Firstly, know what LMS is. LMS stands for the learning management system. LMS is a software program that helps you create, manage, and deliver eLearning courses, also known as online courses. A WordPress LMS will help you easily handle the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of your online courses right within your WordPress dashboard.
LMS is a perfect WordPress plugin to create and run online courses. LMS Plugins include various features for managing your online course content, handling subscriptions, accepting payments, running, and grading quizzes, etc. LMS helps vendors to learn more about business culture and understand the business procedure. The LMS plugin will help you easily handle the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting, and delivery of your online courses.
Because LMS plugins have deep functionality and I don’t want to make this post a book, here’s how I’m going to set up this comparison. For each plugin I’ll:
- Give you a broad overview of its features
- Show you how you’ll actually build and structure your courses
- Share the different monetization options available, assuming you’d like to make some money from the courses you create
- Discuss the price for you to get up and running
Then, in the end, I’ll share my picks for the best WordPress LMS plugin for your specific needs. With LMS plugins vendors can easily log in to their LMS and update the content of online courses. Learners can easily log in to LMS for practice and manage all aspects of it. Read about some of the best WordPress LMS plugins so that you can use the best plugin according to your need:-
Some Of The Best WordPress LMS Plugins
1. LearnDash
LearnDash is one of the most popular LMS plugins used for online courses as it comes with the best value and multiple features. It is the easiest LMS plugin. LearnDash plugins help to create and sell online courses with simple drag-and-drop features. It allows vendors to create multi-layer courses with different categories. LearnDash plugins are used more frequently as compared to others. Vendors can sell courses, topics, certificates, and many more.
Some of the ways you can sell your online courses from LearnDash are:
- Memberships: Sell traditional membership access to your entire online courses.
- One-time price: Allow users to make individual online course purchases.
- Subscription: Maximize revenue through recurring payments and subscriptions for your online course.
- Course licenses: Allow organizers to purchase the license in bulk and grant access to their staff members.
You can deliver all your lessons at once or schedule them for the entire course duration with its Drip-Feed content feature.
Using LearnDash, you can give your users assignments and then approve or comment on them. It also comes with quiz and test management tools with multiple question types. You can easily set prerequisites for students, such as finishing a lesson first before going to the next lesson.
It offers plenty of monetization options including subscriptions, one-time purchases, memberships, and a shopping cart for your online training course. You can accept payments using multiple payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout.
The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin
- Drip-feed lessons & lesson timers
- Built-in forums, certificates, and badges
- Multiple monetization options: subscriptions, memberships, one-time purchases, course licenses
- Assignment and quiz management with prerequisites
- User profiles and group management
- Supports all media types: video, audio, images, Google Docs, Adobe Captivate
- Multi-site enabled
- Front-End Course Creation add-on
Price: Starting from $159 for a single site license with 1 year of support and updates.
Grade: A+
Get started with LearnDash plugins today. This will increase user engagement in your online courses.
2. LearnPress
I recently tested LearnPress, and I have to say, it’s one of the simplest and most versatile WordPress LMS plugins I’ve tried — and the best part? The core plugin is completely free. Setting up my first course was straightforward. I was able to create lessons, quizzes, and questions without any complicated setup, and the landing page templates made it easy to showcase course descriptions and attract potential students.
One thing I really liked is that LearnPress isn’t just limited to one instructor. You can have multiple instructors managing a single course, which is perfect for collaborative teaching. I also appreciated the gamification features, like badges and points, which made my courses feel more interactive and engaging for students.
For monetization, LearnPress offers a variety of payment options — I tested PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout, and all worked smoothly. You can choose between one-time payments or recurring subscriptions, which is great for different types of courses. The plugin also supports content dripping, random quizzes, assignments, and integration with WooCommerce, bbPress, and BuddyPress, making it highly flexible.
The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin
- Free core plugin with optional paid add-ons
- Course creation with lessons, quizzes, and assignments
- Multiple instructors per course
- Badges and points for gamification
- Content dripping and scheduled lessons
- One-time or recurring payments via PayPal, Stripe, 2Checkout, and more
- Integration with WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and bbPress
- Landing page templates to promote courses
- Compatible with any WordPress theme or LearnPress LMS themes
Each LearnPress course can be created with quizzes and lessons as the students move through the curriculum. You might have to activate a few add-ons, depending on how advanced you need to make your online course website. For instance, there are add-ons for bbPress, BuddyPress, course reviews, wish lists, importing/exporting, and prerequisites to courses.
LearnPress works with any WordPress theme, but you can also choose from one of their own LMS WordPress themes. This helps you avoid any compatibility issues and offer a better experience for users. LearnPress supports payment gateways including Stripe, 2Checkout, Authorize.net, and more. Content dripping is provided with paid memberships and a WooCommerce add-on.
Pricing: Free + Paid Addons and support
Grade: B+
Also Read: Best OSS Software open source tools
3. LifterLMS
LifterLMS, I have to say, it’s a very powerful alternative to LearnDash for creating and selling online courses on WordPress. From the start, I appreciated how intuitive it is — the drag-and-drop course builder makes setting up lessons, quizzes, and assignments a breeze, even if you’re new to online course creation.
One thing I really liked is the flexibility it offers. You can set up content dripping, course prerequisites, and group memberships, which gives you full control over how students progress through your courses. To keep learners motivated, LifterLMS includes gamification features like badges and certificates, automated emails, and even discussion areas where students can interact with instructors and peers.
For monetization, LifterLMS is very versatile. I tested selling courses individually and in bundles via WooCommerce integration, and it handled everything smoothly. You can set up one-time or recurring payments, accept credit cards via PayPal or Stripe, and even offer coupons or special pricing models. The multi-instructor feature is great if you have a team of teachers managing a single course.
The Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- Content dripping & course prerequisites
- Multi-instructor support
- Gamification with badges & certificates
- Discussion areas and social profiles
- WooCommerce integration for selling courses
- Multiple payment gateways: PayPal, Stripe, manual payments
- One-time or recurring payments, course bundles, coupons
- Multimedia quizzes and assignments
- Add-ons for affiliates, email marketing, memberships
- Import/export courses for easy platform migration
There are multiple options to accept credit card payments, one-time or recurring payments, sell course bundles, offer coupons, etc. Among payment options, you can integrate it with PayPal, Stripe, or receive payments manually via check.
LifterLMS has drag-and-drop features that remove the need to mess with code, and as a result, you get more visual design. Lifter LMS is popular for its unique integrations with WooCommerce, AffiliateWP, and MailChimp.
You can monetize your LMS platforms using different methods:
- Membership: Sell site-wide membership that provides access to every course.
- Bundle: Sell course bundles to boost your revenue.
- Members-only pricing: Allows users to make individual course purchases. You can also set members-only pricing to make paid memberships so valuable.
Pricing: Individual add-ons for $99 each (single site), or Universal Plan for $299 for a single site.
Addons can be purchased individually for $99 each, or save big with a bundle set for $299.
Grade: A
4. Sensei
Sensei LMS, and I found it to be a straightforward and beginner-friendly WordPress LMS plugin. What I really liked is how it sticks to the familiar WordPress and WooCommerce workflow, so if you’re already comfortable with WordPress, getting started is a breeze.
One thing to note is that Sensei isn’t as feature-packed as some other LMS plugins. To sell courses, you need WooCommerce, and for each course, you create a product and link it to the course — it’s simple but requires a bit of setup. Despite that, the integration with WooCommerce is seamless, allowing you to charge for courses either individually or via subscription without any headaches.
Creating courses feels just like creating a WordPress post or page, which makes the process intuitive. I liked the quiz options — you can set up true/false, single-line, multi-line, or file upload quizzes. The plugin also allows randomized quizzes from a question bank and lets you choose between automatic or manual grading.
Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin
- Seamless WordPress & WooCommerce integration
- Beginner-friendly course creation
- Quizzes: true/false, single/multi-line, file upload
- Randomized quizzes and automatic/manual grading
- Simple course analytics: student registration, completion, grades
- Compatible with most WordPress themes
- Sell courses individually or via subscription through WooCommerce
The seamless WooCommerce integration is the bread and butter of Sensei, especially since it’s made to work with all WooCommerce themes. Overall, Sensei is built around the intuitiveness of WordPress, so the beginner user shouldn’t have any problems making a course like they would a regular WordPress post.
The Sensei LMS plugin integrates seamlessly with WordPress, helping its features to blend in with the rest of the core WordPress functionality. This makes it easy to pick up and get started with this plugin. As you might expect, Sensei also integrates with the WooCommerce plugin, giving you a powerful set of tools for selling access to your online courses.
Pricing: Starting from $129 for a single site license with 1 year of support and updates.
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 good for one year, so it’s required to upgrade annually.
Grade: B
Course creation with Sensei is easy. To sell courses and accept payments vendors need to use WooCommerce in Sensei plugins. Creation and publishing of online courses are done in Sensei plugins, but in order to sell access, you will need to use it in conjunction with membership or eCommerce plugins.
Also Read: Essential WordPress Plugins To Use On Your Website
5. WP Courseware
WP Courseware, and I have to say, it’s one of the most robust WordPress LMS plugins I’ve used. What stood out immediately was the drag-and-drop course builder, which made creating lessons and modules both quick and intuitive. I also appreciated the course protection features, ensuring that my content stays secure.
One of my favorite aspects was the flexibility for both small and large courses. WP Courseware offers a wide range of elements and integrates seamlessly with popular tools like WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and Visual Composer. This makes it easy to sell courses, set up multi-instructor systems, and manage different types of content.
I also tested the grade books, which allow you to track student progress and even export reports — extremely useful if you’re running multiple courses. The plugin supports multiple quiz types, question banks, and random quizzes, which keeps assessments engaging for students. Automated email notifications and drip content help maintain engagement without manual intervention.
Key Features in This WordPress LMS Plugin
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- Course protection & content dripping
- Multi-instructor support
- Grade books & exportable reports
- Quizzes: multiple types & random questions
- Certificates for course completion
- Built-in shopping cart with PayPal & Stripe
- Option to offer free or paid courses
- WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and Visual Composer integration
WP Courseware offers instructor profiles, student grade books, custom emails, and many other features that help create an engaging experience for users. It also comes with a question bank so that you can quickly create quizzes for different courses and modules.
The plugin also includes powerful monetization features to sell online classes on your website. It has a built-in shopping cart option where you can directly connect to PayPal or Stripe and start selling your courses.
Let’s take a look at some of the other features:
- Grade Books: View the progress of every student.
- Certificates: Award downloadable certificates to students for completing a course.
- Built-in Shopping Cart: Use PayPal or Stripe to sell your courses, either for a one-time fee or as a recurring subscription.
- Free Courses: Offer free courses to prospective customers and build your email list
You can also create free courses and provide users with a way to try out your classes. This could encourage them to buy a full course. You can sell paid courses as a one-time purchase or recurring subscriptions.
Pricing: Starting from $129 for 2 sites with 1 year of support and updates.
Grade: B
By choosing the right WordPress plugins from above you can enhance the core functionalities of your online course sites. According to our study, we believe that LearnDash is the best WordPress LMS plugin for most users because it offers the most comprehensive LMS features. That’s all we have for you! Hope you like this article and find the best WordPress LMS plugins for your needs.
Final Thought
Choosing the right WordPress LMS plugin can make a huge difference in how effectively you deliver online courses and engage your learners. Each plugin highlighted above — from LearnDash’s comprehensive features to LearnPress’s beginner-friendly free setup, LifterLMS’s powerful gamification and content control, Sensei’s seamless WordPress integration, and WP Courseware’s flexible course management — offers unique strengths to fit different needs and budgets.
The key is to match your choice with your course goals, audience size, and technical comfort level. Whether you want a fully scalable professional LMS, a simple free solution, or a plugin that integrates perfectly with WooCommerce and BuddyPress, there’s an option for you. By using the right plugin, you can create engaging, interactive, and profitable online courses that keep students motivated and coming back for more.
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