At $350 a year for 1 site, LearnDash suits a seller who needs quizzes, certificates and seats sold to companies on their own WordPress site, and it’s too much for 1 small video course. This LearnDash review sorts all 216 Trustpilot reviews, where the score is 4.2 out of 5 and support splits opinion.
That $350 buys a 4-product bundle, because LearnDash is no longer sold alone, and licences already running move to it at renewals from November 16. Stop paying and LearnDash keeps working, but updates, security patches and support end. You also run the WordPress site yourself, so hosting sits on top of the $350.
If you typed this in, you’re close to adding a yearly bill to your course business, and you want to know if LearnDash holds up once you’re paying it.
3 of the 4 main reviews on page 1 still quote a $199 price that’s gone. LearnDash’s own page shows a 4.8 Trustpilot score, and Trustpilot shows 4.2.
So I pulled all 216 Trustpilot reviews, sorted the 33 lowest by hand, and checked the cart, the help docs and 2 recent Reddit threads.
You’ll see how LearnDash does at each of the 5 jobs a course seller needs done, including the renewal job most reviews skip.
Key Takeaways
- Strong at teaching. 8 quiz question types, certificates, drip lessons and group seats come in every plan, and most complaints are about something else.
- $350 a year, bundle only. 1 site now costs $350 with The Events Calendar, Give and Kadence, and the $199 on many reviews is retired.
- Support splits reviewers. 30 of the 33 1- and 2-star Trustpilot reviews complain about support, and 111 of the 174 5-star reviews use the word.
- The 4.8 doesn’t trace back. LearnDash’s page shows 4.8, Trustpilot shows 4.2, and 8 of the 26 reviews from 2026 give 1 or 2 stars.
- Stopping doesn’t kill your courses. LearnDash keeps working on an invalid licence, but updates, security patches and support end.
- A small course may need less. Tutor LMS has a free core plugin, and CartMango (free right now, from $10 a year once paid plans start in November) sells files but hosts no lessons yet.
LearnDash review verdict: who should pay $350 a year
LearnDash is worth $350 a year if your students have to pass quizzes, earn certificates or arrive as seats bought by an employer, and if you already run WordPress or pay someone who does.
It’s a poor fit if you sell 4 videos and a workbook to individuals. You’d pay yearly for a classroom you won’t fill, then pay again for hosting. That seller may need only a video host and a checkout like CartMango, which I run.
Before you pick a tool, check what’s already costing you sales. The Online Selling Mistakes Challenge covers 5 common mistakes over 5 days by email, at no cost.
What page 1 gets wrong about LearnDash
3 of the 4 main reviews on page 1 still price LearnDash at $199 a year against $350 in the cart, and 3 give a money-back window of 15 or 30 days against the cart’s 7.
| Topic | Page 1 says | Who says it | LearnDash’s own pages say |
|---|---|---|---|
| Price for 1 site | $199 a year | Kindlepreneur, Dreamgrow, People Managing People | $350 a year, bundle only |
| Money-back window | 15 or 30 days | Dreamgrow (15), WPKube and People Managing People (30) | “7-day guarantee” in the cart |
| Memberships | Core tools are limited, use a membership plugin | Dreamgrow, WPKube | MemberDash is “built directly into LearnDash” |
| Coupons | “You also can’t offer coupons and promos” | WPKube | Built-in coupons for Buy Now courses and groups |
| Reports | Paid add-ons | Google’s AI Overview | ProPanel reports and a gradebook in every plan |
People Managing People’s page carries an October 2026 update and still says “From $199/year.” Google’s AI Overview repeats the old ladder too.
The AI Overview for this search. Read the Plugin Plans line: LearnDash no longer sells any of those 3 plans.
Job 1: building the course
LearnDash builds the whole course inside WordPress. It’s an LMS, or learning management system, meaning software that runs lessons, tests and student records. You drag lessons and topics into order, add quizzes with 8 question types, set assignments and award certificates. Lessons can release on a schedule with no extra plugin, an AI builder drafts an outline from a prompt, and group seats sell “so one sale enrolls a whole company.”
The bundle also removed plan tiers. Nexcess, the Liquid Web brand now selling LearnDash, promises “Every premium feature, no tier-gating,” and its feature list counts progress reports (ProPanel), a gradebook and multiple instructors per course.
Reviewers are kinder about this job, and even some low reviews give it credit. A 4-star reviewer called it “very comprehensive, customizable and easy to build and use.” A 1-star reviewer still wrote that “the overall functionality of LearnDash is decent,” and a 2-star reviewer using it since 2020 said the plugin “is good and does its job.”
3 limits are worth checking before you build:
- SCORM needs another add-on. SCORM is the file format corporate training tools use to share lessons. LearnDash’s docs say “Content created within LearnDash is not SCORM compliant,” and SCORM files from tools like Articulate need GrassBlade or Uncanny Owl’s Tin Canny add-on. Google’s AI Overview lists SCORM as a strength and leaves that out.
- Course records can get messy. 1 long review says “there is only one instance of a course allowed” per user, so retakes tangle the dates and history. That’s 1 reviewer, but it matters if you need an audit trail for certificates.
- Quiz admin gets slow at volume. A 3-star reviewer called building a final exam from older quizzes cumbersome, and another said questions import by CSV but can’t be exported.
Job 2: keeping a WordPress site healthy around it
LearnDash runs on your own WordPress site, so hosting, backups and updates are yours to handle. Its stated minimums are WordPress 6.6, PHP 7.4 and 128 MB of memory, and its docs add that “LearnDash does not support multisite configurations,” meaning 1 WordPress install running several sites.
None of that is in the $350. A r/Wordpress thread on the price change put it bluntly: many hosts are “simply not setup to run it right, so you got extra costs there, too.” Budget for proper hosting before you compare LearnDash with a hosted platform.
Updates are where this job bites. 4 of the 33 low reviews blame an update for breaking a site, a design or a translation. A 2025 reviewer said “with each update, the developers change their .css structure” and spent hours fixing the damage. Another, in March 2026, wrote: “I just wish I did not purchase the update, since it broke the website, customers where mad.” So test each update on a staging copy, a private clone of your site, first. If that sounds like too much, price in someone who does it for you.
Spam sign-ups are a smaller chore. A July 2026 reviewer reported fake accounts at “1-2 per hour,” and a 2023 reviewer reported “hundreds of fake user registrations.”
The hosted version, LearnDash Cloud, is no longer on the plans page, and its old address now forwards to LearnDash’s page on Liquid Web. Its docs are still up, but I couldn’t find a current price, so treat the $24 to $29 a month in Google’s AI Overview as unconfirmed. If all of this puts you off WordPress, our best course platform guide prices 6 course platforms.
Job 3: taking payment and letting buyers in
LearnDash handles a basic sale itself, through Stripe Connect or PayPal. Neither its plan page nor its Stripe guide mentions a LearnDash cut of your sales, so you pay your processor’s fees. Each course gets 1 of 5 enrollment modes: Open, Free, Buy Now, Recurring or Closed. Memberships moved in-house too. MemberDash, included in LearnDash, adds tiers, subscriptions and course bundles, and members can update their own payment details. That’s why the older advice to bolt on a membership plugin no longer holds.
Selling more per buyer is where LearnDash stops. Its plan page lists no order bumps or upsells, and I found no doc for either. Its ThriveCart guide names “cart abandonment recovery, A/B split testing, upsells, and more” as what that tool brings. So a seller who wants them adds ThriveCart, SamCart or WooCommerce, which means another tool to connect and usually another bill. LearnDash’s built-in coupons only cover Buy Now courses and groups, and our LearnDash coupon code guide shows how the 3 coupon tools on a LearnDash site differ.
If checkout is the only job you need done, CartMango is built for that, with no cut of your sales. It hosts no lessons or quizzes today, and LearnDash’s payment doc doesn’t list it, so you’d run it on its own.
Job 4: getting help when something breaks
Support is where LearnDash reviews split. 30 of the 33 1- and 2-star Trustpilot reviews complain about it, and 111 of the 174 5-star reviews use the word.
What the low and high reviews say
The low reviews describe long waits:
- About 90 days on an app bug. A nautical training company reported in February that courses didn’t appear in the LearnDash App, and called it unresolved 3 months later.
- 10 days of email. A March 2026 reviewer waited 5 days for a reply “not even related to my issue,” then 5 more for the next one.
- No date for a confirmed bug. A 2024 reviewer says support confirmed a bug, then wrote “we currently don’t have an immediate solution or timeline for a fix.”
- A costly wrong answer. A 2024 reviewer says support called a feature impossible, other users found a way, and the delay brought “over a thousand dollars in fines.”
The happy reviews describe fast fixes. An October 2026 reviewer fixed a conflict “with only one email exchange,” and a second reviewer credits Liquid Web’s support with fixing “a very long standing issue.” A June 2026 reviewer says the opposite: “since they were acquired it has gotten worse.”
How the score got to 4.2
Low reviews rose to 8 of the 26 from 2026, up from 6 of 96 in 2025. Reviews arriving by link or invitation fell over the same stretch, from 82 of 96 to 5 of 26.
| Year | Reviews | 5 stars | 1 or 2 stars | By link or invitation | Low reviews answered |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 to 2023 | 11 | 2 | 7 | 0 | 7 of 7 |
| 2024 | 83 | 69 | 12 | 69 | 12 of 12 |
| 2025 | 96 | 87 | 6 | 82 | 4 of 6 |
| 2026 | 26 | 16 | 8 | 5 | 1 of 8 |
All 33 low reviews came in on their own, with no invitation or review link behind them. Of the 174 5-star reviews, 49 came from automatic invitations and 104 through a basic review link, which Trustpilot shows as “Unprompted review.” 123 of those 153 mention support, help or customer service, so much of that page is about how support tickets went.
LearnDash’s product page shows “4.8 Trustpilot score.” Trustpilot’s LearnDash page shows 4.2, the plain average of all 216 reviews is 4.33, and parent company Liquid Web’s own page shows 3.8. I couldn’t find where the 4.8 comes from.
Top: LearnDash’s product page. Bottom: its Trustpilot page. Compare the 2 scores, then read the 22% reply line, which covers recent negative reviews.
For planning, reviewers report days per reply. Even a happy 4-star reviewer says “it does take a few days to get to the front of the queue.” If a broken course would cost you money, line up a WordPress developer before launch.
Job 5: the renewal most reviews never mention
LearnDash bills every year at the bundle price, and none of the 4 main reviews on page 1 says what renewing costs or what happens if you stop. 1 site went from $199 to $259 to $350 in about a year, as our coupon test traced through archived pricing pages. Existing owners keep their rate until their “next renewal on or after November 16,” according to the Nexcess plans page. Then they move to the bundle, with reminders going out 30 days before the charge. You don’t have to install all 4 products, but you do pay for them.
“We currently pay $199 a year and they’re forcing us onto a $350 a year package,” wrote a site owner on r/Wordpress with 25 courses, who is now comparing Tutor LMS and Masteriyo. The earlier r/Wordpress thread ran to about 80 comments, and 1 commenter argued that big customers won’t “bat an eye” while price-conscious ones leave.
What happens if you stop paying
LearnDash keeps running if you stop paying. Its licence doc says: “LearnDash will still function properly even with an invalid license. A valid license is needed in order to continue to receive product updates, security patches, and support.”
So you can stay, unpatched, for a while. Uncanny Owl, which sells LearnDash add-ons, says your courses, quizzes, enrollments and progress data stay put, and warns that “an unmaintained plugin can eventually run into compatibility problems.” On a site taking payments, missing security patches is a real risk. LearnDash’s doc on disabled licence checks also says the Add-ons menu won’t display until licensing is validated again.
What happens if you leave
Leaving takes more work than staying. LearnDash’s migration add-on only brings courses in from other tools, and even that skips course progress. Going out depends on the importer at the other end, so test the hard parts first. A commenter from Wbcom Designs, who sells an LMS with an importer, says “group-based enrolment is what most LearnDash importers skip and certificates usually need setting up again too.” Move 1 course to a test site before you commit.
If you’re rethinking the whole setup, our guide to selling from your own website walks through the 4 usual starting points.
How LearnDash compares, job by job
On yearly billing for 1 site, LearnDash and MemberPress Growth’s first year both cost about $29 a month, Tutor LMS about $17 and Thinkific Start $82. Thinkific hosts the course site for you, CartMango covers only the checkout, and the 3 WordPress plugins leave hosting to you.
| Tool | Cost on yearly billing | Jobs 1 and 2: courses, hosting | Job 3: payment | Job 4: Trustpilot | Job 5: if you stop paying |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LearnDash | About $29 a month ($350 a year) | Quizzes, certificates, group seats, on your own WordPress site | Stripe and PayPal, no upsells listed | 4.2 from 216 reviews | Keeps working, no updates, patches or support |
| Tutor LMS | About $17 a month ($199 a year list price), free core plugin | Quizzes, certificates, assignments, on your own WordPress site | PayPal, Stripe and others built in | 4.7 from 407 reviews | Paid plan includes updates for 1 year |
| MemberPress Growth | About $29 a month ($349.50) in year 1, then about $58 ($699) | Courses and quizzes, on your own WordPress site | Stripe, PayPal, Square, offline | 4.7 from 564 reviews | Terms add an Expired License Transaction Fee |
| Thinkific Start | $82 a month ($978 a year) | Quizzes, certificates, live cohorts, hosted for you | Thinkific Payments, or your Stripe plus 2% | 1.8 from 868 reviews | You lose your dashboard, courses and order tables |
| CartMango | About $0.83 to $2.50 a month ($10 to $30 a year) from November, free right now | Not yet, planned for October 2026. Checkout is hosted for you | Stripe and PayPal, 0% | No Trustpilot page yet, founder-led support | If you leave, subscriptions you created keep paying you |
CartMango is in this table for sellers who only need the checkout job, and it’s my product, so read that row with that in mind. Our MemberPress review and Thinkific review cover those 2 rows in depth. Tutor LMS’s free core is on WordPress.org, where it shows 100,000+ active installs, the same 100K LearnDash claims for itself.
FAQ
Is LearnDash a good LMS?
Yes, for a seller who needs quizzes, certificates, group seats and detailed reports on their own WordPress site. Low reviews focus on support far more than on the course tools, and some reviewers say updates broke their sites. It’s more than a solo seller with 1 small course needs.
How much does LearnDash cost?
LearnDash costs $350 a year for 1 site, up to $999 a year for 100 sites. Plans sit in between at $599 for 10 sites, $799 for 25 and $899 for 50. Every plan is the same 4-product bundle, it renews yearly, and hosting costs extra. The cart shows a 7-day guarantee.
What does LearnDash do?
LearnDash turns a WordPress site into a course platform. It builds lessons, quizzes, assignments and certificates, tracks student progress, sells courses through Stripe or PayPal, and runs memberships through MemberDash. It can also sell group seats to companies and let several instructors work on 1 course. You host all of it yourself.
What are some good alternatives to LearnDash?
On WordPress, the direct swaps are Tutor LMS ($199 a year, free core plugin) and LearnPress (free core plugin, paid add-ons), and MemberPress Growth ($349.50 in year 1, then $699) suits memberships with courses. Thinkific Start ($82 a month billed yearly) hosts everything for you. CartMango (free right now, from $10 a year once paid plans start in November) handles the checkout only.
Is there a free version of LearnDash?
No. Every LearnDash plan is paid, starting at $350 a year, and it isn’t on WordPress.org. You can try it first, because LearnDash’s page offers a live demo and a 48-hour trial with no credit card. Tutor LMS and LearnPress both have free core plugins if you need free.
Can I keep using LearnDash if I stop paying?
Yes. LearnDash says it “will still function properly even with an invalid license,” so your courses stay up. You lose product updates, security patches and support, and that risk grows as WordPress and PHP change. If your site takes payments, plan a move or a renewal before you let it lapse.
When the plugin bill outgrows the course
Will you use what $350 a year pays for? That’s what this LearnDash review comes down to. If your students sit quizzes and earn certificates, and someone keeps your WordPress site healthy, LearnDash can still earn its place, slow tickets and all.
If what you really sell is files or a paid membership, you may not need a course plugin yet. CartMango takes one-time payments and subscriptions with no cut of your sales, and buyers sync to the email tool you connect. Course hosting and community are planned for October 2026 on its $30 a year plan, so today the videos stay on a host like Vimeo or YouTube.
CartMango is free right now, and paid plans start in November 2026 from $10 a year. If you ever leave CartMango, subscribers you signed up there keep paying you.
About the Author
👋 I’m Welly, founder of CartMango (the site you’re on), a checkout platform for digital product sellers. We’ve previously processed $179M+. I also run BirdSend (email marketing tool, 3.1B+ emails sent). On the side I show other non-techie digital sellers how I use AI workflows to automate 50%+ of my operations. Find me on LinkedIn.
Related Reading
- LearnDash Coupon Code: 16 codes tested in LearnDash’s live cart, and how to pay less without one
- MemberPress Review: the WordPress membership plugin that also runs courses, sorted review by review
- Thinkific Review: what a hosted course platform costs once the Basic plan is gone
- Sell Online Courses From Your Own Website: the 4 starting points, WordPress included
- Best Course Platform: 6 hosted platforms priced live, with the cut each one takes