LearnDash vs LifterLMS (2020): A Complete Comparison

Introduction

WordPress LMS software such as LearnDash and LifterLMS help create, deliver, administrate, document, track, report, automate, and sell online courses to your students.

What makes WordPress LMS Plugin so effective?

How do you know which to pick when building your online course business?

What features to look for when choosing the right platform?

It is easy to be confused and overwhelmed with so many options around.

I wrote this comparison guide to answer those questions and give you clarity on which platform to choose.

This unbiased LearnDash vs LifterLMS 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 LifterLMS.

After reading this extensive and unbiased comparison of LearnDash and LifterLMS, 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, which means it only works on WordPress websites. If you are using other Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wix or Magento, then LearnDash may not be suitable for you.

LearnDash was founded by Justin Ferriman (CEO) and Kloé Ferriman (COO) in 2012.

The plugin 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  —  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 and remove unnecessary buttons or navigation bars. All 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 have options to play the video as soon as the page loads or use the video progression feature. This feature can be used to ensure that the entire video is watched before a lesson is marked as complete.

•  ProPanel (Enhanced Reporting)  —  Real-time reporting through a visual dashboard. 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.

• Automation —  The Zapier integration allows you to connect to over 1500+ applications such as email marketing software, CRMs, accounting systems, etc. You can create different triggers, such as automatically adding a student’s email to your mailing list when they enrol in a course.

• Free Astra Theme — LearnDash isn’t compatible with every WordPress theme. Still, 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 — The templated login and registration form, which you can still customize based on your brand colour/s. You can also upload a logo, and you don’t need to use another plugin/software.

Read my extensive and unbiased LearnDash review here.

What is LifterLMS?

LifterLMS is a WordPress LMS software born out of the merging of two companies: Badgett Media and codeBOX. The companywas founded by Chris Badgett (CEO) and Thomas Levy (CTO) on June 15, 2014.

LifterLMS is a WordPress LMS Plugin that helps you create and deliver online courses — complete with lessons, assignments, and quizzes.

The minimum technical requirements for installing LifterLMS are:

• WordPress version — 5.1 or higher.
• PHP version — 7.2 or higher.
• Database — MariaDB 10.0 or higher, OR MySQL 5.6 or higher.
• Server Modules — Nginx or Apache with mod_rewrite module.

Who Uses LifterLMS?

LifterLMS is used by different groups and organizations such as artists, entrepreneurs, non-profit organizations, religious organizations, online schools, professional training companies, or anyone who wants to create and sell online courses.

The Best Features of LifterLMS:

• Drag-and-Drop Course Builder — The course builder is simple to use (even if you aren’t a developer). You will have a much easier time using the LifterLMS course builder compared to most LMS.

• Student Engagement Features — Create quizzes, assignments, certificates, or badges to promote engagement and discussion between you and your students.

• Knowledgebase and Resources — LifterLMS has tons of resources that can help those that are new to their application. They have scheduled webinars, demo tutorials, as well as extensive articles.

• Reporting — Detailed reporting on your online school or individual courses’ performance can be accessed on your WordPress dashboard.

• Payment Methods — Flexibility in pricing and selling your courses. You can offer free courses, one-time payments, or recurring payments.

• Content Protection — Automatically protect all your content. Only students who have enrolled in your courses can view your content by default. You don’t need an additional plugin to protect your content.

• Content Dripping — You can choose whether to drip content on a specific date or automate it based on your student’s enrollments or progress.

For more information on LifterLMS, read my extensive and unbiased LifterLMS Review here.

LearnDash and LifterLMS —Summary of Differences

Let’s review the differences between LifterLMS and LearnDash:

Pricing Model — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

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

LearnDash Pricing Model

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

LifterLMS Pricing Model

If for any reason, you are not happy with their product or service, you can contact their support team within 30 days of your purchase. You will immediately get a refund of 100% of your money as part of their money-back success guarantee.

LifterLMS also offers a 30-day demo for $1 where you get full access to the platform. This gives you sufficient time to test the entire platform and know for sure if it is the best fit for you.

Building a Course — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

Here, we will discuss the steps in building a course using both LearnDash vs LifterLMS.

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 clean and crisp 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 LifterLMS

Once you have purchased a plan from LifterLMS, you can proceed to install, activate, and configure your LifterLMS account on your WordPress dashboard.

The LifterLMS dashboard is noticeable once you return to your WordPress Admin Dashboard.

You can click on ‘Settings’ to further personalize the plugin. Once you’re ready to create a course, you can go to your WordPress Dashboard and open ‘Courses’ under Lifter LMS.

Click on the ‘Add Course’ button to start using the course builder.

The course editor of LifterLMS looks like a block editor that you might have seen in many popular page builders (Gutenberg, Elementor, DIVI, etc.).

When you scroll down, you can see different sections for customization for this particular course.

• Course Options — Edit the sales page content, general settings, restrictions, or enable reviews.
• Access Plans — Edit the subscription plans for your course.
• Student Management — Find the list of all the enrolled students, or manually enrol a student.
• Wishlist Member: Protection and Access.

Additional course settings can be found when you click on the ‘gear’ icon.

To start adding content to your course, click on the ‘Course Builder’ option to expand it, and you will see the ‘Launch Course Builder’ button.

Once you click on the ‘Launch Course Builder’ button, your page will reload and take you to the course builder page.

You may notice it is blank, but here you can have some fun as you only have to drag-and-drop different elements from the right sidebar to the empty field.

You can start adding content (text, links, videos, etc.) to each Lesson.

Clicking on a lesson gives you additional options to customize the lesson content:

• Add an assignment.
• Add a quiz.
• Include (or not include) Content (text-based).
• Include (or not include) Video.
• Include (or not include) Audio.
• Include (or not include) Prerequisites.
• Open to Enrolled Students Only (or not)
• Enable or Disable Drip.

You can also click on the ‘Settings’ icon of each lesson to access additional lesson settings.

The additional settings contain 3 tabs:

• Lesson tab — Customize the URL, set up video settings, and choose a lesson’s drip schedule.
• Assignment tab — Create a new assignment, or add an existing one.
• Quiz tab — Create a new quiz, or add an existing one.

Selling Online Courses — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

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

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 LifterLMS

You can also use plugins such as WooCommerce for LifterLMS, but you will have to pay an additional fee per add-on ($99 per year).

If you plan to sell courses to a large group of people such as universities or organizations, you can also sell courses in bulk through LifterLMS. To do that, you need to use LifterLMS Vouchers.

LifterLMS vouchers are ‘activation codes’ that you can give away so customers can enter the code and be automatically enrolled in a specific course and membership programs.

If the user has not registered yet, they can enter the code on the registration page.

Here are the steps to set up a voucher:

1. Go to ‘LifterLMS’ and then click on ‘Orders’.
2. Click on ‘Vouchers’, then ‘Add Voucher’.
3. Give the ‘Voucher’ a ‘Title’.
4. Select the courses and/or memberships that will be activated when a user redeems the voucher.
5. Modify how many new codes with how many uses per code.
6. Click ‘Publish’.

You can also export a .csv file of all your vouchers.

Support — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

Here we will discuss the support options, support hours, knowledgebase, training, and tutorials (if any) of LearnDash and LifterLMS.

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.

LifterLMS Support

LifterLMS offers standard support (ticketing system) or priority support based on the plan you choose. LifterLMS currently does not offer phone support.

On the LifterLMS website, there is a chat support widget that you can use to ask a question.

LifterLMS also has an extensive knowledgebase containing all frequently-asked-questions (FAQs).

LifterLMS also provides a 30-minute video demonstration that covers the basics of LifterLMS.

Integrations — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

Here, I will discuss how the depth of integrations both platforms 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, there are also 3rd Party Plugins created and managed by other companies you can use.

LifterLMS Integrations

LifterLMS doesn’t have free integrations. However, you can pay an additional $99 each per year for these add-ons:

• eCommerce — WooCommerce, UpSell Plugin.
• Payment Gateways — Stripe, Authorize.net, PayPal.
• CRM/ Email Marketing — ActiveCampaign, MailChimp, Groundhogg, Infusionsoft, Ontraport, Drip, ConvertKit,AgileCRM (WPFusion).
• Affiliate Marketing  — AffiliateWP, iDevAffiliate.
• Text Messaging  — Twilio.
• Forums  — BuddyPress, bbPress.
• Forms  — Gravity Forms, Ninja Forms, WPForms, Formidable Forms.
• SEO — Yoast SEO.
• Analytics — Google Analytics, MonsterInsight.
• Scheduling Software — Calendly, Acuity Scheduling, Simply Schedule Appointments, Course Scheduler.
• Webinars — Zoom.
• Live Chat —  Drift.
• Project Management — Trello.
• Video Editing — Screenflow, Camtasia.
• Video Hosting  — Vimeo Pro, Wistia.
• Integrations or Workflows — Uncanny Automator, WPFusion.
• Membership — WishList Member.
• Gamification — GamiPress.
• Badges — BadgeOS (through WooNinjas).
• Giveaways — RafflePress.
• APIs — GrassBlade.
• Security  — iThemes Security Pro.

Student Engagement — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

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.

a.    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.

LifterLMS Student Engagement Features

LifterLMS allows you to create quizzes, certificates, and assignments to measure how your students fare in your lessons.

Please note that an additional add-on is required for Advanced Quizzes and Assignments to be enabled on LifterLMS.

Creating Quizzes on LifterLMS

To create a quiz, you need to go to the course builder.

Once you are on your course builder, you can create a quiz for each lesson by clicking the ‘?’ icon beneath any of the lessons.

Here you have the option to:

• Create a Permalink/URL for that quiz.
• Add Media.
• Add a Description.
• Choose a Passing Percentage.
• Choose the Number of Attempts.
• Select the Time Limit.
• Display or not display the Correct Answers.
• Randomize Question Orders.

You can also choose the quiz type from Multiple-choice questions, True/False questions, or more advanced quizzing like Fill in the Blanks questions.

Once you have selected the quiz question type, you can create your questions and publish the quiz.

Creating Certificates on LifterLMS

LifterLMS also allows you to create certificates and badges to award students’ efforts on completing the courses.

On your WordPress dashboard, click on ‘Engagements’ on the sidebar, then click on ‘Certificates’.After that, an option ‘Add Certificate’ will be available for you to click on.

You can customize the certificate you have created here or upload a certificate template.

Once you are done, you can see the overview of the certificate you have created.

The next step is to trigger when the certificate is issued to the students.

Under ‘Engagements’, click ‘Add Engagements’.

Under the ‘Engagement Options’, you can choose how the certificate is triggered.

• Triggering Event — Choose what actions will trigger the engagement.
• Select a Course — The Course the engagement will apply to.
• Engagement Type — Choose whether this is an award, certificate, or an email.
• Engagement Delay — Select how long after which you want this engagement to be triggered.

The students can see all their certificates on their dashboards. Aside from certificates, you can also award badges.

Creating Badges on LifterLMS

Badges or Achievements can be used to display next to the student’s profile to give them a premium feeling of gratification of completing a course.

To do this, simply click on ‘Achievements’ under ‘Engagements’. Click on ‘Add Achievement’ and then customize the achievement.

Here you can add an achievement title, update the content, and add a background image.

You can also customize your engagement settings by going to ‘Settings’ and clicking on the ‘Engagement’ tab.

Here you can see the following options:

• Email Settings — Customize your email notifications.
• Email Delivery — If you are using an email delivery system, you can integrate that with LifterLMS here.
• Certificate Settings – Customize the image size to be used for student certificates.

Creating Assignments on LifterLMS

LifterLMS allows you to assign assignments to your students. Similar to LearnDash, you can set up upload requirements that students can follow..

However, to use the Assignments feature, you would need to purchase an additional add-on. It’s included in the Infinity Bundle.

Course Marketing Features — LearnDash vs LifterLMS

Here we will explore if and how LearnDash and LifterLMS 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 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.

LifterLMS Course Marketing Features

Unfortunately, LifterLMS currently does not have any capability to build landing pages or a marketing funnel.  Also, there is no direct integration with landing page software.

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

Both WordPress LMS plugins (LearnDash and LifterLMS) are very modern and powerful enough to support the basic needs of every online course creator. Each has its distinct features, both are easy-to-use and create courses.

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

Recommended Reading — LearnDash Review

Recommended Reading  — LifterLMS 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 LifterLMS excels over LearnDash:

• Course Builder — More intuitive drag-and-drop course builder to effortlessly build courses, quizzes, etc.
• Easier Ramp up  — Requires less technical knowledge to create a course. You don’t need additional technical help to design, create, and sell courses.
• Free Trial — The 30-day free trial for $1 is a great way to test the waters.
• Support and Community — Extensive knowledge base (videos, articles, tutorials), Facebook groups, podcasts, etc.
• Coupons and Vouchers — Sell your courses with additional features that allow you to increase your course sales.

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

• Pricing — Simple pricing model that includes all features (course builder, quizzes, assignments).
• Custom LearnDash themes — Lot’s of custom WordPress LearnDash themes available
• Astra Theme Compatibility  — Deep integration with Astra and Astra Pro (the fastest growing WordPress theme).
• 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.

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

If you want to create courses and build a course-marketing platform (that can connect to your other software), perhaps LearnDash is the better option. It also has the best pricing model for the two.

If you have limited technical knowledge, want an intuitive course builder, and want to engage better with your students — then perhaps LifterLMS is the better option.

I hope that this LearnDash vs LifterLMS 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.