learner record from first purchase to renewal.
CUSTOMER STORIES
Courses and certification on Core dna
Read the story
SCORM LMS moved off Absorb
YMCA of Greater Toronto moved Ignite's SCORM courses and learners from Absorb onto the Core dna setup that already runs its website.
One course behind four products
Certification, recertification, for-life and bundle products draw on the same course. Content changes once. Price, access and certificates follow the purchase.
1,700 pages localized into Spanish
AI translation through MCP, a medical advisor approving every page, Spanish checkout and prices in local currency.
An LMS with eCommerce built in
Most e-learning platforms and LMS software make you add a separate eCommerce tool, a CMS, and a membership plugin. Core dna ships all of it natively, in one admin, one database, one digital learning platform.
Courses, lessons and SCORM
Build courses from modules, lessons, video and question banks in the CMS, or deliver SCORM and HTML5 packages. Both run under the same access rules and reporting.
Reporting and learner data
Progress, completions, scores and revenue sit on one data model. Export to CSV or Excel, use the REST API, build role-scoped dashboards, or ask questions in plain language through MCP.
Security and hosting
Hosted on AWS across at least two availability zones, with autoscaling for renewal peaks, a web application firewall, DDoS protection, quarterly penetration testing and point-in-time backups.
Membership and gated access
Gate courses and member pages by membership tier, group or product line, across one site or several, with the same permissions engine that runs the rest of the platform.
Marketing-led course pages
Your marketing team runs course pages, free pre-tests, practice tests and campaign landing pages in the same editor as the rest of the site, with no developer queue.
Automation and integrations
Renewal reminders, course assignments and certificate emails run as Orchestration jobs in the admin. Stripe is built in. CRM and ERP systems such as HubSpot, Salesforce and NetSuite connect through Orchestration.
Sell courses the way your learners want to buy.
Each course exists once and links to every product that sells it, so a first certification, a recertification, a for-life product and a bundle all draw on the same modules and exam.
- Subscriptions and memberships alongside one-time course purchases
- Course pages that show buy, start or resume depending on what the learner owns
- Bundle savings on product cards, upsells, coupons, and user group and country pricing rules
- Prices in several currencies, with one currency per cart through to the invoice
- Card payments through Stripe, plus Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal
From enrolment to renewal
Certificate rules, credit types and renewal cycles are fields on the course and enrolment records, so they follow your accrediting body's rules.
ENROL
Access on payment
A completed checkout creates the enrolment and opens the course. No manual step sits between payment and the first lesson.
ASSESS
Exams from question banks
Questions are drawn from a question bank and mixed on each attempt. Scores and pass dates are stored against the enrolment.
CERTIFY
Verifiable certificates
A personalized PDF is issued on passing, with the issue date, a renew-by date and a QR code for verification. Continuing education certificates can be issued separately for accredited courses.
RENEW
Recertification with full history
Reminders go out ahead of expiry. Each renewal creates a new enrolment with its own dates, attempts and certificate, and earlier records stay in the learner's history.
Membership programs and organization accounts
Core dna holds each organization, its members, their roles and their entitlements on the same record that the course, the certificate and the invoice read from.
- Several membership programs or academies on one instance, each with its own access rules, pricing and course catalog
- Learner, organization manager and administrator roles, enforced at the data layer
- Admin access for instructors and partner organizations, limited to their own courses and groups
- Quotes and pay by account for organizations buying for their teams
- Reporting scoped by role, through exports, the REST API and dashboards built to your specification
YMCA of Greater Toronto runs its corporate site, 30 microsites and its Ignite learning platform from one administration, with user records shared between the website and the LMS.
Teach and sell in every market and language
Run your site, courses and checkout in each market's language and currency. An AI agent can draft translations through Core dna's MCP layer, and your reviewers approve each page before it goes live. Save a Life localized about 1,700 pages of clinical content for Spain and Latin America this way.
- Each language under its own path, with translated slugs and automatic hreflang, and existing URLs unchanged
- Courses run per language, each with its own exams and certificate
- A language switcher, location-based defaults and a saved preference on each learner's account
- Cart, checkout, account pages and emails in the learner's language, with prices in their currency
- Draft and approval on every page, with an alert to the reviewer when the source page changes
AI AND MCP
AI agents and MCP for learning operations
Core dna's MCP server connects an AI assistant such as Claude to your platform, with the signed-in administrator's exact permissions. It is off by default, and nothing on the platform depends on it. See how MCP works on Core dna.
01
Translation
Translate and update in bulk
Agents write translations and content changes as unpublished revisions for your reviewers to approve. Save a Life localized its catalog this way.
02
Reporting
Ask your platform questions
Administrators ask about enrolments, completions and orders in plain language. Answers are limited to what that person is allowed to see.
03
Agents
Agents that recommend first
Each agent can only use the tools on its allow-list. Agents can record a recommendation for a person to approve, and every run is logged.
04
Governance
Your own model account and spend cap
Use your own Anthropic, OpenAI or Google account and keys, with a monthly spend cap. Learner and course data is not used to train models.
The orchestration platform: Commerce, Content, LMS
Core dna is built for teams who are done maintaining three tools to run one education business.
What it's like to work with Core dna
Timelines are set in discovery. A catalog with standard access rules goes live faster than a certification model with credit types and annual resets.
DISCOVERY
Decisions made before the build
We work through roles, membership and pricing logic, the certificate model, integrations and reporting with your team. One early decision is how courses are delivered: SCORM packages, or courses authored in the platform.
BUILD
Built and tested in staging
Production, staging and development environments are included. Your team tests enrolment, access and checkout before any learner sees them.
MIGRATE
Learner history carried across
Members, orders, enrolments, completions and certificates are mapped, trial-migrated into staging and reconciled against the source. Redirects keep existing pages and rankings in place.
LAUNCH
The team that built it supports it
Core dna's own staff scope, build and support the platform. You keep the same people after go-live, with no implementation partner in between.
LMS Platform Comparison
How Core dna compares to Docebo, TalentLMS & LearnUpon
Docebo, TalentLMS, and LearnUpon are serious enterprise learning management systems. All three handle e-learning delivery well. The gap appears when you need commerce built for courses, a public-facing marketing site, or multi-site architecture. Selling course access usually means an add-on or a third-party store, and none of the three has a built-in CMS.
| Capability |
Core dna
|
Docebo
|
TalentLMS
|
LearnUpon
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
LMS features (courses, quizzes, SCORM, certs)
|
Native | Native | Native | Native |
|
Subscription & membership billing
|
Native | Via integration | Via Stripe add-on | Via integration |
|
Built-in CMS (marketing site + portal)
|
Native | Separate tool | Separate tool | Separate tool |
|
eCommerce (sell courses + products)
|
Native | Needs Shopify | Basic, built in | Needs Shopify |
|
Multi-site from one instance
|
Native | Enterprise only | Limited | Limited |
|
LMS integrations (ERP, CRM, SSO)
|
Configured in the admin | Strong | Basic | Moderate |
|
No. of vendors required
|
1 | 2–3 | 2–3 | 2–3 |
|
Fully managed cloud LMS (no DevOps)
|
Included | Included | Included | Included |
LMS features (courses, quizzes, SCORM, certs)
Core dnaNative
DoceboNative
TalentLMSNative
LearnUponNative
Subscription & membership billing
Core dnaNative
DoceboVia integration
TalentLMSVia Stripe add-on
LearnUponVia integration
Built-in CMS (marketing site + portal)
Core dnaNative
DoceboSeparate tool
TalentLMSSeparate tool
LearnUponSeparate tool
eCommerce (sell courses + products)
Core dnaNative
DoceboNeeds Shopify
TalentLMSBasic, built in
LearnUponNeeds Shopify
Multi-site from one instance
Core dnaNative
DoceboEnterprise only
TalentLMSLimited
LearnUponLimited
LMS integrations (ERP, CRM, SSO)
Core dnaConfigured in the admin
DoceboStrong
TalentLMSBasic
LearnUponModerate
No. of vendors required
Core dna1
Docebo2–3
TalentLMS2–3
LearnUpon2–3
Fully managed cloud LMS (no DevOps)
Core dnaIncluded
DoceboIncluded
TalentLMSIncluded
LearnUponIncluded
Yes. Core dna is one of the few platforms that ships LMS, CMS, and eCommerce natively in a single instance. You can build structured courses with lessons, quizzes, and certificates, and sell them via one-time purchase or recurring subscription, all managed from the same admin dashboard. No separate billing tool or LMS plugin required.
Yes. SCORM and HTML5 packages run inside the course structure, and a learner who closes a course picks up near where they stopped. YMCA Ignite runs its SCORM courses on Core dna after moving them from Absorb. Courses can also be authored in the platform as lessons, question banks and assessments, which makes credit types, versions and certificate rules reportable. The choice is made per catalog during discovery.
Yes. Recertification can be sold as its own product on the same course. Each renewal creates a new enrolment with its own exam attempt and certificate, and earlier certificates stay in the learner's account. Save a Life sells each course as a first certification, a recertification, a for-life product and part of a bundle.
Yes. Accredited courses can issue a separate continuing education certificate alongside the completion certificate, and credits can be sold as their own product. Advanced Medical Certification sells CME credits on its ACLS practice test course.
Yes. Save a Life runs its site, courses and checkout in English and Spanish, with prices in several currencies. Spanish pages sit under /es/ with automatic hreflang, so English rankings are unaffected, and each Spanish course has its own exams and certificate.
Core dna handles both natively. Most learning management systems, including Docebo, need a third-party billing tool or integration to manage recurring subscriptions. Core dna builds subscription billing into the same platform as the LMS, with Stripe checkout and access granted automatically on payment.
Yes. Members, orders, enrolments, completions and certificate records are mapped to Core dna, trial-migrated into staging and reconciled against the source before launch. Historical certificates can be regenerated from the migrated records, and redirects keep existing pages and rankings in place. Save a Life moved from WordPress, a standalone LMS and a separate store, and YMCA Ignite moved its SCORM courses and learners from Absorb.
Yes. Core dna is a fully managed, cloud-based LMS platform, with no servers to run and no infrastructure to maintain. It is delivered as SaaS, with hosting, security and upgrades handled by Core dna. Timelines are set in discovery: a catalog with standard access rules goes live faster than a certification model with credit types and annual resets.
One subscription covers software, hosting, security and support. There are no transaction fees on course sales and no per-learner licensing. Cost depends on scope: the certification model, integrations and migration volume.
Docebo and TalentLMS are strong learning management systems for internal and customer training. Both can sell course access through basic built-in checkout, add-ons or a third-party store, but neither has a built-in CMS for a public-facing marketing site. Core dna ships LMS, commerce and CMS natively, with one platform, one admin and one vendor, which suits organizations where education is a revenue line.
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