LearnDash Review – Is This the Best WordPress LMS Plugin?

In this LearnDash Review, you'll find out how the most trusted WordPress LMS plugin can transform your site. Create online courses and monetize your site in a matter of minutes.

Stat: In a study carried out by WHR Marketing, our video course sales increased by 117% when using an LMS plugin (LearnDash) vs using no plugin at all.

Table of Contents:
What is LearnDash WordPress Plugin?
What Features Does Learndash Learning Management System Have?
How to Create Online Courses in LearnDash LMS
Learndash Review – LearnDash WordPress Themes
Learn Dash Review – The LearnDash ProPanel
LearnDash Shortcodes and Blocks
LearnDash Alternatives
Learn Dash Support
LearnDash Discount and Pricing
LearnDash Review Summary

What is LearnDash WordPress Plugin?

LearnDash is the most trusted WordPress LMS (Learning Management System) Plugin. It is the top choice of companies, universities, entrepreneurs, and various organizations worldwide for online course creation, marketing, and selling.

What Features Does Learndash Learning Management System Have?

The key LMS features of LearnDash include courses, monetize, administration, and tech.

> Courses

LearnDash online courses are dynamic and engaging. It offers the latest trends in the e-learning industry. The focus mode allows you to create an online learning portal with your very own brand.

You can also do advanced quizzing and content drip-feeding. The prerequisites are flexible, so you can set it based on course, lesson, and quiz. Enrolled users can have private or public course-specific forums. The Gradebook syncs with quizzes and assignments along with manual grading.

> Monetize

Selling online courses through LearnDash is so easy. Just set a price, choose the payment schedule, and start taking orders. It supports one-time purchases, subscriptions, and shopping carts. You can sell traditional membership access to all available courses. You can even create a course marketplace like Udemy if you like.

> Administration

LearnDash gives you more control over learners and courses than almost any other learning management system out there. You can do everything from grouping users to altering progression, clearing data, reprinting achievements, revoking access, and even more. Users can easily track their courses and lessons through the front-end profiles.  The Group Management feature places users into groups and allows others to manage them. Detailed LMS reports on user enrollment, progress, and quiz performance can be run quickly. You can also approve, comment, and award points on submitted assignments.

> Tech

The latest tech tools in both the e-learning and WordPress industries are supported by LearnDash. Using programs like Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, iSpring, or H5P is not a problem. It works with any WordPress theme without the need for custom coding. You can insert any media — videos, Articulate & Adobe Captivate files, images, audio, Google Docs, and more. If your theme works on mobile, so will LearnDash. Moreover, users can get responsive support from industry experts with an extensive Fortune 500 experience.

How to Create Online Courses in LearnDash LMS

LearnDash has a powerful course builder. Its drag-and-drop feature allows you to create multi-layer online courses easily. This course builder also lets you reuse content, thus it is easier to spin-up courses. For instance, you can put “Modules” instead of “Lessons”.

In LearnDash, you can choose from eight different question types to customize the quizzing experience. You can incorporate custom messages, and much more.

Lessons can be delivered all at once.

You may also choose to have guided learning by drip-feeding or scheduling lessons over a specified amount of time. In either case, content is automatically released to learners based on the set schedule.

LearnDash prerequisites can provide course ideas to users. You can, therefore, create a guided learning path or allow learners to choose the course they would want to take.

The feature-packed LearnDash Gradebook can take your class to another level. It automatically syncs with the LearnDash quiz and assignment grades and supports manual grade submission. Weighted grades and offline grading are also possible, and users are provided with Learner Report Cards.

For every completed course, learners are awarded points and allowed to unlock new courses base on the earned points. This is a great way to let them choose their own dynamic learning path.

LearnDash allows full customization of certificates and supports a dynamic data generation, including first and last name, course or quiz name, date stamps, and much more.

Learndash Review – LearnDash WordPress Themes

Learn Dash works with most themes that are coded using WordPress standards.

If you already have a WordPress theme installed, LearnDash will just adopt its styling.

We recommend Studio Press Genesis Themes for their clean code and lightning-fast load speeds.

Here is an exclusive StudioPress Genesis Themes Discount Code.

Otherwise, there are suggested styles to follow:

> Free Themes

Astra is the most lightweight, intuitive, and flexible free WordPress theme. It extensively integrates with LearnDash LMS out of the box.

Generate Press is also a lightweight theme that is performance-focused and user friendly. Because it adheres to WordPress coding standards, LearnDash WordPress Plugin will play nice with this theme.

> Premium Themes

BuddyBoss for LearnDash is the most advanced LearnDash theme for online schools, courses, communities, and membership sites. It is flexible, giving you the freedom to fully customize it to your project’s requirements.

Academy Pro theme package is recommended for online course creators, membership site owners, and educational content marketers. It allows showcasing of authority, getting more email opt-ins, and promoting learning benefits.

WISDM eLumine is the best LearnDash theme for your website. This theme is designed by LearnDash experts to create an unparalleled learning experience. Make use of its performance optimization settings to increase page load speed. You can showcase all courses in a clean, organized format for quick accessibility. This theme also has LearnDash layouts that help improve student productivity and create an interactive social learning experience. Customization, speed, and mobile-ready layouts increase learner engagement across any device. Courses can be sold easily by integrating WooCommerce eLumine.

There are other premium LearnDash themes available such as:

• University Course and Event Theme
• Unidash Online Education Theme
• LMS Responsive Theme
• Edumodo Education Theme
• Invent — Education Course Theme
• Lincoln — Education Material Theme
• wOffice — Intranet/Extranet Theme
• Thrive — Intranet & Community Theme
• Education Center — Training Courses Theme

Remember, just as important (if not more) as choosing a high-quality theme is choosing a fast and responsive hosting company.

We currently recommend Siteground for their speed, price, and outstanding customer service.

LearnDash Review – The LearnDash ProPanelThemes

ProPanel enhances LearnDash admin experience by consolidating report and assignment management, giving the ability to send course-specific communications, and showing real-time course activities. It gives you a view of all your LMS reports or data on a dashboard.

> Overview Data

LearnDash ProPanel provides a quick view of stats relating to your learning management system. These top-level metrics may include:

• Total Students
• Number of Courses
• Assignments Pending
• Essays Pending

> Reporting Data

You can use filters to dig into online courses and learner data. This section of the LearnDash ProPanel also allows you to communicate with a selected group of users through email.

> Activity Stream

This tab displays the real-time activity of users to observe learner engagement with courses.

> Progress Chart

This allows you to easily see the progress of users in the course. Moreover, you can gain insight into exactly how far along have users gone for a particular course.

LearnDash Shortcodes and Blocks

Additional ways to insert content into your courses, pages, posts, other custom post types are provided by LearnDash shortcodes and blocks.

> Difference between LearnDash Shortcodes and Blocks

Shortcodes are the original way to add dynamic content into the WordPress editor. It can also be used to insert LearnDash content into page builders. Certain parameters are available for the customization of the displayed information.

Blocks, on the other hand, contain all the same features and options as shortcodes but are only available when using the new content editor released in WordPress 5.0 (aka Gutenberg). It provides an easier interface in which to insert content and customize the options.

> When to use LearnDash Shortcodes and Blocks

Every shortcode has a corresponding block, and every block has a corresponding shortcode. Since there is no feature difference between the two, you can ask the following questions to figure out which to use:

• Are you using the new WordPress editor (Gutenberg)? If yes, you can use either. Although blocks are easier to use, shortcodes are still available.
• Are you using the Classic Editor plugin? If yes, a shortcode is necessary.
• Are you using a page builder? If yes, then you’ll need to use a shortcode.
• Are you inserting content into a widget or sidebar? If yes, a shortcode should be used.

There is a complete list of all available LearnDash shortcodes and blocks, which provides information on how to use each, as well as all the available parameters. Find them here.

LearnDash Alternatives

Many people want a corporate learning management system. Some alternatives and competitors of LearnDash include Teachable, Thinkify, Moodle, and LearnPress.

> LearnDash vs Teachable

Although Learndash and Teachable both offer the ability to build online courses, they have different software philosophies.

LearnDash is a WordPress plugin that focuses purely on online course creation and its learning management system functionality. However, it has a robust marketplace of integrations and add-ons to give way to the expansion of its core functionality for better user experience.

Teachable provides an all-in-one hosted platform for building and selling online courses. This is good for starters, but an alternative is recommended if full control and more flexibility are already required.

> Learndash vs Thinkific

Thinkific is an all-in-one online course hosted platform designed to empower users to quickly create and deliver stunning courses on their own branded site. It falls short in LMS features and flexibility, which LearnDash has. LearnDash provides more and better features, full control over your hosted platform, better pricing, and a better look.

> LearnDash vs Moodle

Learn Dash (with WordPress) and Moodle are both open-source, self-hosted platforms. They both offer great flexibility and control to learners. However, there is one key difference.

Moodle can be called an LCMS — a Learning Content Management System. This implies that it can be two things in one – a Content Management System and a Learning Management System.

On the other hand, LearnDash + WordPress treats these functions separately. WordPress is a CMS, and LearnDash is a WordPress plugin that allows the addition of various functions to WordPress sites. Thus, WordPress focuses on making the best CMS on the market while LearnDash handles online learning capabilities.

> LearnDash vs LearnPress

The core functionality and development philosophies of LearnDash and LearnPress are strangely similar, but each has its own strength and weaknesses when it comes to features. Both focus on online course creation and learning management system functionality. However, ThimPress, the creator of LearnPress, focuses primarily on theme development and sales. LearnPress isn’t the main focus of its company’s owners. LearnDash is solely focused on LMS.

LearnDash Support

You can find answers to pressing questions through the LearnDash Support dashboard. LearnDash has categorized its documentation to help answer these questions as fast and competent as possible.

• LearnDash Core (Build courses, lessons, topics, quizzes, certificates, and more.)
• Add-Ons (14 officially supported add=ons, plus a list of third-party plugins.)
• Users and Groups (User management, creating, and managing LearnDash groups.)
• Reporting (User data, quiz stats, LearnDash ProPanel, SCORM, & xAPI.)
• User Guides (Detailed instructions on how to use popular LearnDash LMS features.)
• Troubleshooting (Steps to identify and fix LearnDash-related issues.)
• FAQs (The most commonly asked questions from users.)
• Account and Billing (Questions about account, license, and billing information.)

LearnDash Discount and Pricing

LearnDash pricing usually starts at $199 per year but with this exclusive Learndash Discount Code from WHR Marketing, you will get $40 off any of their packages. Learn Dash does not offer a free trial. However, Learndash offers a 30-day money refund if you are not satisfied.

Click Here for the exclusive $40OFF LearnDash Coupon Code from WHR Marketing.

LearnDash Review Summary

That's it for our LearnDash Review. LearnDash is the go-to learning management system if you are after flexibility and optimum LMS features. The LearnDash WordPress plugin is great for creating online courses and lessons, as well as training programs. Software updates and enhancements are also readily available.

We highly recommend using LearnDash if you want to create and monetize your online courses.

Click Here for the exclusive $40OFF LearnDash Discount Code from WHR Marketing.

LearnDash FAQS

What is the use of LearnDash?

LearnDash is a WordPress LMS plugin that helps you sell affordable online courses from your existing WordPress website with no need for an external platform.

In the recent years, elearning has been gaining more and more popularity with time and keeping up with the latest trends, LearnDash too has emerged as a popular open source learning management system (LMS) plugin for WordPress. LearnDash is a best open source WordPress LMS plugin that helps you create and manage high quality online courses or digital content from within your WordPress website.

You can use the available features of this plugin, such as quizzes, lessons, certificates, etc., to host entertaining and interactive online educational programs on your website.

Your online courses can be used by the visitors of your website to learn about a specific topic in detail before actually buying it. This will get you high returns from your investment on creative and interactive e-learning programs. LearnDash is one of its kinds that let you sell education-based products/services from within your WordPress based website.

Since it is built on the widely used WordPress CMS, it lets you integrate your e-learning program with other popular WordPress plugins available in the market. This means you can use LearnDash to sell e-courses/products from all WooCommerce supported markets and get amazing reports for them too.

So, if you are planning to set-up your own LMS website, you should not look any further and start using LearnDash as it is one of the most popular e-learning WordPress plugin that is constantly being upgraded to offer more features to the users.

Is LearnDash any good?

Absolutely, LearnDash is a great learning management system plugin for WordPress. However, there is room for improvement as well. But it's open source and their community does a very good job reporting bugs and suggesting new features.

Do you need WordPress to use LearnDash?

Yes, it depends on how much control you want over the design a UI experience. If you have a good designer and front-end developer, by all means, use any platform you feel comfortable with. But if your website is just another WordPress page that displays the LearnDash courses then yes – You should know some basic HTML CSS to be able to customize the look of your courses.

Is LearnDash good for affiliate marketers?

Yes, it is one of the best WordPress LMS plugin that you can use to sell niche products or services on your WordPress website. It lets you build beautiful online courses that are easy to promote in social media and affiliate marketing sites. You can even use the affiliate marketing feature to promote your own courses and make money!

What kind of e-learning does LearnDash offer?

LearnDash has a very clean and modern design and this makes it easy for you to create almost any type of online course from within your WordPress website. You can sell lessons, certificates or even have live instructor-led lecture sessions. You can create courses for almost any niche, including WordPress training, Yoga lessons, cooking classes and so on.

This plugin can be used to sell ebooks/digital products as well. The most important thing is that you do not need to install any external LMS platform or database server to host your online courses.

Can I install LearnDash on my existing WordPress site?

Yes, you can. Even if you do not have a WordPress website, but know CMS basics you should be able to install and use this plugin as well. It is one of the easiest LMS plugins available out there that will let you sell courses from your WordPress website in no time.

What is the pricing for LearnDash?

If you would like to purchase a new or developer license of LearnDash plugin, it will cost you $197/year. There are some other plans available too, such as premium and agency.

How do I create a LearnDash course?

You can create LearnDash courses both from within your WordPress dashboard as well as directly on the front-end. When you login to your account, click Courses » Add New to create a new course. If you want to add a course from front-end, go to Courses » Add Course and start adding lesson titles and content right there.

Can I sell WordPress installation service using LearnDash?

Yes, you can! You can even teach your users WordPress customization skills like adding new themes, plugins or widgets. Here is how it works: after purchasing a membership package, the user will get access to all of your course content and lessons. But if they want to take a certification test, they need to pay you the course completion fee.

How do I add lessons to my LearnDash courses?

When you are creating a new course in WordPress, you will get 6 sections by default- Home, Overview, Modules, Lesson 1, Lesson 2 and Lessons. You can click on the Add New button on the top of any section and add new lessons to your course.

When you are adding a lesson, you will get the lesson title and the content part. You can style both with CSS or use our custom fonts. LearnDash also lets you create price-based courses so that users need to pay you some fee to take a certification test and get their completion certificate.

Can I add multiple teachers to my LearnDash course?

No, you cannot add multiple teachers to a single course. But if you want to create separate courses for different topics (like WordPress, SEO and Social Media marketing) then you can add huge number of instructors to each course. This is a very useful feature for online schools and colleges.

Can I add an instructor for my LearnDash course?

Yes, you can add instructors to your courses and make them live too! You can also attend their live sessions and ask questions right there. This feature is perfect for teachers and trainers who want to create real-time lectures. LearnDash is the only LMS plugin that currently has live instructor-led sessions feature.

Can I watch lessons offline in my LearnDash courses?

Yes, you can download all your course lessons to your computer at once and then view them online or offline. If you want to take this one step further, you can also create e-book lessons and sell them on your website.

How do I generate certificates for my LearnDash courses?

If you want to create a certification test, simply go to Course » Add Certification Test. Now add the course name and description. If you only want members with certain membership levels (like premium or agency) to take this test, you can set this restriction on the right side.

After setting everything up, click on Add Test button to generate your certificate test URL. After creating the test, users need to pay course completion fee in order to take certification test and get their certificates.

What payment gateways do you support with LearnDash?

LearnDash support PayPal Standard, PayPal Express Checkout, Drip payments and recurring payments with WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin. All of these are very easy to set up, but if you need any help then our support team is always there to assist you.

How do I update my LearnDash course?

You can update any course from both front-end and back-end. To update a lesson from the front-end, simply go to Courses » [Course Title] » Lesson 1. Now you will get all of your course lessons listed there so you can edit them very easily.

Is LearnDash secure?

Yes, LearnDash is 100% secure! They protect all of your sensitive data with HTTPS encryption and WP nonces. There are also a number of security features that you get in the plugin which keep everything under check.

We hope you enjoyed our article on LearnDash Review.

Here’s to your online business goals,

The WHR team

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LearnDash Review, 31st December 2021