LearnDash vs Masterstudy is another must-have comparison especially if you are an entrepreneur and run a small business. A great idea if not implemented properly, is as useless as a leaking pitcher.
If you have a great course idea and you have even pointed down its contents and lessons, you now need a good LMS plugin to turn your idea into life and help hundreds of people out there with your knowledge and expertise. In this article, we will be comparing LearnDash with another of our favorites Masterstudy LMS.
So, let’s have a look at their overview and then we will discuss their similarities and differences based on our comparison checklist including,
- Features
- Ease of use (including course builder)
- Integrations and add-ons
- Support and documentation
- Price
LearnDash:
LearnDash is an LMS plugin which helps to build advanced courses with its easy course builder, gamification features and a bulk of integrations which we will be looking at in a minute. It is the most widely used LMS plugin by industries, universities and small entrepreneurs.
Masterstudy:
Masterstudy LMS is developed by stylemixthemes and it is mostly used by young entrepreneurs and small businesses. It has a free version available and also offers a mobile app. It has all the necessary features to build and run online courses with ease. It is rated 4.8 at Capterra which is quite a good rating.
LearnDash vs Masterstudy:
Features:
| LearnDash | Masterstudy |
| Multi-instructor available | Advanced quizzes and questions bank |
| Advanced quizzes and excellent gamification features like badges, certifications, leaderboards etc. | Drip feed course lessons |
| Sell one-time courses, subscriptions or bundles | Co-instructors available |
| Drip feed course lessons | Course Assignments and point system (Pro version only) |
| Integration with CRM and marketing plugins | Offer multiple types of content like written, audio or video |
| Lessons can be reused in other courses | Live stream lessons and zoom service for meetings and webinars (Pro version only) |
| Dynamic content delivery | Certificate Builder |
| Automated notifications | Lesson related message board and comments section |
| Forum Capabilities | Prerequisites for accessing lesson or course |
| Modern Learner experience with focus mode | Offers to sell subscriptions as well |
| Flexible prerequisites to access courses | Built in affiliate program |
As you can see from the comparison chart of LearnDash vs Masterstudy, LearnDash offers more advanced features than Masterstudy. It offers forums for discussion, learner focus mode, gamification features, more automation while in Masterstudy, more basic level features are available like point system, assignments and quizzes, certificate building etc.
Masterstudy offers a unique feature which is a live streaming option where tutor can get in touch with the students in real time to enhance engagement. LearnDash is far ahead than Masterstudy as it offers more powerful features.
Ease of Use
| LearnDash | Masterstudy |
| It is easy to use with a drag and drop builder and allows you to build courses without any coding knowledge. | It has a drag and drop builder to arrange courses into sections, lessons and quizzes |
| It comes with a user-friendly dashboard with every option displayed clearly | It has a simplified backend panel and you can add courses from the front end as well |
| It gives you the option to add 3 hierarchies to your course content including sections, lessons and topics. | It does not offer a Gutenberg type block editor; rather it is integrated with Elementor. |
| It works as a WordPress block editor. |
Coming to our second point in LearnDash vs Masterstudy which is ease of use, both the plugins offer drag and drop course builders but LearnDash’s dashboard is more simplified than Masterstudy. One lacking in MasterStudy is that it does not have Gutenberg type options like Kadence blocks, which makes the designing a lot easier.
Also Masterstudy itself has a lot of features, when combined with Elementor, you need a good VPS system to run smoothly especially if you have a lot of students.
Integrations and add-ons:
| LearnDash | Masterstudy |
| LearnDash integrates seamlessly with almost all the WordPress plugins. | Two unique integrations of Masterstudy are Google Classroom and Zoom |
Some popular integrations are
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Other integrations are:
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As you can clearly see in our LearnDash vs Masterstudy integrations comparison chart, LearnDash offers far more integrations than Masterstudy. Masterstudy has fewer payment options, less membership plugin and marketing platform integrations and none CRM integration.
It has two unique integrations with Google Classroom and Zoom if you want to link your Google Class with it. But, these integrations are only available in their pro version. So, LearnDash is clearly a winner here.
Support and Documentation:
| LearnDash | Masterstudy |
| Learndash has comprehensive documentation that helps to hassle-free the complete set-up. | Masterstudy also offers complete documentation to help you set up the plugin. |
| You can get help from email support from their fully staffed ticket desk. Timings for email support are 7 am to 4 pm EST. | It offers priority ticket support but it’s not available in the free version. |
| It has a huge social media community to get help as well. | It has a video library to help setting up the plugin but does not have a huge community like LearnDash. |
Our forth comparison criteria for LearnDash vs Masterstudy is documentation and support, Our opinion is both the plugins offer adequate support and comprehensive documentation to deal with common issues. LearnDash has a huge community due to its popularity but Masterstudy is commonly rated higher due to its quick support and bug fixes. So, we will give them a tie here.
Price:
| LearnDash | Masterstudy |
| LearnDash does not offer a free plan | MasterStudy offer a free license as their starter package |
| Learndash offers 3 plans. Its basic plan costs $159 billed annually with a one site licence. The second plan costs $189/annually with 10 site licences and the third plan costs $329 with 25 site licenses. | It offers 3 paid plans with
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| All of its plans include basic features like drip-feeding, payment options and third-party integrations except ProPanel. | It also offers a one time lifetime payment.
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Masterstudy’s plans are much cheaper than Learndash and it also offers lifetime payment option if you do not want to pay annually. It also offers a free version with one free license but their free version does not include WooCommerce, Zoom and Google Classroom integrations and it also lacks many nice features like live conferencing and point system.
Final Verdict: LearnDash vs Masterstudy LMS
The major difference between LearnDash and Masterstudy is among their features, integration and prices. LearnDash is ahead of Masterstudy in features and integrations but Masterstudy offers much more compatible prices than LearnDash.
If you are tight on budget and just starting your LMS website, you can use Masterstudy as it offers all the basic features and integrations. But, if you have a huge number of students or want to build an advanced LMS site, you must go with LearnDash.
We hope you enjoyed our LearnDash vs Masterstudy LMS comparison article. We have compared LearnDash with other famous LMS plugins as well. Check out here to give a look at more comparison articles like this. If you want us to write more articles like this, do tell us.
If you are still confused to pick the most suitable LMS plugin for your website, get a free consultation from one of our experts. Check our services page for more information.
2 thoughts on “LearnDash vs Masterstudy LMS: Which one is the absolute Champ in 2024?”
Hi, aside of price issue, which far the best LMS platform?
Do you know any strong LMS platform Life Time License outside of WP?
I personally recommend using the Learndash, and outside the WP no plugin offer lifetime license. If you are looking for license plugins package feel free to visit contact us page.Our team will each out soon.