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Revolutionizing Online Education: An In-Depth Review of LifterLMS

Last Updated on August 31st, 2023

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Posting a video course on YouTube might get you some followers, but it’s no way to run a learning business. Whether you’re sharing WordPress tutorials and courses as we do here on WPLift, or you’re training people to become better, a full learning management system (LMS) is needed. A handful of LMS WordPress plugins support this type of functionality, and one of them is called Lifter LMS. The free plugin has an impressive number of features, and you can extend the functionality with the help of paid add-ons. Upon first glance, we noticed how the plugin looks clean and simple to use. Anyways, let’s take a deeper look with a more extensive LifterLMS review, inclusive of its features, pros, and cons, up to the installation and setup process. 

LifterLMS Overview

LifterLMS Overview

Known for being the premier WordPress LMS plugins, LifterLMS surely gained popularity in this scene. This course builder is also known as the number 1 choice of Smart WordPress Pros when it comes to building high-value online courses along with membership sites. Like any learning platform, you can easily provide videos, course material, certificates, and quizzes in a variety of formats.

LifterLMS Pricing

If you want to start creating your own LMS, then LifterLMS would be the perfect fit for you. Speaking of building your own, the plugin has a lot to offer, knowing that you can use it for free. These features allow you to deliver effective online courses and training programs. However, if you already tried the free version and yet, you are not satisfied with the included features, LifterLMS offers three (3) different pricing plans for add-ons.

  • Individual Addons – $120+ each per year which is good for 1 active site. It also includes LMS Plugin, standard support, 1 tech support account, and all add-ons available for individual purchase.
  • Universe Bundle – $360 per year and the most popular on the list. Good for 5 active sites, it includes LMS Plugin, Priority support, up to 2 tech support accounts, design addons, eCommerce addons, Marketing & CRM addons and Form addons. 
  • Infinity Bundle – $1200 per year which is good for unlimited sites. Includes all of the Universe Bundle plus advanced quizzes and assignments, private coaching features, social learning, advanced video, custom fields, and group features. 

LifterLMS Key Features

We absolutely like how the LifterLMS plugin is free. Here are the features of the free version: 

  • Generate custom sidebars to show how far someone has advanced in a course or for more information about the course.
  • Gamify the process by giving out awards and badges for when someone advances past a certain level.
  • Create membership levels and manage the program on your dashboard.
  • Full student profiles and a login area that’s clean and on the frontend.
  • Analytics for tracking everything from refunds to membership orders.
  • A mobile responsive interface for viewing on phones and tablets.
  • Create coupons to promote your courses.
  • The plugin has a drip content tool for gradually revealing course content as a student moves along.
  • Quizzing and grading.
  • Full eCommerce support right out of the box

We’ve got an amazing list here despite having it for free. However, if you are still looking for richer and extensive features, you can purchase their add-ons. Here is the list of add-ons that you can purchase and add to your site.

  • PayPal
  • Stripe
  • WooCommerce
  • LifterLMS Pro
  • LaunchPad
  • Gravity Forms
  • MailChimp
  • ConvertKit
  • AffiliateWP
  • iDevAffiliate
  • WPFusion
  • LifterLMS API
  • The Core

Pros

  • If you are looking for additional income aside from online courses, go sell your books or any other learning products with WooCommerce. 
  • LifterLMS takes pride in its user support for being responsive. 
  • Integrated with WordPress themes. 

Cons

  • If you want to earn through online courses, the addons they offer aren’t really an option. Thus, you need to purchase some of the addons if you want a return on investment. 
  • Email marketing options are very limited. 
  • Getting the addons can be very expensive. 

LifterLMS Installation & Setup

Before you proceed with the installation process, the following requirements to install LifterLMS are:

  • PHP version must be 7.2 or higher
  •  4.8 version of WordPress
  • MySQL 5.6/MariaDB 10.0 or higher. 

Take note of that and check if you have the following requirements. If you have everything on the list, then you may now proceed with installing the plugin. Like any other plugin, you can easily search LifterLMS on the WordPress plugin repository, install, then activate the plugin. 

After activating the plugin, it will launch a setup wizard that serves as a guide to configuring the key basics for your course. 

LifterLMS Installation & Setup

If you’re done with the setup wizard, there are two options that you can choose before actually making courses. 

  • You can start building your course from scratch 
  • You can install the sample course. We recommend this option as it teaches you the ways on how to use Lifter MS. In that way, you can both learn to use the plugin while exploring how everything works on WordPress. But if you prefer learning it on your own, you can always do so. 

Create Your First Course

If you choose to create the course from scratch, proceed by going to Courses, then Add Course

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While you need the latest WordPress version, Lifter LMS is using the traditional WordPress editor. Expect to see it often on most functionality. To tweak the course information, Lifter LMS have dedicated blocks and use these to add course description or images. 

Lifter LMS - create first course

Under the Course Options, you can get additional course information such as: 

  • Course length
  • Course difficulty category
  • Featured video
  • Display featured video on course tile
  • Featured audio

And other Course Options on each tab.

Lifter LMS - course options

Aside from that, you can also set up Access Plans that allow you full control of access to your courses. It includes the option to require people to pay for the course. Unfortunately, if you want to earn from online courses, a paid add-on is a must to process payments. 

Lifter LMS - access plans

Create Lesson Content

If you want to access the lesson’s settings, simply click on the arrow to open the WordPress editor for the lesson on a separate tab. 

With the classic WordPress editor, adding lessons will be much easier as you can easily navigate and control the layout and content. 

lifterlms review - create lesson content

On the large box on the left, you can add contents to your course including the Previous and Next Lessons. Under this option, you can also see Lesson Settings. This option allows you to do a series of things such as embedding video or audio files for the course. You can also set up prerequisite lessons, and things such as students are required to get a passing score you set on a quiz or exam, in order for them to proceed to the next lesson. 

Add Quizzes & Assignments

Like any other plugin, LifterLMS also has the drag and drop feature to make course building convenient. A slide-out panel will open where you can create changes to the details. Unfortunately, if you are using the free version, it has a limited question type. For this one, you can only get three basic question types. Of course, getting the paid add-on will unlock all the remaining quiz types. 

lifterlms review - quizzes and assignments

Verdict

That wraps up our LifterLMS review. The premium version of LifterLMS gives off extensive features which make your course site even better. Since the plugin is free, we recommend it to anyone, especially for starters who are trying to make an online course or training program. The functionality of the free version that you can find on WordPress is quite generous. It really serves its purpose. Whether you’re selling courses on technology, arts, history, or gardening, the LifterLMS plugin and its add-ons should do the trick.

However, compared to LearnDash which costs a bit cheaper, unfortunately, LifterLMS can be on the pricey side (plus the add-ons it has). You can also try its 30-day free trial to experience its premium version and see for yourself if it’s worth your money. 

Try LifterLMS Today

A team of WordPress experts that love to test out new WordPress related software, WordPress plugins and WordPress themes.