Are you looking for an online course plugin for WordPress and want to find out what the best WordPress LMS plugins are?
A good LMS plugin for WordPress gives you the tools you need to create, manage, and share online courses and training programs, like LearnDesk and Udemy. You create the course content and set up the LMS on WordPress, and the plugin takes care of the rest.
In this article, we’ll share our top LMS WordPress plugins. First, let’s find out a little more about what an LMS is and what to look for in a course management plugin for WordPress.
What Is an LMS Plugin?
An LMS plugin is a Learning Management System for WordPress. Different WordPress course plugins and learning platforms will provide different features but in general, they let you set up different types of content like courses, lessons, quizzes, students, and instructors. They provide full control over managing your WordPress course platform.
The best WordPress plugins for e-learning allow you to control who can access the content based on your rules. You can sell the courses, require students to complete certain lessons before moving on, track their progress, create certificates, accept payment, see statistics, and more.
What to Look for in the Best LMS Plugin for WordPress?
The best LMS plugin for WordPress should be an easy LMS for users but still offer all the features to help you run your business successfully. Here are some features to look for:
- Lets you upload course material like text, PDFs, and videos
- Ability to track student enrollment and progress
- Can release lessons on a timed schedule and use quizzes to test learning, also called “content dripping”
- Includes features to increase engagement such as certificates, popups or other gamification tools
- Accepts payments easily with multiple options for customers
- Email notifications and marketing tools can also help you stay on top of communication and help you promote your online training programs
Ready to compare the top LMS plugins for WordPress? Let’s get started.
9 Best WordPress LMS Plugins
Here’s our list of the best Learning Management Systems for WordPress:
- MemberPress
- Thrive Apprentice
- LifterLMS
- LearnDash
- Teachable
- WP Courseware
- LearnPress
- Sensei
- Tutor LMS
1. MemberPress
MemberPress is the best membership plugin for WordPress, and it also includes powerful LMS features to create, manage, and sell online courses, which makes it the best all-in-one LMS for WordPress.
With MemberPress, you can lock exclusive content like online courses, premium blog posts, and more behind a members-only section of your website. You can easily control what content people see based on the subscription they’ve purchased.
Here are the top features of the MemberPress plugin.
- Drag-and-drop visual course builder that’s built on top of the WordPress block editor for creating beautiful courses quickly and easily. Also integrates with other theme builders such as Divi and Elementor.
- Can create multiple courses with different subscription options, free LMS courses, or bundles and packages.
- Full control over course access and gated content.
- Content dripping features to release courses gradually instead of all at once.
- Accepts multiple payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and more for easy WooCommerce LMS.
- Can track course progress with the simple LMS progress-tracking feature.
- Can generate coupons to run giveaways and promotions.
- Integrates with Google Analytics to show your website reports in your WordPress dashboard.
- Integrates with popular email marketing and email subscription management platforms like Drip and Constant Contact.
- And more…
MemberPress is simple to set up, is an excellent WordPress course builder, and gives you all the tools you need to run a successful LMS website.
It’s one of the best WordPress LMS plugins, and we recommend it to anyone looking for a WP course plugin.
Pricing: Starting from $179.50 / year for a single site.
Get started with MemberPress today!
2. Thrive Apprentice
Thrive Apprentice is a powerful and easy-to-use WordPress plugin for e-learning. It’s one of the easiest LMS tools for creating and managing online courses and includes membership features.
The LMS plugin has over 55 templates that beginners can use to get started quickly. You can customize every aspect of the courses using the drag-and-drop builder.
Thrive Apprentice has advanced features like Decoupled Drip, which lets you use flexible content dripping to create multiple schedules for the same course, which is really useful for releasing lessons consistently for each individual student.
Check out some of the other features that make Thrive Apprentice an awesome WordPress learning management plugin:
- Text lessons, video lessons, audio lessons, or mix-and-match media formats to keep your students engaged. You can also add additional materials like links, PDFs, and more easily.
- Conditional Display, which you can use to show different content to different users based on their preferences and their course history.
- Built-in dashboard for managing members, tracking course progress, and more
- Overview pages to attract more customers.
- Detailed reports and analytics.
- Custom course completion page with a downloadable certificate and QR code to verify the authenticity.
- Seamless integration with popular WordPress plugins and email marketing services like WooCommerce and Brevo.
- And more…
With these features, you can easily run a successful WordPress course platform. Since Thrive Apprentice supports all types of lessons and includes the built-in management dashboard, you don’t need an extra LMS video course plugin, WordPress class management plugin, or other separate tools.
Pricing: Thrive Apprentice can be purchased as a standalone WordPress LMS plugin, starting at $149 / year. Or you can buy the entire Thrive Suite of plugins, which includes Thrive Leads, Thrive Quiz Builder, and more, starting at $299 / year.
Get started with Thrive Apprentice today!
3. LifterLMS
LifterLMS is another powerful WordPress education plugin. It comes with a full set of tools to help you create, sell, and protect engaging online training courses in WordPress.
Here are some of the top features of this WordPress LMS plugin:
- Supports multimedia including video, audio, text, and images for lessons.
- Allows students to leave a testimonial after course completion, which is great for building social proof.
- User-friendly multi-tier drag-and-drop course builder for creating lessons fast.
- Content dripping and course prerequisites.
- Create multimedia quizzes and set quiz timers.
- Integrates with Google Analytics.
- Multi-instructor support and discussion areas.
- One-time payment or recurring payments and support for course bundles and coupons.
- Can offer achievement badges and certificates to boost engagement.
- Integrates well with WordPress form plugins and email marketing tools.
Not all of the features are included with the basic LifterLMS, but you can purchase addons to access the premium features.
Pricing: There is a free WordPress LMS core plugin from LifterLMS, but the basic subscription for 1 site, without any addons starts at $199 / year.
Get started with LifterLMS today!
4. LearnDash
LearnDash is one of the most popular LMS plugins for WordPress. Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, top universities, and training centers, it offers an easy way to create and sell online courses with WordPress.
Here are some of the top features of the LearnDash plugin.
- Drag-and-drop course builder for creating multi-layer courses.
- Drip-feed (schedule) content options – “X Days” after enrollment or a specific date.
- Create advanced quizzes using multiple different question types.
- Award learners with points, certificates, and badges and encourage learning.
- Create an interactive forum for students to communicate with each other.
- Set a one-time price, subscriptions, or membership access to your courses.
- Accept payments with popular payment gateways including PayPal and Stripe
- Front-end user profiles for students to track their course activity.
One of the best things about LearnDash is its integration with many popular tools and plugins, such as WooCommerce, MemberPress, Easy Digital Downloads, and more.
You can set up your courses to work with an online shopping cart by simply downloading the LearnDash free version of Easy Digital Downloads.
LearnDash is a leader in the e-learning industry and its eCommerce integrations make it one of the best WordPress LMS plugins for selling your online courses easily.
Pricing: Starting from $199 / year for 1 site license.
Get started with LearnDash today!
4. Teachable
Teachable is yet another powerful online course builder plugin available on the market. Unlike LearnDash and LifterLMS, it’s a standalone LMS and fully managed hosting platform for online course creation.
However, you can easily add your Teachable online courses to your WordPress website by using a custom subdomain or a link on your business website. You can also start with a Teachable subdomain like www.yourschool.teachable.com to get your Learning Management System up and running in no time.
Here are the top features of Teachable:
- Allows you to create engaging multimedia lectures using video, image, audio, and PDF files.
- Powerful course editor for creating beautiful course pages.
- Lets you create quizzes and discussion forums, and you can issue course completion certificates.
- Use coupons and promotions to boost your sales.
- Create your own affiliate program and reward others for helping you grow your sales.
- Accept payments from 130+ international currencies through popular gateways like Google Pay, Apple Pay, and more.
- Built-in email marketing, sales page builder, and reporting to view sales, revenue, and students’ progress.
- Seamless integration with marketing tools like MailChimp, AWeber, and more.
Teachable is a fully hosted and managed platform, so you won’t need to worry about building your site on WordPress or backing up your WordPress site LMS courses.
Pricing: Teachable offers free LMS sites so you can preview the features, but to start using it for active courses, plans start at $39 / month.
Get started with Teachable today!
5. WP Courseware
WP Courseware is yet another popular LMS plugin for WordPress. It offers a hassle-free way to create online courses with a drag-and-drop LMS course builder.
Here are the top features of the WP Courseware LMS:
- Drip (schedule) content to be released by date or at specific intervals.
- Create powerful quizzes using timers, retake limits, reporting, and surveys.
- Grade books to view quiz results and progress reports of students.
- Provides downloadable and customizable course certificates.
- Easy to integrate with eCommerce and WordPress membership plugins.
- Built-in shopping cart with options to connect to Stripe or PayPal.
- Works well with any WordPress theme.
It’s a simple LMS course builder with enough flexibility and features for building an engaging learning environment.
Pricing: Starting from $129 / year for a 2-site license.
Get started with WP Courseware today!
6. LearnPress
LearnPress is the best free LMS plugin for WordPress. You can download and use it on as many sites as you like, completely for free. However, you’ll need to buy their premium addons for advanced features.
Here are the top features of the LearnPress plugin.
- Create unlimited courses, lessons, quizzes, and questions with ease.
- Add text, images, PowerPoint slideshow, documents, and anything to your lessons.
- Set requirements for students to take lessons with premium addons like Content Drip and Prerequisite.
- Monitor learners’ progress, scores, and results with the Gradebook addon.
- Use LearnPress’s WooCommerce course plugin for eCommerce features, and payment settings.
LearnPress is a great option if you’re looking for a WordPress course plugin for free. It won’t give you all of the advanced options that some of the best of the best WordPress LMS plugins will, but it’ll definitely get you started.
Pricing: Free with individual addons available to purchase separately. Or the semi-pro bundle starts at $149 for one site license.
Get started with LearnPress today!
7. Sensei
Sensei is a powerful WordPress LMS plugin built by the team behind WooCommerce and Jetpack. The Sensei LMS plugin lets you create courses inside the WordPress editor, and it integrates perfectly with WooComerce.
Sensei has a few different options for creating your online learning course. The first option is a free LMS for WordPress with limited features, or you can purchase the premium version for more advanced features.
The third option is full-service hosting where you host your course on their platform instead of purchasing the Sensei LMS WordPress plugin.
Here are some of the top Sensei WordPress features:
- Beginner-friendly LMS platform for building a WordPress training site.
- Seamless WooCommerce integration and powerful addons to add features.
- Create engaging quizzes that help to strengthen the learners’ understanding.
- Many free and paid features available to expand the plugin.
- The BuddyPress for Sensei addon helps you turn your course website into a social education platform.
Sensei is a great choice for users who already run an online store using WooCommerce or if you’re looking for another full-service LMS platform, similar to Teachable.
Pricing: Free for the basic version with more features for purchase. Or it starts at $34 / month for the LMS hosting bundle.
Get started with Sensei today!
8. Tutor LMS
Tutor LMS is a free LMS for WordPress that you can use to create, manage, and sell online courses. Like most LMS plugins, it comes with a user-friendly course builder which lets you create an online school and offer education.
Here are the top Tutor LMS features.
- Create unlimited courses and lessons easily.
- Add self-hosted, YouTube, or Vimeo video lessons.
- Frontend student dashboard.
- Create advanced quizzes with quiz timer and quiz attempts.
- Course review and rating system.
- Show course difficulty level, course duration, and a trailer or teaser.
Tutor LMS is the best LMS plugin for WordPress users who want a free LMS plugin to create a simple WordPress training course without the need for advanced features.
Pricing: Free.
Get started with Tutor LMS plugin today!
What is the Best LMS Plugin for WordPress?
We think MemberPress is the best LMS plugin for WordPress overall. With its powerful LMS features and advanced membership functionality, it’s a perfect all-in-one WordPress LMS plugin.
That said, Thrive Apprentice comes in a close second with its 55+ course templates and tons of advanced LMS tools. It’s an excellent choice for anyone who wants one of the best WordPress LMS plugins available.
Plenty of the other plugins on our list are great choices for starting your online learning courses, and Teachable is a great option if you want an all-inclusive LMS platform with managed hosting.
Bonus: Wondering how to get started building LMS websites? There are tons of site builders and education platforms on the market, but we always recommend using WordPress.org for the most flexibility, control, and features. Check out BlueHost’s special offer for our readers.
They’re one of the largest hosting companies in the world, and they’re offering a free domain name, a free SSL certificate (which you’ll need to accept payments), and a major discount on web hosting.
We hope this article helped you to find the best WordPress LMS plugins. You may also want to see our handpicked list of the best WordPress popup plugins.
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