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LMS · head to head

LearnDash vs Sakai

LearnDash logo

LearnDash

LMS

WordPress plugin that turns a site you already own into a course platform with no revenue share

From
$199/year
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
Sakai logo

Sakai

LMS

Open source learning management system governed by the Apereo Foundation

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only Sakai 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.; Sakai the zero licence fee is misleading: running Sakai needs Java operations, database administration and upgrade testing capacity, and universities that costed only the hardware have ended up paying a hosting partner anyway.
  • They diverge on capability: LearnDash covers Course builder, Sakai covers Course sites.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 31 August 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which LearnDash and Sakai actually diverge.

Attributes where LearnDash and Sakai differ
AttributeLearnDashSakai
Starting price$199/yearFree
Pricing modelPer site per yearOpen source, no licence fee
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, WordPressWeb, Linux, iOS, Android

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 Sakai

  • Course sites
  • Tests and Quizzes
  • Gradebook
  • Lessons
  • Assignments
  • Forums and messaging
  • LTI support
  • Self-hosting

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 Sakai
  • Organisations that already run WordPress and want courses on their own domain and brandnot Sakai
  • Training businesses that need learner data in a database they control rather than in a vendor accountnot Sakai
  • Agencies building course sites for multiple clients under one unlimited site licencenot Sakai

Sakai

  • A university whose data protection policy or national regulation requires student coursework to stay on institution-controlled infrastructure inside a specific jurisdiction.not LearnDash
  • An institution that has been repriced twice by a commercial LMS vendor after ownership changes and wants a platform with no owner to sell it.not LearnDash
  • A university with an existing Java and Tomcat operations team, where the marginal cost of running one more Java application is genuinely low.not LearnDash
  • A consortium of institutions sharing one deployment and one set of local integrations rather than each paying separate per-student licences.not 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.

Sakai

  • The zero licence fee is misleading: running Sakai needs Java operations, database administration and upgrade testing capacity, and universities that costed only the hardware have ended up paying a hosting partner anyway.
  • The third-party teaching tool ecosystem builds and tests for Canvas first, so Sakai adopters do their own LTI integration work and occasionally wait for a vendor to certify against a platform it does not prioritise.
  • Because governance is a foundation of member institutions rather than a company, a feature only gets built if some institution funds an engineer to build it, so roadmap commitments are weaker than a vendor contract provides.
  • The interface, while improved through the version 20 to 25 cycle, still reads as older than Canvas or Brightspace, and academic staff who have used a commercial LMS elsewhere notice it immediately.
  • Adoption is concentrated in specific regions and sectors, so the pool of people who have run Sakai in production is small, making it harder to hire an administrator than for Moodle or Canvas.

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

Sakai

Free
  • SakaiFree
    • Educational Community Licence, no licence fee
    • Full source on GitHub
    • Community support through Apereo lists and Jira
  • Commercial hosting and support$undefined/year
    • Provided by Apereo affiliates such as Longsight
    • Hosting, upgrades, backups and support
    • Quoted per institution, commonly by student headcount

Which should you pick?

Choose LearnDash if

  • You need course builder.
  • You work on Web, WordPress.
  • You also want quiz engine.
LearnDash review

Choose Sakai if

  • You need course sites.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Linux, iOS, Android.
  • You also want tests and quizzes.
Sakai review

Questions people ask

Is LearnDash or Sakai better?
Neither clearly leads. LearnDash starts at $199/year and Sakai at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, LearnDash or Sakai?
Sakai has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $199/year for LearnDash and Free for Sakai.
Does LearnDash or Sakai run on more platforms?
LearnDash runs on Web, WordPress. Sakai runs on Web, Linux, iOS, Android.
Can I use Sakai for free?
Yes. Sakai 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 Sakai is typically brought in for.
What can LearnDash do that Sakai cannot?
LearnDash covers Course builder, Quiz engine, Certificates, Groups and group leaders. Sakai covers Course sites, Tests and Quizzes, Gradebook, Lessons.

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.

Sakai: Is Sakai still actively developed?

Yes. Version 25.0 shipped in 2025, 25.1 followed in November 2025, and further maintenance releases in the 25 line are planned, with commits continuing through 2026.

LearnDash: 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.

Sakai: Who owns Sakai?

No company does. Governance sits with the Apereo Foundation, a membership organisation of institutions, and the code is under the Educational Community Licence.

LearnDash: 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.

Sakai: What does it actually cost to run?

The software is free. The cost is Java hosting and staff, or a commercial hosting agreement with an Apereo affiliate such as Longsight, typically quoted by student headcount.

Sakai: How does it compare to Moodle?

Moodle has a far larger plugin ecosystem and installed base; Sakai has a cleaner assessment and gradebook model and is more common in research-intensive universities. Moodle is easier to hire for.

Sakai: Can we migrate off it later?

Yes, but course content export fidelity through Common Cartridge is imperfect, so budget for manual rebuilding of assessments as you would leaving any LMS.

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