LearnDash Reviews

Pros

I had been using a hosted LMS, but grew frustrated with the artificial limitations imposed on me by its design. I made the decision to switch to LearnDash for the flexibility, so that I would be able to manage and present my courses in whatever way I deemed appropriate for my customers, and so that I would have full control of my content. (The hosted LMS would not let me keep my own backups!) I also wanted to have full control of the user experience.

Cons

There really aren't any cons, as long as you understand this is a large application with many options. The learning curve is substantial, but absolutely worth the time and effort required to master it.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, Kajabi and LearnUpon

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

See my previous comments.

Switched From

TalentLMS

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

See above.

Pros

Complete package, well designed and easy to use for a complicated need.

Cons

Initial integration was time-consuming, wished it has better features or a tie-in plugin for user management since WordPress user management is poor. Learn press had compatibility issues with WP User Manager (learn dash restoration process was broken with using wp user manager wouldn't create user password on registration) which left me having to do a lot more work to build a user management process

Alternatives Considered

MemberPress

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

Easier to use and better for online classes

Switched From

MemberPress

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

memberpress was too complicated, too unpolished for our needs

Pros

Working with LearnDash is very easy. It works very similar to the other functions in Wordpress. You create a course, add Lessons and then Topics for each lesson.

For example, the course could be about How to Be a Real Estate Investor. In that course, you might have multiple lessons like How to Flip Houses, How to But Rental Property, How to Finance Real Estate, etc.

The you add the detailed Topics. For example, How to Flip Houses might have things like How to Find Greta Houses to Flip. How to Fund Your Flip House Projects, How to Manage the Rehab. You get the idea...

It's literally copy and paste for text and you add graphics the same way you would to any page or post in Wordpress.

Also, you can have quizzes, delay the release of certain content, offer certificates and points for completion, sell your courses, interact with users based on actions they take, set timers for each lesson, set prerequisites for courses, and offer grading and badges. You can also offer the courses in bundles and even create a marketplace similar to Udemy where people can buy your courses.

It integrates natively with many membership softwares including Memberium and also with many email providers and CRMS including Infusionsoft. It;s responsive and even works with SCORMs.

Cons

Here's what I don't like. It's ugly. The user interface is plain and not very intuitive. You have to buy other add on's so users can do things like take notes, and so that you can begin to have an interface that looks better than native Wordpresss. In other words... ugly.

With all the work they put into this software, it is so crazy that they did not spend time on the user experience. It's hard to tell if you're in a Lesson or Topic. It's hard to navigate around the course form Lesson to Less or Topic or Topic to Topic and don't even think about jumping around. The only way to solve these issues is to use precious sidebar real estate for this navigation instead of being able to showcase other offerings. That or your sidebar gets really long.

The interface showing which items have been completed and which have not is also ugly. And while you can buy add ons, those are "meh" at best. I finally broke down and hired a developer to tweak the code and make me a nice interface with great navigation, awesome graphics and stats for users in each Lessona nd Topic and so on.

Pros

LearnDash helped me easily create my courses and the features offered are excellent. I had an overview of all courses and could easily update them if needed.

Cons

The layout of the courses overview was not customizable enough and I would like more design/layout options.

Pros

Because it's based on WordPress, LearnDash not only comes with a lot of customization settings out of the box but plugs into a huge community of themes and plugins that can take your design and functionality practically any conceivable direction!

Cons

Some third-party developers created low-cost add-ons that didn't provide as reliable of a codebase as the core LearnDash software. Stick with reputable developers for third-party add-ons such as those mentioned on their website.

Alternatives Considered

Moodle

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

LearnDash provided a larger community with more integrations, a better interface, and additional features.

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

LearnDash was more flexible and user-friendly it's integration with WordPress provided access to a much wider community.

Pros

It offers deep functionality that lets us build and customized courses for the management team. Very well structured and run smooth.

Cons

Nothing about the functionality of the software , but the integration of third- party plugins to some important functionalities that should have like a robust reporting, a student (user) portal page and a gamification structure.

Alternatives Considered

WPLMS

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

Scorm capability and other features need it at the time.

Pros

- Ease of use and set-up
- Built-in functionality to present users courses in an organized way
- Compatibility with multiple plug-ins and themes
- Great value for the price

Cons

- Sometimes the features are a bit restricting

Pros

Building my course using LearnDash was simple, even though I had no previous experience in building a webpage. I really like the interface and the ability to customize the branding. My students have had great feedback about the format of the course, especially since I switched to focus mode.

Cons

I'm still learning the software so not I'm note quite sure yet. User management and setting up reporting and email strategies could be better, but there are some add on solutions that may help with this.

Pros

All the options for the courses, topic and quizzes. You can do absolutely what you want in a hierarchical way.

Cons

Design aspect, you need add-ons to customize or at least custom CSS.

Alternatives Considered

Tutor LMS

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

Free Elementor integration + many ressources (Blog / documentation)

Pros

The features and functionality of the Learndash is outstanding.

Cons

The learning curve is a little steep but once you start to figure things out it becomes easier.

Alternatives Considered

Moodle

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

Ease of use and functionality.

Switched From

Moodle

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

The cost and features

Pros

The reason I purchased the software was because it integrated with WordPress. I had already built my courses on WordPress and I wanted to add additional features like tracking my students and providing a central hub where all my students courses would be available and providing them with a progress bar to help them have a more visual way to progress through their courses.

Cons

This is really not a software it’s a WordPress plug-in. I use multiple word plus plug-ins that are excellent. This WordPress plug-in is not worth the money. The amount of work that requires you to do just to get your course set up is enormous. I already had my courses fully developed and it was not easy to install the plug-in and have the features that they promised.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

I originally chose LearnDash because it was a plug-in for WordPress. I thought that would allow me to do less work and keep the word press courses that are already set up. I ended up choosing teachable in the end because my experience trying to set up LearnDash showed me that it was nowhere comparable to the functionality of Teachable which was the same exact price .

Pros

It does function as a learning management system if you are just getting your business started, this is a good place to test your product.

Cons

Support seemed challenging to come by, there was no online support and I ended up having to pay a developer from Upwork to set up my learndash for me after watching countless youtube tutorials.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

The price and the ability to implement the LMS on my own site and attached with payment

Pros

If you need to create a website that allow you to teach people, then LearnDash is the best solution. I found LearnDash and liked how it had all the features that I needed in order to make this happen. The support team was always there to help me figure out anything I didn't understand, which is why they are so valuable.

It's one of the best and most affordable online learning platforms I have ever come across. I am able to create courses, upload videos, assign quizzes, and keep track of the progress in a single dashboard.

Something very important about this platform is that it allows students to learn at their own pace.

Cons

What LearnDash needs to improve is its design of the courses, the part that the student sees, in my case I have to use other templates to improve the visualization.

Something that I don't know because they haven't implemented is an APP to be able to take the courses from the cell phone.

Alternatives Considered

Moodle

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

LearnDash is more complete than LearnPress.

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

Because LearnDash is more complete.

Pros

Lessons and courses can be easily created and managed using LearnDash. The best aspect is that it can be completely integrated with the current WordPress site. They also have nice documentation to help you through it. You may even customize them with your preferred page builder, such as Elementor.

Cons

Enrolling several students in a course is difficult, and I have yet to discover a LearnDash plugin that does it properly. Some areas might be difficult to customize the way you desire.

Alternatives Considered

Tutor LMS

Switched From

WP Courseware and Masterstudy LMS

Pros

LearnDash is easy to set up and works well with WordPress. I've been using LearnDash for over 4 years and each version gets better, with more options and power. It is the best way to offer online courses, either paid or free and we've set it up with grading or certification for several websites. LearnDash has a lot of features including courses, lessons, quizzes, and more. Also there's additional plugins to help extend it further or if you're a PHP programmer, you can extend it even further. It costs but it really is a premium plugin and they do have great support.

Cons

There is definitely a learning curve the first time you use it but it's all laid out logically and you'll figure it out in no time. Quizzes can take a while to set up but straightforward. There's a few things that are buried in the settings that can be gotchas but overall a really solid product.

Pros

It is just great value for money - what you get even as standard is really good. Loads of free plugins which are great. And I really like Notes and Private Sessions paid plugins. The support is also very good and genuinely helpful

Cons

The only tricky part was working out the plugins needed for user registration, but there is an excellent guide on line. Like with all Wordpress tech theres always a few different options and it takes a while to figure out what is best for you.

Pros

It has many of the features that we were looking for right out of the box without added plugins. The Course Grid View feature with video previews and custom layouts is also exceptional. The codebase is robust and it's got a lot of fantastic documentation.

The support is just next level as well. That's played a huge role in our development, as we needed quite a bit of advice on advanced customization for our build. [SENSITIVE CONTENT HIDDEN] on the support team went above and beyond, with same-day replies packed with detailed, and useful information.

Cons

There are a couple of features that are currently available only as WSDM Labs plugin add-ons that I would like added to the core functionality, such as instructor roles and customized testimonials/reviews. But in general, it's extremely good.

Pros

What I like most about LearnDash is the ease of use to implement and setup courses. The training videos that are included inside the plugin made learning to use it and build the courses simple. The plugin itself works perfectly, and we didn't have any issues building our courses. Our users (500+ developers) have had no issues when taking the courses and everything works like a charm.

Cons

No complaints at all so far! When using an LMS plugin, you just want it to work without hassles or needing to contact support. And LearnDash provided a great experience start-to-finish.

Pros

Because all e-learning platforms are unique new updates/releases uncover errors that may not have been able to be tested because the combinations of software is infinite. LD support have consistently listened to issues raised, offered solutions where appropriate as well as shown humility in saying oops, we didn't think of that but let's work through this together.

Cons

Learning the course software is not easy to learn. However, the more I use it, the more efficient structures are realised in e-learning course design. They've got a great team developing course structure, which often leads to uncovering up-selling opportunities with my clients.

Pros

like how easy it is to create & manage courses with LearnDash. Apart from this, I like various features Learndash provides, including:
1. Course Certificates (this helps in automatic Certification creation, so you don't have to do it manually for each user)
2. Quizzes (this helps in making sure that users are actually learning things, and this also helps in making things a bit interactive).
3. Drip Lessons (this helps in making lessons available on certain timeframes)

We started using LearnDash with Memberium+IFS, which still works best for us (If we talk about creating & managing courses on a Wordpress Install)

Cons

1. Initial Setup requires you to hire a Developer, as showing courses as you want would require coding & stuff

2. Software Pricing

Pros

I'm not the developer of my site but I do make all of the changes, etc. So when my students were purchasing classes but the classes weren't getting onto their dashboard immediately - I contacted LearnDash and they helped immediately. What a relief!

Cons

Because the developer I used was the one to implement the software, I wish I could say more here. However, I don't have anything to share here because I use it to load classes etc. but that is all. And customer service helps me when I need it. I also realize I need to learn more to take care of a few issues but I don't feel that is a LearnDash concern.

Pros

Easy to use (comparatively speaking) for course developers and students and 100% reliable. Has to be 100% reliable.

Cons

A typical software, a bit too complicated - but I guess that is software!

Pros

When it Comes to WordPress lms plugin, Learndash is the best. The interface is very easy to understand both for authors and students, it is having many features compared to other plugins thus saving Space and money you dont need to buy and install extra plugins and it integrates well with third party plugins or Platforms

Cons

Eventhough Learndash is an excellent plugin, their customer support is not hundred percent active. At Times i have to open a ticket and wait several days before having a solution

Pros

Ease of use, scalability, customizability, support and customer service CAN'T be beaten!

Cons

There's a slight learning curve. Nothing too overwhelming!

Alternatives Considered

Moodle

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

Ease of use INCREDIBLE Customer Service

Pros

I like the fact that it's easy to use with a visual pagebuilder, easy to connect to a commercial tool like WooCommerce and that it comes with soooo many options to customize to the needs of the specific contents and users.

Cons

The variety of options are great, but also overwhelming at times. As a first time user from concept into production there was a lot of reading and Googling involved.
Some options that would seem apparant to me (such as adding a log off button for users, having them be able to see their own answers to quizquestions after finalizing them, translating the system language to our own) were difficult to find info about and implement correctly. It's not a click and go type of software, but more than worth while thanks to the many options to cater to your every need and wish.