Best WordPress LMS and Online Course Plugins

Are you looking for the best WordPress LMS and online course plugins? Then, you’ve found the right article.

WordPress LMS (Learning Management System) plugins are tools that offer features to create web-based online courses. So, if you want to create an eLearning site with WordPress, then having a course builder plugin is a must.

Now, WordPress offers a lot of online course plugins with unique and useful features. So, you should look for the one that fits your needs. Thus, we’ve listed some of the best WordPress LMS and online course plugins with their features to help you choose easily.

But before that, let’s discuss the things you should look for in a WordPress LMS plugin. Here we go!

What to Look for in a WordPress LMS Plugin?

You can find a handful of good online course plugins in WordPress. But, picking the right one for your eLearning site is very crucial. Each one of these tools has its own unique features that may or may not be needed for your site.

So, while choosing the best WordPress plugin for creating a learning website, be sure to look for these features.

  • Ease of use: You need to spend some time creating and setting up your online course. So, make sure that the plugin you select is user-friendly.
  • Course Builder: It should allow you to create engaging and interactive courses for making teaching and learning easier. Make sure you can add various multimedia, with lessons, sections, etc.
  • Course Progress: Course progress is an essential feature in your online course plugin. It helps users track what portion of the course they have covered and how much is left.
  • Quizzes and Assignments: You should be able to add quizzes and assignments for each of your course sections or lessons. This makes teaching and learning more interactive.
  • Student Certification: Your online course should offer students certification after completion of the course.
  • Payment Gateway: The LMS plugin should have integration with various payment methods like PayPal, credit card, etc. As a result, you can receive payment from students easily.

These are the major things that make your online course builder plugin powerful. Learn more in detail from our guide on how to choose a WordPress plugin in a nutshell.

Now, let’s look at some of the best LMS and online course plugins with their features so that you can pick them up easily.


11+ Best WordPress Online Course & LMS Plugins 2023

Here’s our pick for the 11+ best WordPress LMS and course plugins. Learn their features and pricing to grab the most suitable platform for your website.

1. Tutor LMS

Tutor LMS is one of the best online course WordPress plugins with lots of capabilities. It’s popular among developers because of a fair amount of usage. But everyone can use it due to its simple and mesmerizing user interface. Also, instructors and students can easily navigate through the courses.

Tutor LMS

Best of all, the drag-and-drop course builder makes it more effortless to design and build your online education material. Further, it has an awesome Tutor LMS certificate builder and can be built required certificates using Elementor too.

Main Features

  • You can restrict the course content based on the user types.
  • Test students with advanced quizzes (10 quiz types).
  • It provides functions to drip content i.e. release content in a schedule.
  • You can integrate Tutor LMS with various eCommerce tools for monetization.
  • Send automated emails to students, instructors, and administrators, etc.
  • Get access to advanced reports and analytics.
  • Build a multi-instructor marketplace with commission allocation.

Pricing

Tutor LMS is a freemium WordPress online course plugin with both free and premium plans. You can download the free plugin from the WordPress.org plugin directory or its website. Else install the plugin right in your dashboard.

For exclusive features, go with a premium plan. The following are its price options:

  • Individual: $199/year, $499 for one-time, 1 site, lifetime updates, etc.
  • Business: $399/year, $899 for lifetime use, 10 sites, Individual plan features, etc.
  • Agency: $799/year, $1899 for one-time, 50 sites, Business features, and more.

Here’s a link to the complete review on Tutor LMS to help you know better.


2. Masteriyo LMS

Masteriyo LMS is one of the most user-friendly WordPress online course plugins. It lets you create and sell your courses. Further, its drag-and-drop course builder makes it very easy to create, edit, and manage your courses.

Masteriyo WordPress Online Course and LMS Plugin

On top of that, you can create unlimited sections containing their respective lessons. These lessons can contain any kind of course material. That includes videos, images, etc. And the videos can be from sources like YouTube, Vimeo, and self-hosted ones.

In addition, you’ll also get an intuitive quiz builder. Hence, you can create questions of various types. Some of them include true/false, single choice, multiple choice options, etc.

Main Features

  • An interactive learning page for students to interact with the courses after enrollment.
  • The learner account page lets students get an overview of their enrolled courses.
  • You can display all the courses in an attractive manner on a course archive page.
  • Its built-in order system lets you sell online courses with ease.
  • Gives a course progressive bar for students to locate the step they’re at on the course curriculum.

Pricing:

Masteriyo LMS is a freemium WordPress plugin. The free plugin is present to download on the WordPress.org plugin repository and its website.

The following list shows the price options available in the premium version of this plugin:

  • Starter: $49/year, 1 site, free features, certificate builder, assignments, etc.
  • Growth: $99/year, 5 sites, Starter features, coupons, gradebook, and more.
  • Scale: $164/year, 99 sites, and all the Growth features.

3. LearnDash

LearnDash is a leading WordPress LMS plugin to create online courses and sell them to users. It lets you build detailed high-quality courses with robust features. Also, it’s been used by many universities, companies, and entrepreneurs to create and sell their online learning materials.

LearnDash

With LearnDash, you get everything you need in an online learning platform. For instance, you can create the course with simple text or embed different multimedia. Besides creating and selling courses, you can add quizzes, assignments, awards, certifications, etc.

Main Features

  • You can include advanced quizzes and assignments to make your course more interactive.
  • LearnDash allows charging fees in various ways like membership, recurring subscription, one-time fee, etc.
  • It allows integration with various email marketing tools and payment gateways.
  • Offers content-dripping features i.e. scheduling and releasing the course timely.
  • Displays award points and leaderboards to boost user engagement on courses.

Pricing:

LearnDash is a premium WordPress plugin for making online course websites. It offers its paid features on all the following plans with the restriction on the number of sites you can build. So, choose based on your needs.

  • 1 Site: $199/year, with updates and support.
  • 10 Sites: $399/year, with updates and support.
  • Unlimited Sites: $799/year, with updates and support.

Want to know more about LearnDash in detail? Then, check out our full review on Learndash.


4. LifterLMS

LifterLMS is a powerful and beginner-friendly LMS WordPress plugin. It’s a freemium plugin, meaning it offers both free and premium versions. So, you can use either of the versions depending on the features your project requires.

LifterLMS

It lets you create in-depth courses with multiple levels like sections, lessons, topics, and more. You can drag and drop them easily in any order you like.

Additionally, you can include different multimedia like images, GIFs, embedded videos, etc. It is one of the best alternatives for the LearnDash plugin. You can read LifterLMS vs LearnDash article from us to understand the difference between these two plugins.

Main Features

  • You can provide certificates, awards, and achievement badges to your students.
  • It has tools to create advanced quizzes and assignments
  • The functionalities can be added with different extensions
  • Content-dripping features are available.
  • Sell and monetize options are available with integration to payment gateways like Stripe, PayPal, etc.

Pricing:

LifterLMS is another freemium WordPress plugin. So, you’ll get to download the free plan from WordPress.org and its website.

If you want the premium features, then choose one of the following LifterLMS pricing plans:

  • Earth Bundle: $199/year, 1 website, eCommerce add-ons, 1 user support, etc.
  • Universe Bundle: $360/year, 5 sites, all Earth features, email marketing & CRM add-ons, etc.
  • Infinity Bundle: $1200/year, unlimited sites, Universe features, advanced add-ons, and more.

Want to go with this plugin? Make sure to learn more about it from the LifterLMS review blog.


5. LearnPress

LearnPress is the most popular tool to create a teaching and learning platform in WordPress. It’s been downloaded the most number of times from the WordPress.org plugin repository. It’s due to its availability of great features in the free version as well.

LearnPress LMS and Quiz Plugins

During installation, it takes you through the installation wizard that helps even beginners set up the platform easily. In addition, its interface is so simple that you can do everything with ease.

Main Features

  • You can add assignments and quizzes.
  • Able to increase its features with the free add-ons.
  • Content dripping is possible. It means that you can release your course timely.
  • It has integration with various tools like WooCommerce, BuddyPress, and various payment gateways.
  • Includes a no-distraction mode where learners can peacefully take the quizzes.

Pricing:

It is a free WordPress LMS plugin. You can download it from the WordPress.org plugin repository.

Moreover, it has several free and premium extensions to use for more features. Most of all, it has a LearnPress Premium Add-ons Bundle containing all these extensions. It costs $299 for 1 website and comes with 12 months of updates and support.

We have a detailed review of LearnPress in our other blog. Check it to set up LearnPress on your site.


6. MemberPress

MemberPress is a leading WordPress membership plugin with useful LMS features as well. With this plugin, you can create a membership site where you can create online courses and give access to paying users.

MemberPress

It has a drag-and-drop builder to help you build courses with lessons, topics, multimedia, text, etc. Plus, it integrates well with the WordPress block editor so that creating your course is very easy.

Main Features

  • It offers various methods of payment like subscription, one-time, or timely-based.
  • You can provide a number of access modes to different students.
  • It provides integration with email marketing tools like Mailchimp, Drip, ConvertKit, etc. for email marketing features.
  • Also, it integrates payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, etc.
  • It tracks the progress of your students and subscribers.

Pricing:

MemberPress is a premium membership plugin with LMS functionality. These are the price options available in this plugin and all of them have online course features.

  • Basic: $179.5/year, 1 site, unlimited courses, unlimited members, drip content, etc.
  • Plus: $299.5/year, 2 sites, Basic features, unlimited quizzes, unlimited certificates, developer tools, etc.
  • Pro: $399.5/year, 5 sites, Plus features, able to sell gifted memberships and more.

7. Teachable

Teachable is a platform for creating a fully-fledged online school. It allows integration with WordPress as a plugin to create and sell courses via your WordPress site. With Teachable, you can create unlimited courses without having to know any codes.

Teachable

You can add lots of elements like audio, videos, and other learning materials like quizzes, assignments, etc. in your courses. With that, you can create engaging learning material and charge fees accordingly.

Main Features

  • You can charge a flat fee, subscription, make a payment plan, etc.
  • Tracking the progress of students is possible.
  • It offers stats and analytics features to access the number of signups, your earning, etc.
  • The content dripping feature is available.
  • It has flexible payment options.
  • Further, there’s an AI curriculum generator tool present in Teachable.

Pricing:

Teachable is a freemium WordPress online course platform. The free plugin is downloadable from its website.

Similarly, you can also get a premium plan from the website. The plans are:

  • Basic: $39/mo billed annually, $59/mo billed monthly, 5% transaction, 5 courses, unlimited coaching, etc.
  • Pro: $119/mo billed annually, $159/mo billed monthly, Basic features, unlimited courses, affiliate marketing, and more.

8. WP Courseware

WP Courseware is a WordPress education plugin that’s used for setting up learning material online and selling it to students. You can create multiple courses with different subdivisions like modules and units. You can place them in any order with the available drag-and-drop feature.

WP Courseware - Online Course WordPress Plugin

This plugin is known best for its advanced quiz feature which includes timed quizzes, time limits, retake limits, question types, question order, etc. With the email marketing tool, you can send customized automated emails to your students.

Main Features

  • You can send custom feedback to your students based on their performance.
  • The content dripping feature is available to release content in a schedule.
  • It lets you provide certificates to students after course completion.
  • Comes with extensive payment options.
  • You’re provided a yearlong of support and updates.
  • Students can record notes within your lessons for future review.

Pricing:

WP Courseware is a premium software for LMS websites. Its pricing plans are:

  • Teacher: $129/year, 2-site license, unlimited courses, unlimited students, 1 year of support, etc.
  • Professor: $149/year, 10-site license, and all Teacher plan features.
  • Guru: $199/year, 25-site license, and all Professor plan features.

9. Sensei LMS

Sensei LMS is a powerful online course WordPress plugin created by Automattic, the same company behind WordPress.com. It has a learning mode for students to focus on their studies and courses.

Sensei LMS - Online Course Plugins

You can use it as a stand-alone platform for creating and sharing your courses for free. However, it integrates well with WooCommerce in case you want to charge for your courses. So, it’s sometimes taken as an extension for WooCommerce.

Main Features

  • You can release content on a timely schedule with the content dripping features.
  • You get extensive features for quizzes.
  • It lets you track students’ course progress easily.
  • The integration with WooCommerce makes it easier to receive payments.
  • Gives PDF certificates to the learners that students can download after the completion of the course.

Pricing:

Sensei LMS is a free WordPress plugin. You can download this free plugin from the WordPress.org plugin directory.


10. MasterStudy LMS

MasterStudy LMS is a WordPress plugin that turns your WordPress site into an educational platform. It has a number of good free and premium tools to create, manage, and publish learning courses online.

MasterStudy LMS WordPress Course Building Plugin

Besides creating your online course, you can also make your site a marketplace for other users to upload their courses. Additionally, you can add various types of courses with text, multimedia, slides, etc.

Main Features

  • The MasterStudy LMS quiz provides amazing features like a countdown, question types, hide/show results, etc.
  • You can generate and provide certificates to students based on their performance.
  • Content-dripping features are available.
  • You can add assignments to each lesson for students and check their progress.
  • It allows integration with other tools like GamiPress, WooCommerce, Stripe, PayPal, etc.
  • Offers pricing models like one-time purchases, courses, memberships, etc.

Pricing:

MasterStudy is a freemium plugin with free and premium price options. This means you’ll get to download the free plan from WordPress.org and its official website.

Moreover, you can upgrade your plan to a premium version. Here are the pricing plans:

  • Single: $59/year billed yearly, $149/year billed monthly, 1 site, premium add-ons, and more.
  • 5 Sites: $149/year, 5 sites, $399/year billed monthly, and all premium features.
  • Unlimited: $299/year, unlimited sites, $799/year billed monthly, and every pro-feature.

11. Good LMS

Good LMS is a premium online school WordPress plugin with tons of great features for creating courses to study online. With the integration with the WordPress block editor, creating the learning material with Good LMS is pretty easy.

Good LMS WordPress Online Course Plugin

Moreover, it lets you create quizzes and assignments to make your course more interactive and engaging. Besides, you can track the progress of your students and provide certificates and badges accordingly.

Main Features

  • With the available hierarchy of subsections, you can create your course with depth.
  • Students get their own dashboard to manage their studies.
  • You can receive payment for the courses through Authorize.net, PayPal, Paymill, Stripe, etc.
  • It allows you to create coupon codes for providing discounts to students.
  • Demos are available for instructor backend, student frontend, certificate, badge, etc.

Pricing:

This is a premium WordPress online course plugin present in the CodeCanyon marketplace. It costs $32 for a regular license containing future updates and 6 months of support. Pay $10.13 and you’ll get a total of 12 months of support.


12. Namaste LMS

Namaste LMS is a WordPress LMS and online course builder plugin that offers you to create study material for free. With this plugin, you can add an unlimited number of courses and manage them easily.

LearnDash Alternative Namaste LMS WordPress Plugin

Also, Namaste LMS allows you to set rules for accessing the lesson like good test results, assignments, grades, etc. Upon completion of the courses, you can provide the students with certificates as well. In addition, you can also provide students with grades and points as well.

Main Features

  • It allows integration with various plugins to add more features to your online course website.
  • It lets you review the students before enrolling.
  • You can charge students via PayPal and Stripe.
  • The completeness of the course can be easily viewed.
  • Lets you define the requisite lessons to complete before you start another.

Pricing:

Namaste LMS is a free WordPress plugin. Hence, download it from the WordPress.org plugin directory and add it to your website to use it.

Further, it also has a premium version. And it’s present in the following price options:

  • Namaste! Pro: $67, some premium modules, 1 year of support,
  • Plugins Bundle: $97, connect module, report module, and all premium features.
  • Full Bundle: $137, LMS theme, and all from the Plugins Bundle.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on LMS Plugins

1. Which is the best free WordPress LMS plugin?

There are several free WordPress online course plugins. Among them, Tutor LMS and Masteriyo are the best free WordPress LMS plugins to create eLearning websites.

2. How can I create an online course website?

To create online courses, you need LMS software. WordPress offers LMS plugins that let you make your eLearning platform. Using one, you can easily build an online course site.

3. How to install a WordPress online course plugin?

If you want to install an LMS plugin on your WordPress website, then please follow our guide. Our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin shows the process for every plugin.

4. What is content drip?

Content drip is a website functionality ideal for online course sites. It lets you schedule your new content to be published on the website regularly to boost excitement.

5. What are the prerequisites?

Prerequisites are features of LMS websites. With this restriction function, your learners must complete a set of starter lessons before they start the other later lessons.


Conclusion

So, we’re at the end of our article on the best WordPress LMS and online course plugins. From this article, you can understand that WordPress has some great options for creating your eLearning material.

Also, we hope that you can choose the best LMS plugin for your learning platform. Are you still confused about which one to choose? Then you can choose TutorLMS or Masteriyo if you want a free version and go for LearnDash if you can afford a premium plugin.

If you have any other questions or suggestions, then you can leave your comment below. We’ll get back to you very soon.

You can also check our article on the best WordPress quiz plugins. This article consists of the plugins with which you can create quizzes. So, if you just want quizzes on your article, then this would be helpful.

Most of all, make sure to read our articles on LMS vs CMS and the best LMS WordPress themes.

Lastly, follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get updates.

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