Choosing a Learning Management System (LMS) requires a well-informed decision: standards, technical implementation, usability, pedagogical foundations, as well as economic aspects such as sustainability and costs must be considered. A fundamental question is whether to opt for proprietary or open-source products: Free solutions like Moodle, Ilias, or ATutor promise low costs, flexibility, and independence from vendors. Proprietary competitors like WebCT and Blackboard rely on certified service and conventional business relationships. This study has two objectives: firstly, to provide a detailed description of the most important free and commercial platforms, and secondly, to compare them based on a set of criteria. The main focus is on whether open-source solutions generally represent an alternative to commercial solutions.