How to Set Up Drip Content for Online Courses in WordPress

To set up drip content wordpress courses need an LMS plugin with release rules on each lesson: pick either “days after the student joins” or a fixed calendar date, then save. TrueCommunity Pro does this per lesson and per topic. Free LMS tiers usually do not include it, so check which drip modes are paid before you commit.

Quick Summary

• TrueCommunity Pro releases lessons and topics immediately, N days after joining, or on a fixed date. Rules live in Lesson and topic rules. The free plugin has no drip.
• Use days-after-joining for evergreen courses and a fixed date for cohorts that start together.
• Other WordPress LMS plugins also drip, but the route differs: some use add-ons, some put the best modes behind a paid tier, and some tie drip to memberships.
• Pro plans start at $119/year (Solo), $199/year for 5 sites (Studio) and $299/year for 30 sites (Agency). Every plan has the same features, and renewals stay at the same price.
• Most “drip not working” reports come from caching, late joiners or edits made after enrollment. Test as a student account before launch.

What drip content is and when it helps

Drip content means a course unlocks in pieces on a schedule instead of all at once. A student who joins today sees lesson one now and lesson two next week, for example. You control the pace instead of leaving it to whoever binges fastest.

It does not automatically raise completion rates, and nobody should promise that. What it does is create a rhythm: a reason to return each week, a shared pace for a group, and a way to protect material that depends on earlier lessons. It also stops a buyer from consuming everything in a weekend and asking for a refund.

Releasing everything at once is still the better choice in some cases. Reference courses, short skill tutorials and refresher libraries suit it, because students want to jump to what they need. Drip suits courses with a learning arc, habit courses, cohort programs and anything with live elements.

Key takeaway: Drip is a pacing tool, not a magic completion button. Use it when the order and rhythm of learning matter, and skip it when students need random access.

Choose your drip model before you click anything

Most plugins offer the same two core models, and the choice shapes everything else. Decide this first, because switching later confuses students who have already joined.

Days after joining (per-student drip)

Each student has a personal clock that starts when they join the course. Lesson three unlocks, say, 14 days after that student enrolled. This works for evergreen courses sold all year, because every new buyer gets the same experience.

The downside is that students drift apart. Nobody shares the same week, so live discussion about “this week’s lesson” is harder.

Fixed date (cohort drip)

Every lesson opens on a calendar date, no matter when the student joined. This fits a cohort that starts on the same day and moves together, with a live call after each release. Late joiners find several lessons already open, which is usually what you want, but you should say so on the sales page.

You can also combine drip with a seat limit and open and close dates so the cohort has a clear start and end. TrueCommunity covers those in Course settings.

Question	Days after joining	Fixed date
Best for	Evergreen, always-open courses	Cohorts with a start date
Student experience	Personal schedule	Shared schedule
Late joiners	Start at lesson one, same pace	See earlier lessons already open
Community discussion	Spread across weeks	Concentrated on release days
Admin effort	Set once	Reset dates for each new run

How to set up drip content in WordPress with TrueCommunity Pro

TrueCommunity is a community and LMS plugin for WordPress, so drip sits inside the same system as your members, groups and quizzes. The free plugin on WordPress.org includes courses, lessons and auto-graded quizzes. Drip is a Pro feature, as the Free vs Pro comparison shows.

Step 1: Install the free plugin and Pro

Install the free plugin first, then upload the Pro add-on and activate your license. The steps are in Install TrueCommunity and Install Pro. Pro needs the free plugin active, so your existing posts, groups, courses and members stay as they are.

Step 2: Build the course structure

Create the course, then add sections and lessons as described in Create a course and Sections and lessons. Think about release units now. If a lesson is long, Pro lets you split it into steps using topics inside lessons, and drip rules apply to topics as well.

Step 3: Choose how students move through the course

In the course settings, pick sequential progression or any-order progression. Sequential means each step waits for the one before. Combine it with drip and students have two gates: the clock and their own progress.

For a cohort, also set open and close dates and an optional seat limit. If you want people to see what is coming, you can show the lesson list before enrollment.

Step 4: Set the drip rule on each lesson or topic

Open the lesson, find its rules, and choose a release option. According to the lesson rules documentation, there are three:

• Immediately: the lesson is open as soon as the student can access the course.
• N days after joining: enter the number of days. Week one is 0, week two is 7, week three is 14, and so on.
• Fixed date: pick the calendar date the lesson opens for everyone.

A tidy approach is to make lesson one immediate, so students start straight away, then step the rest in even intervals.

Step 5: Add finish rules that match the pace

Drip controls when a lesson opens. Finish rules control when it counts as done. Pro offers a required video (with auto-complete and resume position), a required file upload with automatic or manual approval, and a minimum timer.

These pair well with drip. A weekly lesson with a required video and a short assignment gives students a clear task each week. You can review uploads in bulk through Review assignments.

Step 6: Open a free preview

Mark one or two lessons as free previews so prospects can sample the course. Preview lessons sit outside the drip schedule logic you set for paid content, so check the result as a visitor. This helps sales without giving away the later weeks.

Step 7: Test as a student

Create a test user, enroll them, and walk the course. Confirm that locked lessons look locked and that the first lesson opens. For a fixed-date course, set one date a few minutes ahead and watch it open.

Quick tip: Test in a private browser window while logged in as the test student. It shows you what a real student sees, including any caching problems.

Tell students when a lesson unlocks

Drip works best when students know what is coming. TrueCommunity’s notification emails cover mentions, comments, replies, invites, requests, role changes and enrollment. A lesson-unlock email is not on that list, so plan a manual announcement.

The simplest option is a recurring post in the course’s group feed: “Week 3 is open.” Students get the in-app bell if they are mentioned or follow the thread, and you can pin the post. Because the community and the course share the same members, this takes a minute, not a separate email tool.

Many standalone LMS plugins have no community layer, so they rely on email tools for this. That is one more plugin to pay for and keep updated.

Keep students engaged between releases

The gap between unlocks is where students drift. A community fills that gap, which is the reason to run drip inside a community and LMS plugin.

• Create a group for each cohort and post discussion prompts after each release.
• Enable gamification so lesson completion earns points, badges and rank progress, with a leaderboard for friendly competition.
• Run a live class lesson (online or in person, with optional attendance) on release days.

Points for completion are set in the lesson rules, and ranks and badges are set up under Gamification. This keeps the weekly rhythm visible to students without extra plugins.

How other WordPress LMS plugins handle drip

Every serious WordPress LMS has some form of drip, but they differ on where the setting lives, what is paid and how it connects to memberships. The table summarizes what each vendor’s own material describes.

Plugin	How drip works	Worth knowing
TrueCommunity Pro	Per lesson and topic: immediately, days after joining, or fixed date	Pro only; same features in every plan; community in the same plugin
LearnDash	Release a set number of days after signup, with lesson and topic schedules	No free plan; MemberDash comes with every plan and can drip by membership level; no built-in community
LifterLMS	Drip by specific date, days after enrollment, or prerequisite, set in the Course Builder lesson panel	Mature LMS with a wide feature set
MemberPress	Two routes: rules for any content, and a simpler setting in MemberPress Courses	Rule-based drip overrides the Courses drip settings
Masteriyo	Four drip modes	Free plan has no rules; date and day-count scheduling are Pro
Academy LMS	Drip add-on with six methods	Separate add-on
LearnPress	Content drip add-on	Separate add-on

Check each vendor’s current pricing before you buy, since plans and tiers change often.

Where the others are stronger

LearnDash and LifterLMS are deeper LMS products than TrueCommunity. They offer certificates, large-scale reporting and wider ecosystems.

SCORM and xAPI in LearnDash are available through third-party add-ons, not first-party paid add-ons. TrueCommunity does not offer certificates or SCORM.

If you run a corporate training program that needs completion certificates and compliance reports, one of those is the better fit. If your course is a coaching program, a membership course library or a cohort inside a community, those extras may sit unused while you pay for them.

Drip by membership level

Some buyers want drip tied to a membership tier, so a basic plan unlocks fewer lessons than a premium one. LearnDash’s MemberDash comes with every plan and can drip by membership level.

MemberPress is built around that model. TrueCommunity does not ship paid memberships or subscription billing yet; they are planned, not available.

What TrueCommunity does support is selling a Private course through WooCommerce or Easy Digital Downloads, with automatic enrollment on purchase and renewal of expired access. Combine that with access expiry and drip and you get a time-boxed paid program.

Details are in Sell a course. TrueCommunity does not process payments itself, so fees come from your store and gateway.

The cost of drip: one plugin or a stack

With many plugins, the real cost is the stack. You buy an LMS, add a community plugin for discussion, maybe a membership plugin for tiers, and sometimes a drip add-on. Each has its own license and its own updates to break.

TrueCommunity bundles community, courses, drip and gamification in one add-on. Here are its plans, with every feature included in each.

Plan	Sites	Yearly	Lifetime	Support
Solo	1	$119	$249	Email, about 2 business days
Studio (best value)	5	$199 ($39.80 per site)	$399 ($79.80 per site)	Priority, about 1 business day
Agency	30	$299 ($9.97 per site)	$599 ($19.97 per site)	Priority, about 1 business day

Prices checked on October 25, 2026, on the TrueCommunity pricing page. Yearly plans renew at the same price. Lifetime covers updates to Pro itself, but not separate paid add-ons that may be released later.

There is a 14-day money-back guarantee on every payment, including renewals, described in the refund policy. If a license lapses, Pro features keep working, but updates and support stop until you renew. There are no per-member fees.

Cost check: Before comparing prices, list what you need: LMS, drip, community, gamification and course sales. Count each plugin you would have to add to match that list, then compare the total.

Common drip problems and how to fix them

Lessons unlock late, early or not at all

Caching is the usual cause. A cached page can show a lesson as locked after it has opened, or the reverse. Exclude your community and course pages from page caching, and test again in a private window.

If the issue continues, check the troubleshooting guide, or contact Pro support through the support page.

Late joiners

Decide up front what a student who joins mid-cohort should see. On a fixed-date course they will find earlier lessons already open. If you want them to catch up gradually instead, use days-after-joining for that course.

Edits after students enroll

Changing a rule after enrollment affects what students see right away. Moving a date later can re-lock a lesson someone was about to open, so announce changes first. Avoid reordering lessons in a live course unless you have to.

Resetting a student

If someone needs to start over, Pro lets you reset a student’s progress. This is irreversible, so confirm before you do it. See Reset a student’s progress.

Best practices for drip schedules

• Release weekly for most courses. Daily suits habit programs, and slower schedules lose momentum.
• Open lesson one immediately so new students can start straight away.
• Keep each release to one clear task, such as a video plus a short assignment.
• Show the full schedule on the sales page so students know what to expect.
• Offer a way to catch up, such as an access window that lasts after the final release.

When TrueCommunity fits (and when it does not)

TrueCommunity fits when you want courses and community on a site you own, with drip, quizzes and gamification sharing the same members. It suits coaches, cohort programs, associations and course creators leaving a hosted platform who want a flat, predictable cost. It also suits people paying for an LMS plus a separate community plugin who want one stack.

It is not the best choice in these cases:

• You need certificates, SCORM or xAPI, or enterprise-scale reporting. LearnDash and LifterLMS are deeper here.
• You need paid memberships or subscription billing built in. These are planned for TrueCommunity, not shipped.
• You need a dedicated mobile app. TrueCommunity works in phone browsers only.
• You want students to create their own groups or courses. Only site administrators can create both.
• You need drip for free. The free plugin has no drip, so you would need a different plugin or the Pro add-on.

The free plugin is a fair way to test the course builder before paying. Install it from WordPress.org, build a small course, then see what Pro adds when you are ready for drip.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is drip content in an online course, and does it improve completion?

Drip content releases lessons on a schedule instead of all at once. It can help students keep a steady pace, but it does not guarantee higher completion, and an unclear schedule can frustrate people. Pair it with a visible calendar and weekly prompts in a group.

What is the best WordPress plugin for drip content?

It depends on what else you need around the course. TrueCommunity Pro is a strong pick if you want drip, community and gamification in one plugin. LearnDash and LifterLMS suit buyers who want deeper LMS features such as certificates and larger reporting needs.

Can I drip content in WordPress for free?

Sometimes, but not with every plugin. Some LMS plugins limit scheduling to paid tiers, and Masteriyo’s free plan, for example, has no drip rules. TrueCommunity’s free plugin has no drip either, so you would upgrade to Pro, which has a 14-day refund window if it is not right.

How do I drip lessons by days after enrollment versus a fixed date?

In TrueCommunity Pro, open the lesson rules and choose “N days after joining” or “fixed date”. Use days for evergreen courses and fixed dates for cohorts. If you choose fixed dates, reset them each time you run the course again.

Can I drip content by membership level?

Some plugins can, such as LearnDash through MemberDash and MemberPress through its rules. TrueCommunity does not have paid membership levels yet. You can sell separate Private courses through WooCommerce or EDD and set drip inside each course.

Why isn’t my drip content unlocking? Does caching affect it?

Yes, caching is the most common cause. A cached page can show the old locked or unlocked state, so exclude course pages from page caching and test as a logged-in student. If dates still look wrong, check the rule type and the date you set before contacting support.

How do I email students when a new lesson unlocks?

TrueCommunity’s notification emails do not include a lesson-unlock event, so announce releases yourself. Post in the cohort group on each release day and pin it. For automatic emails, you would need a separate email tool connected to your site.

Is drip content better than releasing everything at once?

Neither is better in every case. Drip suits courses with a learning arc, cohorts and habit programs, while open access suits reference material and short tutorials. Choose by how your students learn, not by what is fashionable.