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7 Best WordPress LMS Plugins Compared (Pros and Cons)

Editorial Note: We earn a commission from partner links on WPBeginner. Commissions do not affect our editors' opinions or evaluations. Learn more about Editorial Process.

Are you looking for the best WordPress LMS plugin for your website?

Learning Management System (LMS) plugins allow you to create and run online courses like Udemy and LearnDesk. A perfect WordPress LMS plugin has everything you need to manage your online courses, run and grade quizzes, accept payments, and more.

In this article, we will compare the best WordPress LMS plugins to help you choose the perfect solution for your online learning website.

Best WordPress LMS plugins compared (pros and cons)

Starting a Learning Website (Training Site, Sell Courses, and More)

There are plenty of website builders and online course platforms that you can use for course creation or a marketplace However, we always recommend WordPress because it offers you maximum flexibility and freedom.

There are two types of WordPress, and it’s important not to confuse them.

First, there is WordPress.com, which is a hosting service, and then you have the original WordPress.org, also known as self-hosted WordPress.

To start a learning website, you’ll need WordPress.org because it has more features and flexibility. It also allows you to install any WordPress LMS plugin. For a detailed comparison, you can see our guide on the difference between WordPress.com and WordPress.org.

To start a WordPress.org website, you’ll need a domain name ($14.99 / year), and WordPress hosting ($7.99 / month). If you want to get paid for doing online courses, then you’ll also need an SSL certificate so you can accept online payment safely ($69.99 / year).

This is quite a lot of money if you’re just starting to create online courses.

If you’re working on a tight budget, then we recommend Bluehost. They’re one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and they’re offering our readers a free domain name, a free SSL certificate, and a 60% discount on web hosting.

Basically, you can start creating and selling online courses for $2.75 per month.

Bluehost

If budget is not an issue and you want the best performance, then we recommend using a managed WordPress hosting provider such as SiteGround or WP Engine.

After purchasing hosting, you will need to install WordPress on your website.

All three hosting providers have a guided one-click install for WordPress, so you should be able to get your training website running within minutes. If you need help, then you can always see our guide on how to install WordPress.

Once you have installed WordPress, you’re ready to find the best LMS plugin for your WordPress website. These plugins allow you to create, manage, and make money by selling online classes from your website.

That being said, let’s compare the best WordPress LMS plugins so you can choose the one that’s perfect for your learning website.

1. MemberPress Courses

The MemberPress membership and LMS plugin

MemberPress is the most powerful WordPress membership plugin. It also has built-in features that allow you to easily create and manage online courses. Along with courses, they have certification for learners, interactive quizzes, and so much more.

MemberPress comes with a special Classroom Mode, so you don’t have to spend ages designing a completely custom online classroom. Classroom Mode takes care of the design for you, so your elearning courses always look great.

MemberPress automatically adds an easy-to-navigate style to your online training. In this way, your students will always know exactly what they need to do next and can finish their training without any confusion.

A course curriculum created using the MemberPress LMS

The MemberPress course builder is built on top of the WordPress block editor.

This means you can add lessons, topics, categories, embed videos, images, and more using the WordPress tools that you’re already familiar with.

Creating a lesson using the WordPress MemberPress LMS

For more advanced users, the course builder has full support for custom CSS, so you can give your online courses a completely unique design.

You can see each student’s progress and track how far they are from completing their training directly from the backend WordPress dashboard.

You can also use MemberPress to create free courses, or you can make money by selling membership subscriptions.

Selling training subscriptions using MemberPress

These subscriptions allow you to control exactly who has access to each course. For example, you might create a single membership level that gives subscribers access to all your courses. This is similar to a Skillshare, LinkedIn Learning, or Coursera membership.

Another option is to create individual membership levels for specific courses.

Creating a membership subscription level

Some MemberPress users increase their sales by creating special bundles and packages.

For instance, you could create a membership package that gives users access to all your beginner-level courses. This can get you more members and may even encourage your existing members to upgrade to a more expensive membership package in order to unlock new perks.

No matter how you monetize your courses, MemberPress can collect payments using PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and more.

MemberPress also comes with a powerful content dripping feature so you can show restricted content to members after a certain amount of time. For example, you might release one new lesson a week. This can keep members engaged with your content and encourage them to keep renewing their membership.

Creating a drip content campaign

MemberPress works with many popular third-party tools that you may already be using to build an audience, capture leads, and get more sales. This includes top email marketing services such as Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), Constant Contact, Drip, and 1000+ others.

You can even create a private social network for your students by connecting MemberPress with BuddyBoss. See our tutorial on how to create your own private community with WordPress for step-by-step instructions.

If you want to get more sales and signups, then you need a way to see what’s working and what’s not working on your training website. The good news is that MemberPress works perfectly with Google Analytics.

To learn more, see our detailed MemberPress review.

Price: MemberPress subscriptions start at $179 for a single site license with 1 year of support and automatic software updates. You’ll also get the MemberPress Courses addon included at no extra charge, so you create unlimited courses and have unlimited students.

Grade: A+

Review: MemberPress is the best membership site plugin available. With their Courses addon you can create online training courses in just a few moments, and your courses will always look great with no coding required.

The MemberPress plugin’s powerful membership rules let you control exactly who has access to your courses. This makes it easy to sell your online courses, reward your members with access to exclusive content, and create engaging drip campaigns.

You can also track your students as they complete the different lessons and classes. This allows you to see the areas where students are getting stuck and may need some extra help.

For a step-by-step guide on how to get started with MemberPress, check out our ultimate guide on creating a WordPress membership site.

2. Thrive Apprentice

Thrive Apprentice plugin

Thrive Apprentice is another powerful WordPress online course builder plugin that offers membership site functionality.

It comes with 55+ pre-made course templates and a drag-and-drop course builder, making it easy to create organized modules, chapters, and lessons.

Thrive Apprentice course templates

You can create text lessons, video lessons, audio lessons, or mix-and-match media formats to keep your students engaged.

There’s also a resource area where you can easily add additional learning materials like links, PDFs, and more.

Thrive Apprentice has a flexible content dripping feature that allows you to release lessons at consistent intervals for each student. For example, you can unlock a new lesson every week on Monday when someone purchases a new course.

Thrive Apprentice drip course lessons

You can even apply different drip schedules, with different drip triggers, to the same course. That way, you won’t have to duplicate your courses every time you get a new intake of students.

With Thrive Apprentice’s Conditional Display feature, you can also show personalized content to different users to boost conversions. For example, you can display a different course overview for visitors and students, or change what course content students can see based on what lessons they’ve already taken.

When your students complete a course, you can show a custom course completion page that includes a downloadable certificate with a QR code to verify authenticity.

Plus, you can discover valuable information about your students and your courses using Thrive Apprentice’s advanced reporting functionality. In a couple of clicks, you can access detailed reports on course enrollment, course completion, lesson completion, top students, progress and dropoff, and engagement.

Thrive Apprentice will also help you manage a membership site with its full-featured member management dashboard. In this area, you can easily grant or revoke users’ access to courses or membership products based on their membership type.

Thrive Apprentice seamlessly integrates with popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce and MemberPress, email marketing services like Constant Contact and Brevo, and many other apps.

Price: You can buy Thrive Apprentice as a standalone plugin for $147 per year. Or, you can buy the entire suite of Thrive Plugins, which includes Thrive Leads, Thrive Quiz Builder, and more, starting at $299 per year.

Grade: A+

Review: Thrive Apprentice is a powerful and user-friendly LMS plugin with membership features. The 55+ course templates will help beginners get started quickly, and the drag and drop course builder makes it easy to customize every detail.

It comes with advanced features like Decoupled Drip, which allows you to create multiple drip schedules for the same course, and Conditional Display, which lets you show personalized course content for different users.

Thrive Apprentice also comes with course overview pages to increase sales, detailed course reporting and analytics, and a built-in member management dashboard.

With features like these, creating and managing a full-fledged online course business is easy.

3. Courses for MemberMouse

MemberMouse Courses

MemberMouse is another powerful, flexible, and scalable membership plugin for WordPress. Aside from advanced membership features, it comes with a full-featured learning management system called Courses for MemberMouse.

With Courses for MemberMouse, you can easily create elearning courses, quizzes, and certificates that your members and students will love.

You can visually create and design your courses using the front end, drag and drop builder. The WordPress LMS solution comes with a visual builder that works independently from your theme, so you won’t have to struggle with custom styling and code.

It will automatically add all the elements you need for an LMS, like course module templates and progress tracking. This makes it quick and easy to create a seamless learning experience for your students.

MemberMouse automatically adds all course elements

If you want a custom design instead, you can turn off the automatic styling, which gives you full control over the look, feel, and functionality of your course.

Because of the membership features, selling your courses is easy too. For example, you can offer online courses to your existing members using a 1-click upsell right from their member dashboard.

You can even use MemberMouse SmartTags to dynamically display this offer based on criteria like time as a member, subscriptions, products purchased, etc. You can also create free courses or bundle courses together into bigger subscription packages.

In addition, you can use the drip content features to create a schedule for the release of new course modules.

MemberMouse integrates with many online tools and platforms. This includes popular email marketing services like ConvertKit and Drip, payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, and ClickBank, and much more.

Price: The MemberMouse Basic plan starts at $199.50 per year for a single site license, which includes Courses for MemberMouse. However, if you want to add quizzes and certificates to your courses, you’ll need to upgrade to the Plus plan.

Grade: A+

Review: MemberMouse is a powerful LMS and membership plugin. With Courses for MemberMouse, it’s easier than ever to add online courses to your membership site.

For instructors, it offers detailed data and insights on your courses, such as course completion percentages and quiz scores. This lets you easily track the progress of your students and improve your courses over time.

MemberMouse earns a few bonus points with its amazing drip content features, 1-click upsell functionality, and customizable, no-code course display options.

4. WishList Member

Wishlist Member

WishList Member is a flexible and user-friendly WordPress plugin for building membership subscription websites. It also comes with a powerful learning management system called CourseCure for creating online courses.

With the lightning-fast course builder, you can create your entire course in just a matter of minutes. Plus, it comes with professionally-designed page templates to ensure your course looks amazing right out of the box.

If you want a more unique look, WishList Member integrates with popular front end page builders like Elementor, Divi, and others to fully customize your course design.

Wishlist Member course example

With the easy course preview feature, potential students can get a sneak peak of certain lessons with the flip of a switch, which can help boost enrollment.

It comes with advanced features like built-in, automatic progress tracking that will be displayed to your students as they move through your lessons. You can also easily add quizzes to test your students’ knowledge, and quickly see who has passed or failed in the gradebook.

In addition, WishList Member comes with powerful features to make your students’ learning experience fun and engaging. Students can earn badges and points for tasks like completing a course, passing a quiz, leaving a comment, and more.

Using the membership functionalities, you can control exactly who has access to your online courses. For example, you can allow access to members that belong to certain membership levels or enable pay per course access.

WishList Member also seamlessly integrates with popular payment providers, email marketing services, and other important tools.

Price: WishList Member starts at $149.50 per year for use on 1 website. This includes unlimited courses with CourseCure, unlimited members, unlimited membership levels, and more.

Grade: A+

Review: WishList Member is a solid LMS and membership plugin. It makes it easy to offer online courses in WordPress and control who has access to them.

The user-friendly builder allows you to create your courses with just a few clicks, there’s no complicated maze of options. Plus, your course will look great right out of the box and it’s fully customizable.

Additionally, it comes with powerful gamification addons for points and badges that will help you boost loyalty and engagement, which you won’t find in other WordPress LMS plugins.

5. AccessAlly

AccessAlly LMS plugin

AccessAlly is a powerful, all-in-one WordPress plugin for creating and selling online courses, group coaching, and memberships. It comes with a built-in learning management system for teaching engaging courses, managing student enrollment, handling payments, and more.

The drag-and-drop course builder allows you to design your courses any way you want. You can easily create any combination of modules, lessons, and downloads. This includes text-based lessons, as well as audio and video-based lessons.

There’s also an Offerings Wizard that can guide you through the course creation process step-by-step. You can select a pre-made course structure template, configure enrollment options (free and paid), and set up tag-based access permissions.

Create offering in AccessAlly with pre-made templates

Based on the selections you make, the Offerings Wizard automatically generates the course pages you need, including a landing page, registration page, module and lesson pages, and a completion page.

With AccessAlly, your course pages are created as WordPress pages instead of custom post types. This means that your course takes on the look and feel of your existing WordPress theme for a seamless design.

It comes with unique progress tracking that lets you set any number of objectives for each module, lesson, or page. These objectives, like passing a quiz, can be checked off manually or automatically.

AccessAlly also integrates with popular email marketing CRMs such as ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Drip, Keap, and more.

Depending on your CRM’s capabilities, you can run live courses that start on a specific date, set up evergreen courses that begin whenever someone signs up, or offer progress-based unlocking.

Price: AccessAlly starts at $82 per month, billed annually, for 1 site license and unlimited courses and members. However, for the built-in LMS, you need to upgrade to the AccessAlly Pro plan, which costs $108 per month, billed annually.

Grade: A+

Review: AccessAlly is a great LMS plugin for scaling an online course or group coaching business. Its Offerings Wizard allows you to quickly set up your course content, access control, and free or paid enrollment options.

It also offers a cross-selling members dashboard so that students can visually see what courses they’ve enrolled in, and what other courses are available or coming soon. To boost sales, you can link to a 1-click upsell page.

In addition, it comes with features like multiple quiz types, homework assignments, private notes, autogenerated certificates, and more.

6. LearnDash

The LearnDash LMS WordPress plugin

LearnDash is a popular and easy to use WordPress LMS plugin with many powerful features.

It comes with a simple drag and drop course builder so you can create lessons, topics, quizzes, and categories. You can deliver all your lessons at once or schedule them using LearnDash’s drip feed feature.

Using LearnDash, you can give your students assignments and then approve or comment on them. It also comes with interactive quiz and test management tools with multiple question types.

LearnDash lets you control exactly how students take your tests and quizzes. For example, you can set time limits, limit attempts, and randomize the questions. This will make it more difficult for students to cheat even when they’re unsupervised.

You can easily set rules for students, such as requiring them to complete a lesson before moving on to the next lesson.

Another great LearnDash feature is dynamic forums that can really enhance the learning experience. The learning platform lets you create a forum for your individual courses so learners can interact with each other.

This can build a sense of community around your online training website, which will encourage students to sign up for more courses.

If you want to make money from your online training, then LearnDash gives you lots of options. If you plan to sell memberships, then you should know that it works with MemberPress.

LearnDash also lets you sell your courses as one-time purchases, subscriptions, or even via an online shopping cart powered by Easy Digital Downloads.

Simply create a new digital product using the free Easy Digital Downloads for LearnDash addon, link it to your LearnDash course, and you’re ready to start selling courses with Easy Digital Downloads.

The Easy Digital Downloads addon

If you run an online store, then you’ll be happy to know that LearnDash integrates with many popular WordPress eCommerce plugins including WooCommerce.

When it’s time to collect your funds, LearnDash can accept payment using multiple popular payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout.

If you do choose LearnDash, then you may also want to take a look at their starter WordPress LMS themes, which include some free LMS themes.

Free WordPress LMS themes

Price: You can buy a LearnDash subscription for $119.40 for a single site license, which comes with 1 year of support and updates.

Grade: A

Review: LearnDash is a user-friendly and flexible LMS plugin for WordPress users. It comes with lots of different features that you can use to manage your online courses.

LearnDash works perfectly with many third-party plugins and tools, including popular eCommerce plugins such as Easy Digital Downloads. This makes it easy to sell your online training courses.

LearnDash is a perfect LMS tool for schools, training organizations, entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to create and sell online courses with ease. To learn more, see our detailed LearnDash review.

Bonus Tip: To unlock even more powerful features in LearnDash, try the Uncanny Toolkit Pro for LearnDash. This popular addon for LearnDash has over 20 powerful modules, including automated branded transcripts, a course timer, and the ability to automatically mark lessons and topics as completed.

7. LifterLMS

The LifterLMS LMS

LifterLMS is another powerful all-in-one WordPress LMS plugin. It allows you to create engaging online training using a drag and drop course builder.

You can make your courses more appealing by creating multimedia lessons featuring video, audio, images, and more.

LifterLMS supports multi-tier courses with training modules, lessons, categories, and more. Once a student completes a course, you can test their knowledge with multimedia quizzes.

LifterLMS gives you the flexibility to create smaller courses or complete degree programs. You can even create tracks where students must complete your courses in a particular order. In this way, you can encourage students to take multiple courses on your LMS website.

To keep learners engaged and get recurring revenue, LifterLMS has content dripping functionality, which allows you to release lessons over time.

You can also set course prerequisites to guide the training experience. For example, students might have to complete a specific course or module in order to unlock more content on your WordPress website.

To keep learners engaged, LifterLMS comes with powerful features, including automated emails, gamification with badges, and even certificates that students will get when they complete a course.

Once a student finishes a course, they can leave you a review or testimonial. This is a powerful form of social proof that can get you more sales.

If you need even more features, then LifterLMS has a useful collection of addons that you can use to manage affiliates, integrate with eCommerce plugins, sell group memberships in WordPress, and more.

If you want to make money from your online courses, then LifterLMS can accept one-time or recurring payments via credit card or popular payment gateways, including PayPal and Stripe.

Price: LifterLMS subscriptions start at $120 for a single site without any addons.

Grade: A

Review: LifterLMS is a powerful and flexible choice for a WordPress LMS plugin. It is easy to use, and the setup wizard creates all the pages you’ll need to run a successful online training website including a course catalog page.

It is useful for fitness experts, musicians and bands, leadership trainers, education entrepreneurs, and anyone who wants to earn money by selling elearning courses.

However, it is a little more expensive than some other options, and the cost will increase if you need any of the LifterLMS addons. For more details, you can read our complete LifterLMS review.

Bonus: WP Courseware

The WP Courseware LMS for WordPress

WP Courseware is another great elearning LMS plugin for WordPress that comes with a drag and drop course builder. This powerful builder has tons of functionality that you can use to create big or small online courses.

Whenever you publish a course, WP Courseware will automatically create course pages to display on your website and encourage students to sign up.

Each course can have multiple modules, units, and quizzes to provide a fantastic learning experience for students. To support offline learning, WP Courseware lets students download courses in any format including PDF, media files, or text.

If you want to create a guided learning experience, then WP Courseware supports both course prerequisites and course tracks.

It also has content drip features, so you can release lessons based on the date or the number of days that have passed since the student enrolled. In this way, you can keep students engaged and motivated. For more information, see our guide on how to add an LMS in WordPress with WP Courseware.

WP Courseware has instructor profiles, student grade books, and many other features that help to create an engaging experience for users. It also comes with a question bank so you can quickly create quizzes for different courses and modules.

If you want to sell your online training, then WP Courseware has powerful monetization features. This includes a shopping cart that you can connect directly to PayPal or Stripe and start selling your courses as either a one-time purchase or a recurring subscription.

You can create an unlimited number of courses, and WP Courseware can support an unlimited number of students. This means that WP Courseware can support your online learning business as it continues to grow.

Price: WP Courseware licenses start at $129 for 2 sites with 1 year of support and updates.

Grade: B+

Review: WP Courseware is a good choice to build your online courses.

It is easy to use and flexible enough to create an engaging learning environment. Best of all, it works with any WordPress theme without any compatibility issues.

Bonus: Teachable

The Teachable online course builder

Teachable is an intuitive drag and drop course builder. Unlike the other LMS on this list, Teachable is not a WordPress plugin. Instead, you can use Teachable on a sub-domain, a custom domain name, or you can simply add a link to your school’s page.

Teachable hosts your course and provides you with all the tools you need to build highly interactive online courses. It also comes with built-in email marketing integration and a powerful sales page builder that you can use to promote your new training business.

To help fine-tune your training, Teachable comes with built-in analytics and advanced data reporting. This helps you monitor student engagement and adjust your courses to get more sales, signups, and course completions.

Teachable works with many popular third-party marketing tools, including Mailchimp, Zapier, and ConvertKit.

To help grow your training business, Teachable has a student referral feature and advanced affiliate marketing tools.

When it comes to payments, Teachable will handle all the course fees for you. You will then get your payment via a gateway such as PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and more.

Payment periods may vary depending on your pricing plan.

Price: Starting from $29 per month.

Grade: B+

Review: Teachable has everything you need to create and sell online courses. You can create as many different courses as you want and enroll an unlimited number of students.

Since Teachable is a standalone platform, you aren’t responsible for updates and backups. This means you can run a successful training business without lots of extra admin work.

The downside is that Teachable is more expensive compared to your typical WordPress LMS plugin. There may also be some additional fees. For example, if you buy a Basic plan, then you will be charged a 5% fee on each transaction.

Bonus: LearnPress

The LearnPress WordPress LMS

LearnPress is a free WordPress LMS plugin. This learning platform aims to provide a similar experience to using a Moodle LMS, and even promotes itself as ‘Moodle for WordPress.’

With LearnPress, it’s easy to reuse your content. You can use lessons and quizzes from one course within another course. Even better, you can export your content to any other WordPress site that uses LearnPress.

If you have multiple WordPress sites where you want to sell online learning, then LearnPress’ export feature plus built-in WordPress multisite support can save you a lot of time and effort.

After creating a course, you can release a free verseion or charge a fee, which can either be a one-time or recurring payment. LearnPress also gives you the option to publish some lessons as a free preview, which can encourage people to buy the full course.

The LearnPress plugin is free, but there are paid addons if you want more advanced features.

You can use these premium extras to add support for content dripping, paid memberships, offline payments, bbPress and BuddyPress integration, and more.

Price: You can download a free version of LearnPress. You can buy the premium addons separately or purchase the LearnPress Pro addons bundle for $249.99.

Grade: B+

Review: We found LearnPress to be feature-rich and flexible. The initial setup may be a bit difficult for beginners compared to some of the other WordPress LMS plugins on the list.

LearnPress supports PayPal by default, which is perfect if you already use PayPal as your preferred payment gateway. Other payment gateways are available as paid addons including WooCommerce payment gateway and Authorize.net.

As a free plugin, support is limited compared to some of the premium LMS plugins. However, you can get some support via the official LearnPress forums.

LearnPress is a free LMS plugin for WordPress that has everything you need to start selling online training courses. However, you may need to buy some of the premium addons to get the most out of this free LMS plugin.

Bonus: Sensei

The Sensei WordPress LMS

Sensei is a powerful WordPress LMS Plugin created by the folks behind WooCommerce and Jetpack. It is flexible and easy to use and follows the same best practices as both WordPress and WooCommerce.

Sensei lets you create courses directly inside the WordPress editor so you can continue to use the tools you’re familiar with.

You can add lots of different content to your courses, including images, slideshows, image galleries, and videos. This can help reinforce learning and make the experience more fun for your students.

You can run quizzes and assignments, grade them automatically or manually, and even offer badges and certificates to students using Sensei. There is also an instant messenger, so you can communicate with students directly and offer them help in real-time.

To sell your courses and accept payments, you will need to use WooCommerce. You can then simply create a WooCommerce product and connect it to your Sensei course.

Price: A single license of Sensei LMS starts at $149 for 1 year of support and updates.

Grade: B

Review: Sensei is a good solution for anyone who is looking to create and sell online courses using the familiar WordPress tools.

In particular, the Sensei LMS plugin is perfect for anyone who already runs an online store using WooCommerce. Since it was created by the same team, WooCommerce and Sensei work perfectly together.

However, we feel that the WooCommerce integration could be difficult for anyone who isn’t already familiar with the WooCommerce plugin. There are also fewer features and addons for Sensei than other LMS plugins on this list.

Which is the Best WordPress LMS Plugin? (Expert Pick)

We believe that MemberPress is the best WordPress LMS plugin. It’s intuitive and very beginner-friendly and lets you create online courses with beautiful designs, and without having to write a single line of code.

Their powerful membership rules make it easy to control who has access to each course. You can also sell subscription plans, course bundles, and more.

By choosing MemberPress as your WordPress LMS, you’ll get access to other advanced features, including content dripping, group memberships, protected file management, reminder email notifications, and more.

MemberPress integrates seamlessly with over a thousand different email marketing automation services to help grow your new online training business.

If you’re looking for a MemberPress alternative, then we recommend Thrive Apprentice. It also comes with great features and lots of useful integrations.

WordPress LMS Plugin FAQs

At WPBeginner, we get a lot of questions about LMS plugins from our readers. Below are some of the most frequently asked questions.

Which LMS plugin is best for WordPress?

MemberPress is the best LMS plugin for WordPress. It comes with all of the features you need to create and sell online courses in WordPress easily. Plus, it has powerful membership features that allow you to sell course subscriptions, course bundles, and more.

What is the easiest LMS to use?

MemberPress is an easy LMS plugin to use. The MemberPress course builder is built on top of the WordPress block editor, meaning you can create courses using the WordPress tools you already know.

Thrive Apprentice is also an intuitive, easy-to-use WordPress LMS plugin. It has a School Setup Wizard that will guide you through building your first online course.

How do I install LMS plugins?

If you need help installing an LMS plugin on your WordPress site, you can follow this step by step tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Is WordPress LMS free?

While there are free LMS WordPress plugins on the market, they typically offer limited features.

If you’re serious about starting an online course business, we recommend choosing a premium LMS plugin like MemberPress or Thrive Apprentice. Premium LMS plugins like these come with all of the advanced features you need to create, sell, and manage your online courses.

We hope this article helped you compare the best WordPress LMS plugins with their pros and cons. You may also want to see our guide on the must-have WordPress plugins to grow your business, and our comparison of the best chatbot software to improve site engagement.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

70 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

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    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
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  2. Moinuddin Waheed says

    I have been using two of the mentioned LMSs memberpress and Thrive apprentice.
    Both are great learning management system as they give easy to use interface and make
    courses on the go.
    One can easily make course, conduct quizzes, give certificates and can drip the content regulary.
    Both these can be used to make any type of online courses and can be integrated with payment integrations to accept payments.
    Making courses online has never been so easy, thanks to these feature rich plugins that make it possible to make courses so easily.

  3. Mrteesurez says

    I have tried and used some of these LMS plugins you mentioned, the one I that really works for me is lifter LMS and Tutor LMS (although I didn’t see it on the list)

    LifterLMS has content dripping that help me drop the content bit by bit over time. It’s very useful for school or institution.

  4. Mohammad Semnani says

    Lifterlms is really the best
    for ever!!!
    i tested most popular lms and lifter is supergreat!!!

    • WPBeginner Support says

      We would normally recommend using a plugin for functionality while a theme’s main purpose is for the design of the site.

      Admin

  5. Kirk Miller says

    I had no idea “LMS” plugins even existed. In the past, I had tried to create a learning area by using menus.

    I can see these plugins saving me a lot of time.

    Thanks for the recommendations!

  6. Dave Jarrold says

    Hi,

    Great article and much appreciated!

    I’m aiming to offer my courses to organisations so that they can buy access for a group of staff. Do you know which plugins (if any) would support a client to buy a number of training places which they could then manage for their staff team?

    Thanks

    Dave

  7. Bhavya says

    Hi,

    Is there any plugin or LMS which I can use for all visitor to see and learn courses without enrolling to my website. They just come to choose what they want to learn and do the course without any login. And one more thing this is all free like a tutorial site like w3school.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      It would depend on which plugin you are using for where to find the setting but all of these should have that option.

      Admin

  8. TomPEL says

    Thanks for the great LMS information. Does LearnDash have the capability to provide free online course views?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for the current capabilities and they would be able to let you know what is available.

      Admin

    • Lee says

      Not sure how your website is configured or whether there is a specific reason to limit uploads to 2MB but thought it worth letting you know a 2MB limit is usually the default PHP limit. It can be changed through cPanel (if you use cPanel). There are online guides that will help you change the limit if you need to do so.

      I also second the use of 3rd party video services. Device compatibility is best left managed by YT or Vimeo. Vimeo provides content locking features, which might be better for a membership type of site.

  9. Diana says

    Thanks for the great info! I’d like to create a course(s) on my existing blog. Is that possible? Do plugins like LearnDash and WP Courseware take up a lot of bandwidth? I’m wondering if I should check with my host before adding a course plugin?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Yes, you can use these on an already set up site. The plugins shouldn’t be a large jump in resources but if you are concerned you can feel free to check with your hosting provider.

      Admin

  10. Tony says

    After watching several videos on LearnDash, I was excited to give it a go on my WP website, but then I saw on the LearnDash website FAQ that “LearnDash cannot be installed on a site hosted at WordPress.com.” This doesn’t made sense to me. Do you know of alternatives? Any advice you can provide would be much appreciated. BTW, thanks so much for the excellent article.

  11. Patil says

    Does all or some of the above plugins allow adsense ads to be displayed within course content/pages ?

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Some of them do, you would want to reach out to the plugin’s support for the specifics of what is available.

      Admin

  12. Nihal Singh says

    Thank you for including LifterLMS in your WordPress LMS plugin evaluation web beginner! These are exciting times for education entrepreneurs looking to generate income by turning their expertise and life experience into impactful online courses.

  13. kamran Javed says

    Hi,
    I just want to create a LMS website like fiver or upwork. I want to provide opportunities to Teacher’s to sell their courses and student’s purchase these courses as per their need. Which plugin is best for creating these type of LMS.

    • WPBeginner Support says

      Each plugin has a method for setting up something like this, depending on the specific customizations you want, you would want to reach out to the plugins’ support for if they would be a good fit for how you want to structure it.

      Admin

  14. zafer says

    I am looking for groups/teams functionality

    This is mostly for Businesses:

    A group Leader/Manager from a business should be able to manage his/her team accounts.
    -Add, Remove members
    -Assign courses, Pay for member
    -Track members process (eg..completer courses, exams and results)

    • WPBeginner Support says

      You may want to reach out to LearnDash with your specific needs and they should have what you’re wanting.

      Admin

  15. Ken Weatherford says

    For all readers, I have incorporated LearnDash into the University theme and it works real well, We spent some time figuring out how and where to incorporate it. We finally concluded that the Course Description pages were the best places to incorporate LearnDash.

    I also have been using/developing courses in the MasterStudy theme. I was disappointed to learn that you couldn’t create Plans without a lot of custom development. As soon as I got all of the custom work done, StyleMix finally comes out with an upgrade that incorporates Plans and turned the theme into an LMS. In my opinion, after two years of developing and research, these are probably the best combinations (the latest MasterStudy theme or University/LearnDash together).

  16. David Panang says

    Does any one of the mentioned LMS support live interactions via webcams and whiteboards???

  17. Mor says

    Hi,

    I am going to ask about a plugin that assist me in payment and content restrict. I need to restrict an online exam to the none payment users. AS soon as they pay this appear on their screens. As you surely figure out, the content is not a purchasable content like cloths or downloadable such as a pdf file as a virtual content, therefore, I’m not sure whether WooCommerce can help me or not. I would like to choose a free plugin if it is possible. Please guide me!

    • Bayonle says

      You can use paid membership pro. If your country does not support the payment methods offered through paid membership pro then you can use with woocommerce.

  18. Diana says

    I’d like to create a small self-directed course that people would pay a one-time fee for and have lifetime access to. I’d like to incorporate some instructional videos, pdf downloads, and maybe some quizzes. The customer would learn by reading written content and thru the video tutorials. Would the free plugin work for this? I’ve never offered a course before and want to start off small and then build from there.

  19. Aaron says

    Hi,
    I am looking to join an LMS but want to make sure that the one I select can cater to what I am looking for.

    I am creating a membership site with 3 options for membership.

    Membership 1 – £50 joining fee and NO recurring payments.
    Membership 2 – £50 joining fee and £5 monthly recurring payments.
    Membership 3 – £50 joining fee and £10 monthly recurring payments.

    I am struggling to find confirmation that providers will allow me to have a one off joining charge PLUS a recurring monthly fee together. Most other LMS providers will only allow 1 or the other and not both.

    Any information on an LMS that can offer both of these options at the same time would be great! Thanks!

  20. Lee Stothers says

    I wonder whether some or all of the LMS plugins have interactive capabilities for students hangouts/breakout groups, live question/answer sessions, webinars, etc.?

  21. Shirley says

    Can other people upload courses to your LMS, in other words not just products I want to sell but other educators, how do they login and create a course on the site?

  22. Christian says

    Hi, i am looking for an wordpress LMS plug-in.
    Which one currently is the most advisable?
    Thank you in advance.

    • Andrew H says

      Hi Diane – I used to use Astra with Learndash exclusively on several of my clients’ sites so I know it will work. However, there is a strange anomaly that started happening with my builder Elementor when inserting a template-section into a course, Astra would revert to default. I also noticed that a few course builder plugins weren’t playing nice with Astra so I started using the native Elementor theme “Hello” and built it up from scratch. I suppose if I used a different builder like Divi or Kadence etc I would use their native theme instead just to have less moving parts and opportunities for confilct. I hope this helps.

  23. Will says

    Many thanks for the info. Is it possible to also get courses to buy (to resell on installed lms) from any of the lms provider. Do they offer a one- off payment option (if they sell?)

    • Chris Badgett says

      Hi Will,

      LifterLMS has a course import and export functionality so that courses can be transferred easily between LifterLMS sites. Also there is an add-on called LifterLMS xAPI for loading external (xAPI type) courses which might even be hosted elsewhere.

  24. Mike says

    I currently sell tangible DVD products through WooCommerce. Would like to offer these tangible DVD videos in an online viewing format, perhaps through a service like Vimeo Pro. Would Lifter LMS be a good way to have online versions of my DVDs?

    • Chris Badgett says

      Yes! You could make a “1 video lesson” course. Or better yet break it up into more might sized chunks spread out across multiple lessons in a course.

  25. Carol L says

    I need a security check point that will sporadically issue questions regarding your security during the lesson.

  26. Holly McCaig says

    I am using LifterLMS now and can verify it’s a great and easy to use tool. But my only complaint is that you can’t export your orders for accounting, nor can you export your student lists. There’s no real way to email them all unless you use one of the integrations. I use Mailerlite and cannot get my students into my email list. I’d like to be able to send them emails or exclude them if I do special offers when they are enrolled the course I am offering.

  27. Caryl Dennis says

    Can you integrate LifterLMS into an existing website or does it need to be a stand alone website?
    thanks

    • Chris Badgett says

      Hi Caryl,

      Yes! You can integrate LifterLMS into an existing WordPress based website. LifterLMS is a free WordPress plugin that you can install like any plugin. LifterLMS also has other premium add-on plugins that you can add if you would like any of the additional benefits they offer.

  28. Eduardo says

    Hi there! I’ve been looking everywhere for a plugin that lets you sell courses but “in person” courses, they purchase and the info contains place and details about it. Having this in mind, the teacher needs to have, let’s say at least 10 students, but only 6 bought it in time… Is there some add-on somewhere to cancel the course and send back the money to the ones who bought it? Thnaks in advance.
    Regards.

    • Andre van Berlo says

      There is a plugin that is doing this: Classes. It is an iThemes exchange addon and exchange is transitioning to a new owner. I have spoken with the new owner and he is currently seeing if there could be an integration of Classes with learndash. But “classes” seems to be what you are looking for to me. Refunds are usually done either via the shopping cart dashboard or via the payment processor of your choice (paypal, stripe, etc.). It is pretty straight forward.

      Also, if Classes doesn’t integrate eventually with learndash, you could still give access manually.

  29. Chris Badgett says

    Thank you for including LifterLMS in your WordPress LMS plugin evaluation wpbeginner! These are exciting times for education entrepreneurs looking to generate income by turning their expertise and life experience into impactful online courses.

    At LifterLMS we are grateful for the growing WordPress LMS community and the education entrepreneurs we serve. Let’s build great learning experiences together!

  30. nergis says

    Thanks for this informative post, what about the best themes to use for a training website? What would be the best theme to use with LearnDash for example?

  31. Sagar Chauhan says

    I just wanted to write really quick and thank WP Beginner for included LearnDash on their list.

  32. Justin Ferriman says

    I just wanted to write really quick and and thank WPBeginner for included LearnDash on their list. It has been an absolute pleasure helping people and organizations get their online courses up-and-running. We are excited to continue serving our industry in exciting and innovative ways for years to come.

    If you’re an individual or organization looking to get the most out of online courses, then I invite you to check out LearnDash. We’d be happy to discuss your project!

    Kindly,
    Justin

      • Justin Ferriman says

        LearnDash will work with most any modern WP theme. If you write-us from our contact page then we can get you a list of the more popular options.

      • Andre van Berlo says

        Try some of the themes from web savvy, they’re built on genesis framework and look great. I think “Fernando” and “Derrick” (and another one) are all set up to integrate with LD.

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