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Our team recently conducted a comprehensive examination of 240K WordPress LMS websites to identify their technological foundations.
We investigated the specific LMS plugins, preferred page builders, popular website themes, trusted eCommerce platforms, and overall technology investments.
Through collaboration with our data partner BuiltWith, we discovered several compelling insights, which we’re excited to present throughout this detailed analysis.
Selecting the right LMS plugin represents a crucial decision every online course creator must face.
Our comprehensive research reveals that 83,415 educational websites utilize LearnDash as their WordPress LMS solution, establishing it as the industry frontrunner with 34.8% market penetration.
Following closely behind are LearnPress, implemented across 74,379 websites (31%), and Tutor LMS, powering 45,623 websites (19%).
The remaining market distribution includes MasterStudy LMS (4.9%), Lifter LMS (4.2%), Sensei LMS (3.7%), WP Courseware (1.9%), and AccessAlly (0.4%).
To gain deeper insights into these usage trends, we conducted additional analysis comparing websites with substantial technology investments (>$250/month) against those with minimal expenditure (<$50/month).
Within the segment of websites allocating higher technology budgets, LearnDash demonstrates even greater dominance with a commanding 60.3% market presence.
This enhanced leadership position aligns with expectations, as LearnDash serves as the platform of choice for industry giants including Yoast, the University of Florida, and DigitalMarketer.
Our research also explored potential relationships between monthly technology investments and generated revenue, revealing a notably strong correlation between these factors.
Specifically, examining websites generating less than $1k monthly revenue, we found that merely 11.9% allocate more than $50 monthly toward technology. This percentage jumps dramatically to 60% for platforms earning $1k-$5k monthly, and escalates further to 89.7% for educational websites generating beyond $5k monthly revenue.
Our research also examined which eCommerce platforms were implemented across these WordPress educational sites. Without question, WooCommerce established itself as the dominant solution.
Among all websites utilizing LMS plugins, an impressive 65.3%—representing 156,562 sites—have deployed WooCommerce as their preferred shopping cart technology.
Although alternative cart solutions like Easy Digital Downloads and SamCart appear within the ecosystem, their market presence remains comparatively minimal.
Additionally, WooCommerce adoption fluctuates significantly depending on the specific LMS plugin implemented. For instance, 77.5% of websites powered by Tutor LMS integrate WooCommerce, whereas merely 20.7% of AccessAlly websites incorporate this eCommerce solution.
This pronounced disparity stems from the fundamental architectural differences between these platforms—AccessAlly delivers robust native checkout functionality and direct payment gateway connections, while Tutor LMS lacks these integrated commerce capabilities.
Examining the technological composition of these WordPress LMS websites revealed fascinating patterns regarding visual editor preferences.
Our comprehensive data analysis shows Elementor standing as the predominant choice among educational entrepreneurs, with 137,859 websites (57.5%) implementing this solution. Following behind are WPBakery (17.6%) and Visual Composer (17.2%) as alternative visual editing platforms.
These three visual editing solutions collectively power 90% of the analyzed websites, a finding that aligns with current industry trends. Indeed, modern website development has firmly entered the visual builder era!
The underlying theme framework represents another essential component of any WordPress implementation.
In this category, Astra emerges as the definitive frontrunner, commanding 19% market presence. It also dominates the LearnDash ecosystem specifically, with an impressive 29.7% adoption rate.
Divi and Hello Elementor follow behind, powering 9.1% and 5.9% of educational websites, respectively.
While Astra and Divi have established themselves as widely popular theme options across WordPress generally, Hello Elementor has leveraged its connection with the Elementor page builder to secure substantial market adoption.
The WordPress theme landscape demonstrates significantly greater diversity than either LMS plugins or page builders. This increased fragmentation naturally results from the substantially larger selection of available theme options.
Additional popular theme frameworks—including Kadence, GeneratePress, Thrive Themes, and numerous others—each maintain individual market shares below 10%.
Our analysis further revealed that purpose-built themes achieve notably higher adoption rates within specific LMS ecosystems. Consider these illustrative examples:
Regarding MasterStudy specifically, this extraordinarily high adoption percentage stems from the theme being packaged together with the corresponding LMS plugin.
Subscription-based access remains a prevalent business model among educational entrepreneurs. These membership management systems enable course creators to process recurring payments while controlling content accessibility through sophisticated permission systems.
Among all membership management solutions, Paid Memberships Pro stands as the most widely implemented option, appearing on 13.5% of educational websites.
Following behind in adoption rates are Ultimate Member (5%), WooCommerce Memberships (2.2%), and MemberPress (1.9%).
When interpreting these statistics, it’s important to recognize that the actual percentage of WordPress LMS websites offering membership programs exceeds these figures substantially, as platforms including LearnDash, LifterLMS, and AccessAlly incorporate native membership capabilities within their core functionality.
Beyond universal solutions compatible with all learning platforms, a substantial marketplace exists for purpose-built extensions.
These specialized add-ons are engineered to integrate exclusively with particular LMS systems, enhancing their functionality with targeted capabilities.
Notable examples in this specialized category include:
The first extension appears on 26.5% of Tutor LMS implementations, while the second and third options—both LearnDash-specific—are deployed across 26% and 10% of LearnDash sites respectively.
Premier LMS solutions typically foster robust ecosystems with numerous specialized extensions developed by independent software providers. WisdmLabs exemplifies such third-party development, offering multiple LearnDash-focused enhancements.
Our investigation also examined the implementation rates of complementary WordPress extensions that, while not fitting neatly into previously discussed categories, remain crucial for comprehensive website functionality.
Several noteworthy solutions emerged across our dataset with the following adoption percentages:
We trust this comprehensive research has provided you with meaningful perspectives into the technological foundations powering WordPress educational websites.
Our analysis explored diverse solution categories, including learning management systems, visual design tools, theme frameworks, eCommerce platforms, and numerous complementary extensions.
We extend our sincere appreciation to BuiltWith for supplying the extensive dataset that enabled this in-depth analysis.
We welcome your engagement with this research. Do you have specific questions regarding our findings or analytical approach?
Share your inquiries below, and our team will respond promptly with additional insights.
For this comprehensive analysis, we focused on educational websites implementing any of the eight leading WordPress LMS solutions. These platforms include:
✅ LearnDash
✅ LearnPress
✅ Tutor LMS
✅ MasterStudy LMS
✅ Lifter LMS
✅ Sensei LMS
✅ WP Courseware
✅ AccessAlly
Through collaboration with BuiltWith, we gained access to approximately 240K websites utilizing these educational platforms. Our dataset collection occurred during early October 2025.
We subsequently examined the technological profile of each implementation to identify their selected solutions and performed detailed analysis to determine the most prevalent choices among educational entrepreneurs.
Daniel NicFounder, SellingOnliceCoursesGuide.comis an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
Selling Online Courses Guide is supported by its audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn affiliate commissions. However, this doesn’t influence our reviews or product listings. All opinions are based on our tests and personal experience with a product/service.
Copyright © 2024 by SellCoursesOnline
Daniel Nic is an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
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