Selling digital products like online courses can be a profitable business. In fact, in 2020, the e-learning market reached $250 billion. And with the continuous growth of technology, the number is expected to grow to over $1 trillion by 2027.
If you feel like you’d like to tap into this profitable online business niche, you should try your hand at selling digital courses too. However, before you begin, you’ll need to install a learning management system (LMS) plugin to create an online course on your WordPress site.
This article will discuss the seven best WordPress LMS plugins to help you pick the perfect option for your online learning site.
1. LearnDash
Many companies and top-ranking universities use LearnDash to create online courses, including Yoast and the University of Michigan. LearnDash supports many media types, like videos, audios, and even Adobe Captivate files.
It’s also possible to give badges or certificates to members when they complete a course or perform well on quizzes.
Key features:
- Built-in forum. No need to install a third-party forum plugin.
- Various monetization tools. Some pricing models in LearnDash are one-time sales, subscriptions, and memberships.
- Assignment management system. Approve, comment, and give points to submitted assignments. You can also set users into groups and sub-groups.
Price:
From $329/year.
2. MasterStudy LMS
MasterStudy LMS is one of the most recent WordPress LMS plugins on the market, and it comes with some powerful features. It integrates multiple lesson types, including text, slides, videos, and streams.
Key features:
- Many unique templates. Create courses easily by using premade templates. The setup wizard will also let you to choose a page builder, like Elementor or WPBakery Page.
- Localized experience. This plugin is translated into many languages, such as Turkish, French, and Russian.
- Front-end course builder. It’s a live editor representing the actual look of your content after you hit the Publish button.
Price:
Freemium, with premium plans starting at $51.88/year.
3. LearnPress
LearnPress is a simple and free WordPress LMS plugin. It comes with an easy-to-use course and quiz builders, as well as multiple lesson formats like PDF and videos.
Key features:
- Import and export courses. Export or import a course, lesson, and quiz from a LearnPress site for backup.
- Prerequisite courses. Require members to complete a specific course before they access the next one.
- Wishlist and offline payment. Members can add courses to a wishlist and pay their orders via an offline payment method.
Price:
Freemium, with the $249.99 pro plan.
4. MemberPress
MemberPress is one of the most comprehensive LMS plugins. It supports many multimedia formats and has various built-in features to help you produce, manage, and sell online courses.
Key features:
- Drag-and-drop interface. MemberPress helps you create a course curriculum easily and add content using the Gutenberg editor.
- Excellent subscription management system. This plugin lets your members create, upgrade, or cancel their subscriptions from the website directly. It’s also possible to control your users’ content based on the membership plan they’ve purchased.
- A wide range of integration. It offers various built-in and add-on tools for an affiliate program, email marketing, and community forum.
Price:
From $299/year.
5. Tutor LMS
Tutor LMS lets you create online courses with various media, such as text, audio, videos, and live sessions using Zoom or Google Classroom integration. It also has rich features for building and selling online courses.
Key features:
- Tailored plans for specific purposes. Tutor LMS offers plans for a private instructor, marketplace, and institution. Different plans will come with particular features like dashboards and templates.
- In-depth analytics. It creates reports to help you track the courses’ popularity, searches, and other statistics. Tutor LMS also provides an intuitive dashboard to distribute earnings and set commission percentages if you manage instructors.
- Auto migration tool. It helps transfer databases from your current LMS plugin to Tutor LMS with a one-click migration tool.
Price:
Freemium, with plans starting at $74.5/year.
6. WP Courseware
WP Courseware is one of the most affordable options as its basic plan is available for two sites. It also provides robust features without leaving your WordPress dashboard and writing code.
Key features:
- Automated emails and notifications. Send automated emails or notifications triggered by particular course events, including first-time subscription and course completion.
- Comprehensive quiz management system. Create multiple-choice, true or false, and open-ended questions. You can also randomize questions and set a limited time or a certain passing score.
- Easy payment. This plugin lets you price your courses using any currency. Moreover, you don’t need additional eCommerce and membership plugins because WP Courseware has a built-in shopping cart.
Price:
From $99/year.
7. Sensei
Sensei is an LMS plugin built by Automattic, the company behind WooCommerce, WordPress.com, and Jetpack. Therefore, it integrates with a WordPress site seamlessly.
Key features:
- Theme compatibility. The plugin is compatible with any WordPress theme.
- Helpful support. Sensei LMS provides tutorials, tips, and active support forums if you have any questions.
- A free extension. Install the free extension to create unlimited courses with materials and quizzes. Still, you have to buy the premium plan or install the WooCommerce Paid Courses plugin to sell them via memberships, subscriptions, or single payments.
Price:
Freemium, with the $129 annual subscription.
Conclusion
Selling online courses is a lucrative business. And all you need to do to create courses on your WordPress website is install an LMS plugin. Generally, this plugin’s features include managing the online course content and subscriptions, creating and grading quizzes, and accepting payments. Meaning, almost every aspect of the business would be taken care of.
Here are the seven best LMS plugins we’ve discussed in this article:
- LearnDash. Trusted by major brands and universities.
- MasterStudy LMS. Provides many premade templates with multiple translations.
- LearnPress. Accepts offline payment and has a wishlist feature.
- MemberPress. Comes with complete subscription management.
- Tutor LMS. Offers multiple plans for particular purposes.
- WP Courseware. Most affordable option if you want to make two online learning sites.
- Sensei. Has a free plan to create free online courses.
Hopefully, this article has helped you choose the best WordPress LMS plugin for your future business.
