LearnDash

Pros

I had been using a hosted LMS, but grew frustrated with the artificial limitations imposed on me by its design. I made the decision to switch to LearnDash for the flexibility, so that I would be able to manage and present my courses in whatever way I deemed appropriate for my customers, and so that I would have full control of my content. (The hosted LMS would not let me keep my own backups!) I also wanted to have full control of the user experience.

Cons

There really aren't any cons, as long as you understand this is a large application with many options. The learning curve is substantial, but absolutely worth the time and effort required to master it.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

Pros

It's course builder and the ability to clone courses

Cons

I had to begin learning LearnDash from scratch, while at the same time learning Elimentor and CartFlows. There was a steep learning curve for me. I began when LearnDash 3 was the latest version, and I found it confusing when viewing older tutorials, not realizing I needed to pay attention to when the tutorial was done. I suggest deleting older tutorials. Also, I don't like to call names but I tried to watch several of [SENSITIVE CONTENT]'s webinars and I found them more confusing than helpful. However, I found [SENSITIVE CONTENT]'s tutorials always clear, concise and helpful.[SENSITIVE CONTENT]s instruction about constructing a certificate was the best I found.

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash

Pros

Working with LearnDash is very easy. It works very similar to the other functions in Wordpress. You create a course, add Lessons and then Topics for each lesson.

For example, the course could be about How to Be a Real Estate Investor. In that course, you might have multiple lessons like How to Flip Houses, How to But Rental Property, How to Finance Real Estate, etc.

The you add the detailed Topics. For example, How to Flip Houses might have things like How to Find Greta Houses to Flip. How to Fund Your Flip House Projects, How to Manage the Rehab. You get the idea...

It's literally copy and paste for text and you add graphics the same way you would to any page or post in Wordpress.

Also, you can have quizzes, delay the release of certain content, offer certificates and points for completion, sell your courses, interact with users based on actions they take, set timers for each lesson, set prerequisites for courses, and offer grading and badges. You can also offer the courses in bundles and even create a marketplace similar to Udemy where people can buy your courses.

It integrates natively with many membership softwares including Memberium and also with many email providers and CRMS including Infusionsoft. It;s responsive and even works with SCORMs.

Cons

Here's what I don't like. It's ugly. The user interface is plain and not very intuitive. You have to buy other add on's so users can do things like take notes, and so that you can begin to have an interface that looks better than native Wordpresss. In other words... ugly.

With all the work they put into this software, it is so crazy that they did not spend time on the user experience. It's hard to tell if you're in a Lesson or Topic. It's hard to navigate around the course form Lesson to Less or Topic or Topic to Topic and don't even think about jumping around. The only way to solve these issues is to use precious sidebar real estate for this navigation instead of being able to showcase other offerings. That or your sidebar gets really long.

The interface showing which items have been completed and which have not is also ugly. And while you can buy add ons, those are "meh" at best. I finally broke down and hired a developer to tweak the code and make me a nice interface with great navigation, awesome graphics and stats for users in each Lessona nd Topic and so on.

Pros

The features/functions of this product are top notch. Particularly if you are building a new eLearning site and are willing to use their theme and their UX OOB, this is very easy to implement and has great features.

Cons

The support experience has been horrendous! My task has been to integrate this LMS into an existing website which is very complex and sophisticated, without turning the existing UX on its head. The Support organization has been utterly useless either re-directing me to other plugins or mis-directing me with information that was simply wrong. The GravityForms integration is so poorly conceived as to be useless for my needs, and Support cannot provide any developer-level assistance at all. I've tried everything to get through to them - even contacting the CEO via LinkedIn - with no success. I'm now on the verge of demanding they cancel my license and refund the fee.

Pros

Complete package, well designed and easy to use for a complicated need.

Cons

Initial integration was time-consuming, wished it has better features or a tie-in plugin for user management since WordPress user management is poor. Learn press had compatibility issues with WP User Manager (learn dash restoration process was broken with using wp user manager wouldn't create user password on registration) which left me having to do a lot more work to build a user management process

Alternatives Considered

Reasons for Choosing LearnDash

Switched From

Reasons for Switching to LearnDash