Design Upgrade for LearnDash vs Xtreme Courses

LearnDash is a powerful learning management system (LMS) for managing your online courses, but there are some areas where the design falls short. In order to provide your students with an exceptional learning experience, you need a professional design. Enter Design Upgrade for LearnDash Design Upgrade for LearnDash completely redesigns every aspect of LearnDash so that it closely resembles your existing WordPress theme. No settings or custom code. Just activate & enjoy! Compatible with LD3 & “Legacy” Templates We’ll automatically detect whether you’re using the “LearnDash 3.0” or “Legacy” template, and assign styles appropriately. If you’re still running LearnDash 2.x, all of the same design upgrades that you’ve always enjoyed will still be there. See below for a list of what’s new. Features Tested with LearnDash 4.3.0.2 NEW: Improved styles for the new LearnDash registration process/page Global: Larger clickable areas for all course content, navigation & Focus Mode areas Buttons: All buttons have matching rounded corners & increased font size Font Sizes: These will now be inherited from your theme, which should increase your font sizes across the board Focus Mode: Improved sidebar tray design, Course Sections, shadow added to mobile menu, collapse arrow flips to show current menu state, and more. Focus Mode: Top navigation bar received several small improvements Focus Mode: Improved styles for Focus Mode comments, which were added in LearnDash 3.1 Animations: Subtle animations for LearnDash tooltips & the Focus Mode top menu Profile: Several styles were improved & standardized Login/Registration: Unified styles for all form fields Course Grid: Equal height columns & other small tweaks WisdmLabs Ratings, Reviews & Feedback design upgrades Design improvements for WisdmLabs’ LearnDash Group Registration plugin Improved print styles Also: Small tweaks were made to assignments, pagination, the “User Status” widget and more. LearnDash 2.x “Legacy” Features Tested with LearnDash 2.6.6. We no longer support these features and highly recommend using the LearnDash 3.0 active template. Much improved course grid styles, equal height cards & no more weird spacing issues 👍 All fonts have been reset to use your theme’s default font family, size & color All PNG icons have been replaced with comparable SVGs All complete/incomplete icons for lesson/topic/quiz lists have been moved to the right for better consistency Spacing around & between elements has been adjusted to provide greater consistency throughout All LearnDash widgets now have more consistent spacing & sizing, including improvements to Course Info & Course Navigation Styling for the [ld_profile] shortcode has been completely revamped Completely revamped & restyled quiz elements 💯 Improved design of the statistics modal window (for quizzes), including row highlights on hover Larger pager navigation buttons to improve usability Full support for RTL languages Who is this for? Brand new LearnDash users: There is absolutely no reason not to try it out. At the very least, it will give your site a more consistent design. If you plan to customize LearnDash further, you can still do so using a child theme or Additional CSS in the Customizer. Seasoned LearnDash veterans: If you have not made any customizations to your LearnDash design, but would like to improve it, give us a shot. You might want to try it out on a test site first, but you can deactivate it with one click and return to your previous design. You might also want to give your students a heads up that you’re updating the design. But we feel confident that they’ll like it 🙂 LearnDash developers: If you’re a developer who builds LearnDash sites for your clients, this could save you hours (maybe even days) of development time. LearnDash’s markup & CSS is a beast to customize. This will give you a much easier baseline to work with. We designed the plugin to be just specific enough to override LearnDash’s default styles, but not so specific that you’ll need to use a ton of selectors to override our specifity. All CSS in child themes and Additional CSS will take precedence over our styles. Pro Version Need custom styles? Our pro version uses the Customizer to bring you over 110 customizable design options. Completely customize your LearnDash site with just a few clicks. Pro Features Achievements Add-On: 10 new customization options Show/Hide various course & profile features Disable expand/collapse links & show all by default Course Content Lists: Update background & text colors, hover effects, customize line separators, remove the list count numbers and more Progress Bar: Customize the color, border radius & height, add stripes, and animate the bar on page load Buttons: Add your own background & text colors [ld_profile]: Avatar shape, custom “edit profile” link, hide profile info, hide quiz information, and more Login/Registration Popup: 10+ design options Focus Mode: 20+ design options, including 7 for Focus Mode comments Course Navigation Widget: 15+ design options Course Grid Add-On: 20+ design options Alerts: 9 custom colors, plus a few other options Tooltips: customize the background & text color Uncanny Groups: buttons, border radius & improved styles are applied to many Uncanny Groups frontend elements Tin Canny Reporting: 12 design options for Tin Canny reports on the front-end Upgrade to Pro Today » Theme Compatibility Design Upgrade for LearnDash should work on most themes, assuming they have not customized the LearnDash markup in any way. While we can’t guarantee full compatibility, we have tested with the following themes. Tested With We have tested with the following themes, and they all appear to be compatible: Astra Divi GeneratePress eLumine (when using the “LearnDash 3.0” active template or eLumine’s “Elementary Layouts”) LearnMate Edufire Neve OceanWP Incompatible Themes BuddyBoss Platform (released June 2019) Boss. / Social Learner (If you deactivate the “Boss for LearnDash” plugin, it will still work in “Legacy” mode) eLumine (when using the “Legacy” active template or any version of LearnDash before 3.0) Incompatible Plugins LearnDash Visual Customizer by SnapOrbital: The Visual Customizer takes a similar approach to designing LearnDash components, and thus the code conflicts with ours. Uncanny Owl Toolkit Compatibility We recognize the Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit by Uncanny Owl is a popular LearnDash plugin that adds some nice features. We’re in the process of making our plugin fully compatible with theirs. Here’s where we are so far: Reset Progress button: Button styles upgraded Simple Course Timer modal: Button styles upgraded [uo_dashboard]: Styles upgraded [uo_courses]: Styles upgraded [uo_breadcrumbs]: Compatible; Considering upgrades [uo_lessons_topics_grid]: Compatible; Considering upgrades [uo_login_ui]: Compatible; Considering upgrades NOTE: Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit styles are only upgraded if you’re using the “LearnDash 3.0” active template. Styles do not apply to the “Legacy” template. Plugin Compatibility Ratings, Reviews & Feedback plugin by WisdmLabs As of version 2.5, we now enhance the styles of the Ratings, Reviews & Feedback plugin by WisdmLabs. For a detailed overview, please see our article on ldx.design. Group Registration plugin by WisdmLabs As of version 2.6, we now enhance the styles of the Group Registration plugin by WisdmLabs. General design improvements will be made to all frontend elements output by the [wdm_group_users] shortcode. Browser Support A few techniques we use to improve the LearnDash design are only supported in the latest versions of major browsers. For the most part, as long as you’re not using Internet Explorer, most (if not all) of our plugin’s design upgrades will work. We support the latest versions of the following browsers: Google Chrome Mozilla Firefox Apple Safari Microsoft Edge Chrome for Android Firefox for Android iOS Safari (not tested, but should work) We do not support any version of Internet Explorer, however, we do offer a few code snippets & suggestions to fix a few issues in IE11. See the IE11 section below in FAQ. Roadmap As LearnDash adds new features, it is our goal to keep this plugin updated. Features planned for future release: New features for the Quiz Reporting Extension by WisdmLabs Compatibility with more Uncanny LearnDash Toolkit modules We’d love to hear from you! Does something look weird with your theme? Is there something we missed? Wouldn’t it be cool if… We tested it on a handful of popular themes, but we couldn’t possibly cover them all. If you have any feedback, please let us know in the support forum. Credits Paint brush icon made by Freepik, courtesy of flaticon.com. Licensed under CC3.0 BY. Gradient by colorful gradients From within WordPress Visit “Plugins > Add New” Search for “Design Upgrade for LearnDash” Click the “Install” button Click the “Activate” button There are no settings to configure. An improved design will automatically be applied to all LearnDash elements on your site.

Xtreme Courses is a complete learning management system (LMS) plugin for WordPress. Build structured online courses in a React drag-and-drop builder, sell them through WooCommerce, schedule drip content, run auto-graded quizzes, issue verifiable PDF certificates, and keep students engaged with XP, badges, and leaderboards — all from your own WordPress site. No upsells. No locked features. There is no “Pro” version of Xtreme Courses — every feature listed on this page ships in the free download and is fully functional out of the box. No upgrade nags, no feature gates, no artificial limits on courses, students, or enrollments. Plugin homepage · Documentation · Support Why Xtreme Courses? If you’ve evaluated the established LMS plugins (LearnDash, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS, LearnPress, Sensei) you already know the pattern: the features you actually need to run a paid course business — certificates, drip scheduling, quizzes, e-commerce checkout, reporting — are spread across paid tiers and per-feature add-ons. Xtreme Courses is built differently: The whole stack is free. Course builder, WooCommerce selling, drip content, quiz engine, PDF certificates, gamification, live lessons, reviews, analytics — nothing is held back for a paid tier. Commerce-ready from day one. Native WooCommerce integration: one-time purchases, free enrollments, subscription-gated content, bundles, bulk enrollment coupons, and gift enrollment. Modern WordPress stack. PHP 8.2+ with strict types, a React drag-and-drop course builder, custom REST API, Action Scheduler background jobs, and full uninstall cleanup. Self-hosted and private by default. No telemetry, no external service calls unless you explicitly configure live Zoom lessons (disclosed below). Your course content and student data stay on your server. WordPress.org-compliant. Fully GPL, no obfuscated code, every external-service touchpoint disclosed on this page. A free alternative to LearnDash, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS, LearnPress, and Sensei for course creators who want the complete LMS feature set without per-feature pricing. Core Features (Free): React Drag-and-Drop Course Builder — Build structured courses with sections, lessons (video, text, PDF, audio), and quizzes using a visual drag-and-drop interface. WooCommerce Integration — Sell courses as one-time purchases, free enrollments, or subscription-gated content. Supports bulk enrollment coupons and gift enrollment. Drip Content Scheduling — Release lessons on a fixed date, X days after enrollment, or after completing the previous lesson. Visual Gantt-style drip timeline. Quiz Engine — Multiple choice, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions with timed mode, pass thresholds, retake limits, and auto-grading. PDF Certificate Generator — Auto-generate personalized certificates on course completion with a public verification URL. Student Dashboard — Tabbed dashboard showing enrolled courses, progress rings, certificates, achievements, and order history. Instructor Role & Dashboard — Dedicated xc_instructor role with scoped access to own courses, student roster, and earnings. Gamification — XP points, badges with trigger conditions, and a leaderboard Gutenberg block/shortcode. Live Lessons — Zoom SDK embed and Google Meet pre-join cards with calendar reminder emails (.ics attachment). Analytics Dashboard — Chart.js-powered admin panel with enrollment trends, lesson funnel, quiz performance, revenue, active students, and certificate issuance rate. Course Reviews & Ratings — Star ratings and written reviews with moderation, instructor replies, and aggregate display. Course Bundles & Prerequisites — Bundle multiple courses into a single WooCommerce product and enforce prerequisite completion. Mobile Lesson Player — Distraction-free, full-viewport lesson player with progress persistence. Technical Highlights: PHP 8.2+ with strict types Custom REST API namespace /xtreme-courses/v1/ Custom database tables with proper indexes Action Scheduler for all background jobs Transient-based caching for leaderboard and progress queries Full nonce verification on all AJAX/REST write endpoints Input sanitization and output escaping throughout Complete uninstall routine (tables, options, uploaded files) Bundled libraries This plugin bundles Chart.js v4.5.1 (MIT, Copyright 2014-2025 Chart.js Contributors) for the Analytics admin panel. The script is served from the plugin folder at assets/js/vendor/chart.umd.min.js — no third-party CDN is contacted. External services This plugin can connect to one third-party service. It is opt-in — it is only contacted when an admin or instructor explicitly creates a live lesson and a student attends it. The default install of the plugin does not contact any external service. Zoom Meeting SDK (optional, used for live lessons) If an admin or instructor creates a live lesson and pastes a Zoom meeting URL into the lesson, then when a student opens that lesson the plugin will: Render an embedded Zoom client by enqueueing the Zoom Meeting SDK JavaScript directly from https://source.zoom.us/zoom-meeting-3.1.2.min.js on that lesson page only. The Zoom SDK then connects to Zoom’s own infrastructure to join the meeting. The plugin itself does not send any data to Zoom from your server — all communication happens between the student’s browser and Zoom. If you do not use the live-lesson feature (no live lesson with a Zoom URL is ever created), the Zoom SDK is never loaded and Zoom is never contacted. Service provider: Zoom Communications, Inc. Terms of Service · Privacy Statement License Xtreme Courses is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. Xtreme Courses is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with Xtreme Courses. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html.