
Tutor LMS Pro
Themeum
$499
one-time, 1 site
Plugin arenaCourses & Membership
Two WordPress LMS plugins for 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
one-time
$499
one-time
No discount listed
No discount listed
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 updates and support; an Elite lifetime license for 10 sites is also available.
$199 per year
No yearly plan on record
| 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 |
No yearly plan on record
31 months
against $199 per year
No yearly plan on record
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 Masteriyo compares two WordPress LMS plugins that you can buy with a lifetime license. Tutor LMS Pro and Masteriyo Elite both build courses with drag and drop, add quizzes, assignments, content drip and prerequisites, and both start with a free version on wordpress.org. Each entry lifetime license covers 1 site and includes updates for life.
The differences lie in what each plan adds on top. Tutor LMS Pro from Themeum unlocks every Pro add-on and the Pro themes and sells courses through its own checkout with bundles, coupons and subscriptions. Masteriyo Elite unlocks every add-on in its top plan, including live lessons through Google Meet and Zoom, a certificate builder and white label, with no limit on courses or students. A comparable yearly plan is on record only for Tutor LMS. The rows below put Tutor LMS vs Masteriyo side by side, so you can weigh them yourself.
In Tutor LMS Pro vs Masteriyo Elite, the course basics look alike. Both build courses with drag and drop, add quizzes beyond the basics, assignments, content drip and prerequisites, and both draft course content with AI. The difference is where each plugin puts its weight once the course is built.
Tutor LMS Pro puts it on selling. The built-in checkout takes payments through Stripe, PayPal and other gateways, and course bundles, coupons, subscriptions and memberships are part of the Pro add-ons. Masteriyo Elite puts it on teaching and branding: live lessons through Google Meet and Zoom, a certificate builder, a gradebook with learner tracking and white label that removes the Masteriyo branding. Its plan places no limit on courses or students.
Tutor LMS Pro suits course creators who sell online and want checkout, bundles 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.
Masteriyo Elite suits trainers who run live lessons over Zoom or Google Meet, agencies that build course sites under a client brand and teams that want AI drafts of course outlines and quizzes. Masteriyo has been around since 2021. Lifetime is offered only for the top Elite plan, so the license already contains every add-on, whether a site needs all of them or not.
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 Masteriyo you get its drag and drop course builder and can build a full course. In both cases the Pro or Elite plugin is installed next to the free one and activated with a license key, so courses you built for free stay in place.
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. Masteriyo Elite offers lifetime licenses for 1 and 10 sites with updates and support for life and a refund window of 14 days. The comparison table above lists the entry prices with their check date.
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. Masteriyo Elite sells one larger lifetime tier for 10 sites.
Tutor LMS Pro lists a built-in checkout with gateways such as Stripe and PayPal, plus course bundles, coupons and subscriptions. For Masteriyo Elite, the data on record does not list payment gateways, so we make no statement about them.
Masteriyo Elite lists live lessons through Google Meet and Zoom. For Tutor LMS Pro, the data on record does not name live lessons, so we make no statement about them.
Masteriyo Elite includes white label, which removes the Masteriyo branding. Tutor LMS Pro includes its Pro themes; the data on record does not mention white label for it.
Tutor LMS Pro includes AI Studio, which needs your own paid OpenAI API key. Masteriyo Elite lists AI course creation and a quiz generator; the data on record does not say whether an external key is needed.
Short answers from the vendor data. Prices and dates match the comparison above.
Tutor LMS Pro costs $499 one-time for 1 site, Masteriyo Elite costs $499 one-time for 1 site. Both are one-time payments from the vendors’ own pricing pages, checked on Oct 4, 2026.
A comparable yearly plan is on record only for Tutor LMS Pro, at $199 per year. Its lifetime price pays off after 31 months. For Masteriyo Elite, the one-time price is the only cost on record.
Yes, both cover the same job: building, running and selling online courses inside WordPress. They overlap in drag and drop course building, quizzes, assignments, content drip, prerequisites and AI drafts. The data on record does not describe a migration path between the two, so check the vendor documentation before you move existing courses.
Yes, both have a free version on wordpress.org. Tutor LMS has been around since 2019, Masteriyo since 2021. The free plugins let you build a first course with your own lessons before you buy a lifetime license, and the paid plugin is added on top later.
Masteriyo Elite lists unlimited courses and students. For Tutor LMS Pro, the data on record does not state a limit on courses or students, so we make no statement either way. The site count per license is the limit both vendors name.
The refund window is 30 days for Tutor LMS Pro and 14 days for Masteriyo Elite. Set up a test course early in that period, connect your payment gateway or video tool and check the learner view before the window closes.
This page names no overall winner between Tutor LMS Pro and Masteriyo Elite. 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.