LifterLMS Review (2026) | Is This WordPress LMS Worth Using?

TL;DR: LifterLMS Review (2026): Pricing, Features, And Who It’s For
LifterLMS is a WordPress LMS plugin with a free core that covers courses, quizzes, certificates, and memberships, plus paid bundles that add payments, integrations, and advanced tools. It suits course creators who already run a WordPress site and want to own their platform. If you’d rather not manage WordPress, a hosted platform like Thinkific or Kajabi is the easier route.

• Free to start. The Core plugin handles unlimited courses, memberships, and students at no cost, so you can build and test before you pay.
• Paid bundles for selling. Earth Bundle renews at $398/year, Universe Bundle at $598/year, and Infinity Bundle at $1,598/year, with half off the first year.
• Where the gaps are. Stripe and PayPal need a paid bundle, and assignments, groups, cohorts, and social learning only come with Infinity Bundle.
• No AI tools. LifterLMS lists no AI features, so course drafting happens in other tools.
• Low-risk trial. A $1 demo site for 30 days and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Try LifterLMS For $1

You can turn a regular WordPress website into a full online school with the right LMS plugin. LifterLMS is one of the most established options, and it lets you sell online courses and memberships from your own site without relying on a third-party platform.

In this LifterLMS review, I’ll walk through what the free core plugin does, what each paid bundle adds, where LifterLMS falls short, and who should use it.

By the end, you’ll know whether it fits your course business or whether another setup would serve you better.

LifterLMS Snapshot (2026)

What buyers ask	LifterLMS’s answer
What it is	A WordPress LMS plugin for courses, quizzes, certificates, and memberships
Hosting	Self-hosted. You need your own WordPress site and host
Free option	Core plugin with unlimited courses, memberships, and students
Paid plans	Earth Bundle $398/year, Universe Bundle $598/year, Infinity Bundle $1,598/year at renewal, with half off the first year
Trial	A $1 demo site for 30 days and a 30-day money-back guarantee
Transaction fees	None from LifterLMS
Payments	Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce from Earth Bundle. Authorize.net from Universe Bundle
Course tools	Drag-and-drop builder, quizzes, question banks, drip, prerequisites, certificates, badges
Advanced tools	Assignments, cohorts, groups, social learning, and more on Infinity Bundle
Email marketing	Mailchimp and Kit add-ons from Universe Bundle. Zapier app for other tools
AI tools	None listed
Best for	Course creators on WordPress who want a free starting point and room to grow

Read: The Best WordPress LMS Plugins For Selling Courses and Memberships

What Is LifterLMS?

LifterLMS is a WordPress plugin that adds a learning management system to your website. You build courses with sections and lessons, test learners with quizzes, award certificates and badges, and sell access through one-time payments, subscriptions, or memberships.

As a plugin, LifterLMS runs on a WordPress site you host yourself. You choose the host, the theme, and the other plugins, and you own the site, the content, and the student data. You’re also responsible for hosting, updates, and backups.

LifterLMS uses a freemium model. The Core plugin is free from the WordPress plugin directory and covers the full course builder, quizzes, certificates, memberships, and unlimited students. Paid bundles add the pieces most businesses need to sell, such as Stripe and PayPal, email marketing integrations, and advanced learning tools.

LifterLMS says more than 10,000 creators use the plugin. Here’s what it covers today.

• Course building: A drag-and-drop course builder with multimedia lessons, drip schedules, prerequisites, and course tracks.
• Assessment: Quizzes with question banks and timers, plus certificates and achievement badges.
• Memberships: Unlimited memberships with content restrictions, automatic enrollment, and members-only pricing.
• Selling: Access plans for one-time, recurring, and payment-plan pricing, coupons, bundles, bulk sales, and native sales pages.
• Engagement: Lesson comments, private coaching areas, note taking, and social learning on the top plan.
• Management: Reporting, a gradebook, multiple instructors, and roles for managers and assistants.

LifterLMS works with any well-coded WordPress theme, and it offers its own Sky Pilot theme for an integrated look.

Quick Verdict: Is LifterLMS Right For You?

LifterLMS makes sense if you already run a WordPress site, or plan to, and you’re comfortable handling WordPress yourself or with a developer. In that case, its free core lets you build a complete course before you spend anything, and the paid bundles let you add selling tools as your business grows.

It fits best for course creators who want to own their platform and grow into it gradually. A coach testing a first course can start free, add Earth Bundle to take payments, and move up only when they need integrations or advanced tools.

If you don’t have a WordPress site and don’t want the upkeep, choose a hosted platform. Tools like Thinkific and Kajabi handle hosting, security, and updates for you, and they get you selling faster.

To run LifterLMS, you’ll need a WordPress website and a fast web hosting service. Here are my top picks.

LifterLMS Pricing (2026)

LifterLMS has a free core plugin and three paid bundles, all billed yearly. Each bundle costs half the regular price in the first year with LifterLMS’s introductory code, and renewals charge the full price, so I plan around the renewal figure.

Plan	Renewal price	First year	Active sites	What it adds
Core plugin	Free	Free	Any	Courses, quizzes, certificates, memberships, coupons, sales pages
Earth Bundle	$398/year	Introductory first year $199; renews at the stored full annual price.	1	Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce, cart abandonment recovery, Name Your Price
Universe Bundle	$598/year	Introductory first year $299; renews at the stored full annual price.	5	Sky Pilot theme, Authorize.net, Mailchimp and Kit, forms add-ons, weekly mastermind
Infinity Bundle	$1,598/year	Introductory first year $799; renews at the stored full annual price.	Unlimited	15 advanced add-ons, including assignments, cohorts, groups, and social learning

You can try everything on a 30-day demo site for $1, and every purchase comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. LifterLMS also sells a lifetime Infinity Bundle license and individual add-ons, each for one site.

Which LifterLMS Plan Should You Buy?

Start with the free core while you build your first course. When you’re ready to sell, Earth Bundle covers payments for one site. Choose Universe Bundle if you want native email marketing integrations, the Sky Pilot theme, or more than one site. Pay for Infinity Bundle only when you need assignments, cohorts, groups, social learning, or CEU tracking.

If you’re weighing LifterLMS against the other major WordPress LMS, my LearnDash vs LifterLMS comparison covers the trade-offs.

LifterLMS Features For Selling Courses & Memberships in WordPress

LifterLMS puts its core learning tools in the free plugin and sells the rest as add-ons grouped into bundles.

Feature	What you get	What’s missing	Plan
Course builder	Drag-and-drop builder, multimedia lessons, downloads, free preview lessons, course import and export	A dedicated LMS theme below Universe Bundle, where Sky Pilot comes included	Core plugin (free)
Drip and learning paths	Drip schedules, lesson and course prerequisites, course tracks for certifications	Cohort-based progression below Infinity Bundle	Core plugin. Cohorts on Infinity Bundle
Quizzes and assessment	Multimedia quizzes, question banks, timers, passing scores, attempt reviews and retakes	Manually graded essays and short answers, assignments, and CEU tracking below Infinity Bundle	Core plugin. Advanced tools on Infinity Bundle
Certificates and badges	Printable certificates, achievement badges, a graphics pack of backgrounds and badges	PDF generation of certificates and grades below Infinity Bundle	Core plugin
Memberships	Unlimited memberships, sitewide or partial restriction, automatic enrollment, members-only pricing, bulk enrollment	Online payments for memberships on the free core	Core plugin. Payments from Earth Bundle
Payments and checkout	One-time, recurring, and payment-plan pricing, no transaction fees, card and PayPal switching, cart abandonment recovery	Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce on the free core. Authorize.net below Universe Bundle	Earth Bundle and up
Marketing tools	Coupons, bundles, bulk sales vouchers, presales, native sales pages, Name Your Price	URL coupons, volume discounts, and gifting below Infinity Bundle. A built-in affiliate program	Core plugin. Extras on Earth Bundle and Infinity Bundle
Email and integrations	Zapier app with thousands of apps, Mailchimp and Kit add-ons, Gravity Forms, WPForms, and other form add-ons	Native email marketing add-ons below Universe Bundle	Universe Bundle and up
Community and engagement	Lesson comments, bbPress forums, private coaching areas, focus mode, personalized emails	Social learning feeds, groups, private areas, notes, and events below Infinity Bundle	Core plugin. Advanced on Infinity Bundle
Teams and reporting	Multiple instructors and assistants, gradebook, sales and enrollment reports, LMS roles	Group leader management below Infinity Bundle. Deep analytics	Core plugin. Groups on Infinity Bundle
AI tools	None	AI course, lesson, or quiz drafting	Not available
Support and trial	Unlimited tickets with replies within 12 business hours, a $1 30-day demo site, a 30-day money-back guarantee	Ticket support on the free core	Paid bundles

Feature #1: Online Courses

You build courses in a drag-and-drop course builder that you launch from the course settings in WordPress. Courses break into sections, and each section holds lessons with video, audio, text, images, and downloadable files.

For example, an SEO course could have sections on keyword research, on-page SEO, and technical SEO, with short lessons inside each one. You drag sections and lessons into order, and you can reorder them at any time.

You control how learners move through the material. Free preview lessons let prospects sample your teaching, prerequisites lock a lesson or course until learners finish an earlier one, and drip schedules release lessons over time. Course tracks group several courses into a program, such as a certification path.

You can also export a course from one LifterLMS site and import it into another, which helps with migrations, licensing, and backups. If you’re still planning your content, my guide on how to create an online course covers the design side.

Where it falls short. The course builder lives inside WordPress, so it feels familiar to WordPress users and busier to everyone else. Course design also depends on your theme unless you use Sky Pilot.

Feature #2: Quizzes And Assessment

Every LifterLMS site can run quizzes with multimedia questions, question banks that pull different questions for each learner, quiz timers, and passing scores that gate the next lesson. You can review individual attempts and let learners retake a quiz with limits you set.

The Advanced Quizzes add-on, part of Infinity Bundle, adds manually graded question types such as essays and short answers. The Assignments add-on lets learners submit tasks, uploads, and long answers for review, and the Continuing Education add-on tracks CEUs, credits, or hours. My guide on how to create quizzes covers how to write questions that test real understanding.

Where it falls short. Manual grading, assignments, and CEU tracking all need Infinity Bundle. LifterLMS supports xAPI (Tin Can) content through an integration, so check the setup if you rely on SCORM-style packages.

Feature #3: Memberships

LifterLMS includes full membership tools in the free core. You can create a membership site that locks your whole site except the sales page, or restrict specific courses, pages, posts, and forums to members.

Access plans set the price and terms for each membership, with one-time, recurring, or payment-plan pricing, free trials, and sale prices. LifterLMS can enroll members in some or all courses automatically at checkout, and you can give them members-only course prices.

For example, you could sell a yearly membership that includes every course in a category, then add new courses to that category and enroll existing members in one click.

Where it falls short. Taking payments for memberships still needs a paid bundle, since the free core only handles free and offline enrollments.

Feature #4: Student Engagement

Learners who finish courses become success stories and referrals, so LifterLMS includes several tools to keep them moving. You can award certificates and achievement badges, send personalized emails based on learner behavior, and turn on focus mode for distraction-free lessons. My guide on how to increase course completion rates covers more ideas.

Discussion options include lesson comments, forums through bbPress, and private coaching areas where you can work one-on-one with each student. On Infinity Bundle, you also get Social Learning for a feed-style community, Course Cohorts for groups that move through a course together, Notes for learner note taking, and Events for live and in-person sessions.

Where it falls short. Most of the stronger engagement tools, including social learning, cohorts, groups, and private areas, sit in the Infinity Bundle bundle. On lower plans, you’ll rely on comments and outside tools for community.

Feature #5: Teaching Teams And Reporting

LifterLMS supports multiple instructors, with roles for managers, instructors, and instructor’s assistants. You can enroll students manually or in bulk with activation codes, review their progress and quiz scores in a gradebook, and pull sales, enrollment, and student reports.

For corporate and school buyers, the Groups add-on on Infinity Bundle lets you sell courses to a group and give a group leader their own management tools.

Where it falls short. Reporting covers the essentials, and you’ll likely export data to a spreadsheet for deeper analysis.

Feature #6: Course Marketing

The free core includes coupons, course bundles, bulk sales through vouchers, presales, free courses for lead generation, and native sales pages, so you can launch without separate landing page software. Private coaching upsells let you sell one-on-one support on top of a course.

Earth Bundle adds cart abandonment recovery and Name Your Price for pay-what-you-want pricing. Infinity Bundle adds Advanced Coupons with URL coupons, volume discounts, and country-based offers, plus Gifts for buying courses for others. The LifterLMS Zapier app connects to thousands of other tools, and LifterLMS works with popular affiliate plugins if you want to run an affiliate program.

Where it falls short. Email marketing add-ons for Mailchimp and Kit start on Universe Bundle. On Earth Bundle, connecting an email platform means Zapier or another workaround. My list of email marketing platforms can help you choose one.

Feature #7: Payment Gateways

LifterLMS takes no transaction fees and lets you sell from any country in any currency. Its access plans support one-time payments, subscriptions, and payment plans, and customers can update their cards or switch between card and PayPal on their own.

Earth Bundle includes the Stripe, PayPal, and WooCommerce add-ons. Universe Bundle adds Authorize.net among its four ecommerce add-ons.

Where it falls short. The free core can’t take online payments, so selling a course means buying at least Earth Bundle.

No AI Features

LifterLMS has notable AI features. You’ll draft outlines, lessons, and quiz questions in a separate AI tool and paste them into the course builder.

That puts LifterLMS behind MemberPress, which includes an AI Course Generator, and LearnDash, which offers AI outline and quiz builders on its Pro plan. My guide to humanizing AI content helps if you draft with AI elsewhere.

LifterLMS Website Examples

Here are a few sites that run their courses on LifterLMS.

Holy Grail WP

Holy Grail WP sells WordPress speed, SEO, and content marketing courses, with a free course and member community built on LifterLMS.

David Molnar

David Molnar, a professional photographer, sells photography courses, a membership, and one-on-one mentoring from his site.

Tizzit

Tizzit runs free and paid memberships that teach handmade shop owners how to sell online.

LifterLMS Pros And Cons

Pros	Cons
Free to start. The core plugin handles unlimited courses and students, so you can build and test a full course at no cost.	Payments cost extra. Selling anything online needs at least Earth Bundle.
Solid assessment in the core. Question banks, timers, passing scores, certificates, and badges come free.	Key tools sit on the top plan. Assignments, cohorts, groups, and social learning all need Infinity Bundle.
Memberships included. Content restriction, automatic enrollment, and members-only pricing replace a separate membership plugin.	Full prices at renewal. The half-price first year doubles at renewal, which raises your ongoing costs.
No transaction fees. LifterLMS takes no cut of your sales, whichever plan you choose.	No AI tools. Course drafting happens in other apps.
Low-risk trial. A $1 demo site and a 30-day guarantee let you test every add-on.	You still run WordPress. Hosting, updates, backups, and plugin conflicts stay your job.
Own your platform. Courses and student data live on your site, and course export makes moving easier.	Limited native integrations. Email add-ons cover Mailchimp and Kit, and other tools need Zapier.

LifterLMS Alternatives

• For more assessment depth on WordPress: Consider LearnDash, which starts at $350/year for 1 site and includes quizzes with eight question types, Stripe, PayPal, and memberships in every plan.
• For membership-first sites on WordPress: Look at MemberPress, where Growth renews at $699/year and adds courses, coaching, community, and AI course drafting to strong content protection.
• For a community-first site on WordPress: Pair LifterLMS with BuddyBoss for profiles, groups, and activity feeds around your courses.
• For no WordPress at all: Hosted platforms such as Thinkific, from $82/month on annual billing, and Kajabi, from $143/month on annual billing, handle hosting and maintenance for you.

My roundup of the best online course platforms compares hosted and WordPress options side by side.

Should You Invest In LifterLMS? My Verdict

LifterLMS gives WordPress users one of the most flexible ways to start a course business, because the free core lets you build a real course before you pay anything. The paid bundles add selling tools in sensible steps, and you own everything you build.

It’s a good fit if you run WordPress, want to start small, and can handle the site yourself or hire help. Keep in mind that the strongest engagement tools sit in Infinity Bundle, and LifterLMS has no AI features yet. If you’re a beginner without a WordPress site, a hosted platform or one of the other LMS options for small businesses will get you selling with less to maintain.

LifterLMS FAQs

Is LifterLMS free?

Yes, the core plugin is free from the WordPress plugin directory and covers unlimited courses, memberships, and students. To take online payments with Stripe or PayPal, you need at least the Earth Bundle, which renews at $398 a year after a half-price first year.

Does LifterLMS charge transaction fees?

No, LifterLMS doesn’t take a cut of your sales on any plan. Your payment processor, such as Stripe or PayPal, still charges its standard fees on each transaction, so budget for those separately.

Can I try LifterLMS before I buy?

Yes. LifterLMS offers a 30-day demo site for $1 with the core plugin and every add-on installed. Every purchase also comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee if the plugin doesn’t fit your needs.

Does LifterLMS offer a lifetime license?

Yes, LifterLMS sells a lifetime Infinity Bundle license with updates, support, and future products for life and no renewal payments. Check the LifterLMS site for the current lifetime price, since it isn’t listed on the main pricing table.

How many sites can I use LifterLMS on?

The Earth Bundle covers one active site, Universe covers five, and Infinity covers unlimited sites. Staging, development, and test sites don’t count toward the limit, and individual add-ons work on one active site.

Does LifterLMS work with any WordPress theme?

Yes, LifterLMS works with any well-coded WordPress theme. LifterLMS also offers Sky Pilot, its own integrated theme, which comes with the Universe and Infinity bundles and works with page builders.

Can I upgrade my LifterLMS bundle later?

Yes. When you upgrade, LifterLMS gives you prorated credit for the current value of your earlier purchase, so you only pay the difference. You can also cancel your renewal at any time from your account.

Does LifterLMS have customer support?

Yes, paid bundles include unlimited support tickets, and the team replies within 12 business hours, Pacific time. Bundles also include extra support accounts for a developer or consultant, from one user on Earth to three on Infinity.

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.