LearnDash Is Missing Way Too Much Without WooCommerce for Selling

I see a lot of online course builders using LearnDash e-commerce features. You can use it to take payments with Stripe, Paypal or Razorpay. You can use it to sell individual courses and groups of courses. What I have seen is that once your selling needs needs grow past the basics, the LearnDash e-commerce features fall way short.

With LearnDash e-commerce, you cannot sell courses that include more than just course content. It's difficult to give someone a free trial for a period of time. Giving people free access to content requires you use registration forms that are cumbersome and not user friendly. Their selling page templates are so-so. And if you want to sell any hard items like books, t-shirts, caps or mugs you, just can't do it.

Now don't get me wrong. I'm a BIG LearnDash fan. My team and I build 2 to 4 sites a month using it. It is a fully functioning Learning Management System (LMS) with the features most online course builders need. The features it doesn't have are delivered by third-party provide that have added a pretty comprehensive list to pick from. It's a best-in-breed LMS, but doesn't have a strong e-commerce.

If what you want is a best in breed e-commerce solution, my recommendation would be WooCommerce. WooCommerce is a free Wordpress plugin. Consider that a free entry-level solution that makes it easy for them to sell you upgrades. They charge for the WooCommerce Subscription for recurring payments. For $99 a year, you have a very complete e-commerce solution.

WooCommerce has a large number of available options. Like LearnDash, there is a BIG after-marketing of third-party providers that provide even more features. When I'm speaking with an online course builder that needs something I haven't done before, I typically begin searching and very quickly I find something that does what they need. Sometimes it takes some adjustments and customizations, but for the most part, I am able to get customers what they want without having to bring in a programming team to do customer code development.

So if you are working with LearnDash and are getting frustrated with the e-commerce experience and features you are able to offer, consider WooCommerce and I'm sure you'll have success with a LearnDash / WooCommerce combined solution.