Should You Use a Membership Plugin or LMS Plugin for Creating an Online Course?
If you’re sat there wondering what the specific differences are between an LMS (course) plugin and a membership plugin then don’t worry, you’re not alone. It can definitely get a bit confusing.
At it’s heart a membership plugin is simply designed to protect your content and control access, although many do a lot more than that too these days.
On the other hand, an LMS plugin is designed to provide a richer course experience for your members.
You could also say a membership plugin takes care of the big picture, whilst an LMS plugin takes care of the finer details.
But lets break it down a little further:
Membership Plugins
- Protect any type of content on your site
- Provides protection for downloadable files
- Handle payments and subscriptions
- Automate the registration process (and often cancellation too)
- Integrate with email marketing services
- Can drip feed content
- Can be used for multiple membership levels on one site
- Enable options like trials, upgrades and coupons
- Integrate with various other plugins for things like forums and gamification
- Can be extended as needed via plugins or custom development
- Example : Paid Memberships Pro Plugin
LMS/Course Plugins
- Provide a course structure for your content (i.e module — lesson)
- Offer quiz and assignment features
- Provide progress tracking for students
- Allow you to see students progress and stats
- Offer completion certificates
- Can be used for multiple courses on one site easily
- Enable the use of pre-requisites for unlocking content
- Protect course content from non-registered users
- May drip content
- May handle payment and registration
- May integrate with forums and gamification options
- Example : LifterLMS Plugin
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