Most online induction softwares don’t even have Free account option, meaning in order to run your inductions you need to pay, and with most cases you will beEvery other platform seems to claim it’s “free” – until you read the fine print and discover it’s really a 14-day trial, a heavily crippled freemium tier, or a teaser that forces you into a paid plan the moment you start using it properly.
When you’re dealing with safety, contractors and compliance, you don’t just need clever marketing lines – you need a system that actually lets you run real inductions without a surprise invoice.
This is where Induct For Work is different. It offers a genuinely usable free online induction plan that lets you run up to five inductions per month at no cost, with clear limits and no tricks.
Let’s unpack what “free” usually means in this space, what you actually need from an induction platform and how Induct For Work compares to others.
What “free” usually looks like with others
Most online induction and LMS vendors do have something they call “free”, but in practice it often means:
Time-limited trials only
Many systems give you 7–30 days where everything looks great – full features, plenty of users – and then simply stop working until you enter your card details. After that, pricing is often per user, per licence, which quickly becomes expensive as your contractor numbers grow.Hidden costs and add-ons
A few providers keep the base subscription low but charge excessively for:Implementation or setup
Advanced reporting
API or integration access
Extra support
These extra fees can push the overall cost far beyond what you budgeted. In short: with many providers, “free” is more of a sales funnel than a workable, ongoing solution.
What you actually need from free induction software
Even at a free level, an online induction system should give you enough to run real inductions properly:
A way to build or upload content (slides, documents, video, SCORM, etc.)
A clean portal for workers to self-register and complete their inductions
Tracking and records – who has completed which induction
Ability to handle at least one site or work location
Basic support and help guides so you’re not left guessing
Induct For Work is built as a fully customisable online induction platform, designed to let businesses create, run and monitor their own inductions without needing an in-house IT team. The free plan isn’t a separate toy product – it’s a carefully limited slice of the same underlying system.
How Induct For Work’s free plan actually works
Induct For Work offers a Free Online Inductions plan with clear, published limits:
1 worksite / location
1 admin user
1 self-registration portal
Up to 2 online inductions / staff training courses
Up to 5 induction attempts per month
Access to help pages
Ability to upgrade or downgrade at any time
Ability to activate paid add-ons if you wish
Standard customer support response times
You start on a 14-day full-featured trial with the platform. When that trial ends, and if you wish to stay on a free plan, the account simply rolls down to the free online induction plan automatically, rather than shutting you out.
Crucially, at the free level you can still:
Build your own safety or onboarding courses
Invite staff and contractors to complete them
Track completion and maintain a basic audit trail
For small businesses, single sites, pilot projects or not-for-profit operations, being able to run five genuine inductions every month with no licence fee is significant.
How this compares with other providers
You can broadly group “free” offerings by others into three patterns:
1. Trial-only systems
These look generous at first – sometimes even more generous than Induct For Work’s free plan – but only for a short time:
Full features and many users
Strict 7–30 day limit
No ongoing free usage
Once the trial ends, you must move to a paid plan or lose access. That’s fine if you are already certain you’ll buy, but it doesn’t help organisations wanting a low-volume, long-term free option.
2. Freemium with heavy feature locks
Some platforms let you stay free forever, but:
Only a handful of users are allowed
Course numbers are capped at one
Compliance features are unavailable
This can be acceptable for informal e-learning but can fall short in safety-critical inductions, where you must demonstrate due diligence.
3. “Low headline price, high extras”
Other systems present an attractive entry price, then charge an arm and a leg for:
Advanced analytics
Additional sites or portals
Induct For Work’s own comparison content notes that many widely recognised e-learning solutions end up costly because of per-user pricing, limited features on lower tiers and opaque add-on structures.
Against that backdrop, a clear, no-surprise free tier that still allows genuine use – not just testing – is unusual.
When the Induct For Work free plan is enough
The free plan is particularly suited to:
Single-site businesses wanting basic online inductions for staff or contractors
Organisations wanting to test online inductions properly before committing to a paid plan
Low-volume environments – for example, a small depot or office where only a few new people need inducting each month
Not-for-profits and community groups with limited budgets who still want a professional induction process
Because you can run up to 2 courses (for example, a general safety induction and a site-specific module) and track up to 5 completions per month, it’s more than just a demonstration – it’s usable in day-to-day operations at low volume.
When you might outgrow the free tier
If your needs increase, Induct For Work’s paid plans add:
Multiple sites and portals
Unlimited inductees and courses
Larger SMS allocations
Options like digital forms, signatures, document collection and incident reporting as add-ons
The key point is that you only move up when you actually need to, rather than being forced off the platform as soon as your trial expires.
So, what is the “best” free online induction software?
“Best” depends on your situation:
If you need to test a big enterprise LMS for a month, a time-limited trial from a large vendor might suit you.
If you only care about very simple, informal training for a few learners, a heavily limited freemium tool might be enough.
But if you want a serious induction platform that you can use indefinitely at low volume, with the option to grow into a richer system later, Induct For Work’s free online induction plan is a strong contender.
You get a genuine operational capability – not just a teaser – with the reassurance that you can upgrade, add features or stay free, depending on how your business evolves.
In other words: if you’re searching for “best free online induction software” and you genuinely mean free to run real inductions, month after month, Induct For Work deserves to be right at the top of your shortlist.
