Are you looking for a learning management plugin for your WordPress website? Then you are in the right place.
The online learning market is growing at an exponential rate. According to Global Market Updates, it is likely going to get to the value of $375 billion by 2026.
The COVID-19 situation has also challenged the education system across the world to adapt to the online mode of teaching. As a result, learning management systems (LMS) have become one of the most used tools for online learning.
To get started with e-learning, you need an efficient and scalable LMS. However, it is challenging to find the right one in the already crowded LMS market.
In order to simplify your job, we have analyzed & reviewed the two most famous LMS that educational organizations and/or businesses of all sizes can use – LearnDash and Talent LMS. We have also created a comparison chart of both of these WordPress LMS plugins to make your decision even easier.
Let’s dive in.
LearnDash is one of the most popular LMS WordPress plugins in the world, which is useful for universities, professional training institutions, or anyone looking to create an e-learning platform. The LMS comes with a drag-and-drop course builder, which allows you to create multi-level courses.
Additionally, the tool offers support for gamification, social learning, and micro-content. Through these features, you can offer a robust learning experience to your members.
Learndash partnered with WizIQ and provided a virtual classroom setup. But they had to discontinue. Click here to learn more about it.
We have also written a detailed article reviewing the LearnDash LMS, take a look to learn more.
Talent LMS is a cloud-hosted learning management system that can be used by education providers and businesses of all sizes to offer training programs. This is the big difference between Talent LMS and Learn Dash. We will explain the pros and cons of cloud-hosted platforms later in the article.
Also, like most of the LMS providers in the market, Talent LMS offers robust features like conferencing and gamification to create an engaging learning environment.
To top it off, this platform offers a native mobile app – something which LearnDash does not offer out of the box. So, learners can access seminars and courses whenever they want, and download courses for offline usage. Please note that learners can also access the platform via a browser.
| Features | LearnDash | Talent LMS |
|---|---|---|
| CMS support | WordPress | Supports WordPress via a plugin |
| Recurring payment support | Yes | Not by default |
| Payment gateway support | Stripe and 2Checkout | PayPal and Stripe |
| Google Analytics support | No | Yes |
| White-labeling | Yes | Yes |
| Course builder | Yes | Yes |
| Certificates and badges | Yes | Yes |
| Course points | Yes | Yes |
| Test reporting | Yes | Yes |
| Shopping cart | Woo Commerce, Easy Digital Downloads, and iThemes Exchange | Shopify and Woo Commerce |
| Create a course marketplace | Yes | Yes |
| Membership access | Yes | Yes |
| Email notification triggers | Through the LearnDash Notifications add-on, you can send emails to students for certain actions like completing a course, finishing a lesson, passing/failing a quiz, etc | Specific events or conditions can trigger automated emails like reminding students for particular sessions, student sign-up, when user exceeding import limit, etc |
| Admin control or user management | Global group settings for managing users, courses, filter users by course or groups, user enrollment, etc. Click here to learn more | Admin can view stats such as completed courses, courses in progress, learners in progress, etc. Click here to learn more |
| Built-in return on investment calculator | No | Yes |
| Activity log to capture user activity | Yes | Yes |
| Video conference support | Zoom | BigBlueButton, Zoom.us, GoToMeeting, and a free in-built video conferencing option |
| Virtual classroom support or ILT (Instructor-Led Training) | No | Yes |
| CRM support | HubSpot, Salesforce, and Groundhogg | Salesforce |
| Marketing integration | Mailchimp, Convertkit, and WPFusion | Possible to connect with many marketing tools like Mailchimp through Zapier |
| Option to add custom CSS and JavaScript | Custom CSS can be added through a plugin. No custom JavaScript support | Yes |
| User profile management | Yes | Yes |
| WordPress theme compatibility | Works with most themes that are coded using WordPress standards | Works with most themes and can be customized by adding your own CSS styles |
| Mobile support | Can build mobile app solutions for iOS and Android devices through AppPresser, WisdmApp, and LearnerApp | Native application for iOS and Android devices |
| 3rd party integration | Yes. Click here to learn more | Yes. Click here to learn more |
| Compatible membership plugins | Memberium, MemberPress, Restrict Content Pro, and PaidMembershipsPro | Nil |
| Compatible discussion forum plugins | bbPress, BuddyPress | Default feature |
| Calendar integration | Nil | Google, Outlook, and Yahoo |
| Single sign-on (SSO) support | No | LDPA, SAML2, Okta & Onelogin, FB, Google, LinkedIn, and OpenID Connect |
| Supported e-learning standards | SCROM and xAPI | SCROM, xAPI, cmi5, Aiken & Gift, and Watershed LRS |
| Data import/export | CSV | Excel and CSV format |
| Zapier integration | Yes | Yes |
| API | Yes | Yes |
| GDPR compliance | No | Yes |
| Accessibility and ADA compliance | No | Conforms to WCAG-2 and compliant with ADA |
| Multilingual | Possible with free software like poEdit or plugin like Loco Translate | Yes |
| Price | Start from $159/year for 1 website. | Click here to learn moreFree up to 5 users and 10 courses. Paid plans start from $59/month. Click here to learn more |
| Support | Email and phone | Email and phone |
| Documentation | Yes. Click here | Yes. Click here |
After comparing all the various features offered by both the LMS solutions, we believe that Talent LMS is the more robust and superior solution. Here’s why, Talent LMS provides more features compared to LearnDash, especially features that are in-demand like virtual classrooms, and mobile apps.
A virtual classroom is similar to a traditional classroom but the only difference is that the instructors and the participants can connect online in real-time. This online classroom setup utilizes video conferencing, online whiteboards, and screen sharing. The virtual classroom setup is widely used during this ongoing COVID-19 crisis to connect learners who are geographically dispersed.
Further, TalentLMS is a cloud-based platform which means you need not install specific hardware or software to access and use it. Also, cloud platforms are self-contained (they exist in their own discrete environment). This means that site owners will benefit from lower hosting costs. Moreover, if one server goes down, there will be other backup servers that will ensure that the platform runs smoothly.
We hope that this learning management system comparison article will help you make the right decision for your e-learning needs.
If you need any help to create an e-learning website, send a message or call our Wisevu experts at (905) 267-3217. We can create a highly intuitive e-learning website as per your needs to boost the learning experiences of your students.
If you have any more questions, share them in the comments section below.
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