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In search of the best WordPress LMS plugins?
Well, you can end your search here.
Due to the pandemic, more education has moved online than ever before. Now is as good a time as ever to create an online learning portal for your audience.
Thankfully, WordPress has an enormous library of plugins available including some excellent LMS plugins. Using these Learning Management System (LMS) plugins, you can create your own Udemy or Coursera.
The WordPress LMS plugins listed here will let you create, market, and sell courses online. You’ll have full control over the course content, so you can add lessons, quizzes, certificates, assignments to your site.
And since you’re using a WP plugin, you don’t have to worry about paying fees to another platform every time you make a sale.
Let’s take a look at the plugins now
WordPress LMS Plugins
Only highly-rated plugins from reputable developers have been listed here, and each of these plugins is recently updated.
Here are our top picks for the best WordPress LMS and online course plugins.
1. LearnDash
Plugin Description
LearnDash has everything that you need to succeed with your online course. This online course platform is trusted by some of the big names like the University of Florida, Digital Marketer, Keap, Yoast, etc.
The plugin has a drag-and-drop course builder that makes course creation easy and instant. It includes quizzes and assessments that work any type of media, including video and audio. Moreover, there is a point system and certificates feature for students that complete courses.
Apart from that, LearnDash has a neat feature called Focus Mode that creates a distraction-free environment for learners. Still, not enough? This LMS plugin integrates with PayPal, Stripe, WooCommerce, Mailchimp, and more for collecting payments and marketing your online course. The only downside to this plugin is its cost, but it’s still cheap compared to the ongoing fees of a third-party platform like Teachable.
2. Restrict Content Pro
Plugin Description
While not specifically made for an LMS, the Restrict Content Pro plugin is an excellent choice for building a membership site. While it doesn’t include quizzes, it does allow you to lock content for specific membership levels, which can be free or paid.
What makes RCP a great plugin is its ease of use. For instance, many other plugins require you to install WooCommerce just to manage payments and orders, whereas RCP has this functionality built in. It’s easy to manage your membership levels, orders, and customers and add integration with numerous payment gateways, such as PayPal, Braintree, and Stripe.
It’s also much more developer friendly than most LMS and membership plugins. If you’re building a site for a client, you’ll likely enjoy how much control you have due to the overridable templates, hooks, and developer docs.
3. LearnPress
Plugin Description
LearnPress is another big name in the WordPress LMS industry. If you’re looking for a free option to build beautiful, professional online courses, you can rely on this freemium tool. And like LearnDash, it also features a drag and drop builder for creating courses.
Using this LMS plugin, you can create courses easily with multiple-choice tests and detailed lessons. In addition, you can make media-rich lessons complete with text, images, video, uploaded documents, and even PowerPoint slideshows. Plus, this thoughtfully made plugin allows you to import and export lessons between sites.
LearnPress allows you to monetize your site with payment gateways like PayPal, WooCommerce, Stripe, 2CheckOut, etc. And, unlike other plugins, it also offers an offline payment option for selling courses. Some of these features require LearnPress Pro, which is available for a reasonable fee.
4. Tutor LMS
Plugin Description
If you’re looking for a feature-rich online school WordPress Plugin, then you’ll love Tutor LMS. It has several notable features that make it superior for some users.
First, Tutor LMS has an intuitive course builder with a drag and drop system to create courses without any hassle. Next, it includes a frontend student dashboard in which every registered student can see their course status, progress, etc. Similarly, the feature of a Quiz Creator allows you to create quizzes easily. And the best part – these core features you’ll get for free from WordPress.org.
To help you build your site, it includes Elementor page builder widgets you can include on any page to feature courses and other content. This makes it one of the easiest LMS plugins to build an educational website with. And if you want even more functionality, there’s a premium version available that adds many exciting new features.
5. LifterLMS
Plugin Description
LifterLMS is a well-known and widely used freemium WordPress LMS Plugin and is often compared with LearnDash. They call their plugin an “all-in-one LMS solution” because you can create online courses, membership sites, or anything in between with it. Also, check out this LearnDash vs. LifterLMS guide to get a detailed comparison between these two plugins.
Speaking of features, LifterLMS lets you create online courses, quizzes, and more with its drag and drop course builder. Additionally, you can sell courses, all thanks to the integration with PayPal and Stripe that makes it possible.
This WP plugin also includes gamification, assignments, certifications, and all the features you want from an LMS. Most importantly, it not only offers learning tools but also keeps your course content secure and safe.
6. Sensei LMS
Plugin Description
Sensei LMS may not be as reputable as Lifter LMS or LearnDash, but don’t skim past it. This free plugin is developed by the same team behind WooCommerce, JetPack, and even WordPress.com.
With it, you can easily create courses, lessons, quizzes, etc., without the need for coding or hiring a developer. However, the unique thing about this plugin is, it doesn’t include any payment gateways. So, to sell courses, it comes as a WooCommerce Paid Course extension with a price of $129.
7. WP Courseware
Plugin Description
WP Courseware is hands down one of the most powerful and user-friendly WordPress education plugins on the market. And you’ll get to know why we are saying this.
You can create courses instantly with a drag and drop and even customize the look and style of your courses easily. Money-making isn’t a problem with this plugin, as the Stripe and PayPal integrations handle this well.
You can add quizzes, lessons, assessments to make your courses as interactive as you can. Moreover, it also includes content drip tools allowing you to schedule the release of your lessons. Besides that, it also supports video courses with the integration of Youtube, Wistia, Vimeo, etc. Unlike other plugins, the stand-out feature is the integration with other WordPress Membership Plugins.
8. Namaste! LMS
Plugin Description
Namaste! LMS is another highly rated LMS plugin of WordPress that comes with a free core plugin. The core plugin covers the basic elements you need in an LMS. So, if you want additional functionalities, then you need to upgrade to its pro version.
Using this plugin, you can manage unlimited courses and auto-approve or manually enroll students in a course. Moreover, it also supports rich text, media, and content embedding from other pages on your site. Like most other plugins listed here, it lets you choose between Stripe and PayPal to sell your courses and integrates with WooCommerce.
9. MemberPress
Plugin Description
MemberPress is an easy-to-use WordPress Membership as well as LMS Plugin. It comes up with all the powerful LMS features to make your online course stand out but is marked more as a general-purpose membership website tool.
MemberPress includes a huge variety of features and lets you customize your site while you view it using the Live Customizer. It works with any WordPress theme, so pick whatever template you prefer, and you’ll have this plugin set up in no time.
Selling courses is simple because of the integrations with PayPal Standard, PayPal Express Checkout, Authorize.net, and Stripe. This plugin is premium-only, so you’ll have to start with the free trial to see if you enjoy it for your website.
10. Ultimate Learning Pro
Plugin Description
As the name suggests, Ultimate Learning Pro is a premium WordPress LMS plugin, but I think you’ll find it’s well worth the purchase.
You can create courses, reward your students, gather feedback, and more with Ultimate Learning Pro. Like other LMS plugins, it has a dedicated section for managing courses, students, and announcements.
Furthermore, it offers features like content dripping, course review, badges, certificates, a grade book, a wishlist, and much more. Monetization is also made easy with Stripe, PayPal, Membership, WooCommerce, EDD integration. And the best part – it’s quite affordable with a one-time purchase fee of $59.
11. Masterstudy LMS
Plugin Description
MasterStudy LMS is one of the best free WordPress eLearning plugins available on the market. It’s the ultimate choice for universities, professional trainers, entrepreneurs, and self-starters looking to build an LMS website or eLearning platform.
This plugin has all the essential LMS features for managing courses, quizzes, and other educational content. It also includes tools like a grade book, trial courses, course bundles, content dripping, and live streaming.
On top of that, the Course WishList feature allows students to build their own list of courses to buy later. And MasterStudy LMS is a multilingual tool so that you can create lessons in multiple languages.
12. Good LMS
Plugin Description
Good LMS stands true to the name as it offers tons of user-friendly features. You can create unlimited online courses with detailed contents, subsections, and timed chapter levels. Add quizzes, assignments, unlockable badges to keep your students engaged.
The key benefit of this plugin is all the courses are available on the site’s landing page, with the lesson plan, duration, and price. Moreover, you can even add downloadable reading materials for offline learning.
The monetization option is also not an issue as the learners can pay via PayPal, Paymill, Stripe, or Authorized.net. Besides that, you can offer discount options to get more newcomers to try one of your courses.
Which LMS Plugin is best?
In these list-type articles, our goal is to inform you well enough to pick one plugin. So, here are some parting thoughts on which plugin to choose.
LearnDash is the top LMS plugin available, but doesn’t have a free option and has a hefty price tag. If you’re willing to shell out the cash for it, you’ll be satisfied with this plugin for your LMS.
If you’d prefer a freemium option, try LearnPress first. It has rave reviews for both the free and premium versions because the developers included enough options in the free version and offer robust additional functionality in the paid copy.
MasterStudy LMS is another good free plugin to look at. It’s been updated recently and is built with a fast-loading Javascript framework called Vue.js.
If you need help picking the right theme for your website, you’ll want to read our collection of the best LMS WordPress themes next.
We hope this collection of the best WordPress LMS Plugins helped you out today, and if it did, please consider using the buttons below to share it with someone else.
