LearnDash vs LearnPress (2020): An Extensive Comparison

WordPress LMS Plugins help course creators, and online entrepreneurs create, sell, and market courses directly on their WordPress website. In this article, I will cover the differences between LearnDash and LearnPress.

It is easy to be confused and overwhelmed with so many WordPress LMS and eLearning plugins.  I wrote this comparison guide to help you settle your doubts and clarify which platform to choose.

This unbiased LearnDash vs LearnPress comparison will discuss my experience and observations in creating online courses on both these platforms.

I will discuss the pricing model, support, integrations. And I will also be discussing the various course building features and student engagement features in both LearnDash and LearnPress.

After reading this extensive and unbiased comparison of LearnDash and LearnPress, you will have a clearer idea and know which WordPress LMS Plugin to use to build your online courses.

So, let’s get started.

What is LearnDash?

LearnDash is a popular and robust WordPress LMS Plugin founded by Justin Ferriman (CEO) and Kloé Ferriman (COO) in 2012.

LearnDash is updated and maintained by the LearnDash team based in Ann Arbor, USA. They have recently released LearnDash 3.0 with new improvements and features for their customers.

The minimum technical requirements for installing LearnDash are:

• PHP version — 7.3+ Memory-limit of 128 MB or higher.
• Database — MySQL version 5.6 OR MariaDB 10.1.
• HTTPS — required.

Who Uses LearnDash?

LearnDash is used by course creators, developers, and website owners who want to add online courses to their WordPress Website.

Business owners and Corporations can also find LearnDash helpful if they want to create a Learning Management System (LMS) for their workforce. LearnDash is also used by Educational Institutions (e.g., University of Florida, University of Washington) and Training Organizations.

The Best Features of LearnDash

• Unlimited Courses —  LearnDash allows you to create unlimited courses or lessons. You can also add and manage unlimited students or customers.

• Interactive and Engaging Courses — Make your courses more engaging by creating quizzes and assignments. It encourages student participation, and you can reward their performance by creating course certificates and badges.

• Student Communications and Notifications — Notify your students about their course enrollment, progress, quiz performance, or completion using LearnDash and other add-ons.

• Pricing Model —  Keep all of your course revenue and profits. Other LMS platforms may not give you that option as they charge additional transaction fees. Also, when selling your courses, you can provide your customers with options to purchase in a one-time payment or recurring payments. The built-in Paypal support allows you to start accepting payments as soon as you launch your course.

• Drag-and-Drop Course Builder —  Easily add new lessons, topics, sections, and quizzes all in one page. The course builder is very user-friendly.

• Mobile Accessibility  —  There is no need to create a dedicated iOS or Android app for your course. Your customers will be able to view and access their courses on their mobile devices.

• Content Dripping — Control how your customers can access your courses. They can access all lessons at once, or you can set a schedule for them. A free LearnDash Notifications add-on also allows you to notify them when the new lessons are available.

• Focus Mode (Distraction-free Learning) — As a course admin, you can hide specific lessons, remove unnecessary buttons or navigation bars. To make sure that your student only concentrates on the current lesson. It ensures a better focused-learning experience and a higher course completion rate.

• Video Content Hosting —  Embed videos to your lessons and topics seamlessly using a URL of any particular video. You can also upload a video to your WordPress media library and then embed the URL of that video. You also can play the video as soon as the page loads or use the video progression feature.

• Enhanced Reporting  —  Real-time reporting through a visual dashboard called ProPanel. Here you can view the number of students and courses, pending assignments, or essays. You can now proactively track and measure the success of your courses with this enhanced reporting feature.

• Integrations and Automations —  LearnDash has the most extensive integration library amongst all WordPress LMS Plugins (both free and paid). The Zapier integration allows you to connect to over 1500+ applications such as email marketing software, CRMs, accounting systems, etc.

• Lot’s of compatible themes — There are lot’s of different LearnDash themes available online to give you Learndash website extactly the look and feel you want.

• Free Astra Theme — LearnDash has a great relationship with Astra. Their relationship with Astra allows you to launch a course website right away. Once you use the Astra theme, you can automatically get a home page, course listing page, etc. The best part of it is that it’s free!

• Registration and Login Forms — The templated login and registration form, which you can still customize based on your brand colours. You can also upload a logo, and you don’t need to use another software to create a branded course login page.

Read my extensive and unbiased LearnDash Review,  for more information.

What is LearnPress?

LearnPress is a Learning Management System (LMS) software that allows you to create and sell courses online easily. It is also a WordPress plugin that is free-to-use and has add-ons you can purchase to improve your experience.

LearnPress is known to be designed for people who are new to LMS. The team behind LearnPress is Thimpress.

The minimum technical requirements for installing LearnPress are:

• PHP version — 7.0 or higher.
• WordPress Version: 3.8 or higher.

Who Uses LearnPress?

LearnPress is used by online course creators who are new to LMS and want to get started with simple but useful software.

The Best Features of LearnPress:

• Freemium Model —  Thimpress has expressed that LearnPress is “free to use, and always will be.” You can create a course with it and enhance your course/student experience by purchasing more add-ons.

• Unlimited Everything  — Create unlimited courses, quizzes, lessons. Enrol unlimited students and instructors using LearnPress.

• Drag-and-Drop Course Builder — If you have used WordPress before, then you won’t have a hard time using LearnPress. The course builder uses the familiar WordPress dashboard. You also don’t need any coding experience to use it.

• LearnPress Themes —  There are 179 Themes to choose from, designed for LMS and Education websites. Some of these themes are free, while others are premium (paid themes). Also, LearnPress is designed to work with all WordPress Themes.

• Forum Support (BuddyPress)  —  Communicate with your students or instructors via a WordPress Forum using BuddyPress integration. It helps create a more interactive learning community for your students.

• Content Prerequisite (Add-on)  —  Ideal for Educational institutions and Training Centres by providing control over which students can enrol in the course. The Prerequisite feature ensures that students need to pass specific requirements or finish other courses before enrolling in a particular course.

• Instructor Management (Add-on)  —  LearnPress Premium allows you to add unlimited instructors to your online school website. Manage your instructors, and also the payout/commissions for your instructors all in one platform.

• Subscription or Membership Programs (Add-on)  —  Create membership packages and subscription programs using LearnPress Pro. No need to install another WordPress Membership plugin/software.

• Enhanced Student Reporting —  The Gradebook add-on allows you to view reporting on individual courses (enrolled students, completion rate, grades,etc.). You can also export the reports into a *.csv file.

To read the extensive and unbiased LearnPress Review,  click here.

LearnDash vs LearnPress — Summary of Differences

Let’s review the differences between LearnPress and LearnDash:

Pricing Model — LearnDash vs LearnPress

I have created different tables below to detail the pricing models of LearnDash and LifterLMS.

LearnDash Pricing Model

Refund Policy — If you purchase and decide within 30-days that LearnDash isn’t the right fit for your project, you can contact their support team to get a reimbursement.

LearnPress Pricing Model

For a brief list of add-ons (free and premium), please see the LearnPress Integrations list below.

Support — LearnDash vs LearnPress

Here I will discuss the support options, support hours, knowledgebase, training, and tutorials (if any) of both LearnDash and LearnPress.

LearnDash Support

LearnDash Support is a knowledgebase page where a search bar is available to look up different topics to help you get started or troubleshoot problems with LearnDash.

If you can’t find any answers in any of their articles, you can also send them a ticket. Their live support team is available from Monday to Friday, from 7 am to 4 pm EST.

LearnDash does not currently offer phone or live chat support.

LearnDash also has a dedicated and active Facebook Group (nearly 100,000 members) exclusively for LearnDash customers.

LearnPress Support

LearnPress is managed and developed by ThimPress, so you will have to contact them for support. However, you won’t get direct support using their contact us page since the contact form isn’t for support inquiries.

Instead, you will have to go to their support forums which were slightly confusing for me. Luckily, I found another support page for LearnPress in one of their documentation pages.

You can send them an email to hi@thimpress.com or use their contact form to send an email.

Integrations — LearnDash vs LearnPress

Here, I will discuss how the depth of integrations (extensions, add-ons) both platforms (LearnDash and LearnPress) provide to their customers.

LearnDash Integrations

LearnDash has an extensive network of extensions, add-ons, and integrations.

• eCommerce — WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, CartFlows, Upsell Plugin.
• Payment Gateways — Stripe, SamCart, 2Checkout, Square, PayPal.
• Email Marketing — MailChimp, ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, InfusionSoft (Keap).
• CRM — HubSpot, Salesforce, Zapier, WPFusion.
• LMS — LearnDash, WP Fusion, Gravity Press, WP HelpDesk.
• Forums — BuddyPress, bbPress, Slack, PeepSo.
• Membership — MemberPress, Memberium, ActiveMember360, Memberful, iMember360, Groundhogg, Paid Memberships Pro, Restrict Content Pro.
• Gamification — BadgeOS, GamiPress, MyCred, WPAchievements.
• Design Customization — DesignUpgrade, Visual Customizer, BeaverBash.
• Mobile Apps — AppPresser, WisdmApp, learnerApp.
• Forms or Landing Pages — Gravity Forms.

Aside from the free integrations above, 3rd Party Plugins are created and managed by other companies you can use.

LearnPress Integrations

LearnPress also has some extensions, add-ons, and integrations. Some add-ons are free,  while others require an individual purchase.

• LearnPress Wishlist — Enable a course wishlist where students can add courses.
• LearnPress Course Review — Students can review the course they have taken.
• LearnPress Import/Export — Option to import/export courses.
• LearnPress Prerequisites Courses — Require students to pass some courses before moving on to another.
• LearnPress bbPress Integration — bbPress Forum support for LearnPress WordPress LMS Plugin.
• LearnPress BuddyPress Integration — BuddyPress support for LearnPress WordPress LMS Plugin.
• LearnPress Offline Payment — Manually create orders for offline payment.
• LearnPress Fill In Blank — Fill in Blank question type for LearnPress WordPress LMS Plugin.
• eCommerce — WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, CartFlows, Upsell Plugin.
• Payment Gateways — Stripe, PayPal,2Checkout, Authorize.Net.

Unfortunately, LearnPress does not direct integrations with Marketing automation software, CRMs,etc., nor does it offer a Zapier integration.

Building a Course — LearnDash vs LearnPress

Here, I will discuss the steps in building a course using both LearnDash and. LearnPress.

Building a Course On LearnDash

Once you have purchased and installed one of the three packages (Basic, Plus, or Pro), you can start building your online courses on LearnDash.

Under the ‘LearnDash LMS’, you can click on ‘Courses’ to view all your existing courses.

To create a new course, click on the ‘Add New’ button. The course editor is almost similar to creating and editing any WordPress post or page.

On the same page when you scroll down, there are different settings that you can change, such as:

• Course Short Description.
• Course Materials.
• Course Price Type.
• Course Access List.
• Sort Lesson By Option.
• Sort Lesson Direction Option.
• Enable Course Prerequisites.
• Enable Course Points.
• Disable Lesson Progression.
• Expire Access.
• Hide Course Content Table.
• Associated Certificate Option.

The LearnDash course builder has some existing lessons, topics, and quizzes you can use, but you can also create one from scratch.

To do that, just click on the ‘plus’ sign (+) on each section.

After that, you can click on each tab to select and then drag and drop them to the right side.

This works the same for the topics and quizzes.

Hint — ‘Lessons’ are the main topics, while ‘Topics’ are sub-topics.

If you hover on a section and click the ‘pencil’ icon, you can create the content for your lesson, topic, or quiz.

Each section will open another editor for you to build and save your content.

Below is a sample preview of a course that is made using LearnDash 3.0.

The Header tells potential students the details of the course, as well as the price to enrol.

When your potential students scroll down, they can see the different sections of lessons and topics you created.

There are progress bars for both the entire course and a particular topic to help students know how much they have completed.

Building a Course On LearnPress

You can install the LearnPress Plugin from the WordPress Directory (here) or from within your WordPress Dashboard.

Once installed and activated, click on ‘LearnPress’> ‘Courses’ and click on the ‘Add New’ button.

You will then be taken to the course builder.

(Image from ThimPress)

When creating a new course, you will see additional settings and customization options, such as:

• Course Title — Add/Edit the course title and the permalink (URL).
• Course Description — Add/Edit all the introductory details about your course.
• Course Curriculum — Set up all the course lessons, quizzes, etc.
• Course Settings — Set the pricing, duration, how the course will be assessed, etc.

On the right side of the course editor page, you will see some basic settings:

• Course Publishing information — Enables you to edit course visibility settings.
• Course Category.
• Course Tags.
• Course Featured Image.

Once you have familiarized yourself with the course builder settings, it’s time to create a course. To do that, hover over to the ‘Curriculum’ section and write a section name and press ‘Enter/Return’.

After that, you can see the option to add a course lesson. Simply type the lesson name on the ‘Create a new lesson’ field.

(Image from ThimPress)

Once a lesson is created and assigned to a course, there are different options to do with it:

• Drag and drop the lesson to change its position.
• Rename the Lesson.
• Make it previewable.
• Edit.
• Remove or unassign it from the course.

You can edit its contents by clicking on the ‘pen’ button. You will be redirected to a new page where you can add more content to your lesson.

In the Lesson Editor page, some settings can help you create your lesson:

• Lesson Duration — Set the amount of time the students should complete the lesson.
• Preview Lesson — Enable preview or not.
• Media — Add a photo, video, pdf, etc.

Once you have added all your course details (lessons, quizzes,etc.), you can always preview your course by clicking on the “Preview Changes” button.

Student Engagement — LearnDash vs LearnPress

Here, I will discuss how LearnDash and LifterLMS allow you to engage with your students through quizzes, certificates, and assignments.

LearnDash Student Engagement Features

a.   Creating Quizzes on LearnDash

LearnDash allows you to test your students’ familiarity or comprehension of a specific lesson by creating quizzes.

To add a quiz, simply click on the ‘Quizzes’ option under the LearnDash LMS dashboard. You can create questions for each lesson using the Quiz Builder, which also uses a visual editor.

There are lots of options to choose the type of response that students can provide such as:

• Single Choice.
• Multiple Choice.
• Free Choice.
• Sorting Choice.
• Matrix Sorting Choice.
• Fill in the Blank.
• Assessment (survey).
• Essay (open answer).

Here are more quiz options that you can modify:

• Passing Score — Set a score for which students have to complete the lesson.
• Restrict Quiz Takes — Set the number of attempts that a student can take the quiz.
• Time Limit — Set the duration of the quiz.
• Auto Start — Set the quiz to automatically start as soon as the lesson is done.
• Result Messages — Reveal quiz scores.
• Quiz Statistics — Option to show the overall student scores and other details.
• Email Notifications — Choose how the quiz scores are emailed.

Apart from quizzes, you can also award certificates or badges to students for their performance.

b.   Creating Certificates on LearnDash

You can associate your new certificate to a quiz. There’s also an option to automatically issue a certificate to a student who reaches a passing score.

To create a certificate:

1. Under ‘LearnDash LMS’, click on ‘Certificates’.
2. Click on ‘Add New’.

Creating Assignments on LearnDash

LearnDash also allows you to create optional assignments for your students. They are a great way to check and assess your students’ understanding/comprehension of the course lessons. Assignments are extremely valuable for educational institutions and training organizations. 

Students can submit their assignments via an MS Word document, excel file, or a PDF.

You, as the instructor, can also assign grading or points for the student assignments.

Image Source: LearnDash Support (Enable Assignments)

LearnPress Student Engagement Features

In LearnPress, you can create a quiz for free, but some question types need to be purchased as an add-on. You can also create a certificate if you purchase an add-on.

Creating Quizzes on LearnPress

First, go to ‘LearnPress’ on your WP dashboard and select ‘Quizzes’. Click on the ‘New Quiz’ button.

You will be taken to the quiz editor to add a title for your quiz, put a description, and add your questions.

Aside from that, there are also General Settings that you can modify, such as quiz duration, a passing grade, and hints.

Once you add a quiz question, the default question type is ‘True/False’. Also, you can change it to a ‘MultiChoice or ‘Single Choice’ question.

After that, you only have to assign the quiz to a course.

Creating Certificates on LearnPress

To create a certificate on LearnPress, you have to install the ‘Certificates’ add-on ($29.99).

(Image Source: ThimPress (Certificates add-ons for LearnPress)

Once you have downloaded and installed the add-on, you can go to ‘LearnPress’ and select ‘Certificates’.

(Image Source: ThimPress (Certificates add-ons for LearnPress)

You can create a certificate from scratch by clicking on the ‘Add New’ button or import an existing certificate.

(Image Source: ThimPress (Certificates add-ons for LearnPress)

From there, you can edit your certificate from the margins, font style, template, and more. Once you are done, you can just assign the certificate to a course.

Selling Online Courses — LearnDash vs LearnPress

Here, I will discuss the eCommerce features (sales and checkout page, payment gateways, and coupons) of LearnDash and LearnPress.

Selling Online Courses Using LearnDash

There are many ways to sell your courses with LearnDash, such as using plugins like WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, Stripe, 2Checkout, SamCart.

Here, I will discuss how to use WooCommerce for LearnDash plugin, a free add-on, which:

• Works with most WordPress themes.
• Supports multiple course bundles.
• Works with any payment gateway.
• Automatically removes users from courses if they cancelled their subscription.

There are two ways to install WooCommerce, but we’ll do it via the ‘add-ons’ option. Here are the steps:

1. In your WordPress admin area, navigate to LEARNDASH LMS > ADD-ONS.
2. Locate the WooCommerce for LearnDash add-on.
3. Click ‘Install Now’.
4. Click the ‘Activate Plugin’ button.

If you are new to WooCommerce, you can view their guide.

Here are the steps to create a product & assign your course:

1. Navigate to PRODUCTS > ADD NEW.
2. Fill in the appropriate information for your product.
3. Scroll down to the ‘Product data’ section
4. Next to the Simple Product dropdown menu, check the box for ‘Virtual’.
5. Open the ‘Simple Product’ dropdown menu and choose ‘Course’.
6. Next to ‘Related Courses’, click on the course you’d like to associate with this product.
7. Be sure to publish or update your product when you’re finished.

If your product is set up in WooCommerce, you’ll need to make a few adjustments to your LearnDash course.

1. Head over to LEARNDASH LMS > COURSES.
2. Click on the course that corresponds with a WooCommerce product.
3. Click the Settings tab at the top.
4. Under Course Access Settings, look for Access Mode and set this to ‘Closed’.
5. In the ‘Button URL’ field, enter the URL to your WooCommerce product page.

There are no current options to sell coupons or bundles directly via LearnDash. You will have to set it up through the WooCommerce plugin.

Selling Online Courses Using LearnPress

You can also purchase and install an add-on such as WooCommerce for your e-Commerce needs in LearnPress.

Apart from that, LearnPress has also developed the Paid Membership Pro add-on, which creates subscriptions for your course. This ensures better management of learning and budget needs.

If you selected the education WordPress themes, Paid Membership Pro for LearnPress is included in the package. If not, you can purchase it as an add-on for $39.99.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

To install Paid Membership Pro:

1. Go to your WordPress dashboard and click ‘Plugin’.
2. Click on ‘Add new’.
3. Search for Paid Membership Pro, and install the plugin.

The first thing to do after the installation is to create membership plans. To do that, simply go to ‘Memberships’ then select ‘Membership Levels’.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

Next, you will be taken to a page where you can add a membership level. You can click on ‘Add New Level’ to get started.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

From there, you can have a free or premium plan. You can fill in the names and the details of your plan from the ‘Add New Membership Level’ page.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

There are a couple of options that you need to modify:

• Billing Details — Set how much your students have to pay or if the course is free. You can also set a recurring subscription amount.
• Membership Expiration — Set if there’s an expiration for the membership or not.

Once you are done, simply click the ‘Save Level’ button.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

After that, you can set up your membership pages.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

Simply click on the ‘Set up the membership pages’ link. From there, you will see a list of pages that you need to modify.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

You can let the plugin do the hard work by clicking the ‘click here to let us generate them for you’ link. After that, just click on ‘Save Settings’.

After that, you need to activate the LearnPress Paid Membership Pro add-on:

• Go to ‘LearnPress’ on your ‘WordPress’ dashboard.
• Go to ‘Settings’ and click on the ‘Memberships’ tab.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

The last thing to do is assign the course to a membership. Simply go to a course’s setting, and choose the course memberships tab to select the membership level.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

Below is an example preview of how your student/s will see the pricing.

Image Source:  ThimPress (LearnPress Documentation)

Course Marketing Features — LearnDash vs LearnPress

Here I will explore if and how LearnDash and LearnPress can create landing pages, build marketing funnels, or integrate with other software to market your courses.

LearnDash Course Marketing Features

Once you have your courses created, there is a plugin called Upsell. This plugin integrates directly with LearnDash and gives us the ability to offer to sell our courses as subscriptions and instalment plans.

The plugin handles everything for you, such as removing students, if they cancel a subscription or if their payment method fails.

LearnDash also integrates with many popular Marketing Automation Platforms (free and paid add-ons). Using Zapier integration, you can connect with other marketing platforms.

LearnPress Course Marketing Features

Unfortunately, I didn’t see any course marketing feature for LearnPress.

Final Thoughts — LearnDash vs LearnPress: Which one is right for you?

Both WordPress LMS plugins (LearnDash and LearnPress) can help support every online course creator’s basic needs using WordPress.

If you are interested in learning more in-depth about both these platforms, then:

Recommended Reading — LearnDash Review

Recommended Reading  — LearnPress Review

Now that you have read this detailed breakdown, how do you decide which software to pick? Are you still confused?

Here’s a summary of the areas where LearnPress excels over LearnDash:

• Easier Ramp up  — Requires less technical knowledge to create a course since it uses a familiar WordPress-style UI. You don’t need additional technical help to design, create, and sell courses.
• Freemium Pricing Model — The plugin can be used for free, and you can even create and run courses with it.
• LMS Themes — Your WordPress theme is an integral part of your website. Both LearnPress Free and LearnPress Pro Bundle work with most WordPress themes. If you are building an online school from scratch, you can save upfront costs using the LearnPress Theme Bundle, including an LMS theme and LearnPress.
• Instructors Features — Add unlimited instructors, and enable co-instructors to teach classes. Also, control the commissions and payouts for instructors (requires add-ons.

Here’s a quick summary of the areas where LearnDash excels over LearnPress:

• Course Builder — More intuitive drag-and-drop course builder to effortlessly build courses, quizzes, etc.
• Full-blown LMS (all-included). — A simple pricing model that includes all features (course builder, quizzes, assignments). You are only paying for the add-ons.
• Depth of Integrations and Add-ons — Plenty of free add-ons and cost-effective premium add-ons (average pricing of $39).
• Advanced Quizzes — All quiz types and assignments are included in all plans.
• Enhanced Reporting — Extensive reporting included in the Pro Panel feature.
• Support — LearnDash has a better support system, extensive knowledge base, and tutorials.

The platform you choose will depend on your budget, technical knowledge, software suite, etc.

If you’re just starting to create courses, you might want to try LearnPress since it’s free to use, and you have options to purchase add-ons to enhance your experience.

Suppose your online school creates courses with multiple instructors/co-instructors, and you also want to help them monetize their courses. In that case, LearnPress is an excellent option.

However, if you’re looking for a hassle-free, complete package with an extensive array of integrations and add-ons. You might want to use LearnDash.

I hope that this LearnDash vs LearnPress comparison has provided you with the confidence to choose the platform that’s best suited for your online course business. Did I miss anything in this comparison guide? Let me know in the comments below.