LMS platforms - LearnDash, LifterLMS, Sensei and Tutor LMS

LMS platforms

Reign is ready for the four LMS plugins most WordPress sites run: LearnDash, LifterLMS, Sensei LMS and Tutor LMS. Install one and the styling turns on. Nothing to buy from us for it.

The depth of that styling is not identical across all four. Two ship real template overrides, two are CSS plus a light hook or two. This page is honest about which is which, so you know what to expect before you build a course.

LearnDash

The deepest integration of the four. Reign ships:

• A template override for the course list shortcode (ld_course_list), so a course grid built with LearnDash’s own shortcode renders in Reign’s layout rather than LearnDash’s default.
• A custom single course header and single group header, injected above the content on course and group pages: title, short description, instructor avatars and names, and a last-updated date. This replaces the theme’s normal post-meta block on those pages.
• Comments wired back in on single courses, which LearnDash’s own templates leave out.
• LearnDash’s course, lesson, topic and quiz post types are registered with Reign automatically, so they get their own sections under Content Layouts in the Customizer, the same as any other content type.
• A dedicated stylesheet for everything else - grids, progress bars, quiz screens.

LifterLMS

Also ships real template overrides: a full single course template (lifterlms/single-course.php) and a course sidebar template. Reign removes its own default page header on single course pages so LifterLMS’s layout has room to run, and styles the rest through a dedicated stylesheet.

Sensei LMS

Styled with CSS, plus one hook-based addition rather than a full template override: a custom single-course header (title, description, teacher, a course-info sidebar with lesson/quiz/student counts and certificate status) injected via WordPress actions. Sensei’s own templates are otherwise left alone, and the theme’s default sidebars are suppressed on course pages so the layout doesn’t fight Sensei’s.

Tutor LMS

The lightest of the four: a dedicated stylesheet, plus a body class that switches on Reign’s colour treatment when Tutor’s own color preset is left at default. No template overrides. If you use Tutor’s built-in colour presets instead of the default, that CSS layer steps back and lets Tutor’s own colours show.

Checking what is active

Reign Settings > Integrations shows which of these four Reign has detected on your site right now, and confirms readiness for the others before you install them.

An alternative: Learnomy

If you have not committed to an LMS yet, Wbcom also builds Learnomy, a free LMS built to work with Reign natively rather than through a compatibility layer. It’s worth a look before installing a third-party LMS if you’re starting from scratch.

If you have a Reign add-on installed

reign-learndash-addon, reign-lifterlms-addon, reign-sensei-addon and reign-tutor-lms-addon are all legacy as of Reign 8. See Reign add-ons for what that means for an existing site.