Best WordPress LMS Themes Compared: Build Your Education Site with Confidence

When searching for the best LMS WordPress themes, you might not even suspect that you are, in the first place, choosing among plugins. It’s a common practice to distribute an LMS WP theme with a plugin; the former won’t be so attractive to prospects (you) otherwise.

There are a handful of LMS for WordPress solutions dedicated to creating an online learning website; some are better optimized for the realities of the online tutoring business, others are not that feature-packed.

A plugin is what makes you add course material, organize lessons, add tutors, configure user registration, tailor gamification features, assign homework, and set up monetization options, while a theme is what makes it all look eye-pleasing and professional.

This also leads us to understanding that if there are some extra charges, those most likely will relate to the functionality (plugin), so make sure to pay heed to the plugin’s features and pricing model if you want to learn how to start an online course.

As for WP learning management system theme design, you want to notice whether its layout is optimized for one course or multiple courses, how it deals with the course details output, how intuitive the overall site browsing experience is, whether it is fast and, of course, whether it suits your brand identity and how far you can customize it (e.g. change colors, fonts, remove or add custom blocks).

Let’s now take a quick look at the criteria we based our comparison table of the best LMS WordPress themes on.

• Customization: As for the customization needs, the native WordPress Gutenberg block editor and Elementor are usually the top choices that provide literally endless editing abilities and will definitely be there for WordPress for years to come.
• LMS WordPress: There is no point in comparing LMS features like what kind of files you can add, since you may need different combinations of scenarios and features – in this case, you should better search for the LMS plugins comparison. So we are just listing a plugin’s name with a theme.
• Monetization: See what payment options are available and whether you need to pay for them.
• WooCommerce integration: This criterion is also about monetization. In addition to helping you connect to any local payment gateways, WooCommerce can also bring recurring payments (course subscription) to the table without extra tech skills. Best WP LMS themes are usually WooCommerce-compatible, while LMS plugins can either offer this advantage for free or for a fee.
• Translations: Quality best WordPress LMS themes and plugins can be easily translated with WordPress translation and multilingual plugins. But isn’t it so much easier when the product is already localized into your language? So you can just click a button in your WordPress language settings and switch the site to your language right away. Note that sometimes theme providers only state their tested compatibility with translation plugins.

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Best WordPress LMS Themes Comparison Table

Let’s help you choose the best LMS theme for WordPress.

*Prices are subject to change

LMS WordPress Themes

One of the first categories we’ll take a look at in today’s article is LMS WordPress Themes. Short for Learning Management System, LMS solutions are built to assist teachers, tutors, and online course creators in establishing powerful e-learning platforms easily. Below, we have prepared a selection of such tools that combine responsive and attractive design with impressive functionality.

Masterstudy – WordPress Education Theme

Masterstudy is one of the top-rated solutions for creating an online course website. It’s been around for 10+ years and is loved by thousands of people and businesses. Since this WordPress LMS theme ships with the demos created for different real-life purposes (for one or multiple instructors, schools, course hubs, language schools, etc.), I believe it can perfectly suit the needs of agencies and studios that build sites for clients.

Among the pros of this theme is that it relies on its own course builder solution, The MasterStudy plugin, which is a good practice since you get two tools crafted by one team.

The plugin looks like quite a powerful solution with tons of integrations for Zoom, SCORM, BuddyPress for communicating, and the top-used page builders. Besides, it also leverages the power of AI for course generation, similar to content generation solutions like WordPress AI plugins.

It’s possible to add different content to lessons, including videos, graphs, images, slideshows, PDFs, etc. You can add lessons to the courses and break them down into groups. Certificates, student progress, rewards, trial lessons, and the rest of the essentials for online education are packed with the drag-and-drop course builder. I also like that the theme doesn’t force you to buy any extra addons and delivers all the essentials in one pack.

Pros:

• Mobile LMS App for iOS & Android;
• Native course builder plugin;
• Live demo to test the course builder features;
• Tons of course styles;
• All essential LMS WP theme course options;
• Analytics and stats system;
• Regular updates.

Cons:

• Not optimized for the native WordPress block editor.

More Details Demo

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Guru – Learning Management WordPress Theme

Although Guru is advertised as a multipurpose education solution, it’s also considered to be a time-tested learning management system theme for WordPress.

Since this theme is powered by the Sensei plugin for WP learning management system, a free LMS WooCommerce-based plugin, you are free to create fully-featured courses using multiple essential features: course assessment tools, instructor profiles, course details, duration, etc., as well as add cross-sale features as related courses, course news, and events. The theme is also compatible with bbPress plugin for cheating forums and communities to allow your students to share knowledge easier.

WooCommerce reliance is probably the best thing about Sensei, since it gives you a seamless connection with one of the most powerful eCommerce plugins. Moreover, it can serve as one of WordPress multi-vendor plugins if you are planning to create an online course marketplace.

It integrates with many popular WordPress plugins to allow forums for communications, a mega menu, and numerous built-in options.

Pros:

• Professional Sensei LMS plugin and the ecosystem of WooCommerce addons for Sensei;
• Some Sensei LMS addons are free;
• A lot of custom widgets and settings sourced by the theme;
• Multiple options for blog and portfolio;
• Works well with translation plugins, such as WPML.

Cons: 

• Heavy reliance on the WPBakery plugin;
• Slightly outdated design.

More Details Demo

WPLMS – Education Theme for WordPress

WPLMS is one of outstanding LMS and education WordPress themes suitable for both one-instructor websites and multi-course ones.

Just like Masterstudy, the creators of this theme also choose to rely on their native LMS engine and app, which looks like quite a powerful solution that measures up to the popular LMS for WordPress.

The theme and a built-in LMS plugin offer a very thought-out course creation and distribution engine, with tons of industry-standard features: content editor, content dripping, tons of quizzes, timelines, certificates, gamification, monthly, yearly, and weekly prices for courses, Zoom integrations, and more.

If you are on Zapier for email marketing, this is also going to be a rewarding solution because it integrates with this marketing tool smoothly. All in all, this LMS theme for WordPress looks like an unbeatable solution when it comes to flexibility – it’s most chock-full of integrations and features you can only think of.

Pros:

• Mobile app;
• Smooth integration with WooCommerce & EDD membership features;
• Multiple designs to choose from for the most popular builders;
• Built on trusted PWA technologies for BuddyPress;
• Translate it with Loco Translate and WPML;
• Well-documented, extendable, regularly updated.

Cons:

• Not optimized for third-party LMS plugins.

More Details Demo

Eduma – Education WordPress Theme

If you need a time-tested and good-looking WordPress LMS theme, Eduma fits this request pretty well. It’s very diverse in terms of design and theme/content customization capabilities.

Although LearnPress (the theme is powered by) is a very popular plugin, its pricing model is not that budget-oriented: you are required to pay extra each time you need an add-on like Stripe integration or content dripping features. The theme creators are actually also the LearnPress plugin creators, so you get a well-optimized solution from one team.

But the good news is that with the Eduma WordPress eLearning theme, you get a bundle of all addons at once at no extra cost, which right away opens up numerous opportunities in building education websites.

Dozens of supporting elements are also there – functioning mega menus, sliders, and a whole list of other plugins you probably won’t find in other best WordPress LMS themes.

Pros:

• Multiple tools to customize the theme: Elementor, WP customizer, custom widgets, such as testimonials, carousels; many drag-and-drop ways to edit the theme visually, etc;
• Integrations with bbPress, WooCommerce, Mailchimp, Paid Membership Pro, etc;
• Over 34 pre-designed skins with the demo data, including children’s educational institutions;
• Bundle of essential addons for LearnPress LMS included.

Cons:

• None.

More Details Demo

LMS WordPress Theme

With the LMS WordPress Theme, you are empowered to create an LMS marketplace and training and teaching hubs of all sorts, with any number of students.

Demo designs are also worth taking a look at since they are very much optimized for the modern educational institutions that seek to create a professional brand identity on the internet.

This WordPress LMS theme offers two different ways to create a course (you’ll need to choose) – the default one based on the s2Member plugin, with integrated payment gateways and membership options, and the Sensei plugin for creating and managing courses, which enables a special connection to WooCommerce (namely, you get tons of tools).

Each of these ways has its pros and cons. For example, with Sensei, you’ll need to buy extra addons for payment gateways and other options if you’re planning to learn how to start an online course.

Pros:

• Integrates with Google Classroom and Zoom;
• Pre-made portfolios and course pages;
• Compatible with WPBakery and Elementor;
• Several options to create a course;
• WPML, Events Calendar, Mega Menu, BuddyPress support;
• Ships with the bundle of top names, such as WPBakery page builder & Slider Revolution;
• Multiple membership features and payment gateway integrations.

Cons:

• No Gutenberg optimized layouts.

More Details Demo

Course Builder – Online Course WordPress Theme

The LearnPress-based theme, Course Builder, is a multipurpose WordPress theme suitable for creating courses as well as landing pages for schools, universities, and kindergartens. It also stresses its suitability for corporate training websites (there is a specific demo for this purpose).

If you plan to launch an online education website, this one of WordPress eLearning themes allows you to go with one or multiple courses – the demos are well optimized for both scenarios.

For an extra fee, you can integrate the Paid Membership option and sell memberships. The theme comes with the LearnPress Premium add-ons Bundle included, saving you a good sum of money.

The course view, thanks to the LearnPress LMS for WordPress, is very structured and feature-rich, and resembles popular education sites like Udemy. A polished user-focused learning experience is guaranteed.

Thanks to the extra integrated tools, you can also sell tickets to events.

Pros:

• A range of course-related features by LearnPress;
• Great design choice with the one-click demo data import;
• A pack of premium essential addons for LearnPress bundled;
• Event management and BuddyPress forum support;
• Works with WPBakery and Visual Composer.

Cons:

• No designs crafted with Elementor or the block editor.

More Details Demo

Eikra – Education WordPress Theme

Eikra is an education and LMS WordPress theme with all the integrations you can think of. The theme is based on LearnPress and ships with many designs created for this plugin, including course, instructor, and other pages.

The theme itself also offers awesome 12 single and multi-page home page demos, with clean and contemporary layouts suitable for schools, consulting centers, and online education projects. Owing to the pre-built custom addons, you are also free to extend and personalize these pages even more.

However, since most of the addons for LearnPress are paid, make sure to check out how much more you need to spend on the needed integrations.

Pros:

• Truly multipurpose theme in terms of design;
• Support for WooCommerce, Zoom, Redux, and WPML;
• One-click demo installer for LMS WordPress themes;
• RTL support.

Cons:

• The theme is packed with a free version of LearnPress LMS plugin, which requires buying extra paid addons for the essential course-building needs.

More Details Demo

LMStudy – Education LMS WooCommerce Theme

This theme is rather a very traditional one among other best WordPress LMS themes – the education design it offers has a rather classy vibe, and the drag and drop course builder tools are by LearnPress, similar to many themes mentioned before. It’s perfect for schools and online courses.

This education and LMS WordPress theme is built with a basic version of LearnPress, which means you’ll need to integrate other tools for a fee.

Pros:

• Tons of custom settings to tune the theme;
• Built-in Google Analytics;
• Support for Slider Revolution, WPBakery, Essential Grid, and WooCommerce;
• Integrated online store pages;
• RTL support and Google Analytics integration.

Cons:

• Not optimized for Gutenberg;
• No support for Elementor.

More Details Demo

Education  – Responsive and eCommerce-Ready WordPress Theme

One more WordPress LMS theme based on a plugin for WordPress is simply called Education. This solution comes with a bunch of pre-designed templates, allowing you to create a responsive website for any educational establishment. Built with the Learning Course plugin, the theme allows you to create and manage your own online courses and present them in an attractive design. Additionally, Education is also eCommerce-ready and customizable, thanks to the integrated WooCommerce and Elementor plugins.

Pros:

• 12+ ready-made homepage designs;
• Multiple content sections and custom pages;
• Header & footer builder;
• Multi-step forms;
• Payment gateway support.

Cons:

• The theme isn’t optimized for the default WordPress builder;
• The Learning Courses plugin isn’t available separately.

More Details Demo

eLearning – Clean LMS WordPress Theme

As one of the themes built with Masteriyo, a powerful LMS plugin for WordPress, the eLearning theme allows you to build a flexible and reliable website with online courses. By using a clean design, multiple content blocks for presenting your courses, and functionality of the said plugin, this solution presents a perfect starting point for any online school. With it, you get to create and advertise your own courses, without having to develop anything complex from scratch.

Pros:

• Clean and responsive design;
• Categorized courses;
• Integrated course builder;
• Detailed monetization settings;
• Customer account support.

Cons:

• Only available as a starter template for the Masteriyo LMS plugin;
• Not built for Elementor.

Demo

Upstudy – Flexible & Responsive LMS WordPress Theme

If you are looking for an LMS theme that features not just multiple homepage layouts but also several learning management systems, we recommend that you look at Upstudy. As a customizable WordPress theme supporting Elementor, it is a great choice for any educational website. The theme features 3+ integrated LMS plugins, ranging from LearnPress to TutorLMS. With the help of Upstudy, you can create and publish courses of any complexity, build certificates, offer online payments for lessons and courses, and do a lot more.

Pros:

• 23+ ready-made homepage designs;
• 6+ course layouts;
• RTL support;
• A variety of built-in widgets;
• Zoom integration.

Cons:

• Only 3 out of the 6 announced LMS plugins are currently available.

More Details Demo

School & Tutor WordPress Themes

Next, let’s look at school & tutor WordPress themes. Created as flexible and user-friendly solutions for educational institutions and training programs, these themes allow for presenting essential information. This includes class schedules, academic programs, teacher profiles, and other important information — admission details, and academic programs — in a clean and organized layout. Being perfect for individual educators and established educational institutions, these themes can transform any WordPress school website into a professional education online presence.

Efor – Coaching & Online Courses WordPress Theme

Efor is a great online learning and LMS theme. What strikes you first is sleek, modern, and truly creative design patterns crafted with Elementor.

It’s in the first place made for coaching and training sites, so that LMS is not its top priority.

The theme includes lifetime licenses for TutorLMS Pro and Amelia Booking Pro plugins. I believe it’s best suited for personal coaching or consulting websites with optional membership or training features.

It’s also tempting to use this theme because, in addition to awesome designs, it comes with a free bundle of addons for Elementor, alongside the pop-up builder WooCommerce support. This allows you not just to discover how to start an online course but also to create a unique and eCommerce-ready online presence without manual web development from scratch.

Pros:

• Powerful and exclusive live customizer;
• JetElements for Elementor included for free (enables you to add numerous content widgets with Elementor);
• Marketing pop-ups functionality included.

Cons:

• Not suited for other builders except Elementor.

More Details Demo

Edme – Education Tutor Booking WordPress theme

The Edme theme offers a slightly different approach to how you can build a course website. It’s not based on any LMS WordPress plugin, but comes with ready-made design patterns for presenting the course structure, plus the appointment booking plugin to enable students to book a lesson.

With this in mind, you can employ Edme for personal online or offline teaching practice, when students book a lesson or consultation for a particular time and date.

Thanks to Elementor that the theme is crafted with, there is also a sample directory of courses, which means you can easily create several different courses with different instructors. The premium booking plugin, MotoPress Appointment Booking, for lesson and tutor appointments is packed for free with Edme.

Pros:

• Stylish course structure and course directory design;
• Lightweight theme, not overloaded with tons of features;
• Easy payment processing (Stripe, PayPal, wire transfer, after-arrival payment);
• Integrated blog & contact pages;
• Premium booking plugin integrated for free.

Cons:

• No LMS integration.

More Details Demo

CoachZee – Coaching & Tutoring WordPress Theme

One more WordPress eLearning theme we’d like to mention is CoachZee. Designed for individual coaches and instructors, it features multiple pre-designed home pages to let you choose. From English teachers to psychologists and driving school instructors, the theme provides something for everyone. It also includes a premium Appointment Booking plugin by MotoPress. Perfect for any service-based business, it also helps plan online courses and lessons. With a real-time availability calendar, support for WordPress weekly schedule, and secure online payments, the theme is a perfect choice for any education or coaching website.

Pros:

• 5 diverse homepage layouts;
• Works with Gutenberg;
• Includes the Getwid plugin for better customization;
• Mobile-friendly appointment booking form;
• Class scheduling for groups.

Cons:

• No Elementor support;
• SMS notifications & Google Analytics integrations require paid add-ons.

More Details Demo

MaxCoach – Online Courses WP Theme

If you’re looking for a modern and fresh look for your online learning or coaching website, MaxCoach has all you need in terms of design and functionality. It’s also powered by the LearnPress plugin and ships with tons of pre-made designs for educational homepages as well as plugin-optimized course pages.

To give you more payment options with LearnPress for the course monetization, the theme creators also packed Stripe & PayPal integrations via WooCommerce Payments, which otherwise needs to be purchased separately.

There are also exclusive templates dedicated to gym, yoga, and health coaching sites. Thanks to some extra integrations, you can improve the WooCommerce capabilities, create and organize events, and more.

Pros:

• Tested to be very fast-loading;
• Compatible with elementor & Gutenberg;
• Sleek and clean modern designs, including for narrow niches;
• One-click demo import features;
• WP Events Manager and WooCommerce supported.

Cons:

• You might need to buy extra addons to extend LearnPress.

More Details Demo

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Skill School – LMS WordPress Theme for Online Schools

Like the abovementioned eLearning theme, Skill School is also based on the Masteriyo LMS WordPress plugin, but is also suitable for online schools. However, it has a more image-rich design as well as other features that are key to WordPress. Whether you are looking for a theme that not only offers a layout for your courses but also has a blog, space for sharing testimonials, and more, picking this LMS theme is the way to go.

Pros:

• Pre-designed course categories;
• Numerous content sections;
• Integrated blog;
• Configurable contact forms;
• Informative footer.

Cons:

• Optimized only for Gutenberg;
• Requires Masteriyo LMS plugin.

Demo

University & Higher Education WordPress Themes

One more type of WordPress themes we’ll review today is university & higher education WordPress themes. Crafted to meet the needs of colleges & universities, they offer advanced features such as faculty listings, enrollment information, event management (using WordPress event plugin solutions), and campus tours. These themes combine strong visual appeal with diverse functionality and are a great fit for any modern institution specializing in higher education.

Kingster – LMS WordPress Themes

Kingster is the theme you need for a fully-featured LMS website on WordPress. It comes with many course-optimized pages and fantastic support for all things online education.

The theme customization options are based on the theme developers’ own GoodLayers page builder that provides tons of smooth and creative content modules you can customize the way you need.

Unlike some other LearnPress-based themes, Kingster is powered by the completely free plugin version, and you need to get all the essential drag-and-drop course builder features via premium addons.

Pros:

• 7 design demos, including for the online LMS by LearnPress;
• Multiple header styles;
• Slider Revolution and LightGallery plugins included;
• Compatible with major WordPress plugins;
• Easy demo importer.

Cons:

• To take full advantage of the LearnPress plugin, you need to purchase extra addons;
• Not optimized for popular page builders.

More Details Demo

Unicamp – Multipage & Responsive University WordPress Theme

Unicamp is a responsive and modern WordPress theme built for universities and colleges. Offering multiple designs and layouts that are fully customizable, it is a perfect solution for informing your current & potential students about campus events, latest online courses, and related news. Thanks to the integrated LMS plugin, the theme is also a great choice for universities that need to implement online education tools within a single website.

To get even more from this theme’s event management capabilities, we recommend installing Events Calendar by MotoPress, a flexible plugin designed for easier event management.

Pros:

• 6+ responsive homepage designs;
• Powered by the TutorLMS plugin for online course management;
• Compatible & customizable with Elementor;
• 10+ layouts for courses and course details;
• Integrated blog and event management functionality.

Cons:

• Not compatible with Gutenberg;
• May require Elementor Pro for full customization features.

More Details Demo

Unipix – Modern University WordPress Theme

One more WordPress eLearning theme for universities to mention is Unipix. Supporting RTL, the theme uses a memorable color scheme and typography to make your education website noticeable. Not limited to just universities, this theme comes with over a dozen layouts for homepages. Moreover, it is compatible with a wide range of plugins, from Elementor, WooCommerce, and Yoast SEO to Polylang & WPML, extending the range of features this theme provides.

Pros:

• 12 diverse designs for educational websites;
• RTL support;
• Slider Revolution plugin included;
• Compatible with the Events Calendar plugin;
• Optimized for speed and performance.

Cons:

• None.

More Details Demo

Estudiar – Creative WordPress Theme for Universities

One of the themes that puts an accent on the modern and full-width design with smooth transitions is Estudiar. Equipped with 2 diverse home pages, it delivers key information about graduate & online programs, campus, and tuition, while staying responsive, content-rich, and eye-catching. Built with Elementor, it is also highly editable and compatible with tools like WPForms, Akismet, Wordfence, and many other popular plugins.

Pros:

• Responsive & memorable design;
• Strong typography & content-rich layout;
• Major WordPress plugins supported;
• Works with Elementor.

Cons:

• Few home page layouts;
• Not suitable for Gutenberg-only websites.

More Details Demo

Final Word on the Best WordPress LMS Themes

We know that it’s hard to find a perfectly suitable solution. However, I hope we’ve helped you narrow down your search for the best LMS theme for WordPress and have noticed some similarities and differences in the templates offered so far. Additionally, when picking themes as those mentioned above, pay attention to these features:

• Plugin Compatibility: Ensure that the chosen education website theme works well with a selected or bundled LMS plugin, such as LearnDash or Tutor LMS.
• Mobile Responsiveness: Modern LMS themes should also provide an excellent learning experience across all devices – phones, tablets, and desktops.
• Customization Options: If you want to appear unique and original online, we also recommend looking for customizable themes. They usually come with flexible design controls and are compatible with page builders or include them by default.
• Performance & Speed: Picking fast-loading themes can also help you improve your online image, since these solutions tend to retain more potential students and site visitors than slower websites.

All in all, by using these WordPress eLearning themes, you are guaranteed to find a simple and visually appealing way to share knowledge and inform your students of upcoming events and classes. If you have questions or any experience to share on the LMS WordPress themes, don’t hesitate to leave a comment!

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