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In the realm of online education and e-learning, having an effective and user-friendly Learning Management System (LMS) is critical to success.

The top WordPress LMS plugins offer a full solution for developing, maintaining, and selling online courses, making the process easier than ever for educators and students.
In this post, we’ll compare numerous WordPress LMS plugins to help you make an informed decision on the best solution for your requirements.

Our WordPress LMS plugin comparison seeks to give an in-depth look at the features and capabilities of the most popular LMS plugins available today.

Whether you’re seeking the best free LMS plugin for WordPress or are willing to invest in a premium solution, our research will walk you through picking the ideal LMS plugin to improve your online course offerings and raise your e-learning experience.

What to look for in the WordPress LMS plugins?

Course creation: The WordPress LMS plugin should provide a simple interface for creating and structuring courses, with support of a variety of media types and content formats.

Course progress information: LMS plugins should provide thorough course progress monitoring so that both students and instructors may efficiently monitor their learning journey.

Student enrollment and management: A powerful WordPress LMS plugin, free or paid, should allow for smooth student enrollment and provide efficient administration capabilities for student data and interactions.

Content dripping: The ideal LMS plugin for WordPress, free or premium, should have content dripping, which allows you to progressively deliver course content over a set period.

Quizzes and tests: Assessments are important for evaluating learners’ progress, and the LMS plugin should enable the production of quizzes and tests with various question formats.

BuddyPress and bbPress integrations: Working with popular community plugins such as BuddyPress and bbPress can assist in developing a collaborative learning environment and increase student engagement.

Financial marketing tools: When comparing WordPress LMS plugins, consider marketing tools like discount coupons, package offers, and affiliate program integration to increase course revenues.

Automated emails: LMS plugins should provide automatic email alerts for course changes, reminders, and other pertinent messages to keep students informed and involved.

Excellent payment gateway support: The top WordPress LMS plugins should have support for numerous payment gateways, allowing students to make purchases safely.

Gamification and certificates: LMS plugins that include gamification elements like badges and points can boost student motivation, whilst certificates may assist in authenticating course completion and achievements.

Homework options: A full WordPress LMS plugin should have features for assigning and grading homework, allowing students to practice and reinforce their knowledge.

The best WordPress LMS plugins

MemberPress

best lms plugin - memberpress

MemberPress stands out as a highly versatile WordPress LMS plugin, offering a comprehensive suite of features to create and manage online courses effortlessly. With options for certifications, interactive quizzes, and more, it caters to a wide range of e-learning needs.

The plugin’s Classroom Mode ensures a well-designed online classroom without requiring extensive customization. This feature automatically applies an intuitive style to your online courses, allowing students to navigate and progress with ease.

Built on the WordPress block editor, the MemberPress course builder enables you to add lessons, topics, categories, videos, and images using familiar tools. Advanced users can leverage custom CSS for a truly unique course design.

From the WordPress dashboard, you can monitor each student’s progress and course completion. MemberPress facilitates both free course creation and paid membership subscriptions, giving you full control over course access. You also have access to a free demo.

By creating membership levels for specific courses or offering bundled packages, you can boost sales and encourage existing members to upgrade for additional benefits. MemberPress supports multiple payment gateways, including PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net.

The content dripping feature allows you to release restricted content over time, maintaining member engagement and promoting subscription renewal. MemberPress is compatible with popular third-party tools such as Brevo (formerly Sendinblue), Constant Contact, Drip, and Google Analytics, among 1000+ others, to help you optimize your training website and maximize sales and signups.

Thrive Apprentice

thrive apprentice - wp lms plugin

Thrive Apprentice is a versatile WordPress online course builder plugin that also offers membership site capabilities. With over 55 pre-designed course templates and a user-friendly drag-and-drop builder, creating structured modules, chapters, and lessons becomes a breeze.

This WordPress LMS plugin also allows you to create a variety of lessons using text, video, or audio, and combine media formats to maintain student engagement. A dedicated resource area enables you to add supplementary materials like links and PDFs.

Thrive Apprentice’s adaptable content dripping feature lets you release lessons at regular intervals, such as unlocking new content every Monday for new course purchases. You can apply various drip schedules and triggers to the same course, eliminating the need to duplicate courses for different student intakes.

The Conditional Display feature allows for personalized content to boost conversions, displaying tailored course overviews and content based on a user’s progress. Upon course completion, students can access a custom page with a downloadable certificate featuring a QR code for authenticity verification.

Thrive Apprentice’s advanced reporting functionality provides valuable insights into student performance and course engagement, including enrollment, completion, top students, progress, and drop off rates.

The plugin’s comprehensive member management dashboard facilitates easy access control based on membership types. Thrive Apprentice integrates seamlessly with popular WordPress plugins like WooCommerce and MemberPress, email marketing services such as Constant Contact and Brevo, and numerous other applications.

MemberMouse

membermouse lms plugin for wordpress

MemberMouse is a robust, flexible, and scalable WordPress membership plugin that also includes a comprehensive learning management system called Courses for MemberMouse. This feature allows you to easily develop engaging e-learning courses, quizzes, and certificates for your members and students.

The front-end drag-and-drop builder enables you to visually create and design your courses with ease. The independent visual builder works seamlessly with your theme, eliminating the need for custom styling and coding. The plugin automatically incorporates LMS elements like course module templates and progress tracking for a smooth learning experience.

For a more personalized design, you can disable the automatic styling and gain full control over your course’s appearance and functionality. Selling your courses is simple with MemberMouse’s membership features, such as offering online courses to existing members through a one-click upsell from their dashboard.

Using MemberMouse SmartTags, you can dynamically display offers based on factors like membership duration, subscriptions, and purchased products. Create free courses or bundle them into larger subscription packages for added flexibility.

The drip content feature allows you to schedule the release of new course modules over time. MemberMouse boasts integrations with numerous online tools and platforms, including popular email marketing services like ConvertKit and Drip, payment gateways such as Stripe, PayPal, and ClickBank, and many more.

WishList Member

wishlist member

WishList Member is a user-friendly WordPress plugin designed for building membership subscription websites. It also includes a robust learning management system, CourseCure, which enables the easy creation of online courses.

The rapid course builder allows you to develop comprehensive courses in just a few minutes, with professional page templates ensuring an attractive appearance from the start. For a more customized look, WishList Member integrates seamlessly with popular front-end page builders like Elementor and Divi.

The course preview feature enables potential students to get a glimpse of certain lessons, potentially boosting enrollment rates. Advanced features include automatic progress tracking, quizzes to assess students’ knowledge, and a gradebook for monitoring pass or fail rates.

WishList Member enhances the learning experience with gamification elements, such as awarding badges and points for completing tasks like finishing a course, passing quizzes, or engaging with comments.

The membership functionalities offer control over course access, enabling you to restrict access based on membership levels or charge for individual courses. WishList Member integrates effortlessly with popular payment providers, email marketing services, and other essential tools to streamline your online course offerings.

LearnDash

learndash - lms plugin

LearnDash is a WordPress LMS plugin that boasts an array of powerful features. It offers a straightforward drag-and-drop course builder for creating lessons, topics, quizzes, and categories, with the option to deliver content all at once or through the drip-feed feature.

With LearnDash, you can assign tasks to students and provide feedback or approval on their work. The plugin also includes interactive quiz and test management tools with various question types, allowing you to set time limits, limit attempts, and randomize questions to prevent cheating.

You can easily establish rules for student progression, such as completing one lesson before accessing the next. LearnDash’s dynamic forums enhance the learning experience by creating a sense of community around your online courses, encouraging further enrollment.

To monetize your online training, LearnDash offers numerous options, including integration with MemberPress for selling memberships, one-time purchases, subscriptions, and compatibility with Easy Digital Downloads for setting up an online shopping cart.

LearnDash also integrates with popular WordPress eCommerce plugins like WooCommerce and supports multiple payment gateways, such as PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout. If you choose LearnDash, consider exploring their starter WordPress LMS themes, including some free options, to enhance your online course offerings further.

LifterLMS

lifter lms

LifterLMS is a versatile all-in-one plugin that enables you to create engaging online training courses using its drag-and-drop course builder. Enhance your courses by incorporating multimedia lessons featuring video, audio, images, and more.

The plugin supports multi-tier courses with training modules, lessons, categories, and multimedia quizzes to test students’ knowledge upon completion. LifterLMS allows for the creation of small courses or comprehensive degree programs, with the option to establish tracks that require students to complete courses in a specific sequence.

To maintain learner engagement and generate recurring revenue, LifterLMS offers content-dripping functionality for timed lesson releases and course prerequisites to guide students through your WordPress website.

LifterLMS includes features such as automated emails, gamification with badges, and certificates upon course completion to keep learners motivated. Students can also leave reviews or testimonials, providing valuable social proof to boost sales.

Additional LifterLMS add-ons offer affiliate management, eCommerce plugin integration, group membership sales, and more. To monetize your online courses, LifterLMS supports one-time or recurring payments via credit card and popular payment gateways like PayPal and Stripe.

WP Courseware

wp courseware lms plugin

WP Courseware is a highly versatile e-learning LMS plugin for WordPress, featuring a drag-and-drop course builder packed with functionalities for creating both large and small online courses.

Upon publishing a course, WP Courseware automatically generates course pages to display on your website and attract student sign-ups. Courses can include multiple modules, units, and quizzes, offering a rich learning experience for students. To facilitate offline learning, students can download courses in various formats, such as PDF, media files, or text.

WP Courseware supports course prerequisites and course tracks for a guided learning experience, as well as content-dripping features to maintain student engagement and motivation.

Additional features include instructor profiles, student grade books, and a question bank for quickly creating quizzes across different courses and modules. To monetize your online training, WP Courseware offers powerful selling options, including a shopping cart that connects directly to PayPal or Stripe for one-time purchases or recurring subscriptions.

With the ability to create an unlimited number of courses and support an unlimited number of students, WP Courseware is designed to accommodate the growth of your online learning business.

Teachable

teachable

Teachable is an easy-to-use drag-and-drop course builder that stands apart from other LMS options on this list, as it is not a WordPress plugin. Instead, you can utilize Teachable on a sub-domain, a custom domain name, or simply add a link to your school’s page.

Teachable hosts your course and equips you with all the necessary tools to create highly interactive online courses. It also features built-in email marketing integration and an effective sales page builder to promote your training business.

To optimize your training, Teachable offers built-in analytics and advanced data reporting, enabling you to monitor student engagement and adjust your courses to increase sales, signups, and course completions.

Teachable is compatible with popular third-party marketing tools such as Mailchimp, Zapier, and ConvertKit. To expand your training business, Teachable includes a student referral feature and advanced affiliate marketing tools.

In terms of payments, Teachable manages all course fees for you, and you receive your payment through gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and more. Payment periods may vary depending on your chosen pricing plan.

LearnPress

learnpess lms plugin

LearnPress aims to offer an experience similar to Moodle LMS, even referring to itself as ‘Moodle for WordPress.’

With LearnPress, reusing content is a breeze, as lessons and quizzes from one course can be easily incorporated into another. Additionally, content can be exported to any other WordPress site using LearnPress, making it highly convenient for those managing multiple WordPress sites for online learning.

Once a course is created, you can either offer it for free or charge a fee in the form of one-time or recurring payments. LearnPress also allows you to publish some lessons as free previews, enticing potential students to purchase the full course.

While the LearnPress plugin is free, paid addons are available for those seeking more advanced features. These premium extras can enhance the plugin with content dripping support, paid memberships, offline payments, bbPress and BuddyPress integration, and more.

Sensei

sensei lms plugin

Sensei is a robust WordPress LMS plugin developed by the creators of WooCommerce and Jetpack. Boasting flexibility and ease of use, it adheres to the same best practices as both WordPress and WooCommerce.

Sensei allows you to create courses within the WordPress editor, enabling you to use familiar tools seamlessly. You can incorporate a variety of content into your courses, such as images, slideshows, galleries, and videos, to enhance learning and make the experience more enjoyable for students.

With Sensei, you can conduct quizzes and assignments, grade them automatically or manually, and offer badges and certificates to students. The plugin also features an instant messenger for real-time communication and support.

To sell your courses and accept payments, you’ll need to utilize WooCommerce. Simply create a WooCommerce product and link it to your Sensei course to start selling your online training offerings.

Conclusion

By comparing the best WordPress LMS plugins, you can determine the ideal solution for your e-learning platform and create a successful, engaging, and profitable online learning environment for your students. Remember that the key to success lies in selecting a plugin that not only meets your current requirements but also has the potential to adapt and evolve with your ever-growing educational offerings.

WordPress LMS plugins FAQs

Which LMS plugin is best for WordPress?

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. So, you must consider your specific needs and preferences to find the best LMS plugin for WordPress. The most popular options include LearnDash, LifterLMS, and WP Courseware.

What is the easiest LMS to use?

The easiest LMS to use varies according to the user’s WordPress experience and preferences. LearnDash, LifterLMS, and Teachable are among the most user-friendly solutions.

How do I install LMS plugins?

To install LMS plugins, take the following steps:
Navigate to your WordPress dashboard and choose Plugins > Add New Plugin.
Then, search for the chosen LMS plugin and click Install Now.
And then click Activate after the installation is complete.

Is WordPress LMS free?

WordPress is free, however, many LMS plugins provide both free and paid editions. Free versions may offer restricted capabilities, whereas premium versions have extensive functionality and support. It is critical to analyze the possibilities and select the one that best meets your requirements and budget.

  • Minal Agarwal

    Minal is the Director of Brand Marketing at Bluehost. With over 15 years of business experience in the technology industry, she strives to create solutions and content that fulfill a customer's needs. She is a dog mom and a stickler for calendaring.

    Education
    Masters in Marketing Management
    Previous Experience
    Strategic Partnerships, Customer Success, Events and Community
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