BuddyBoss vs LearnDash: Battle of the Best WordPress LMS Plugins

Are you trying to decide between BuddyBoss and LearnDash for your online course WordPress site? Look no further. It this article I'm going to compare the two so you can choose the right tools sets for you. What you will learn is that with BuddyBoss and LearnDash it's not an either or decision. They are complementary to each other and work really well together. I'm writing this article because I get a lot of questions for business owners that are not clear so let's set things straight for you.

Let's start with BuddyBoss. BuddyBoss is a community building Wordpress addon for adding social media features to your website. The platform is noted for its attractive designs that a lot of small business owners like. BuddyBoss is designed specifically for WordPress so it is managed completely within WordPress. If you are good with Wordpress, it will be familiar to you.

LearnDash is a comprehensive Learning Management System (LMS) plugin for Wordpress that is great for building online courses. It had all the features you are going to need. LearnDash allows you to create multi-layer courses, with lessons, quizzes, and provided for advanced reporting. That makes it an excellent choice for small businesses launching courses to reach more customers. LearnDash is perfect for people or organizations that want a detailed LMS plugin. LearnDash works with just about any Wordpress theme and is compatible with many WordPress plugins. This means you have a lot of control over how your online course looks and functions.

BuddyBoss is an excellent choice for those who want to add community features for people taking their LearnDash courses. It adds features that allow members to communicate with each other and work as a tribe all looking to increase their knowledge in the topic covered by your courses.

BuddyBoss enables you to pull your learners out of solo mode and gives you the ability to create a classroom sort of feel. Learners can be shown discussions and comments left by previous learners and the answers given to their questions. So anyone taking a course can learn from questions asked by those that preceded them.

One thing that's missing from solo online learning, is the ability to have others question ask the question you wanted answered. Many in-person classrooms have a self-appointed spokesperson. That person asks more questions than anyone else. They typically get answers from the instructor that others in the classroom wanted answered, but didn't ask. In a BuddyBoss environments, it's easy to define areas of the site where this sort of discussion can happen for the benefits everyone taking the course.

A business owners launching a online course should consider LearnDash for the LMS or course building part of their platform. It certainly has features most business owners will find useful. And if there are features LearnDash doesn't provide, there are many addons. LearnDash has a health third-party addon market where other vendors have provided features that aren't included in LearnDash proper. LearnDash works really well with WooCommerce, the top Wordpress e-commerce solution available, and it works well with others like ThriveCart.

The decision to add BuddyBoss to your site answered a different question. It's not an LMS. BuddyBoss enables member-to-member communication. It allows you to add members to groups with focus a specific topic. It enables members to participate in forum discussions related to a course, a group of courses, and an independent course with not groups.

BuddyBoss provides an activity feed, which functions like a Facebook discussion thread. Just like BuddyBoss forums they can be added throughout your site. Activity feeds are are a less informal and less organized discussion thread which is another way to get learners want.

There is much more BuddyBoss offers. You can check out this other article I wrote, BuddyBoss vs LearnDash: What’s the Difference? for more information on the topic. Along with LearnDash, it provides features that can make your site more sticky keeping your members around longer. So in addition to the information they are learning, they develop relationships with other in your program. They can build ties to other learners and get a sense of belonging. This can be reason enough for people to keep paying.

Hope this helps.