# Tutor LMS review (2026): is the free plan enough?

> WordPress course plugin with a free core and paid Pro licenses

Checked Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA.

Tutor LMS is a WordPress plugin for building and selling online courses on your own site. The core plugin is free; paid licenses add Pro features such as advanced quizzes, assignments, subscriptions and an AI course generator that needs your own OpenAI key. It runs only inside WordPress.

- **Category:** Courses & Communities
- **Made by:** Tutor LMS
- **Website:** https://tutorlms.com
- **Runs on:** Web
- **Who should skip it:** Skip it if you do not run WordPress: it works only on a self-hosted WordPress site.
- **Facts last checked:** Nov 13, 2026

## Pricing

As of Nov 13, 2026, Tutor LMS has a free plan, and paid plans start at $199 per year for 1 site.

- **Pricing model:** Free plan
- **Free plan:** The Tutor LMS core is free: unlimited courses, learners and instructors, a basic quiz builder and native video support.
- **Free trial:** None listed.

| Plan | Price | What you get |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Free | $0 | Core plugin with unlimited courses, learners and instructors, and a basic quiz builder. |
| Individual | $199 per year for 1 site | All Pro add-ons and features, Pro themes, AI Studio and priority support; updates for 1 year. One-time lifetime price is $499. |
| Business | $399 per year for up to 10 sites | Same features as Individual on up to 10 sites. The one-time lifetime price is $999. |
| Agency | $799 per year for unlimited sites | Same features on unlimited sites for annual billing. The one-time lifetime price is $1,999 for up to 50 sites. |

Read from https://tutorlms.com/pricing/ on Nov 13, 2026. Prices change, so confirm with Tutor LMS before buying.

## Ways to pay less

- **Lifetime license, paid once** (Lifetime license): The pricing page's Lifetime tab sells each plan for a single payment: $499 (1 site), $999 (up to 10 sites) and $1,999 (up to 50 sites), with lifetime updates. Source: https://tutorlms.com/pricing/

## Key features

- **Course builder:** Build courses from lessons, quizzes and assignments, with video from YouTube, Vimeo or uploaded files, and drip content on Pro.
- **Quizzes and assignments:** The free core has a basic quiz builder; Pro adds more question types, quiz reports, assignments with deadlines and automated grading.
- **Selling and memberships:** Sell courses through built-in checkout or WooCommerce, with coupons, bundles, course subscriptions and site-wide memberships on Pro.
- **Payment gateways:** The pricing page lists PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, Paddle, Mollie, Klarna, Razorpay, Paystack, Alipay and manual payment.
- **AI Studio:** Generates course outlines, lessons and descriptions from prompts. Included in paid plans, and it requires your own OpenAI API key.
- **Live classes and integrations:** Connects to Zoom, Google Meet and Jitsi Meet for live sessions, plus video hosts, CRMs and community plugins listed on its integrations page.

## Good for

- Course creators who already run a WordPress site
- Agencies building learning sites for several clients
- Starting free and adding Pro features later

## Worth knowing

- It only runs inside a self-hosted WordPress site, so hosting and updates are your job.
- Advanced quizzes, assignments, subscriptions and AI Studio need a paid license.
- AI Studio needs your own OpenAI API key, billed separately by OpenAI.
- Annual licenses cover updates and support for one year; the lifetime option costs $499 to $1,999 once.

## ToolGPA grades

**GPA: 2.6 out of 4**, graded Nov 13, 2026. Tutor LMS is a WordPress plugin for building and selling courses, with a free core and paid licenses from $199 a year for 1 site. It runs only on a self-hosted WordPress site, and advanced quizzes, subscriptions and the AI generator need a paid license.

- **Value for money: B.** $199 a year for 1 site is about $16.60 a month, inside this category's cheapest quarter ($20), and a $499 lifetime price is under two years of its $37 middle.
- **Free plan and trial: B.** The free core has unlimited courses, learners and instructors, a basic quiz builder and native video, which one person can run a course on.
- **Features: B.** Lessons, quizzes, assignments, checkout, memberships, many payment gateways and live classes cover the job, with the advanced parts on Pro.
- **Ease of use: D.** No rating on record. It only runs inside a self-hosted WordPress site, so hosting and updates are your job.
- **Platforms and integrations: B.** Web only, but it connects to WooCommerce, Zoom, Google Meet, Paid Memberships Pro, FluentCRM, BuddyPress, Elementor and OpenAI.

These are ToolGPA's own grades. Graded from this listing, whose facts were read from Tutor LMS's own pages on 13 November 2026. Not based on using the product, and shorter than our full reviews.

## Where it stands among course and community platforms

- Tutor LMS's GPA of 2.6 is higher than 83 of the 98 other course and community platforms we grade, and level with 8.
- It stands best on value for money (B, above 79 of 98) and worst on ease of use (D, above 0).
- Its paid plans start at $16.58 a month when paid by the year, against a middle price of $36 for the category: 12 of the 65 others that charge start lower.
- On features, ease of use and platforms it scores 2.3 out of 4. 2 tools score higher and cost less.

The category's chart of price against score: https://toolgpa.com/charts/courses-communities

## Keep it, or make your own?

**Keep it.** The plain part of Tutor LMS you could make: online courses and templates. What surrounds it you could not. The 4 things listed below take a company, not a weekend. It is one of the better ones too: its GPA of 2.6 is higher than 83 of the 98 other course and community platforms we grade. It costs $199 a year.

- You could make: Online courses and templates: an app builder makes these well.
- You could not: It plugs into other products, WooCommerce, Zoom and Google Meet among them.
- You could not: AI features, unless you pay a model provider for each request yourself.
- You could not: People on the other end: live sessions. No app builder makes those.
- You could not: The depth: we grade its features B, which means it covers the whole job.

A judgement by ToolGPA from this listing, by rules that are the same for every tool. Nothing was built to test it.

## Works with

WooCommerce, Zoom, Google Meet, Paid Memberships Pro, FluentCRM, BuddyPress, Elementor, OpenAI

**Tags:** Online courses, AI features, Templates

## Alternatives

- [LearnDash](https://toolgpa.com/tools/learndash): WordPress plugin for building and selling online courses. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/learndash-vs-tutor-lms)
- [LifterLMS](https://toolgpa.com/tools/lifterlms): WordPress LMS plugin with a free core and paid bundles. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lifterlms-vs-tutor-lms)
- [LearnPress](https://toolgpa.com/tools/learnpress): Free WordPress LMS plugin with paid add-ons and a Pro Bundle. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/learnpress-vs-tutor-lms)
- [MasterStudy LMS](https://toolgpa.com/tools/masterstudy-lms): WordPress LMS plugin with a free Starter license and paid yearly tiers. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/masterstudy-lms-vs-tutor-lms)
- [Sensei LMS](https://toolgpa.com/tools/lms-wordpress-sensei): WordPress course plugin with a free core and a paid Pro tier. [Compare](https://toolgpa.com/compare/lms-wordpress-sensei-vs-tutor-lms)

## Sources

The prices, plans, platforms and features above were read from these pages on Nov 13, 2026:

- https://tutorlms.com/pricing/
- https://tutorlms.com/integrations/
- https://tutorlms.com/refund-policy/

Page: https://toolgpa.com/tools/tutor-lms
Listed by ToolGPA (toolgpa.com).