Whether learning how to swing a golf club properly or taking your web design skills to the next level, online courses have become famous for people to advance in life and their careers without spending too much money. In addition, online learning allows you to do something extraordinary, like invest in cryptocurrency or learn German, all while sitting at home. These video course websites make considerable money, mainly when focused on one niche. If you’re interested in putting your knowledge online in the form of online courses, your best bet is to choose from one of the popular WordPress LMS plugins.

An LMS, or learning management system, combines a wide range of features to present a class setting without the students entering a physical classroom. The tools allow you to create classes, share coursework, enroll students, and evaluate them with quizzes. It all depends on the WordPress LMS plugin you choose, but in general, the tools allow you to create classes, share coursework, enroll students, and evaluate them with quizzes.

We like WordPress LMS plugins for schools, universities, and for-profit organizations that want to teach customers how to complete a task or gain further knowledge on a topic. For instance, WP101 is a popular online classroom for teaching folks the basics of WordPress. Lynda.com and Udemy are known for their wide range of topics, while you can also find websites dedicated to just one or two topics.

What if you start selling your video courses and materials? You might be able to market them to companies as training materials. Our WP101 example has a wonderful package of beginner WordPress videos developers could share with newbie clients.

What Are You Looking for in These WordPress LMS Plugins?

We’ve discussed the functions of a learning management system, but what features should you look for when researching plugins?

Let’s Let’sre some of the basic requirements, along with the extras that turn your learning website into something special:

• Course building, with tools for uploading different file types like videos, PDFs, links, and other content. It’s essential to have a solid course page builder. This way, you plug your course content into a template and hit the Publish button.
• Course progress information to show your students how well they are doing. This is important to keep users motivated and to act as a bit of a reward.
• Student enrollment and management: tracking the number of people in your courses and collecting payments based on memberships.
• Content dripping for slowly revealing some course materials as students progress.
• Quizzes and tests are used for students to evaluate how much they’ve mastered the material. Many schools use quizzes to determine who is qualified for a class, but they’re also a great way to establish benchmarks for when the next portion of content is dripped into the course.
• BuddyPress and bbPress integrations allow users to generate student profiles and interact with other students and teachers through chats and forums.
• Financial marketing tools include affiliate programs, commission systems, and coupons. The goal is to convince more people to sign up for your courses by giving incentives and building word of mouth.
• Automated emails enhance the incentives by giving students a more tangible way to see who they are.
• Excellent payment gateway support to add flexibility to your research process. One payment gateway might have lower fees or not be offered in your region.
• Gamification and certificates – These incentives pop up whenever a particular activity or course is completed. Badges and certificates are often much better than email confirmations since people can print them out or feel good about themselves when something is unlocked.
• Homework options that make the submission and grading process easy. It’s hard to send assignments on most platforms, but can students send them back without problems?

The Best WordPress LMS Plugins

It’s important to review the feature list outlined above and mark down the most essential elements of your new course website. If you don’t do some of them, you can save money by opting for a more straightforward WordPress LMS plugin instead of a full suite. On the other hand, you don’t have to lack the proper tools once you begin accepting enrollments.

As for the best WordPress LMS plugins, here is a list to get you started:

1. LearnDash
2. Lifter LMS
3. LearnPress
4. CoursePress Pro
5. Sensei
6. WP Courseware
7. Good LMS
8. Namaste! LMS

You can click on those links and learn a little about each. However, we highly recommend you read further to explore the uses for each WordPress LMS plugin and what features stand out the most.

1. LearnDash

LearnDash is used by many Fortune 500 companies and major universities because of its overall speed, feature set, and impressive online course design. LearnDash covers most of the must-have features we discussed previously in this article. I consider this a full suite with tools for content drip, selling courses, rewarding learners, and activating triggers based on actions.

The pricing is set annually, so it’s pretty affordable in the short term. For instance, you pay $159 for the first year to support one website with all the features available in LearnDash. For a 10-site license, that price jumps to $189 per year, with 25-site support at $329. One downside to LearnDash is that there is a trial. However, the good news is that you can cancel within 30 days if you don’t do it.

We’ll We’llss the key features below, organized into four categories: courses, monetization, administration, and technical. It’s worth noting that LearnDash is mobile-compatible for learning on the go. Industry-leading experts provide customer support through a sophisticated ticketing system.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• It includes an option to create multi-tier courses, which can be broken up into more advanced experiences. For example, you may want to have quizzes and different lessons.
• Offers tools for drip-feeding your content based on a schedule. You can also add lesson timers to ensure that everyone spends a certain amount of time on each lesson.
• They will integrate with a forum plugin since dynamic forums have already been built into LearnDash.
• LearnDash shows your students a guidebook along with course points whenever a user completes a specific part of the course. This pairs nicely with the certificates and badges.
• Market your courses with monetization tools such as a shopping cart, memberships, subscriptions, course bundles, and course licenses.
• LearnDash has automated email notifications and detailed reporting.
• It allows for user profiles and group management, which is perfect for any group work you assign.
• LearnDash supports most media types, including videos, audio, images, Adobe Captivate files, and Google Docs.
• It’s multisite enabled if you want to run LearnDash on a network.

Lifter LMS

Lifter LMS is a respectable alternative to LearnDash, but the pricing starts at $299 per year for a complete LMS bundle. However, if you buy add-ons individually, you might be able to save some money since they are each sold for $99. I don’t know the point since three add-ons already get you to that $299 price for the package, which includes dozens of the modules for that same price.

However, we like Lifter LMS for its unique integrations with WooCommerce, MailChimp, and AffiliateWP. If you’re using one or two of the many Lifter LMS integrations, it might make sense to consider Lifter LMS over LearnDash. In addition, a $1 30-day free trial is provided, so there’s an incentive to test Lifter LMS before paying the total price.

Lifter LMS is also known for its services, where you pay for a bundle with items like sample courses, sample quizzes, certificates, and a fully configured website. This might be useful for those who aren’t technical but have the content ready to launch.

The features are more or less the same as LearnDash, but there are a few notable differences. For instance, Lifter LMS includes a graphics pack with backgrounds and other design elements. You can also collect customer testimonials to help you sell the courses in the future. Another reason the Lifter LMS plugin looks interesting for beginners is because of its integrations with Divi and Beaver Builder. These drag-and-drop editors remove the need to mess with code, and they deliver a more visual design experience.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• Lifter LMS provides a direct WooCommerce integration for selling your courses individually or as bundles.
• The drag-and-drop course-building tools and integrations are bound to attract beginners and those who want the easiest design experience.
• The main plugin is free, so you can technically build a simple online course website without paying a dime. The only add-on you would have to pay for is one of the payment gateways.
• The customer support includes technical support, live office hours, and plenty of free training courses.
• The Lifter LMS course builder offers options for all types of multimedia, a beautiful course builder, drip content, and quizzes.
• Moving platforms is a breeze since Lifter LMS provides a course import and export tool.
• Create discussion areas and social profiles for your students to interact with each other and their teachers.
• You get various marketing and money-making tools, such as recurring payments, multiple gateways, unlimited pricing models, and coupons.
• You can implement a tool called “social” learning,” which” unlocks the power of Facebook likes to improve how students view your courses and interact.

LearnPress

LearnPress serves as the most straightforward and cleanest choice in the world of WordPress LMS plugins. The plugin is free, but you most likely have to pay for a LearnPress-compatible theme. The main downside is that the customer support isn’t as dedicated as you might find with a premium LMS. Most essential LearnPress add-ons are free, and the email support reps respond to you within 24 hours. You can also pay premium add-ons for certificates, co-instructor support, and WooCommerce support.

Each LearnPress course can be created with quizzes and lessons as the students move through the curriculum. Depending on how advanced you need to make your online course website, you might have to activate a few add-ons, such as add-ons for bbPress, BuddyPress, course reviews, wishlists, importing/exporting, and course prerequisites.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• LearnPress includes a landing page template for linking ads and talking about course descriptions, curriculum, and more.
• You can create a beautiful page that markets to people who might want to become instructors.
• LearnPress supports many payment gateways, including 2Checkout, Authorize.net, and Stripe.
• The core LMS plugin is free, so you can take a simple, in-depth online course. You’ll probably spend around $50 on a theme and around $30 for a payment gateway integration. The good part about this is that you’re stuck paying a yearly recurring fee.
• LearnPress allows multiple instructors, where two or three teachers manage one course.
• A badge and point system is available to gamify your courses.
• Content dripping, random quizzes, paid memberships, and a WooCommerce add-on are provided.

CoursePress Pro

If you plan on making several learning websites or have multiple clients with this need, the CoursePress Pro WordPress is a strong LMS contender. It’s part of the WPMUDev collection of plugins, so you must pay for a membership, starting at $49 per month. This makes CoursePress Pro one of the more expensive WordPress LMS plugins. Still, you also gain access to hundreds of other premium plugins and themes that you like so much for developers with clients.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• CoursePress Pro connects to over 13 payment gateways and supports invitation-only courses, automated processing, and course previews.
• The WPMUDev membership is far more than a monthly payment for one plugin. You receive tools for SEO, design, security, management, backups, marketing, and more. It also gives you access to one of the more active web development communities online.
• Upload quizzes and allow students the opportunity to download them.
• Instructor feedback can be set to manual or automated.
• CoursePress Pro accepts several media uploads, such as video, audio, text, and course files.
• The discussion board is built into the CoursePress Pro system, allowing students to chat about coursework and build their networks.
• MarketPress and WooCommerce are built into CoursePress Pro, meaning you can make a market-style course sales website like Udemy.
• The certificate and quiz design centers are more advanced than most competition.

Sensei

Sensei is an extension of WooCommerce, so it’s an essential addition to an e-commerce store that wants to include online videos and courses. The basic premise is simple: you create courses, write lessons, and add quizzes. User registration is also included, and adding other WooCommerce elements (like physical products) to the courses is a simple process.

The pricing starts at $129 and goes up to $279, depending on how many sites you want to implement it on. This price is only suitable for one year, so it’s retired to upgrade annually. The seamless WooCommerce integration is the bread and butter of Sensei, primarily because it works with all WooCommerce themes. Overall, Sensei is built around the intuitiveness of WordPress, so beginner users shouldn’t have problems making a course like they would a regular WordPress post.

It would be best to consider that Sensei doesn’t have a WooCommerce theme to function correctly. Most well-coded WordPress themes combine nicely with Sensei, so it’s a matter how advanced your eCommerce functionality will be.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• The extension integrates well with WooCommerce and WordPress, and the user experience is similar to creating a WordPress page or post.
• The majority of WordPress themes on the market integrate fine with Sensei.
• User registration is done through WordPress, so those familiar with WordPress should find Sensei easy to learn.
• The WooCommerce integration allows you to instantly charge for a course, whether as a subscription or on an individual basis.
• The simple course analytics provide information on grading, course completion, and students registered.
• The quizzes’ design isn’t unique, but several templates are offered for true/false, single-line, file upload, and multi-line tests.
• Sensei displays random quizzes based on a bank of questions you set before launch.
• Quiz grading can be set to automatic or manual.

WP Courseware

WP Courseware is one of the more promising WordPress LMS plugins for a few reasons. First, the pricing is far less complicated than some of the competition. 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 can get, but it’s a beautiful design with actual course content to express your creativity.

What WP Courseware is used by some of the top universities in the world, such as the University of Illinois and the University of Wisconsin-Madison? You’ll find WP Courseware tools on enterprise training sites, like if you were to work for CNN or Sheraton.

WP Courseware has impressive features, starting with the drag-and-drop editor. You can create courses with ease and even protect these courses from being stolen. A standout element of WP Courseware is the extensive collection of integrations you can choose from. WooCommerce is one of them, and there are many other options like OptimizePress, BuddyPress, and Visual Composer.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• The most affordable package allows two sites at $99 per year. So, if you plan on making two online course websites, WP Courseware becomes more affordable than options like LifterLMS and LearnDash.
• The member portal provides a valuable advantage: You can speak with active users who create online courses for money.
• The visual designer works with drag-and-drop elements and offers essential tools like course protection, drip content, and email notifications.
• The grade books can be viewed and exported to manage students’ performance.
• Sell through WP Courseware by integrating with your favorite eCommerce plugin. You’re only limited to WooCommerce or a single payment gateway.
• You can run a multi-instructor system in which you assign roles for the teachers to create and manage the courses they teach.
• The quizzes offer multiple question types and question tags. In addition, question banks are optional if you generate random quizzes throughout a course.

Good LMS

Good LMS sells for $31 and is the only viable WordPress LMS plugin on the CodeCanyon marketplace. Interestingly, this is the case since you can find dozens of suitable plugins for other WordPress categories. That said, the $31 fee only gets you support and updates for one year, but the one-time payment still maintains your control over the plugin features. Therefore, it’s the least expensive premium plugin on this list.

Like most good WordPress LMS plugins, Good LMS has features for creating courses, selling them, and implementing quizzes and certificates. The CodeCanyon page includes several demos (student backend, instructor backend, transaction backend) for a full taste of what to expect.

The design process is managed like a regular WordPress blog post, where you create quizzes, courses, and certificates from the WordPress dashboard. The course process meter provides a beautiful look into student achievements, and setting a commission rate for an instructor allows you to manage the people who work on your team. Course ratings are also available, so Good LMS is a wise choice for those who want to make a course marketplace.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• A good LMS lets you create a simple course marketplace (like Udemy) with course ratings and teacher commission settings.
• The WordPress LMS plugin costs far less than some premium suites.
• Modify quiz settings so that all students have multiple opportunities to take the quizzes.
• Course badges and certificates are revealed in the student backend, where users can access progress reports.
• A simple coupon code creator helps you make and share the codes to gain more students.
• A good LMS heavily relies on the WordPress interface, so a regular WordPress user won’t want to learn new design techniques.

Namaste! LMS

Although it’s not as popular as the previous seven WordPress LMS plugins in this article, Namaste! LMS should not be overlooked. You can download the core plugin for free and design a respectable online course without spending much money. However, the Namaste! The premium theme will most likely be used for the design, starting at $47. In addition, the Namaste! Pro module packs in numerous add-ons and premium support for the year.

As an example, Namaste! Pro offers options for awards, badges, and file and course protection. You can also enable shopping carts for premium courses and connect with the WooCommerce or WP Simple Cart plugins.

I enjoy the simplicity of the core plugin, but it won’t work for most online course web admins. After all, basic features like delayed course material or teacher assigning aren’t available unless you pay for the premium package.

However, the pricing is still reasonable, so it’s not a big deal if you want an alternative to the big dogs like LearnDash.

The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin

• The integrations strengthen the functionality of your course website while catering to niches. For instance, the Watu integration satisfies the need for quizzes and exams. At the same time, the MoolaMojo connection works wonders for giving out points and letting students buy more courses with the points earned.
• Creating and editing a course is similar to making a standard WordPress post. It’s it’s and intuitive enough for beginners, but you still have access to more advanced customization options.
• You can enable a shopping cart to collect money and manage individual video or package subscriptions.
• There’s a solution for protecting your files from unwanted intruders.
• You can award badges and create a gamified atmosphere to press users to work harder on the lessons.

Which of the WordPress LMS Plugins are Right for You?

The good news about the WordPress LMS market is that these eight plugins are the only viable options. Far too often, we see plugin categories cluttering the shopping space with 20 or 30 plugins to choose from.

So, you can stick to these solutions and start from the number one recommendation. Or, you can go based on your particular needs:

• The WordPress LMS plugins with the best values and most features: LearnDash, Lifter LMS, and WP Courseware.
• The cheapest WordPress LMS plugins are LearnPress and Good LMS.
• The ideal WordPress LMS for beginners (and for making an essential online learning website): Lifter LMS.
• The best WordPress LMS plugins for making an online course marketplace are Udemy CoursePress Pro and Good LMS.

You can’t work with any of the WordPress LMS plugins on this list, so it’s about honing in on the exact features you want to see in your online classroom. After that, consider the price–but not too hard since a quality learning website can easily cover the monthly fees.

Also, remember to read our in-depth guide about the challenges of hosting membership sites: The Do’s and N’ts of fn’tsosting WordPress Membership Sites.

That’s what they have for you! Do you prefer a WordPress LMS plugin? We’d like to hear about it below.