CPD log software compared: what to look for

There are four broad options for keeping a CPD record, and they fail in different ways. Knowing which failure you can live with is most of the decision.

The four types

Professional body portals. Free, accepted by definition, and built around one scheme. Great if you only ever hold one registration. Useless for anything the body does not ask about, and you generally cannot take the data anywhere else.

Employer or LMS platforms. They capture mandatory training automatically, which is genuinely useful. Two problems: they only record learning the employer provided, and access disappears the day you leave.

Generic tools - spreadsheets, notes apps, Notion. Infinitely flexible, free, and completely dependent on your own discipline. No totals unless you build them, no export format anyone recognises, and a real risk of the file being lost or stranded on a work device.

Dedicated CPD trackers. Built for the job: activity types, hours, reflection fields, targets, evidence, export. The variable is whether it is genuinely yours and genuinely free, or a trial that turns into a subscription.

What to actually look for

1. Ownership - is the account yours personally, or tied to your employer? If it is tied to your employer, you do not have a portable record.
2. Export - PDF for appraisers and audit, CSV for anything else. If you cannot get your data out in one click, treat it as a lock-in.
3. Reflection fields on every entry - not just hours. This is the part regulators care about and the part most tools treat as optional.
4. Category tagging - formal/informal, participatory/non-participatory, verifiable or not. Without it you cannot see your subtotal.
5. Running totals against a target you set - so you know in September that you are short, not in December.
6. Evidence attachment or reference - somewhere to put the certificate or the confirmation email.
7. Filtering by year, type and competency - because you will need to produce part of the record, not all of it.
8. Cost model - free forever, free trial, or free until it is not. Ask now.
9. Data protection - where the data sits, who can see it, and how you delete it.

What matters less than vendors suggest

Mobile apps, integrations, gamification and social features. The whole exercise is a text record with numbers attached. Speed of entry beats every feature on the list, because the tool you use is the one that takes ninety seconds rather than nine minutes.

The honest test

Whatever you are considering, log three past activities in it. If that takes longer than five minutes, you will not keep it up, and the best-specified tool in the world is worthless if it is empty in March.

Keep your CPD in one place

A record only helps if it exists before you need it. Our free CPD tracker logs an activity in seconds, tallies your hours automatically, keeps your reflections with the entry, and exports a clean PDF whenever you need evidence. Free for life for individuals - and the record belongs to you, not your employer.