How to Migrate Away From LearnDash (Without Losing Your Courses)

If the LearnDash environment appears less stable than before, it’s not just your imagination.

StellarWP, the parent company of LearnDash, has been dissolved. LearnDash continues to exist under Liquid Web’s Nexcess brand, with revised plans and pricing structures. However, following layoffs, a reorganisation, and a licensing reconfiguration, many course creators are pondering a critical question: should I consider moving?

For those contemplating this transition, the most daunting aspect isn’t the act of leaving; it’s transporting all those years of courses, quizzes, students, and transactions.

This guide details the steps to migrate from LearnDash without losing any essential data: backing up your content, selecting a new platform, conducting the transfer, checking everything works, and tidying up afterward. The demonstration focuses on Masteriyo, a learning management system (LMS) plugin developed by us at Themeisle, as it features a completely free migration tool. Nonetheless, these instructions are generally applicable, no matter your destination.

Let’s dive right in!

First: What happened to LearnDash?

Here’s a quick timeline because the hearsay can often be more alarming than the reality:

• 2013: LearnDash launches as one of the premier LMS plugins for WordPress.
• September 2021: Liquid Web acquires LearnDash, incorporating it into its new StellarWP brand.
• Late 2025 (announced late October): Liquid Web lays off about 25% of the StellarWP team, including LearnDash’s product owner.
• April 2026: Liquid Web formally discontinues StellarWP, consolidating its WordPress products into four main offerings: Kadence, LearnDash, The Events Calendar, and Give, all branded “by Nexcess.”
• Presently: stellarwp.com redirects to Liquid Web’s main page, although LearnDash continues (with version 5.0 launched earlier this year) under a new three-tier pricing model.

The new pricing structure is as follows: Essentials at $259/year, Pro at $399/year, and Elite at $599/year. All plans require annual billing and a fee per student.

To be frank, LearnDash is not out of the game. It is still being developed, remains self-hosted, and the official position is that your existing plan and pricing will remain unchanged unless you opt to upgrade, as there is no compulsion to migrate.

However, two factors have caused concern. One point in the announcement states that if your subscription lapses, you’ll need to purchase one of the new plans to regain access, and the rollout itself had significant issues. The Repository labelled it as “botched,” leading many long-standing users to reconsider their options.

Whether you decide to stay or leave, one takeaway is clear: your content should always be transferable.

Step 1: Backup Everything and Take Stock

The golden rule of any migration: do not rely on mere hope.

Commence with a complete backup of both your files and your database. Your hosting provider’s backup tool should suffice, or alternatively, a free plugin such as UpdraftPlus will do the job. If your host offers staging sites, even better—practice the migration on a staging instance first.

Before you proceed, ensure to consider these two additional points:

• Keep your LearnDash license active until the migration is complete and verified. Recalling the lapse clause, if it expires during the migration, you will need to purchase a new plan for reinstatement.
• Conduct the migration with LearnDash still installed. Some tools, including this one, require both plugins to be active on the same site.

Now, take inventory. Create a spreadsheet to document the following information, as you’ll compare it against the new site later:

• Courses: total number, plus sections, lessons, topics, and quizzes for each course.
• Quizzes: count of questions and a note of any uncommon question types you rely on.
• Students: total user count, and active enrollments for each course.
• Orders: total count and their locations. If you’re processing transactions through LearnDash’s own checkout, they’re LearnDash orders. Conversely, if you utilize WooCommerce, those records will remain in WooCommerce, not LearnDash.
• Extras: certificates, groups, assignments, and any active LearnDash add-ons you currently have.
• Shortcodes and Blocks: search through your posts and pages for LearnDash shortcodes (typically starting with ld_ or learndash_) and blocks. Document every page that utilizes them; this will prove valuable in step 5.

Is this tedious? Perhaps. But this list is pivotal for ensuring you know if anything goes astray instead of hoping for the best.

Step 2: Choose Your New LMS

You will need a new platform to host your courses. The three options listed below are self-hosted WordPress LMS plugins; here’s a straightforward explanation of how this configuration operates.

Option A: Masteriyo

Masteriyo is available for free on WordPress.org, with its Migration Tool being a complimentary add-on that imports directly from LearnDash: courses (including sections, lessons, quizzes, and order information), instructors, student enrollments, orders, course completion statuses, and quiz attempt histories. Note that assignments are also transferable, although this aspect requires Masteriyo Pro ($149/year introductory offer, renewing at $299/year).

The free version is not limited: you can create unlimited courses, with built-in payment options (including offline payment and PayPal; Stripe, Mollie, and Lemon Squeezy are available as free add-ons), certificates, and no transaction fees.

The honest shortcomings include: it is newer, with a smaller user base compared to Tutor LMS, and the free version offers only three quiz question types (True/False, Single Choice, Multiple Choice), while Tutor’s free version features five types. We’ve conducted a comprehensive Masteriyo vs LearnDash comparison, and it also appears in our list of top free LMS plugins.

DISCLAIMER: Masteriyo is a product from the Themeisle family. The trade-offs discussed here are presented honestly, as selecting the wrong platform for your courses can cost you significantly.

Option B: Tutor LMS

One of the largest free LMS plugins available, boasting over 100,000 active installations and a 4.4/5 rating on WordPress.org. Themeum provides an official free migration plugin that imports LearnDash courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, students, orders, and reviews.

Two important caveats from their documentation: eCommerce data transfers only if the associated payment gateway (WooCommerce, EDD, or Tutor’s native option) is configured beforehand. Additionally, transferring the process removes your LearnDash courses after they have been imported, hence the necessity of step 1.

Paid plans start at $199/year for one site.

Option C: LifterLMS

This plugin is versatile, featuring a free core, but unfortunately does not have an official LearnDash importer. Their migration guide refers users to third-party tools: “Transfer” by Hors WP for content plus student details, or WP All Import for content alone.

Also, note that the free version cannot process online payments independently, and paid bundles begin at $199/year, offered as a first-year promotion, renewing at the full price thereafter.

For the remainder of this guide, we’ll use Masteriyo for the walkthrough, primarily because it’s our product and its free importer transfers per-student course progress, a feature not documented in Tutor’s free importer. Steps 1, 4, and 5 will be quite similar, regardless of your choice.

Step 3: Conduct the Migration

This is the part that many dread, but it’s honestly one of the easiest stages. Masteriyo’s migration runs entirely within your own site: both plugins must remain active on the same WordPress installation, and data does not pass through external Servers.

The process is as follows:

1. Install the free Masteriyo plugin: Plugins → Add New, search for “Masteriyo LMS,” and then install and activate it. Do not deactivate LearnDash.
2. Navigate to Masteriyo → Addons and enable the Migration Tool add-on, which is free.
3. Go to Masteriyo → Tools → Migration. You’ll see a card for each supported LMS (LearnDash, LearnPress, LifterLMS, Tutor LMS, MasterStudy); any plugins you don’t have installed will be grayed out. Click on the LearnDash card, then select Migrate.
4. A confirmation dialog will appear prompting you to enter confirm (all lowercase, exactly as shown), then press Confirm & Start. Allowing this confirmation takes just a few seconds but helps prevent unintentional migrations.
5. The migration process will begin right away, running in the background. It uses the Action Scheduler (the same library utilized by WooCommerce) and processes data in batches of 100 items; each data type (including courses, enrollments, orders, and so forth) will operate as an independent job.

You can close the modal or navigate away while the jobs continue to run. A banner on the Migration page will display progress along with a View Progress button. Should a job encounter a PHP limit, it will re-queue itself from the last recorded position and continue. This ensures no items are lost, nor are there duplicates.

PRO TIP Prior to beginning, activate the logging feature: Masteriyo → Settings → Advanced → Debug → Enable Logger. Each migration step will then be documented, including the precise ID and error message for any items that may fail. Without this logging, failures will go unnoticed.

The data that transfers from LearnDash for free includes: courses along with their sections, lessons, and quizzes (with section order maintained), instructor accounts, student enrollments, orders, per-student completion records, and quiz attempt histories. Two additional details worth noting:

• Assignments will only transfer in conjunction with Masteriyo Pro (the tool will auto-enable the necessary add-on if you possess a Pro license).
• Certificates: if a LearnDash course included a certificate, a default template from Masteriyo will be automatically assigned to it. You can later redesign it at Masteriyo → Certificates.

Possible issue: On a larger site, the migration may appear to pause between batches. This behaviour is usual; it’s the queue working as intended. Take a moment to relax with a coffee and check the progress banner instead of refreshing the page excessively.

Step 4: Verify Everything (Do Not Skip This)

Once the migration indicates “done,” it’s time to validate it: refer back to the inventory compiled in step 1 and check off each item.

• Courses and Structure: Navigate to Masteriyo → Courses and compare the counts. Open a couple of courses in the builder to verify that sections and lessons are arranged correctly:

• Quizzes: Check each quiz and ensure that the questions and answers have been correctly transferred. Note that the free version of Masteriyo supports only True/False, Single Choice, and Multiple Choice question types. An additional six types (Text Answer, Match the Following, Fill in the Blanks, Audio, Video, and Sortable) are available through Masteriyo Pro ($149/year introductory offer, renewing at $299/year). If your LearnDash quizzes relied on any unusual question types, ensure you check each one.

• Students: Verify Masteriyo → Students and randomly check some accounts you are familiar with. Since both plugins operate within the same site, your students’ WordPress accounts remain intact; the crucial factor is that their enrollments and progress have been successfully reconstructed.
• Orders: Compare Masteriyo → Orders with the order list from LearnDash: totals, statuses, and counts. (Sales processed via WooCommerce will remain unaffected in WooCommerce).
• The Front End: View your course page as a student would. Enter a course, start a lesson, and take a quiz:

• The Log: If you enabled logging, check Masteriyo → Tools → Logs for the migration-tool file. It will list any skipped items by ID and the reason for their omission, with entries such as “fewer items than anticipated” indicating a follow-up to-do instead of leaving you in the dark.

Is something missing? Address the issue and re-run the migration or manually recreate the missing item. LearnDash remains active, so nothing is permanently lost.

Step 5: Redirects, Access, and Cleanup

Content has been successfully transferred. Now, let’s ensure the transition is seamless for everyone involved.

• Redirect Updated URLs: Masteriyo generates its own URLs for courses and lessons, which likely won’t match the old LearnDash URLs. Set up 301 redirects to link old URLs to the new ones; the free Redirection plugin can manage this effortlessly. At the very least, redirect the pages of your highest-traffic courses.
• Replace LearnDash Shortcodes and Blocks: Refer to the list from step 1 and update those pages with Masteriyo’s shortcodes or blocks, or restructure the sections with standard page content.
• Connect Payments and Test Transactions: Configure your payment gateways (with offline payment and PayPal included; Stripe and others as free add-ons), and conduct a test order from start to finish. Remember that an SSL certificate is required for payment processing.
• Inform Your Students: A brief email can be very effective: let them know that their accounts remain the same, but the platform has changed, and highlight any notable differences. When students are informed, they’re less inclined to submit support tickets out of confusion.
• Keep LearnDash Installed but Deactivated for a Few Weeks: Familiarise yourself with the new setup before removing LearnDash entirely and cancelling your renewal. Maintain that final backup just in case.

What Will Not Migrate

Here’s the truth: based on the documentation for the migration tool, here’s what you will need to handle manually:

• LearnDash Shortcodes and Blocks on your Pages: When LearnDash is deactivated, anything it generated (course lists, progress indicators, profile grids) will stop appearing. There’s no automatic converter, so you will need to re-add those sections yourself.
• Third-Party Add-on Data: If you used any additional LearnDash add-ons, their data exists outside the core LMS data that get imported. Expect this data to remain behind.
• Design: Features such as LearnDash’s Focus Mode, templates, and styling will not transfer. Expect your theme, alongside Masteriyo’s default templates, to exhibit noticeable differences from what you were used to.
• Drip Schedules and Prerequisites: These do not form part of the documented LearnDash migration steps, so you will need to recreate any that are necessary (content drip is a Masteriyo Pro feature, offered at $149/year introductory).
• Certificate Designs: Certificates will be assigned default templates automatically; you will need to rebuild your custom designs in the certificate builder. The builder itself is free; access to additional templates is a Pro feature.
• Anything Custom: Custom code, webhook setups, reporting dashboards: you will need to re-establish these in a format compatible with your new LMS.

None of these points should deter you from migrating; they simply indicate the difference between a weekend project and a potentially drawn-out week of work.

Final Thoughts

Let’s recap the entire process:

• While LearnDash is not defunct, StellarWP is, and having portable content is crucial for course creators.
• Begin by backing up and taking stock. Every successful migration is tedious in this manner.
• Select a destination that features a functional importer. Both Masteriyo and Tutor LMS provide free options, while LifterLMS relies on third-party tools.
• Be sure to verify courses, quizzes, students, and orders before deactivating anything.
• Anticipate needing to manually redo shortcodes, designs, and drip settings.

Ultimately, for a low-cost secure transition, Masteriyo’s free plugin coupled with its free migration tool will suffice, with payment only required if you later wish to upgrade to Pro features such as advanced quizzes, assignments, or content deluge. Regardless of your choice of destination, take your time completing step 4.

Once established, our guide on creating an online course with WordPress will assist in making the new environment feel homely.

Have you migrated an LMS previously? Out of curiosity, did it go smoothly or turn into a horror story? We invite you to share your experiences in the comments section below!

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