Final Verdict
After 6 gruelling rounds of intense scrutiny and analysis, the stage is all set to crown a winner. The undisputed champion of all things LMS on WordPress.
But do we really have a definitive winner?
Here’s the thing: determining the best WordPress LMS is analogous to determining the greatest fighter of our times; it is then you realize that it’s not just about fighting as a sport but more about the type of fighting that’s in question. So while Muhammad Ali may very well be the greatest boxer of all time, one can’t really pit him against martial arts maestro Bruce Lee and hope to decide on a winner.
Along those lines, each plugin considered for this guide has its own list of pros and cons, and is naturally better suited than the others to perform a specific set of tasks in the elearning space. LearnDash may have the most feature rich offerings on the table, but it’s also bogged down with its own complexity and hence may not be as easy to use as LifterLMS or as quick to set up as WP Courseware.
Here’s how we at WisdmLabs look at the bigger picture:
If You’re Looking For A QUICK Start
You want something that’s quick, easy-to-use and is low on the learning curve. To that end, WP Courseware is your best bet!
With WP Courseware, setting up a course is just a matter of minutes, provided you have the content ready at hand. It’s scalable enough to cater to a mid sized user base of several hundreds, and has all the essential LMS features to power a decently large number of courses. It has a strong quizzing module, and reporting is just enough to suffice for someone starting out with a rudimentary elearning site. Throw in a great collection of integrations with all major ecommerce and membership plugins and we’re all set for business.
WP Courseware also has a great documentation, complete with tutorial videos housed right within the plugin and a driven and dedicated support team that’s very responsive to queries and support requests. It actively updates its continually growing feature set (update: it now supports instructor roles!). Being one of the oldest players in this space, it has a fairly large user base that swears by the plugin. Give or take a few features, WPCW is definitely a force to reckon with!
If You’re Amongst The LMS-Savvy
Have had run-ins with learning management systems before? Looking to migrate to a more robust and feature-rich solution on WordPress? Settle for LearnDash with both eyes closed, for no other plugin will offer you as many features right out of the box, as is evident in all our comparison tables.
Multiple options to create content, an exceptionally powerful quizzing module, a large number of feature extensions and add-ons, integrations with multiple ecommerce and membership plugins, Tin-Can compatibilty, and a great support team. It is so scalable that it is being currently used to power the elearning domains of entire universities. Â Need we say more?
LearnDash is also quite the developer friendly plugin when it comes to customizations. The code is clean and well structured, and has a sufficient number of hooks and filters to build your own features and functionality into the plugin.
Why is not simply the best? Because, mind you, all this comes at a cost; that long list of features comes with a learning curve, so you’re gonna have to spend at least sometime finding your way amidst all the checkboxes, drop downs and radio buttons before you get accustomed to it all. And while a few of the extensions do come free of cost, the most useful ones are premium, and will have you investing dollars in multiple license renewals and further customizations.
If All You Need Is A Few Courses & A Way To Sell Them
Sensei! While WooThemes’ answer to elearning on WordPress may not be the most feature rich or user friendly of the lot, what it does best is cater to all the basic features of an LMS and seamlessly monetize any content that you create. All you would need is a working copy of WooCommerce.
Sensei lacks some of the more obvious features that ought to be present in an LMS, so we recommend thoroughly through the feature list and documentation before settling for Sensei as your choice of elearning weapon! It does have a nice list of add ons and extensions, we suggest you take a look at that too.
This one’s strictly recommended for ardent fans of WooThemes and WooCommerce!
And If You’re STILL Undecided
This should be a no-brainer. LifterLMS is the natural go-to if you still cannot fix in on any one of the others, simply because the base plugin is absolutely FREE! It’s a great option to test out your requirements and get feedback so as to more elaborately chart your demands, see if you need something more comprehensive. And once you’re there, you can always come back to this guide for further reading!
Not to imply that LifterLMS is not a good LMS plugin. If fact it’s actually pretty great, no other plugin boasts of a elearning, ecommerce and user engagement modules all merged in a one single zip file! LifterLMS is extremely easy to configure for users who’re not high on technical skillsets. One look at the fancy Dashboard you’ll know exactly where to start out with courses, manage users, and track analytics. What it lacks in functional integrations and add ons, it makes up with it’s own memberships and ecommerce module, which one can use to set up the commercial end of things right out of the box. Being new to the arena, LifterLMS has great potential to emerge as a game changer, with its vision to create an elearning community.
Watch out this space for more!