LearnDash

4.6 (276)
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Learning management system for WordPress

About LearnDash

LearnDash is a cloud-based WordPress plugin and learning management system (LMS) for businesses, universities, training organizations, and other enterprises. The platform offers tools for turning WordPress sites into learning management systems, creating custom courses, and selling them online. Users can create courses, quizzes, assessments, and other training content and deliver it to learners via a WordPress site.

With LearnDash, businesses can create custom learning courses for their WordPress site using the drag and drop course builder. The platform supports various question types including single answer, multiple choice, free text, essay, fill-in-the-blank, and more and course authors can set up rules-based triggers to display custom messages or questions to learners based on their answers. Users can reward learners with course points, certificates, and more in order to gamify learning and encourage participation.

Businesses are also able to monetize on courses by selling them online to other teachers or learning institutions. Users can set prices for their courses and accept online payments. LearnDash also facilitates subscription payments, memberships, course bundles, shopping carts, and more.

The Tin Can API allows users to connect the LearnDash plugin with any third party platforms. It also offers native integrations with existing solutions such as Stripe, Gravity Forms, and WooCommerce.


Key benefits of LearnDash

  • LearnDash allows professional trainers to create and sell online courses at different price models and facilitate automated content delivery based on learners' predefined schedules.

  • Higher education institutions can improve learning engagement among students by providing certificates, badges and points on course completion.

  • LearnDash's administrative dashboard allows administrators to manage assignments, user profiles, grouping, enrollments, and reporting on a unified interface.

  • LearnDash supports integration with various eLearning technologies such as multisite installations, WordPress themes, multimedia support, and more.

  • Through its integration with various payment gateways including PayPal, Stripe and 2Checkout, LearnDash allows trainers to monetize and sell content at various subscription levels.

  • Images

    LearnDash Software - LearnDash dashboard
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash lesson overview
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash learner profiles
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash customizable branding
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash course builder
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    LearnDash video
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash dashboard
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash lesson overview
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash learner profiles
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash customizable branding
    LearnDash Software - LearnDash course builder

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    Reviews

    Overall rating

    4.6 /5
    (276)
    Value for Money
    4.5/5
    Features
    4.4/5
    Ease of Use
    4.3/5
    Customer Support
    4.6/5

    Already have LearnDash?

    Software buyers need your help! Product reviews help the rest of us make great decisions.

    Showing 5 reviews of 276
    Irene
    Irene
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Translation & Localization
    • Company size: Self Employed
    • Used Daily for 6-12 months
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 7.0 /10

    Requires further customization options

    Reviewed on 2023/03/10

    It is a good product with may plugins, many of which are free.

    It is a good product with may plugins, many of which are free.

    Pros

    LearnDash helped me easily create my courses and the features offered are excellent. I had an overview of all courses and could easily update them if needed.

    Cons

    The layout of the courses overview was not customizable enough and I would like more design/layout options.

    Robert
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Design
    • Company size: Self Employed
    • Used Monthly for 2+ years
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

    The most flexible online LMS platform for small to mid-size schools, organizations, and...

    Reviewed on 2021/05/10

    LearnDash has been a very helpful tool for many of my clients, whether it was small colleges...

    LearnDash has been a very helpful tool for many of my clients, whether it was small colleges looking to take courses online, teaching organizations providing Continuing Education Credits, or individual experts looking to take their classes online.

    Pros

    Because it's based on WordPress, LearnDash not only comes with a lot of customization settings out of the box but plugs into a huge community of themes and plugins that can take your design and functionality practically any conceivable direction!

    Cons

    Some third-party developers created low-cost add-ons that didn't provide as reliable of a codebase as the core LearnDash software. Stick with reputable developers for third-party add-ons such as those mentioned on their website.

    Alternatives Considered

    Moodle

    Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

    LearnDash provided a larger community with more integrations, a better interface, and additional features.

    Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

    LearnDash was more flexible and user-friendly it's integration with WordPress provided access to a much wider community.
    Karen
    Karen
    Overall rating
    • Industry: E-Learning
    • Company size: 2–10 Employees
    • Used Daily for 1+ year
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

    Easy to Use but Ugly User Interface

    Reviewed on 2018/10/18

    Lately I have been thinking that because I don't use the quizzes, etc. I could have skipped the...

    Lately I have been thinking that because I don't use the quizzes, etc. I could have skipped the whole LMS thing and just created pages or posts that link to the next. Luckily LearnDash is not too expensive so now that it is looking nice (thanks to custom coding), I will probably just stick with it.

    Pros

    Working with LearnDash is very easy. It works very similar to the other functions in Wordpress. You create a course, add Lessons and then Topics for each lesson.

    For example, the course could be about How to Be a Real Estate Investor. In that course, you might have multiple lessons like How to Flip Houses, How to But Rental Property, How to Finance Real Estate, etc.

    The you add the detailed Topics. For example, How to Flip Houses might have things like How to Find Greta Houses to Flip. How to Fund Your Flip House Projects, How to Manage the Rehab. You get the idea...

    It's literally copy and paste for text and you add graphics the same way you would to any page or post in Wordpress.

    Also, you can have quizzes, delay the release of certain content, offer certificates and points for completion, sell your courses, interact with users based on actions they take, set timers for each lesson, set prerequisites for courses, and offer grading and badges. You can also offer the courses in bundles and even create a marketplace similar to Udemy where people can buy your courses.

    It integrates natively with many membership softwares including Memberium and also with many email providers and CRMS including Infusionsoft. It;s responsive and even works with SCORMs.

    Cons

    Here's what I don't like. It's ugly. The user interface is plain and not very intuitive. You have to buy other add on's so users can do things like take notes, and so that you can begin to have an interface that looks better than native Wordpresss. In other words... ugly.

    With all the work they put into this software, it is so crazy that they did not spend time on the user experience. It's hard to tell if you're in a Lesson or Topic. It's hard to navigate around the course form Lesson to Less or Topic or Topic to Topic and don't even think about jumping around. The only way to solve these issues is to use precious sidebar real estate for this navigation instead of being able to showcase other offerings. That or your sidebar gets really long.

    The interface showing which items have been completed and which have not is also ugly. And while you can buy add ons, those are "meh" at best. I finally broke down and hired a developer to tweak the code and make me a nice interface with great navigation, awesome graphics and stats for users in each Lessona nd Topic and so on.

    Response from LearnDash

    Hi Karen, thank you for your review! Regarding the visual components in LearnDash, these are soon to be updated in LearnDash 3.0 - we think you will really like them!

    Will
    Overall rating
    • Industry: E-Learning
    • Company size: Self Employed
    • Used Daily for 1+ year
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 10.0 /10

    LMS Management for Online E-Learning Course Catalog

    Reviewed on 2021/12/22

    Overall, LearnDash has made managing a large catalog of content (50 + courses) very easy. I can...

    Overall, LearnDash has made managing a large catalog of content (50 + courses) very easy. I can quickly add courses, and the quality looks great. The features I get with video lessons, feel like custom developement and something I paid ALOT of money for, but they are included for free.

    Pros

    Learndash is incredible easy to get up and running. I loved how easy it is to create courses, add lessons and quickly get a catalog of content up and running. I was transferring courses from pages and posts that I had manually created, and moving to LearnDash allows me to move and work so much faster, plus it's alot easier for students to navigate.

    All of my content is videobased and their video progression features and integrations with Vimeo are amazing. The ability to remember your location in a video so that when you come back to it, it's there waiting for you-is a feature that feels like it should cost, much, much more.

    Cons

    Initially I had purchased LearnDash and asked for my money back, because I felt like it was too focused on being a solution for higher ed. I didn't need certificates, or quizzes, or homework uploads, just the ability for students to watch video lessons. But.. after digging in the second time, I realized I don't have to use all of those things. While there are alot of features, I don't have to use those.

    Alternatives Considered

    Teachable, Podia and Thinkific

    Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

    I wanted to stay on an open platform and own my content. LearnDash allowed me to quickly transfer my existing posts and pages into their platform and continue owning my content and processing payments through Stripe.
    David
    Overall rating
    • Industry: Consumer Goods
    • Company size: 2–10 Employees
    • Used Daily for 1-5 months
    • Review Source

    Overall rating

    • Value for Money
    • Ease of Use
    • Customer Support
    • Likelihood to recommend 5.0 /10

    Excellent product - terrible support

    Reviewed on 2020/08/08

    The Good :
    + Excellent functionality for authoring courses with all expected media types supported
    +...

    The Good :
    + Excellent functionality for authoring courses with all expected media types supported
    + Excellent functionality & UX for users taking courses
    + Full-featured for those starting with a blank slate
    + Mobile responsive (with our theme)

    The Bad:
    - Very hard to integrate with existing customized website (theme, plugins, etc)
    - GravityForms integration virtually useless
    - Unable to drive course access or pricing based on WP user role
    - Apparently no hooks allowing implementer to modify their course enrollment process.

    The Ugly
    - HORRIBLE SUPPORT!

    Pros

    The features/functions of this product are top notch. Particularly if you are building a new eLearning site and are willing to use their theme and their UX OOB, this is very easy to implement and has great features.

    Cons

    The support experience has been horrendous! My task has been to integrate this LMS into an existing website which is very complex and sophisticated, without turning the existing UX on its head. The Support organization has been utterly useless either re-directing me to other plugins or mis-directing me with information that was simply wrong. The GravityForms integration is so poorly conceived as to be useless for my needs, and Support cannot provide any developer-level assistance at all. I've tried everything to get through to them - even contacting the CEO via LinkedIn - with no success. I'm now on the verge of demanding they cancel my license and refund the fee.

    Showing 5 reviews of 276 Read all reviews

    LearnDash FAQs

    Below are some frequently asked questions for LearnDash.

    LearnDash offers the following pricing plans:

    • Starting from: US$199.00/one-time
    • Free Trial: Not Available

    LearnDash is available across 3 pricing tiers; Basic, Plus, and Pro. Pricing plans - billed annually - are outlined below: Basic: $199 - includes 1 site license Plus Package: $229 - includes up to 10 site licenses and access to ProPanel Pro Package: $369 - includes up to 25 site licenses and access to ProPanel

    LearnDash has the following typical customers:

    2–10, 11–50, 51–200, 201–500

    LearnDash supports the following languages:

    English

    LearnDash supports the following devices:

    LearnDash integrates with the following applications:

    2Checkout, Gravity Forms, Kit, Mailchimp, Slack, Stripe, WooCommerce, WordPress, Zapier

    LearnDash offers the following support options:

    Email/Help Desk, FAQs/Forum, Knowledge Base

    Related categories

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