WordPress is an amazing content management system. Today, it powers over 39% of the world’s websites. It is flexible, versatile and has thousands of plugins to help your business.
When it comes to building learning management systems, WordPress increasingly becoming a go-to platform, with popular WordPress LMS plugins.
A WordPress Learning Management System (LMS) is an excellent solution for building an online learning community, helping to maximize your site’s engagement.
When you have a lot of users, and you want to keep them engaged and help them progress in the right direction, it can be really easy to get lost. By using a WordPress LMS, you can guide your members along their learning journey to being successful in and ultimately achieving their goals.
Now, the important thing to understand is , “How much does it cost to build a WordPress learning management system?” But to accurately answer this question, you’re required to understand certain things other than website development.
So, we’ve put together this handy guide to help cut through some of the confusion. It describes how much it will cost to create a full-fledged WordPress LMS based on various functionalities and hosting architecture.
- Core features in WordPress LMS that affect the cost
- Tools You Need To Build a WordPress LMS
- Cost Of Building A WordPress LMS In 2022 in partnership with an agency
- Wrapping Up
Core features in WordPress LMS that affect the cost
The number of courses you’ll offer
As with any software, the more features you have, the more expensive it becomes.
The number of users
The more users on your system, the greater the strain on your server and, thus, the higher your costs. If you have a lot of students but don’t have many administrators and teachers, you may still be able to keep costs down by installing a plugin to allow them to sign in with their accounts and log in once per session.
Skill assessment and testing
Students can test their knowledge in many ways, from quizzes and exams to games and assessments. A good LMS should have various tests to test a learner’s ability.
Mobile support
You need to make sure that the platform you choose has mobile support. This is particularly important if you want to be able to deliver content on the go.
Notifications
An LMS needs notifications so instructors and students can receive updates about activities and assignments.
Tools You Need To Build a WordPress LMS
WordPress Hosting
If you’re building a WordPress LMS, you will need a hosting plan. WordPress is a flexible CMS that can work on any web host, but there are some feature you need to have when choosing one.
Many hosting options, such as Bluehost, GoDaddy, and Hostinger, are available. They provide 24/7 support and have all the features you need to run an online course. You can also get unlimited bandwidth and storage, so you don’t have to worry about paying extra. They also offer free domain name registration and free SSL certificates.
Here’s what you need to spend on hosting, depending on the scalability of your LMS website:
- For Beginners: $5
- For Intermediate: $20
- For Pros: $100
WordPress LMS Plugin
The best way to build your own WordPress LMS is by using an LMS plugin like the Masterstudy LMS plugin, which is designed specifically for this purpose.
The plugin offers sophisticated grading systems and a wide range of features that can be customized to fit your needs.
With this plugin, you can create interactive learning experiences and tutoring services on your WordPress website.
Some of its top features include:
- Powerful frontend course builder
- Multiple monetization options
- Free LMS starter theme
- No-code website creation for instructors
- User management
- Engaging course features
- 10+ integration options
premium LMS plugin will give you access to more features and tools than a free one and a more intuitive interface. This means you can focus on creating great courses instead of worrying about how to use your LMS.
Masterstudy LMS plugin provides a free-to-use starter pack for beginners, while single-site pricing starts at $59/year.
Here’s a complete breakdown of the cost plans:
Single site – $59/year
Five sites – $149/year
Unlimited sites – $249/year
WordPress LMS theme
The WordPress LMS theme is the backbone of your website, so it’s important to choose one that fits all of your needs. The good news is that there are plenty of themes out there that can help you get started with your own WordPress LMS.
The Masterstudy LMS theme is one of the most popular WordPress LMS themes available today. It has built-in support for videos, documents, quizzes, and other elements that can help create an engaging learning experience for your students.
The theme comes with a drag & drop interface that makes it easy to create courses with different sections, categories, and lessons. You can also customize the layout using custom CSS code if you want to do something unique.
The best thing about this theme is that it comes FREE with the WordPress LMS plugin.
The features of the full FREE Starter theme for the MasterStudy LMS plugin are as follows:
- One-Click Demo Import;
- Fully compatible with the Elementor page builder;
- Fully mobile responsive;
- Offers PayPal and Stripe as payment methods;
- Offers WooCommerce for advanced payment options;
- Compatible with the Paid Membership Pro plugin;
- Dedicated page module widgets to add unique functionalities.
eCommerce Plugin
If you’re selling your courses online, you’ll need an eCommerce plugin for your website. There are many different options available for this type of software, but WooCommerce is the best eCommerce plugin because it’s easy to use and has plenty of features to suit your needs.
Woocommerce is one of the most popular eCommerce plugins for WordPress, with over 6.5 million active websites using it. It’s also FREE and open source, so you don’t have to worry about licensing fees or costs associated with using other paid solutions such as Shopify or Magento Enterprise Edition (ME).
All of the features you need come standard with the free product, but you can also purchase additional features later to add more sophistication to your work.
A website builder
An LMS site is essentially a website – and to build a great WordPress website, you’ll need a quality website builder.
Your LMS needs to be compatible with at least one website builder. There are many important pages, such as sales funnels, landing pages, and course listings, that you must design to engage users on your site and convert them into paying customers.
A website builder for WordPress is an all-in-one solution that allows you to create and manage your entire website from a single dashboard. You can quickly and easily add text, images, videos, and other content to your pages with a few mouse clicks.
The Masterstudy LMS plugin and theme completely support Elementor, WP Bakery, and Divi Builder. Getting started with them is easy. Each website builder offers a FREE plan and subscription-based pricing.
Here’s the cost breakdown for each website builder:
Elementor
Essential plan (1 website) – $49/year
Expert plan – $199/year
Studio plan – $299/year
Agency plan – $999/year
For creating a single WordPress LMS, the essential plan will work best for you as it’ll include all the features of Elementor Pro.
WP Bakery
Regular – $56
Extended – $299
Divi Builder
Yearly plan – $89/year
Lifetime subscription – $249
Security Plugin
WordPress is secure by default, but you still need to keep it up-to-date and install security plugins such as WordFence or Sucuri Security Scanner.
Security plugins will scan your site for malware, hackers, and other threats like SQL injections that could compromise your data or even destroy your website. Most of these plugins come with a free version that offers more features than you will need, and they also have a user rating above 4.5.
The cost for paid security plugins varies from $49-$249 a year.
As you can see, to build a functional WordPress LMS website, you only need to pay for a few things, which will cost you a few thousand dollars. By doing so, you can create an eLearning platform that has the potential to generate a lot of revenue just by selling courses.
Cost Of Building A WordPress LMS In 2022 in partnership with an agency
Building an LMS takes time and effort. You’ll need to set up hosting, install WordPress, and then work through all the steps needed to create an effective learning platform. For those who don’t have much experience with this type of project, it can take weeks or even months before you have something that works well enough for students to use it regularly.
That’s where agencies do the legwork for you. So, here’s a breakdown of what your project with the agency looks like and how much it costs.
The cost of building a WordPress LMS varies greatly depending on the size and complexity of the project.
If you’re planning to build a large and complex LMS, it’s important to test the business model and features to ensure they perform well. Building an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) would be the best choice, as it allows you to adopt early users and add functionality over time.
Most agencies charge hourly depending on the size, complexity, and customization of your “first-version” MVP of your LMS. Here is a breakdown of how many hours it may take to build:
- Business analysis (40-100 hours)
- Platform architecture for bigger projects (40-100 hours)
- Proposing multiple design options and revisions (50-80 hours)
- Creating the frontend and backend functionalities (50-100 hours)
- Integrations (40 hours)
- Testing (20 hours)
- Code reviews, project management, 3rd party tools installations, content development (40-100 hours)
The initial MVP will take 400-500 hours, or about 2-3 months, to build. Depending on the system, the final version could be built in less time, or it might take a few more iterations.
Depending on the agency and the complexity of the build, hourly rates can range from $80-$300. For a rough estimate, this will amount to $30,000-$120,000 for the first two months, not including server costs.
Ongoing maintenance for your new system will be about $50-$220/hour. Depending on your needs, user count, and platform functionalities, you will need 15 monthly hours, costing you $1,200 to $3,300/month.
Wrapping Up
You can build a reliable WordPress LMS with hosting, an eCommerce plugin, a website builder, and the Masterstudy LMS plugin for a solid and low price.
Agencies also have the advantage of providing stability and long-term collaboration, which can ensure the scalability and longevity of your platform. They often employ senior developers and DevOps specialists with diverse experience and know how to use them best.
Agencies are an excellent option for companies who want to ensure that their platform is in good hands and will be well taken care of in the long run.