Moodle has been around for a long time, and for good reason. It’s the most widely used learning management system (LMS) on the planet, powering everything from small training hubs to global corporate rollouts. But anyone who’s ever logged in knows the contradiction at its core: Moodle is incredibly flexible and powerful, yet the default design can feel… well, dated. Sometimes even messy.
That’s where themes come in. They’re not just a “new coat of paint.” Your Moodle theme shapes how learners experience the platform — whether they feel confident navigating it or get lost in a tangle of menus. In many cases, the theme is the deciding factor in whether people actually use the LMS at all.
This guide takes a look at why design has become a strategic issue for organisations, how Moodle’s theming architecture works, and the different options you’ve got in 2025 if you want something that looks good, works smoothly, and doesn’t break the first time Moodle updates.
Why Your Theme Is More Than Just Design
For years, organisations have treated Moodle like a storage cupboard for e-learning content. Functional, but not particularly inviting. That mindset may explain why so many platforms end up with low completion rates and frustrated learners.
A custom theme can shift that dynamic in three key ways:
- Branding and trust – A site that reflects your organisation’s identity instantly looks more professional. In a corporate setting, this signals quality and credibility, which can make people take the training more seriously.
- Adoption – Strip away the clutter, and you’ll see adoption rates climb. If learners aren’t wrestling with the interface, they’re more likely to stick around long enough to finish the course.
- Efficiency – An intuitive design doesn’t just help learners. It makes life easier for admins and course creators too, reducing support requests and the need for constant hand-holding.
How Moodle Themes Work Under the Hood
It helps to know a bit about Moodle’s architecture before diving into customisation.
The Base Themes – Moodle ships with two: Boost and Classic. Boost is the modern, responsive option and the one most people should build on if they want their site to keep working through future upgrades.
Theme Inheritance – Think of this like “parent” and “child.” A child theme inherits all the updates and security patches of its parent (usually Boost), while you only change what you need — layout, branding, extra features. This approach keeps things stable and manageable in the long run.
Community and Commercial Options – Beyond the defaults, there’s a huge ecosystem of both free and paid themes. Some are community favourites, others are developed by Moodle Partners and geared toward enterprise use.
Popular Moodle Themes in 2025
Over the years, certain Moodle themes have risen to the top of the pile — either because of strong community backing or because they solve very specific problems for organisations. None of them are “one-size-fits-all,” but each has a personality and a set of trade-offs that may or may not fit your situation.
Moove
Widely praised for its clean, modern layout, Moove tries to make Moodle feel less intimidating for first-time users. The dashboard is simple, with quick access to courses and key tools, and it feels more like a contemporary web app than a 2000s intranet. The downside? It’s opinionated. If your organisation requires very heavy customisation, you may encounter limits. Still, for anyone looking to quickly enhance the learner experience without extensive tinkering, it’s a solid option.
Adaptable
As the name suggests, Adaptable is all about flexibility. Administrators get a dizzying number of settings they can tweak, from colours and layouts to menus and blocks. That’s why it’s especially popular in higher education, where different faculties often want a slightly different flavour of Moodle. The flip side is that so many options can feel overwhelming, and sometimes the more you change, the easier it is to break consistency across the site.
Essential
Essential has been around for a long time and, for a while, was the alternative to Moodle’s core themes. It’s feature-rich, with built-in marketing banners, branding tools, and content showcase options. Some people still swear by it because it “just works” for their setup. Others feel it’s starting to show its age, especially as the Moodle core and newer themes embrace cleaner, mobile-first design.
Lambda
Lambda leans heavily into aesthetics. Out of the box, it offers a range of attractive templates and design elements — things like header variations, stylish course cards, and homepage layouts that feel less like a learning portal and more like a polished website. It’s particularly popular with organisations that see training as part of their brand identity. On the flip side, it can feel a little “templated” if you don’t take the time to make it your own.
RemUI
RemUI is very much a “corporate” theme. It focuses on giving learners and managers dashboard views that prioritise reporting, progress tracking, and quick access to the right resources. Mobile responsiveness is a strong point too, making it handy for workplaces where training needs to happen on the go. It’s not the flashiest in terms of aesthetics, but if you care about clarity and usability over visual flair, RemUI does the job.
Snap
Snap takes a different approach altogether. Instead of piling on settings or templates, it strips things back. The result is a simple, linear, almost “app-like” navigation experience. Many learners find this refreshing, especially if they’ve previously been put off by Moodle’s complexity. On the other hand, if your organisation likes a highly customised look with multiple blocks and widgets, Snap might feel too barebones.
Norse (by Titus)
Norse is relatively new but already stands out as a premium, enterprise-ready option. Built as a Boost child theme, it doesn’t reinvent the wheel — instead, it refines it. The design is modern, minimal, and feels instantly professional, without the clutter you sometimes get from older community themes. Because it’s developed and maintained by Titus, a certified Moodle Partner, it comes with the reassurance of long-term support and stability. In practice, this makes it a strong middle path: more polished than free community themes, but without the full overhead of a bespoke build.
Choosing Your Path: Three Ways to Get a Better Theme
When upgrading your Moodle theme, you’re basically deciding how much control you want versus how much you’re willing to invest. Broadly, there are three routes:
- Off-the-Shelf (The Quick Fix)
Buy a pre-made theme and install it. It’s cheap and fast, but usually limited when it comes to branding and long-term stability. If the developer stops updating it, you could be stuck. - Semi-Custom (The Middle Ground)
Work with a Moodle Partner to take an existing theme — Moove or Adaptable, for example — and apply your branding, logos, and colours. This balances cost and support but doesn’t solve highly specific workflow or integration needs. - Bespoke (The Strategic Choice)
Commission a custom-built child theme designed around your organisation’s processes. Yes, it’s the most expensive option upfront, but it gives you maximum control, a stronger user experience, and a better fit with long-term business goals.
Must-Have Features for Enterprise Themes
Regardless of which route you take, certain features aren’t optional anymore if you want your Moodle theme to hold up in 2025:
- Branded login pages that set the right tone from the start
- Role-based dashboards so managers, instructors, and learners each see what matters to them
- Accessibility compliance (WCAG) so the platform is usable for everyone
- Mobile-first responsiveness — learning on a train or in a café shouldn’t be a headache
- A clean SCSS structure that won’t collapse the next time Moodle releases an update
Final Thoughts: Design as Performance
At the end of the day, a Moodle theme isn’t just about “making things pretty.” It’s about performance — how people experience learning and whether they come back to finish it.
If your organisation is serious about training, it’s worth treating the theme as a strategic investment rather than an afterthought. In practice, that means working with a Moodle Partner who gets both the technical side and the user experience side.
Because when the design works, the whole platform starts working better too.