LearnDash vs Podia Comparison 2026
LearnDash is a WordPress plugin at $259 a year for one site, so the course lives on a domain you already own, though hosting and a payment plugin are separate costs on top. Podia is a hosted all-in-one platform at $42 a month billed yearly, which comes to $504 a year and includes hosting, email and a 5 percent fee that Shaker, at $84 a month, removes entirely. LearnDash is cheaper on the licence alone but excludes what Podia bundles in. Podia costs more annualised but needs nothing added to start selling.
Turn a WordPress site into a course platform
Courses, downloads and email in one place
At a glance
- Podia starts cheaper, at $42.
- Neither has a free tier.
- LearnDash bills annually only, so there is no month to try it for.
Side by side
LearnDash | Podia | |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price (they differ) | From $259 | From $42 |
| Pricing model (they differ) | Paid subscription | Free trial, then paid |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Billing (they differ) | Annual only | Monthly or annual |
| Free trial | Not stated | 30 days |
| API | Not stated |
LearnDash
Turn a WordPress site into a course platform
LearnDash is the answer for somebody who already has a WordPress site and does not want their course living on somebody else's domain. Lessons, quizzes, drip schedules and certificates all become part of the site you own, and the payment plugin is your choice rather than theirs. Hosting, backups and the security of that site stay your problem. That is the whole trade against a hosted platform.
Our note
Add hosting and a payment plugin to the licence before comparing this against a hosted platform, because $259 is the floor rather than the total. The reason to choose it is ownership: the course sits on your domain, feeds your own SEO, and does not disappear if a vendor changes its plans.
Only on this side
- Covers website builders
Podia
Courses, downloads and email in one place
Podia sells courses, digital downloads, coaching and memberships from one storefront, with an email tool attached so the list and the products live together. Nothing in it is the best version of itself, and that is the trade being offered: one subscription instead of four. The entry plan charges 5 percent of sales, which the two plans above it drop.
Why people weigh these two
- Podia instead of LearnDash
- Podia carries courses, downloads and email together from $42, for someone selling more than one kind of thing.
- LearnDash instead of Podia
- LearnDash turns a WordPress site already being run into the course platform itself, for someone who wants to own the site rather than rent space on Podia's.
Which one should you pick
Pick LearnDash if you already run a WordPress site with an audience and want the course to live on your own domain rather than a platform's subdomain. Two hundred and fifty nine dollars a year is the licence floor, so add hosting and whichever payment plugin you choose before comparing the true cost against a hosted platform.
Pick Podia if you want courses, downloads and email running from one subscription with nothing else to set up. Mover is $504 a year with a 5 percent fee on sales, and past roughly $850 of monthly sales that fee costs more than the extra $42 a month that Shaker charges, which removes the fee entirely and runs $1,008 a year in total. Anybody whose course is a side project rather than the whole business may find Podia's bundle simpler than owning a WordPress site.
Common questions
- Is LearnDash actually cheaper than Podia?
- The licence is, at $259 a year against Podia's $504. That figure excludes hosting and a payment plugin, both of which Podia's price already includes, so the honest comparison needs those added to LearnDash's side before calling it cheaper.
- Does LearnDash take a percentage of sales?
- No, nothing is taken per sale by LearnDash itself, since the payment gateway is whichever WordPress plugin you choose. Podia's Mover plan takes 5 percent of sales, which disappears once you move up to Shaker at $84 a month.
- Which one includes email marketing?
- Podia does, bundled into every plan so the list and the products live together. LearnDash has no email tool at all, since it is a course plugin only, and you would need a separate WordPress email plugin or service to send anything.
- Do I need to know WordPress to use LearnDash?
- Yes. LearnDash only works inside a WordPress site you already run and maintain, including its hosting and updates. Podia needs no separate platform, since it hosts the course, the checkout and the email list itself.
Ratings are the average of reviews readers left. The facts are stated by each tool’s own listing and are not verified by CloutStack. How we make money.