7 Best Learndash Alternatives For Online Creators in 2023

Are you ready to start your online teaching business?   

Then it’s time to find which platform may suit you the best. In fact, choosing the right platforms is the most important decision you make before the course launch. When you have all the materials ready, you want to ensure the platform gives you every opportunity to deliver and promote them properly. 

We will have transfers at 7 stations in search of the best Learndash alternative for you. So, fasten your seatbelts, and let’s get started. 

LearnDash overview 

What LearnDash mainly does is turn your WordPress website into a Learning Management System solution. This plugin gives you the opportunity to create, manage and deliver courses and other educational materials from your website. 

Learndash is a perfect choice for beginners who are making their first attempts in the online teaching industry and do not yet plan to scale. In fact, most online creators like this platform. Why? Because it provides useful features to deliver courses efficiently. Let’s take a look at some of them.

• Drag and drop course builder so that you can create courses without any coding skills
• Opportunities to award students with certificates and badges based on their performance
• Selling courses with bundles and drip planning
• Creating and selling memberships and subscriptions
• Multimedia support and template customization
• Making the learning environment free of distractions, etc.

Mostly, it has enough features to help you get started on your teaching journey. 

What are LearnDash pain points? 

If you are already using Learndash, you will know that it also has some limitations. 

Do you have your website built with WordPress? If yes, congratulations. If not, you will have to find a hosting provider. Using Learndash implies needing many other plugins to provide a full learning experience. 

Although initially, it doesn’t seem pricey, every other plugin you implement will cost you time and money. Besides, Learndash does not provide enough marketing features essential to scale any business. 

So, it will be better to consider an all-in-one solution instead. 

LearnDash reviews

Current users have rated Leardash on review platforms such as Capterra (4.6 stars) and Trustpilot (2.2 stars). 

Let’s see what they liked about Learndash: 

• The documentation helps to easily find the answers to the user’s questions
• The management tools are easy to understand, as they include a drag-and-drop functionality. 
• The “Focus Mode” provided the students with a good-looking interface. 

There are also several reasons why users where dissatisfied with platform’s solutions: 

• They tried to contact the support to report a problem, however there was no reply and no solution to their problem.
• It needs so many other plugins and subscriptions to function completely
• The price is extremely high for the functionalities it has to offer.  

#1 Uteach 

Speaking of all-in-one platforms, we will make our first stop at Uteach station. Uteach provides all the tools and features necessary to create, sell & promote your courses. It is not only about courses. Here you can also offer coaching sessions, live sessions, digital & physical products, and any other educational material of your choice. 

Pricing plans & features 

What makes Uteach different from LearnDash? The major difference is that you will not need WordPress or any other website builder. You can choose & customize your desired template and set up your teaching site easily with drag-and-drop features. 

The most exciting thing is that you can have your website white-labeled due to many customization and branding options. It means you can change it beyond recognition. After an easy set-up, you can upload your courses and start promoting with marketing and SEO optimization tools.  

Uteach has quite a flexible pricing system. You can choose from its three plans or even start with a 14-day free trial. 

• Already the first plan includes the most essential features you need as a creator. The cost of the Starter plan is $29/month. You get unlimited storage, courses, students, coupons, a payment gateway, etc. Most importantly, it includes automation features.
• The Expert plan costs $79/month. Apart from everything mentioned in the previous plan, you will also have Live sessions, affiliates, integrations, white-labeling, etc. 
• The third plan is Business  with $199/month. It offers priority support and a personal manager on top of all. 

Uteach Reviews 

In fact, Uteach is already loved by many creators. What they like most about this platform is the user-friendly interface and easy-to-manage dashboard. There are also no transaction fees. So all these make Uteach a platform worth considering when looking for LearnDash alternatives. 

So far, users have had a positive experience with Uteach and shared their user experience on some of the review platforms. The rating goes as follows: 

• G2: 4.8stars
• Trustpilot: 4.8 stars
• Capterra: 4.6 stars 

One of the reasons the creators choose Uteach is that the platform does all the heavy tasks, saving a great amount of time for its users.

 As a reviewer mentions “Uteach is an amazing platform that takes the headache out of creating a beautiful LMS. I was looking for a platform that was easy to use, versatile and allowed me to create a unique style for my site. The templates are easy to use and the support team is fabulous.”

Another thing users like about Uteach is that there are many tutorials and useful videos available on YouTube to guide the creators.  

Pros 

The pros of Uteach include the following:

• The prices for all plans are affordable
• It has integrations with your local payment gateways
• The learning curve is easy
• Offers many third-party integrations on top of built-in tools. 
• Offers free migration, free website set-up and many great onboarding features for yearly plans

Cons 

• There is not a built-in community tool, so you will need to look for external apps and tools. 

#2 LifterLMS 

One similar thing between LifterLMS and LearnDash is that the former is a WordPress Learning Management System plugin as well. So, if you already have a WordPress website, LifterLMS can be an excellent LearnDash alternative for you. There are also other similar features you may want to consider. 

Pricing plans & features 

LifterLMS allows you to easily create and sell courses and make them the primary source of your income. It has multimedia support, which means that you can incorporate videos, texts, audio, images, and other materials into your lesson. Besides creating, you will also be able to attach assignments, quizzes, and certificates. There are customization options for the courses as well. For example, you can make them free, offer them in bundles, do preselling, or make bulk sales. 

It also provides analytical tools. Due to such tools, you can see how much sales you have made or create custom reports. Besides tracking your results, you can also track your students’ results. This is made possible with Gradebook and detailed reporting. 

As for the prices, LifterLMS offers four plans. 

• Free. Although with limited features, the free plan still exists. It comes with unlimited courses, memberships, students, and teachers. 
• Earth Bundle. The second plan will cost you $199/year. With this plan, you will get an active site, unlimited support for one user, and payment gateways. 
• Universe Bundle. On top of the features the previous plan offers, Universe will get you five sites, themes, eCommerce add-ons, email marketing & CRM options. The price is $360/year. 
• Infinity Bundle. With $1200 a year, this plan is the highest priced. It offers unlimited sites, the core plugin, more add-ons, and a private Facebook group.

LifterLMS reviews 

Let’s see what other users think of LifterLMS. People consider it to be one of the best WordPress LMS plugins. They especially like the membership for the courses best because not many plugins can provide efficient membership opportunities. The similarities it shares with LearnDash may make it a good alternative for you if you prefer working with WordPress. 

LifterLMS has a rating of  3.7 stars on Trustpilot and 4.9 stars on Capterra. According to one of the users LifterLMS is easy to use, and the level of support is commendable. Their guides helped the reviewer to launch the business even when he was not so much of a tech-savvy person. Others have especially liked that the platform integrates with all the necessary apps an online creator might need. Besides, it supports multiple payment gateways, which is also a big yes. 

Pros 

• Provides protection for your courses and materials
• Opportunities for upsells
• Has a money-back guarantee
• Offers a free plan (although with extremely limited features)

Cons 

• Many essential features (e.g., analytics) are with paid add-ons
• There is no option for monthly billing. You will have to pay annually, which is expensive. 
• The themes may sometimes appear incompatible 

#3 Tutor LMS 

Our next station on the journey of finding the best LearnDash alternative is TutorLMS.  It is a feature-rich and versatile LMS solution. You would also love this because TutorLMS is another WordPress plugin we have on our list. Its main features include drag and drop course builder, mobile learning, analytics & reporting. 

Pricing plans & features

TutorLMS offers rich features and interesting solutions for online instructors and educational institutions. You can create engaging quizzes and lessons for the students. Besides, you will have reporting and analytics tools, which show how well your courses are performing.  They include advanced filters allowing you to get the reports based on several parameters. Students will have their separate dashboards where they can see the courses and sessions they participate in. Automated email notifications will keep the students & teachers updated about recent activities. 

Another helpful feature is the advanced quiz creator allowing you to build engaging & challenging quizzes. You will get ten quiz formats to choose from. It has lots of customization options and supports multimedia. 

You can use the Event Calendar to schedule the assignments and ensure your students stick to the deadline. Also, their mobile app will allow your students to access the courses on the go. 

Now let’s see what the pricing can tell us. You can choose from the four pricing versions available.

• Basic. This plan is completely free. It includes community support and a free license. 
• Individual. The second plan costs approximately $139/year. It has one site license, priority email support, and a free installation service. 
• Business is one of the most commonly used plans. The price is a bit above $279/year. Instead of one, it offers 10 site licenses. 
• Agency. The last plan will cost you above $559/year. It will give you unlimited licenses and five free installation services on top of all. 

Tutor LMS reviews 

When it comes to choosing the right platform, it is important to consider other people’s experiences. According to the reviews, the users find TutorLMS easy to use when creating comprehensive courses.  

The reviews go as follows:

• G2: 4.5 stars
• Trustpilot: 4.1 stars
• Capterra: 3.8 stars

What most people like about Tutor LMS is that it has a nice interface and provides a good value for the money. Although it offers customization options, the process may not be the easiest one. 

One of the users mentions: “Setting up Tutor LMS has been way easier than I ever expected - offering a simple install-and-it's-pretty-much-ready option. We are in the process of launching an e-learning platform, and Tutor LMS has made the process way simpler than I would have ever expected - giving the ability for even tech illiterate people to create courses with only a little bit of training. ”

Some more features users would like to see for Tutor LMS are:

• Smooth transitions between the course modules, especially when the module type changes. 
• A library document for the students to access easily. 

Pros 

• Opportunity to create courses in more than twenty languages
• Easy-to-use drag & drop course builder
• Advanced quiz creation tools

Cons

• Not enough integrations
• Upgrading from one plan to another does not add many essential features
• The support team is reported to be not so responsive
• No major gamification features 

#4 Thinkific 

Our next destination is Thinkific. It’s another wonderful platform where you can publish and sell online courses, products, live lessons, and other educational materials. Like Uteach, it is a self-hosted platform. And unlike LearnDash, you will not need any other plugins to run your online teaching website fully. Let’s break down the features in detail. 

Pricing plans & features 

You will be able to choose one of the ready-made templates that best reflect your brand to build your website.  Thinkific has many personalization options, so you can customize your subdomain or add a custom domain. The website's personalization is also made a reality due to advanced HTML/CSS options.

Another interesting thing about Thinkific is that you can upload the courses in bulk, making the process easier and quicker. Moreover, there is availability for self-paced and scheduled classes. Add live lessons and coaching on top of that, and you will have various options to offer your students. Speaking about students, they can instantly access your educational materials via the mobile app. 

With marketing features like coupons and promotions, you can raise awareness among your prospects. Afterward, bundles and subscriptions will be a great way to keep the students’ interest. Thinkific also offers a community that fosters collaborative learning. 

All these features make Thinkific a good alternative to LearnDash. However, the pricing plans are too high compared to the other platforms in the market. The plans are as follows:

• Free. Being a free plan user, you will be able to have 1 course, 1 community, 1 administrator, and unlimited students
• For Basic, you must pay $36/month. Besides the features, the Free plan includes coupons, affiliate selling, and a custom domain. 
• The Start plan includes live lessons, bundles, advanced course-building options, memberships, and code editing. It costs $74 per month. 
• Grow plan costs $149 per month. This plan offers white-labeling, bulk enrollments, and API access. 

Lastly, Thinkific also offers the Plus plan with more customizable features. You will need to reach out to their team to negotiate the price.

Thinkific Reviews

According to the most credible review platforms, the user’s satisfaction with Thinkific is 90%. 80% of them agree it offers good value compared to its price. Most of the users agreed that they would buy it again. 

Here is what we would have if we looked at the reviews on the corresponding platforms: 

• G2: 4.7
• Trustpilot: 4.6
• Capterra: 4.5 

A fresh review on Trustpilot reads as the following: “I have been using Thinific for a while now, I love how easy to use and organized it is. Whenever I need any assistance the team is always there to support. I would definitely recommend it to others”

Users do mostly think that Thinkific is a comprehensive, yet a costly solution. As for some of them, the platform usually focuses on online courses and does not really offer advanced tools for digital downloads, memberships, coaching and other types of teaching.  

All in all, the users are satisfied with the customer support responses and the little tutorial videos they get provided. 

Pros 

• Offers mobile learning opportunities with the Mobile App
• Provides white-labeling (you can add a custom domain, remove Thinkific branding, have a branded mobile app, use your own domain for sending emails and much more). 
• There is a free plan to start

Cons

• The pricing plans are mostly expensive
• Has a bit of a learning curve for back-end tools 

Overall, it has all the essential features you will need as an online creator. 

#5 Masteriyo LMS 

Do you want to consider another WordPress plugin? Masteriyo LMS is another Wordpress  plugin which will allow you to build courses easily without coding skills. Like LearDash, it makes the learning environment free of distractions. This way, students are able to concentrate better on the material.  

Pricing plans & features 

Course creating on Masteriyo is made a reality with a drag-and-drop course builder. Once the students get access to the course or the lesson, they are able to leave their questions in the special textbox and get answers. This creates a collaborative learning environment. You and other students can see the question, discuss and provide answers. There is also an opportunity to search the question to see if it was already raised. 

Unlike LearnDash, Masteriyo has an easier course builder. Nine interactive quiz types can be created with drag-and-drop functionalities. With the smart grading system, you can set points for each correct answer and get the results immediately.

When a student purchases a course, you can see it in the order list. Meanwhile, the students can create a wishlist of their desired courses. They can also put ratings and leave reviews for the course. You can apply coupons and discounts to promote the course. 

Masteriyo offers four pricing plans. They are all billed annually. The plans include the following: 

• Free plan. This plan includes unlimited courses, lessons, quizzes, drag & drop course builder, distraction-free pages, and a Q&A section. 
• The Starter plan costs approximately $49 per year. It offers integrations, advanced quiz creation, a wishlist option, assignments, certificates, and the like.
• The next plan is Growth. Here you will get coupons, drip content options, white labeling opportunities, Gradebook, etc. 
• And lastly, we have the Scale. It costs approximately $164/year. It is intended for businesses and agencies. It offers the same features as the previous plan. 

Masteriyo LMS reviews

Many users find Masteriyo’s quiz creator very easy to manage. Most of its features are beginner-friendly. While Masteriyo provides advanced features, it also keeps everything simple and easy. 

Pros

• 100% money-back guarantee
• Extremely easy quiz builder
• A free plan to get started

Cons

• It needs more advanced course creation tools. If you are a pro creator, you will need more versatile options beside the drag & drop builder. 
• There are limited customization options in terms of interface & user role management. 
• Not enough features related to marketing 

However, Masteriyo shares some similar features with LearnDash, making it a good alternative. 

#6 LearnWorlds 

LearnWorlds is another great alternative to LearnDash. It provides you with every tool to grow your consulting, training, and coaching online business. It has more than 200 templates to help you easily build your website. So, you will definitely find one that best fits your brand. 

Pricing plans & features  

LearnWorlds has advanced and interactive video editing tools that will instantly make your courses more engaging. For example, you can add a synchronized transcript and other elements to the video. Due to it, you will not have to spend much time on the post-production process. 

With the help of advanced assessment builder tools, you can create online exams & quizzes. There are sixteen question types to help you create unique and interactive quizzes. After it is ready, you can save some of the questions in the bank for future use in other assessments. Furthermore, there is an option for automatic feedback and a Gradebook. 

LearnWorls also has customization options to help you build your brand. They include a white-label website builder, a mobile app builder, and survey & pop-up builders. The marketing and analytical tools are helpful too. With the help of the insights, you can see where there is a need for improvement. 

You can start with a 30-day free trial. The pricing options include the following:

• Starter with $24/month, plus $5 per course sale. This first plan includes quizzes, eBooks, courses, a custom domain, payment gateways, and other essential features. In fact, it mostly includes everything you need as a starter. 
• Pro Trainer with $79 per month. It includes subscriptions and memberships, a survey builder, integrations, and features to increase engagement
• Learning Center with $249.  It has full white labeling, a mobile app, reports, bulk sales, and more advanced features. 
• High Volume & Corporate includes all the premium features. As with the previous three, it offers no transaction fees. To check on the price, you will need to contact the sales team. 

LearnWorlds Reviews

What most people love about LearnWorlds are integrations for learning activities. They find the user interface friendly and the templates easy to use. Plus, the users are overall satisfied with the support team. 

The ratings on the most credible review platforms go as follows: 

• G2: 4.7 stars
• Capterra: 4.7 stars
• Trustpilot: 3.7 stars 

Users love their experience with LearnWorlds. There is a little learning curve, however no platform comes without it. What they like most about this platform are the following:

• Ability to Importing SCORM files
• The variety of assessment
• Website templates
• The branded app

The reviewers find the support incredible, as they got the necessary answers rather quickly. 

Pros 

• Regardless of the plan, you will be able to edit the HTML code
• You can have custom branding including a branded mobile app
• It has interactive video editing capabilities

Cons 

• You need to integrate a separate email marketing service
• The pricing is quite high
• There is no free version

#7 Teachable 

The last LearnDash alternative we will look at is Teachable. Teachable is one of the leading online teaching platforms in the market. Its many useful features allow you to create and sell courses online easily. It comes with useful integrations to help you on your journey. Now, let’s break down its key features. 

Pricing plans & features 

Teachable allows you to provide synchronous and asynchronous learning opportunities for your students. You can offer self-paced & cohort-based courses and coaching on Teachable. You get the opportunity to repurpose your content, allowing you to scale easily. Besides, Teachable has comments, quizzes, and certification options to make learning more engaging for the students. 

Another interesting fact about Teachable is that you do not have to run after collecting taxes. The Teachable team will do it for you. The membership website options make it an excellent way to scale your teaching business. Teachable also has a community feature on top of that. This means you can join more than ten thousand creators to collaborate and exchange ideas.

All Teachable features may be great. However, we cannot say the same thing about the pricing. It mainly offers four plans. The first plan is free. It includes basic and limited features, such as one published product, web pages, student referrals, and email support. Note that the free version has transaction fees. 

The basic plan starts at $39/month. It has 5 published courses, coupons, a custom domain, group coaching, and email marketing. You will have to pay 5% transaction fees for this plan. The Pro plan costs $119/month. It comes with unlimited published materials, removable branding, upsells, and affiliate marketing. 

If you are interested, there is also the Business plan with the cost of $499/month. Its main features include advanced customization and bulk student enrollment.

Teachable reviews

The users’ opinions about using Teachable are quite controversial. While some people are satisfied with the support team’s responses, others claim their questions were not addressed properly. However, users find it easy to create and sell courses on Teachable. 

Here are some its ratings from the highest to the lowest: 

• Capterra: 4.4 stars
• G2: 4 stars
• Trustpilot: 2.4 stars 

Here is an updated Teachable review on Capterra:

“The ability to offer discounts and promotions, create custom landing pages, and track conversions and sales data can be particularly useful for course creators who are looking to increase their reach and revenue.However, as I mentioned earlier, some users have also reported issues with Teachable pricing, payment processing, and design customization options.”

With Teachable, uploading the materials and creating a curriculum is easy. Users like that it also offers pre-made templates for checkout and sales pages. 

Pros 

• It offers a free plan to get started (with limited features, though)
• Teachable offers a community, thus fostering collaborative learning
• It has a bunch of features to make everything easier for you

Cons

• The subscription plans are too pricey for people who are beginners in the industry
• The mobile app is only for iOS devices
• The plans have transaction fees

LearnDash FAQ 

Let’s check some frequently asked questions.

Is LearnDash SCORM-compliant? 

With LearnDash, you will be able to use SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 only by using third-party add-ons. However, when it comes to creating courses or other types of content inside LearnDash itself the platform is not SCORM compliant. So, if you do not want to use third-party add ons the only solution is to switch to another platform.  

Can I use LearnDash without Wordpress? 

LearnDash is a WordPress plugin, meaning that the latter is required for LearnDash to operate. First, you need to install WordPress which is a Content Management System. Afterwards the LMS will add e-learning capabilities to the system. If you want to consider self-hosted platforms make sure to read the article and find out everything about LearDash alternatives. 

Does LearnDash charge transaction fees?  

LearnDash does not keep transaction fees for the courses and resources you sell. It has three payment methods you can choose from - Stripe, RazorPay and PayPal. These payment processors may charge their own fees for the services.  

Is LearnDash a one time fee? 

You can choose between LearDash plugin and and LearnDash cloud. The first option is usually for anyone who already has a WordPress site and wants to add an LMS solution. The price for that option is billed annually. It includes:

• 1 site: $199/year
• 10 sites: $399/year
• Unlimited sites: $799/year

Most affordable 3 alternatives 

Let’s sum up our list of the 7 best LearnDash alternatives by listing down the most affordable platforms. 

• Uteach - $29/month, $79/month, $199/month
• Masteriyo LMS- $49, $98, $164
• LearnWorlds- $24/month, $79/month, $249/month, to be decided

Most feature-rich 3 alternatives 

In case you are looking for LearnDash alternatives with advanced features, here is our list of top three: 

• Uteach - $29/month, $79/month, $199/month
• Teachable- $39/month, $119/month, $499/month
• Thinkific- $36/month, $74/month, $149/month

The best Learndash all-in-one alternative for you

The choice of the best platform mostly depends on what you are looking for in the platform. Do you prefer a more affordable version, or are you looking for something easy-to-use and feature-rich? Whatever it is, there is no need to go back and forth between too many platforms.  We have found an optimal solution for you - Uteach. What makes Uteach a great alternative to Learndash? First, it is self-hosted, so you do not need WordPress to keep your website running.

Secondly, Uteach offers every feature so you can easily create & sell online courses, live sessions, coaching sessions, digital & physical products, and many other educational materials.

So, if you are ready to bring your teaching to a new level, book a demo now!

Start creating today, and do not let the opportunities pass you by.