COMPARISON

MemberPress vs LearnDash: Choosing the Best Plugin for Your Membership Site

Last Updated: 5 mins By: Akriti Pant

MemberPress and LearnDash stand as two leading solutions for course creation and membership management, each with distinct strengths.

This comparison of MemberPress vs LearnDash cuts through the noise to reveal their core differences, pricing structures, and ideal use cases – helping you make the right decision for your site.

While both are popular choices, User Registration emerges as an affordable alternative, providing powerful membership management features.

MemberPress vs LearnDash: Overview with Unique Strength

MemberPress is a membership-focused WordPress plugin that excels at creating a subscription website and restricting content.

While it includes an LMS add-on for course creation, its core strength lies in managing memberships and protecting premium content.

LearnDash is a dedicated WordPress LMS plugin built specifically for online education. It specializes in comprehensive course creation, student management, and advanced learning features.

While it can handle membership aspects, its primary focus is delivering and managing structured online courses. Ideal for educators and organizations serious about e-learning.


MemberPress vs LearnDash: A Detailed Comparison

Let’s start our in-depth comparison of MemberPress and LearnDash!

User Interface & Ease of Use

Both LearnDash and MemberPress provide guided setup experiences but with different focuses.

The LearnDash wizard emphasizes course structure and payment configuration, while MemberPress’s setup assistant takes a broader approach, covering membership levels, access rules, and content protection.

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDash
Setup ProcessQuick & Easy to SetupRequires more initial setup
User InterfaceIntuitive Dashboard & Easy Navigation Comprehensive, Can Feel Overwhelming for New Users

Membership Features & Access Control

Despite their distinct core purposes, they share overlapping features essential for membership-based platforms.

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDash
Unlimited Members
User Roles & Permissions✅ ✅ 
Member Profiles✅ ✅ 
Content Rules✅ ✅ 
Membership Levels✅ ✅ 
Social Login

Note: Using User Registration, you can create a custom registration form for LearnDash.


Content Creation & Management

Creating content and managing access helps creators deliver tailored products or services to their users effectively. It also empowers the admin to approve users based on the criteria set.

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDash
LMS✅ (Add-on)
Access Control Levels✅ ✅ 
Content Dripping✅ ✅ 
Content Protection✅ ✅ 
Email Verification✅ ✅ 
Course Preview✅ 

Payment Support

Payment gateway flexibility and subscription management are critical for business success when launching a membership site.

Let’s see how these two plugins handle payment processing.

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDash
Supported Gateways✅ (Stripe, PayPal, Offline, Authorize.net)✅ (Stripe Connect)
Recurring Payments✅ ✅ 
Revenue Sharing
✅ 

Other Integrations

Let’s explore the integration that enhances the functionality of these two plugins.

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDash
Coupons✅ ✅ 
WooCommerce✅ 
ConverKit
WooCommerce Subscriptions❌ 
Slack
BuddyPress
Upsell Plugin

Support and Documentation

The quality and variety of support options are critical in ensuring a smooth user experience. LearnDash and MemberPress offer various support channels, but their approaches differ.

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDash
Support Ticket✅ ✅ 
Documentation✅ ✅ 
Live Chat✅ (DocsBot)
Video Tutorials✅ ✅ 
Facebook Community✅ (Unofficial)✅ 

Pricing & Value for Money

Both plugins offer tiered pricing plans with varying features to suit different needs. While MemberPress starts at a lower price point, LearnDash provides more extensive LMS-focused features even at its basic level.

MemberPress

MemberPress is ideal if you’re looking for a cost-effective solution to build a membership site with essential features. A 14-day money-back guarantee backs its pricing plan.

MemberPressPricingBenefits
Basic$179.50/year1-Site License
Basic Add-Ons & Integrations
Basic LMS and Membership
Standard Support
Plus$299.50/year2-site License
Advanced LMS and Membership
Developer Tools
Priority Support
Pro$399.50/year3-site License
Standard LMS and Membership
Developer Tools
Premium Support

Check out User Registration’s pricing plans that start at just $79/year. Also, it has a free plan to get you started.

LearnDash

LearnDash stands out for its robust LMS capabilities and scalability, making it a better option for those prioritizing eLearning functionalities. It offers a 30-day money-back guarantee on all its plans.

LearnDashPricingBenefits
Basic$199/year1-site license 
Core LMS Features 
Easy integration with Paid Memberships Pro & other add-ons
1 year of updates and support
Plus$399/year10-site license
Core LMS Features 
Easy integration with Paid Memberships Pro & other add-ons 
1 year of updates and support  
Pro$799/yearUnlimited site licenses
Core LMS Features
Easy integration with Paid Memberships Pro & other add-ons
1 year of updates and support  

Note: If you want both the membership plugin and LMS, the ThemeGrill Agency plan is a better deal, offering a User Registration plugin, Masteriyo LMS, and other themes and plugins.


Final Word: An Alternative to MemberPress and LearnDash

After diving deep into MemberPress and LearnDash, it’s clear that MemberPress excels in building versatile subscription websites, while LearnDash specializes in creating and selling online courses.

However, integrating membership plugins like MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro is easy with LearnDash.

But what if you could get powerful membership features without the premium price tag? This is where User Registration emerges as a compelling alternative.

Wanna see how? Here’s a brief comparison between MemberPress vs LearnDash vs User Registration:

FeaturesMemberPressLearnDashUser Registration
Ease of Use5⭐4.5⭐5⭐
Membership Management4.5⭐4.5⭐4.5⭐
Content Restriction5⭐5⭐5⭐
Pricing3.5⭐4⭐5⭐
Email Integrations5⭐5⭐5⭐
Payment Gateways5⭐4.5⭐5⭐
Support and Documentation4⭐4⭐4.5⭐
Pricing4.5⭐4.5⭐5⭐

Sounds unbelievable? Take the demo for a spin—we’re confident you’ll have a cost-effective experience with User Registration!

MemberPress vs LearnDash: Choosing the Best Plugin for Your Membership Site
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