LMS · head to head
LearnDash vs Pear Deck
LearnDash
LMS
WordPress plugin that turns a site you already own into a course platform with no revenue share
- From
- $199/year
- Rated
- -
The short version
- Only Pear Deck has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
- Each has a real cost: LearnDash the flat licence excludes everything around it. Hosting, backups, security patching, video hosting and email deliverability are now your cost and your responsibility, and they are not small once traffic grows.; Pear Deck the Teacher Dashboard, draggable and drawing responses and Reflect and Review require Teacher Premium at $149 per year
- They diverge on capability: LearnDash covers Course builder, Pear Deck covers Interactive slides.
- Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.
Where they differ
Only the attributes on which LearnDash and Pear Deck actually diverge.
Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated), category (LMS).
What each one covers
Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.
Only in LearnDash
- Course builder
- Quiz engine
- Certificates
- Groups and group leaders
- Commerce integration
- Ownership of data
Only in Pear Deck
- Interactive slides
- Real-time responses
- Formative assessment
- Student-paced mode
- Dashboard
- Audio responses
- Drawing
- Vocabulary
What people use each for
The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.
LearnDash
- A creator whose course revenue has grown to the point where a percentage based platform costs more than a developer wouldnot Pear Deck
- Organisations that already run WordPress and want courses on their own domain and brandnot Pear Deck
- Training businesses that need learner data in a database they control rather than in a vendor accountnot Pear Deck
- Agencies building course sites for multiple clients under one unlimited site licencenot Pear Deck
Pear Deck
- Interactive classroom presentations for teachersnot LearnDash
- Student practice and assessment toolsnot LearnDash
- Standards-aligned content delivery for schoolsnot LearnDash
Where each one falls short
Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.
LearnDash
- The flat licence excludes everything around it. Hosting, backups, security patching, video hosting and email deliverability are now your cost and your responsibility, and they are not small once traffic grows.
- WordPress plugin conflicts are a live risk. A core or theme update can break checkout or course progression at a moment you did not choose, and there is no vendor operations team standing behind uptime.
- Performance under load needs deliberate hosting work. Shared hosting handles a small course and fails visibly during a launch, and fixing that is a hosting migration rather than a setting.
- Selling requires assembling several plugins for payments, memberships and email, so the true stack is four or five vendors with independent update cycles rather than one product.
- Support covers the plugin, not your site. When the fault sits in the interaction between your theme, your host and another plugin, resolving it is your problem and often a contractor invoice.
Pear Deck
- The Teacher Dashboard, draggable and drawing responses and Reflect and Review require Teacher Premium at $149 per year
- Pear Assessment Premium is a separate $125 per year purchase from Pear Deck Premium
- Standards aligned content, district library and efficacy reports are only in the Schools and Districts plan
- SIS and LMS integration is only in the Schools and Districts plan
- School and district pricing is by quote with no published rate
Pricing, plan by plan
LearnDash
$199/year- LearnDash LMS, 1 site$199/year
- Single site licence
- All course, quiz and certificate features
- No share taken of course revenue
- LearnDash LMS Plus, 10 sites$399/year
- Up to ten sites
- Same feature set
- Suits agencies and multi brand operators
- LearnDash LMS Pro, unlimited sites$799/year
- Unlimited sites
- Same feature set
- Priced for agencies building for clients
Pear Deck
Free- Pear Start FreeFree
- 40+ AI tools for teachers
- unlimited usage
- Pear Deck FreeFree
- basic interactive presentations
- anonymous responses
- student-paced mode
- Pear Deck Premium$149/year
- Teacher Dashboard with named responses
- drawing/draggable features
- Reflect & Review
- Pear Assessment FreeFree
- basic assessment creation
- autograding
Which should you pick?
Choose LearnDash if
- You need course builder.
- You work on Web, WordPress.
- You also want quiz engine.
Choose Pear Deck if
- You need interactive slides.
- You want to start without paying.
- You work on Web, Chrome Extension.
- You also want real-time responses.
Questions people ask
- Is LearnDash or Pear Deck better?
- Neither clearly leads. LearnDash starts at $199/year and Pear Deck at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
- Which is cheaper, LearnDash or Pear Deck?
- Pear Deck has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $199/year for LearnDash and Free for Pear Deck.
- Does LearnDash or Pear Deck run on more platforms?
- LearnDash runs on Web, WordPress. Pear Deck runs on Web, Chrome Extension.
- Can I use Pear Deck for free?
- Yes. Pear Deck has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. LearnDash starts at $199/year.
- What is LearnDash best used for?
- LearnDash is most often used for a creator whose course revenue has grown to the point where a percentage based platform costs more than a developer would, organisations that already run wordpress and want courses on their own domain and brand, training businesses that need learner data in a database they control rather than in a vendor account, agencies building course sites for multiple clients under one unlimited site licence. Of those, a creator whose course revenue has grown to the point where a percentage based platform costs more than a developer would and organisations that already run wordpress and want courses on their own domain and brand are not what Pear Deck is typically brought in for.
- What can LearnDash do that Pear Deck cannot?
- LearnDash covers Course builder, Quiz engine, Certificates, Groups and group leaders. Pear Deck covers Interactive slides, Real-time responses, Formative assessment, Student-paced mode.
Answered from the vendors’ own pages
LearnDash: Does LearnDash take a percentage of my course sales?
No. It is a flat annual licence per site and you keep all revenue. That is the main financial argument against percentage based hosted platforms once sales volume is meaningful.
Pear Deck: What is the price for individual teacher subscriptions?
Pear Deck Premium: $149/year; Pear Assessment Premium: $125/year. Pear Practice and Start have custom pricing for paid tiers.
SourceLearnDash: What is the real total cost?
The licence plus hosting capable of handling your traffic, plus video hosting, plus an email service, plus whatever developer time keeps the stack working. Budget for the stack, not the plugin.
Pear Deck: Are there free versions available?
Yes, all Pear Deck products offer free teacher plans: Pear Start, Pear Deck, Pear Practice, and Pear Assessment are free for educators.
SourceLearnDash: Should I use LearnDash Cloud instead?
If you want the plugin without administering WordPress, yes. You give up some of the cost advantage and some control in exchange for not being responsible for the server.
Pear Deck: What features require payment in Pear Assessment?
Free version includes basic assessment creation and autograding. Premium ($125/year) adds advanced security, accessibility tools, state test interface mimicry, and rubric scoring.
SourcePear Deck: Do schools get discounted pricing?
Yes, schools and districts receive custom pricing with additional features like standards-aligned content, shared libraries, and LMS integration.
SourceRelated pages
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