In case you want to create an course site where you can sell or offer for free your courses than you can take a look of some WordPress plugins and themes that were developed to help you with this. I was checking some of them lately as I want to use them on this site and to an site that I have in RO to put on them some free and paid courses. I have found on the searches done some free and premium plugins and themes that can help you host your courses and certifications. In this article I would only highlight the best ones that exists with some links to a detailed description of the uses for some of them. The free ones have also the power to help you host your courses but they are coming with less features. I will start with the premium ones, they are 3 and continue with the free ones at the end.
The best plugin from my point of view because has the features like certifications, quiz, students notifications and other features. It can be also integrated with other membership plugins like s2Member, magic member, etc. The plugin is easy to use and the price is 99$ for 2 sites. For a detailed description of the features and what the plugin has to offer you can check the ManageWP article: https://managewp.com/courseware
A plugin developed by Woo compatible with all the Woo plugins and modules that Woo has this being the biggest advantages. The price is 129$ for 1 site, from my perspective the price is quite high for this plugin. Again a very interesting article where you can find a lot of details: https://managewp.com/sensei
Again it has just the same features like the others. It can also be integrated with most of the important plugins like Woocommerce, PaidMemberships, etc. The price is 99$ for unlimited sites, a good price. Again to check more advance features and detailed description you can check: https://managewp.com/learndash
This are the premium WordPress Course Plugins, the first one I like the most as it has also the student feature and the feedback online is very good. You have also instructors and students options thing that I like a lot.
Free plugins that can help you host an online course platform was developed, they are offering less features and limitations. Below are the ones that you can use
The plugin is developed by wpmudev the plugin has a lot of features but with the free version you can only have until 2 courses. For the free tryout this is good and you can take it for a try out. You can add audio, video etc., the plugin is coming also with a premium version which lets’s you have unlimited courses. The good thing that the plugin is compatible with all the wpmudev plugins but on the other side it is only compatible with their extension thing that I don’t like.
Namaste! LMS is a learning management system for WordPress. Supports unlimited number of courses, lessons, assignments, students etc. You can create various rules for course and lesson access and completeness based on assignment completion, test results, or manual admin approval. The plugin is coming also with a premium version.
The plugin unites a course management system (with enrollments) and a BibTeX compatible publication management. teachPress is optimized for the needs of professorships and research groups.
WpCourses, is a tool for managing course catalog. Ideal for training companies schools and training centers.
In case the above plugins doesn’t offer everything that you wanted related with the LMS platform that you want to created then another option exists to use a WordPress course/LMS theme that offers this possibility.
Guru is a powerful learning management (LMS) WordPress Theme effectively uses WordPress, Sensei, BuddyPress, WooCommerce, Event Calendar, WPML, Mail-chimp. This theme provides awesome features for creating online courses, Teacher Profile, Extended user profiles, Lesson management, Quiz System, Video Hosting, Ranking / Rating system, Questions system, Attachments, Tracking course progress, WooCommerce integration, BuddyPress, Event Calendar, WPML Support and more. Start teaching online, Build a Training Website
This theme provides awesome features for creating online courses, such as extended user profiles, rating system, questions system, file attachments, embedding self-hosted media, tracking course progress, WooCommerce integration and more.
LMS is Powerful Learning management wordpress theme provides awesome features for creatingonline courses, teacher profile, extended user profiles, lesson management, quiz System, video Hosting, ranking / rating system, questions system, attachments, Tracking course progress etc.,This theme effectively uses WordPress, Sensei, BuddyPress, WooCommerce, Event Calendar, WPML, Mail-chimp. Start teaching online, Build a Training Website
WPLMS is not just a WordPress Theme but a advanced Learning Management System. This theme utilises the maximum potential of WordPress + BuddyPress + BBPress + WooCommerce. It is a powerful theme with lot of flexible and usable features. It comes with custom plugins specifically designed for this theme to work as a powerful Learning management system. Built with HTML5 and CSS3, WPLMS has many unique features.
WordPress is offering some powerful alternatives if you want to have an course/LMS system. If you don’t want something so fancy you can start with the free plugins and work your way to the premium ones when the site is developing and earning money. The themes are also very powerful and are integrated with plugins like Woocomerce, Sensei, bb or buddypress things that brings a big advantages.
If you want to ask me what I would choose if I wanted to build and site only where to post courses and let other do so like udemy.com for example I will go with WPLMS as it has an only 63$ price and has all the features and integration possibility that can make the difference.
What about you what you would choose?
Dainis Graveris says:
I did went in past for Udemy…before that even for Sensei Woothemes path.. though now looking and recommending more Thinkific or Teachable online course platforms.
Here’s a nice comparison – https://foundertips.com/thinkific-vs-teachable/
Just seems to me it’s faster using platforms now, though of course you give up some control (which might be important for some developer, more technical people)..