As a course creator, it is crucial to use a good LMS tool where you can manage all your courses and lessons in one place without any complications.
What’s more important for you is to choose the right WordPress LMS tool that suits your needs in terms of ease of use and organized course management.
In WordPress, there are several LMS plugins that are really good and have their own set of unique features.
Some are good for single course management with lessons, some are designed to create a whole ecosystem of courses where you can enroll in multiple courses at a time, and there is even one tool that is designed for selling courses via WooCommerce.
Today, we will look at the best WordPress LMS plugins that you can choose from to take your online course management to the next level.
Here, we will discuss the perks and features of each of these tools and highlight their best uses so that you can compare and decide which one is the best match for your needs.
After reading this article, you will learn
- A basic idea of what a Learning Management System (LMS) is
- Overview of 5 major WordPress LMS plugins
- Which WordPress LMS plugin is the best one for you
So, let’s dive in.
What Is LMS & How To Choose The Right One For Your Business?
A Learning Management System (LMS) is an optimized software that makes it easy for you to create online courses in an organized way, which you can either share or sell to your audience.
Seemingly, you can use a WordPress LMS plugin to run online classes, set up step-by-step tutorials, or sell complete courses directly on your website.
Now, you may want to create different types of courses depending on your niche.
Here are some examples:
- As a Mathematics teacher, you may want to offer a number of lessons in a certain course, but you do not want your students to move from one lesson to another without completing the initial one.
- Or, let’s say you are a Training Institute that offers a course on Digital Marketing, and you want to conduct a quiz after every lesson in the course.
- Maybe you are a fitness trainer and want to offer a free course before someone may consider taking paid service from you.
- As a business, you may also want to set up an onboarding course for your new employees to get them on par with their responsibilities & required level of skills.
There could be tons of other cases when preparing the online course. So, it is crucial to choose the right WordPress LMS tool.
As I mentioned above, though there are several WordPress LMS plugins out there, each of them has its own special features that make it more suitable than the others depending on your need.
So, when choosing a WordPress LMS plugin, you have to consider
- How do you want to use the courses as part of your business?
- What type of courses are you going to offer?
- How do you want to manage or distribute lessons and courses?
- And obviously, does the plugin has all the features required to meet your specific use cases?
And to help you out with this, let us look at the 5 best WordPress LMS plugins.
Best WordPress LMS Plugins To Consider Using in 2024
Finding the perfect Learning Management System (LMS) plugin for your WordPress site can get confusing as each of them looks promising in its own way.
Let’s look at each of these plugins one by one and then you may decide which one best suits you.
1. Learndash
LearnDash is the most popular WordPress LMS plugin out there at this moment.
It’s often considered the single most complete learning management system in WordPress that has everything you need for course creation.
Key Features:
- Course creation and customization
- Dynamic lesson assignments in courses
- Easy quiz and exam assignments
- Student management
- Drip-Feed Content
- Reward Your Learners
- Support Third-Party Plugins
- Reporting and analytics, and many more.
Why will you use Learndash LMS?
You may choose to create online courses that are open to all, free for subscribers, available for purchase with a single payment, or can be purchased as a subscription. you can do all with it!
It is one of the most effective LMS plugins for creating and selling single-topic courses. You will get several activity-control options for your courses in this WordPress plugin such as creating quizzes, scheduling assignments, setting up course drips, etc.
Also, it’s a great choice for professional schools and those who want to teach their courses.
Plus, the plugin makes it super easy to sell your courses with native Paypal integration, and integration via Addon for Stripe and 2Checkout.
LearnDash also integrates smoothly with WPFunnels (drag and drop funnel builder), bbPress, WordPress eCommerce extensions, and MemberPress.
LearnDash’s dynamic forums allow you to establish course-specific forums in which your students can communicate with and assist one another.
LearnDash Pricing:
2. Tutor LMS
Tutor LMS is a more recent addition to the world of WordPress LMS plugins. The core plugin is free and super easy to use.
It comes packed with unique features like the frontend course builder, drag-and-drop quiz creator, and continuous development support.
Plus, it integrates with WooCommerce so you can easily sell your courses on your WordPress site.
Key Features:
- User-friendly LMS plugin
- Page Builder Integration
- All types of Multimedia Support
- Quizzing Capabilities with Freeform Adaptive Modes
- In-depth Analytics
- Certifications (in the premium version of Tutor LMS)
- Supports one-click migration tools
Why will you use Tutor LMS?
It is great for Multi-Instructors to teach from the same platform. You can add as many instructors as you want to individual courses.
This enhances the course experience for students by having the option to have a great lineup of teachers.
With it, you get premium addons like Certificates, Course Previews, and more.
For effective communication, you may also use Google Classroom integrations, Zoom for live video classes, and Elementor for a fully customized course development experience.
Pricing:
The free version is available on WordPress.org. The pricing for the premium version starts at $149 per year.
3. MasterStudy LMS
MasterStudy LMS is an easy e-learning suite. Whether you are an instructor, teacher, mentor, or even entrepreneur, you can create beautiful online courses without any special coding skills.
It comes with advanced tools to create courses with multimedia lessons, quizzes, and a certificate builder to sell your online content pretty easily on your website.
Key Features:
- Frontend course builder
- Full-blown course platform
- Variety of Online quizzes
- The Free Starter theme
- Certificate Builder
- A bunch of payment Monetization & Payment Methods
- Page builders integration
- Integrations with prominent WordPress plugins
Why will you use MasterStudy LMS?
MasterStudy allows you to sell courses in one of the three available methods: one-time purchases, subscriptions, and course bundles.
You can simply install the plugin from wordpress.org but if you want additional features like Gradebook, Drip Content, Points distribution, SCORM, Google Classrooms, Udemy Importer, and so on, you can get the Pro version.
MasterStudy LMS Pricing:
The pricing of MasterStudy LMS is quite cheap. It provides a good number of features within reasonable pricing.
- The starting price for a Single Site license (annual) is $59.
- Lifetime same license – $149.
- Annual Unlimited licenses for developers – $299
4. WP Courseware
WPCourseware is a unique WordPress LMS plugin that allows you to create online course ecosystems, similar to an eCommerce shop, except it is for selling online courses.
The plugin comes with a brilliant drag and drop interface when creating and designing course and lesson pages.
Key Features:
- Order management for courses
- Automated Notifications and Emails
- Powerful Quiz Functionality
- Course Content Protection
- Membership and eCommerce Integrations
- The WordPress Course Customizer
Why will you use WP Courseware?
One of its most notable features is its order management. Unlike other WordPress LMS plugins, WPCourseware allows you to set up courses similar to products, and you can handle orders, enrollments, and refunds from a single system.
You will find more useful features such as creating graded quizzes, full control over designing course pages, setting up a drip content system for each course, organizing downloadable certificates upon course completion, and many more.
WP Courseware Pricing:
WP Courseware is one of the more promising WordPress LMS plugins for a few reasons.
First of all, the pricing is far less complicated than some of the competition. In fact, you receive a bonus of a two-site license for the least expensive package, which starts at $99 per year.
The on-site demo is the closest thing you’ll get to a free trial, but it’s a beautiful design filled with actual course content to get your creativity flowing.
5. JetEngine from Crocoblock
JetEngine from Crocoblock is an all-in-one plugin for advanced users who prefer full flexibility and want to create LMS and add other features.
It uses the Elementor or Gutenberg interface and has plenty of widgets and blocks to fetch the data and build pages on the front end.
Key Features:
- Custom Post Types editor
- User Profile Builder for making user profile pages with different access levels
- Dynamic Visibility for individual widgets, posts, and files
- Query Builder with a variety of options
- Advance Posts Relationship feature
- Data Stores for saving and displaying users’ preferences
- Post Expiration Period
- Dynamic Tables and Charts Builder
- Various Payment Methods
- Glossaries to store options for Select and Radio fields
- Options Pages for storing information
- REST API & Custom Endpoints for WordPress
- Module-based Structure for the best website performance
Why will you use JetEngine?
JetEngine is one of the most powerful and user-friendly plugins on the market for working with custom post types and front-end users’ dashboards. That’s why it is great for you to create an LMS with all the configurations you might need.
The additional freemium JetFormBuiilder plugin will do you all the work connected to forms, post-submit actions, and payments, while JetEngine will play the role of literally an engine in this system.
Pricing:
JetEngine subscription is $43 a year. The full Crocoblock package (20 plugins) is $199 a year (or $999 for the Lifetime plan).
6. LearnPress
The LearnPress platform allows you to deliver a course that is very interactive, engaging, and fun while also covering many topics.
You can use quizzes and lessons to guide students through the curriculum of each LearnPress lesson. Learnpress also allows you to have multiple instructors.
Key Features:
- Communication made simple: With BuddyPress and other forum software, you can easily interact with your students.
- LearnPress Wish List: Users may add the courses they wish to take to the Wish List on LearnPress.
- LearnPress Course Review: Students who are already enrolled may look at courses on your website to get an indication of the type of instruction provided.
- Import and Export Courses: Simply import and export courses from other LearnPress-enabled websites.
- Prerequisites Courses: Before enrolling in another course, students must first finish a certain module.
Why will you use LearnPress?
There are a few key features that make LearnPress the best WordPress LMS plugin. First, it is very user-friendly and easy to set up.
Second, it offers a wide range of features and options for creating your courses.
Third, it integrates with many popular WordPress plugins and themes.
Fourth, Learnpress support forum has a large community of users and developers who can help you with any problems you may have.
Finally, it is a very affordable WordPress LMS plugin for you!
LearnPress Pricing:
Free with add-ons starting at $29.99.
7. Lifter LMS
LifterLMS combines LMS features, course building, membership features, eCommerce features, and engagement features into one powerful WordPress LMS platform tool.
There’s a $1 trial you can take before buying the premium add-ons.
Key Features:
- Awards & earned achievement badge gamification.
- Membership & Subscription
- E-commerce Dashboard
- Bulk Course Enrollment
- You can offer courses for sale before they can be accessed to validate your idea or to offer prelaunch pricing
Why will you use LifterLMS?
It supports multi-tier courses with training modules, lessons, categories, and more. It gives you the flexibility to create smaller courses or full-fledged degree programs.
The core LifterLMS plugin is free and does a good job of getting your online learning website up and running.
The premium add-ons come at an additional cost but you can pick and choose which ones you want to use depending on your needs or opt for one of the bundles for better savings.
LifterLMS Pricing:
There’s a $1 trial you can take before buying the premium add-ons. Their Premium Addon pricing plans are:
- Individual Addons – $120+ each per year which is good for 1 active site.
- Universe Bundle – $360 per year and the most popular on the list. Good for 5 active sites.
- Infinity Bundle – $1200 per year which is good for unlimited sites.
Summing Up
Choosing just one among so many feature-rich and easy-to-install alternatives in the WordPress LMS industry isn’t simple.
There is no clear winner in this preceding list since it all depends on your specific needs and the requirements of your courses.
Here are a few recommendations nonetheless:
- If you want a strong solution with a lot of functionalities but don’t mind spending a little more, LearnDash (see our exclusive Learndash coupon) has all the bells and whistles that you need for high-quality courses.
- If you want your own order management ecosystem for courses, then go for WP Courseware.
- But if you’re on a budget and don’t need as many features, LifterLMS is a highly flexible choice that can be easily scalable with premium add-ons later.
We’ve compiled this list based on user experience and satisfaction to help you find out which one is best suited for you.
Understand your use case and let us know in the comments below which WordPress LMS plugin you are going to pick.
Btw, if you’re a WordPress developer, you can follow this guide to learn how to promote WordPress plugins.
Comments (2)
I went through your article and you have suggested some great plugins. I think you could add a section to give a checklist of what needs to be done to sell courses on WordPress, and the following can be the checklist.
To build an online learning platform with WordPress and LMS (Learning Management System) plugins, you can follow these steps:
1.Set up a WordPress website
2.Choose an LMS plugin
3.Install and activate the LMS plugin
4.Configure the LMS plugin
5.Create courses
6.Set up user registration and login
These are some points which I think could be added to your article.
Thank you for your suggestion. We will consider it when we work on updating this article next time. Cheers.