LearnDash Review: Is It The Ultimate WordPress LMS Plugin in 2023?

Do you wish to transform your WordPress site into a powerful learning management system? Well, It is best to pick the best tool you will use to create and host your courses. That is where LearnDash comes in.

LearnDash is among the best WordPress LMS plugin tools designed for e-learning experts. The platform has become popular and is currently used by major universities, training institutions, developers, etc.

Therefore, do you want to learn more about LearnDash and decide if it is the ultimate WordPress LMS plugin? Well, you are on the right post.

In this LearnDash review, you will learn about;

Who is LearnDash for?
LearnDash’s main features
LearnDash free trial, pricing and discounts
LearnDash pros & cons
Is it the right platform for you?
LearnDash best alternatives and much more.

So, keep reading to learn more….

What is LearnDash?

LearnDash is a powerful tool that you can use to quickly transform your WordPress site into a powerful learning management site.

Together with the powerful features of WordPress, you can optimize your e-learning courses business with high flexibility and massive customization options.

With LearnDash, you can;

Create and monetize your courses quickly from your WordPress site.
Customize your courses and platform to give your learners the best experience.
Interact with your learners through quizzes, discussion forums, etc.
Create courses in all media, including text, video, audio, images, etc.
Set prices for your courses and market them.
Integrate LearnDash with other software to increase functionalities.

The deep platforms functionality and advanced features make it a suitable choice for creating custom courses, quizzing, managing uses and marketing the courses.

Who is LearnDash For?

LearnDash is ideal for anyone who wishes to turn their WordPress site into a learning management system.

LearnDash is comprehensive and suitable for a wide range of organizations and industries. The platform can work best for you if you are;

An individual or business that wishes to sell courses online.
An organization that wants to train its clients and workers.
An individual or organization that wants to build their business around online courses.
A business that wants to add a course catalog to their existing offerings.

LearnDash can be used by companies, trainers, training & educational institutions, entrepreneurs and even web developers whose clients want LMS.

How Does LearnDash Work?

LearnDash works with WordPress, a top content management platform globally and harnesses its capabilities to encompass e-learning as well.

To use LearnDash, you must create a WordPress site first by purchasing web hosting, buying a domain name and installing WordPress.

You can then install the LearnDash Plugin. You just have to log in to your WordPress site, navigate the dashboard, select plugins, select on add new, and upload the file from your LearnDash account.

If you have not purchased LearnDash, download the file on your “my account” page on the LearnDash website.

You can then install a theme compatible with LearnDash and configure the settings. The theme helps define content displayed on your site.

You will now be ready to create your first LearnDash course, design and customize other pages such as the course navigation, registration pages, etc., as per your liking.

You can also integrate LearnDash with other platforms such as WooCommerce for payments and add products. You can make your page more user-friendly and enjoy using LearnDash to create and sell your courses.

LearnDash Reviews & Features Guide

LearnDash offers comprehensive features to help you transform your WordPress site into powerful learning management features. The features include;

LearnDash WordPress online course platform

Robust New Course Builder

LearnDash’s new course builder is straightforward for anyone who wishes to create courses and lessons.

Even with zero knowledge in course building, you can easily add sections, topics, lessons, and quizzes with LearnDash. You just have to;

Step 1: Click on “courses” on the left side panel.

Step 2: Click “Add New,” then enter the course title

Step 3: Click on “Builder” at the top of the panel

Step 4: Click on “new section heading” or “new lessons” to easily add new lessons or subheadings.

All Done! You can easily add an unlimited number of courses and quizzes to your lesson.

Also, the course builder feature comes with excellent tools and functionalities to make your work easier, including;

Drag and drop interface: You can easily use the drag and drop feature to edit the flow of your courses in minutes.
Lesson editor: You can easily add content such as videos, texts or images to your lessons.
Reusable course content: You can reuse any content, including lessons or quizzes, for the new courses you create, especially closely related subjects.
Divide course content: You can easily organize your courses and divide them into sections.
Add course layers: You can easily create interconnected tabs in courses, assign lessons, quizzes and topics to enhance the learning experience.

Focus Mode

LearnDash focus mode feature seeks to eliminate distractions and streamline your learning experience, therefore, increasing learner retention and completion rates.

This feature differentiates LearnDash from other LMS plugins. It is what the student sees when using a course and looks very professional.

Focus mode is applicable in LearnDash 3.0 or higher and can be applied to lessons, topics, quizzes and assignment pages.

The Focus mode can be enabled on all screen sizes, including desktops, tablets or mobile. To use focus mode, go to the LearnDash general settings, toggle the Focus Mode, and click save to enable the feature.

Once the focus mode is enabled, the following changes occur;

The main navigation, sidebars and footer elements are removed
Course navigation is available on the sidebar tray
Next/previous page navigation is available at the top of the screen
The course progress is displayed at the top of the screen
The complete mark button is open at the top of the screen
Course Home, Logout links and users avatar is shown at the top navigation.

When the focus mode is enabled, you can specify the actual width of the lesson content, add a logo and even your brand colors to give your students a uniform experience.

The logo will appear at the top corner of all lessons, quizzes or topics when enabled focus mode.

The best part is that you can also easily modify the focus mode logo URL and even allow comments on lessons during focus mode.

LearnDash Quiz Builder

The quiz builder feature will enable you to create quizzes and manage questions. This feature is enabled by default in LearnDash.

The feature lets you see the total number of questions, see all the questions, modify questions and undo all unwanted changes you have made.

To use the quiz builder feature and create your first quiz,

Step 1: Visit the LearnDash Dashboard and click quizzes

Step 2: Click on “Add new” at the top of the page

Step 3: Click on the “Builder” tab in the navigation tab.

LearnDash quiz builder comes with unique features, including;

Create Questions: You can add brand new questions to your quiz
Reuse Questions: You can use the Questions box on the sidebar to search queries and click add to use existing content.
Drag and drop: You can rearrange and organize the questions using this feature.
Editing Questions: You can change the type of question, edit the format and even delete the questions on your quizzes.

With these features, you can easily create quizzes, facilitate assessments over your e-learning courses and offer excellent learning capabilities.

Dynamic Content Delivery

When offering online courses, the most critical aspect is the delivery of your courses, especially if you are offering multiple courses.

LearnDash course delivery is structured into courses, lessons, topics, quizzes and awards. With LearnDash, you can manage your learners and courses with much ease.

The platform has advanced features and functionalities such as drip feed lessons, set linear and open progression etc., to help you dynamically deliver your content.

The features include;

Drip feed content: You can select the specific dates when the lessons will be released and lesson release schedules. By systematically dripping content, the learners can achieve daily study goals, absorb the content and recall the content over time.
Course Layers: You can divide your courses into sections to ensure seamless course navigation by the learners.
Lesson Topic progression: If you require your students to take courses in a given order, you can set a time for each lesson to prevent learners from skipping some courses. You can also prevent learners from progressing until a given quiz or assignment is passed.
Content display: You can decide to display all the course content simultaneously, on a specific date or after some days.
Discussion forums: You can create dynamic forums where the registered users can participate and talk about the course
Course prerequisites: You can set requirements for a given course to determine which course needs to be taken first and in which format.

These features can help you maximize the delivery of your courses and improve course completion rates to ensure quality and efficient delivery of lessons to registered users.

You can also select the student enrollment date on their scheduled date and even notify users of the availability of given courses.

Also, you can exclude given users or user roles from given course schedules and message users to keep them up to date.

Advanced Quizzing & Assignments

When it comes to online courses, quizzing & assignments play a core part. LearnDash offers the most advanced quizzing and assignment capabilities to help you achieve this.

With LearnDash quizzing, you can;

Add numerous question types, including single choice, multiple choices, survey, free text etc.
Create and organize question banks into categories
Add all kinds of media as questions, including videos, images, audio etc.
Limit or track time used to answer a quiz
Offer hints as the text continues through texts, videos etc.
Block progression allows the user to complete a given question before moving forward
Limit the number of times a user can take a quiz.
Randomly display questions and available answers.
Display questions either one at a time, all at once, several on a page, etc.

On the other side, the assignments feature can allow you to access your learner’s comprehension of course content. Learners can upload files to any lesson or topics that they have chosen.

You can also view, search, approve, delete, award assignment scores and comment on the assignments. Also, you can restrict the students to assignments before progressing with the course.

What happens after quizzing & assignments?

After quizzing your students, LearnDash allows you to engage your learners after quizzes, display results in various ways and award your learners.

Some of the actions you can take after a quiz include;

Question review: The learners can quickly review the questions and answers.
Answer statistics: You can check the solutions as per the question, and students.
Category scoring: You can categorize questions and display performance in the given categories.
Email results: You can send results to a user, admin or group leader.
Automatic scoring: You can automatically score and present results to the user.
Essay review: You can comment and manually score essays or assignments.
Certificates & Levels: You can award your learners who successfully pass with certificates and levels.
Display leaderboards: You can show the users that have passed the most in a given test.
Dynamic results display: You can use up to 15 unique messages to show how a user has scored in a given test.

This looks much more advanced and very sophisticated to manage your course delivery & student progress.

E-Commerce Support

LearnDash offers support in marketing and selling your courses online. You can define the course price, select the payment schedule and start taking course orders.

LearnDash supports the purchase of courses through PayPal, 2Checkout or Stripe. Some of the features to help your marketing and sales include;

One-time purchases: Your course can be easily bought once you define the price. You can use free samples to attract customers and even get their accounts after purchase.
Subscriptions: You can maximize your earnings through recurring payments as per the payment schedule you have set.
Shopping cart: Using some free WordPress integrations such as WooCommerce, you can add a shopping cart feature that allows you to add coupons, discount codes, custom receipts, etc.
Memberships: You can create memberships with multiple courses to allow users to enroll in all the courses once they purchase a membership. You can also integrate with membership plugins such as MemberPress.
Course bundles: You can allow users to access more than one course after purchase, run flash sales and give customers discounts if they purchase multiple courses.
Bulk access: You can enable your customers to buy bulk licenses and grant access to their staff.

Also, LearnDash offers you access to insightful articles and guides on enhancing your marketing and earning more income.

LearnDash ProPanel for Enhanced Reporting

ProPanel is a reporting upgrade that comes as an add-on in the plus and pro packages. This feature can help you manage your LearnDash activity and enhance your admin experience.

You can consolidate your reporting , assignment, giving you the ability to send your course specific communications and showing real time activity for your courses.

Therefore, If you have many learners and you wish to manage them easily, then ProPanel enhanced reporting is perfect for you.

To use ProPanel, you need to install it through the Plugins menu from the WordPress dashboard. After activating, you will be good to go as no more action is needed.

With ProPanel, you can allow access to Group leaders through the group feature where they can login and see data associated with the groups they manage.

LearnDash comes with many advanced features including;

Real-time student activity: You can see the real-time activity as your students take your courses and know exactly your student course progress and their scores as they come up. You can also email a selected number of users e.g. learners who have not finished a course.
Student management: If you are an admin or group leader you can manage all assignments and essay submissions from your students. You can approve, delete or manage essays and assignments.
Export Reports: You can filter and drill down your desired quiz and course data i.e quiz results and course progress then export them to MS Excel or CSV files.
Quick analytics: You can quickly see stats relating to your account including total students, total courses, pending essays and pending assignments. Also, you can easily modify the course and quiz custom reports

LearnDash ProPanel enhanced reporting & management tool can help you get insight to help you improve your courses and course delivery.

Having quick and read student analytics can help you improve your course content and develop new action plans to increase student engagement and boost course completion rates.

LearnDash Integrations

LearnDash allows integrations with the most popular apps for running a business online if you need more functionalities.

Also, official add-ons created by LearnDash are offered free of charge for license holders. Support for the add ons is also provided entirely free.

Some of the supported add ons include;

Communication; Zapier & LearnDash Notifications
Design & Layout; Course Grid & Certificate builder
Ecommerce & Payment getaways; WooCommerce, ThriveCart, 2Checkout, Stripe, SamCart & easy digital downloads
Memberships; MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro & Paid Membership pro
Ecommerce & Payment getaways; WooCommerce, ThriveCart, 2Checkout, Stripe, SamCart & easy digital downloads
Forms; Gravity forms
Events; Event Espresso
Forums; bbPress
Compatibility; Multilingual & Elementor

With the above integrations, you can make LearnDash more powerful and deliver your courses seamlessly.

LearnDash Other Features

Other features offered by LearnDash include;

User Profiles: You can create user profiles and allow each user to access their courses, progress, performance, etc.
Unlimited users: You can add an unlimited number of learners to a given course.
Unlimited courses: You can add as many courses as you want to your account.
Email notifications: You can easily communicate to your learners through email notifications.
Course content protection: The content you create is only accessible to enrolled users.
Group management: You can add groups and subgroups to your account and even allow others to help you manage. For instance, you can assign a group leader who can track the progress and performance of group members.
Detailed reporting: You can quickly run enrollments, progress and performance reports.
Gradebook: You can sync with LearnDash quizzes, assignments and manual grading.
Gamification: You can easily customize badges that you award to the students.
Mobile compatibility: LearnDash is compatible with mobile and can work with almost all modern browsers.
1-year support & Updates: You get unlimited support and platform updates for a whole year if you renew every year then you get support for all renewal years.
Demo-site template: You can get access to a full demo template to help you quickly get started.

LearnDash Pricing, Free Trial & Discounts

LearnDash does not offer a free trial at the moment. However, this should not worry you as they offer a 15-day money-back guarantee.

This way, you can test the platform, and if within 15 days you feel that the platform is not suitable for you, you will get a refund for all your money.

LearnDash offers 3 pricing plans. They include;

LearnDash Basic Plan: This plan costs $199 $159/annum and offers only 1 site license. With this plan, you can add unlimited users and courses to your account. You can also access advanced features such as drip feed lessons, advanced quizzing, certificates, badges, course forums, free integrations and email notifications.
LearnDash Plus Package Plan: This plan costs $229 $189/annum and offers up to 10 site licenses. This plan has all basic plan features plus a pro panel.
LearnDash Pro Package Plan: This plan costs $369 $329/annum, This plan has all the Plus plan features including the pro panel and offers up to 25 site licenses.

Pro panel is an add-on that enhances the LearnDash admin experience. You can see your site’s overview data, reporting data, progress and activity stream.

For instance, you can perform various activities, including;

Observe essential stats such as the number of students, courses, pending assignments, etc
See real-time student activities such as course progress
View and download course progress, and quiz results
Manage and approve assignments & essays.

All the plans come with a bonus demo template to see precisely what LearnDash can do to you and become more successful while using the site. You can then copy your entire demo site to your live site and get started easily and quickly.

LearnDash discounts vary from time to time. For instance, LearnDash offers a discount where you can save up to $40 for each plan.

LearnDash Testimonials & Success Stories

LearnDash Pros & Cons

Pros:

You can easily customize your course display and lesson options
LearnDash runs on WordPress, which is the famous and user-friendly content management system available.
You can quickly create courses, sell courses, host unlimited users and courses.
You can offer dynamic course delivery using drip feed features, discussion forums, etc.
You can use advanced quizzing options and award students.
You can run detailed reports on learner progress, activities, etc.

Cons:

LearnDash does not offer a free plan or a free version.
You cannot use LearnDash if you don’t have a WordPress site.
You need to learn to use other integrations such as WooCommerce if you want to monetize your courses.

Where is LearnDash Best?

If you have a WordPress site and host your courses conveniently in one place, then LearnDash is perfect for you.

LearnDash is most trusted for the WordPress LMS plugin because;

You can use any theme you want without any coding
You can use a page builder like Elementor & Beaver Builder.
You can easily customize your colors, logos, display, lesson options, etc.
Using API, you can easily create any custom functionality you need.
You can create content in any media, including video, audio, HTML, etc.
You can use LearnDash across WordPress multisite networks.

The deep functionality makes it the most suitable platform for creating custom courses. The drag and drop feature makes it easy to create courses and visualize the course layout when creating it.

LearnDash Customer Support

LearnDash also offers extensive customer support to help you get your course online. After installing LearnDash, you are taken through the inbuilt Bootcamp to guide you.

Some of the support you may access include;

Get started guides to help you get started with LearnDash.
Clear and concise video tutorials to guide you on LearnDash features and functionalities.
Responsive help desk to give you timely assistance whenever you need it.
Regular live webinars covering the most popular features.
Detailed and precise documentation for configuring your courses.
Facebook community to discuss ideas and questions with other LearnDash users.

While LearnDash is a comprehensive and great course creation platform, it may not work for every business due to some of its limitations.

So, what are some of the areas where LearnDash lacks?

You also need to integrate other third-party plugins for deeper memberships and functionality.
Due to the complex functionality of LearnDash, it may be a bit overwhelming especially for beginners or casual users and course creators.
There is a limited support guide and support while onboarding.

Therefore, if you feel LearnDash is a bit overwhelming for you or does not suit your needs, you can consider alternatives such as Teachable, Podia, Thinkific, Kartra, Kajabi, etc.

LearnDash Alternatives & Comparison

LearnDash is a good WordPress LMS but if you are looking best online course platform then you can check alternative options these include;

Teachable

Teachable is a stand-alone platform where you can easily create & sell courses, offer coaching activities and sell coaching products.

Just like LearnDash, Teachable allows you to add unlimited students, courses and coaching services. Other unique features that come with Teachable include instant payouts, product bundles, course design templates, drip course content, etc.

Also, if you wish to build multiple income streams by focusing on creating courses and coaching programs, then Teachable is perfect for you.

So, when we compare LearnDash Vs Teachable then Teachable can work perfectly for you if you are a beginner or need an easy-to-use featured rich tool with reasonable pricing.

However, if you have a WordPress site and wish to transform it into a robust LMS or need to purchase a yearly LMS plan and save, then you should stick to LearnDash.

Thinkific

Thinkific is a powerful, professional and exclusive course creator platform that allows you to create, market and sell online courses.

The Thinkific platform has fantastic features such as live lessons & cohorts, assessments & certificates, progress tracking and memberships & communities.

Therefore, when we compare LearnDash Vs Thinkific then choose Thinkific if you need a business-friendly professional & exclusive course platform solution with features such as chat and traditional classroom-like tools.

However, if you have an existing WordPress site and you wish to venture into creating, marketing and selling courses, LearnDash is perfect for you.

Podia

Podia is a comprehensive digital storefront where you can share & monetize your knowledge, skills and experience online. You can sell your courses, webinars and digital downloads.

While LearnDash focuses only on course creation, Podia offers a solution for all your course digital business including courses, webinars, digital downloads, etc. It also comes with marketing features such as messaging, email marketing, custom websites, etc.

Also, you do not need multiple integrations or a WordPress site to use Podia.

Therefore choosing between LearnDash or Podia depend on your goal. If you want a simple course website that you can easily set up and run, Podia is perfect. You can easily create and sell courses without worrying about hosting, installations or updates.

However, if you need a WordPress course solution to customize your platform, open to many integrations and add ons to achieve your goals, then LearnDash may work well for you.

Kajabi

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform to create and sell online courses, host coaching activities, memberships, podcasts, newsletters, etc.

The platform comes with powerful features, including gated content, subscriptions, site themes, customized landing pages, automated marketing campaigns, etc.

With Kajabi, no plugins or integrations are needed. While Kajabi offers huge marketing tools, LearnDash does not have dedicated marketing tools.

So which one to choose between LearnDash vs Kajabi? If you are an experienced business that is already running a site and need more advanced features to create and market your course on autopilot, then Kajabi is the best option.

However, if you want to manage with your WordPress site and you are comfortable adding more functionality in your course building through third-party integrations, then LearnDash is a good option.

Should I Choose LearnDash In 2023?

Absolutely Yes!

LearnDash is the best WordPress LMS plugin available today. It is designed for maximum content delivery, superior quizzing capabilities and an immersive learning experience.

However, this depends on your business needs. While LearnDash is a powerful LMS plugin for WordPress, it might not work for you.

Therefore, whether you are looking to sell courses online, train clients & employees, add a course catalog to your existing offering or even build a new business around online courses, LearnDash has something for you.

LearnDash gives you complete control of selling your courses online. You are granted access to pricing models, flexible payment methods and renewal reminders to boost your marketing efforts.

LearDash comes with many benefits, including;

Drip feed content: You can deliver content as per pre-designed schedules and set email notifications.
Engagement triggers: You can interact with your students on the actions they need to take on your courses.
Robust user management: You can get complete control of your learners by grouping them, bulk enrollments, automatic removal from courses, etc
Learner rewards: You can promote course completion by awarding points, course certificates, badges, etc.

Start LearnDash Trial Now!

Also, you can enlarge LearDash capabilities by integrating it with tools that you are already using, including Zapier, Gravity, Stripe, Memberium, etc.

LearnDash also offers extensive customer support to help you get started and effectively use the platform. These include getting started guides, video tutorials, live webinars, etc.

Therefore, if you are serious about monetizing your WordPress site by creating and selling courses online, then LearnDash is the ultimate LMS plugin for you.

Join LearnDash today and transform your WordPress site into a powerful learning management software.

However, if you think LearnDash is not suitable for you, you can consider alternatives such as Teachable, Thinkific, Podia, Kartra, Kajabi, etc.

For instance, you can consider Teachable if you are a beginner or need an easy-to-use solution to create and sell courses & coaching products.

However, if you need a comprehensive all-in-one platform to create and sell your courses without adding integrations, you can go for Podia or Thinkific.

If your business is experienced and needs to try out more advanced features, Kajabi can work for you but if you want an all in one business solution then you can plan for Kartra too.

LearnDash FAQs You May Need To Know

Q. Can I use LearnDash for free?

No, LearnDash does not offer a free trial or a free version.

Q. How many users can you add to your LearnDash Account?

You can add limitless users to your LearnDash account as you wish.

Q. Can I upgrade/downgrade my LearnDash plan?

Yes, you can quickly upgrade or downgrade your plan at any time on the support site.

Q. Does LearnDash allow refunds?

Yes, LearnDash offers a refund if you feel that it is not the right platform for you within the first 15 days of purchase.

Q. Does LearnDash support live webinars?

No, LearnDash does not support live webinars. However, with add ons such as Zapier, you can connect with conferencing platforms like Demio, WebinarJam, Livestorm, EasyWebinar, GoToWebinar, Zoom, etc.

Q. Does LearnDash offer phone consultations or live demo?

No, LearDash does not provide live demos or phone consultations. However, they are ready to answer any questions that you have.

Final Thoughts

Without a doubt, LearnDash is a powerful tool for creating online courses no matter your audience or desired course structure.

Therefore, if you have a WordPress site and your focus is making online courses look no further. LearnDash comes with almost every feature you need to create an intuitive learning management system.

LearnDash is designed to enable dynamic learning, sales & marketing support, free integrations and course management capabilities.

However, I feel LearnDash is best for learning institutions, training sites or universities. It is pretty expensive and might not be suitable for individuals on a tight budget who wish to start selling courses online or those that do not have a WordPress site.

Therefore, if you feel like LearnDash is not the best LMS platform for you, you can check out alternatives.

For example, if you are a beginner and want a stand-alone platform, you may consider Teachable.

Also, if you need to create & sell courses and also host live webinars, Podia is perfect for you. Otherwise, Thinkific can work for you if you need a professional platform with classroom-like features like chat.

However, if your business is experienced and needs to test advanced features of sales & marketing with online courses, Kajabi may be the best option.

However, if you want an all in one business solution where you can manage all your business activities from one platform, then Kartra is also a good option to check.

I hope this extensive LearnDash review can help you learn everything you need to know about LearnDash and its alternatives to select the right platform for your business.