How to choose a WordPress LMS plugin: 8 criteria

An LMS (learning management system) plugin turns WordPress into a place where students log in, follow lessons and track progress. Most plugins look alike in a screenshot, so the differences that matter are in how you pay, how you get paid and how hard it is to leave. Use the criteria below as a scorecard: give each plugin a mark from 1 to 5 and compare totals.

1 Cost model and commissions

Start with the question that decides your margin: who gets a share of each sale? Look for three separate numbers and add them up over a year, not a month.

• The license. A yearly fee, a lifetime fee, or free. Check what happens when it expires: do the paid features stop, or does the whole site stop working?
• Commissions. Does the vendor take a percentage of your sales? Many marketplaces and hosted platforms do; a plugin that sends payments to your own Stripe account should not.
• Add-ons. Some plugins sell the basics cheaply and charge separately for payments, quizzes or email. Count every add-on you will really need.

Far LMS charges 0% commission on every plan and prices its paid plans monthly or yearly; the pricing page has the figures. For how other plugins charge, read their own pricing pages, or see our comparison of alternatives.

2 Payments and Stripe

Check which payment processors the plugin supports and, above all, whose account receives the money. You want payments to land in an account you own, so you can see every transaction, issue refunds and move to another tool without asking permission. Also ask:

• Do card details ever touch your server? They should not; hosted or embedded Stripe forms keep you out of most card-data headaches.
• Are discount codes, gift vouchers and reminders for abandoned payments available, and in which plan?
• How are taxes handled? Most plugins leave VAT to you or to Stripe’s own tools, so ask an accountant. The EU explains the rules for digital services on its One-Stop Shop page.

3 Subscriptions and memberships

If you may ever sell monthly or yearly access, check this now, because switching later means moving paying customers. Look for recurring billing that handles renewals, failed cards, cancellations and plan changes with proration. In Far LMS this starts in the Basic plan; the free version sells one-time purchases only. Our guide to selling subscriptions with Stripe shows the full setup.

4 Student experience

Your students will judge the product by the classroom, not by the admin. Open the demo or install the free version and go through it as a student on a phone.

• Is there a clean video player with previous and next lesson, and does progress save automatically?
• Can students sign up, reset a password and find their courses without contacting you?
• Does the design follow your theme and brand, or does it look like the plugin vendor’s product? Far LMS is white-label and reads your theme’s colours and fonts.
• Are the learning features you need there: drip content, quizzes, assignments, certificates, comments? In Far LMS these start in the Basic plan.

5 Content protection

Paid lessons should only open for people who paid. Check how the plugin protects what you upload: protected folders for downloadable files, access checks on every lesson, and the video host’s own privacy settings. No plugin can stop someone from filming their screen, so be realistic. In Far LMS, course materials are stored in a protected folder, and card details never touch your site.

6 Support and updates

An LMS touches payments and student data, so it must be maintained. Look at the changelog: are there regular releases, and does it mention security? Check how you get help and what is included. For example, Far LMS free users use the community forum on WordPress.org, while paid plans get email support and one year of updates; see the feature list and the plans.

7 Language and localisation

If your students do not speak English, check that the interface they see is translated, not just the admin. Look for translation-ready code, editable texts for every message students see, and correct handling of your currency and date formats. Far LMS comes in English, Catalan and Spanish, is ready to translate, and lets you edit every text your students see.

8 Lock-in and data ownership

The cheapest moment to ask how to leave is before you join. Check where your courses, students and payment history live, and what you can export.

• Are your courses stored on your own site and exportable in a standard format? Far LMS can import and export a whole course as JSON.
• Can you import students from your current tool, and send new ones to your CRM? Far LMS imports students from other membership plugins and has a signed webhook for your own CRM.
• What happens if you stop paying? With Far LMS, courses, students and their access stay on your site and nothing is deleted; the paid features stop and it returns to the free features.

Put it together: a scorecard

To go deeper, read the head-to-head pages: Far LMS vs LearnDash, Far LMS vs Tutor LMS, Far LMS vs LifterLMS and Far LMS vs MemberPress. When you are ready to try, download the free version and follow how to sell online courses on WordPress.