LearnPress Alternatives: Comparing LearnPress to Competitors
Are you looking for a LearnPress alternative for your online course or membership site?
You’re in the right place.
Dive into our in-depth reviews and take a closer look at our comparisons of popular LearnPress alternatives. We’re also sharing more about the native software features, and pricing you can expect if you choose LearnPress as your learning management system.
Before we dive into our LearnPress comparison
We’re always curious about who writes reviews for products online, so we want to give you the full disclosure.
We are the creators of the AccessAlly LMS plugin for WordPress, and we are affiliates for some of the tools that we’re comparing here. This means that we may earn a commission if you buy from our recommendations.
However, we never let an affiliate incentive sway us in our reviews. It just makes it possible for us to test out these tools and dedicate time to passing our knowledge on to you, based on the research and hands-on experience we acquire.
Now let’s see how LearnPress stacks up, and why current LearnPress users might start looking for a LearnPress alternative in the first place.
Why people choose LearnPress
Before we get into our list of LearnPress alternatives, let’s look at why you might consider implementing LearnPress for your online course or membership site.
- You want a simple course layout and you’re using a Thimpress theme: If you’re just getting started online and you don’t need a lot of functionality beyond a basic course setup, LearnPress isn’t a bad choice. However, there are better alternatives for serious course creators. If you’ve invested in a theme from Thimpress, LearnPress’ parent company, it makes sense to start your course build with the plugin if you just need to create some gated content with basic learning reinforcements in place.
- You’re already using a membership plugin: LearnPress focuses specifically on LMS functionality so it makes sense for some users to choose LearnPress as an add-on for their courses if they already have a solid tech foundation with an existing WordPress membership plugin. Be cautious about having a large tech stack though- the more plugins and add-ons you piece together, the more likely you are to experience tech complications as a result.
Why people recommend LearnPress
When you ask around to see what people use for their membership site or to sell their online courses you’re going to receive a lot of varied responses. LearnPress tends to be recommended for those just getting started out or for users who don’t need a lot of functionality beyond protected content. We’ve also seen LearnPress recommended for the following reasons:
- It’s affordable: LearnPress is one of the most affordable course platforms out there – it’s free unless you need more advanced LMS features or membership functionality. While the plugin itself isn’t widely used amongst more serious course creators, it’s easy to use and is an affordable option to test proof of concept or your minimum viable product.
- Ease of use: the course builder is part of your WordPress dashboard and you can easily create your course and lessons using the drag-and-drop builder. There isn’t much of a learning curve because the plugin is fairly intuitive, but if you hit a roadblock their documentation is thin and customer support isn’t as reliable as many other plugins available.
Why people look for LearnPress alternatives
If you’ve tried LearnPress and found it limiting, or you’ve outgrown the system you might already know why you’re looking for a LearnPress replacement.
Here are some of the other common reasons why people look for LearnPress substitutes.
- Lack of design flexibility: LearnPress’s course layout design options aren’t very flexible, especially for those who are more design-savvy. Your course layout will have to be designed to work within the LearnPress framework. This can feel restricting for those who value custom design and want to be able to infuse their brand into their courses and membership area.
- Lack of functionality: Since LearnPress focuses on basic LMS features, additional plugins are usually required to add additional functionality to your site, including memberships. In turn, you’re likely to incur additional expenses. With each new plugin or add-on you add to the puzzle, comes added complexity to your tech stack. This is where you’ll start to see course creators break out the duct tape and start piecemealing different tools together.
- Auto-generated certificates aren’t native: Certificates aren’t a built-in feature for LearnPress. However, you can install their certificate add-on to add this functionality to your course build. Once the add-on is installed you can design your own certificate with the drag-and-drop builder or choose from a few available templates.
- Limited e-commerce options: LearnPress does not handle recurring subscriptions. Out of the box, you can collect one-time payments via PayPal. If you prefer to integrate with Stripe or another payment processor, sell subscriptions, or offer payment plans, an add-on or additional plugin is required to have this functionality.
- Increasing Costs: LearnPress’s pricing is covered in more detail below, and while the core plugin is free, you’ll likely need to extend your functionality outside of LearnPress’s native features. Some people might look for a LearnPress alternative when their costs start to add up with the addition of each new plugin and add-on.
- Marketing Automation and CRM integration: With LearnPress, you’ll need to invest in, and use a 3rd party tool such as Zapier or WPFusion to pass information from your online courses back to your CRM, adding one more piece of complexity to your setup in an effort to achieve a seamless user experience.
One client's story about finding a LearnPress Alternative
AccessAlly is so much better than every other LMS solution I've worked with
“I manage a site that uses another LMS and I was not impressed or inspired by it.
When I had to rebuild one of my own sites with an alternative LMS solution I went with AccessAlly and have been blown away by their system. So much better than every other LMS solution I’ve worked with or tested out.
I’m on Ontraport, but can’t speak to the specific setup you’re looking to implement… But can speak to AccessAlly’s support and quick response to get answers to my questions.
I’ve been setting up some pretty advanced stuff and they’ve been able to do what I want to do every time.”
– Mike Deiure, rockguitarpower.com
Compare LearnPress Pricing
LearnPress’s pricing seems like a steal at first glance, but it can be a bit deceiving, as you’ve probably already discovered. With a $0 price tag, it’s hard to pass this plugin by, but when it seems too good to be true, it usually is.
LearnPress is, simply put, a course builder with limited features. In order to process payments from customers, you’ll also need a payment processor add-on, order form plugin (starting at $79/year), WordPress membership plugin (starting at $149), and even more add-ons for your LMS features like advanced quizzing, certificates, and assignments. The LMS features are included in the LearnPress bundle for $249/year.
As you can see, while the plugin itself may be free, your investment has the potential to be much higher than you initially anticipate, especially if you have the need to add on an affiliate plugin too (starting at $99/year).
Your investment could quickly jump to $576 and still not include all of the functionality you want. You’re left with not only the monetary investment, but you’ll be investing additional time configuring each tool and maintaining it.
While cost is not the only thing to look at when you’re considering what membership software or LMS to choose, it does factor into the equation.
Here is the cost breakdown for some of the most commonly compared LearnPress substitutes:
| Kajabi | $1490/year Includes only 3 products, and limit of 10,000 contacts |
$3990/year 100 Products, 100,000 contacts, limited email sending |
| Thinkific | $490/year Unlimited courses and students |
$4990/year Additional features and groups |
| Teachable | $390/year Plus 5% transaction fee |
$4990/year No transaction fees, includes bulk student enrollment |
| Podia | $390/year No memberships or affiliate functionality |
$790/year Includes 3rd party code and embedded checkout forms |
| Mighty Networks | $280/year Community forums only, no online courses, plus 3% transaction fee |
$980/year Includes online courses, plus 2% transaction fee |
| MemberPress + LearnDash | $448/year No course or student limits, basic functionality |
$918/year Includes group licensing, affiliate functionality |
| LifterLMS | $299/year Ecommerce and CRM addons included |
$999/year Quizzes, groups, and social learning |
| AccessAlly | $990/year Unlimited courses and students, affiliate, and bulk courses |
$1290/year All LMS functionality |
Want more in-depth LearnPress Replacement Comparisons?
Now that we’ve looked at all of the reasons why someone might choose LearnPress, or switch from LearnPress to another LMS solution, it’s time to compare LearnPress alternatives!
These in-depth comparison pages will showcase each software’s strengths, and highlight where it falls short so you can make the best decision for your particular business and online teaching needs.
LearnPress might be right for you if...
- You need a bare-bones course website, with no plans for added functionality down the line or are open to a larger tech stack, and using a lot of different plugins to achieve your goals
- You’re comfortable with tech and don’t tend to need additional support for setup and configurations
- You’d like to use a theme provided by ThimPress, the creators of LearnPress
Researching course platforms on your own is great, but if you want to talk to someone, we're here to help!
If you’re wondering whether you’re on the right track or not, we can help you sort out all of the different options.
We’ll let you know if AccessAlly is a good fit or not, too. Not sure what AccessAlly is? Watch the video to find out now, then book a call to discuss further: