MemberPress is a powerful WordPress membership plugin that allows you to create, manage, and track membership subscriptions and sell digital download products. It’s known for its ease of use and flexibility, making it an excellent choice for eLearning platforms.

LearnDash is a popular Learning Management System (LMS) for WordPress, enabling you to create and sell courses, deliver quizzes, award certificates, and more. It’s a robust solution for creating and managing online courses.

Combine MemberPress and LearnDash for a robust eLearning solution, leveraging the strengths of both platforms for a streamlined subscription model.

Reign Theme

Step 1: Install and Activate the Plugins

Before you begin, ensure you have both MemberPress and LearnDash installed and activated on your WordPress site. You’ll also need the MemberPress Plus or Pro plan to access the Courses Add-on, which integrates LearnDash with MemberPress.

  1. Install MemberPress: Go to your WordPress dashboard, navigate to ‘Plugins’ > ‘Add New’, search for MemberPress, and install and activate it.
  2. Install LearnDash: Follow the same process to install and activate LearnDash.

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Step 2: Configure MemberPress Settings

Once MemberPress is activated, configure its settings to suit your subscription model:

  1. Create a Membership: Navigate to MemberPress > ‘Memberships’ in your WordPress dashboard and click ‘Add New’. Title it appropriately, e.g., “All-Access Pass”.
  2. Set Pricing: In the ‘Membership Terms’ section, set the price for your one-time subscription and specify it as a one-time payment.
  3. Registration and Thank You Pages: Customize these pages to guide users through the signup process and thank them once they subscribe.

Step 3: Integrate LearnDash with MemberPress

To integrate LearnDash courses with your MemberPress subscription:

  1. Enable the Courses Add-on: Go to MemberPress > ‘Add-ons’ in your WordPress dashboard and find the Courses Add-on. Please install and activate it.
  2. Protect Your Courses: Go to MemberPress > ‘Rules’ and click ‘Add New’. Under ‘Protected Content’, select ‘LearnDash Courses’. Choose the ‘All Courses’ option or specify individual courses if needed. Select the membership you created earlier in the ‘Access Conditions’ section.
  3. Customize Access: You can set up ‘Drip’ content rules to gradually release course content to subscribers or ‘Expiration’ rules if you want the content access to expire after a certain period.

Step 4: Customize the User Experience

Ensure a smooth user journey by customizing the look and feel of the signup and course access pages:

  1. Customize Membership Pages: Use the MemberPress page editor to customize the look and feel of your membership, registration, and thank-you pages.
  2. Navigation and Access: Make sure your courses are easily navigable from the main menu and that users understand how to access their subscribed content.

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Step 5: Test Your Setup

Before going live, thoroughly test the subscription process:

  1. Test Transactions: Use MemberPress’s ‘Test Mode’ to simulate transactions and ensure the signup process works as expected.
  2. User Experience Testing: Create a test user account to go through the course access flow and ensure everything functions correctly.

BuddyX Theme

Run a Membership-Based Academy Without a Separate Membership Plugin

Pairing an LMS with a membership plugin means two codebases, two update cycles, and two points of failure. Learnomy includes memberships and content drip in the core free plugin. Create membership tiers, assign courses to each tier, and drip lessons out on your schedule, all from one place.

Best for: Subscription academies, monthly course clubs, and educators who gate content by access level.

  • Membership tiers built into the free plugin with no third-party dependency
  • Content drip controls when students access lessons after enrolling
  • Built-in Stripe checkout handles membership billing directly

Learnomy covers memberships and drip in the free version, and Learnomy Pro extends this with structured learning paths and prerequisite gates.

Conclusion On MemberPress and LearnDash

Integrating MemberPress with LearnDash to offer a one-time subscription for all courses can greatly enhance your eLearning platform’s value proposition. By following these detailed steps, you can set up a seamless and user-friendly subscription model that can increase user engagement and simplify your course management process.

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Maximizing Your Membership Website with BuddyPress and Paid Memberships Pro

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Sustaining Your WordPress Plugin: Long-Term Maintenance Strategies