Looking for the best LMS plugins to help you create online courses with WordPress? Short for Learning Management System, LMS plugins make it easy to create and manage detailed courses, just like the courses you find on Udemy or other platforms.
This is definitely a decision you should spend some time researching because you’re going to invest a lot of time into whichever LMS plugin you eventually choose. And once you build out all your course content, you probably won’t want to switch later on.
To make your decision easier, I’ve collected ten of the best WordPress LMS plugins and compared them in detail.
Because LMS plugins have deep functionality and I don’t want to make this post a book, here’s how I’m going to set up this comparison. For each plugin I’ll:
- Give you a broad overview of its features
- Show you how you’ll actually build and structure your courses
- Share the different monetization options available, assuming you’d like to make some money from the courses you create
- Discuss the price for you to get up and running
Then, at the end, I’ll share my picks for the best WordPress LMS plugin for your specific needs.
Below, you can view a quick summary table of the nine plugins that I’ll be looking at:
| LMS Plugin | Free Version? | Starting Price for Pro | Visit |
| LearnDash | ❌ | $199/year | Visit |
| LifterLMS | ✅ | Individual extensions | Visit |
| MasterStudy | ✅ | $155/year | Visit |
| Tutor LMS | ✅ | $199/year | Visit |
| LearnPress | ✅ | Individual extensions | Visit |
| Sensei | ✅ | Individual extensions | Visit |
| WP Courseware | ❌ | $149/year | Visit |
| MemberPress | ❌ | $179.50/year | Visit |
| Thrive Apprentice | ❌ | $147/year | Visit |
| Masteriyo | ✅ | $199/year | Visit |
1. LearnDash
LearnDash is one of the most popular WordPress LMS plugins, used by both large institutions such as the University of Florida and standalone WordPress sites.
It can help you create courses that are as detailed or simple as you want.
If you’d like to sell self-paced courses, you can just set up simple text and multimedia lessons. Or, you can also get more involved and include quizzes and assignments in your lessons.
If you want to learn about LearnDash in full detail, you can check out my lengthy LearnDash review — but I’ll just hit the high points in this roundup.
And if you want to see LearnDash in action on real sites, two good LearnDash examples are:
LearnDash Feature List
LearnDash has a deep feature list, so this is not a full list of everything that LearnDash lets you do. But here are the most important features you get access to:
- Create unlimited courses and lessons
- Use text and multimedia in your lessons
- Create special video lessons that automatically play and skip straight to the next topic once they’re finished (kind of like Udemy)
- Include quizzes and assignments
- Drip-feed course content on a schedule rather than making it all available at once
- Require students to complete prerequisite courses before they can take a course
- Offer certificates and badges after a user completes a course
- Create special course forums
- Send email notifications, including automation
- Connect to Zapier for more automation, including lots of built-in triggers (e.g. trigger a Zapier event when a user starts a course or completes a lesson)
A Deeper Look at the LearnDash Course Builder
Each course that you create with LearnDash contains two core elements: lessons and topics.
Lessons are the broad sections. And you can break up each lesson into different topics.
To help you organize this structure, LearnDash uses a drag-and-drop course builder, which makes it easy to visualize how everything comes together. You can see it in action below:
You can create new lessons and topics from the editor as needed. Then, you can go back and add the actual content later on.
To actually create the content for each lesson and topic, you’ll essentially use the normal WordPress editor, which means you’ll feel right at home.
And then to actually display your course content on the frontend of your site, you’ll use the included shortcode builder:
LearnDash Monetization Options
In the core plugin, LearnDash includes simple monetization options that let you sell courses as one-time payments or recurring subscriptions.
With that being said, if you’re serious about selling courses, you might want more depth.
To let you get even more creative, LearnDash also includes built-in integrations for WooCommerce, as well as popular membership plugins such as Restrict Content Pro, Paid Memberships Pro, and others.
LearnDash Pricing and Final Thoughts
LearnDash has no free version. The paid plan starts at $199 for a single-site license.
I know that might seem like a lot in comparison to other WordPress plugins. But LearnDash’s pricing structure is actually very competitive in the LMS plugin market, especially when you consider all the features that you get.
All in all, LearnDash, along with the next option on this list, is a great first port of call if you want to sell courses with WordPress.
2. LifterLMS
Along with LearnDash, LifterLMS is probably the other most well-known LMS plugin.
It sets you up with a similar level of depth, where you’re able to create both simple courses, as well as more complicated offerings with quizzes and assignments built in.
It also has a free core version listed at WordPress.org, which lets you play around with it for free.
If you want to see the plugin in action, here are some good live examples of LifterLMS:
LifterLMS Feature List
Across the free core version and the premium add-ons, LifterLMS lets you:
- Create unlimited courses with a drag-and-drop course builder
- Include multimedia content like video and audio
- Include assignments and quizzes as part of your courses
- Require users to complete prerequisite courses and/or create course tracks to offer certifications
- Drip-feed course content on a set schedule
- Assign instructors to courses
- Include course discussion areas like lesson comments, forums, and more
- Sell courses on either a one-time or subscription basis, including flexible bundles
- Offer private coaching upsells (this is a neat feature)
- Trigger email notifications based on users’ actions
Again, this is by no means the complete feature list.
A Deeper Look at the LifterLMS Course Builder
Like LearnDash, LifterLMS gives you a drag-and-drop course builder to help you structure your course content. You can build your courses with sections and lessons. Lessons go inside sections:
One neat thing that you can do is insert existing lessons into multiple courses, which helps if you have some overlap between topics.
I actually prefer LifterLMS’ builder because it’s full-screen, which I think makes it easier to interact with.
Then, to actually create the content for individual lessons, you’ll use the normal WordPress editor, as well as a special video/audio embed option for multimedia content.
LifterLMS Monetization Options
Compared to LearnDash, LifterLMS includes more robust built-in monetization options, which eliminates the need for a third-party plugin.
You can:
- Offer courses for free
- Sell courses for a one-time payment
- Sell recurring subscriptions for course access
You also get the ability to create course bundles and upsells for even more flexibility.
To accept payments, you can easily integrate with services such as PayPal, Stripe, and Authorize.net.
LifterLMS Pricing and Final Thoughts
You can add functionality to the free core version of LifterLMS in two ways.
First, you can purchase individual add-ons for $120+ each. Depending on your needs, you might just need to purchase a single premium payment gateway, which makes LifterLMS potentially quite affordable.
On the other hand, if you want more than one add-on, you might do better with a bundle, in which case LifterLMS can quickly get a lot pricier than something like LearnDash. There are three bundle options:
- Earth Bundle – $180 per year. Includes all the eCommerce add-ons.
- Universe Bundle – $360 per year. Includes everything except the advanced add-ons.
- Infinity Bundle – $1200 per year. Yes, this is super pricey.
Overall, if you don’t need stuff like quizzes and assignments, you can do some pretty neat things with just the free version and a $120 payment gateway, which makes LifterLMS a great entry-level option.
3. MasterStudy
MasterStudy is a freemium WordPress LMS plugin from StylemixThemes, the developer of a number of popular themes and plugins.
It offers well-designed, user-friendly interfaces on the frontend, including some unique features such as the ability to host interactive live lessons and an easy way to create your own mobile app. It also has all of the standard LMS features that you’d expect from an LMS plugin.
You can use MasterStudy to sell your own courses directly to students or to create your own course marketplace with third-party instructors, similar to Udemy.
MasterStudy Feature List
- Helpful setup wizard to get up and running
- Drag-and-drop course builder, including frontend course builder option
- Easy-to-use quiz builder
- Flexible monetization options — one-time, subscription, payment plans, trials, and more
- Built-in Stripe or PayPal gateways or full WooCommerce support
- Group courses
- Sell courses directly or create a marketplace with revenue sharing
- Content dripping and course prerequisites
- Certificates and certificate builder
- Student assignments and gradebooks
- …lots more
One unique feature of MasterStudy is the ability to create your own dedicated course app for iOS and Android. Users can consume lessons, take quizzes, and interact with pretty much all the key course functionality, right from your own custom mobile app.
MasterStudy also offers its own official starter theme that you get at no extra cost if you purchase the premium version (however, MasterStudy works with any theme).
A Deeper Look at the MasterStudy Course Builder
MasterStudy offers a drag-and-drop course builder that makes it easy to set up the structure of your courses and add lesson content.
You can access this builder from the backend. Or, you can also use a frontend builder, which is a nice option if you’re creating a course marketplace. That is, your third-party instructors could create their own courses completely from the frontend.
To set up the course curriculum, you get a drag-and-drop builder where you can create sections to organize content and then add unlimited lessons or quizzes:
Below that, you get a box to set up course details, including pricing, content dripping, prerequisites, and so on:
If you open up a lesson’s settings, you can add content using the classic WordPress editor. There doesn’t seem to be an option to use the block editor — at least not that I could find. Maybe this is a limitation of needing to offer the builder on both the frontend and backend.
Below the lesson editor, you get a Lesson Settings box. For example, if it’s a video lesson, you can add the video content and details:
MasterStudy Monetization Options
As I mentioned above, you can use MasterStudy to sell your own courses or to create your own course marketplace where third-party instructors can create and sell their own courses.
MasterStudy offers built-in payment support for PayPal and Stripe. Or, it also integrates with WooCommerce, which lets you use any WooCommerce payment gateway.
In terms of pricing models, you get a good number of options, including the following:
- One-time payments
- Automatic recurring subscriptions
- Pricing plans (e.g. three payments of $199)
- Course bundles
You can also sell group memberships to companies and organizations. For example, a business could purchase a membership for all of its employees.
If you’re using MasterStudy to create a marketplace, you can also control revenue distribution with your third-party instructors.
MasterStudy Pricing and Final Thoughts
MasterStudy has a free version at WordPress.org as well as a premium version sold from the developer’s website.
The core features are the same between the free and paid versions. However, with the paid version, you get a lot more features via add-ons — view the full list here.
If you need the premium version, a single-site license starts at $155 for a one-year license or $320 for a lifetime license.
This includes the premium version of the plugin and the starter theme at no extra cost (though again, you can use it with any theme).
If you want to offer the mobile app to your students, that’s a separate purchase on Envato’s CodeCanyon marketplace. It will cost you $49 with lifetime updates.
4. Tutor LMS
Tutor LMS is a fairly new WordPress LMS plugin from Themeum that has a great, modern interface and a free version at WordPress.org. Though it was only launched in early 2019, it’s already become active on over 60,000 sites while maintaining an almost perfect 4.6-star rating on 450 reviews, according to WordPress.org.
To build your courses, it gives you a convenient drag-and-drop course builder. The frontend interfaces look great right out of the box, which ensures good UX for your course-takers.
Like MasterStudy, Tutor LMS also lets you create a marketplace of courses from different instructors. You can sell all those courses through your site and automatically give each instructor a commission based on the sales.
If you want to see Tutor LMS in more depth, check out my full Tutor LMS review.
Tutor LMS Feature List
Though it’s young in comparison to some of the other LMS plugins, Tutor LMS has already built up a stellar feature list:
- Simple drag-and-drop course builder for lesson content and quizzes
- Modern, well-designed frontend course interfaces for your students
- Content restriction
- Lots of quiz options in the quiz creator
- Content dripping
- Course certificates
- Course prerequisites
- Integrated monetization options via WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, or Paid Membership Pro
- Frontend course creation, which is great if you want to allow third-party instructors
- Pay third-party instructors a commission based on their course sales (like Udemy)
- Easy withdrawal methods for instructors
- Reports and analytics
- Email notifications
A Deeper Look at the Tutor LMS Course Builder
Tutor LMS has an easy-to-use drag-and-drop course builder that lets you work from a single interface.
You can divide your courses into different topics and then create lessons and quizzes inside each topic. You can also re-arrange everything as needed:
What’s convenient about this interface is that when you go to create a new lesson or quiz, you can add your content in a pop-up rather than having to open a new tab for every single lesson:
To add your lesson content, you’ll use the classic WordPress editor. One nice thing is that you get a dedicated option to embed a video, which is great if you use videos for each lesson:
Tutor LMS Monetization Options
If you want to monetize your courses, Tutor LMS is built to integrate with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads (EDD).
Once you install one of those plugins, you can link a course to a WooCommerce or EDD product. This is nice because it lets you take advantage of eCommerce functionality such as discounts and subscriptions.
Again, Tutor LMS includes features to help you create a marketplace of courses from third-party instructors. You can set up commissions and fees, automatically calculate everything, and dispense withdrawals:
Tutor LMS Pricing and Final Thoughts
Tutor LMS has a generous free version at WordPress.org that can help you get up and running with functioning courses all by itself. In fact, some sites might just need the free version — it’s definitely viable by itself.
Then, there’s also a premium version that adds support for:
- Content dripping
- Assignment submission
- More quiz question types and options
- Reports
- Course certification templates
- Course prerequisites
- Course previews
- Email notifications
- WooCommerce subscription support (the free version supports one-time payments, but you need Pro for recurring subscriptions)
- …more
You can view a detailed breakdown of the free vs premium features on Tutor LMS’s website.
To purchase the premium version, you can choose between annual and lifetime billing:
- 1 site – $199 for one year of support and updates or $499 for lifetime
- 10 sites – $399 for one year of support and updates or $899 for lifetime
- Unlimited sites – $799 for one year of support and updates or $1899 for lifetime
All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.
5. LearnPress
By the numbers, LearnPress is the most popular LMS plugin at WordPress.org. There’s a reason for that, too — it’s pretty generous with its free features.
Beyond selling paid add-ons, one of LearnPress’ primary monetization methods is selling its own WordPress LMS themes on ThemeForest with LearnPress bundled in, which helps explain why the LearnPress team can be so generous with the free plugin (and also why LearnPress’ WordPress.org popularity numbers are so high).
You can check out the popular Education WP theme for an example.
LearnPress Feature List
LearnPress lets you create unlimited courses, complete with:
- Assignments and quizzes
- Drip-fed content
- Certificates for completing courses
- Prerequisite courses
- BuddyPress/bbPress integrations for course forums
- Co-instructors to include multiple course instructors
- Integrations with WooCommerce and membership plugins
A Deeper Look at the LearnPress Course Builder
Like LifterLMS and LearnDash, LearnPress offers a drag-and-drop course builder to help you lay out your course content.
LearnPress’ builder follows LearnDash’s approach, where it sits inside the WordPress editor as a sort of meta box:
It’s pretty intuitive, and the design is nice and clean. You can either create new sections and lessons or select from your existing lessons.
To actually add your lesson content, you’ll use the normal WordPress editor. You’ll need to add your multimedia content directly to the editor as well, as there’s no dedicated video embed option like you get with LearnDash or LifterLMS.
LearnPress Monetization Options
LearnPress gives you basic monetization options in the core plugin. You can give each course a one-time price and then purchase affordable payment gateway add-ons to process payments.
Or, if you want to get more creative with your pricing, you can also integrate with WooCommerce or popular membership plugins to handle payments that way.
LearnPress Pricing and Final Thoughts
LearnPress is pretty generous with its free functionality. And even the paid add-ons are significantly more affordable than something like LifterLMS.
You can also purchase the LearnPress Pro Bundle that includes all premium add-ons for $299 (instead of $610, which you’d pay if you bought all add-ons individually).
Overall, this is a solid option if you’re on a budget, but I don’t think it’s quite as polished as LearnDash or LifterLMS, especially when you get into nitty-gritty details such as notification triggers and automation.
6. Sensei
Sensei has a unique twist in that it’s an add-on for WooCommerce, rather than a standalone LMS plugin.
It’s also developed by the WooCommerce team, which gives it the backing of Automattic’s resources (never a bad thing). With that being said, it doesn’t seem to receive quite as much attention as the dedicated LMS plugins above.
Sensei Feature List
Sensei’s feature list is a little shorter than the other options. But it still lets you create unlimited courses, complete with:
- Quizzes
- Drip fed content
- Certificates
- Course progress
That should still be enough functionality for most users.
A Deeper Look at the Sensei Course Builder
Like the other plugins, Sensei gives you two additional content hierarchy levels for your courses: modules and lessons.
Modules are basically like sections. Each course can contain multiple modules, and each module can contain multiple lessons.
Unfortunately, there’s no drag-and-drop course builder. Instead, you’ll need to rely on drop-downs to associate modules with courses and lessons with modules, which isn’t ideal:
Sensei Monetization Options
Because Sensei is an extension for WooCommerce, you get a good deal of flexibility for monetization options.
With just the Sensei plugin and WooCommerce, you can make your courses free or sell them for a one-time payment using any of the WooCommerce payment gateways.
If you want more flexibility, you can tack on the WooCommerce Memberships plugin to create tiered membership levels and/or restrict content. Or, you can use the WooCommerce Subscriptions plugin to create recurring payments.
Sensei Pricing and Final Thoughts
Sensei itself comes for free, however, you might also need some Sensei extensions, depending on the features that you need. For example, getting access to content dripping is $29 for a single-site license.
As you saw above, you might also need some other WooCommerce plugins to get the exact functionality that you need.
As you can get access to Sensei for free and it does come from the WooCommerce/Automattic team, it is a viable option that’s worth checking out.
7. WP Courseware
WP Courseware is one of the oldest WordPress LMS plugins out there.
It does a great job of keeping things simple and gives you some good payment options from the core plugin, which eliminates the need to integrate it with a third-party plugin (though it can do that too).
WP Courseware Feature List
WP Courseware gives you a drag-and-drop editor to build unlimited courses complete with:
- Drip content
- Quizzes
- Grade books
- Course completion certificates
- Prerequisite courses
- Email notifications for specific events
WP Courseware also now has built-in payment support, which I believe is a new feature.
A Deeper Look at the WP Courseware Course Builder
To help you build your courses, WP Courseware includes a drag-and-drop course builder, though it’s not quite as user-friendly as the other LMS plugins on this list (excluding Sensei, which doesn’t have one):
Here’s why I find it less user-friendly:
You can’t create new modules or units from the drag-and-drop interface. Instead, you have to first add all your modules and units via your WordPress dashboard. Then, you can organize those existing modules and units via the drag-and-drop course builder.
I think it’s more intuitive to do it the other way around (organize your course first and then go back and add the content later), which is what all the other plugins let you do.
Beyond that, the rest of the interface is pretty simple, and adding course content is as simple as creating a WordPress post.
WP Courseware Monetization Options
WP Courseware now gives you a good amount of control over monetization right from the core plugin.
For each course, you can:
- Offer it for free
- Sell it for a one-time payment
- Charge a recurring subscription for access to the course
If you want more flexibility, WP Courseware also has integrations for WooCommerce and Easy Digital Downloads, as well as membership plugins such as:
- MemberPress
- Paid Memberships Pro
- MemberMouse
WP Courseware Pricing and Final Thoughts
WP Courseware is pretty affordable, especially if you’re planning to use it on multiple sites.
Full-featured plans start at just $149 for use on two sites. Or, you can pay a little more ($179) to use it on 10 sites.
While I don’t think WP Courseware goes as deep as something like LearnDash or LifterLMS, its pricing makes it a solid affordable option for people who are just looking for something straightforward and easy to use.
8. MemberPress
MemberPress is a popular WordPress membership plugin, rather than a standalone LMS plugin like all the other options in this collection. However, unlike most other membership plugins, MemberPress launched its own MemberPress Courses add-on in February 2021, which gives you full LMS functionality within the MemberPress plugin.
This makes it pretty unique in the LMS space and gives you more heavy-duty built-in membership features than most other LMS plugins offer. Other LMS plugins typically get around this by integrating with membership plugins — MemberPress is just cutting out the need to integrate two third-party plugins.
MemberPress Feature List
- Full WordPress membership plugin with a dedicated LMS add-on
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- Design courses using the native WordPress block editor
- Flexible content restriction, including content dripping
- Support for most major payment gateways
- Flexible membership levels and member management
A Deeper Look at the MemberPress Course Builder
When you create a course in MemberPress, you’ll use the native WordPress block editor, divided into a few different tabs.
You’ll first add your course title and description using the regular block editor:
Then, you can jump to the Curriculum tab to set up your course content. You can quickly add lesson titles and sections and use drag-and-drop to rearrange them:
To actually add lesson content, you’ll need to click the pencil icon to open a new tab with the editor for that lesson. There, again, you’ll use the default WordPress block editor.
All in all, the course builder isn’t anything fancy, but it is pretty easy to use and the fact that it uses the WordPress block editor means you can take advantage of all the flexibility and extensibility of the block editor. For example, you could use blocks from third-party block plugins in your lesson designs.
MemberPress Monetization Options
MemberPress is quite flexible when it comes to payments. You’ll get dedicated integrations for the following popular payment gateways and methods:
- PayPal Express
- PayPal Standard
- Stripe
- Authorize.net
- Offline payments
- Manual transactions
You also get full support for coupons and other discounting strategies.
And if that’s not enough, you can find third-party add-ons that let you integrate MemberPress with WooCommerce.
MemberPress Pricing and Final Thoughts
MemberPress is a premium plugin. There are three different pricing tiers, but the Courses add-on is available on the entry-level Basic tier.
The Basic plan costs $179.50 for your first year and use on a single site. That $179.50 price is a special promo price, though. After the first year, your license will renew at $359, which is something to keep in mind.
Overall, MemberPress is a solid option if you want to create both membership content and basic courses. However, it offers fewer advanced course features than some other plugins on this list, so it’s probably not a great option for serious educational institutions.
9. Thrive Apprentice
Thrive Apprentice is a lightweight WordPress course plugin from Thrive Themes, the same team behind the popular Thrive Architect page builder and Thrive Leads list building plugin.
It has a bit of a different focus than other LMS plugins as it’s more focused on enabling marketers to set up simple courses than helping serious educational institutions create more complex courses with quizzes, assignments, and other advanced educational features.
As an example of that limited focus, Thrive Apprentice does not have features such as quizzes, course certificates, or drip-fed content (though adding support for content dripping is on the roadmap).
However, it does offer an easy way to create simple courses and includes built-in monetization via WooCommerce, ThriveCart, and SendOwl (all of which can also help you create an affiliate program).
Thrive Apprentice Feature List
- Drag-and-drop course builder to organize modules, chapters, and lessons
- Support for payment gateways: WooCommerce, SendOwl, and ThriveCart
- Ability to partially publish courses
- Flexible drip functionality
- Dedicated landing page designs for frontend sales pages
- Integrations with most popular membership plugins
A Deeper Look at the Thrive Apprentice Course Builder
As I mentioned above, Thrive Apprentice includes a built-in drag-and-drop course builder. When you create a new course, you can set up high-level details such as the course overview and teacher biography:
When you create a new lesson, you can add lesson content in a popup (no page reloads required) — including support for text, audio, and video lessons:
You can organize your content using modules and chapters. Then, you can use the simple interface to rearrange things as needed using drag-and-drop:
All in all, it’s quite easy to use and you can quickly set up courses because there are no page reloads required.
Thrive Apprentice Monetization Options
Thrive Apprentice has built-in integrations with three payment gateways/processors:
- WooCommerce
- ThriveCart
- SendOwl
WooCommerce is the most popular WordPress eCommerce plugin, while ThriveCart and SendOwl are third-party shopping cart software providers.
Thrive Apprentice Pricing and Final Thoughts
Thrive Apprentice is available for $147 or as part of the full Thrive Suite, which gets you access to every single plugin and theme that Thrive Themes makes (including Thrive Architect, Thrive Leads, Thrive Theme Builder, and more) for $299.
Overall, Thrive Apprentice is a solid option for marketers who are looking to create and monetize course content. Even though it lacks advanced LMS plugin features such as quizzes and drip-fed content, you can add quiz-building functionality with Thrive Quiz Builder which is also included in the Thrive Suite membership.
For a review of another Thrive Themes product, check out our Thrive Architect review.
10. Masteriyo
Masteriyo is a WordPress LMS plugin that has a modern interface powered by React.
That’s one of its standout features — the interface and user experience on both the frontend and backend is excellent. This is especially important on the frontend as it ensures your students will have great experiences.
Masteriyo Feature List
- User-friendly, React-powered interfaces — these also lead to fast load times
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- Quiz builder with multiple choice and true/false questions
- Built-in payment support for PayPal and Stripe as well as the option to use WooCommerce for more flexibility
- Frontend “My Account” page for students
- Option to add multiple instructors and assign them to courses
- Question and answer section on lesson page — students can ask questions and instructors can answer
A Deeper Look at the Masteriyo Course Builder
Masteriyo offers a drag-and-drop course builder interface that’s powered by React.
You can organize your courses using sections and add as many lessons and quizzes as needed. You can also use drag and drop to quickly rearrange any content.
Here’s the main course builder page:
If you add/edit a lesson, it will open the lesson editor immediately. Because it’s using React, the interface is super fast and seamless.
The lesson editor is pretty simple. You get a text editor to add text and then you also have the option to include a video.
For the video itself, you can either self-host it or embed it from YouTube or Vimeo:
The quiz builder uses a similar approach, but you’ll get two extra tabs where you can:
- Add your quiz questions
- Configure quiz details, such as what a passing grade is, how long people have to take the quiz, and how many quiz attempts are allowed
Masteriyo Monetization Options
To help you monetize your courses, Masteriyo supports PayPal with the free version of the plugin. With the paid version, you can also use Stripe and WooCommerce.
For each course, you can mark it as:
- Free – you can make it public or require registration
- Paid – you can set a price and use Masteriyo’s payment collection features
With the free version, you can only accept one-time payments, but the premium version opens the door for subscription payments.
Masteriyo Pricing and Final Thoughts
Masteriyo has a free version at WordPress.org as well as a premium version that adds more functionality.
The free version includes all of the core features, including the following:
- Unlimited courses, lessons, quizzes, students, instructors, etc.
- Drag-and-drop course builder
- PayPal integration
- …other core features
Then, the premium version adds support for Stripe and WooCommerce payment integrations, downloadable materials, course certificates, and other features on the way.
You can view a detailed breakdown of the current Masteriyo free vs premium features on the pricing page.
Currently, there are three premium pricing plans, all of which give you access to all features and one year of support and updates:
- 1 site – $199
- 5 sites – $299
- 99 sites – $499
If you want to try it out yourself, you can spin up your own sandbox demo site using TasteWP.
There’s also a 14-day money-back guarantee.
Which Is the Best WordPress LMS Plugin for You?
If you’re looking for the absolute best LMS plugins, my two recommendations would be LearnDash or LifterLMS, which is why they’re number one and two.
Both of these plugins have good teams behind them and are constantly pushing out helpful new features. LifterLMS might be the cheapest option of the two, depending on your needs. However, if you want all the bells and whistles, it can also be a lot more expensive — so make sure you do the math on the specific features that you need.
To decide between them, you can read our detailed LifterLMS vs LearnDash comparison.
Beyond those two LMS plugins, Tutor LMS is also quickly making a name for itself. Though it doesn’t have the track record of those two plugins yet, it’s got a great interface and feature list, along with a generous free version. The same things can be said about the MasterStudy plugin, so it’s another good one to consider.
On the other hand, if you’re more focused on the marketing and monetization angle, you might be happier with MemberPress or Thrive Apprentice. They don’t match the educational features of LearnDash or LifterLMS, but they do have everything most solopreneurs need to offer simple online text or video courses.
For those on a budget, LearnPress, WP Courseware, Masteriyo, and Sensei are viable options too.
Now over to you — have you used any of these LMS plugins? Which would you recommend and why?
