LearnDash has been a popular WordPress LMS for years. MemberPress has comparable LMS features, plus community and coaching that LearnDash doesn’t offer at any price point. And now, LearnDash’s parent brand ceased to exist. Here’s where things stand.
The Short Answer: LearnDash is a WordPress LMS plugin starting at $259/year that now includes built-in memberships, subscriptions, and payments via MemberDash.
MemberPress is a WordPress membership plugin from $349.50/year that includes a full LMS plus community features (ClubSuite™) and coaching tools (CoachKit™).
Both cover the LMS fundamentals well; MemberPress adds community and coaching that LearnDash doesn’t offer at any price.
For most course creators, coaches, and membership site owners, MemberPress is the more complete platform.
Wait… What Just Happened to LearnDash?
It’s May 2026, and WordPress users have just noticed something odd: learndash.com has stopped functioning as a standalone site.
Along with Kadence, GiveWP, The Events Calendar, and IconicWP, the familiar LearnDash website has been folded into Liquid Web’s main domain.
StellarWP (the brand that had housed LearnDash since its 2021 acquisition) has been effectively disbanded.
Liquid Web has consolidated its entire WordPress plugin portfolio down to four core products under its own roof.
LearnDash survived the cut, its own membership plugin, MemberDash, was absorbed into it, but the dedicated brand identity, team structure, and product roadmap that existed under StellarWP are gone.
What that means for the future of LearnDash’s development, support quality, and strategic direction under a managed hosting company is, at this point, genuinely unclear.
We’ve written more extensively about this in our post What Happened to LearnDash? The StellarWP Collapse, Explained, but it’s context you should have before making a long-term plugin decision.
With that said, this post is primarily about features. Let’s compare them properly.
What Is LearnDash?
LearnDash is a WordPress LMS plugin first launched in 2013, built for creating and selling online courses.
It has a strong reputation for LMS depth: eight quiz types, drip content, group management, gradebooks, cohorts, and advanced reporting on higher plans.
It now powers 100,000+ active installs and claims 25M+ learners taught. For organisations running serious e-learning programmes, it’s been a popular WordPress choice for years.
The picture has recently changed. With MemberDash now integrated into every plan, LearnDash is no longer purely an LMS.
Memberships, subscription tiers, content dripping by membership level, and built-in Stripe/PayPal payments are all included from the Essentials plan upwards. It’s now a more complete platform than it used to be.
What it still doesn’t have: community features and coaching tools. There’s no equivalent to MemberPress’s ClubSuite™ or CoachKit™ in any LearnDash plan.
What Is MemberPress?
MemberPress started as a membership and access control plugin in 2012 and has expanded into a full platform for memberships, courses, community, and coaching: it’s the all in one plugin for creators who want to monetize their content.
MemberPress manages to offer everything while still keeping bloat to a minimum by using add-ons so that you activate only the features you need.
- The MemberPress Courses add-on adds a drag and drop course builder, completion certificates, course content dripping, and unlocks the following add-ons:
- Quizzes – Add fun and flexible quizzes to your courses- Includes 9 quiz types
- Assignments – Students can submit assignments as files and links.
- Gradebook – Manage grades, track student progress, and provide personalized feedback
- AI Course Generator – Build out your curricula, lessons and quizzes all from a natural conversation right inside MemberPress Courses.
- The CoachKit™ add-on adds cohorts, coaching programs, milestones, and habit tracking, which can all add to your course experience.
- ClubSuite™ refers to MemberPress’s range of community plugins:
- ClubCircles™ – add forums for your students to connect and share tips
- ClubDirectory™ – enable students to create rich profiles and find other members in directories
- ClubConnect™ – enable direct messaging between students, admins, teachers, and coaches.
Payments are handled natively through Stripe, PayPal, and others. Access control (who sees what, based on which membership tier) is the original core feature it was built on.
The practical difference from LearnDash: MemberPress adds community and coaching to the mix.
ClubSuite™ and CoachKit™ have no LearnDash equivalent, and for membership site owners who want all three pillars (learning, community, and coaching) in one plugin, that gap is the deciding factor.
The Key Differences
| LearnDash | MemberPress | |
|---|---|---|
| Plugin type | LMS + memberships + payments | LMS + memberships + community + coaching |
| Membership & access control | ✓ Built-in via MemberDash | ✓ Core feature – 14 years of development |
| Course / LMS features | ✓ Deep – advanced reporting | ✓ Strong – drip, quizzes, gradebook, certs |
| Quiz types | ✓ 8 types | ✓ 9 types |
| Reporting & analytics | ✓ Pro+ (enrollment, completion, revenue) | ✓ Built-in |
| Groups & cohorts | ✓ | ✓ CoachKit™™ |
| Gamification | ✓ Points, badges | ✗ Not native |
| Community features | ✗ | ✓ ClubSuite™ built-in |
| Coaching tools | ✗ | ✓ CoachKit™ |
| Native payments | ✓ | ✓ Built-in |
| Affiliate programme | Via add-ons | ✓ Easy Affiliate integration |
| AI course generator | ✓ | ✓ |
| Trustpilot rating | ⭐ 4.5 / 5 | ⭐ 4.8 / 5 |
| G2 rating | ⭐ 4.2 / 5 | ⭐ 4.6 / 5 |
| Parent company situation | ⚠️ StellarWP dissolved May 2026; now under Nexcess/Liquid Web | ✓ Caseproof: independent, stable |
| Starting price | $259/year (Essentials) | From $349.50/year (for plans inc. community + coaching) |
MemberPress vs. LearnDash: Pricing
LearnDash plans (current Liquid Web pricing):
- Essentials: $259/year – courses, 8 quiz types, MemberDash memberships, Stripe/PayPal, certificates, video progression
- Pro: $399/year – adds AI Course Outline, advanced reporting, enrollment tracking, weighted grading, report cards, groups & cohorts
- Elite: $599/year – adds multi-instructor management, instructor role, front-end course creation, ratings and reviews
No transaction fees on any plan. Unlimited courses and learners on all plans.
MemberPress plans:
- Launch: From $199.50/year (yr 1; $399/yr renewal) + 4.9% fee (memberships and basic courses – no community or coaching)
- Growth: From $349.50/year (yr 1; $699/yr renewal) + 0% fees (Courses + CoachKit™ + ClubSuite™ community)
- Scale: From $499.50/year (yr 1; $999/yr renewal) + 0% fees (adds ClubConnect™ real-time messaging)
The comparison is closer than it used to be. LearnDash Essentials at $259/year now includes memberships and payments, so it’s genuinely competing at a similar level to MemberPress Launch for basic course-plus-membership setups.
MemberPress Growth at $349.50/year is ~$90 more per year but includes community features and CoachKit™ that LearnDash doesn’t offer at any price point.
Bottom line: Both platforms now cover courses, memberships, and payments. The pricing is in the same ballpark. The differentiation comes down to what’s alongside the LMS.
MemberPress includes community and coaching; LearnDash goes deeper on the LMS side itself with things like plagiarism detection and more structured formal assessment tracking.
MemberPress vs. LearnDash: Course and LMS Features
MemberPress and LearnDash have a comparable LMS feature set. But where LearnDash pulls ahead on the LMS side is reporting.
Advanced enrollment tracking and completion rate analytics are available on Pro and Elite. If you’re running an institutional programme that needs that reporting depth, LearnDash has more to offer there specifically.
MemberPress Courses covers everything most course creators and membership site owners actually need.
- Quizzes support graded assessments.
- The gradebook tracks student performance.
- Assignments let students submit more complex work.
- Completion certificates are included.
- An AI Course Generator speeds up course creation.
- And because it’s inside MemberPress, access control (who can access which course, based on which membership) is native, not bolted on.
| LMS feature | LearnDash | MemberPress Courses |
|---|---|---|
| Drip content | ✓ | ✓ |
| Quizzes | ✓ 8 types | ✓ 9 types Quizzes add-on |
| Gradebook / weighted grading | ✓ Pro+ | ✓ Gradebook add-on |
| Assignments | ✓ | ✓ Assignments add-on |
| Completion certificates | ✓ | ✓ |
| Progress tracking | ✓ | ✓ |
| Advanced reporting & analytics | ✓ Pro+ | ✓ |
| Gamification (points, badges) | ✓ | ✗ |
| AI course generator | ✓ Pro+ | ✓ |
| Built-in memberships & payments | ✓ All plans (MemberDash) | ✓ Core feature |
| Community integration | ✗ | ✓ ClubSuite™ |
| Coaching integration | ✗ | ✓ CoachKit™ |
Bottom line: For the vast majority of membership site owners and course creators,MemberPress Courses covers everything needed and adds features LearnDash simply doesn’t have.
For enterprise eLearning with SCORM requirements, LearnDash wins on LMS depth.
MemberPress vs. LearnDash: Community and Coaching
With MemberDash now built into LearnDash, both plugins cover the core bases: courses, memberships, and payments. The clearest gap between them is what sits alongside the LMS.
MemberPress has ClubSuite™ (discussion boards, member directories, real-time messaging) and CoachKit™ (coaching programs, milestones, habit tracking, and scheduling integrations). Neither exists in any form in LearnDash at any plan level.
For a creator whose model is purely courses-plus-memberships, LearnDash and MemberPress are now genuinely comparable.
But for anyone running a coaching program, a paid community, or a combination of all three, MemberPress covers the full picture in one plugin.
With LearnDash, you’d need to bolt on additional tools for community and coaching, which brings back the plugin management complexity that MemberDash’s integration was supposed to solve.
MemberPress also benefits from 14 years of membership development. MemberDash is newer, and while it covers the fundamentals, MemberPress’s access control, couponing, subscription management, and reporting infrastructure is more mature and more battle-tested at scale.
MemberPress vs. LearnDash: Platform Stability
MemberPress is built and maintained by Caseproof – an independent company with a clear, stable product identity and a 14-year track record of iterating on the same plugin.
LearnDash is now directly under Liquid Web, a managed hosting company, following the effective dissolution of StellarWP in May 2026.
Liquid Web has stated LearnDash is one of its four retained core products, which is reassuring. But the brand identity, dedicated product team, and strategic focus that existed under StellarWP are gone.
How actively LearnDash is developed under its new structure remains to be seen.
For a plugin you’re building long-term course revenue on, that’s a question worth asking, even if it doesn’t yet have a definitive answer.
Bottom line: Both plugins currently work. MemberPress has the clearer, more stable product trajectory. LearnDash’s future direction under Liquid Web is an open question following May 2026’s restructuring.
MemberPress vs. LearnDash: Customer Satisfaction
MemberPress holds a 4.8/5 on Trustpilot and 4.6/5 on G2. LearnDash holds 4.5/5 on Trustpilot and G2 shows a lower 4.2/5 from 49 reviews.
While both consistently receive positive reviews positive, the G2 gap is worth noting. G2 reviews tend to come from users who’ve been running the plugin for a while and have something substantive to say.
MemberPress’s 4.6/5 from a larger pool suggests more consistent satisfaction across the user base, while LearnDash’s smaller G2 sample may simply reflect a less engaged review community rather than product issues.
MemberPress reviews consistently highlight responsive support and the reliability of having courses, memberships, and community managed by one team.
Should You Use Both?
MemberPress and LearnDash integrate natively, and some organisations do run both, using MemberPress for its mature membership infrastructure and LearnDash for its deeper LMS features.
If your course business needs that LMS depth but also wants MemberPress’s community and coaching features, the combination is legitimate.
For most course creators and membership site owners, though, MemberPress Courses alone is plenty, and keeping the plugin count down simplifies maintenance considerably.
Who MemberPress Is Best For
- Course creators and membership site owners who want courses, memberships, community, and coaching covered by one plugin and one support team
- Coaches who need CoachKit™ alongside course delivery (milestones, habit tracking, client onboarding)
- Communities that need ClubSuite™ discussion boards, member directories, and messaging alongside their courses
- Anyone whose LMS needs are met by drip content, quizzes, gradebook, assignments, and certificates – which covers the vast majority of use cases
- Sites building a full learning + community + coaching business who don’t want to manage additional plugins for those layers
Who LearnDash Is Best For
- Course creators who need gamification (points, badges, leaderboards), detailed LMS reporting, or the multi-instructor features in LearnDash Pro or Elite
- Organisations managing multiple instructors, selling group/enterprise seats, or running structured cohort programmes
- Anyone already deeply invested in the LearnDash ecosystem who doesn’t need the community and coaching features MemberPress provides
- Power users who want to pair a best-in-class LMS with MemberPress’s membership infrastructure. The LearnDash MemberPress integration supports this well
Switching from LearnDash to MemberPress
If you’ve been running both LearnDash and a separate membership plugin, consolidating into MemberPress Growth typically reduces the plugin count and simplifies ongoing maintenance significantly.
MemberPress has it’s own Courses Migrator that enables you to migrate LearnDash to MemberPress automatically.
Frequently Asked Questions
Both cover courses, memberships and payments. MemberPress also adds community (ClubSuite™) and coaching (CoachKit™) that LearnDash doesn’t offer at any plan level.
LearnDash is the stronger choice if you need advanced LMS reporting, gamification, or multi-instructor management. For everyone else, MemberPress covers more ground.
All StellarWP product websites now redirect to Liquid Web’s main domain, and the portfolio has been consolidated to four core products.
LearnDash continues to exist under Liquid Web’s direct management, but the dedicated brand and product team structure of the StellarWP era is gone.
Read our What Happened to LearnDash post for more detail.
Where LearnDash leads is advanced reporting (enrollment tracking, completion rates, revenue reporting on Pro+) and gamification (points and badges).
For most course creators, MemberPress covers everything needed, and then some.
Some organisations use both: MemberPress for membership management and access control, LearnDash for course delivery.
This makes sense if you have enterprise LMS requirements that go beyond MemberPress Courses. For most users, MemberPress alone is plenty.
For a course business doing meaningful revenue, Growth (from $349.50/year intro) is the relevant plan, and it includes the full Courses add-on, CoachKit™, and ClubSuite™ community features.
LearnDash holds 4.5/5 on Trustpilot and scores 4.2/5 on G2 from 49 reviews.
Trustpilot scores are broadly comparable; MemberPress has the edge with its G2 rating from a larger and more engaged review base.
Final Verdict
LearnDash has earned its reputation as an LMS plugin that goes deep:quiz types, gamification, cohort reporting, multi-instructor management, and with MemberDash now integrated, it’s a more complete platform than it used to be.
But it still doesn’t have community features or coaching tools. For creators who want all three pillars (learning, community, and coaching) in one plugin with one support team, MemberPress covers the full picture in a way LearnDash doesn’t.
The StellarWP dissolution is the kind of thing that shouldn’t decide a plugin choice on its own. But if you were already weighing LearnDash against alternatives, this latest news gives you one more reason not to wait.
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