17 Best Online Course Themes For Your WordPress LMS

So, you’ve decided to choose WordPress to launch your eLearning business? You’ve done your research, installed the best LMS plugin, and you’ve probably even started creating a course.

Great work!

• But is your course ready to attract learners?
• Is the design good enough to appeal to the users?
• Does it cater to the needs of both instructors and students?
• Does it ensure the best possible user experience?
• Is it responsive?
• Is it fast?
• Can handle the incoming surge of traffic?
• Does it reflect your brand?

If these questions feel overwhelming, don’t worry, as we’ve done the homework for you.

We’ve reviewed 8 course themes that are suitable for every eLearning website built on WordPress.

These themes not only dictate the look and feel of your website but can also decide whether your user stays or bounces off.

Thus, choosing the right theme becomes very important while building an online course platform because your visitors are going to be your students who’ll spend a lot of time on your site.

So without wasting any more time, let’s jump in.

Note: If you’re tired of exploring WordPress theme features and still can’t find what you’re looking for, our experts can customize any WordPress theme or even build one from scratch to meet your needs. Get in touch with WordPress theme Experts here.

1. eLumine

Developed by WisdmLabs, eLumine is a versatile online course theme that has every feature that you may need to create an online education platform out of your LearnDash WordPress site.

It has default grid layouts, focus mode, multilingual support, easy demo import, and multiple layouts for the homepage, shop page as well as course pages.

eLumine also offers Neo layouts that hugely improve the look and aesthetic of LearnDash pages, creating a better UX and distraction-free design, which can significantly increase student engagement.

For the serious course builders, eLumine is has a bunch of premium extensions (i.e. Instructor Role, Quiz Reporting, Group Registrations, etc.) in the LearnDash Essential Add-ons Pack that can significantly increase the simplicity of student enrollment and course management in your site. In addition, in its latest update, the eLumine theme has introduced super-fast page load times, making it one of the fastest e-learning themes available for LearnDash.

eLumine licenses start at $100.

2. LMS WordPress Theme

Image Source: CyberChimps.com

If you are an academician and looking for an easy way to share your knowledge with others, LMS theme is your option. It is a responsive and multipurpose eLearning theme for WordPress specially designed for teachers, instructors, and coaches.

The user-friendly WordPress education theme lets you conduct online courses, webinars, and quizzes with just a few clicks. No coding knowledge is required to use the theme. You can manage the learning system, create student groups for better attention, and reward the students to increase their level of motivation. There are features to communicate with each learner individually.

WordPress LMS Theme is SEO-friendly, translation ready and it supports all modern browsers.

The price starts at $29.50 for a single site.

3. Astra Pro

Image Source: WPastra.com

The next best WordPress theme for education websites is Astra Pro. It’s one of the most popular multipurpose themes, and it integrates amazingly well with LearnDash too. It has a separate settings panel for LearnDash integration. And since it’s not just a theme but also a page builder, its customization capabilities are huge. There’s hardly any theme in the WordPress ecosystem that’s as versatile and customizable as this one.

However, this customization also comes with a learning curve – you’ll have to spend a considerable amount of time learning your way around it. Another drawback is that Astra is essentially a multipurpose theme, so all of its features are not designed solely as per the requirements of e-learning sites.

The price of Astra Pro starts from $49. It also has a free version, but that version doesn’t come with a dedicated LearnDash settings panel so the integration isn’t as good as it can be in Astra Pro.

4. BuddyBoss theme for LearnDash

Image Source: BuddyBoss.com

The fourth popular eLearning theme in our list is the BuddyBoss theme for LearnDash. Like Astra, BuddyBoss is also one of the best themes for your LearnDash LMS.

Developed by the team behind BuddyPress, it’s a theme that can be best used when you want to create a community of learners by combining forums, groups, and other social features, and not just a simple learning site. If you want to implement these features, you’ll certainly need BuddyPress. That’s when you can utilize most of this theme because its features have been designed to integrate amazingly with BuddyPress.

The pricing of BuddyBoss for LearnDash starts from $299 for a single site.

If you are confused as to which LearnDash theme you should choose, you can try comparing eLumine, Astra, and BuddyBoss to see which suits your requirements best.

5. LifterLMS LaunchPad

Image Source: LifterLMS.com

As its name suggests, it’s an online course theme developed by the developers of LifterLMS itself, so it works only with LifterLMS.

As far as its features are concerned, it comes with a complete set of customization options that allow you to change almost every aspect of your site’s design. It also comes with Google fonts integration, which means you can use almost any type of font on your site.

If you like it then you can purchase LifterLMS Launchpad for $149.

6. OceanWP

Image source:oceanwp.org

It’s very rare to find a free theme that has as many features as OceanWP, including compatibility with LifterLMS. With more than 2.7 million downloads, it’s one of the most popular and fastest-growing themes in the entire WordPress theme universe.

Completely SEO-ready code, fast-loading pages, and multilingual support with RTL are a few of its major features. You can see the demo of a learning site created with it here.

OceanWP starts at $35/ year for 1 site.

7. Neve

Developed by ThemeIsle, Neve is a highly versatile theme that is still being developed actively with new features being added every few weeks. Built with a mobile-first approach, it’s a very fast and lightweight theme having compatibility with most popular page builders so you can design the pages of your e-Learning site as you wish.

It also has many demo sites aimed at e-learning (like this one) that you can import to set up your site quickly.

Though it’s also available as a free download, if you want to maximize the features and benefits then you can get a paid version of Neve for $69/year.

8. Education WP (Eduma)

Image Source: themeforest.net

Eduma is built for the LearnPress LMS plugin. It’s evident from the name of this theme that it has been created while keeping education in mind. Therefore, it’s natural that it has got some features that are especially useful for e-Learning sites.

For example, it comes with specially designed pages for individual lessons, a pack of add-ons aimed at improving the learning experience of your site, and more than 20 demos – all of them based on various types of university or learning sites.

Since it has been developed by the developers of LearnPress, it’s natural that it goes very well with it.

You can purchase Eduma for $55.

9. Coaching WP

Image Source: thimpress.com

Another theme developed by the team behind LearnPress, Coaching WP comes with multiple header layouts, a one-click demo importer, a parallax effect, drag and drop page builder, Fancy Events plugin, Revolution Slider plugin (worth $18), Google Fonts integration, and SEO optimized code – pretty much everything that you would want to see in a modern theme.

If you don’t like Eduma and its demos, maybe Coaching WP can fulfill your needs. The price of this theme is $54.

10. Language School

Image Source: themeforest.net

Though its name is Language School, it doesn’t mean that you can’t use it to create a site that teaches something else.

It’s a fantastic theme with many unique features that can be used to create an e-learning site of any type. Some of its unique features include the ability to save content parts as templates that can be reused on other pages easily, 4 unique layouts, section options to group your content in various sections, and a custom form builder.

Language School is priced at $49.

11. Skilled

Image Source: themeforest.net

Skilled is designed for Sensei users and comes with many paid plugins that would otherwise cost you hundreds of dollars. It supports all Sensei features like the Course Progress widget, course analytics, quiz grading, a question bank, etc.

The plugins that come free with it include Contact Form 7, Event Calendar, and WooCommerce, so you don’t need to purchase any of them separately.

You can check the various demo sites created with it on this page; Skilled is priced at $60.

12. Guru

Image Source: themeforest.net

The specialty of this elearning theme for WordPress is that it supports not only Sensei but also BuddyPress and BBPress, which means that if you want to build a community of learners on your site, there won’t be a problem with this theme. You’ll be able to add forums, groups, messaging, and other social features easily.

Other features include an in-built page builder, WPML-ready code, an event calendar, a quiz grading system, course analytics support, and much more.

The price of the Guru theme is set at $69, and its demos are available here.

13. WPLMS

WPLMS is not just a theme but an entire Social Learning Management System.

There is a lot of stuff that differentiates it from other themes in the league – there’s activity tracking, which allows you to see what your students are doing in your courses; course directories that can be added to your site and searched by your students based on various filters; a front-end course creator for your instructors and also easy course management from the front-end itself.

You can get WPLMS for $45.

14. University

Image Source: themeforest.net

University is one of the most popular eLearning themes, compatible with various LMS plugins, including WP Courseware. In-built page builder, bbPress support, event management, course management, and a built-in calendar are some of the major features of this popular WordPress theme. It comes with the Slider Revolution plugin included, which you can use to build great slider animations for your homepage.

It also includes an easy demo importer that you can use to import any of its 7 demo sites to easily set up your site.

The price of the University theme is $45.

15. Invent

Image Source: themeforest.net

Invent is among those online course themes which are still being developed actively with new features being added regularly.

It comes with more than 30 different page builder elements, 16+ different widgets, 60+ shortcodes that can be used to easily customize almost every element of your site, and child theme support. It also comes with a shortcode builder of its own, which you can use to generate shortcodes for various purposes.

Invent is priced at $59.

16. CorpTrain

Image Source: corptrain.thimpress.com

According to its developers, CorpTrain – previously known as Course Builder kit – has been trusted by more than 20,000 instructors worldwide, with good reason.

This high-quality Corporate Training WordPress Theme is built to create training websites for employees. Power-packed with an easy drag-and-drop builder, this theme is highly flexible and helps you easily create and sell online courses.

This Corporate Training WordPress Theme integrates perfectly with LearnPress.

You can get CorpTrain for $49.

17. Qi Theme

Qi Theme is a freemium WordPress theme that comes packed with 150 superbly designed demos for a wide variety of niches, including courses, allowing you to create striking and practical eLearning and online course websites. In addition to a wonderful design and clean, lightweight code, which are signature traits of all Qode Interactive products, the Qi theme boasts excellent speed and performance. 

In terms of features, the Qi theme comes with an excellent selection of header and footer options, and a plethora of wonderful blog and portfolio styles. The premium version also includes additional search features, additional widget areas, and even more header and footer styles. 

Thanks to in-built JSON, websites created with Qi are schema-ready, meaning they can be displayed in SERPS as rich results. The theme is SEO-optimized and also includes some advanced contact form styles. 

What’s also impressive is that the Qi theme comes with free premium stock images, meaning you get to keep the demo content if you like it and enjoy some high-quality imagery – for free. 

The theme comes with extensive documentation and has a dedicated help center as well as video tutorials. 

The premium version, packed with the stunning Qi Addons for Elementor plugin, starts at $79, billed annually. 

Wrapping up: How to select the right online course theme?

Choosing the right eLearning theme for your WordPress site is not difficult if you know the right factors to look for.

While selecting your theme, you should look for the:-

1. Intuitive Interface
2. Loading speed,
3. Compatibility with your LMS,
4. SEO optimization features,
5. Easy demo import functionality,
6. Responsive Design
7. Integration with LMS plugins
8. and support from quality developers, among other things.

And that’s precisely how we picked these themes for our list.

Again, don’t forget to choose the online course theme that is compatible with your WordPress LMS!

So what are you waiting for? Just select your theme, set it up, and you’re ready to go!

If you need help with customizing a WordPress theme, my team can help you! All you need to do is share your requirements and one of our WordPress theme experts will get in touch with you!

I hope this article helps you select the best theme that helps you deliver a World-Class eLearning experience.

Is there a theme, we didn’t include in the list? Feel free to comment below.

FAQs

What is the most popular WordPress theme?

It depends on your requirements. But in my opinion, the most versatile and popular WordPress theme would be Astra.

Which WordPress theme is best for an educational website?

Neve, a swift and adaptable theme designed for dynamic, mobile-first websites. You can also check out eLumine.

How to customize a WordPress theme?

For customizing traditional themes such as Astra that do not currently integrate the full site editor, you can customize a theme using the WordPress Theme Customizer. This legacy feature empowers you to tweak WordPress themes instantly. Depending on your chosen theme, diverse customization options are available within your admin panel. Access this tool via Appearance > Customize or directly through Appearance > Themes > Customize button on the active theme’s thumbnail.

In case you need a more tailored solution, you can also outsource WordPress theme customization.