If you’re asking yourself, “How do I create a free LMS website with WordPress?,” you’ve come to the right place. We’ve researched & tested out all 10 of the free WordPress LMS plugins on the market, including feature lists, free vs. pro comparisons, design, integrations, and more. Currently, I think 7 are worth considering, and the remaining 3 have more work to do.
It’s worth nothing, all of the free WordPress LMS plugins on this page are very limited in features. If you’re serious about building an online learning site, you should definitely consider paying for a WordPress LMS plugin. With the free versions of these plugins, you’ll likely hit roadblocks as you start to build out your courses.
BuddyBoss just released their long-awaited Tutor LMS integration… and it’s nicely done. Because Tutor LMS includes a ton of features in their core plugin, BuddyBoss had to carefully navigate how to integrate their powerful features alongside Tutor’s.
BuddyBoss now integrates with 3 of the most popular WordPress LMS plugins on the market—LearnDash, LifterLMS, and Tutor LMS.
Let’s take a look at the design & functionality you’ll enjoy with the new Tutor LMS BuddyBoss integration.
We haven’t written a full WP Courseware review yet, but we recorded just over an hour of video walking through just about every aspect of this WordPress LMS plugin.
Watch Dave go through the entire WP Courseware demo site. Experience the plugin through the student’s perspective, as well as the instructor/admin’s view of the backend settings, course builder, quiz builder, and more.
If you have a lot of courses on your site, you might be looking for a way to bulk edit your LearnDash courses or lessons. LearnDash actually has a bulk edit feature built into the plugin. You don’t need any other tools to edit LearnDash settings in bulk.
Let’s jump into the WordPress admin area so I can show you how to make use of the LearnDash bulk edit feature.
In December of 2023, LearnDash released its very own course reviews plugin. There have been several third-party course review plugins on the market, but now we have an official one from LearnDash… and it’s FREE.
The LearnDash Course Reviews add-on is included with your LearnDash subscription, so everyone who has purchased LearnDash has access to it at no additional cost.
Let’s dive into the new LearnDash Course Reviews add-on, explore its features, and find out if it’s the best option for your site.
On December 7, 2023, LearnDash sent out an email with several big updates. They’ve been working on a few new LearnDash plugins, including a new migration tool, and have officially launched a public feature requests page.
Let’s take a look at each of these announcements in a little more depth.
Add multiple LearnDash instructors, payout course commissions, manage assignments, essays, and comments, create courses & quizzes on the frontend of your site, and much more with the LearnDash Instructor Role plugin by WisdmLabs.
We’ll walk you through every feature of this powerful LearnDash plugin. We’ve got step-by-step instructions, screenshots, and videos to help you understand how this plugin can turn your LearnDash site into a learning marketplace for multiple instructors.
Are you running a video-based online course? If so, LearnDash video hosting is one of the most important things you need to consider when setting up your online course platform.
Video lessons are a popular way to teach any online course. We encourage video-based learning as one of several different strategies to teach your course material. But there are a few very important things you need to know before launching your LearnDash site—including where to host your course videos. We’ve got you covered below.
CourseLauncher is a LearnDash hosting, development, & consulting company with over 10 years experience building LearnDash sites. Every so often, they welcome a handful of new clients into their LearnDash Ignition Program—where they take LearnDash course creators from concept to launch in just 90 days.
LearnDash Ignition Program Features
The LearnDash Ignition Program saves clients hundreds of hours of work and thousands of dollars in plugins & additional tools. As part of the program, CourseLauncher provides…
Basically, CourseLauncher is offering to build your LearnDash site for you (minus some content entry you’ll need to do yourself), give you access to a ton of premium plugins that you were going to buy anyway, show you how to use LearnDash, strategize with you, give you access to pre-built marketing automations to help market your course, and host & maintain your site for you (some ongoing costs do apply here).
Who is this for?
For anyone just getting started with LearnDash, or building a new LearnDash site, this is exactly what I’d recommend.
I’ve seen far too many folks hire an inexperienced developer who didn’t understand LearnDash, and over a year later, they are still trying to get their site launched. If and when they finally do, it doesn’t work the way they want it to, or they experience errors because it was built poorly.
If you already have a site running smoothly, this isn’t the program for you. But Ellen and her team at CourseLauncher do provide LearnDash services for established sites as well.
Cost
Here’s a full list of everything you get with the LearnDash Ignition Program:
Website Loaded w/ Plugins
Modern Site Design
Full Marketing Suite
Mission Planning Guide
Weekly Live Training
Weekly Implementation Sessions
Specialized Learning Pods
Bi-Weekly Strategy Sessions
Pre-Built Marketing Automations
CourseLauncher Implementers Club
Your Story, Your Brand Planner
Evergreen Webinar Planner
Email Follow-Up Planner
Offer Cure™
CourseLauncher lists the full value at just over $10,000.
Their normal price for the LearnDash Ignition Program is $5,000.
Sign up before March 31, 2023 and you can get in for just $2,500.
You’ll be put into the April 2023 cohort, and your site will be provisioned no later than April 10th.
If you’ve never built a website before, $2,500 might sound like a lot, but for a LearnDash site, it’s an incredible deal. You can find developers oversees and/or on Fiverr who will quote you some ridiculously low rate, but 95% of the time, you’ll end up with a terrible product, and have to pay even more to pick up the pieces.
If you’re serious about your LearnDash site, I encourage you to make this investment upfront. I don’t think you’ll regret it.
Here’s a full list of all the plugins included. You also get the full premium stack from Kadence, which includes the Kadence theme, Kadence blocks, and Kadence WooCommerce add-ons.
LearnDash
LearnDash ProPanel (reporting)
LearnDash Notifications
LearnDash Course Grid
WooCommerce for LearnDash
Design Upgrade Pro for LearnDash
Uncanny Toolkit (free & pro)
Uncanny Automator (free & pro)
FunnelKit Funnel Builder
FunnelKit Automations
Elementor (free & pro)
Ultimate Add-ons for Elementor
Fluent Forms
RankMath (free & pro)
WP Media Folder
FluentSMTP
Header Footer Code Manager
LearnDash Ignition Program Examples
Here’s an example of the package of things you received throughout the program:
And here’s an example course page that was built by a client during a previous Ignition Program 90-day cohort:
On or around July 12, 2022, LearnDash changed their pricing. At the same time, they launched LearnDash Cloud, which is their own hosting service that includes the plugin. There’s been some confusion around the new pricing, as well as what happens to existing customers & their current subscriptions.
Let’s lay out the details of what we know, and what LearnDash has communicated to us.
