LifterLMS

LifterLMS website development planned around how you sell

On LifterLMS the pricing model is the architecture. We design memberships and access plans first, then build the courses, checkout, dashboard and theme around them and test every way a student can pay.

  • Access plans designed first
  • Every payment path tested
  • Free consultation and quote
Get a free quote See our work
What is included
  • Membership and access plan design
  • Gateway setup
  • Course structure
  • Dashboard design
  • Theme and page design
  • Emails and launch
Get a free quote Reply within one business day. NDA on request.
The problem

What goes wrong in a first LifterLMS build

If you are starting a course business on LifterLMS, the first hour in the setup wizard feels productive. A course exists, a price is attached, a test student can enroll. The harder questions arrive with the second product. Should the new course be sold on its own, included in a membership, or both? What happens to a student who bought it before the membership existed? Which price does a logged-in member see?

A LifterLMS build goes well when those questions are answered on paper before anything is configured. This page walks through how we do that, and then how we build the rest: gateways, course structure, the student dashboard, the theme and launch. It is written for a first build. If you have a live site that needs changing, see LifterLMS customization.

  • Pricing decided course by course

    Each course got its own price as it was created. When a bundle or membership is added later, existing students do not fit the new model and support has to fix accounts by hand.

  • Gateway chosen before the plan types

    The payment gateway was set up first. Then it turned out the business needs payment plans, trials or a currency that this gateway handles poorly.

  • A dashboard nobody designed

    The default student dashboard works but lists everything with equal weight. Students cannot tell which course to continue, and support keeps being asked where the certificate is.

  • Launch without a renewal test

    The first purchase was tested and worked. Nobody simulated the second month, so the first real renewals are also the first time recurring billing has ever run.

What we do

Parts of the build we take care of

A new LifterLMS site is several small systems that have to agree with each other. We design and build each one, then test them together.

Membership and access plan design

A map of every product, price and term: which courses are sold alone, which sit in a membership, who sees members-only pricing and when access ends.

Gateway setup

Stripe, PayPal or another gateway add-on configured with its webhooks, then tested in sandbox and live mode for single, recurring and trial payments in your currency.

Course structure

Sections, lessons and quizzes laid out in the course builder with prerequisites, drip timing, free preview lessons and course tracks for multi-course programs.

Dashboard design

An account area that leads with the course in progress, then grades, certificates, memberships and orders, with labels and tabs that suit your students.

Theme and page design

A light theme, styled catalog, course and lesson pages, and a sales page per course built with the block editor or the page builder your team prefers.

Emails and launch

Engagement emails, purchase receipts and reminders written and tested, mail delivery set up, then a rehearsed launch with test orders in live mode.

Typical projects

LifterLMS sites we build from scratch

01

A single flagship program

One course with a payment plan and a pay-in-full option, a sales page, weekly drip and a certificate at the end. Small scope, done properly.

02

A subscription library

A monthly or yearly membership that opens every course, with new content added to the membership automatically and a free tier to bring people in.

03

A school with tracks

Several courses grouped into tracks that lead to a credential, with prerequisites between them and an achievement awarded when a track is finished.

04

A members area for an association

Membership levels that restrict resource and event pages as well as courses, with renewals, member pricing on paid courses and continuing education certificates.

In depth

Building on LifterLMS in the right order

Design memberships and access plans on paper

We start with a table. Each row is something a person can get access to: a course or a membership. Each column is a way to get it: free, one payment, a payment plan, a subscription, or as part of a membership. Then we mark which combinations you want to offer. That table becomes your access plans. It also exposes the awkward cases early. A course that is both sold alone and included in a membership needs a rule for what happens when the membership lapses. A members-only price needs the membership to exist first. Sorting this out in a spreadsheet costs an hour. Sorting it out after a few hundred orders costs a migration.

Pick the gateway for the plans you chose

LifterLMS takes payments through gateway add-ons, and they are not equal for every plan type or country. We check that your gateway supports recurring billing and the currencies you sell in. LifterLMS triggers recurring charges from the site on a schedule, so we also confirm that scheduled tasks run reliably on your hosting. Then we set up the gateway's webhooks, which is how the site hears about confirmations, refunds and disputes. A gateway that works at checkout but cannot report back is behind many of the access complaints we see on inherited sites.

Build courses the way they will be taught

In the course builder we set up sections and lessons, attach quizzes to the lessons they assess and decide on prerequisites and drip. Two choices deserve thought. Drip can run from each student's enrollment or from a fixed calendar date, and cohort programs want the second. Free preview lessons should be picked on purpose, since they do more selling than the sales page. We load the first course with your team so they can build the next one alone.

Shape the dashboard and theme around the student

The student dashboard is a set of tabs: courses, grades, memberships, achievements, certificates, notifications, account details and orders. We reorder them, hide the ones you do not use and put a continue button for the current course at the top. For the theme we prefer something light with good block editor support over a heavy multipurpose theme, and we style the LifterLMS catalog, course and lesson templates to match. If the design needs more than styling, our theme developers build it as a child theme.

Rehearse the launch

Before go-live we buy every access plan with a test card, then force the awkward events: a renewal, a declined card, a cancellation, a refund, a coupon, a membership expiring. After each one we check the order, the enrollment and the email. Only when all three agree for every plan do we switch the gateway to live mode and repeat one real purchase.

Process

Stages of the project

  1. 1

    Offer and audience call

    We learn what you teach, who buys it and how you want to charge, and sketch the product table together during the call.

  2. 2

    Access plan map and design

    You approve the written plan map and the page designs for catalog, course, checkout and dashboard before we configure anything.

  3. 3

    Configuration and build

    LifterLMS settings, the gateway, theme, engagements and the first courses go onto a staging site that you can log in to.

  4. 4

    Payment rehearsal

    Each plan is purchased, renewed, declined, canceled and refunded in test mode while we check orders, enrollments and emails.

  5. 5

    Launch and training

    A live-mode check, the DNS switch and a recorded training session so your team can add courses, plans and coupons on their own.

Deliverables

On launch day you have

  • A plan map covering every product and price
  • A gateway tested through renewal and refund
  • Courses, quizzes and certificates ready for students
  • A student dashboard designed for your program
  • Training, an admin guide and full ownership of the site

Related work from our portfolio

Full portfolio
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Kemet University website eLearning & LMS Kemet University
FAQ

Common questions when planning a LifterLMS site

Should our courses be sold individually, through a membership, or both?
It depends on how often you publish and how your buyers think. A few substantial programs usually sell better one by one, and a growing library suits a membership. Offering both is fine as long as there is a written rule for students who hold both. Our page on membership and subscription sites goes further into that choice.
Can LifterLMS take payment plans and subscriptions?
Yes. An access plan can charge once, charge a fixed number of installments or recur until canceled, with an optional trial. The gateway you choose has to support recurring billing, which is one reason we settle the plan types before the gateway.
Do we need WooCommerce as well?
Usually not. LifterLMS has its own checkout, orders, coupons and gateways, and one system is simpler to run than two. We add WooCommerce only when you also sell physical goods or need store features that the LifterLMS checkout does not have.
Can we offer a free course or a free trial to bring people in?
Yes. A free access plan enrolls people with a short registration form, and a paid plan can start with a trial period at a lower price. We set up engagement emails that follow up with free students and make the upgrade path to a paid plan or membership obvious.
Can you import students or courses we already have elsewhere?
Yes. Students, enrollments and progress can be imported from a spreadsheet or another platform during the build, and each person is mapped to the right access plan. Subscriptions that are still billing in another payment system need a plan of their own, which we discuss up front.
What decides the size of a LifterLMS build?
Mostly the number of products and plans, how much custom design you want and whether students or subscriptions are being imported. A single-program site is a small project, often a few weeks. A membership library with several levels takes longer, and the quote sets out milestones you can check on staging.
Can our team manage the site without a developer afterwards?
Yes, that is the aim. Adding courses, lessons, access plans, coupons and engagements is all done from the WordPress admin, and we train your team on it. For bigger changes later you can come back to us or hire a LifterLMS developer by the month.
Related

LifterLMS Customization

LifterLMS Add-on Development

WordPress Membership Sites

LearnDash Development

LifterLMS Developer
Start a project

Starting a LifterLMS site?

Tell us what you teach and how you would like to charge for it. You will hear back within one business day, and both the first call and the quote are free.

  • Free consultation and quote
  • NDA on request
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  • Reply within one business day
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