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Are you looking to add course reviews to your LearnDash site? In this article, we’ll explore the various ways you can approach LearnDash course reviews. You may be surprised to find out that one of our recommendations is actually NOT to use “course” reviews, but instead provide reviews in another way.
We’ll also briefly look at each of the available LearnDash course review plugins that are out there, and help you make a decision for which one to use.
LearnDash Course Review Options
- WooCommerce Reviews (free)
- Easy Digital Downloads Reviews (free w/ EDD all access pass)
- Membership Plugins (varies)
- LearnDash Feedback by WooNinjas (free)
- LearnDash Ratings, Reviews, & Feedback by WisdmLabs (premium)
- Course Reviews by HonorsWP (premium)
- Official LearnDash Course Reviews Add-On (included w/ LearnDash)
Product Reviews vs. Course Reviews
Before we even talk about LearnDash course review plugins, let’s talk about the difference between product reviews & course reviews.
Product reviews only come into play when you’re using an ecommerce or membership plugin to sell LearnDash courses (which we highly recommend you do). If you’re selling courses using LearnDash’s built-in payment methods (Stripe, PayPal, 2Checkout), then product reviews don’t apply. You can skip to the section on LearnDash course reviews.
Why Product Reviews?
Why should you use product reviews instead of course reviews?
1. In some cases, they are free
Most LearnDash course review options are premium plugins. They can range in price but are generally between $49-99/yr. Some ecommerce plugins already have reviews built into their plugin, and they’re available at no additional cost.
2. No extra plugin required
In many cases, reviews are already part of an existing ecommerce or membership plugin you’re using. There’s no need to add another plugin from a different developer.
3. Reviews help you sell to prospective buyers, not existing ones
⭐ This is perhaps the most important reason to use product reviews. Why are you collecting reviews and who are you displaying them to? They’re used to help you sell to a prospective buyer, right? And what do your prospective buyers see on your website as they’re about to buy one of your courses? Your product page.
Now, this depends on how you set up your checkout flow. Many people still use the LearnDash course page to do their sales. But I much prefer using the LearnDash course page for enrollees only, and showing the product page to people who have not yet enrolled.
Most LearnDash review plugins display reviews on your course page, but if you’re using that for people who are already enrolled, what good does that do?
Is there ever a reason to use course reviews?
Sure, there might be. It really does depend on your set up, and there are hundreds of different ways to set up the LearnDash course/product flow.
1. Easier to collect reviews after course completion
One argument for LearnDash course reviews over product reviews is that it’s easier to collect reviews after a user completes a course. Many of the LearnDash review plugins will automatically show a popup asking the user to rate the course that they just completed. This could help collect more reviews, and collect them more easily than using product reviews.
2. Using LearnDash’s payment methods
As stated earlier, if you are using LearnDash’s payment methods, a LearnDash course reviews plugin is really your only option to collect reviews—aside from building your own custom solution.
Product Review Options
Now let’s get into a few of the most common product review options with the ecommerce plugins that work well with LearnDash.
WooCommerce Reviews
WooCommerce is arguably the most popular ecommerce plugin to use with LearnDash, and reviews are built into the free version of WooCommerce. No extra plugins or extensions are needed to use WooCommerce reviews.
How these reviews are displayed will depend on your theme, but most themes will display WooCommerce reviews in a tab below your image & description, on the product page.
How to enable WooCommerce reviews
- Navigate to WooCommerce > Settings > Products
- Scroll to the bottom and check the appropriate boxes
WooCommerce Reviews Block
WooCommerce has a built-in block you can use to display reviews for a specific product. This makes it easy to display product reviews on a course page.
- Edit your course page
- Add a new block and search for “reviews by product”
- Add the block to your course page
- Select the corresponding product that it relates to
There isn’t a WooCommerce block to add a new review, but you can add a button or a text link back to the product page, and open up the reviews tab. Just add #tab-reviews to the end of the product page URL.
https://yoursite.com/product/name-of-product/#tab-reviews💡 Pro Tip
Add both the “Reviews by Product” & “Buttons” blocks inside the “LearnDash Course Complete” block so that they only appear to those who have completed the course.
WooCommerce Reviews Shortcode by Learning Templates
If you aren’t using the block editor and would like a shortcode instead, Dennis Hall from learning-templates.com has a premium plugin that uses a shortcode to display WooCommerce reviews on any page.
It has a few smart features built-in:
- If the user has purchased the product, a review form will be shown
- If they leave a review on that form, they will be kept on the same page (not redirected to the WooCommerce product page). This is nice if you want to keep them on your LearnDash course page.
You simply use the provided shortcode on any page on your site, and change the ID to match the WooCommerce product ID of the reviews you want to display.
[product_reviews id="123"]This plugin has a one-time fee of $25/site, or you can get it for free by leaving a review for one of learning-templates.com’s other premium plugins.
Easy Digital Downloads Reviews
If you’re using Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), there’s a Reviews extension you can use to add reviews to your products (or as EDD calls them, “downloads”). These appear in much the same way as the WooCommerce reviews discussed above.
Other features include:
- Send an email to customers, after purchase, requesting a review (immediately or on a delay)
- Insert reviews on any page using a shortcode or widget
- Manage reviews from the WordPress admin area
- Require a minimum word count for reviews
It’s a bit expensive at $89/yr. for a single site, but it’s also available in their Extended Pass, which is a great value.
Membership Plugins
If you’re using MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro, neither plugin has review functionality built-in. However, both plugins allow you to sell memberships through WooCommerce. If you choose to go this route, you can use WooCommerce reviews as we’ve outlined above.
❌ Plugins that Don’t Support Reviews
The following ecommerce plugins don’t currently support product reviews, so you should consider one of the LearnDash course review plugins below.
LearnDash Course Review Plugins
Now that we’ve covered why to use product reviews, and showed you a few examples how to implement them, let’s get into the LearnDash course review plugins you can use instead.
NOTE
I didn’t mention this earlier but I can’t think of a reason why you should ever use BOTH product and course reviews. It’s very much a one-or-the-other situation.
LearnDash Feedback by WooNinjas
LearnDash Feedback is the only free LearnDash course review plugin available. It includes the following features:
It creates a “Feedback” tab on the course page. If you have yet to leave a review, you’ll be shown a form to do so. If you have already reviewed the course, you’ll see a message that tells you just that.
You can control a handful of settings in the admin area.
LearnDash Ratings, Reviews, & Feedback by WisdmLabs
This LearnDash course reviews plugin has been available the longest so it’s the most tested of all the premium options. It also comes with the most options for customization.
- Users can like other reviews
- Send email reminder to students to leave a review (immediately or on a delay)
- Popup on course page to ask users for a review, once they’ve finished the course
- Filter reviews by course
- Filter reviews by star rating
- Sort reviews by date posted
- Display course reviews before content, after content, or in a custom location using a shortcode
- Upload images/videos along with reviews
- Choose whether users can leave a review immediately after they enroll, or wait until they’ve completed the course
In addition to course reviews, it also allows a user to email the course author directly, providing feedback on the course. This is not published publicly.
You can also create short surveys with custom questions & answers.
Bonus Design Tip
Our very own Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash plugin offers quite a few options for customizing the look & feel of the Ratings, Reviews & Feedback plugin.
Course Reviews for LearnDash by HonorsWP
The Course Reviews plugin by HonorsWP is one of the premium options.
- Prospective buyers can filter reviews based on star rating
- Require admin approval of reviews before they are shown
It’s available for $49/yr. for a single site, or through a monthly membership to HonorsWP.
LearnDash Course Reviews Add-On by LearnDash
The LearnDash Course Reviews add-on was released in early December of 2023. It is included with your purchase of the LearnDash plugin; there is no additional cost.
It’s features are pretty basic, but it does a decent job of both displaying reviews on your LearnDash site, as well as allowing students to leave a review.
Displaying Reviews
This plugin automatically adds a tab to the top of your course pages called “Reviews.” It’s placed to the right of “Course,” which contains the custom course content that you write for each course.
An example of 2 reviews displayed by the LearnDash Course Reviews add-on
Below that, you’ll find:
- Average Review Score, in number of stars: This displays a number between 1-5, in stars, of this course’s average star rating.
- Each Individual Rating & Review: Each rating & subsequent review is listed below the average stars. It includes the student’s name, their avatar, the date & time of the review, the number of stars they rated this course, and their text-based review.
Leaving Reviews
As for leaving reviews, there are a few important things to keep in mind:
- Before they are able to leave a review, a student must have completed at least one piece of content in the course. This can be a lesson, topic, or quiz.
- Reviews are enabled for all courses by default, but you can disable them on a course-by-course basis with a simple toggle on the Edit Course page.
Here’s what the review form looks like:
An example of the review form with the LearnDash Course Reviews add-on
Settings & Styling
As far as I can tell, there are no settings or styling at all for this plugin. I couldn’t find any options after activating the plugin.
Those are all of the LearnDash course review plugins we could find. If you think we missed any, or have questions about which LearnDash course review option is best for your site, please let us know in the comments.
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