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.

See the problem...

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, you can customize a lot when it comes to course design and presentation.

Once you get to crafting your course, there’s a powerful drag-and-drop course builder, built with a modern React interface (for speed).

All course content (sections, lessons, quizzes) can be created and managed in one single-page interface.

Most importantly, Masteriyo allows unlimited courses, lessons, and quizzes in the free version.

In terms of structure, Masteriyo supports the same kind of segmented course content (sections → lessons → quizzes). Plus there are some nice helper features for students, like “open last lesson.” The emphasis is all on ease of use and speed – you can use the guided setup wizard, for instance, and see the entire curriculum outline at a glance.

In the end, Masteriyo’s interface is really streamlined (thanks to its single-page application design) which can be easier to learn and use for some users. Masteriyo describes itself as “clutter free & easy to learn.”

The master settings page is also made to give you easy access to all the individual features following the same main idea – to give you one panel to handle all.

Quizzes and assessments

Quizzing has always been one of LearnDash’s strong points. It comes with an advanced quiz builder supporting multiple eight question types, custom scoring, timed exams, question banks, and conditional quiz behavior. All great. Those quizzes can also be chained into the course progression (e.g. a student must pass a quiz to proceed). Then, certificates can be awarded based on quiz performance.

Overall, LearnDash offers a very rich assessment toolkit by default, suitable for rigorous online courses.

Not surprisingly, Masteriyo includes its own quiz builder. This too allows you to create interactive quizzes with various question types (multiple choice, true/false, etc.) and set options like points per question and time limits.

In the free version, you get the basic quiz functionality needed in most courses – for instance, you can add unlimited quiz questions and quizzes to your lessons.

Masteriyo also supports assignments to enhance learning engagement, but this is considered an advanced feature. The ability for learners to submit assignments through the platform is part of the Masteriyo Pro add-on (not in the free tier). Once enabled (in Pro), instructors can create assignments for lessons and grade them, and these grades feed into a Gradebook (also in Pro) for tracking student performance.

In summary, both plugins offer great quiz capabilities; LearnDash’s quiz module is extremely feature-rich out of the box, whereas Masteriyo’s quiz functionality covers most of the same scope while being available for free. Then, it can be extended to “advanced” mode with Pro (for things like question banks or more complex quiz rules). If your assessment needs are basic quizzes and pass/fail criteria, Masteriyo free handles it well. 👍

Certificates and rewards

Certificates are included in LearnDash and can be awarded automatically based on quiz or course completion.

You can upload your own certificate backgrounds and then use placeholders to include the student’s name, course name, etc. In addition, LearnDash has a points system as part of its toolkit. Students can earn those points for completing lessons or scoring well, and these can then be used to award badges. The result is that LearnDash allows you to recognize achievements in multiple ways.

All these help with student motivation and are available with a standard LearnDash install.

Masteriyo includes its own certificate builder in the plugin – you can basically design custom certificates for your courses.

In the free version, you can create certificates and issue them to students when they finish a course or pass a quiz.

Masteriyo’s certificate builder provides templates and an online verification mechanism (each certificate can have a unique code so its authenticity can be verified) – this is not a feature you commonly see being available for free, yet it is with Masteriyo.

Masteriyo also does support course ratings and reviews, which indirectly reward instructors with feedback and help students see popular courses (similar requires a premium add-on in LearnDash).

In summary, for certificate functionality both plugins are solid – Masteriyo lets you create professional certificates in the free plugin, and LearnDash does similarly in its paid core.

Content drip

Controlling when course content is accessible is a built-in ability of LearnDash. You can set drip-feed schedules – for example, you can set lessons to become available X days after enrollment or on specific calendar dates.

You can also set linear progression (students must complete lessons in order) or allow open access (students can jump to any lesson) depending on your course design.

These content gating features are included in all LearnDash plans by default.

On the other side of the field, Masteriyo includes basic content progression control and offers advanced drip scheduling through its add-ons.

In the free version, you can set courses to be “self-paced” or “sequential”. Sequential mode means students must complete the current lesson/quiz before moving to the next – it’s the standard way you’d think an online course would work.

For full content drip scheduling (timed release), Masteriyo provides an Advanced Content Drip add-on (part of Pro). This allows you to schedule lessons to unlock on certain dates or X days after a student enrolls, similar to LearnDash’s drip features. If you’re okay with releasing all lessons at once or simply ensuring sequential order then Masteriyo free still has you covered with content locking until prerequisites are met.

Selling courses and payment integration

LearnDash has built-in features for selling courses. You can set a price for a course and use PayPal or Stripe payment gateways to accept payments. It supports both one-time purchases and recurring subscriptions for courses.

LearnDash also integrates with WooCommerce – this is useful if you want to sell courses alongside other products. Additionally, it has a separate MemberDash plugin (another $199) if you want to sell courses via memberships or bundles.

As for Masteriyo, one of its core strengths is that it does not require any third-party plugin to sell courses.

This means that you get a complete built-in order system for handling sales. In Masteriyo free, you can set prices on courses and accept payments via built-in gateways.

Masteriyo comes with PayPal, Stripe, Mollie, and Lemon Squeezy integrations built-in. This means you can start selling a paid course without installing WooCommerce or additional plugins.

It supports one-time payments and subscriptions.

Another advantage is that Masteriyo includes a coupon code system natively. You can create discount codes (fixed amount or percentage, with usage limits and expiry dates) to promote your courses.

In LearnDash, achieving coupon functionality would require using WooCommerce or a membership plugin that has coupons.

Masteriyo free + WooCommerce integration is also possible if needed. Masteriyo provides a WooCommerce Integration add-on.

In the end, both LearnDash and Masteriyo support selling courses with one-time and recurring payments. LearnDash leans on its built-in Stripe/PayPal (or WooCommerce for more), whereas Masteriyo’s built-in system is a bit more feature-rich (with coupons and multi-gateway support in core).

For a free solution, Masteriyo lets you monetize courses without purchasing extra extensions, which is a big plus!

Multi-instructor support

Out-of-the-box, LearnDash assumes a single course author (usually the site admin or a user with editing privileges) manages all courses.

It does not natively support multiple instructors each with their own courses in the base plugin. However, LearnDash offers an official Instructor Role add-on to enable a multi-instructor setup. This add-on (purchased separately, from $99 for one site) allows you to create instructor accounts who can create/manage their own courses from the frontend.

Similarly, LearnDash has a Groups Management feature (also an add-on – also $99) for organizing students and instructors into groups.

The need for these add-ons means that if you require a marketplace-like LMS (with many independent instructors), LearnDash can do it but only with additional investment.

Masteriyo, on the other hand, was built with multiple instructors and even course marketplaces in mind.

In the free core plugin, you can have unlimited instructor accounts and unlimited students on your platform.

The plugin provides front-end instructor profiles and dashboards, so each instructor can log in, create or manage their courses, view their enrollments, etc.

This makes Masteriyo very suitable for a Udemy-style site or an educational institution where many teachers contribute courses. Moreover, Masteriyo has a built-in revenue sharing mechanism: if you enable an eLearning marketplace, the system can automatically split course revenue between the admin and course instructor based on a set percentage.

This is a complex feature to implement from scratch, but Masteriyo provides it out-of-the-box. By contrast, achieving revenue sharing in LearnDash would require custom work or additional plugins since LearnDash doesn’t calculate instructor commissions on its own.

In the end, Masteriyo outshines LearnDash in multi-instructor support: you get this functionality natively (even in the free version) versus LearnDash which requires paid extensions for an instructor role.

Pricing

As I said at the start, and I have nothing against it, but LearnDash is a paid-only plugin.

As of 2025, a single-site LearnDash license costs $199 per year, a 10-site license is $399, and an unlimited site license is $799.

All core LMS features (course builder, unlimited courses/users, quizzes, certificates, content drip, etc.) are included in that base price. There are no functional restrictions on the plugin itself across license tiers (the tiers mainly affect the number of sites and access to template kits).

However, what’s not included in the base license are certain add-ons that many users consider important.

• For example, if you need a Gradebook, or the ability for multiple instructors on your site, or a course rating/review system, those are paid add-ons on top of the license fee.
• These add-ons typically range from ~$49 to $99 each (depending on single site vs unlimited licenses).

In summary, LearnDash’s cost can add up if you require several premium extensions (for instance, core $199 + Instructor Role $99 + Gradebook $49 would total around $350 for one site).

Masteriyo’s core plugin is free, which is a huge advantage for those on a budget. You can download it from WordPress.org and run a fully functional LMS without paying anything.

That free version even lets you sell courses (accept payments) and doesn’t cap the number of courses or students.

This means for many basic course websites (one instructor, straightforward courses, standard quizzes, one-time payments), Masteriyo can be a great free alternative to LearnDash.

If you find you need more advanced features, Masteriyo offers Pro upgrades. And they do come with a lot of features. The list is frankly too huge for me to list it all here, so for those interested, click on the reveal link below to see it all:

Show more

Highlights:

• Basic plan starts from $99/year for 1 site – promo price.
• Pro plan unlocks all advanced features and integrations – advanced content drip, prerequisites, advanced quiz options, multiple instructors on single course, gradebook, and more.
• Elite allows you to run 10 sites and adds white labeling.

In the end, if your needed features fall within Masteriyo’s free offering, then Masteriyo is undeniably more cost-effective.

You could save a few hundred dollars per year by not having to buy a LearnDash license. Moreover, even some features that LearnDash charges extra for (like instructor role or course reviews) are available in Masteriyo free or at least in a single upgrade, not multiple purchases.

For a single-instructor basic LMS, Masteriyo free can do the job at no cost and is a great alternative to paying $199 for LearnDash. Basically, Masteriyo gives the flexibility to start free and upgrade as needed, whereas LearnDash requires the upfront purchase from the start.

Conclusion: is Masteriyo a good free alternative to LearnDash?

For many users, the answer will be yes – Masteriyo can certainly serve as a free alternative to LearnDash without sacrificing key functionality.

Masteriyo’s free version covers all the main LMS features you would expect: course management, lesson content, quizzes, student enrollment, certificates, and even selling courses with payment collection.

These are the core elements needed to run a typical online course, and having them at zero cost is a major advantage. Additionally, Masteriyo includes nice-to-have features in the free tier (like a Q&A system and course reviews) that would require extra setup or cost in LearnDash.

The plugin is built with a modern interface that many find easy to use and quick to learn, which means you might spend less time on setup compared to the more complex LearnDash UI.

That said, whether Masteriyo can replace LearnDash without any compromises depends on your specific needs:

• If you need advanced quiz question types, drip scheduling by specific dates, formal assignments with grading, or sophisticated reporting, you would need Masteriyo Pro (or find workarounds). LearnDash includes some of those advanced features in its core (drip, advanced quizzes, assignments).
• In scenarios where you run a relatively straightforward e-learning site. Say, you’re a single instructor or small team providing courses, you want a clean course player, quizzes, certificates, and a way to charge for courses then Masteriyo’s free plugin can handle it all.
• On the other hand, if your project demands maximum flexibility and you anticipate needing a lot of niche features (like elaborate quiz analytics, or deep enterprise integrations), you might eventually lean towards either paying for Masteriyo’s premium or choosing LearnDash with its add-on ecosystem.

In the end, for most standard e-learning websites, Masteriyo can function as a great free alternative to LearnDash without losing important features.

It provides a pretty great package upfront. If you find down the road that you need more, you have the option to invest in Masteriyo’s premium version, which is on par with LearnDash’s pricing, but you might find you don’t need to if your requirements are met by the free plugin.

This ability to start free and grow as needed is a significant advantage of Masteriyo. Meanwhile, LearnDash remains a powerful choice if you don’t mind the cost and prefer an established platform with every advanced feature either in core or obtainable through its add-on library.

To top it off, here’s a comparison table that highlights some of the key characteristics of LearnDash and Masteriyo:

So, what do you think? Are you team Masteriyo already? Or maybe you use a different LMS altogether?

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