---
title: "Categories — every kind of SCORM tool, by what it does | SCORM Tools"
canonical_url: "https://scorm-tools.com/categories"
last_updated: "2026-10-31T10:21:41.653Z"
meta:
  description: "The directory is organised by function: authoring, converters, players and debuggers, testing, packagers and SDKs, LMSs, xAPI and cmi5, distribution and analytics."
  "og:description": "The directory is organised by function: authoring, converters, players and debuggers, testing, packagers and SDKs, LMSs, xAPI and cmi5, distribution and analytics."
  "og:title": "Categories — every kind of SCORM tool, by what it does"
---

# **Categories**

A tool belongs here because of the job it does, not because of who sells it. A JavaScript runtime, a desktop debugger and an enterprise LMS can all speak SCORM 2004; grouping them by function is what makes them comparable.

Most directories split e-learning software by buyer — authoring for instructional designers, LMS for administrators — and drop everything else. That leaves the parts developers actually reach for, the runtimes, manifest validators, packagers and command line tools, with nowhere to sit. The categories below cover the whole surface, open source and commercial in the same list.

Each category page opens with a definition of what the tools in it do and where they differ, then lists them with the standards each one supports and where that fact came from. Tools that do more than one job appear in more than one category.

**Authoring tools & course frameworks**

Where the course gets made — and where its SCORM output is decided.

[Authoring tools & course frameworks](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/authoring-tools)

**Converters & migration**

Turning what you already have — decks, video, H5P, old packages — into something an LMS accepts.

[Converters & migration](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/converters-migration)

**Players, runtimes & debuggers**

Run a SCORM package outside an LMS — and watch what it actually does.

[Players, runtimes & debuggers](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/players-runtimes-debuggers)

**Testing, validation & conformance**

Prove a package is correct before a client's LMS proves it isn't.

[Testing, validation & conformance](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/testing-validation-conformance)

**Packagers, SDKs & libraries**

The pieces you build with when the course is an application, not a slide deck.

[Packagers, SDKs & libraries](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/packagers-sdks-libraries)

**LMS & LMS plugins**

Where the package finally has to run — and how well each platform actually implements the spec.

[LMS & LMS plugins](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/lms-and-plugins)

**xAPI & cmi5**

The standards after SCORM — and the tools that actually implement them.

[xAPI & cmi5](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/xapi-cmi5)

**Distribution, licensing & hosting**

Getting a course into someone else's LMS without giving away the course.

[Distribution, licensing & hosting](https://scorm-tools.com/categories/distribution-licensing)