Official add-ons: ProPanel, Groups Management, Instructor Role, WooCommerce & others are moving to the Liquid Web/Nexcess licensing system.
LearnDash · StellarWP · What to do in 2026
LearnDash is Now On Liquid Web!
Confused about where this leaves your LearnDash courses?
Your site still works. Your license is still valid. Let’s help you understand what actually changed and what it means for your specific setup.
Your site still works. Your license is still valid. Let’s help you understand what actually changed and what it means for your specific setup.
- Building on LearnDash since 2010
- Part of the StellarWP family since 2024
- 1M Students migrated, billing & progress intact
LearnDash Just Changed Hands. Nobody Can Say What’s Next
Rushed Advice Pushes Course Owners Into Needless Moves
The forums say run, the vendor says relax, and neither one knows your setup. Migrate in a panic and you bankroll a project you never needed. Stand still with no groundwork and a slowing roadmap or thinning support catches you without an exit prepared.
We've built on LearnDash since 2010 and lived this change from inside, so our transition assessment honestly positions your whole setup: Hold, Watch, or Act, including staying put.
Who’s who
LearnDash
The WordPress LMS plugin. The thing actually running on your site.
StellarWP
The brand that owned LearnDash until April 2026. Now shut down.
Liquid Web
The parent company. Hosting and software business. Now runs LearnDash directly.
Nexcess
Liquid Web’s managed hosting brand. Absorbed into Liquid Web in October 2025.
MemberDash
A sister membership plugin. No longer sold standalone — folded into LearnDash.
A 30-second briefing
The whole picture, in 30 seconds.
StellarWP was shut down as a brand.
The StellarWP name and learndash.com domains are gone. Its parent company, Liquid Web, folded the WordPress portfolio into four products it now operates directly. That’s what triggered the panic.
Your plugin, your data, your license.
Your installation still works. Your license key is valid. Courses, students, and settings all live on your own WordPress site. Current pricing and plan terms are protected until you choose to change them.
Team size, roadmap, support quality.
The team is smaller than it was 18 months ago and some senior product people have moved on. Whether update cadence and support quality hold up over the next year is something nobody can honestly answer yet.
How we got here
The timeline, end to end.
2024
StellarWP era begins
LearnDash sits under the StellarWP umbrella alongside other WordPress products. Our LearnDash add-ons are acquired into the same family.
2025
Consolidation, quietly underway
Nexcess loses its independent brand and is absorbed into Liquid Web (Oct). Liquid Web and StellarWP restructure internally (Nov). Leadership transitions follow.
Apr 22, 2026
StellarWP brand wound down
Liquid Web folds its WordPress portfolio into four products it operates directly. LearnDash is one of them. The StellarWP name and learndash.com domain are retired.
May 11, 2026
LearnDash 5.1.0 ships
First product update under the new structure. Active development continues — add-ons updated alongside the core plugin. A clear “still maintained” signal.
Today
Stable, with open questions
Plugin works. Licences valid. Existing pricing protected. What remains unanswered: long-term roadmap, team capacity, support response over the next 12 months.
Where you sit, specifically
Before you renew, migrate, or panic, find out where you actually stand.
Most customers don’t need to do much. But a few do. Find whether you should Hold, Watch, or Act. At your scale, each position above needs three deeper questions answered. Here they are.
State 1 · Hold
Hold
No action Stay informed. Run your business.
Most readers land here
-
Subscription active or lifetime visible in portal
-
Site works; students aren't reporting issues
-
No hard roadmap need in the next 6 months
-
No unresolved support issue hurting your business
State 2 · Watch
Watch
Prepare, don't migrate Get exit-ready.
Some will land here
-
Update cadence visibly slows down
-
Support response times degrade for weeks
-
Documentation stops being maintained
-
Pricing shifts hurt your renewal economics
-
Key team members continue to move on
-
A feature you depend on is quietly deprecated
State 3 · Act
Act
Scope the move Real project. Not reactive.
A small minority
-
A business-critical gap won't be addressed
-
Support quality is now costing trust or revenue
-
Renewal pricing is far worse than alternatives
-
An independent platform decision is overdue anyway
A question we’re hearing a lot
What’s happening to LearnDash add-ons?
Several were updated in the May 11, 2026 release to version 5.1.0 — they are being actively maintained.
The longer-term add-on roadmap hasn’t been published yet; the Liquid Web FAQ is the most reliable place to track it.
Third-party add-ons built outside of Liquid Web are not affected at all.
Official source — bookmark this
Liquid Web’s add-on migration FAQ:
liquidweb.com/help-docs/software/learndash/references/add-ons-migrating-learndash/
liquidweb.com/help-docs/software/learndash/references/add-ons-migrating-learndash/
For founders with $1M+ ARR on LearnDash
When LearnDash is the business.
What would a migration actually cost us?
Not the license fee. The full number. Engineering hours, content rebuild, integrations, SEO & revenue at risk. Put that number somewhere. Not to act on it. Just to hold it.
Where are we locked in vs. portable?
Content & student data move fine. The hard part is custom logic: quiz workflows, certificate engines, drip schedules & CRM connections. Customized LearnDash builds carry more switching cost than most realise. Map those dependencies.
What features are we counting on?
Write down every LearnDash roadmap item you’ve committed to. A compliance requirement, a product launch, a customer promise. These become your early warning signals for the next 12 months.
The smart position, for most
The smart position for most founders right now is not migration. It’s being ready to migrate cleanly if you ever need to. That’s a quarter of quiet work. It puts future decisions on your timeline, not the vendor’s.
-> Tested backups
-> Content documented outside the DB
-> Migration scope on paper
-> Tested backups
-> Content documented outside the DB
-> Migration scope on paper
If you landed on Act
Where you can actually go from here.
Stay inside WordPress
Lowest friction. Lowest cost.
Same database structure as LearnDash, same hosting, same admin habits. Course data, users, orders, and quiz history can usually be moved with a one-click importer — sometimes in under ten minutes for straightforward setups.
-
TutorLMS LearnDash importer Closest feature parity to LearnDash. Active, independent development. The official one-click migration tool handles courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, users, enrolments, orders, and reviews.
-
LifterLMS LearnDash importer Strong combo of memberships and courses. Independent ownership, well-maintained. The Transfer plugin by Honors WP moves LearnDash data — including granular quiz answers, essays, and group memberships.
-
MasterStudy LMS Importer available Growing fast. Decent importer tooling for LearnDash content. Worth shortlisting if neither of the above fits your specific feature mix.
Leave WordPress (SaaS)
Hosted, managed, no plugins.
Managed infrastructure, no maintenance overhead, but with real trade-offs: you lose data ownership, fixed-cost economics, and the flexibility to deeply customise. Migration is almost always more manual — there’s no one-click route here.
-
Thinkific Bulk content importer, CSV-based user uploads. Cleanest of the SaaS migration paths. Best fit if you want a familiar, creator-style platform without heavy customisation.
-
Kajabi No automated importer — content is rebuilt. Strongest if marketing automation and funnels matter more to you than academic rigour. Highest sticker price.
-
LearnWorlds Offers a paid done-for-you migration service. Pedagogically rich (interactive video, SCORM). A good fit when course quality and learner engagement are non-negotiable.
-
Moodle / Canvas For academic or institutional use — universities, accredited programs, compliance-heavy environments. Different category of tool; expect a longer, more deliberate migration.
One honest caveat before you pick:
If your LearnDash site has significant customisation — bespoke quiz workflows, certificate engines, custom CRM hooks, integration logic — SaaS is not the path. You’ll spend more rebuilding what you already have than you’ll save in maintenance. WordPress-to-WordPress moves preserve the most. We’ve run both directions for clients across the spectrum, and we’ll tell you which fits, plainly, on the consultation call.
Why this guide comes from us
We've been inside this ecosystem long enough to tell you what's real.
01
Building on LearnDash since 2010.
02
In 2024, StellarWP acquired our LearnDash add-ons — we weren’t watching this from the outside.
03
We’ve helped businesses migrate onto LearnDash, customise it, and move off it when the situation called for it.
04
No reason to push you toward an exit you don’t need, and no reason to pretend exits are never the right call.
12+
Years building on LearnDash
50+
Add-ons & integrations shipped
600+
eLearning businesses supported
~1M
Students migrated, billing & progress intact
Still not sure where you land? Let's look at your setup together.
The framework tells you your state. This call tells you what to do about it.
- Your current setup and customisations
- Your Hold, Watch, or Act position for your business
- What your renewal timeline means for your plan
Frequently Asked Questions
Is LearnDash being discontinued?
No. It’s one of four products Liquid Web is keeping and continuing to invest in. The May 11, 2026 update (LMS 5.1.0) shipped active development. The brand structure changed. The product is still running.
Will my pricing or license change?
Not while your subscription is active. Liquid Web has confirmed existing customers keep their current plan, pricing, and features until they choose to change. When a subscription lapses, the new tier structure applies to any new purchase.
What happened to MemberDash?
It’s no longer sold standalone. Its features were folded into LearnDash subscriptions. Active MemberDash customers keep their current access. When subscriptions lapse, those features are part of the LearnDash tier structure.
What about my add-ons?
Official LearnDash add-ons are being migrated to the new Liquid Web/Nexcess licensing system and were updated in the May 11 release. The official migration FAQ at liquidweb.com is being updated as this progresses. Third-party add-ons built outside Liquid Web are not affected.
Should I be migrating away from LearnDash now?
For most operators, no. Use the framework on this page to find your actual position. Most active subscribers land in Hold, meaning no action today. Let evidence drive the decision, not a press release.
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