Review of LearnDash: Learn How to Control Your Online Course Sales

Need a learning management system (LMS) for your WordPress website? If so, take a look at LearnDash and find out why many folks consider it the best WordPress LMS plugin.

In this LearnDash review, I’ll explain how to use LearnDash. I’ll also cover its pricing structure so you know what you’ll need to pay if you want to put it on your website.

LearnDash Review: Student Engagement Features

In this part of the LearnDash review, I’ll explain how it keeps students engaged in e-learning courses.

For starters, the LearnDash plugin sends out automated notifications. The tool will create and distribute those emails based on actions that the students take (or don’t take).

Leverage that feature to remind students to complete their courses. You can also use it to promote courses similar to the ones they’ve already finished.

Next, the tool also includes discussion forums. They give students the opportunity to chat back and forth while taking your courses.

Additionally, LearnDash also includes leaderboards. Use that feature to recognize and award the students who outperformed on tests and quizzes.

The tool also includes official certificates that you can award based on course completion. Students can use those to “prove” that they took your course and received a passing grade.

LearnDash even lets you award course points. Once students have completed a certain number of points, they become eligible for new courses.

And, finally, the tool also dishes out assignments. You can make assignment completions mandatory before students move on to the next lessons.

Marketing and Sales

In this part of the LearnDash review, I’ll explain how the tool helps you generate revenue.

And there are many ways it does that.

First, LearnDash gives you the ability to sell one-time purchases. Just set a fixed price and your course is ready to go.

But the tool also gives you the ability to “whet the appetites” of potential buyers. Offer free samples of your content so folks can see what they’re getting into.

Additionally, once people complete the purchase process, they automatically receive accounts on your site so they won’t have to go through the registration process again.

Next, LearnDash also gives you the option to sell subscriptions. That’s a nice way to generate positive cash flow with recurring payments.

It’s also a great choice if you’ve got a lot of courses to offer and you’re adding new courses on a regular basis.

LearnDash also lets you sell memberships. Instead of selling access to individual courses, memberships grant access to groups of courses.

That’s a great option if you’re offering a university-like experience and want to grant access only to specific sets of courses.

And you can sell memberships as a one-time fee or on a recurring basis.

The tool also lets you sell course bundles. That’s a nice way to let your customers take advantage of economies of scale: the more they buy, the more they save per course.

You can even run flash sales that enable customers to save money if they buy bundles versus buying the courses one by one.

Additionally, LearnDash lets you sell bulk access. That’s a helpful feature if a company wants to purchase several courses for its employees.

In fact: that’s probably the best way to sell learning courses. Go after the big fish that can afford bulk purchases and let them distribute the individual courses to their team members.

Review of LearnDash Payments

In the previous section of this LearnDash review, I explained how the tool helps you monetize your course content. In this section, I’ll explain how it enables you to collect the money.

Simply put: you’ve got options. And those options will enable almost anyone in your target market to make a payment.

First, the tool integrates with popular payment gateways PayPal, Stripe, and 2Checkout. That’s going to make it easy when it comes to collections.

But it also integrates with shopping cart solutions that you’ll find in many e-commerce applications.

For example, you can use the very popular WooCommerce as your checkout experience of choice. Or you can go with EasyDigitalDownloads.

The tool enables you to add coupon codes, discount codes, sales, tax rules, and custom receipts.

You can even add sales funnels.

LearnDash Integrations

In addition to the integrations I mentioned in the previous section, LearnDash also plays nicely with other digital marketing tools as well.

Here’s a list of products you can use with LearnDash:

• bbPress
• BuddyPress
• MailChimp
• Samcart
• BadgeOS
• Slack
• ActiveMember360
• GamiPress
• ConvertKit
• Event Espresso
• Memberium
• PaidMembershipsPro
• Restrict Content Pro
• Zapier
• Gravity

Additional Features

In this part of the LearnDash review, I’ll cover additional features that don’t fit neatly under a single category.

• Support for any theme – LearnDash works with any WordPress theme. You don’t have to worry about whether or not your theme is compatible.
• Easy to customize – You pick the colors, logo, display, and layout of your courseware. And you can customize those options with just a few clicks.
• Support for any media – LearnDash supports images, video, audio, SWF files, HTML5, and more. 
• Support for existing page builders – Are you using Elementor, BeaverBuilder, or Divi? If so, good news: LearnDash integrates with all those tools.
• REST API – LearnDash exposes various REST endpoints so your developers can create custom functionality.
• Multisite enabled – Yes, you can use the tool if you’re running a multi-site network.
• Group management – LearnDash enables you to create groups and group hierarchies. You can also give other people group management responsibilities.
• Reporting – The tool gives you reports on enrollment, performance, and progress.
• Focus mode – LearnDash offers a distraction-free learning environment.
• Drag & drop course builder – It’s a snap to create your own course with an intuitive UI.
• Advanced quizzing – LearnDash offers eight question types, custom messages, and question banks.

LearnDash Review: Pricing

LearnDash offers a lot, so it ain’t cheap.

The Basic level of service goes for $159. For that you get a single site license with unlimited courses.

The Plus package will set you back $189. That gets you 10 site licenses with the ProPanel. 

The Pro package costs $329. That will get you 25 site licenses plus everything you get with the lower levels of service.

All levels of service offer a demo site template, unlimited users, course content protection, drip-feed lessons, advanced quizzing, certificates, and email notifications.

Also, keep in mind that the company offers a 30-day money-back guarantee. So you really don’t have anything to lose.

Wrapping It Up

Now you know how to use LearnDash.

More importantly, though, you know how it can benefit your organization and why many folks consider it the best WordPress LMS plugin.

If you’re interested in selling courses to people in your target market, why not give LearnDash a close look today?