The world was not ready for online learning until 2020. The pandemic forced people to look for alternative learning methods when physical classes were closed. In that time of distress, course makers and takers both desired a newer, easier, and more flexible learning model.
WordPress, all along, has been known as a profound content management system. Thus, it is no surprise that schools, teachers, course makers, and other educational institutes widely pick WordPress and its plugins to build their learning platform.
Of all the learning management systems, LearnDash and LearnPress stand out as the 2 excellent plugins.
In this article, we will help you find the best one to build your online learning platform from scratch. Let’s dive in.
- Mutual Features of LearnDash and LearnPress
- Notable Differences between LearnDash and LearnPress
- Protect Your Online Courses
Mutual Features of LearnDash and LearnPress
Firstly, both LearnDash and LearnPress are LMS plugins so having similar features is absolutely unavoidable. They both bring these functions:
- Establish online courses right on the WordPress dashboard.
- Create unlimited courses.
- Enroll unlimited students.
- Generate paid programs for certain courses.
- Add quizzes as well as multimedia content.
- Issue certificates, badges, and more
Notable Differences between LearnDash and LearnPress
#1 Ease of Use
LearnPress
You don’t need to be a techie to operate LearnPress. Since it comes with an intuitive and simple interface, a beginner can easily configure the plugin as it instructs. After activating the plugin, you can choose whether to approach the setup wizard or not.
Following are pages to fill in and set up:
- Currency: Choose the type and position of currency to configure payment.
- Static Pages: Display landing pages such as courses, profile, and checkout on the LMS website.
- Payment: Add mail address connected with PayPal or Sandbox Mode payment.
- Email: Enable and disable the email sending to the users or teachers.
You can initiate building your courses, lessons, or quizzes on your WordPress dashboard right after the setup wizard. Besides, you can configure the courses by navigating to LearnPress > Settings. Pages and the currency format can be set up here.
LearnDash
The platform also has a setup wizard with LearnDash Bootcamp. LearnDash Bootcamp is a series of tutorial videos. It instructs the users briefly in every section of LearnDash.
Since LearnDash’s developers did not take themes seriously, third parties have created both free and premium themes for LearnDash. It is important to consider LearnDash’s references while choosing themes.
#2 Integration/Add-ons
LearnPress
It is no doubt that LearnPress offers such a fascinating set of integration:
- Prerequisites Courses
- Offline Payment
- Fill In Blank
- Co-instructors and Content Drip Add-on
- Paid Membership Pro Add-on
- Gradebook and Random Quiz Add-on
- Integrations with payment methods such as Stripe, Authorize.Net, and 2Checkout
- Integrations with forum plugins such as bbPress and BuddyPress
LearnDash
LearnDash has been well-known for a while in the industry. What makes it stay relevant until today?
- Course Management: You can schedule email auto-sending, set up notifications, create groups, and assign leaders for better course management.
- Focus Mode: This mode helps users stay focused on the lesson. They will have their distraction properly removed.
- External Sync: LearnDash syncs with plenty of third-party apps, content, and websites.
- Membership: It lets you sell either one-time or lifetime memberships for multiple courses.
#3 Support
Firstly, LearnDash provides customers with documentation, videos, and an FAQs answering section. There is a Facebook group of LearnDash users where you can raise your issues and get the solutions. Plus, the plugin has a support system through email which works from Monday to Friday.
LearnPress publishes tutorial documentation guiding users through installing and configuring the plugin. Also, you can have your problems solved at the forums and the official Facebook group for LearnPress users. The plugin offers a premium support add-on that lets you access the help desk.
#4 Pricing
Last but not least, here is the clear pricing of both LearnDash and LearnPress:
| License type | LearnDash | LearnPress |
| Free | Not available | Available |
| Single-site | $199 a year | $49-$69 along with 1 theme and certain LearnPress add-ons |
| Multi-site | $399 for 10 sites a year
$799 for unlimited sites a year |
$249 for a 3-site license along with LearnPress premium and advanced features |
| Lifetime | Not available | Not available |
As shown in the table, both plugins do not support a lifetime plan. However LearnPress offers a freemium trial.
Lacking free and lifetime options is an absolute minus of LearnDash, despite its history. Besides, it is obvious that LearnDash’s packages cost more than ones from LearnPress.
To summarize, LearnDash seems to be well trusted by big brands and universities. What’s more, both plugins involve the famous and trustworthy Paypal in the payment system. Nevertheless, you can choose LearnPress if a simple and freemium LMS is what you are looking for.
Protect Your Online Courses
Security should be one of the most important aspects you must consider when choosing a LMS plugin. Coming up next, we present 2 WordPress security plugins Prevent Direct Access (PDA Gold) and Password Protect WordPress (PPWP Pro) to you.
PDA Gold
With PDA Gold, you can grant students access to their own courses. The plugin authorizes access for students who have enrolled in the courses. If there are attempts to see other courses, they will automatically encounter a 404 no access page.
PPWP Pro
PPWP Pro has indicated password protection is its strength right in its name. The plugin provides the password protection feature for almost everything on the website.
Whether you are using LearnDash or LearnPress, PPWP can help set up a single password for multiple types of content. And vice versa, you can generate multiple passwords for a single content.
Create Your Online Learning Platform Today!
Online education plays a significant role in the global scenario. Therefore, developers have taken their chances to compete in creating tons of useful LMS plugins in the market.
In order to build an efficient online learning platform, we urge you to make a checklist of your basic and essential requirements. We’ve already pointed out mistakes to avoid when selecting a LMS plugin.
If you’re looking for other LMS options, check out Tutor LMS vs LearnDash.
Have you decided your ideal LMS plugin yet? Any suggestion on plugin comparison for next articles?? Please tell us what you think in the comment section below.
