Tutor LMS Pro
Themeum
$499
one-time, 1 site
Plugin arenaCourses & Membership
Two WordPress LMS plugins for selling online courses with a lifetime license
Every row shows both deals next to each other. Where a figure can be measured, green marks the better value and red the weaker one.
What matters to you?
Mark the points you care about. They stand out in the comparison below; we do not derive a recommendation from them.
$499 (Weaker value)
one-time
$149 (Better value)
one-time
No discount listed
$399 (Better value)
Currently 62% off
1 site
1 site
One-time payment for 1 site with lifetime updates; the pricing page does not state how long support lasts. Lifetime tiers for 10 and 50 sites are also available.
One-time payment for 1 site with lifetime support and updates; lifetime tiers for 10, 25, 100, 200 and unlimited sites are also available.
$199 per year
$99 per year
| Period | Annual plan, total | Lifetime | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $199 | $499 | Lifetime costs $300 more |
| Year 2 | $398 | $499 | Lifetime costs $101 more |
| Year 3 | $597 | $499 | You save $98 |
| Year 4 | $796 | $499 | You save $297 |
| Year 5 | $995 | $499 | You save $496 |
| Period | Annual plan, total | Lifetime | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Year 1 | $99 | $149 | Lifetime costs $50 more |
| Year 2 | $198 | $149 | You save $49 |
| Year 3 | $297 | $149 | You save $148 |
| Year 4 | $396 | $149 | You save $247 |
| Year 5 | $495 | $149 | You save $346 |
31 months (Weaker value)
against $199 per year
19 months (Better value)
against $99 per year
No end date announced
No end date announced
Official website
Official website
No specific ecosystem
No specific ecosystem
Links marked “Ad” are affiliate links. Your price stays the same. Affiliate disclosure
Tutor LMS vs Academy LMS compares two WordPress LMS plugins that you can buy with a lifetime license next to a yearly plan. Tutor LMS Pro by Themeum and Academy LMS Pro by Kodezen both build courses with quizzes and assignments, both sell those courses from your own site, and both start with a free plugin on wordpress.org. Each entry lifetime license covers 1 site and includes updates for life.
The differences lie in how each plugin is put together and in the license terms. Tutor LMS Pro unlocks every Pro add-on and the Pro themes and sells through its own checkout with course bundles, coupons and subscriptions. Academy LMS Pro lists more than 100 features and 46 add-ons, sells through its StoreEngine checkout or WooCommerce, designs course pages in the block editor with aBlocks and includes support for life in every lifetime tier. The rows below put Tutor LMS vs Academy LMS side by side, so you can weigh them yourself.
In Tutor LMS Pro vs Academy LMS Pro, the course basics look alike. Both turn WordPress into a learning platform with courses, lessons, quizzes and assignments, both draft course content with AI, and both keep courses, students and orders in your own WordPress database. The difference lies in how each plugin packages its features and how it sells them.
Tutor LMS Pro packages everything as Pro add-ons on top of the free core: advanced quiz types, content drip and prerequisites, course bundles, coupons, subscriptions and memberships. Payments run through its built-in checkout. Academy LMS Pro lists more than 100 features and 46 add-ons, including certificates, 34 integrations for email marketing, payments and community tools, and course pages built in the block editor with aBlocks. Payments run through StoreEngine or WooCommerce.
Tutor LMS Pro suits course creators who want checkout, bundles, coupons and subscriptions in one plugin, and schools with several instructors who each get their own dashboard. It is the older of the two: Tutor LMS has been around since 2019 and counts far more active installs on wordpress.org. Keep in mind that AI Studio needs your own paid OpenAI API key and that the pricing page does not say how long support lasts.
Academy LMS Pro suits course creators who build their pages in the block editor, who already run WooCommerce or want the StoreEngine checkout, and agencies that run many course sites, since its lifetime tiers reach up to unlimited sites. Academy LMS is the younger plugin: it has been around since 2021 and counts fewer active installs on wordpress.org. With 46 add-ons, plan some time to switch on and set up only the ones a site really needs.
Both plugins start free on wordpress.org. With the free Tutor LMS you get the drag and drop course builder, lessons, basic quizzes and dashboards for learners and instructors. With the free Academy LMS you build and publish courses and see whether the course editor and the student area fit your project before you pay.
In both cases the paid plugin is installed next to the free one and activated with a license key, so the courses you built for free stay in place. That makes the free versions a fair way to test the learner view, the course editor and your payment setup before you decide on a lifetime license.
The lifetime tiers scale differently. Tutor LMS Pro offers lifetime licenses for 1, 10 and 50 sites with updates for life and a refund window of 30 days; there is no step between 1 and 10 sites. Academy LMS Pro offers lifetime licenses for 1, 10, 25, 100, 200 and unlimited sites with updates and support for life and a refund window of 14 days. Its pricing page shows crossed out list prices without a stated end date.
Course sites tend to run for years, because learners keep access to what they bought. The comparison table above lists the entry prices with their check date, and the payback row shows after how many months each lifetime license has caught up with its yearly plan.
Each answer names the facts for both sides. Which of them matters for your project is up to you.
Both entry licenses cover 1 site. Tutor LMS Pro sells larger lifetime tiers for 10 and 50 sites. Academy LMS Pro sells lifetime tiers for 10, 25, 100, 200 and unlimited sites.
Tutor LMS Pro lists a built-in checkout with gateways such as Stripe and PayPal, plus course bundles, coupons and subscriptions. Academy LMS Pro lists native selling through its StoreEngine checkout or through WooCommerce.
Both include updates for life. Academy LMS Pro also includes support for life in every lifetime tier. For Tutor LMS Pro, the pricing page does not state how long support lasts, so we make no statement about it.
Tutor LMS Pro includes AI Studio, which needs your own paid OpenAI API key. Academy LMS Pro lists AI powered course creation; the data on record does not say whether an external key is needed.
Academy LMS Pro designs course pages in the block editor with aBlocks. Tutor LMS Pro includes its Pro themes; the data on record does not name a block library for it.
Short answers from the vendor data. Prices and dates match the comparison above.
Tutor LMS Pro costs $499 one-time for 1 site, Academy LMS Pro costs $149 one-time for 1 site. Both are one-time payments from the vendors’ own pricing pages, checked on Oct 4, 2026.
Yes. The vendors also sell yearly plans: $199 per year for Tutor LMS Pro and $99 per year for Academy LMS Pro. Measured against them, the lifetime price of Tutor LMS Pro pays off after 31 months, that of Academy LMS Pro after 19 months.
Yes, both cover the same job: building, running and selling online courses inside WordPress. They overlap in course building, quizzes, assignments, AI drafts and selling from your own site. The two differ in how they take payments and in their license tiers, as the rows above show.
The data on record does not describe a migration path between the two plugins, so we make no statement about it. Check the vendor documentation before you move existing courses, and test the move on a staging copy so enrolled learners keep their progress.
Academy LMS Pro lists quizzes, assignments and certificates. Tutor LMS Pro lists advanced quiz types and assignments; the data on record does not name certificates for it, so we make no statement either way.
Tutor LMS has been around since 2019, Academy LMS since 2021. On wordpress.org the free Tutor LMS counts far more active installs than the free Academy LMS. Both free plugins were updated recently, as the product facts on the deal pages show.
This page names no overall winner between Tutor LMS Pro and Academy LMS Pro. In the comparison, green and red mark the better and the weaker value for each measurable point, such as price, sites and payback. The questions to weigh show which facts matter for which kind of project, so you can decide what fits yours.
Prices and licenses from the vendor’s page, with check date.
We don’t test the plugins ourselves and we don’t rank them.
Whether a deal stands left or right says nothing about it.
Affiliate links are marked and never change a single row.
Related duels, buying guides and the matching category.