The learndash buddyboss cost is $549 in year one and about $749 a year after that, before hosting, if you pay LearnDash’s listed 1-site price of $350 and BuddyBoss Launch at $199 intro and $399 renewal. Over three years that is $2,047. One community and LMS plugin such as TrueCommunity costs $119 a year on one site.
Quick Summary
- TrueCommunity Solo is $119/year or $249 once for 1 site, with community, courses and gamification in one plugin, and it renews at the same price.
- LearnDash plus BuddyBoss Launch: $350 + $199 = $549 in year one, then $350 + $399 = $749 per year if LearnDash is paid at the same listed price. Three years: $2,047.
- BuddyBoss now has its own courses, so you can drop LearnDash if you do not need its depth. LearnDash is still the deeper LMS.
- TrueCommunity does not offer certificates, SCORM or enterprise reporting. If you need those, LearnDash earns its price.
- Prices checked on October 20, 2026, from the vendors’ own pricing pages. Hosting is excluded from every figure.
Ready to own your community?
Why the two-plugin stack costs more than the sticker price
LearnDash is a course engine. It has no member directory, activity feed or groups of its own, so buyers who want a community add a second plugin, and BuddyBoss is the usual choice. You then carry two licenses, two renewal dates and two update streams on one site.
The first-year number looks friendly because BuddyBoss discounts its entry price. The second-year number is the one that sets your budget. This article shows both, then compares them with a single plugin.
What LearnDash costs today
LearnDash’s pricing page now sells by site count. Every tier includes The Events Calendar, Give and Kadence alongside LearnDash. The listed prices are below.
| Sites | Listed price | Per site |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $350 | $350 |
| 10 | $599 | $59.90 |
| 25 | $799 | $31.96 |
| 50 | $899 | $17.98 |
| 100 | $999 | $9.99 |
Prices checked on October 20, 2026 on the LearnDash pricing page.
The page lists quizzes with 8 question types, assignments, certificates, a reporting dashboard with at-risk learner flags, built-in memberships (MemberDash), group seat selling and front-end course creation for multiple instructors. It also offers a free 48-hour demo. Older articles still quote $199, $399 and $799 licenses, but those are not what the vendor lists now.
Watch out: the page does not state a renewal price in the text we can read. For the multi-year math below we assume you pay the listed price again each year. Confirm the renewal on the checkout page before you commit.
What BuddyBoss costs, including the renewal jump
BuddyBoss restructured its web plans into Start, Launch and Scale. All three are discounted by 50% in the first year and renew at full price. The renewal is the number to budget for.
| Plan | Year one | Renews at | Course and membership fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $99 | $199/year | 2.9% on BuddyBoss Memberships and Courses |
| Launch | $199 | $399/year | 0% |
| Scale | $349 | $699/year | 0% |
Prices checked on October 20, 2026 on the BuddyBoss pricing page.
The LearnDash integration is a Launch feature, so the Start plan does not fit this stack. Scale adds points, badges, ranks and leaderboards, plus media offload and member blogs. Hosting is not included in any BuddyBoss plan.
The learndash buddyboss cost, year by year
This is the arithmetic. The assumptions: one WordPress site, LearnDash at its listed $350 each year, BuddyBoss Launch at $199 then $399, and no hosting, theme or developer time in any column.
| Stack | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | 3-year total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TrueCommunity Solo (yearly) | $119 | $119 | $119 | $357 |
| TrueCommunity Solo (lifetime) | $249 | $0 | $0 | $249 |
| LearnDash + BuddyBoss Launch | $549 | $749 | $749 | $2,047 |
| LearnDash + BuddyBoss Scale | $699 | $1,049 | $1,049 | $2,797 |
Prices checked on October 20, 2026. Year 1 for LearnDash + Launch is $350 + $199 = $549.
Years 2 and 3 are $350 + $399 = $749. Scale: $350 + $349 = $699, then $350 + $699 = $1,049.
The Scale row matters because gamification is the usual reason people move up. TrueCommunity includes points, ranks, badges and leaderboards in every Pro plan, which is why the comparison to Scale is the fair one if you want a rewards system.
Cost check: the gap is not the first year, it is the renewal. The BuddyBoss Launch renewal ($399) is more than three times the TrueCommunity Solo yearly price ($119) on its own.
Do you still need LearnDash if BuddyBoss has courses?
Often not. BuddyBoss Launch and Scale include BuddyBoss Courses and Memberships built in, with assignments and a gradebook listed in the feature table. The BuddyBoss pricing page says a second plugin is optional rather than required.
That changes the honest comparison. If you only need a community plus decent courses, BuddyBoss alone at $199 then $399 is a cheaper stack than LearnDash plus BuddyBoss. You would only add LearnDash for its deeper course tooling.
It also means the real choice for many buyers is BuddyBoss alone versus TrueCommunity. On price, Solo at $119/year (or $249 once) is below BuddyBoss Launch’s $399 renewal, and Studio at $199/year covers 5 sites.
Try TrueCommunity free, upgrade when you need more
What you get from TrueCommunity instead
TrueCommunity is a community and LMS plugin for WordPress. It combines an activity feed, profiles, groups, messages and notifications with a course builder and quizzes, on your existing WordPress accounts and in your own database. There are no per-member fees.
The free plugin on WordPress.org already includes the community and basic courses: sections and lessons, enrollment, progress tracking and auto-graded quizzes with seven question types. Pro adds the advanced LMS rules, course selling and gamification. The Free vs Pro comparison lists each feature on each side.
Pro features that overlap with a LearnDash setup include:
- Topics inside lessons, prerequisites, seat limits, open and close dates, and access expiry (course settings).
- Drip content, required video, lesson timers, live classes and assignments with approval (lesson rules).
- Selling courses through WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads (sell a course). Only Private courses can be sold, and fees come from your store and payment gateway.
- Points, ranks, badges, challenges and leaderboards (gamification overview).
Plans for more than one site
If you build for clients or run several sites, the per-site price decides the bill. Every TrueCommunity plan has the same features. Plans differ only by site count and support.
| Plan | Sites | Yearly | Per site | Lifetime |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| TrueCommunity Solo | 1 | $119 | $119.00 | $249 |
| TrueCommunity Studio | 5 | $199 | $39.80 | $399 |
| TrueCommunity Agency | 30 | $299 | $9.97 | $599 |
| LearnDash (course plugin only) | 10 | $599 | $59.90 | not listed |
| LearnDash (course plugin only) | 25 | $799 | $31.96 | not listed |
Prices checked on October 20, 2026 on each vendor’s pricing page. LearnDash figures exclude any community plugin.
A fair note: LearnDash’s price includes Give, The Events Calendar and Kadence alongside the LMS, so it is not a course-only product. Even so, LearnDash alone on 10 sites ($599) costs three times TrueCommunity Studio on 5 sites ($199), and you still need a community layer on top. The pricing page shows the live figures.
The costs that never appear on a pricing page
Hosting is extra for both stacks. BuddyBoss states plainly that hosting is not included and recommends managed WordPress hosting with dedicated resources for busy communities. Whatever you pay there applies to any self-hosted option, so it does not separate the stacks, but it belongs in your budget.
Two other costs are specific to the two-plugin approach:
- Two update streams. Each release of either plugin can affect the other, so you test updates on a staging copy before every change. That is developer or owner time, and it grows with the number of sites.
- Two support relationships. When a course page breaks inside a community layout, you work out which vendor owns the problem before you get an answer.
A single plugin shares one member system, so enrollment, groups, points and notifications all use the same accounts. There is no sync step. That is a saving in hours rather than dollars, but it is real.
Fees, trials and refunds
On fees, BuddyBoss takes nothing on Launch or Scale and 2.9% of Memberships and Courses sales through Stripe on Start. It states it never takes a cut of sales made through LearnDash, WooCommerce or other plugins. TrueCommunity does not process payments at all, so fees come from your store and gateway.
BuddyBoss offers a 14-day money-back guarantee. LearnDash offers a free 48-hour demo with no credit card. TrueCommunity has no trial because the free plugin is the trial, and every Pro plan has a 14-day refund, including renewals.
When TrueCommunity fits (and when it does not)
TrueCommunity fits if you want a community and courses on the same members, one bill and a price that does not move at renewal. It suits coaches, associations, schools, brands and agencies who want a private space on their own site. Yearly plans renew at the same price, and lifetime is one payment for updates to the core Pro plugin.
It is not the best choice in several cases:
- You need certificates, SCORM or enterprise reporting. LearnDash is a deeper LMS. It lists certificates, a reporting dashboard with at-risk learner flags, group seat selling and multi-instructor course creation. TrueCommunity does not offer certificates or SCORM, and its reporting covers course member progress and quiz results rather than large-scale analytics.
- You need a native mobile app. TrueCommunity has none yet. It works in phone browsers.
- You need paid memberships or subscription billing. That is planned, not shipped. Course selling works through WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, and LearnDash lists built-in memberships.
- Instructors must create their own courses. In TrueCommunity, only site administrators create groups and courses.
- You want an established ecosystem. BuddyBoss and LearnDash are older products with wider add-on and agency support. TrueCommunity is new, with few installs.
Key takeaway: if your courses are standard lessons and quizzes inside an active community, the extra LMS depth in LearnDash is something you pay for every year and may never use. If a certificate or compliance report is a requirement, keep LearnDash.
How to decide in four steps
- List the course features you use today: certificates, group seats, reporting, multiple instructors. If any is essential, price LearnDash first.
- If courses are simple, price BuddyBoss alone at its renewal ($399 for Launch), not the intro price.
- Price a single plugin: TrueCommunity plans start at $119/year, or install the free plugin on a staging site and build a course first. The quick setup guide walks through it, and existing WordPress users can be migrated into the community.
- Add hosting and your own time to every column, then compare three-year totals rather than year one.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does LearnDash plus BuddyBoss cost per year?
For one site it is $549 in year one and $749 a year after, at LearnDash’s listed $350 and BuddyBoss Launch at $199 then $399. Scale instead of Launch brings it to $699 then $1,049. Hosting is on top, and the LearnDash figure assumes you pay the listed price again at renewal.
Does BuddyBoss now include courses, so do I still need LearnDash?
BuddyBoss Launch and Scale include built-in Courses and Memberships, so LearnDash is optional. You would keep LearnDash for features such as certificates and group seat selling. If you already run LearnDash courses, the Launch plan integrates with it and takes no fee on those sales.
What are the BuddyBoss renewal prices after the first year?
Start renews at $199, Launch at $399 and Scale at $699 per year. The first-year prices of $99, $199 and $349 are a 50% introductory discount. Budget on the renewal figure from day one.
Does LearnDash charge transaction fees?
The LearnDash pricing page lists only license prices by site count, and it does not describe a commission. Your payment gateway still charges its own processing fees on every sale. Check your gateway’s rates, since they apply to any WordPress course stack.
Can I get a refund on LearnDash, BuddyBoss or TrueCommunity?
BuddyBoss lists a 14-day money-back guarantee, and TrueCommunity gives 14 days on every payment, renewals included, with no reason needed. LearnDash advertises a free 48-hour demo on its pricing page. Confirm its refund terms at checkout, because the demo is the only trial the page describes.
What hidden costs come with a self-hosted LearnDash and BuddyBoss site?
Hosting is the first: BuddyBoss does not include it and recommends managed WordPress hosting for busy communities. The second is maintenance time, since two plugins mean two update cycles to test. If you want a native mobile app, BuddyBoss sells that separately, so price it before you plan around it.
Is a single community and LMS plugin enough for a real course business?
It is enough when your courses rely on lessons, quizzes, drip, assignments and selling through WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads. Start with the free plugin, which already includes courses and quizzes, and see what Pro adds before paying. If you later need certificates or SCORM, you will have to move to a deeper LMS.
Build your community on a site you own