LearnDash vs. WP Courseware: a comparison

The right WordPress plugin can set your business up for growth and long-term success. LearnDash and WP Courseware are two options you may be considering.

We’ll take a deep dive into both these options, and compare features, pricing, customer support, and more. By the end of this article, you’ll have a clear idea of whether LearnDash or WP Courseware is best for you.

Both LearnDash and WP Courseware set out with the same mission to support your online courses. LearnDash offers more advanced LMS features while WP Courseware is more basic. 

With both LearnDash and WP Courseware you can expect to use integrations and add-ons to complete your setup, which we’ll get into a bit later in this article.

LearnDash has an innovative course builder that’s easy to use and doesn’t require technical expertise. WP Courseware has a top-down approach, which can be less intuitive for some users, but it doesn’t require advanced technical expertise either. 

LearnDash gives you a bit more control over how your students interact with lessons and modules than WP Courseware does. 

With both options you can expect features like the ability to protect your content, release it all at once or drip content in WordPress, create video courses and add other media, and create a course dashboard for your users. 

The pricing structure is quite similar for LearnDash and WP Courseware. They both offer promotional pricing when you land on their pricing pages to purchase. 

The most popular plan on WP Courseware is its Professional Plan at $299 per year. 

With LearnDash’s Plus Package you’re looking at $229 per year. 

That’s only a difference of $70 annually, which will likely not sway your decision one way or the other. 

Remember to consider the cost of integrations you’ll need to get your membership site and courses up and running. 

Unfortunately, when it comes to integrations and add-ons, there’s no “one size fits all” option that works for every business. Be sure to make an integration list that meets your needs and calculate your costs from there. 

Both LearnDash and WP Courseware make it easy to capture promotional pricing when you opt-in or land on their website. They both offer a 30-day money-back guarantee as well, which is nice if you’re truly not satisfied with the option you choose. 

With both LearnDash and WP Courseware, there are other tier options. The main differences in these are how many licenses you get on each tier. 

Here’s a summary of LearnDash’s tier options and site license limits: 

• • Basic:  $199 / year – 1 site license 
  • Plus package: $229 / year – 10 site licenses 
  • Pro package: $369 / year – 25 site licenses 

Here’s a summary of WP Courseware’s tier options and install limits: 

• • Teacher: $249 / year – 2 site installs 
  • Professor: $299 / year – 10 site installs 
  • Guru: $399 / year – 25 site installs 

If you only need one install, you can budget for the lowest level tier on both LearnDash and WP Courseware.

You will need add-ons and integrations to make both LearnDash and WP Courseware function as a fully robust, integrated learning management system. 

In fact, it’s not uncommon to have six or more add-ons to make your membership function how you wish. 

Integrations are very helpful to connect two of the existing systems that you need to work together. However, with any integration, you’re adding complexity to your setup and increasing your tech stack. You may be adding an additional cost depending on the integration, as well as time to set up, maintain, and troubleshoot when necessary. 

To be clear, you’ll need a payment integration with both LearnDash and WP Courseware, which we’ll talk about more in the E-commerce section of this comparison.

LearnDash has available integrations without needing a third-party connector tool like Zapier. 

Here are some of the most popular integrations they offer: 

• • bbPress
  • Course Grid
  • Easy Digital Download 

LearnDash has many more third-party integrations available, some of which are free while others are paid. 

When it comes to WP Courseware, many users actually use another plugin to complete their membership site setup. WP Courseware makes these integrations easy by offering these integrations: 

• • MemberPress
  • MemberMouse
  • Paid Membership Pro. 

Again, while it’s great these integrations are offered, it can complicate your setup. And you’re also paying for two totally different systems to complete what one fully-functional software could do on its own. 

Also, think about features like your affiliate program, bulk course enrollment, and reporting. 

These features are limited on both LearnDash and WP Courseware, so if you want this functionality, you’ll be paying for it and adding an additional integration to your list. 

LearnDash and WP Courseware work with your WordPress theme or page builder. That makes it much easier to match your brand look and feel as you create your member’s area.

LearnDash works with page builders like Elementor, Divi, and Beaver Builder.

There are limitations though. For example, you can only edit LearnDash dynamic content, which is content that LearnDash will automatically add to certain types of pages, on Elementor. If you’re using Divi or Beaver Builder you’ll have to hire a developer if you want to work around that.

LearnDash provides templates that you can use on these page builders as a starting point, which is very helpful so that you’re not building from scratch.

WP Courseware works with popular WordPress themes and page builders as well. They have fewer feature limitations based on your page builder choices, which is an advantage over LearnDash.

WP Courseware will automatically inherit the style of your theme. From there, you’ll be able to edit individual elements from the dashboard. You can customize it to your liking, or keep it more out-of-the-box.

All in all, they offer similar design flexibility, but WP Courseware takes the win here because they have fewer limitations when it comes to using widgets, shortcodes, and adding or removing elements.

Ease of payment for your users can make the difference between a sale or not. If the checkout process is confusing or complicated, they’ll be far less likely to follow through with their purchase. 

WP Courseware allows for one-time payments, subscriptions, installment payments, and bundles. It also integrates with Stripe and PayPal, which gives your users payment options and checkout experiences they’re familiar with. 

However, you cannot offer upgrade and downgrade paths for your existing users, offer free trials, or pro-rate subscriptions using WP Courseware. An integration with a more sophisticated e-commerce plugin would be required to achieve this functionality. 

LearnDash does integrate with Stripe and PayPal as well, although there are more limitations here than with WP Courseware. 

For example, the LearnDash Stripe Integration doesn’t support more complex payment structures like a trial period, or downpayment for a course followed by a payment plan. You’ll need a third-party integration to support recurring subscriptions and payment plans. 

When you use LearnDash and Stripe, you’ll run into limitations when it comes to customizing the checkout experience. You won’t have the ability to fully manage the login process and account management. 

If you plan to sell products in addition to your courses, want to offer a full membership site experience, or have complex pricing setups, WP Courseware is a better choice for you.

LearnDash doesn’t offer affiliate functionality out of the box.

If you want to run an affiliate program with LearnDash, you’ll be looking at a complex setup that will involve your LearnDash plugin, a shopping cart integration (like WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads), an affiliate plugin (Affiliate WP or Affiliates Plugin), and a LearnDash-WooCommerce integration (if you chose WP affiliate).

You could also choose SamCart or ThriveCart as your shopping cart option because they have built-in affiliate functionality.

WP Courseware doesn’t offer an affiliate marketing feature either. They have a few recommendations which include: Clickbank, Paydotcom, Payloadz, E-junkie, Commission Junction, Share-a-sale

Although it’s great they both have integration options for running an affiliate program, you’ve got a whole other plugin research project on your hands to find the right fit for you.

If running an integrated affiliate program is part of your vision, neither WP Courseware nor LearnDash is the best choice for you.

Having the ability to pull data on your members, courses, and sales are extremely important when it comes to forecasting, improving, and just knowing what’s going well vs. what’s not going well.

When you select a software for your membership site, you want these reporting and metrics features to come native to the software. Add-ons and integrations can make reports work, but you’re adding a layer of complexity that could have a big impact if the numbers aren’t adding up or you’re not seeing what you expect to see.

LearnDash has ProPanel that’s a premium add on and included in the Plus and Pro packages.

ProPanel enhances your LearnDash admin experience by consolidating reporting and assignment management, giving you the ability to send course-specific communications, and shows real-time activity by participants in your courses.

WP Courseware doesn’t have anything comparable to LearnDash’s reporting options. As mentioned, they do support LMS integrations that may offer more reporting features.

A full membership metrics dashboard will give you the power to track metrics to improve your sales. Here are a few examples of what you could except a full LMS reporting feature:

• • Track student login trends
  • See student progress in realtime
  • Monitor quiz results
  • Review sales, refunds, and cancellations
  • Measure retention and growth
  • Project future subscription value

• • You are open to a larger tech stack, and using a lot of different plugins to achieve your goals
  • You absolutely need SCORM or Tin-Can LMS integration
  • You’re not picky about the look-and-feel of your course
  • You don’t need deep CRM integration to create more personalized customer experiences, but you do need a lot of quizzing options

• • You’re already using WordPress
  • You don’t mind using integrations to make your member’s area function
  • You want a basic setup with no plans to enhance
  • You’re already using a membership plugin and just looking for a course-builder