Does using the latest H5P integration in Moodle require a paid H5P license?

Submitted by Pablo Castell on Fri, 05/15/2026 - 21:37
Forums: 
General discussion

Hi everyone,

Our Moodle site administrator recently informed us that the latest versions of H5P (even when integrated natively into Moodle) now require creating a paid account on h5p.com to function. They shared the pricing link (https://h5p.com/pricing) and mentioned that we won't be able to use H5P activities going forward without a paid license.

I would like to get an official clarification from the community:

Is it true that recent versions of Moodle's native H5P integration require a paid subscription?

Can we continue to create, host, and grade H5P activities via the native Moodle Content Bank completely free of charge?

What features strictly require an h5p.com paid license versus the free open-source core plugin?

We love using H5P for our courses and want to make sure we understand the current licensing model correctly before making any major institutional decisions.

Thank you for your help and insights!

Summary: 
Does using the latest H5P integration in Moodle require a paid H5P.com license?
BV52's picture

BV52

Mon, 05/18/2026 - 18:59

Hi Pablo,

You don't need to have a paid license to be able to use H5P. 

Some of the features that are exclusive to H5P.com subscribers are:

  • Smart Import -  An AI assisted content creation tool. https://help.h5p.com/hc/en-us/articles/8229514747805-Smart-Import-Introd...
  • LTI - An integration used by H5P.com to have a seamless connection between it and the LMS. https://www.1edtech.org/standards/lti
  • Live Engagement Tools - Content types that are mostly used for activities that students can do real time and see their peers' answers. https://help.h5p.com/hc/en-us/articles/7981784474269-Live-Engagement-Tools
  • 24/5 priority support from the H5P Core Team
  • High-end infrastructure ensuring very high availability & great performance (automatic scaling & fail-overs on almost every component, upgrades with no downtime, automated uptime monitoring on all components that calls us up automatically if anything goes down, CDN etc.).
  • Backups, upgrades, etc. handled by the H5P Core Team.
  •  Detailed drill-down reports providing assessment questions, answers, time completed, and more!
  • Detailed configuration of what content types should be available for your organization.
  • CSS styling via the admin interface.

-BV

Pablo Castell

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 15:24

Thanks for the answer. I’ll communicate this to our Moodle team and colleagues. Much appreciated!

otacke's picture

otacke

Mon, 05/18/2026 - 20:27

BV clarified.

Now I'd love to learn where your admin thinks he learned from that H5P required a paid H5P.com license even if you're self-hosting everything. I really wonder where that false claim is made or where something might be presented in such an ambiguous way that an admin misunderstands.

"Lies only become true if person choose to believe." (Mr. Miyagi)

Pablo Castell

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 15:34

As Mr. Miyagi said, “wax on, wax off”… sometimes, in the flow of the day, information comes in and information goes out. We try to keep up and prevent issues, but we don’t always take the time to read everything carefully.

Joke aside, I really don’t know where this information comes from, but his original message was:

“For those who use H5P activities: You will need to take a look at https://h5p.com/pricing. The latest versions (even when integrated into Moodle) require creating an account with H5P.”

I’m going to ask him where he found this information.

To follow!

otacke's picture

otacke

Fri, 05/22/2026 - 18:06

Hi!

Thanks a lot for the follow-up! That pricing site mentions Moodle for LTI integration, yes. But LTI has nothing to do with the core of H5P or the two  (three) H5P integration for Moodle.

You can host your H5P content on H5P.com and integrate it into Moodle if you want to, e.g. because you want to use Smart Import or the exclusive content types like "The Chase". Then and only then will you have to pay, of course. Your self-hosted H5P integration are not related to that LTI option at all.

Best,
Oliver