Searching for Open Source React Native LMS frontend apps with low hosting cost LMS backend

27 & 28 Nov. 2025

Google search AI response for 'Open Source React Native LMS frontend' says:

While there are general open-source React Native projects and open-source Learning Management Systems (LMS) with React web frontends, there is no single, prominent, ready-to-use open-source React Native LMS frontend project that is widely recognized as a complete product for mobile apps.
Frappe LMS: This is a 100% open-source LMS application that integrates with the Frappe framework. The frontend is web-based, but its modular nature makes it possible to build a React Native client that consumes its API.
MERN Stack Examples: Many GitHub repositories offer full-stack MERN (MongoDB, Express.js, React, Node.js) LMS examples. These are usually web applications, but can serve as architectural inspiration or a starting point for building a mobile version.
In summary, you will likely need to build the frontend yourself using React Native/Expo, connecting it to a stable open-source LMS backend via an API.

Of course, Moodle (the very well known and respected Open Source LMS) itself can be used as an LMS backend by an RN frontend. Moodle mobile app, also Open Source, is not an RN or Android/iOS app but a "hybrid app". Google search AI says, "the Moodle mobile app is a hybrid app that uses web technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript/TypeScript) and runs within a webview container, with the Apache Cordova framework (also known as PhoneGap) used to access native device features and package the application for different platforms."

Search for lms in the 'Curated List of Open Source React Native Apps', https://github.com/ReactNativeNews/React-Native-Apps gave 0 results. Neither was there suitable results for 'edu'. I had a quick browse through the list but could not find a suitable entry that could serve as an LMS frontend.

In the context of LMS implemented on Wordpress using plugins, the above list had two apps which may be interesting:

WordpressMobileApp, https://github.com/yakupafsin/WordpressMobileApp , MIT License: Wordpress Mobile App is a mobile application developed with Expo and React Native, designed to provide a user-friendly way to access and read content from your WordPress website. This README provides essential information for users and contributors.
[No license file, it seems] ONA-OPENNEWSAPP, https://github.com/vikasbukhari/ONA-OPENNEWSAPP : ONA or Open News App is an open source React Native based application for WordPress News and Blog Websites. [It does not seem to have a license file, but its Readme says it is 'open source'. So perhaps it could be viewed as open source and be used freely for production sites. However, it may be best to get a specific OK from the authors before that is done (due to absence of Open Source License file)]

In the context of LMS implemented on Blogger using templates (less capable than WordPress LMS it seems and fewer in number), in above list, I did not find any RN app related to Blogger blogs neither any generic blog app that may work with Blogger. Above ONA-OPENNEWSAPP app seems to be specific to WordPress blogs.

Extracts/points from CG chat, "Open Source RN LMS evaluation" on 28 Nov. 2025

Me: ... Do you think it is worth exploring frappe lms for my needs? What's the reputation of frappe lms ? How popular is it?

CG ...

🧑‍💻 My Judgment: Is it worth exploring for you? — Yes, with cautious optimism

Given your stated needs:

relatively simple LMS
likely small–medium scale (you didn’t mention thousands of users)
willingness to self-host or manage backend
comfort with coding (you already know React, so adapting a React frontend is not impossible)

… I think Frappe LMS is a very reasonable candidate. It strikes a balance between being much lighter-weight than Moodle, but still offering a decent feature set (courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, live classes).

However — you should treat it as a “starting point” rather than a final, polished solution. Expect to do some work: maybe bug-fixing, adding small missing features, or writing a custom React (or React Native) frontend. Don’t expect plug-and-play maturity that Moodle or Canvas might give for big institutions.

📊 On Reputation and Popularity — Where Frappe LMS stands today

The project is open source (AGPL-3.0) and publicly available on GitHub. GitHub
It seems modestly used: stars/forks are relatively low, and the community is small compared to giants like Moodle.
The Frappe team (same folks behind Frappe Framework / ERPNext) are reputable: Frappe/ERPNext is widely used. Wikipedia+1
The “story” behind Frappe LMS — built by open-source community (FOSS United) to serve as a simple education platform — gives it a philosophical appeal. Roshan Shahzad+1
There is some real-world usage (or at least testing and feedback): open issues in 2025 indicate people are still trying to use it. GitHub

So its reputation is decent, but not “mature institution-grade”. It is more like a “hobbyist / early-stage open source LMS” — good for small projects, but not (yet) a full-blown alternative to Moodle / Canvas / Open edX in large educational institutions.

🎯 Recommendation (Given Your Context)

Yes — clone the repo and spin up a local / Docker instance now. Try creating a couple of courses, lessons, quizzes, etc. See if the “feel” matches what you want (simplicity, clean UI, ease of content creation).
If you like it, plan a custom React Native (Expo) frontend. Use something like frappe-straw or directly use Frappe’s REST APIs. This plays to your strength (React) and gives you full control.
But be ready to do some development / bug-fixing / custom code. Don’t expect it to work out-of-the-box for a medium-to-large live deployment with many users.
And, as with any open-source project, keep an eye on maintenance / community activity / security issues. Given your background (tech-savvy), you should be able to manage that.

...

CG: ...

🎯 If hosting cost and minimal complexity are your top priorities

Then Moodle or Frappe LMS are your main candidates.

Simple rule:

Want ready structure + modern backend → choose Frappe LMS
Want extremely cheap, extremely stable → choose Moodle

...

CG: ...

Let me give you a clear picture now — including a direction that may “hit the sweet spot” for your simple LMS + low-cost NGO setup + React Native + Expo Web requirement.

✅ **1. Yes — for Moodle, ₹800/month is the realistic minimum**

The ₹399/mo price is only a promotional term.
The real recurring price for a usable VPS Moodle setup is:

≈ ₹700–900 / month

(for 2–4 GB RAM VPS, which Moodle needs)

For an NGO, small group, or light usage…
₹800/month feels too high — especially when:

users are < 100
content is simple (text, images, maybe occasional video)
concurrency is low
no heavy quiz engine needed

So your hesitation is totally valid.

Moodle’s complexity → drives higher hosting cost.

✅ 2. WordPress as the LMS backend (simple course → lesson) is a great option

For your exact use case (simple hierarchy, NGO-friendly, low budget), WordPress is an excellent fit for these reasons:

✔ Can run on extremely cheap hosting (₹150–300/month shared hosting)

Even basic WordPress hosting is enough because:

content is light
user concurrency is tiny
you can offload videos to YouTube
database queries are simple

✔ WordPress has REST APIs built-in

No need for a plugin for basic posts, pages, categories, tags:


https://example.com/wp-json/wp/v2/posts

✔ You can structure course → lessons using:

categories
custom post types
custom fields
ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) plugin
simple taxonomy like:
- Course = Category
- Lesson = Post

✔ WordPress is extremely mature

You get:

user login
role management
media uploads
SEO
security updates
backups
plugins

✔ No backend coding required

Unless you want custom REST endpoints.

✔ Easy to host on free-tier or cheap-tier hosting

There are ₹100–200/month shared hosting plans in India that are perfectly adequate for your scale.

🎉 3. YES — that RN Expo WordPress Mobile App is perfect for your purpose

The project you found:
https://github.com/yakupafsin/WordpressMobileApp

Why this is a big win:

MIT license → you can fully use, modify, ship
Already consumes WordPress REST API
Already React Native + Expo
You know RN → you can adapt it quickly
You can extend the REST queries to fetch:
- lessons by category
- lesson metadata
- progress tracking (store locally or in WP)

This solves 80% of your work automatically.

Adapting it to “Course → Lesson”

You can do:

Option A:
Course = WordPress Category
Lesson = WordPress Post

Option B:
Course = Custom Post Type course
Lesson = Custom Post Type lesson
Link using ACF relationships

Option C:
Use a dedicated LMS plugin like Sensei LMS (free) — but you may not need this.

...

CG ...Your understanding is correct: when you use a free plan on WordPress.com, you cannot install arbitrary plugins (or custom REST-API plugins), so your idea of using a free WordPress.com blog + React-Native frontend will not work (at least not in a flexible way). Here’s a detailed explanation, with sources.

✅ What is WordPress.com vs WordPress.org

WordPress.com is a hosted service by Automattic. They offer free and paid plans. Wikipedia+2Premium WordPress Support+2
WordPress.org is the free open-source WordPress software. You self-host it (on your own server / hosting). That gives you full control: you can install plugins, themes, custom code, etc. The Jerusalem Intercultural Center+2WordPress.com+2

🚫 Plugin / REST API restrictions on WordPress.com free plan

On WordPress.com free / Personal / Premium plans, you cannot install custom plugins. Premium WordPress Support+2WordPress.com+2
Only Business (or eCommerce/Enterprise) plans allow installing plugins / custom themes. WordPress.com+2Premium WordPress Support+2
As long as you stay on a free plan, you’re limited to built-in features; custom REST-API plugin or custom post-type plugins are not allowed. The Jerusalem Intercultural Center+1

So if you have 3 blogs on WordPress.com under the free plan — you will not be able to install “REST API plugin” or a “course → lesson” plugin.

...

You are exactly on the right track.
For a simple, low-cost LMS with React Native + Expo, Blogger is actually more capable and more practical than WordPress.com free plan — because:

✅ Blogger provides a full REST API even for free blogs

Blogger’s API v3 is fully available for all free Blogger blogs.
You can create, retrieve, update, delete posts via OAuth.
You can list posts by labels (your “course/lesson” mapping).
You can fetch posts in JSON (no plugin required).
You can store structured metadata inside the post body or JSON payload.
You have no hosting cost — everything is free.

WordPress.com free plan, by comparison, only exposes:

Limited read-only endpoints
No custom post types
No plugin-based API extensions
No ability to authenticate users for LMS-style functionality
API v1.1 only — too limited for structured course → lesson models

So for an NGO-style, low-budget LMS, Blogger wins.

🟦 Comparing Blogger API vs WordPress.com API (for free blogs)

Feature	Blogger (Free)	WordPress.com Free
Full REST API	✔ Yes (v3)	❌ Very limited
Authentication	✔ OAuth2	✔ OAuth2, but limited actions
Create/Update/Delete Posts	✔ Yes	❌ No (write operations restricted)
Custom metadata	✔ Using Labels, JSON inside post	❌ No custom fields / metadata
Plugin support	❌ Not applicable	❌ Plugins not allowed
Host cost	₹0	₹0 but limited API
Ideal for LMS model	✔ Can be adapted	❌ Not suitable

🟩 How Blogger can be used as a simple LMS backend

You can structure your LMS like this:

Course

Represented as a Blogger Label: e.g., course-python, course-vedic-science

Lessons

Individual posts under that label
Metadata (order, type, duration) stored in:
- Post title: Lesson 1 – Introduction
- Labels: lesson, course-python
- JSON snippet inside post (at top/bottom)

Example JSON in the post:


<!-- LMS_META
{"duration": "10min", "video": "https://youtube.com/..."}
LMS_META -->

Your React Native app can extract this using regex.

Benefits:

ZERO backend cost
Full read/write API
Easy for non-technical content creators
Unlimited posts
Perfect for small NGO-scale LMS
Works for 10–100 learners easily

🟦 Practical: What about authentication?

Blogger API supports:

OAuth2 via Google accounts
Your RN app can authenticate users using:
- Expo AuthSession
- Firebase Authentication (Google provider)
- Or your own token storage after OAuth login

Learners will sign in with Google — which is fine for NGO setups.

🟩 Why Blogger is surprisingly good for your LMS use-case

✔ Free forever
✔ Reliable Google infrastructure
✔ Full API for both reading and writing
✔ Unlimited posts = unlimited lessons
✔ Posts with labels = natural Course/Lesson mapping
✔ Lightweight — no heavy Moodle / WordPress overhead
✔ Easy to integrate with React Native + Expo Web
✔ No hosting maintenance, no updates, no security issues

In your earlier discussions:

Moodle = too heavy
Frappe LMS = good, but needs backend + deployment
WordPress.com = too restricted
WordPress.org = requires hosting cost
Blogger = zero hosting, full API, enough features

So yes — Blogger may be the cleanest solution for your small, simple LMS.

...

Me: This is not a curated app: react-native-moodlemobile , https://github.com/costvin15/react-native-moodlemobile - MIT license, has 38 starts.

What do u think about it?

...

Me: The big advantage that I see with this is that I get a jump start on the RN app. To test, if I could simply create a login on Moodle and use some standard course it may have that would be great. Worst case, I could even have a bare minimum local Moodle setup.

If this RN app works with that, and I feel the functionality is reasonable (the screenshots are minimal and don't give enough idea of the app), then I could use this as a base, and then have a configuration variable that tells me whether to use Moodle or Blogger. Next I can implement the Blogger related stuff.

What do u say?

CG: ... Let me break down why your idea is solid and what the path looks like.

✅ Why your plan makes sense

1. You get an immediate React Native LMS UI “template”

Even if the Moodle backend is temporary:

You instantly get screens for:
- Login
- Course list
- Lessons
- Tabs / navigation
- Content rendering
- Authentication flow
- Possibly progress markers

Building that from scratch (proper UI + state flow + error handling) would take days or weeks.

Using this repo, you shortcut all of that.

2. You can test everything quickly using a local Moodle

You don’t need paid hosting.

You can do this:

Install Local Moodle using “Moodle in Docker” or “Bitnami Moodle” or “MAMP/XAMPP”.
Create a dummy admin account.
Load the “Standard Demo Course”.

Configure .env in the RN app:


MOODLE_HOST=http://localhost:8080
MOODLE_SERVICE=moodle_mobile_app
MOODLE_ADMIN_TOKEN=...

Run the RN app and verify it displays:
- login screen
- course list
- lessons
- content pages

If the app renders a valid LMS UI, that alone is a huge win — because you won't waste time reinventing UI scaffolding.

3. After UI validation → switch to “dual backend mode”

You can absolutely design this:


BACKEND=MOODLE | BLOGGER

Then your RN project structure becomes:


src/
   api/
      moodleApi.ts
      bloggerApi.ts
   screens/
   components/
   utils/

Your API interface can be unified:


interface LMSApi {
  login(email, password)
  getCourses()
  getCourseLessons(courseId)
  getLessonContent(lessonId)
}

Then implement this interface twice:

MoodleApi → uses existing Moodle endpoints.
BloggerApi → uses Blogger REST v3 + labels + posts.

And toggle via config:


import { BACKEND } from "../config";

const api = BACKEND === "MOODLE" ? MoodleApi : BloggerApi;

This gives you:

RN UI immediately
Backend flexibility long term
A safe fallback if Blogger API ends up too limited

🔥 This is actually the smartest possible workflow

Without Moodle → you would be stuck designing UI + flows blindly

That is slow and error-prone.

With Moodle → you can instantly validate:

How a real LMS behaves
What minimal features are needed
How navigation flows should look
What screens you actually need

You use Moodle as a UI model, not as the final backend.

...

Me: I browsed through src/screens on the GitHub repo. There are quite a few screens. One thing strange though - For each screen, like Login screen, there is a Login folder within which there are index.js, provider.js and styles.js files with index.js importing provider.js which has functions which it exports (like a util.js). I am more used to having Login.js and styles.js. Your comments please

...

Me: Oh I see! If it is a known even if uncommon pattern, then that's fine. I got confused by the provider.js name as that usually implies a component providing context (I may not be using correct words here) like say a StrapiProvider.

Also the code is .js whereas I prefer .ts as it reduces bugs being injected by wrong names and types. But that's not so big an issue, I think.

....

The CourseContext folder in screens has a View folder with index.js and two subfolders Activities and Participants. I expected to see a CourseContent kind of component. But I don't know Moodle. What could Activities component be in this case? Could it have the course content/lesson content?

...

Me: this is from the Activities/provider.js:

import {callMoodleWebService} from '../../../../api/helper';

export const getSectionAndActivities = async courseid => {

const response = await callMoodleWebService('core_course_get_contents', {

courseid,

});

for (const section of response) {

for (const module of section.modules) {

const modicon = await fetch(module.modicon);

const {type} = await modicon.blob();

module.modicontype = type;

}

return response;

};

export default {getSectionAndActivities};

-----

this is from index.js:

useEffect(() => {

Provider.getSectionAndActivities(route.params.id).then(data => {

setSections(data);

setIsLoading(false);

});

}, [route.params.id]);

CG: Great — this makes it very clear what the Activities component really is.

And it matches Moodle’s internal structure exactly.

Let me explain cleanly.

✅ What `getSectionAndActivities()` is doing

It calls:

core_course_get_contents

This Moodle API returns course sections and all modules inside them.

A typical response looks like:

[
  {
    id: 1,
    name: "Topic 1",
    modules: [
      { modname: "page", modicon: "...", content: ... },
      { modname: "resource", ... },
      { modname: "quiz", ... }
    ]
  },
  {
    id: 2,
    name: "Topic 2",
    modules: [ ... ]
  }
]

This list includes BOTH:

🟩 Course content (pages, lessons, files, videos)

AND

🟦 Moodle activities (quizzes, assignments, forums)

So in this repo:

👉 Activities = Course Content + Activities merged together

This is why the folder is named “Activities,” but its actual meaning is broader.

It displays all modules under each section/topic.

✅ Why they fetch `module.modicon`

This line:

const modicon = await fetch(module.modicon);
const {type} = await modicon.blob();
module.modicontype = type;

They are:

Downloading the icon file
Detecting the MIME type (image/png, image/svg+xml, etc.)
Saving it as module.modicontype

→ This is needed for React Native to display remote SVG / PNG icons correctly.

📌 So what does the Activities screen show?

It shows a list of sections, and under each section, a list of modules:

Modules may include:

Page (lesson/content)
File
Folder
URL
Label
Assignment
Quiz
Forum
Feedback
BigBlueButton
SCORM package
etc.

So everything inside a course is returned here.

This is the same structure the official Moodle Mobile App uses.

🧩 This explains your confusion

You expected:

CourseContent/
Activities/
Participants/

But they instead used:

Activities/ → everything inside the course
Participants/ → list of enrolled users

So yes, the naming is misleading, but the functionality is correct.

📝 Summary

✔ `core_course_get_contents` returns all course sections and all content + activities inside them.

✔ `Activities` screen is actually a full course outline.

✔ Lessons/content (pages, files, videos) are included inside modules returned by this API.

✔ Activities screen = Moodle’s standard course structure viewer.

Me: Great! So this is the key folder/component which gets the course data and shows it to the user. Am I right?

CG: Yes — you are exactly right. ...

Me: ... This discussion leads me to seriously consider trying out this project even if I will have to do some Moodle setup and learn some minimal Moodle stuff to check whether it is working correctly before I switch it to Blogger.

Also note that even its Moodle functionality would be useful in some cases where an NGO already has a Moodle setup or is willing to consider it.

Meanwhile can you find whether there are any other Open Source React native LMS frontends available on the web?

...

Me: hope-elearning-mobile, MIT License - Seems interesting. Will check out.

lms-app, says MIT License in Readme but license link is broken. - Seems to be limited to enrolling students to a course. So not so promising.

lms-react-native + lms-api - Does NOT have Open Source license. I know this code very well now as I went through the whole tutorial. But author has not permitted usage beyond learning.

React-Native-Learning-App - No License, Readme is mainly a demo video but that video does not play! I don't think this is useful.

BTW https://raviswdev.blogspot.com/2025/04/react-native-education-apps-open-source.html?utm_source=chatgpt.com is my blog post. I had forgotton that I had put it up in April this year. Thanks for reminding me. At the time I put it up I think I had just started or not even started to learn React Native. So I was not able to assess the GitHub repo code links. Now that I have reasonable understanding of RN and Expo code, I am able to go through the GitHub repos and get some assessment of whether for my current needs, it will be useful to me or not.

From the post, I found this to interesting from my current needs point of view:

https://github.com/EduardoRodriguesF/e-learning , has MIT license, seems to be limited to videos but even if that is working, adding text content may not be a major issue. So I plan to look more closely at it.

https://github.com/rightoneducation/righton-app , has Apache 2.0 license - React Native mobile app & React web app - Seems to be rather complicated and lacks screenshots in Readme. But I may have a closer look at it later on.

CG: Great — now that you have filtered the list with your current RN + Expo experience, your assessment is exactly right. Let me respond to each point, and then give you a prioritized roadmap of which ones are worth your time right now.

✅ Your assessments (and my comments)

1. hope-elearning-mobile — MIT

✔ Worth exploring
This is currently the most feature-rich RN e-learning app available under permissive open source.

Proper screens for courses, blogs, quizzes, categories.
UI looks modern.
A functioning RN navigation + component structure.
Since it's MIT, you can fully adapt it.

This could give you UI/UX structure, even if you replace the backend entirely with Blogger/WordPress/minimal API.

2. lms-app — MIT (but trivial / limited)

Yes, your observation is correct:

Very basic (course list → enroll only).
Code too small to serve as a real LMS base.
Best used only as an Expo + RN layout skeleton.

Given your needs, you can skip it.

3. lms-react-native + lms-api — NO LICENSE

Even though you understand this code well from the tutorial, you cannot legally use or adapt it for your project (except for learning).
So it’s off the table for any real work.

4. React-Native-Learning-App — No License

That means:

You cannot use the code legally
Repo is bare
Video doesn’t even play

Skip.

⭐ The two NEW repos you rediscovered from your own blog post:

These are the ones actually worth examining further.

5. EduardoRodriguesF/e-learning — MIT

👉 Very good candidate for small/simple LMS
Your instincts are spot on.

Why this one fits your current needs:

MIT License
Minimalistic and clean
Focus on videos (common for course platforms)
Easy to extend to “text lesson” pages
Could adopt Blogger/WordPress/Moodle API as backend
Lightweight → perfect for a small NGO with limited needs

Even if it's video-only initially, adding:

Lesson text
Course description
Quiz (MCQ)
Offline caching

…is straight-forward because the UI is simple.

This may end up being the best balance between simplicity and usefulness.

6. rightoneducation/righton-app — Apache 2.0

You are exactly right:

It is complicated
It includes React Native + React web app
More like a “full education platform” (with assessments, gamification, etc.)
Lack of screenshots means more digging needed
May not be suitable for your very simple course → lesson need

But Apache 2.0 is permissive, so:

Might be a good “code reference”
Can be used as a long-term inspiration
But not good as a starting base today

🎯 Final Recommendations (Ordered — based on your project goals)

1️⃣ Best Immediate Candidate to Explore: `hope-elearning-mobile` (MIT)

For highest functionality + good UI.

2️⃣ Best Simple, Minimal, Adaptable Candidate: `EduardoRodriguesF/e-learning` (MIT)

For small, simple course/lesson video-based app.

This one is ideal if you want:

Clean code
Easy modifications
Simple course/lesson UI
Ability to plug in Blogger or any simple backend

3️⃣ Secondary / Advanced Option: `react-native-moodlemobile` (MIT)

If you decide to go Moodle → then switch backend later.

This gives you full course → lesson → activities → participants workflow now.

4️⃣ Later Exploration Only: `rightoneducation/righton-app` (Apache 2.0)

Too complex now; but a possible long-term inspiration.

🧭 What I can help you do next

If you want, I can:

✔ Analyze each chosen repo folder-by-folder

(you paste directory tree → I describe architecture, screens, components, backend calls)

✔ Compare the architectures

Which one is easier to bend into your "simple backend" plan (Blogger → JSON → custom API)?

✔ Create a unified LMSApi Interface

Something like:

interface LMSApi {
  login(): Promise<User>;
  listCourses(): Promise<Course[]>;
  getCourseSections(courseId: string): Promise<Section[]>;
  getLessonContent(lessonId: string): Promise<Lesson>;
}

Then backend switching becomes trivial.

✔ Suggest how to progressively migrate the frontend to TypeScript

Starting from .js → .tsx (safe, minimal refactor).

If you’d like to start with one of the repos right now, tell me which one and I’ll walk you through its structure.

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