Meet Masteriyo – A Free LearnDash Alternative

Most people trying to build anything on top of WordPress would rather not empty their wallets while doing so. Building an LMS solution - or an online course platform - is not any different. I know that feeling well. You want to set up lessons, quizzes, and then actually sell your course without hitting a paywall too soon. That’s where Masteriyo enters the picture and LearnDash exits it. 😅 Don’t get me wrong, though, LearnDash is...fine, but there’s just one problem with it. That pricing is pretty stiff. And I know that paying this is not a problem in itself, especially if you already have a working course-based business. However, for someone just starting out, with $0 earned so far, the investment can be difficult. So this is where Masteriyo comes in. In this post, I’ll show you what it offers and how it stacks up against LearnDash. I’ll cover the main features, explain what you get for free, and point out how the pricing compares. Who’s who - general overview I think we should start with some proper introductions and see what each tool brings to the table: LearnDash is a veteran among WordPress LMS plugins known for its wide feature set and stability. It’s a premium-only solution (no free version) - which is kind of important. Feature-wise, nothing is missing from the lineup. LearnDash provides top tools for creating courses, quizzes, and selling your content. It is also often praised for its advanced capabilities (like powerful quiz tools and drip content), but some of those extended features require separate add-ons or higher-tier bundles. Pricing starts from $199 per year for a single site license . Masteriyo , the new kid on the block, is a WordPress LMS plugin of our own creation that offers a free core version with a good number of features included. We believe it’s a modern, easy-to-use alternative. Masteriyo free provides all the fundamental LMS functionalities - you can build unlimited courses/lessons, create quizzes, issue certificates, and even sell access to your courses on the free plan . Advanced features and integrations are available via paid plans (Masteriyo Pro), but importantly, all the core LMS features are in the free version. Course creation LearnDash has an intuitive drag-and-drop course builder that lets you organize courses into sections, lessons, topics, and quizzes quite easily. You can quickly create an outline for your course (even using an AI-based outline generator) and clone existing courses to save time. LearnDash supports multi-tier course content, too, so you can structure your content delivery with multiple levels. There’s also a course start/end date feature for cohort-based courses (you can set a fixed schedule for a course). First off, Masteriyo offers a nice onboarding wizard for those who fire it up for the first time. Just select the elements you’ll need and Masteriyo will set everything up. Then, you can select from a range of starter templates and choose your builder - between the native block editor and Elementor. From there,...

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