The self-hosted Skills Base alternative
Trainora: Self-hosted training matrix: who has what, what has run out, and what runs out next — every expiry computed from the date it was achieved, never stored. Own it once, run it on your own server, and stop paying Skills Base every month.
Stop renting Skills Base.
Trainora1 month of Skills Base costs what Trainora costs once.
Buy onceHow we counted: Shown at 40 people ($2.25 x 40 = $90/month; the page names no billing period, re-read 2026-10-08) so it sits beside the TalentLMS 1-40 band on this product. The nearest rival to Trainora in kind rather than category — it is a skills matrix, not a course platform — and it is the cheapest per head of the three, which is worth saying plainly. Trainora is $79 once, for any number of people.
Skills Base meters per PERSON per month on both paid tiers, so the bill tracks headcount rather than how much training actually happens.
“teams $2.25 per person / month”, their own page, read 2026-09-03
Skills Base gives away a genuinely free forever tier with the matrix, unlimited assessments and reports in it — the vendor's own spelling of "unlimted" included.
“unlimted assessments skill matrix reports”, their own page
Stay with Skills Base if you want staff self-assessment and proficiency targets as a hosted service. Trainora has a REST API and CSV import of people too, and answers the narrower question a compliance file asks — who has what, what has run out, and what runs out next — with every expiry computed from the date achieved, on your own server.
What Trainora deliberately doesn't do is on its product page.
Why owning beats renting Skills Base.
No monthly, per-seat or per-location fees. The license is perpetual.
It never lives in Skills Base's cloud.
Records and users are limited by your hosting, not by a pricing tier.
Self-hosted software can't be sunset or repriced out from under you.
The fair trade-offs: you host it, back it up and apply updates yourself. See the product page for its limits, and the full Trainora vs renting comparison.
Questions about moving off Skills Base.
Does it issue certificates?
Is it a learning platform?
Can people log in and see their own record?
If I change how long a competency stays valid, do old records change?
Related on this site
Sources
- Skills Base: price checked 2026-10-08, source“free $0 free forever ... teams $2.25 per person / month ... enterprise $4 per person / month ... unlimted assessments skill matrix reports”
Competitor prices change, so always confirm on the linked page. We only print figures we could verify on the date shown. This vendor is tracked in the Price Observatory: every figure verbatim, dated, re-checked quarterly.