Are you looking to create an online course in WordPress? Want to know which is the best WordPress LMS plugin?
An LMS (Learning Management System) plugin is a piece of WordPress software with the ability to create and run an online course in WordPress. LMS plugins help you to build a website like Udemy, Treehouse, DigitalMarketer, etc., and earn money by selling online courses.
In this article, we’ll compare the 8 best WordPress LMS plugins 2019 to help you choose the best one for your needs.
1. MemberPress
MemberPress is the best membership plugin for WordPress, but it also includes powerful LMS features to create, manage, and sell online courses.
With MemberPress, you can lock exclusive content like online courses, premium blog posts, and more, behind a members-only section of your website. You can easily control what content people see based on the subscription they’ve purchased. So, it’s an LMS plugin and membership plugin, all-in-one.
Here are the top features of the MemberPress plugin.
- Easy-to-use drag and drop visual course builder for creating course curriculum.
- Create multiple courses with different subscription options.
- Powerful access controls to protect content.
- Content dripping to release courses gradually instead of all at once.
- Accept payments with payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and more.
- Track course progress with the progress tracking feature.
- Generate coupons to run promotions and giveaways.
MemberPress is simple to set up. All you have to do is configure payment gateways, create membership levels, add your course content, and invite people to join.
MemberPress offers excellent customer support via support tickets. Plus, they have extensive documentation and a blog with step-by-step tutorials you can follow.
Pricing: Starting from $149 / year for a single site.
Get started with MemberPress today!
2. LearnDash
LearnDash is the most popular LMS plugin for WordPress. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, top universities, and training centers, it offers simply the best way to create and sell online courses with WordPress.
Here are the top features of the LearnDash plugin.
- Powerful drag and drop course builder for creating multi-layer courses.
- Drip-feed (schedule) content options – “X Days” after enrollment or specific date.
- Create advanced quizzes using 8 different question types.
- Award learners with points, certificates, and badges and encourage learning.
- Set one-time price, subscriptions, or membership access to your courses.
- Accept payments with popular payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout.
- Front-end user profiles for students to track their course activity.
LearnDash is a leader in the e-learning industry. Their team offers expert support via support tickets. They also have extensive documentation with easy to use guides and tutorials.
Pricing: Starting from $159 / year for 1 site license.
Get started with LearnDash today!
3. LifterLMS
LifterLMS is a powerful online course builder software for WordPress sites. It comes with a full set of tools to let you create, sell, and protect engaging online courses in WordPress.
Here are the top features of LifterLMS plugin.
- Supports multimedia including video, audio, text, and images for lessons.
- User-friendly multi-tier drag and drop course builder for creating lessons fast.
- Content dripping and course prerequisites to deliver content over time.
- Create multimedia quizzes, set quiz timer, and engage students.
- Multi instructor support, and discussion areas.
- One-time payment or recurring payments, sell course bundles, coupons, etc.
- Offer achievement badges, certificates, and boost engagement.
- Integrates well with WordPress form plugins, email marketing tools.
LifterLMS offers dedicated customer support via live chat, support tickets, and detailed documentation on their website.
An advantage of using LifterLMS is that you can easily track your LifterLMS eCommerce data with MonsterInsights Google Analytics plugin. MonsterInsights seamlessly integrates with LifterLMS and lets you set up tracking with just one click.
Pricing: Individual addons for $99 each / year or Universe Bundle for $299 / year (Free version is also available).
Get started with LifterLMS today!
4. Teachable
Teachable is yet another powerful online course builder plugin available on the market. Unlike LearnDash and LifterLMS, it’s a standalone SaaS (Software as a Service) platform for online course creation.
However, you can easily add your Teachable online courses to your WordPress website by using a subdomain. Or you can simply start with a Teachable subdomain like www.yourschool.teachable.com.
Here are the top features of Teachable.
- Allows you to create engaging multimedia lectures using video, image, audio, and PDF files.
- Powerful course editor for creating beautiful course pages.
- Lets you create quizzes, discussion forums, and issue course completion certificates.
- Use coupons and promotions to boost your sales.
- Create your own affiliate program and reward others for helping you grow your sales.
- Accept payments from 130+ international currencies through PayPal or Stripe.
- Seamless integration with marketing tools like MailChimp, AWeber, etc.
- Built-in reporting tools to view total sales, revenue, and students’ progress.
Teachable is a fully hosted platform, so you don’t need to worry about backups and updates. The Teachable team offers 24/7 monitoring to keep your online courses up and running.
Pricing: Starting from $29 / month.
Get started with Teachable today!
5. WP Courseware
WP Courseware is yet another popular online course creation tool for WordPress. It offers a hassle-free way to create online courses with the drag and drop course builder.
Here are the top features of WP Courseware.
- Drip (schedule) content to be realeased by date or at specific intervals.
- Create powerful quizzes using timers, retake limits, reporting, and surveys.
- Quiz grade books to view quiz results, progress reports of students.
- Provide downloadable and customizable course certificates.
- Easy to integrate with eCommerce and WordPress membership plugins.
- Built-in shopping cart with options to connect Stripe or PayPal.
- Works well with most WordPress themes.
WP Courseware offers support via Member Portal, which is a support hub for their logged in users.
Pricing: Starting from $129 / year for 2-site license.
Get started with WP Courseware today!
6. LearnPress
LearnPress is a free WordPress LMS plugin available on WordPress.org plugin repository. You can download and use it on as many sites as you like completely for free. However, you’ll need to buy their premium addons for advanced features.
Here are the top features of the LearnPress plugin.
- Create unlimited courses, lessons, quizzes, and questions with ease.
- Add text, images, PowerPoint slideshow, documents, and anything to your lessons.
- Set requirements for students to take a lesson with premium addons like Content Drip and Prerequisite.
- Monitor learners’ progress, scores, and results with Gradebook addon.
- Use LearnPress WooCommerce for eCommerce features, and payment settings.
- Supports Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.Net, and more for accepting payments.
LearnPress users can get support via forum. Free users can use WordPress.org support forum while paid users have access to a more dedicated support forum on their site. You can also use their documentation page for frequently asked general support queries.
Pricing: Free. (Paid addons available for advanced features)
Get started with LearnPress today!
7. WooCommerce Sensei
WooCommerce Sensei is powerful WordPress LMS plugin built by the team behind WooCommerce. It’s a free LMS plugin which enables you to launch your online course without hiring a WordPress developer.
Here are the top Sensei features.
- Beginner-friendly LMS platform for building a WordPress training site.
- Seamless WooCommerce integration and powerful addons to add features.
- Create engaging quizzes that help to strengthen the learners’ understanding.
- Many free and paid addons available to expand the features of the plugin.
- BuddyPress for Sensei addon helps you turn your course website into social education platform.
WooCommerce for Sensei users find answers of commonly asked questions in their FAQ page. For technical support, you can log into the plugin forum on WordPress.org or contact WooCommerce team.
Pricing: Free. (Paid addons available for advanced features)
Get started with WooCommerce Sensei today!
8. Tutor LMS
Tutor LMS is a free WordPress LMS plugin you can use to create, manage, and sell online courses. Like most LMS plugins, it comes with a user-friendly course builder which lets you create a full-fledged online school and offer education to the students.
Here are the top Tutor LMS features.
- Create unlimited courses and lessons easily.
- Add video lessons self-hosted on your server, or embed from YouTube and Vimeo.
- Frontend student dashboard
- Create advanced quizzes with quiz timer, and quiz attempts.
- Course review and rating system.
- Show course difficulty level, course duration, and also trailer / teaser.
For support, you can post your questions in the support forum on WordPress.org or their website. Also, you can see their simple tutorials on the documentation.
Pricing: Free.
Get started with Tutor LMS plugin today!
Which is the Best WordPress LMS Plugin?
After reviewing the most popular LMS plugins available, we conclude that MemberPress is the best choice for creating and selling online courses. With its powerful LMS features and advanced membership functionality, it’s the WINNER of LMS plugin comparison.
LearnDash comes in a close second, with its gamification features and extensive integrations.
A close competitor, as well as a perfect LearnDash alternative, is the LifterLMS plugin. Similar to LearnDash, it includes advanced features which let you build a great learning center with WordPress.
An exclusive advantage of using LifterLMS is that you can track your plugin eCommerce data easily using MonsterInsights eCommerce addon.
If you want to use a standalone LMS software, then Teachable is the right tool for you. LearnPress, WooCommerce Sensei and Tutor LMS are great plugins for users looking for a free LMS tool.
We hope this article helped you to find the best LMS plugins for WordPress. You may also want to see our handpicked list of best WordPress popup plugins.
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