Are you on the lookout for the best LMS plugin for WordPress? Using WordPress and Learning Management System (LMS) plugins, you can create and run online courses similar to those offered by Udemy.
A good WordPress LMS plugin will help you manage your online course content, manage subscriptions, run and grade quizzes, accept payments, and much more.
We’ll compare the best WordPress LMS plugins in this article to help you find the best solution for your online learning website.
Creating an Educational Website (Training Site, Sell Courses, and More)
To use WordPress to create a learning or training website, you must first create a WordPress hosting account. This is where all of your website’s files will be stored on the internet.
A domain name is also required. This will be the internet address for your website, such as wpexpetpro.com.
If you’re on a tight budget, Bluehost is a good place to start. They’re one of the world’s largest hosting companies, and they’re giving our readers a 60% discount plus a free domain and SSL for their websites.
If money isn’t an issue and you want the best performance, we recommend SiteGround or WP Engine as premium / managed WordPress hosting options.
The next step is to set up WordPress on your website.
Because all three hosting providers offer a guided one-click install for WordPress, the process should be relatively simple.
You’ll be able to choose a WordPress LMS plugin for your website once you’ve installed WordPress. You can use these plugins to create, manage, and sell online classes directly from your website.
As a result, let’s compare some of the best WordPress LMS plugins side by side so you can pick the one that best suits your needs.
MemberPress is the most powerful WordPress membership plugin, with features for easily creating, managing, and even selling courses built-in.
It has a special Classroom Mode, so you don’t have to spend a lot of time setting up your online classroom. MemberPress handles the design for you, ensuring that your course looks great and achieves the highest completion rate possible.
You can create your course curriculum using their simple drag-and-drop interface. It allows you to add lessons, topics, and categories, as well as embed videos and images.
Their course builder is based on the WordPress block editor, making it extremely user-friendly for beginners.
As the site administrator and instructor, you can quickly assess each student’s progress to determine how close they are to completion.
MemberPress can be used to create free courses as well as accept payments for paid courses. You can also create multiple courses with different subscription options, all of which can be managed from a single dashboard.
Access control rules in MemberPress allow you to specify exactly who should have access to which content. Individual membership levels for specific courses can be created, but you can also use advanced rules to sell bundles and packages.
You could, for example, create a membership package that allows users to access all of your beginner-level courses. You might even consider offering an all-access pass.
This could be a great way to increase your earnings.
MemberPress also includes a powerful content dripping feature that allows you to show members restricted content after a set period of time, such as one lesson per week.
Many popular payment gateways, such as PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and others, are seamlessly integrated with MemberPress.
You can also integrate MemberPress with all major email marketing platforms, including Drip, ConvertKit, MailChimp, and a slew of others.
Price: A single site license with one year of support and updates starts at $149. The course add-on is provided at no additional cost. Upgrade to a higher plan to gain access to features such as affiliate management, bulk corporate memberships, and more.
A+ (excellent)
Review: The best membership site plugin available is MemberPress. Their Courses addon makes it simple to set up a learning management system in WordPress. You can create courses in a matter of minutes, and they will always look great because no coding is required.
The powerful membership rules in MemberPress give you a lot of flexibility. The ability to see how far students have progressed allows you to identify areas where students are stuck and may require additional assistance.
2. LearnDash
LearnDash is a powerful WordPress LMS plugin that is popular and easy to use.
It includes a drag-and-drop course builder that makes it simple to create multi-layer courses with lessons, topics, quizzes, and categories. With its Drip-Feed content feature, you can deliver all of your lessons at once or schedule them for the duration of the course.
You can give your users assignments and then approve or comment on them using LearnDash. It also includes quiz and test management tools, as well as a variety of question types. You can easily set prerequisites for students, such as requiring them to complete one lesson before moving on to the next.
It provides a variety of monetization options for your online training course, including subscriptions, one-time purchases, memberships, and a shopping cart. PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout are just a few of the payment gateways you can use to accept payments.
LearnDash is also compatible with bbPress, WordPress eCommerce plugins, and WordPress membership plugins such as MemberPress.
Dynamic forums are a fantastic LearnDash feature. You can use this feature to create course-specific forums where your students can interact and help one another.
Price: A single site license with one year of support and updates starts at $159.
A+ (excellent)
LearnDash is a flexible and user-friendly LMS plugin for WordPress users. It includes a robust set of features for managing your online courses.
LearnDash integrates with a variety of third-party plugins and tools, giving you even more flexibility in how you run your courses. It’s an ideal LMS tool for schools, training organizations, entrepreneurs, and anyone else looking to easily create and sell online courses.
LifterLMS is a robust WordPress LMS plugin with a slew of useful features. It enables you to create engaging online courses and provide excellent learning opportunities for your students. It’s simple to install, even if you already have a WordPress site.
LifterLMS is a multi-tier course management system that includes training modules, lessons, categories, and more. It allows you to create smaller courses as well as full-fledged degree programs. To make your courses more appealing, you can include multimedia lessons such as video, audio, text, images, and more.
It includes content dripping, course prerequisites, and group memberships to give you even more control over how your courses function.
It includes powerful features like automated emails, gamification with badges, and even certificates upon course completion to increase user engagement. It has a built-in content restriction feature that allows you to limit access to any WordPress page on your site to only members.
LifterLMS comes with a number of useful addons that can be used to manage affiliates, integrate with eCommerce plugins, connect to your email marketing service, and so on.
Accepting credit card payments, one-time or recurring payments, selling course bundles, offering coupons, and so on are all possibilities. You can integrate it with PayPal, Stripe, or manually accept payments via check as payment options.
Individual add-ons are $99 each (single site) or $299 for the Universal Plan (single site).
A+ grade
LifterLMS is a powerful and flexible WordPress learning management system plugin. It’s simple to use, and the setup wizard even includes a free demo course. Fitness experts, musicians, leadership trainers, education entrepreneurs, and anyone else who wants to make money selling online lessons will find it useful.
It’s pricier than some other options, and the cost will add up if you buy individual add-ons.
Teachable is a fantastic online course creator. Although it is not a WordPress plugin, you can use it on a subdomain, a custom domain name, or simply by linking to your school’s page.
Teachable hosts your course and gives you access to all of the tools you’ll need to create engaging online courses. It also has email marketing integration, analytics, and other marketing tools built in.
Teachable will take care of your course fees, and you will be paid via PayPal or Stripe. Depending on your pricing plan, payment periods may differ.
Pricing: starting at $29 per month.
B+ grade
Teachable provides a comprehensive set of tools for creating, managing, and selling online courses. It can accommodate an unlimited number of students and courses. You won’t be responsible for updates or backups because it’s a stand-alone platform.
It is, however, more expensive than other WordPress LMS plugins. You will be charged a 5% fee on each transaction if you are on their Basic plan.
LearnPress is a powerful WordPress LMS plugin that is free to use. Unlike the other LMS plugins on this list, LearnPress does not require you to use a wizard to set up your system.
Lessons, quizzes, and questions make it simple to create a course. Lessons and quizzes from one course can be used in another course. LearnPress also allows you to export content for use on other WordPress sites that use LearnPress.
It has both free and paid add-ons that allow you to expand the functionality. It includes features such as scheduled content (content drip), quizzes, assignments, and grading. It also works with membership plugins like bbPress, WooCommerce, and WordPress.
LearnPress can be used with any WordPress theme, or you can use one of their own LMS WordPress themes. This allows you to avoid any compatibility issues and provide a better user experience.
Free with paid add-ons and support
B+ grade
Review: LearnPress is a feature-rich and flexible platform. For beginners, the initial setup may be challenging. Other payment gateways are available as paid add-ons, and PayPal is supported by default.
Paid subscribers have access to official forums for support, while free users have access to limited support. The free version is limited, and to get the most out of it, you’ll need to purchase add-ons.
WP Courseware is another excellent WordPress LMS that includes a drag-and-drop course builder.
WP Courseware’s course creation features are extensive, allowing you to create large or small online courses. Modules, units, and quizzes can all be found in a single course. Pre-requisites for courses are supported, as are content drip features. See our tutorial on how to use WP Courseware to create a learning management system in WordPress.
WP Courseware includes features like instructor profiles, student grade books, custom emails, and more to help users have a more engaging experience. It also includes a question bank that can be used to quickly create quizzes for various courses and modules.
The plugin also comes with powerful monetization features that allow you to sell online classes directly from your website. It includes a built-in shopping cart with which you can connect PayPal or Stripe and begin selling your courses right away.
You can also offer free courses to users as a way for them to try out your classes. This may persuade them to purchase the entire course. Paid courses can be sold as one-time purchases or as recurring subscriptions.
Pricing: starting at $129 for two sites and includes one year of support and updates.
A grade of B
WP Courseware is a good option for creating online courses. It’s simple to use and has a variety of options that allow you to create an engaging learning environment. The best part is that it works with any WordPress theme without any issues.
The WooCommerce team developed Sensei, a powerful WordPress LMS plugin. It’s adaptable and simple to use, and it adheres to the same standards as WordPress and WooCommerce.
Sensei makes course creation simple, but it lacks the power of the other solutions on this list. You can create quizzes, assignments, and grade them automatically or manually, as well as award students badges and certificates.
You’ll need WooCommerce to sell your courses and accept payments. You’ll need to create a product for each course you want to sell and then link it to your course.
There aren’t a lot of third-party integrations. A membership plugin can be used with Sensei, but there is no addon for it.
Pricing: A single site license with one year of support and updates starts at $129.
A grade of B
Review: Sensei is an excellent tool for providing online courses. If you already have a WooCommerce-powered online store, this will work seamlessly with it. However, we believe that WooCommerce integration is difficult for newcomers. In addition, Sensei has fewer features and addons than the other LMS plugins on this list.
Which WordPress LMS Plugin is the Best? (Pick of the Experts)
MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin, in our opinion. It’s very user-friendly and allows you to create beautiful online courses (no code needed).
It’s simple to set up access control, sell course subscription packages, and more with their powerful membership rules. You also get content dripping, group memberships, protected file management, reminder emails, and other useful features.
It works with over a thousand different email marketing automation services, as well as all major payment providers.
If you’re looking for a MemberPress replacement, LearnDash is a good option. It also has a lot of useful integrations and great features.
We hope this article was useful in comparing the best WordPress LMS plugins and their benefits and drawbacks.
Comments are closed.