The best free WordPress LMS plugin depends on what you need beside courses. TrueCommunity is the pick if you want courses, quizzes and a private community in one free plugin. Tutor LMS and LifterLMS are deeper, more mature course tools, but selling courses usually means paying.
Quick Summary
- TrueCommunity (free): a community and LMS plugin with sections, lessons, auto-graded quizzes (7 question types), enrollment, progress tracking, plus a feed, groups, messages and profiles. No certificates, no SCORM, and course selling is a Pro feature.
- Tutor LMS (free core): unlimited courses, learners and instructors. Pro starts at $199/year for 1 site.
- LifterLMS (free core): unlimited courses, memberships, students and teachers, with quizzes and certificates in the free plan. Its Earth bundle is $398/year regular (currently $199 for the first year).
- Selling courses: almost no free tier handles it alone. Budget for a paid add-on, a bundle or WooCommerce.
- Prices checked on 2026-10-18 on the vendors’ own pricing pages and on the TrueCommunity pricing page.
Ready to own your community?
What “free” really means in a WordPress LMS
Every plugin in this list has a free download. What differs is where the paywall sits: payments, certificates, drip content, communities or reporting.
Before comparing, decide which of those you need in the first six months. A plugin that is free until the day you want to charge for a course is a trial, not a free LMS.
Key takeaway: Judge a free LMS plugin by the first feature you will need that it locks away, not by the number of features on its feature page.
The best free WordPress LMS plugin options at a glance
| Plugin | What the free tier gives you | Where the paywall starts |
|---|---|---|
| TrueCommunity | Courses, sections, lessons, 7-type auto-graded quizzes, enrollment, progress, plus a full community (feed, groups, messages, profiles) | Advanced course rules, course selling, gamification (Pro from $119/year) |
| Tutor LMS | Core plugin free forever, with unlimited courses, learners and instructors | Pro plans from $199/year |
| LifterLMS | Complete core LMS: unlimited courses, memberships, students and teachers; quizzes, certificates and achievement badges | Bundles with ecommerce add-ons from $199 in year one |
| Sensei | Free for free courses | Needs WooCommerce to charge |
| MasterStudy | Free version available | Paid version for more features |
Prices checked on 2026-10-18.
TrueCommunity: courses and community in one free plugin
TrueCommunity is a community and LMS plugin for WordPress: your community and courses on your own site. The free plugin on WordPress.org is a complete community with basic courses, and it uses your existing WordPress accounts.
It is a new product with a small install base, so judge it on features rather than reputation. Its edge is that learners and community members are the same people in the same system.
What the free tier includes
On the course side, you get sections and lessons that you reorder by dragging, with text, images and video in the lesson editor. Quizzes are graded automatically and support seven question types: single choice, multiple choice, true/false, short answer, fill in the blank, matching and sorting. You set points, a passing score and a maximum attempts limit.
Enrollment can be open, private (with approval) or locked (invitation only). You can enroll a whole group, and future group members are enrolled automatically. Students see progress and a Continue learning card, and instructors get a course member list and quiz results with submissions, average score and pass counts.
On the community side you get an activity feed with polls, reactions and threaded comments, a member directory, profiles, friend requests, public, private and locked groups, private messages and group chats, and notifications. The full list is on the Free vs Pro comparison.
What TrueCommunity does not do
There are no certificates and no SCORM or xAPI support. There is no mobile app, although it works in phone browsers. Only site administrators can create courses and groups.
Free courses cannot be sold. Course selling is a Pro feature, it needs WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, and only Private courses can be sold.
TrueCommunity does not process payments itself, so fees come from your store and gateway. Paid memberships and subscription billing are planned, not shipped.
What Pro adds
Pro is an add-on that needs the free plugin. It adds topics inside lessons, prerequisites, seat limits and open and close dates, access expiry, free previews, drip content, required video, lesson timers, assignments with approval and feedback, live classes with attendance, challenge exams, and progress reset. It also adds course selling and gamification with points, ranks, badges, challenges and leaderboards.
| Plan | Sites | Yearly | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo | 1 | $119 | $249 |
| Studio | 5 | $199 ($39.80 per site) | $399 ($79.80 per site) |
| Agency | 30 | $299 ($9.97 per site) | $599 ($19.97 per site) |
Prices checked on 2026-10-18 on the TrueCommunity pricing page. Every plan has every Pro feature; plans differ only by site count and support. Yearly plans renew at the same price, and every payment has a 14-day refund under the refund policy.
Tutor LMS: a deep free core, paid when you scale
Tutor LMS describes its core as free forever, with unlimited courses, learners and instructors. It is a more mature LMS than TrueCommunity, with a front-end course builder, a quiz builder, and a certificate builder in its feature lineup.
Its paid plans are listed on the official pricing page, and each includes all pro add-ons and features, priority support and one year of updates.
| Tutor LMS plan | Sites | Yearly | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|
| Individual | 1 | $199 | $499 |
| Business | Up to 10 | $399 | $999 |
| Agency | Unlimited yearly, up to 50 lifetime | $799 | $1,999 |
Prices checked on 2026-10-18 on the vendor’s pricing page; prices exclude VAT and taxes. The vendor lists a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Tutor LMS is a course plugin, not a community. If you want a feed, groups and member messaging beside the courses, you will add another plugin and manage two sets of updates.
LifterLMS: free core, paid ecommerce
LifterLMS offers a free, open-source core with unlimited courses, memberships, students and teachers. Its pricing page states that quizzes, certificates and achievement badges are in the free plan, so every plan has them. That is a real advantage over TrueCommunity if you need certificates.
Money is where the bundles come in. The Earth bundle lists ecommerce add-ons for Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce, and advanced quizzes and assignments are included only in the Infinity bundle.
| LifterLMS bundle | Active sites | Regular price per year | Current first-year price |
|---|---|---|---|
| Earth | 1 | $398 | $199 |
| Universe | 5 | $598 | $299 |
| Infinity | Unlimited | $1,598 | $799 |
Prices checked on 2026-10-18 on the vendor’s pricing page. The page states a 50% introductory discount on the first year with the code FIRSTYEAR50, and that all renewals are at full price.
Cost check: The first-year LifterLMS price is half the regular price. Plan your year-two budget around the regular figure, which is $398 for Earth.
If a license lapses, the site keeps working. What stops is add-on updates, security upgrades and support.
Staging and test sites do not count towards the site limit. The vendor lists a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Other free options: Sensei and MasterStudy
Sensei, from Automattic, is free for free courses and needs WooCommerce to charge for them. That suits a store owner already on WooCommerce and wanting a simple course layer.
MasterStudy has a free version and a paid version for more features. Check what the current free download includes before you build on it, since feature splits change between releases.
LearnDash is the other name buyers ask about. It has no free version, so it is not a free alternative; it is the paid benchmark that Tutor LMS and LifterLMS are often compared against.
Try TrueCommunity free, upgrade when you need more
Can you sell courses with a free WordPress LMS plugin?
Usually not on its own. Selling needs a payment layer, and each plugin handles that differently.
- TrueCommunity: selling is a Pro feature, through WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. Purchase enrolls the buyer automatically, and expired access can be renewed.
- Tutor LMS: its pricing page lists native ecommerce, subscriptions and memberships as part of the product line. Its Pro plans start at $199/year.
- LifterLMS: Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce add-ons sit in the Earth bundle ($398 regular, $199 first year).
- Sensei: needs WooCommerce to charge.
If you only run free courses, any free tier works. If you plan to charge from day one, price the paid layer into your comparison.
The hidden costs of a free LMS plugin
The plugin price is rarely the total. Three costs show up late.
- The community layer. Most LMS plugins have no real social features. You add a community plugin, pay twice and manage two sets of updates and possible conflicts.
- Renewal jumps. Check whether the first-year price is an introductory rate. LifterLMS renews at full price, while TrueCommunity yearly plans renew at the same price.
- Per-site licenses. Running several client sites multiplies cost. TrueCommunity’s Studio plan covers 5 sites for $199/year and Agency covers 30 for $299/year.
The free-versus-paid line also matters if you grow. With TrueCommunity, existing posts, groups, courses and members stay when you upgrade, and features in the free plugin will not move to Pro.
Which free WordPress LMS plugin includes quizzes and certificates?
LifterLMS states that quizzes, certificates and achievement badges are in its free plan. TrueCommunity free includes auto-graded quizzes but no certificates. For Tutor LMS, the official pricing page lists certificate tools but the free split is easiest to confirm inside the plugin, so test it on a staging site before you commit.
If you need certificates for compliance or credentialing, choose LifterLMS or a paid LMS. Do not pick TrueCommunity for that job.
Do you need WooCommerce for a WordPress LMS?
Only if your plugin hands payments to it. Sensei and TrueCommunity Pro sell courses through WooCommerce (TrueCommunity also supports Easy Digital Downloads). LifterLMS lists its own Stripe and PayPal add-ons plus a WooCommerce add-on in the Earth bundle.
For free courses, you need no store at all.
When TrueCommunity fits (and when it does not)
TrueCommunity fits when learning and community belong together: a coaching group, an association, a school or a brand with members who also take courses. The free plugin gives you real courses and quizzes for $0, and the Free vs Pro comparison shows what Pro adds when you need drip, assignments, selling or points and badges.
It also fits if you are tired of stacking an LMS plus a community plugin. One plugin, one set of updates, no per-member fees, and data in your own database.
It does not fit when you need certificates, SCORM or xAPI, or large-scale enterprise reporting. Tutor LMS, LifterLMS and LearnDash are deeper, more mature LMS products and have ecosystems TrueCommunity does not match. It also does not fit if you need a dedicated mobile app, if you want members to create their own groups or courses, or if you need subscription billing today.
Quick tip: Install the free plugin on a staging site, build one course with a quiz, and see whether the community half earns its place before you spend anything.
How to choose in four steps
- List the first three features you need: certificates, selling, drip, community, reporting.
- Check each plugin’s free tier against that list, using the table above.
- Price the paid layer for the one feature you will need first, using the regular price, not the intro price.
- Test on a staging site with a real course, then upgrade only when a locked feature blocks you.
For setup, the quick setup guide covers a five-step launch, and you can migrate existing WordPress users in batches.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best free WordPress LMS plugin?
TrueCommunity is the best fit if you want courses and a community together, and LifterLMS is the stronger pick if you need certificates for free. Tutor LMS suits a pure course site that may grow into its paid plans. Match the plugin to the first feature you will need, and test it on staging.
Can I sell courses with a free WordPress LMS plugin?
Not by the plugin alone in most cases. TrueCommunity sells courses through WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads in Pro, and Sensei needs WooCommerce. Your payment gateway and store also charge their own fees, so add those to your cost estimate.
Is Tutor LMS really free?
Yes, the core plugin is free, with unlimited courses, learners and instructors per the vendor’s pricing page. Pro starts at $199/year for 1 site and includes all pro add-ons and features. The practical test is to build a sample course in the free version and see whether anything you need is missing.
Is LifterLMS free, and what does it cost to accept payments?
The core is free and open source. The Earth bundle, which lists Stripe, PayPal and WooCommerce add-ons, is $398/year regular and currently $199 for the first year. It renews at full price, so budget for the larger figure from year two.
Is there a free alternative to LearnDash?
Yes: Tutor LMS, LifterLMS and TrueCommunity all have free tiers, while LearnDash has none. None of them is a like-for-like replacement for LearnDash in large or enterprise setups. If you need basic courses plus a community, TrueCommunity is the closest one-plugin option.
What are the hidden costs and renewal prices of WordPress LMS plugins?
The main hidden costs are a separate community plugin, payment add-ons and renewals at full price. LifterLMS renews at full price after the intro year, and TrueCommunity yearly plans renew at the same price you paid. Compare year-two cost, not year-one cost, and see the TrueCommunity pricing page for its plans.
Do I need WooCommerce for a WordPress LMS?
Only for selling, and only with some plugins. TrueCommunity Pro works with WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, and Sensei needs WooCommerce. Free courses need no store, so you can start without it and add one later.
Build your community on a site you own