Compare

How it compares

H5P content has several homes. This one is a player you host yourself, on infrastructure you control, with no H5P server. It does not edit content, and for some sites one of the others is the better choice; this page says which.

At a glance

Option	What you run	Edits content	Plays a `.h5p` as it is	Offline	Where learners’ data goes
h5p-offline-player	Static files on your site, or on a player domain you run	No	Yes, from a URL or a picked file, streamed	Yes: an installable app, and a cache for repeat plays	Nowhere, unless your page sends the xAPI events on
h5p.com	Nothing: a hosted service by H5P Group, by subscription	Yes	Uploaded into the service	No	H5P Group’s service
Moodle, WordPress or Drupal with H5P	A PHP site and its database; Moodle has H5P built in	Yes	Uploaded, then unpacked by the server	No	Your site’s database: basic scores per user
Lumi	A desktop app on each author’s computer	Yes	Yes, in the app	Yes, in the app	Wherever its exports are hosted
h5p-standalone	Static files on your site	No	No: each package is unzipped into a folder first	Not built in	Nowhere, unless your page sends the xAPI events on

What only this player does

A .h5p plays as it is. No unzipping, no upload step, no folder per package: a URL to the file, or a file picked from disk. A 300 MB package starts after a few kilobytes on a host that honours Range, and on one that does not it starts as soon as its libraries have arrived.
Offline, as an app. The installable app opens .h5p files from the computer and plays them with no network, the libraries included.
Every statement names its build. Each xAPI statement carries context.revision, a fingerprint of the package it came from, so a completion record says which version the learner finished. How.
cmi5, without an H5P server. The package stays on a static host and an LMS launches it as an assignable unit, checked against ADL’s CATAPULT. The cmi5 example.
Tools for packages made by machine. h5p-verify plays a package headless and says whether it works; h5p-normalize rewrites one so its video streams. Both are commands, both have agent skills.
MIT, with the GPL kept apart. The H5P core runtime is GPL-3.0; it is a package of its own, so the element in your bundle is MIT alone.

When to choose something else

You need to edit content. This is a player. Author in Lumi, on h5p.com or in a site with the H5P plugin, export the .h5p, and play it here — the two work together.
Your site already runs Moodle. Its built-in H5P plays and edits content and records scores in the gradebook. Use it.
You want it managed for you. h5p.com hosts, edits, reports and integrates with LMSs, with support, for a subscription. This player needs someone to deploy and update it.
You want scores stored per learner with no code. The H5P plugins for WordPress, Drupal and Moodle keep basic results per user out of the box. Here results are events: your page, an LRS or cmi5 decides where they go.
You have a few packages and are happy to unzip them. h5p-standalone is smaller and has been around longer; served from static files, media streams from the host directly.

Data and trust

Installed, the player and every package run on your site; embedded, on a player domain you run. In both cases the learner’s browser talks to your hosts and nothing else, unless a package or your configuration names another: the H5P hub, for an export without its libraries, is the one the player itself may reach, and only when told to. Nothing is stored except the content’s own saved state when resume is set, in the browser on that device. Statements are not stored at all.

A package is JavaScript, here as everywhere H5P runs, and it runs with the rights of the origin that serves it. That is why the setup page asks what lives on your site before it recommends a setup.

Facts about the other options are from their documentation as of October 2026 and may have changed; corrections are welcome as issues.