Best WordPress LMS Plugins in 2026 (Compared): MemberPress vs LearnDash vs LifterLMS vs TutorLMS vs LearnPress

If you have typed “best WordPress LMS plugin” into Google, you already know the problem: every article says something different, half of them are written by the plugin companies themselves, and the “top 10” lists usually just reorder the same five tools with no real explanation of why one beats another.

We build and maintain WordPress sites for a living, so we have actually installed, configured, and sold courses through each of the plugins below. This guide compares them on the things that matter when you are trying to launch and sell courses: setup time, pricing (including what happens after the first-year discount ends), payment options, and how much you will need to spend on top of the license to get a real course business running.

Quick answer: If you want courses and membership access control in one plugin, MemberPress is the easiest all-in-one option. If you need deep course structure and reporting for a larger training program, LearnDash is the industry standard. If budget is the deciding factor, TutorLMS and LearnPress both have solid free tiers.

WordPress LMS Plugins Compared at a Glance

A note on pricing: every plugin on this list runs first-year discounts that make the sticker price look lower than what you will actually pay at renewal. We have listed both where we found reliable numbers. Always check the plugin’s own pricing page before you buy, since these change often.

MemberPress

MemberPress is the plugin we recommend most often when someone wants to launch courses and get paid without stitching together three or four separate tools. Courses and memberships live in the same dashboard, so you are not paying for one plugin to build lessons and a second one to gate access behind a paywall.

The visual, drag-and-drop course builder is genuinely easy to use even if you have never touched WordPress before. You create a course, add lessons and quizzes, then use Access Rules to decide who can see what. Payments run through Stripe, PayPal, or offline methods, and the pricing page for your membership gets generated automatically once you publish a plan.

Pricing: Launch starts at $199.50 for the first year (renews at $399) and includes unlimited courses, lessons, and quizzes on Stripe. Growth is $349.50 the first year (renews at $699) and adds zero transaction fees plus community features. Scale runs $499.50 for the first year. Worth noting: Launch carries a 4.9% transaction fee on sales, so if you expect to do meaningful revenue in year one, Growth often works out cheaper once you run the math.

Where it wins

• Courses and memberships in one plugin, one dashboard
• No coding needed to set up access rules or pricing pages
• Strong support and a large library of setup guides

Where it falls short

• No free version to test before buying
• Course structure is simpler than LearnDash for large, multi-module training programs
• Launch plan’s transaction fee can add up at higher sales volume

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LearnDash

LearnDash has been around longer than most of the plugins on this list and it shows in how deep the course structure and reporting tools go. If you are building something closer to a corporate training portal or a multi-course academy with certificates, drip content, and detailed completion tracking, this is usually the safer long-term pick.

Pricing: the self-hosted plugin runs $199/year for one site, $399/year for up to ten sites, and $799/year for unlimited sites. All three tiers include the same features, the only difference is how many sites you can activate the license on. There is also LearnDash Cloud, a hosted version starting around $29/month, for people who would rather not manage WordPress hosting themselves.

Where it wins

• The most mature course and quiz builder of the group
• Detailed student progress reporting and certificates
• Huge ecosystem of themes and add-ons built specifically for it

Where it falls short

• Membership-style access control needs an add-on, it is not native
• Steeper learning curve than MemberPress or TutorLMS
• Realistic budget with add-ons and hosting is often $600 to $1,400 a year, not just the $199 sticker price

LifterLMS

LifterLMS is the one plugin here you can genuinely run a real course business on without paying anything at first. The free core plugin includes multi-section courses, prerequisites, drip schedules, and a clean course builder. It also has native membership functionality, so like MemberPress, you are not forced into a separate plugin for gated content.

Pricing: the core plugin is free forever. Paid bundles that add e-commerce, marketing, and design tools start around $199/year for a single site and go up to roughly $799/year for the full package with everything unlocked.

Where it wins

• Real free tier, not just a trial
• Native membership and course access controls together
• Clean interface that plays well with most WordPress themes

Where it falls short

• The free version has no payment gateway built in, you will need an add-on to actually sell anything
• Fewer third-party integrations than LearnDash or MemberPress

TutorLMS

TutorLMS built its reputation as the low-cost alternative to LearnDash, and it has closed most of the feature gap while staying roughly half the price. The free version on WordPress.org is generous enough that a lot of solo instructors launch and validate their first course without ever paying for Pro. It also handles multi-instructor marketplaces better than most competitors, which makes it a good fit if you plan to have other people teaching on your site.

Pricing: free forever for the core plugin. Pro starts at $199/year for one site, $399/year for up to ten sites, and $799/year for unlimited sites, and now bundles an AI course-building tool across all tiers.

Where it wins

• Free tier covers unlimited courses and lessons, not a stripped-down demo
• Strong multi-instructor and marketplace support
• Pricing matches LearnDash’s tiers but with a lower cost of entry through the free plan

Where it falls short

• No native membership gating, you will need to pair it with WooCommerce Memberships or MemberPress for that
• Smaller add-on marketplace than LearnDash

LearnPress

LearnPress takes a different approach: the core plugin is free and stays free, and you buy individual add-ons only for the features you actually plan to use, rather than paying for a bundle of things you will never touch. If your course is simple, one instructor, straightforward quizzes, no complex drip schedule, you may never need to spend a dollar.

Pricing: free core plugin. Individual add-ons range from about $30 to $49 each (payment gateways, certificates, content drip, and so on). A full Pro bundle with everything included is a one-time payment of around $299, no subscription.

Where it wins

• One of the only WordPress LMS options with a genuine one-time-payment path
• You only pay for the add-ons you actually need
• Lightweight core plugin, generally fast

Where it falls short

• Buying add-ons one at a time can get confusing for beginners
• Support and documentation are less polished than the bigger names on this list

How to Set Up Your First Course with MemberPress

Since MemberPress is our top pick for anyone starting from scratch, here is the condensed version of getting a course live. This assumes you already have WordPress installed and running. If your project is more involved than a single course, multiple membership tiers, custom integrations, a tight launch deadline, it’s worth reading through our breakdown of when DIY makes sense versus hiring a MemberPress developer before you start.

1. Install and activate MemberPress. From your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins, Add New, search for MemberPress, then install and activate it. Enter your license key under MemberPress, Activate.
2. Connect a payment gateway. Go to MemberPress, Settings, Payments, and add Stripe, PayPal, or an offline method. This is where your money actually gets collected, so double check the credentials before moving on.
3. Build your course. Under MemberPress, Courses, Add New, give it a title and start adding lessons with the drag-and-drop builder. You can mix text, images, and embedded video in each lesson.
4. Set an access rule. Go to MemberPress, Rules, Add New, and choose which course or category should be locked, then pick which membership level unlocks it.
5. Create your membership and pricing page. Under MemberPress, Memberships, Add New, set your price and access rules. MemberPress builds the pricing page for you automatically once you publish.
6. Test the full purchase flow yourself before you send traffic to it. Buy your own course with a test card, confirm you get access, then refund it.

From there, the usual next steps are dripping content on a schedule instead of releasing everything at once, connecting an email tool like ConvertKit or MailerLite so you can follow up with students, and adding certificates if completion matters for your audience. If you’re also running a paid membership tier alongside your courses, see our full MemberPress membership setup guide for the parts we didn’t cover here. And if you’d rather not handle the setup yourself, get in touch with our team and we’ll build it out for you.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the best WordPress LMS plugin for beginners?

MemberPress and TutorLMS are the two easiest to get started with. MemberPress is faster if you want courses and paid memberships together with no separate plugin. TutorLMS is the better choice if you want to test things out for free before spending anything.

Is MemberPress good for selling online courses?

Yes. MemberPress combines a visual course builder with built-in membership and payment tools, so you can create a course, decide who gets access, and collect payment without connecting a separate WooCommerce or membership plugin.

MemberPress vs LearnDash, which one should I choose?

Choose MemberPress if you want courses and gated membership content managed in one place with less setup. Choose LearnDash if you are building a larger, multi-course training program and need deeper reporting, certificates, and quiz structure, and you don’t mind adding a separate plugin for membership access.

Do I need to know how to code to sell courses on WordPress?

No. Every plugin in this comparison uses a visual, drag-and-drop course builder. You will not need to write PHP or touch your theme’s code to create lessons, set pricing, or restrict content.

Is there a free WordPress LMS plugin that can actually sell courses?

TutorLMS and LearnPress both have free versions with unlimited courses and lessons. To actually charge for a course, you will typically need to connect WooCommerce or a payment add-on, since the free tiers focus on course building rather than payment processing.

How much does it really cost to sell courses on WordPress?

Budget for more than just the plugin license. Between hosting, a theme, and any add-ons for payments or certificates, a realistic first-year budget for a paid plugin like MemberPress, LearnDash, or TutorLMS usually lands between $250 and $700, depending on how many features you need beyond the base plan.

Final Thoughts

There is no single “best” LMS plugin, there is only the best one for what you are actually trying to build. If you want courses and paid membership access working together without hiring a developer, MemberPress remains the fastest path from install to your first sale. If your course business grows into something bigger, with certificates, cohorts, and detailed reporting, LearnDash is worth the extra setup time. And if you are still testing whether course selling is even the right move for your site, TutorLMS or LearnPress let you find out without spending a dollar first.

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