8 Best WordPress Plugins to Monetize Digital Courses

Ever since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the search for online learning has jumped by 100%. Now there are over 6 million students who are learning through digital courses. 

Of course, if you’re a lecturer or want to create digital courses, now is the perfect time to do it. To start your learning website, there are a few things you need. One of them is a reliable hosting provider like Hostinger.

The other is a website and some WordPress plugins that will help you easily integrate your courses to your site. In this article, I’ll provide eight excellent learning management system choices to help you find the best match. 

Let’s get started. 

1. LearnDash

LearnDash is one of the best-known WordPress plugins when it comes to monetizing your digital courses. It’s used by many Fortune 500 companies and major universities because of its feature set, online course design, and overall speed. 

Using LearnDash, you can easily create and sell courses, build quizzes for your course material, and generate certificates once your students complete the course. You’ll also get the option to either deliver your course materials all at once or over a scheduled timeline.

The pricing is set annually, with the most basic plan starting at $159. This plan supports one website and provides all the features needed. 

LearnDash doesn’t provide any free trials, but it does have a 30-day refund policy. 

2. Sensei

Sensei is an extension plugin for WooCommerce, so it’s easy to add online videos and courses to your eCommerce store. However, you can also simply add it as an independent plugin to your WordPress website.

It’s open-source software, and it’s free to use. However, if you want to integrate it with your eCommerce website, you’ll have to opt for one of their annual plans, which start at $129 and go up to $279, depending on how many websites you want to use it for.

Sensei allows you to create courses, organize lessons and add quizzes. You can also add user registration. Because of its integration with WooCommerce, you can instantly charge for a course, whether it’s on an individual basis or subscription.

3. MemberPress

MemberPress is a powerful WordPress plugin for monetizing your digital courses. It has plenty of features that make creating courses simple. The tool is built on top of the WordPress block editor, so it’s relatively easy to use. 

Their already-optimized design templates make it easy for you to create online classrooms, and with their drag-and-drop interface, you can build your course curriculum quickly. 

MemberPress lets you create multiple courses with different payment options and manage them from just one dashboard. 

Their annual price starts at $149 for one website license and several course add-ons. If you want to unlock more niche features, like affiliate management and bulk corporate memberships, you’ll need to go for their more advanced plans, starting at $299 per year. 

4. LifterLMS

LifterLMS is a flexible WordPress plugin that can be integrated with WooCommerce, AffiliateWP, and MailChimp, making it easier to combine with your website. 

It supports a multi-tier course plan that includes training modules, lessons, and categories. With this, you get the flexibility to create short courses or full-fledged degree courses. 

LifterLMS is also known for providing a bundle of items like draft courses and quizzes, so all you need to do is fill in the content.

LifterLMS is a premium tool that has an annual subscription plan at $299 for a single website. With this plan, you get many add-ons and features, such as content dripping, group memberships, the ability to manage affiliates, as well as marketing and CRM add-ons. You can try out this plugin for just $1 for 30 days.

5. LearnPress

LearnPress is a free and comprehensive WordPress tool for creating and monetizing your digital courses. It’s a simple and intuitive tool that helps you easily build different quizzes and lessons. 

LearnPress also lets you export content to use on your other WordPress website that has LearnPress installed. This plugin works with most WordPress themes, but you can also choose one of the themes they provide.

While the core of LearnPress is free, you’ll most likely still need to install add-ons, such as scheduled content, payment gateways, assignments, and grading.

6. WP Courseware

WP Courseware is an excellent WordPress tool for online course creation. It’s used by some of the top universities in the world and enterprise training websites. It offers a wide range of features and makes creating a learning website a breeze.

Course creation tool in WP Courseware lets you create large and small online courses, student grade books, custom emails, instructor profiles, content drip, and course prerequisites. 

Their annual plan starts from $129, and unlike other tools mentioned here, you get a license for two websites instead of one. There’s also a 30-day money-back guarantee, so if you feel that WP Courseware isn’t the right tool for you, they’ll give you back your money.

7. Teachable

Teachable is a powerful premium digital course builder. It’s not considered a WordPress plugin, but you can use it on your sub-domain, custom domain name, or by adding a link to your website.

Teachable will fully host your online courses and provide you with the necessary tools to create highly interactive digital lessons. 

With its basic plan, which starts at $29 per month, you’ll receive integrated email marketing and a training session to help you create the best online courses. It also lets you have unlimited students, videos, courses and even provides hosting.

One downside of using Teachable is that you’ll be charged a 5% fee for each transaction if you’re on their basic plan. However, if you opt for their pro plan, which starts at $99 per month, there are no transaction fees.

8. Tutor LMS

Tutor LMS is a feature-packed freemium WordPress tool that comes with core functionalities, like an intuitive course builder and unlimited classes and lessons for free. 

Tutor LMS offers integration with Google Classroom for seamless communication, Elementor for creating customized courses, and Zoom for live video classes. 

If you opt for their premium plan, it starts at $149 per year. With it, you’ll receive many premium add-ons like Multi-instructor, the ability to generate unique certificates, offer course previews, and most importantly, the option to use the front-end course builder.

Conclusion

Now you know the eight WordPress plugins that can help you build and monetize your digital courses. Do note that most of them have similar pricing strategies. What differentiates them is the unique features, like a drag-and-drop interface and integration with other software.

So take your time to compare the tools mentioned above and pick one that suits your requirements. It’s also a good idea to try out the free trials of some of the tools mentioned, just to get a gist of how the best-known interface works.