If you're buying LearnDash today, it costs $259 to $599 per year. Essentials is $259, Pro is $399, Elite is $599, all billed annually, none of them charging per student. If you bought LearnDash a few years ago, you're probably paying something else entirely, and that's not a mistake. Here's the whole picture.
What LearnDash costs in 2026
LearnDash sells three plans now. All three include unlimited courses and unlimited learners, and none of them charge per student.
| Plan | Price | Best for | What it adds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $259/year | One site, one course creator | Course builder, quiz builder, memberships and subscriptions via MemberDash, Stripe and PayPal, video progression, focus mode, certificates, plagiarism detection |
| Pro | $399/year | Selling to teams, running cohorts | Everything in Essentials, plus AI course outline and quiz builder, advanced reporting and analytics, enrollment tracking, weighted grading, report cards, student notes, groups and cohorts |
| Elite | $599/year | Institutions and L&D teams | Everything in Pro, plus group course management, multi-instructor courses, the instructor role, front-end course creation, ratings and reviews |
There's a 48-hour demo if you want to click around before paying. No credit card, just an email address. If you're still deciding between LearnDash and the other options, we compared them in the best online course platforms for your membership site.
Why you're seeing two different LearnDash prices
This is the part that confuses people, and it's the reason we wrote this page.
Search for LearnDash pricing and you'll find two completely different structures. One is the Essentials/Pro/Elite tiers above. The other is a set of licenses sold by site count: 1 site, 10 sites, unlimited sites.
Both are real. They just apply to different people.
LearnDash is part of Liquid Web / Nexcess now, and the plans changed with the owner. If you're a new customer, you buy the bundled Liquid Web plans: Essentials, Pro, or Elite. If you were already a LearnDash customer before that change, you're grandfathered onto your old site-count license, and you'll keep getting rebilled at your old rate until you cancel.
We see this constantly on client sites. Someone shows us a LearnDash bill that matches nothing on the pricing page, and nothing is wrong. They're on a legacy license.
What this means in practice:
- New customer: the Essentials/Pro/Elite pricing above is what you'll pay.
- Existing customer: check your actual subscription at account.learndash.com before you assume the new pricing applies to you. If you're grandfathered on an old multi-site license and you're happy with it, cancelling to “upgrade” may cost you more than staying put.
- Agencies and anyone running more than one site: the new plans don't state a site limit on the pricing page. Confirm your domain count with LearnDash before you buy, not after. Subdomains count against license totals on the legacy licenses.
What's included now that used to cost extra
MemberDash, LearnDash's membership system, is now bundled into every plan. Memberships, subscription billing, tiers, content dripping by level, and a member dashboard are all in the box.
If you were budgeting for a separate membership plugin on top of LearnDash, you may not need one. Check that before you buy anything else, because “LearnDash plus a membership plugin” was the standard recommendation for years and it isn't automatically true anymore. If you're starting from scratch, our guide to building a membership site walks through where the LMS fits.
One caveat from actual client work: bundled doesn't mean identical. If you already run MemberPress or Paid Memberships Pro alongside LearnDash and it works, the bundled option isn't a reason to migrate. Migrating billing is the single most expensive thing you can do to a working membership site.
What the license price doesn't cover
The plan price is the plugin. It isn't the cost of running a course business. Budget for:
- Hosting that can handle concurrent learners. Video-heavy courses and quiz submissions hit the database harder than a brochure site.
- A theme, if you want something other than the default look.
- Payment processing fees, which are Stripe's or PayPal's cut, not LearnDash's.
- Setup and integration time, whether that's your hours or a LearnDash developer‘s.
None of that is a knock on LearnDash. It's the difference between the license line item and the real number.
Renewals, dev sites, and the small print
- Licenses renew automatically one year after purchase. You can turn auto-renew off from your account.
- Your license includes a bonus install for testing, but only on
test.yourdomain.com. If your staging domain is named anything else, you'll need support to authenticate it. - Licenses are transferable if you're handing a site to a client.
- LearnDash keeps working if your license lapses. You lose updates, security patches, and support, which is exactly what you don't want to lose on a site handling payments.
Frequently asked questions
How much does LearnDash cost?
For new customers, $259 per year for Essentials, $399 for Pro, and $599 for Elite. All plans are billed annually and include unlimited courses and learners with no per-student fees.
Is there a free version of LearnDash?
No. There's a 48-hour demo with no credit card required, but LearnDash is a paid plugin.
Why is my LearnDash bill different from the prices on their site?
You're probably on a legacy license. LearnDash moved to Liquid Web / Nexcess and changed its plans, and existing customers were grandfathered onto their old site-count licenses. You'll keep getting rebilled at your old rate until you cancel.
How many sites can I use one LearnDash license on?
The legacy licenses were sold as 1 site, 10 sites, or unlimited, and subdomains count toward the total. The current plans don't state a site limit on the pricing page, so if you're running multiple sites, confirm your domain allowance with LearnDash before buying.
Do I still need a membership plugin with LearnDash?
Not necessarily. MemberDash is included in every plan and handles tiers, subscriptions, and content access. If you already have a membership plugin that works, that's not a reason to switch.
Still working out what LearnDash actually costs?
The license is the easy part to budget. The integrations, the payment plumbing, and the migration nobody planned for are where course projects get expensive.
That's the part we handle. We build and maintain LearnDash sites for people who would rather ship than debug, so if you know what you want to build, tell us about your LearnDash project and we'll give you a straight answer.
Reviewed by Vic Dorfman, founder of MemberFix. We build and maintain LearnDash course sites for a living. Last reviewed: July 2026.
