Empath vs LinkedIn Learning: Which Is Better for MSP Training?

If you’re responsible for MSP team training, LinkedIn Learning may already be on your radar. For organizations looking to support broad professional development, it can be a practical option.

However, building an effective MSP training program often extends beyond general skill-building. It involves onboarding technicians, reinforcing service expectations, developing role-specific skills, and making sure learning connects back to how the team operates day to day.

This is where Empath and LinkedIn Learning begin to take different approaches, reflecting not just different platforms, but different ways of thinking about training.

To better understand how they compare, let’s take a closer look at each.

Empath vs LinkedIn Learning: A Quick Overview

LinkedIn Learning offers on-demand courses across business, technology, leadership, creative skills, productivity, and more. For teams looking to give employees access to a wide range of learning topics, it offers a flexible way to support ongoing development.

Empath, on the other hand, is an MSP training platform and accountability system built specifically for IT providers. Its focus as an MSP training software is on helping owners structure, assign, personalize, and operationalize training around how their teams work.

At a high level, both platforms support learning. The difference is in what that learning is designed to support.

1. MSP-Applicable Content vs. MSP-Specific Context

Although LinkedIn Learning offers over 25,000 courses on various topics, it does not offer one overarching MSP training program or certification.

Instead, it provides individual courses and Learning Paths across areas that MSPs can apply to their business, such as technology, cybersecurity, sales, leadership, and operations.

• Technology and vendor management: Courses on cloud strategy, Microsoft 365, Copilot, infrastructure, and IT vendor management can support the technical and operational side of an MSP.
• Cybersecurity and AI: Courses on AI literacy, vulnerability management, security fundamentals, and data privacy can help teams build relevant technical knowledge.
• Business development and sales: Courses on B2B strategy, sales management, lead generation, and client communication can support MSP growth and client-facing roles.

LinkedIn Learning has relevant content. What it does not automatically provide is the MSP-specific context around how that content should be used, assigned, and applied inside the business.

Empath starts from that context. Its MSP course catalog is built entirely around how teams operate, featuring 100+ Navigator-led courses designed with IT provider environments in mind with the library continuing to expand each week.

Empath also gives teams flexibility beyond its own course catalog. MSPs can bring in vendor training through partnerships and integrations with providers like VIPRE, Kaseya, Microsoft Learn, and more incoming.

LinkedIn Learning offers a wide range of courses that MSPs can apply to their business. Empath offers training already built around MSP roles, workflows, and operating realities.

2. Skill-Oriented Learning Paths vs. MSP Role-Based Pathways

Learning paths are useful because they give training structure. Instead of assigning disconnected courses one at a time, teams can group learning around a goal, role, or skill set.

LinkedIn Learning supports this kind of structure. Its learning paths often help learners build toward broader outcomes, such as exploring a career in IT support, building customer service skills, improving leadership, or advancing technical knowledge.

Some paths may be directly relevant to MSP teams. For example, a path focused on advancing skills as an IT Help Desk Specialist could be a useful starting point for a service desk role.

But for MSPs, “role-based” often needs to get more specific.

An MSP does not just need someone to understand IT support in general. It may need a Tier 1 technician to understand how to work tickets, communicate with clients, follow escalation paths, document properly, and operate inside the expectations of a managed services team.

Empath structures its curriculum around role-based MSP training. Instead of general skills, it relies on pre-built MSP learning pathways mapped to specific company functions, including:

• Helpdesk Tier 1 & MSP service desk training
• Account Manager Pathway
• Project Delivery Basics
• MSP employee onboarding & new hire plans

These pathways reflect the way MSP teams are organized. They are not only about building a general skill; they are about preparing someone for a specific function inside the business.

Teams can still adapt these pathways as needed. An MSP can adjust a pathway to match its own tools, workflows, SOPs, and expectations. It can also build new pathways from scratch, bring in vendor training, add YouTube content, or use the Empath Recorder to capture internal processes.

That combination matters. It gives MSPs a role-based starting point, while still leaving room to make the training fit their own environment.

LinkedIn Learning paths are often organized around broad skills, careers, or professional development goals. Empath pathways are organized around MSP roles, functions, and day-to-day responsibilities.

3. Learning Administration vs. Low-Lift Accountability

Both LinkedIn Learning and Empath give teams ways to manage learning.

In LinkedIn Learning, admins can assign content, organize learning, track progress, and use reporting to understand how employees are engaging with courses. For organizations with broader learning and development needs, this gives administrators useful visibility into learning activity across the team.

Empath supports similar core management functions. Training can be assigned, progress can be tracked, and managers can see how team members are moving through their learning.

The difference is how much work it takes to make that learning actionable.

In LinkedIn Learning, the admin role is often responsible for turning a broad content library into a structured learning experience. That may include selecting the right courses, organizing paths, assigning content, monitoring progress, and interpreting whether the learning is relevant to each team’s goals.

For MSPs, that can become a lot to manage because the content still needs to be mapped to the realities of the business.

Empath is built around the idea of an MSP Learning Manager: someone who owns training accountability without needing training management to become their full-time job.

Because the platform already includes MSP-specific courses, role-based pathways, assignment workflows, and reporting, the Learning Manager is not starting from scratch. They can assign training, navigate content, organize pathways, and monitor progress with a lower lift.

That matters because most MSPs do not have unlimited management bandwidth. The person responsible for training may also be managing service delivery, operations, projects, or client relationships. For training to work, the system has to be easy enough to maintain consistently.

Empath is designed to make that possible. Instead of requiring someone to build everything before training becomes useful, it gives them a structure they can use, adjust, and hold people accountable to.

LinkedIn Learning gives admins tools to manage learning across a broad organization. Empath gives MSPs a lower-lift way to manage training accountability around the way their teams actually work.

Summary: Empath vs. LinkedIn Learning for MSP Training

Table summarizing the key differences between Empath and LinkedIn Learning based on the points above.

Choosing the Right Approach to MSP Training

If your team primarily needs access to general business, technical, sales, cybersecurity, or leadership content, LinkedIn Learning can provide a wide range of useful learning options. But if your goal is to build a more consistent MSP training system around onboarding, role readiness, service delivery, internal processes, and accountability, Empath is designed for that specific use case.

Empath brings together MSP-specific content, role-based pathways, vendor and external training options, internal process recording, and low-lift accountability tools so training is easier to assign, organize, and reinforce over time.

If you’re exploring how to build a more structured and scalable approach to MSP training, you can see how Empath works in practice by booking a demo or starting a 14-day free trial.