Whether you want to move a classroom online or start selling training courses on your website, a powerful Learning Management System (LMS) is key. However, how do you decide what the best LMS plugin is to use for your WordPress site?
Fortunately, there are plenty of options to choose from regardless of your specific goals or budget. From lessons and quizzes to payments and certificates, the right LMS plugin can make creating, distributing, and managing all aspects of your online courses significantly easier.
In this post, we’ll discuss the benefits of using an LMS plugin and some popular use cases. Then we’ll provide you with three of the best LMS plugins to consider, including their features, pros and cons, and pricing. Let’s get started!
The Benefits of Using an LMS Plugin
In case you’re unfamiliar, an LMS is software you can use for creating, delivering, and managing online courses and materials. A LMS plugin is an extension that can help you turn your WordPress site into an eLearning platform.
There are a handful of benefits to using an LMS plugin. You can use them to:
- Build lessons and course content using drag-and-drop builders
- Create and evaluate exams and implement a grading system
- Offer course completion certificates and badges
- Establish a payment or subscription model for selling online courses
- Schedule lessons through drip content feeds
- Create and incorporate quizzes and other learning modules
In addition, LMS plugins can help you with the administration, tracking, and reporting aspects of running and selling online courses. When installed on your WordPress site, your LMS plugins allows you to manage your online training content directly from your dashboard, rather than a third-party platform.
Among the most popular use cases of LMS plugins is for traditional educational environments, such as online colleges and universities:
However, they also have a wide variety of other applications as well. For example, LMS plugins are helpful for bloggers and entrepreneurs looking to make money off of a special skill set or area of expertise:
They can used by businesses to offer training and professional development courses. For example, HubSpot Academy and Divi Academy are examples of popular websites that offer online courses with certifications and badges.
3 Best LMS Plugins to Use With WordPress
When you’re looking for an LMS plugin, you have a variety to choose from. While the one that makes the most sense for you to use will depend on a handful of factors, such as the specific features you want to use and your budget, there are a few that tend to be popular and preferred among WordPress users. Let’s take a look at the three best LMS plugins to consider.
1. LifterLMS
If you’ve read our LifterLMS review, you already know we’re fans of this plugin. LifterLMS is a simple WordPress LMS plugin that is packed with powerful features.
You can use it to create and sell online courses as well as training-based membership sites. It comes with a user-friendly interface and is easy to set up on both new and existing WordPress sites.
LifterLMS features include:
- Automated and action-based emails
- Drip content scheduling
- Detailed reporting and course management tools
- Payment integrations for PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- Multimedia quizzes with time limits
- Downloadable lessons and worksheets for offline learning
- Private coaching upsells
One of the unique benefits of LifterLMS is the plethora of useful integrations it offers. For example, in addition to WooCommerce, there are also addons available for WP Forms, MailChimp, ConverterKit, and more.
Most LMS plugins for WordPress are premium options. Therefore, the fact that LifterLMS offers the Core LifterLMS plugin for free is certainly an advantage. Unfortunately, this only includes the basic features and is pretty limiting.
Compared to other LMS plugins, the pricing of LifterLMS can be a bit confusing. To take advantage of the full suite of the plugin’s features and functionalities, you can purchase the premium addons individually, which start at $99 each per year.
Alternatively, you can purchase the Ultimate Bundle for $299 per year or the Infinity Bundle for $999 per year. You also have the option of trying the LifterLMS demo for 30 days for just $1.
2. LearnDash
LearnDash is among the most popular and feature-rich LMS plugins for WordPress. It offers an all-in-one LMS solution that is an ideal choice for universities and businesses looking to create dynamic course content and online learning materials.
LearnDash features include:
- Drip content feed
- Multiple course tiers and unlimited courses
- Video progression feature
- Engagement triggers for automation control
- Expire access controls
- Ability to add multiple instructors to courses
- Advanced quizzes with pre-defined quiz types and question banks
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- Multimedia support, including audio, video, images, and Google Docs and Adobe files
- Lesson timers
- Course bundles and memberships
One of the unique features of LearnDash is that it is multisite-enabled and mobile compatible. It also works seamlessly with any modern WordPress theme. It also includes support for Tin Can API, an eLearning software specification used for capturing and storing the learning activities of users in order to create personalized learning experiences.
When you’re looking for an LMS plugin that offers a variety of ways to monetize your WordPress site, LearnDash is hard to beat. However, due to the many advanced features, it’s not as beginner-friendly as some of the other LMS plugins available.
You can also try the demo before committing to a plan. Pricing starts at $159 for one site license and goes up to $329 for up to 25 sites. While this may seem like a steep price, consider that LifterLMS’ Ultimate Bundle costs $299 for up to five sites.
3. WP Courseware
Created by Fly Plugins, WP Courseware is another popular, flexible LMS plugin for WordPress. As with the other two LMS plugins, WP Courseware features a drag-and-drop builder, drip content feeds, and course management tools that make creating and customizing your content easy.
You can use WP Courseware for everything from simple to large courses. It also includes various monetization features that let you integrate with PayPal or Stripe to sell the courses on your WordPress site.
WP Courseware features include:
- Instructor profiles and gradebooks for tracking student progress
- Blocking quizzes where you can require students to reach a minimum grade before proceeding with the lessons
- Options to sell premium content as one-time purchase or a recurring subscription
- Free course content
- Downloadable course certificates upon completion
While WP Courseware doesn’t offer a free version as LifterLMS does, nor does it include the built-in lesson customization capabilities that LearnDash does, pricing starts at $124.50, making it cheaper than LearnDash and just a pinch more than a LifterLMS premium addon.
Plus, the Teacher Plan includes support for two websites (rather than one). To learn more, you can try the WP Courseware demo or sign up for a 30-day free trial.
Conclusion
The LMS you use plays a pivotal role in your experience with creating, distributing, and managing online courses. If you’re looking for an LMS plugin you can seamlessly incorporate with your WordPress site, there are a few options that outperform the rest.
In this post, we discussed three of the best LMS plugins to use with WordPress, which are:
- LifterLMS which offers a rare free option. You can choose from a collection of individual premium addons to bundle packages to extend its features and functionality.
- LearnDash. A popular, feature-rich LMS plugin for WordPress that is ideal if you’re looking to monetize your content, create unlimited courses, or have a multisite network.
- WP Courseware. A flexible LMS plugin that is a cost-effective alternative to LearnDash that comes with impressive quiz options, training materials, and integrations.
Do you have any questions about choosing an LMS plugin for WordPress? Let us know in the comments section below!
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