Tutor LMS is one of the most popular and powerful LMS plugins for WordPress. A younger solution, but does that make it better?

My Rating:

4.5 / 5

Pros

  • Clean, modern user interface
  • Includes convenient functionality like announcements, Q&A, etc.
  • Does pretty much anything you’d want from an LMS
  • Free version may be more than enough for most course builders
  • Pro licenses have lifetime pricing, if you want it.

Cons

  • Lacks some of the specialized functionality that might be needed in unique settings (like a university). But, this isn’t a problem for 99% of users.
  • There seems to be some user reports of their support not being that great.

TutorLMS is another learning management system for WordPress. It has much of the capability of LearnDash, but I would say looks a lot better. The interface is more modern.

In terms of features, it does more or less what you would expect, plus a bit more.

  • Drag-and-drop course builder. Similar to LearnDash in that it has a Course > Topic > Lesson hierarchy.
  • Quizzes and assignments capability for your courses
  • Content drip
  • Teacher and student dashboards
  • Built-in analytics and reporting
  • Built-in announcement system for your courses
  • Built-in Q&A system
  • Design and customize your course certificates

I will say, TutorLMS seems to have thought through the modern UI and ease of use more so than the folks at LearnDash.

With LearnDash, creating a course feels a little more disjointed, with separate interfaces for courses, topics and lessons. Also, when you are creating that content, you more or less just have the block editor. This is, of course, flexible but doesn’t feel as guided.

With Tutor LMS, the user interface is just more unified and guided. That makes it more user-friendly. When you are creating a course, the visual Course Builder is right there on the same screen.

When you go to add, say, a lesson, you get a nice modern UI to enter the content.

If you want the full flexibility of the standard WordPress editor (or block editor), you can still open up the lesson content that way and have your way with it. But, the fact that they have a more guided approach makes it more user-friendly. More like using a course wizard to simplify things rather than just being thrown into the deep end.

As you check out the various screens of Tutor LMS, you continue to see how they’ve put thought into having a modern UI and making things convenient.

In terms of Tutor LMS playing well with the rest of your business via integrations, it looks pretty solid.

Via a big list of available add-ons (all of which are included in the price), you can add things like:

  • Calendars
  • Notifications system
  • Pre-requisites
  • Gradebook
  • Certificates

And in terms of integrations, they work with many of the ones I would care about, including:

  • FluentCRM
  • Uncanny Automator
  • GamiPress
  • Page Builders like Elementor, Divi, Oxygen
  • Wishlist Member
  • WooCommerce
  • Paid Memberships Pro
  • Easy Digital Downloads
  • WP Fusion

Looking at their change log, it looks like they issue new updates fairly often. Certainly more than I have seen with LearnDash.

As for pricing, Tutor LMS does start out with a free version. The free version might actually be enough for many people as it will allow you to build and organize all your online courses. Not only that, the free version still includes the integration add-ons, so some of those missing features you could probably do that way. For instance, if you have a tech stack with WP Fusion in there (which I love), you could sell your courses and control all permissions using tags from your CRM. Heck, that’s the way I’d do it anyway. 🙂

The free version won’t have the fancier options of the full Tutor LMS, but it is probably enough for many. If you want to bump it up, it starts at $199/year. The pricing is actually identical to LearnDash. Lifetime licensing is also available if you just want to get it over with (something LearnDash doesn’t offer).

As a LearnDash user myself, there are definitely aspects of Tutor LMS that I like better. I certainly like the user interface better. I also like the built-in systems for announcements and Q&A. It just feels a little more… complete.

I like that student reporting is baked right in… versus having to use the ProPanel addon (additional plugin) when using LearnDash.

I will say, if I were starting over again, I think I would take a peak at Tutor LMS before diving into LearnDash. Especially with that free option.

LearnDash is a beast. It has been around awhile. It is very well respected. Tutor LMS is newer. Younger. Frankly, it looks better. Maybe in this case, younger is better? 😉 Oh jeez, what a way to end off this review…

One response to “Tutor LMS”

  1. shriram2u@gmail.com Avatar
    shriram2u@gmail.com

    Awesome review David.
    I agree with TutorLMS being sleeker and better than Learndash. Got so frustrated with the UI of Learndash and trying to css the looks of Course page and Lesson Page. The only way Learndash looks good is if you use it with Buddyboss Theme.

    Now I am full time with Tutor for me and my clients.