WordPress is best known for democratizing publishing, but there’s another string to its bow: WordPress is also one of the most widely used educational platforms in the world. Learning management system (LMS) plugins build on WordPress to provide all the features educators need to engage learners and sell courses.
LearnDash and LifterLMS are two of the most successful premium LMS plugins. Thousands of educators use them to teach millions of learners. Both are excellent choices if you’ve outgrown free plugins and basic SaaS learning environments.
But before you choose an LMS plugin for your WordPress site, you should understand the differences, strengths and weaknesses, and pricing model of each.
LearnDash is a feature-rich LMS for WordPress with a focus on professional course delivery. It was originally created for academic institutions and corporate training programs, so it has a professional approach to course structure, learner management, and monetization.
As one of the most widely used LMS solutions, LearnDash is well-regarded for its structured, linear course builder, drip content scheduling, flexible quiz tools, and support for prerequisites, certificates, and assignments. It emphasizes instructional clarity and learner progression.
LearnDash integrates with a wide range of ecommerce, membership, and marketing tools, and supports multi-tiered pricing models that include one-time purchases, subscriptions, and bundles. Some features require third-party add-ons, but the core LearnDash ecosystem is feature-rich and actively developed to keep pace with the evolving needs of online educators.
LifterLMS is a flexible, all-in-one course creation toolkit for WordPress that prioritizes simplicity, extensibility, and learner engagement. Designed with solo course creators, coaching businesses, and training-based entrepreneurs in mind, it provides a modular system that adapts to a wide range of educational and business models.
Where LearnDash leans into a structured academic format, LifterLMS gives creators more flexibility in how they organize and monetize their content. The core plugin includes course building, student dashboards, quizzes, certificates, memberships, and access control, with optional add-ons for ecommerce, marketing automation, and advanced integrations.
LifterLMS’ pricing model is built around bundling: users start with the free core plugin, then buy a bundle that includes add-ons with the functionality they need. The modular pricing is especially appealing to educators who want to grow gradually without committing to a full-featured platform upfront.
Both LearnDash and LifterLMS provide drag-and-drop course builders, but their approaches differ. LearnDash focuses on structured, linear course progression. Its builder allows you to organize courses into sections, lessons, topics, and quizzes with enforced prerequisites and lesson order.
LifterLMS offers similar functionality but is slightly more flexible in structure. Its builder includes courses, sections, and lessons, with optional prerequisites and custom lesson visibility rules. LifterLMS also emphasizes ease of use, particularly for solo educators and coaches building out content without a technical team.
LearnDash has one of the most robust quiz engines available in a WordPress LMS. It supports a wide range of question types, including multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, essays, and more. It also includes advanced settings like question banks, timers, randomized questions, and conditional logic.
LifterLMS provides a solid but more limited quiz feature set. It includes multiple-choice, true/false, and text-based questions, along with automated grading and manual feedback options. For educators with straightforward assessment needs, it’s more than sufficient, but it lacks some of LearnDash’s more advanced testing options.
Both platforms support content dripping so you can release lessons on a set schedule or after specific triggers like course enrollment or lesson completion.
LearnDash offers multiple drip methods out of the box, including date-based and interval-based release options. It also supports prerequisite enforcement to control learner progression.
LifterLMS includes flexible drip settings in the core plugin, with triggers based on enrollment, prerequisite completion, or calendar dates. The built-in content drip system integrates well with LifterLMS’s membership system to unlock content based on user role or subscription level.
LearnDash includes built-in support for certificates and provides badges and points functionality through its official Achievements add-on, which is free but must be installed separately. For more advanced gamification, it integrates with popular third-party tools like GamiPress and BadgeOS for flexible reward systems, points tracking, and achievement chains.
LearnDash also provides a Notifications add-on for triggering email alerts based on user actions like course or quiz completion. Its users often rely on tools like AutomatorWP, Uncanny Automator, or Zapier for more complex engagement workflows involving multiple triggers, conditional logic, or multi-step automation.
LifterLMS takes a more integrated approach. Achievements, certificates, and email notifications are built into the core plugin. Its Engagements feature allows course creators to automatically send personalized messages, award certificates, or trigger achievements based on learner actions, without requiring third-party tools.
LearnDash has a well-established ecosystem and integrates with popular tools like WooCommerce, MemberPress, Stripe, PayPal, Zapier, Mailchimp, and CRM platforms. Many of these integrations are available via official or third-party add-ons.
LifterLMS offers native integrations through its add-on system. Stripe and PayPal gateways require the purchase of a higher-tier bundle in which they are included. LifterLMS also integrates with WooCommerce, email marketing tools, and CRMs, though some advanced integrations may require the Infinity Bundle.
LearnDash offers three pricing tiers based on the number of site licenses:
All plans include core LMS features, course building, quizzes, certificates, content dripping, and official add-ons like Achievements and Notifications.
LifterLMS uses a modular pricing model. The core plugin is free and includes course creation, memberships, quizzes, certificates, and engagements. Additional features are available through tiered bundles, which include support, a number of active sites, plus a subset of the available add-ons.
At the time of writing, bundles were priced as follows.
LearnDash uses a bundled, all-in-one approach at a flat rate, which suits educators who want everything included without decision fatigue. LifterLMS offers more flexibility: you can start for free and buy only what you need, but advanced functionality quickly adds up unless you choose a bundle.
Educators looking to scale without upfront cost may appreciate LifterLMS’s entry point, while LearnDash is the better option for businesses that prefer predictable, full-feature pricing.
LearnDash and LifterLMS are powerful tools for building and managing online courses with WordPress.
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