LearnDash vs TutorLMS: Which is Better for your E-learning Site?

Did you know that the e-learning market in 2025 is valued at around $355 billion and is expected to reach $933.5 billion by the year 2032? 

With this rapid growth, it is essential to choose the best LMS(Learning Management System) plugin for your online learning platform. LMS is a software that helps you create content, track progress, assess learning, analyze results and use various other features essential for online education. 

Since WordPress is one of the most widely used platforms for creating e-learning websites, WordPress-based LMS solutions continue to evolve to fit your exact needs.

To build the best e-learning platform, selecting the most effective and efficient LMS for your WordPress is crucial. 

Here now comes the big question! 

Which LMS plugin is the best to launch your e-learning business in WordPress? 

In this article, I will answer this by explaining in detail the two most widely used LMS plugins for WordPress, LearnDash & Tutor LMS and help you choose the one that best suits your business needs.  

First, let’s have a quick introduction to LearnDash and Tutor LMS.

Ready? Let’s get started!

LearnDash Overview

Image Source: LearnDash.com

LearnDash is one of the most popular premium WordPress LMS plugins. Currently, 155,873 websites are using LearnDash. It is used by major universities like John Hopkins University, and Michigan University, and also by fortune 500 companies.

This WordPress LMS plugin, helps you create and sell training programs & courses. It also allows you to track user progress and award certificates, badges, and points, among other things. LearnDash is easy to use and comes with robust, attractive, and customizable features.

Additionally, LearnDash offers seamless integration with many popular third-party plugins, themes, apps, and services. You can easily use it in conjunction with popular plugins like Zapier, Convertkit, BuddyBoss, PayPal, MailChimp, Stripe, WooCommerce, etc. Therefore, LearnDash gives you the flexibility to provide the best eLearning experience and meet all your LMS needs.

Read More: LearnDash: The Most Versatile Learning Management System Available

TutorLMS Overview

Image Source: Themuim.com

Tutor LMS  is a relatively new WordPress LMS plugin but despite that has powered over 100,000+ elearning platforms. Tutor LMS is a freemium WordPress LMS plugin that can help you create, sell, and manage online courses. It’s also used by established startups like Khan Academy.

Tutor LMS offers a wide range of attractive features, including course creation tools, quizzes, course progress tracking, and student management. Users can create courses using a variety of multimedia content, such as video, audio, and text, and can customize their courses with a range of design options.

In addition to these course creation features, Tutor LMS can also integrate with famous third-party plugins like Paypal, stripe, and woocommerce to sell courses. Overall, Just like LearnDash, Tutor LMS can offer you everything you need to get started and launch your online course with ease.

LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Fundamental differences

Both plugins integrate seamlessly with WordPress, enabling users to efficiently manage their e-learning platforms. 

While there are no major core differences between the two, we will dive deeper into our comparison to help you understand their functionalities better. This will allow you to determine which platform is best suited for your specific e-learning needs.

With that in mind, let’s dig deep into our comparison to figure out which platform is the best.

1. LearnDash vs. TutorLMS – Features & Functionality

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There’s a long list of common as well as unique features in LearnDash and Tutor LMS. 

But as you’ll see in the list given below, the uniqueness part clearly leans in the favor of LearnDash.

It has many features that are not available in Tutor LMS and that gives it a clear upper hand in the very first criteria of our comparison. 

Common Features:

• Drag and Drop course builder
• Gamification (TutorLMS has fewer native features than LearnDash)
• Certificate builder
• Synchronous learning
• Blended learning
• Learner portal
• In-built course authoring functionality
• Reports and Analytics
• Notification reminders and emails

Also Read: The Importance of Student Reports in Online Learning

Features unique in LearnDash:

There’s a long list of unique features in LearnDash when compared to TutorLMS. The major ones among them include:

• Challenge Exams
• SCORM Compliance
• Built-in Stripe connectivity
• Various marketing and sales options
• Lots of extensibility with help of plugins and custom development
• Automatic installation of add-ons.
• A huge community of users

Features unique in TutorLMS

• Native Frontend Course Builder
• Multi-Instructor Support
• Free Version Available

Winner – LearnDash.

2. LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Content Creation & Management

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When it comes to course creation and management features, both LearnDash and Tutor LMS provides all the necessary features that you need. 

Both of them include a drag-and-drop course builder, multimedia inclusion capabilities, an advanced quiz system, drip-feed lessons, and other necessary course management features. 

However, there are some unique capabilities in both of them that can make your job easier or more difficult depending on what you’re looking for.

First, let’s look at LearnDash.

• It comes with a unique course scheduling feature that allows you to automatically deliver the lessons to your students according to a pre-set schedule. 
• LearnDash has a large library of third-party plugins and integrations that enhance course functionality. Tutor LMS also offers various integrations and theme compatibility for customization.

Now, TutorLMS

• It allows a full-fledged course preview before you publish your course to understand what it will look and feel like once published. 
• It has also got a more advanced quiz system that allows you to create quizzes that are completely unique in nature i.e. image-matching-based quizzes, image answering-based quizzes, fill-in-the-blanks, etc.

In a nutshell, there’s no clear winner between these LMS platforms in this department. The winner may be either of these depending on your requirements.

Winner – None.

3. LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Ease of Use

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Both TutorLMS and LearnDash are very easy-to-use LMS platforms, mainly because both of them are based on WordPress – the most easy-to-use CMS ever created.

Both offer an identical and unparalleled level of ease of use, but the Tutor LMS interface is more intuitive for beginners. LearnDash includes more structured control suited for advanced users.

Tutor LMS comes with a setup wizard to automate the individual LMS site or course marketplace-building experience.

The recent LearnDash update also includes an onboarding wizard which helps in setting the course website and course pages.

LearnDash’s setup wizard helps create required pages such as registration and course pages, but plugin installation is manual.

Winner – None

4. LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Support

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The reviews about the customer support for TutorLMS are not very favorable. Though they claim to be providing the most professional quality support through email and chat, the reviews of users regarding reporting delays. 

LearnDash, on the other hand, has a solid reputation for customer service. It has extremely positive reviews regarding its customer support on all popular review sites, and in the form of online forums.

Moreover, they also have a big community of loyal users and developers who can assist you if something goes wrong and you can’t find a tutorial to fix it. 

Winner – LearnDash.

5. LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Selling your courses

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Since both LearnDash and Tutor LMS are based on WordPress, they can be integrated with WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads (EDD), and other popular e-commerce plugins of WordPress to sell your courses. 

And, as a result, the e-commerce functionality remains pretty much the same on both these platforms. 

Both platforms also work with multiple payment gateways (i.e. PayPal, Stripe, etc.) and generate all the necessary sales reports that you may need.

In fact, LearnDash 4.0 now comes with Stripe connect built into the core. Therefore there’s no need to install the add-on.

Both of them also have the functionality to share your earnings with instructors from within the LMS dashboard (Tutor LMS allows it on a native basis, while LearnDash has got some add-ons for the same), so not a major difference at all between them in this area.

Winner – None.

6. LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Gamification

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Gamification refers to the process of making the learning experience interactive and fun with the help of reward points, certificates, badges, awards, and other techniques that reward a learner for completing certain milestones in the course. 

This increases engagement and improves the quality of the learning experience. LearnDash comes with built-in gamification features to make learning fun and rewarding. 

Features like course points, leaderboard, badges, and certificates are already built into it, and if you want more features then there’s a long list of plugins that can be used to add them.

LearnDash offers built-in gamification elements that enhance learner engagement, such as leaderboards, certificates, badges. TutorLMS also includes certificates and a grade book to acknowledge learner achievements. 

However, TutorLMS’s native gamification features are limited. With appropriate extensions, TutorLMS can provide a comprehensive gamified learning experience comparable to LearnDash

Winner – LearnDash.

7. Live Sessions & Engagement

LearnDash: Integrates with Zoom Webinars, Pusher, and Tin Canny Reporting for real-time interactions.

Tutor LMS: Offers built-in Zoom support, making it easier for instructors to conduct live sessions.

8. LearnDash vs TutorLMS – Pricing

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One more area of difference between these LMS platforms is price. 

Tutor LMS comes with a Basic license that’s Free to use but has limited options. While LearnDash does not offer any free trials.

For the premium versions, there’s a significant difference not just in license fees but also in the structure of license fees.

Here’s a comparison of the available licenses:

Pros and Cons

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Before we reach our conclusion. It’ll be better to take a quick look at the pros and cons of both these platforms based on the information given above.

That way it’ll be easier to understand what we say in our verdict, so let’s do that:

Pros and Cons of LearnDash

Also Read: What are the Pros and Cons of using LearnDash

Pros and Cons of Tutor LMS

Real-World Scenarios

Example 1: Corporate Training

A company requiring detailed reporting & compliance tracking will benefit from LearnDash’s SCORM support and ProPanel analytics.

Example 2: Online Coaching Business

A solo entrepreneur looking for affordable, user-friendly LMS features may prefer Tutor LMS’s free version and frontend course builder.

Final Verdict: Is TutorLMS worth it?

By now, it’s clear that LearnDash is ahead of the Tutor LMS in all major criteria. 

However, it comes at a cost. All LearnDash plans are slightly more expensive than Tutor LMS. But if you can afford it, then nothing like it.

I understand that choosing an LMS is a difficult yet important decision. It can also feel like a once-in-a-lifetime decision. So I’d suggest making a checklist of things and discussing them with your team before you make the final call.

And don’t fret! If LearnDash doesn’t fit your budget then Tutor LMS is a good choice to start with.

However, if you do decide to go with LearnDash, our team can help you with the setup as well as any customization if need be.

Discuss your project for free!

Tutor LMS vs LearnDash: Key Feature Comparison

So, let us know which one you picked and why in the comments section below 🙂

Also Read: We’re doing a complete series of LMS comparisons. You can also check out LearnDash vs Teachable, LearnDash vs Moodle, and LearnDash vs Thinkific.

FAQ:

1. How do these LMS platforms handle live sessions or webinars?
   LearnDash: Supports Zoom Webinars, Pusher, and Tin Canny Reporting for real-time interactions.

Tutor LMS: Has built-in Zoom support, making it easier for instructors to schedule and conduct live sessions without third-party integrations.

2. What steps are included in the LMS setup wizards, and how easy is migration?
   LearnDash: Provides a step-by-step setup wizard that includes course structure setup, payment configuration, and student enrollment options. Migration may require manual data transfer or third-party plugins.

Tutor LMS: Offers a guided setup process, including course creation, instructor roles, and payment settings. Tutor LMS also has migration tools to import content from other LMS platforms more smoothly.

3. Does Tutor LMS offer better engagement features like Q&A or course announcements?
   Yes, Tutor LMS includes built-in engagement tools like:

• Q&A sections within lessons
• Course announcements to keep students updated
• Assignment and quiz options for student participation

While LearnDash also provides forums, quizzes, and gamification, Tutor LMS makes these engagement tools more accessible in its free version.

4. Are there pre-built themes or templates for quick design setups in Tutor LMS?
   Yes, Tutor LMS offers pre-built themes and works seamlessly with themes like Astra, Edumax, and Tutor Starter for quick setup.

• LearnDash, on the other hand, integrates with Astra, BuddyBoss, and Divi, but does not include built-in templates.

5. How do certificate creation and verification processes differ between the two platforms?
   LearnDash: Allows custom certificate design but requires additional plugins or coding for advanced customization.

Tutor LMS: Features a built-in certificate builder, making it easier to create and issue course completion certificates.