WordPress LMS plugins turn a WordPress site into a course platform, yet almost every product here is licensed by site count, renewed yearly and tied to a separate checkout plugin or gateway.
This guide ranks on setup effort, the bill after add-ons and renewals, the way course data leaves, the vendor's independence, and the fit with the course you teach.
Vendors can pay for more visibility on this website, for example a higher place in a ranking or more room on a page. Commercial relationships can also affect which products we feature and how prominently. Every vendor link is marked the same, whatever the arrangement behind it. How that works.
In short
What wordpress LMS plugins software does
A WordPress LMS plugin adds courses, lessons, quizzes, enrolment and certificates to a WordPress site that the buyer hosts, with payments handled by built-in or separate checkout tools.
Our order comes from five tests, taken in turn: effort to set up, what you really pay, what happens to your data on the way out, how locked in you are, and the intended customer. On top of them sits one rule. The top three places are for challengers, which means vendors outside the big names, where the category has any, and the household brands come in from fourth place. The reasoning behind the five tests, and behind having no score out of ten, is set out on the how we work page.
Independently owned course plugin with a free core and site-tiered licences
Ranked #1 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingElsewhere
The Earth, Universe and Infinity tiers differ by active sites and support users: one, five and unlimited sites, with one, two and three support users. Payments run through third-party gateways, and Zapier links the plugin to more than 7,000 apps.
Sales, enrollment and student reports can be viewed and downloaded. An Infinity Lifetime option has no renewal payments, though the page read gives no price for it. Plan the grading workflow first.
What stands out
Independent owner
Open source add-ons
Tiered by sites
Where it costs you
Manual-grading assignments are described as coming soon, so marked coursework is not covered yet.
Prices shown carry a Black Friday code and renewals are at full price, so year two costs more than the headline.
Right for
Course sellers who want an independent vendor and a free core to start on
Wrong for
Teams needing tutor-graded assignments working on day one
Not stated by the vendorFree core plugin; annual paid plans by number of sites; lifetime plan listed; 30-day money-back guarantee
Courses, students, payments and memberships in one plugin, licensed by site count
Ranked #2 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Self-hostablePublished pricingElsewhere
Teacher covers two sites, Professor ten and Guru twenty-five, all with twelve months of support and updates. The Try before you buy demo lets a visitor view the admin, build a course and take it as a student.
A companion plugin, S3 Media Maestro, connects WordPress to Amazon S3 and CloudFront for protected video and audio delivery. Protecting video therefore means a second plugin and Amazon services to look after.
What stands out
Self-hosted
Annual licence
Built-in Stripe
Where it costs you
Only a demo is offered in place of a trial, so a real course has to be built on a paid licence.
After the first year the licence becomes a recurring cost, since new features and support depend on paying again.
Right for
Course sellers who want payments and memberships bundled into one licence
Wrong for
Buyers wanting to test with real students before paying
Not stated by the vendorPublished annual licences by number of sites; demo in place of a trial; 30-day money-back guarantee
Annual plans for one to 200 sites, with SCORM and H5P import
Ranked #3 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Published pricingNorth America
Plans run Individual, Business, Business Plus, Agency and Agency Plus, covering 1, 10, 25, 100 and 200 sites. The quiz builder offers more than ten question types with timers, attempt limits and pass marks.
Certificates carry a public verification ID. Selling works through WooCommerce, StoreEngine, SureCart or EDD, so checkout depends on a second plugin. An AppSumo bundle for 100 sites and a Kodezen lifetime bundle are also listed.
What stands out
SCORM and H5P
Certificate builder
Five site tiers
Where it costs you
No software licence is named on the pricing page, so the reuse terms are unclear.
Support and updates run for one year per plan, so the second year becomes a renewal decision.
Right for
Course sites needing SCORM or H5P content and several client site licences
Wrong for
Buyers who want a stated open-source licence before committing
United StatesPublished annual plans by site count, each including twelve months of support and updates; 14-day money-back guarantee
WordPress course plugin with a free Starter plan and published site-based tiers
Ranked #4 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingMiddle East
Plans are priced by site count: one, ten or unlimited, each with twelve months of updates, and the single-site tier adds priority ticket support. Starter ships one prebuilt website with community support in a Facebook group.
Subscriptions give recurring access to chosen courses, and assignments accept file uploads or essays. Lifetime billing appears as a toggle, yet no lifetime prices showed on the page read.
What stands out
Starter plan
Drip content
Zoom lessons
Where it costs you
The Starter plan covers one prebuilt website with community support only, so serious use needs a paid tier.
No hosting model or software licence is stated on the pricing page.
Right for
Sites that want drip release and Zoom lessons from one course plugin
Wrong for
Teams requiring a stated software licence and ticket support from day one
United Arab EmiratesFree Starter plan; published annual plans for one, ten or unlimited sites; 14-day money-back guarantee
Free core plugin extended through paid add-ons, with an optional hosted edition
Ranked #5 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingNorth America
Lessons can combine video, audio, text and images, and one question bank feeds several quizzes, which can be timed. Checkout works without student sign-up, or hands students to an external sales page.
Free add-ons cover student lists, prerequisite courses, reviews and wishlists, with EduPress as a free theme. LearnPress Cloud takes over hosting, updates and security with a trial of unspecified length. Gradebook, Assignments and Exam cost extra.
What stands out
Add-on pricing
Question bank
Cloud option
Where it costs you
Add-on prices did not appear on the pages read, so the full bill cannot be estimated up front.
No licence is stated on the pages read, so reuse terms for the core and add-ons are unconfirmed.
Right for
Builders who start on the free core and buy only the add-ons they need
Wrong for
Buyers who need one fixed annual price before starting
United StatesFree core and some free add-ons; paid add-ons and bundles with no prices on the pages read; hosted Cloud trial of unstated length
Three licence tiers, annual or lifetime, with native course checkout built in
Ranked #6 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Individual, Business and Agency cover one, ten and unlimited sites yearly, or one, ten and fifty sites as lifetime licences. Every paid plan lists unlimited courses and users, pro add-ons, AI Studio and priority support.
Named integrations include Google Meet, Zoom, WooCommerce, Paid Memberships Pro and BuddyPress. Native checkout handles subscriptions, memberships, orders and refunds without WooCommerce. A 15% discount applies to annual plans.
What stands out
Lifetime option
Content Bank
Native checkout
Where it costs you
Prices exclude VAT, so a buyer in a taxed jurisdiction pays above the headline.
Country and software licence are not stated on the pages read.
Right for
Sellers who prefer paying once for a lifetime licence across several sites
Wrong for
Buyers who need an independent, single-product vendor today
Not stated by the vendorFree core; published annual and lifetime plans by site count; 30-day money-back guarantee
Courses and lessons are unlimited, students can be enrolled by hand or enrol themselves, and courses may be free or paid. Teachers approve or reject assignment submissions, and certificates are assigned on completion.
Exams come through the Watu and WatuPRO plugins rather than a built-in quiz tool. Reports and Connect carry their own prices, while Bridges are small integration plugins at no charge. The home page shows only a 2026 copyright line, with no address.
What stands out
Open source core
Paid extensions
Watu exams
Where it costs you
The GitHub repository names two different licences, GPL-2.0 and MIT, so reuse terms are uncertain.
The Namaste PRO price is not shown on the home page, so the upgrade cost is unknown.
Right for
Small course sites wanting assignments and certificates on a plain plugin
Wrong for
Organisations that need a named legal entity and country
Not stated by the vendorFree core download; separate paid extensions with listed prices; Namaste PRO price not shown
Course theme sold on ThemeForest, with web and offline-capable mobile apps
Ranked #8 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Pricing on requestElsewhere
Live sessions connect to Zoom, BigBlueButton, Jitsi and Microsoft Meet, and video can come from S3, YouTube, Vimeo or HLS. Payments run through WooCommerce, EDD and a REST API that the site says covers more than 300 gateways.
Classes can be sold to companies as batches of course seats, and the apps are described as running without internet. Only demos are named for evaluation.
What stands out
Theme-based
Mobile apps
300+ gateways
Where it costs you
Pricing sits on the ThemeForest listing, so the vendor's own site cannot confirm what it costs.
Being sold as a theme ties the course system to the site design, which complicates a later switch.
Right for
Builders wanting live-class tools and mobile apps in one theme package
Wrong for
Buyers who want price and licence terms on the vendor's site
Not stated by the vendorSold through a ThemeForest listing; no prices on its own site; demos only
Native checkout through Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay and Mollie, with lifetime Elite tiers
Ranked #9 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Free tierPublished pricingElsewhere
Basic and Pro cover one site and Elite covers ten, with lifetime Elite offered for one or ten sites. The builder is drag and drop, with quizzes of nine or more question types, custom scoring and time limits.
Certificates are branded and verifiable. Students sync to Mailchimp, HubSpot, Brevo and MailerLite. Course, user and order data stays in the buyer's own hosting database, and dedicated hosting is recommended.
What stands out
Lifetime Elite
Mailchimp sync
Sandbox demo
Where it costs you
Renewals are charged at full price, so the discounted headline rate applies only to the first year.
Two owning companies are named but the privacy policy gives no legal entity or country.
Right for
Sellers wanting regional gateways such as Razorpay and Mollie plus email syncing
Wrong for
Buyers who want a single named vendor with a stated country
Not stated by the vendorFree core on WordPress.org; published yearly plans by site count plus lifetime Elite; renewals at full price
Automattic-owned course plugin with monthly or yearly pricing and WooCommerce selling
Ranked #10 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Free tierOpen sourcePublished pricingElsewhere
Four pricing steps appear: Sensei Free, Interactive Blocks, Sensei Pro for one site and Sensei Agency for up to twenty sites or one Multisite network, with a shared Slack channel.
Groups and cohorts, automated quiz feedback and content export and import with customisable course themes are listed. A done-for-you site build starts at 5,000 USD as a service with an account manager. Paid plans carry a 14-day refund guarantee, not a trial.
What stands out
Monthly billing
WooCommerce selling
Automattic-owned
Where it costs you
Sensei is not a video host, so video needs a separate service.
Selling runs through WooCommerce, which adds a second plugin to maintain.
Right for
Short projects that benefit from monthly billing and WooCommerce checkout
Wrong for
Buyers who rank independent vendors above WordPress-ecosystem owners
Not stated by the vendorFree Sensei plan; published monthly or yearly paid plans; 14-day refund guarantee; done-for-you build sold as a service
Per-site annual licences under Liquid Web, with a 48-hour trial
Ranked #11 of 11 in Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026.
Published pricingElsewhere
One site costs far less than one hundred, and every tier includes the same bundle of Give, The Events Calendar, LearnDash and Kadence. Quizzes offer eight question types, including essay, sorting and fill-in-the-blank.
Stripe and PayPal payments are built in, WooCommerce works alongside, and MemberDash memberships come included. ProPanel analytics appear in the Pro and Elite plans. The AI builder outlines a course from a topic.
What stands out
Liquid Web
Per-site licence
AI course builder
Where it costs you
The update and support period is not stated on the pricing page, so what a year of licence covers is unclear.
The trial lasts only 48 hours, which is short for building and testing a full course.
Right for
Established course businesses wanting quizzes, memberships and payments from one vendor
Wrong for
Buyers who put independent single-product vendors first
Not stated by the vendorPublished annual prices by site count up to 100 sites; 48-hour trial without a card
A WordPress LMS plugin adds courses, lessons, quizzes, enrolment and certificates to a WordPress site that the buyer hosts, with payments handled by built-in or separate checkout tools. Compare on the following points, in this order, before you compare features.
01
Decide whether you need a published price
The split is 10 published against 1 quoted. If you want to compare numbers first, start with LifterLMS, WP Courseware, Academy LMS, MasterStudy LMS, LearnPress, Tutor LMS, Namaste LMS, Masteriyo, Sensei LMS, LearnDash.
02
Weigh the vendor's home jurisdiction
Check the vendor's home market (Elsewhere 8, North America 2, Middle East 1), because that is where subpoenas and data requests arrive first, whatever region holds your files.
03
Decide if open source matters
Source code is available for LifterLMS, Namaste LMS, Sensei LMS. Running it yourself swaps the licence fee for your own upkeep.
Reading site-count licences on WordPress LMS plugins before you pick one
Nearly every product here is sold by the number of sites it may run on, so the first sum is how many sites you own. LifterLMS Earth covers one, Universe five, Infinity unlimited. Academy LMS stretches from one site to 200, WP Courseware from two to 25, and MasterStudy LMS offers one, ten or unlimited.
Tutor LMS lifetime Agency caps at 50 sites, which matters to an agency with many clients. Count the live site, any client sites and the site you will use for testing, then price the tier that covers them. A tier one step too small forces an upgrade mid-year, and a tier too large wastes budget on sites you do not run.
List every site that needs the plugin before reading a price table
Check whether the tier names support seats as LifterLMS does
Ask which site counts toward the licence when you stage a copy
Where the renewal and add-on bill hides in WordPress LMS plugin pricing
The headline price is seldom the second-year price. LifterLMS shows launch discounts and says renewals are at full price, and Masteriyo does the same. LearnPress sells Certificate, Gradebook, Assignments and Exam as separate add-ons, with no prices on the pages read, so its bill is built piece by piece. Academy LMS, Sensei LMS and Tutor LMS pair with WooCommerce or similar checkout plugins, which adds a second product to patch.
WP Courseware keeps working after the year ends, but updates and support stop. Write the year-one and year-two totals side by side, including every add-on you need, before shortlisting. A product that looks dearer on day one, such as one with native checkout, can end up cheaper than a free core surrounded by paid extras.
Compute year two at full renewal price, not the launch price
List add-ons you need for certificates, grading and checkout
Confirm whether your payment gateway needs another plugin
Leaving a WordPress LMS plugin: what stays in your database
Exit is easier here than with hosted course platforms, since the course data lives in your own WordPress database. Masteriyo says course, user and order data stays in the buyer's hosting database. Sensei LMS lists content export and import. WPLMS is sold as a theme, so leaving it means replacing the design as well as the course system.
Namaste LMS lives on GitHub, but its repository names GPL-2.0 and MIT, so read the LICENSE file before you build on it. Ask each vendor, too, what happens to your content when a licence lapses: WP Courseware keeps working after the year ends, while new releases and help end. LearnPress Cloud, the hosted option, shifts hosting to the vendor and changes what you can take away.
Test an export of one finished course before buying a large licence
Check whether a theme, not only a plugin, holds your layout
Read the licence file in the repository or the terms of sale
Matching a WordPress LMS plugin such as LearnDash or MasterStudy LMS to the course
Pick on the teaching format, not on the brand name or the price band. Tutor-marked coursework fits MasterStudy LMS, where assignments accept file uploads or essays, and Namaste LMS, where teachers approve or reject submissions. LifterLMS lists manual-grading assignments as coming soon. Live classes suit WPLMS with Zoom, BigBlueButton and Jitsi, or Tutor LMS with Google Meet and Zoom, since both name those tools on their pages.
SCORM and H5P content points to Academy LMS. LearnDash brings quizzes with eight question types and an AI outline builder. Write down your three weekly teaching tasks, then check each against the features the vendor itself names. Treat any task that no vendor page mentions as unsupported until a demo proves otherwise.
Check assignment grading against a real homework you plan to set
Test the live-class link you will actually use with students
Confirm the import format if you own SCORM or H5P files
What goes wrong most often when buying wordpress LMS plugins software
Buying a lifetime licence for the cheapest site count, then finding a second client site needs another purchase.
Treating the free core of LearnPress or Namaste LMS as the whole cost when certificates, grading and reports are extras.
Choosing a course theme such as WPLMS and discovering the design and the course system have to be swapped together.
Relying on a short trial, like the 48 hours at LearnDash, to judge a platform you will teach on for years.
07
Frequently asked questions
8 answers
What is the best wordpress LMS plugins in 2026?
LifterLMS leads our ranking of 11. LifterLMS leads this list because its about page says it is independently owned and operated, and it runs on your own WordPress site.
The core plugin costs nothing, paid plans step up by site count and support seats, and renewals return to full price after launch discounts. Assignments needing manual grading are listed as coming soon, so tutor-marked coursework is the gap.
Which wordpress LMS plugins tools publish their pricing?
10 of the 11, with the pricing model each one publishes:
LifterLMS: Free core plugin; annual paid plans by number of sites; lifetime plan listed; 30-day money-back guarantee.
WP Courseware: Published annual licences by number of sites; demo in place of a trial; 30-day money-back guarantee.
Academy LMS: Published annual plans by site count, each including twelve months of support and updates; 14-day money-back guarantee.
MasterStudy LMS: Free Starter plan; published annual plans for one, ten or unlimited sites; 14-day money-back guarantee.
LearnPress: Free core and some free add-ons; paid add-ons and bundles with no prices on the pages read; hosted Cloud trial of unstated length.
Tutor LMS: Free core; published annual and lifetime plans by site count; 30-day money-back guarantee.
Namaste LMS: Free core download; separate paid extensions with listed prices; Namaste PRO price not shown.
Masteriyo: Free core on WordPress.org; published yearly plans by site count plus lifetime Elite; renewals at full price.
Sensei LMS: Free Sensei plan; published monthly or yearly paid plans; 14-day refund guarantee; done-for-you build sold as a service.
LearnDash: Published annual prices by site count up to 100 sites; 48-hour trial without a card.
The remaining 1 sell by quote.
Is there a free wordpress LMS plugins tool?
LifterLMS, MasterStudy LMS, LearnPress, Tutor LMS, Namaste LMS, Masteriyo, Sensei LMS can be used for free, either as a free plan or a self-hosted edition.
Where are these wordpress LMS plugins vendors established?
The headquarters are spread over 3 countries and 3 regions, Elsewhere 8, North America 2, Middle East 1:
LifterLMS: Not stated by the vendor.
WP Courseware: Not stated by the vendor.
Academy LMS: United States.
MasterStudy LMS: United Arab Emirates.
LearnPress: United States.
Tutor LMS: Not stated by the vendor.
Namaste LMS: Not stated by the vendor.
WPLMS: Not stated by the vendor.
Masteriyo: Not stated by the vendor.
Sensei LMS: Not stated by the vendor.
LearnDash: Not stated by the vendor.
Which wordpress LMS plugins tools are open source?
LifterLMS, Namaste LMS, Sensei LMS.
Which wordpress LMS plugins tools can you host yourself?
WP Courseware, Namaste LMS. 9 products offer no self-hosted option.
What should you use instead of LifterLMS?
WP Courseware and Academy LMS are the next two on this page. WP Courseware is for Course sellers who want payments and memberships bundled into one licence; Academy LMS is for Course sites needing SCORM or H5P content and several client site licences.
Who should not buy LifterLMS?
Teams needing tutor-graded assignments working on day one. Manual-grading assignments are described as coming soon, so marked coursework is not covered yet..
This list covers 11 wordpress LMS plugins products. A product we left out can be put to us by its maker, with a short note on its purpose and its customers; we decide on inclusion ourselves. The rules are under software advice.
