HowNow

HowNow is a workplace learning platform that brings training, company knowledge, skills tools, and curated content together. It is best suited to L&D teams connecting employee learning to roles and skills. Its breadth is a strong fit for that job, but custom pricing makes the cost harder to assess before speaking with the vendor.

Overview

Employees get a personalised feed of learning opportunities and company knowledge tied to current and future roles. HowNow combines learning management with a learning experience platform, giving L&D teams ways to deliver structured training while helping staff find useful material across connected sources. Unified Search pulls those sources into one search experience, which can reduce the need to hunt through separate tools.

The AI Skill Graph maps learning resources, pathways, and internal experts to organisational skills. Guru AI Coach can teach, coach, challenge, reinforce, and adapt using company knowledge. Those capabilities are aimed at organisations that want learning to reflect their own skills and expertise; their value will depend on how closely the mapped skills and AI guidance fit the organisation’s needs.

Key features

Teams can create learning content with text, images, video, GIFs, code snippets, quizzes, and SCORM files. SCORM and xAPI support, assessments, and certificates suit programmes that need more than informal content discovery. For scheduled learning, HowNow can manage sessions, track attendance, and integrate virtual classrooms for online or in-person delivery.

HowNow Plus combines curated learning from providers including Skillsoft and MindTools in one subscription. That can give employees a broader content library within the platform. Integrations include Slack, Microsoft Teams, Workday, HiBob, Google Drive, Notion, Udemy, and LinkedIn Learning, extending its reach across workplace and learning tools.

Learning can continue through Slack, the web, and the mobile app, including offline. The browser extension puts learning alongside the work apps employees use. SSO and provisioning are supported with Azure, Google, Okta, OneLogin, and JumpCloud, while HowNow states that it holds ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials credentials and supports GDPR requirements. Its Trust Center describes RSA and elliptic-curve encryption for data in transit and AES-256 full-disk encryption for data at rest.

Pricing

HowNow uses paid, custom pricing. Its pricing page offers an investment and ROI calculator and directs prospective buyers to connect with an expert; it does not give a public price or plan limits. That means organisations will need a quote to judge the cost against their employee count and learning requirements. There is no published free plan or trial to use for a lower-commitment evaluation.

Platforms

HowNow is available on the web, Android, iOS, macOS, and as a browser extension. The mobile app is listed for iPhone and iPad, and learners can move between mobile, Slack, and web, including offline learning. This range suits organisations whose employees switch between devices or need learning access away from a desktop.

Who it's for

HowNow is aimed at modern L&D and HR teams that want to connect learning with skills and business results. Its combination of personalised learning, skills mapping, content creation, and session management makes it relevant to organisations running both self-directed and scheduled programmes. Teams seeking only a basic course host may find that breadth unnecessary, while buyers who need public pricing should consider alternatives with a stated free tier.

Pros and cons

• Pros: One platform combines discovery, skills mapping, learning management, assessments, and certificates, reducing the need to split those functions across separate learning systems.
• Pros: Unified Search, a personalised feed, and a wide integration set help employees reach relevant learning and company knowledge across workplace tools.
• Pros: Mobile and offline access, plus a browser extension, give employees several ways to learn alongside their work.
• Cons: Custom pricing and unpublished plan limits make it difficult to estimate cost or compare package scope before contacting HowNow.
• Cons: Its broad set of learning and skills capabilities may be more than organisations need if they only want a straightforward course-management tool.

Alternatives

For a free starting point, LearningStone offers one collaborative training or coaching space for up to five members, with standard design; its free plan lasts indefinitely and requires no credit card. Leemons is another free option, with three paid plans listed as coming soon and support for self-hosted deployments as well as several desktop platforms.

Rhapsode may suit buyers who want flexible licensing, including per-user, per-course, or revenue-share arrangements, with unlimited users described as an option. Capabl, enablED, and Infosys Wingspan are paid alternatives. Kriatix Lead Qualification Chatbot has a free trial, though its name points to a different use case. Axonify is paid, with quote-based pricing depending on team size, locations, and features.

Readers comparing categories can also browse Learning Experience Platforms and Learning Management Systems.

Verdict

HowNow is a strong choice for L&D teams that want employee learning, company knowledge, skills mapping, content, and training administration in one platform. Its central advantage is that breadth, supported by workplace integrations and mobile access. The main reason to look elsewhere is the custom pricing: organisations that need a clear upfront cost or a free plan will find it easier to start with an alternative that publishes those terms.