LearnDash Review: The Best Learning WordPress Plugin in 2024?

It’s 2024, and everywhere I look, there’s someone creating courses for their audience. And I should know, we have one.

Let’s face it: online education is the way forward, and everyone's looking for the next big thing in course creation. So, here's the million-dollar question: Is it worth sticking with the tried-and-tested platforms like Udemy or…

Is LearnDash ready to take the next step and emerge as the strongest contender?

Let’s answer that question and dive deep into the world of LearnDash. I’ve created my very own web development course and had it posted through LearnDash on my own website, and I’ve loved it. It was even a little overkill for what I needed because it was just super extensive.

Here’s my thoughts on its pros and cons to hopefully help you decide if it's the right fit for your digital classroom. Whether you're a blogger, a business owner, or an academic institution, this review's got you covered.

What is LearnDash?

As bloggers, one of the things that we’re passionate about is imparting knowledge.

But writing about a topic is one thing — actually creating a course is a completely different beast. That’s where LearnDash comes in.

LearnDash is a popular (or at least, it’s poised to be) learning management system plugin for WordPress websites. It's designed to help you create, manage, and sell online courses directly through your WordPress site. LearnDash stands out in the crowded e-learning market by offering a robust set of features that cater to both course creators and learners.

Think about this way: with LearnDash, you can turn your blog (or parts of it) into a full-fledged learning platform. It gives you all the tools you need for course creation, student engagement, progress tracking, and even monetization. At its core, LearnDash aims to simplify the process of sharing knowledge.

Who is LearnDash For?

LearnDash is an excellent choice for instructors, course creators, and bloggers who want to share their expertise without the hassle of coding or complex technical setups. Schools and universities (especially ones who don’t want to go the traditional route and use Canvas) can also use LearnDash to create student courses, complete with assessments and certificates.

There’s also value to be found in LearnDash for onboarding and employee training. The platform's group management features make it easy to organize and track learning within teams. 

LearnDash Features

Course Builder

An LMS is incomplete without course creation — and LearnDash is no exception.

LearnDash's Course Builder is designed to make building your online courses as simple as possible. The drag-and-drop course builder lets you structure your content visually, without any coding required. You can easily organize your course into lessons, topics, and quizzes — making it easy not just for you, but also for learners.

LearnDash also comes with a Course Dashboard that gives you a general overview of your students’ progress.

You can view courses either as a list or as a grid that they can filter through keywords, categories, tags, and price — a feature that’s useful if you have tons of courses available on your site.

Here’s a preview of our course built with LearnDash:

Students can also access a discussion post (think of comment sections) that serves as an area for discourse and collaboration.

Quiz Builder

I know we all hated taking quizzes as a student, but they’re important to gauge our understanding of a topic. LearnDash knows this too well.

One of my favorite things about LearnDash is how advanced its quizzing system is. It supports different question types, including multiple choice, essay, and fill-in-the-blank. You can randomize questions, set time limits, and even use question banks to create dynamic assessments. 

Oh, and did I mention that it has a Quiz AI Builder for when you’re out of time and in need of an assessment? Yep, using the power of OpenAI’s GPT API, you can automate creating and grading quizzes with LearnDash.

Style Customizer

Aesthetics play an important part in keeping your students engaged. After all, who wants to learn using a cluttered interface?

LearnDash’s Style Customizer allows you to tailor the look and feel of your courses without needing to write any code. This feature is accessible through the WordPress Customizer, making it easy for users of all technical levels (yes, even those who haven’t coded a day in their life) to create visually appealing course pages.

With the Style Customizer, you can modify various elements of your LearnDash pages, including:

• Global Styles: Customize complete and in-progress status colors, button styles, and content header appearances.
• Course Pages: Adjust progress bar colors, lesson status indicators, and expand/collapse button styles.
• Lesson and Topic Pages: Modify quiz icons, content action buttons, and navigation button colors.
• Quiz Pages: Customize breadcrumb links and start quiz button appearances.

User Management

LearnDash also provides robust user management tools. You can easily enroll (and even unenroll) users, organize them into groups, and assign different user roles (like student, group leader, or admin). You can also group students by batch, role, and enrolled courses. 

And if you’ve ever felt like you’re herding unruly cats, you can say hello to LearnDash's User Groups feature — your new best friend. This feature lets you corral your learners into organized packs. Think of it as your virtual classrooms or team huddles. You can assign a Group Leader who can keep an eagle eye on the progress and performance of every group member.

Integrations

If we’re talking accessibility, LearnDash also has you covered. Chances are, if you’re a WordPress veteran, you’re already using different tools — that’s why LearnDash offers many integrations to ensure that you can use them alongside their platform.

Some of their key integrations include:

• WooCommerce: Seamlessly sell your courses through this popular e-commerce platform.
• Stripe Connect: Easily process payments for your courses.
• Easy Digital Downloads: Another option for selling digital products, including courses.
• MemberPress: Enhance membership functionality and content access control.
• Zapier: Connect LearnDash with thousands of other apps and automate workflows.
• Course Grid: Display your courses in an attractive grid layout.
• Elementor: Create custom course layouts using this popular page builder.
• bbPress: Add discussion forums to your courses for increased student interaction.
• Gravity Forms: Create advanced forms that integrate with your courses.
• The Events Calendar: Synchronize course events with a calendar system.

LearnDash Pros and Cons

How Much Does LearnDash Cost?

LearnDash offers several pricing options to suit different needs and budgets. Here's an overview of their main plans and add-ons:

Core Plans

• LearnDash LMS: Starts at $119 per year — This is the standard plan for installing LearnDash on your WordPress site. It includes all core features like the course builder, quizzes, and assignments.
• LearnDash Cloud: Starts at $29 per month — A hosted solution that includes WordPress hosting and LearnDash pre-installed.
• MemberDash: Starts at $119 per year — Designed for membership sites, this plan includes content protection features.

Add-ons

LearnDash also offers several add-ons to enhance functionality:

• Groups Plus: Starts at $49 per year
• Instructor Role: $80 per year
• ProPanel: Starts at $49 per year
• Gradebook: Starts at $49 per year
• Notes: Starts at $49 per year
• Group Registration: $80 per year
• Activity Reporting & Essays: $120 per year

And don’t worry about trying some of these out. All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

The Bottom Line

Let’s go back to the title: is LearnDash the best learning WordPress plugin in 2024? Well, and I know I’m giving a cop-out answer, it depends on who you ask. 

Usability? Check. Integration with other plugins? Check. Sheer amount of features? Check, check, check.

So, for what it’s worth, I’m inclined to say yes. WordPress enthusiasts who want to create courses without leaving their beloved platform will find LearnDash to be a great addition. It's packed with powerful tools, plays nice with other plugins, and gives you the flexibility to create courses your way.

LearnDash shines brightest for those who are comfortable with WordPress and crave control over creating courses. It's more than just a plugin — it's a pathway to turning your expertise into engaging, profitable courses.

I also love that it’s student-forward. You can tell that the course and quiz builder is created with students in mind. With its features, you can easily gamify learning — you can even create a leaderboard to promote competition with your subscribers (a healthy one, I hope).

Okay, class dismissed — or is it? If you’re looking to learn more about learning (that sounded weird), you can check out this article. Have fun!