Hello, my name is Wellington Duarte and I am a LearnDash developer.
In my last article, I reviewed the LearnDash Notifications add-on, and today I am going to do a thorough analysis of the LearnDash Elementor Addon.
Over the next few days, I will cover every add-on for LearnDash, both free and paid.
What Is the LearnDash Elementor Addon?
Since Elementor is currently the most used builder for WordPress, it made sense for LearnDash to offer an integration focused on designing better course, topic, lesson, and quiz pages.
The add-on is offered right inside the LearnDash menu and can be installed for free.
In simple terms, through the Elementor Builder you can edit the course pages mentioned above to your liking, with some limitations. You can also use LearnDash blocks inside Elementor on any page built with the builder.
This is useful for certain purposes, such as adding LearnDash blocks like Course List, Topic List, and Lesson List inside a page created with Elementor, for example an “all our courses” page displayed as a list or a grid.
You can check the offical documentation here.
You can also customize the base course pages as templates inside Elementor’s Theme Builder. In other words, you can open the Theme Builder, go to LearnDash Single Lesson, and make some adjustments. Once saved and applied to the Single Lesson condition, every lesson in your course will have those edits applied.
Basically, what the add-on does is turn some LearnDash shortcodes into Elementor elements and give you a few basic editing options. For example, when you add the Lesson List element, you can display a list of existing lessons as a list or as a grid.
Where This Add-on Excels 🏆
Only a few things about this add-on are actually relevant. The first one worth pointing out is that it is a free add-on for LearnDash subscribers. The second is that you get a little more autonomy when pulling shortcodes, which in this case are turned into Elementor blocks, and structuring them better inside pages.
As soon as I installed the add-on, I noticed that a few pages were created inside the Elementor Builder. This way, you can edit the layout of all topics, lessons, courses, and so on directly inside Elementor.
So it is an add-on that makes things easier by turning a few important shortcodes into drag and drop elements, along with some customization options, such as changing the style of elements, like button colors and fonts, for example.
Main LearnDash Shortcodes to Use in Elementor With the Add-on
- Main lesson/topic content:
[ld_course_content] - User progress bar:
[learndash_course_progress] - Navigation buttons (Back / Next Lesson / Complete):
[learndash_course_progress]or the theme’s native navigation buttons - Student status (Enrolled / Not enrolled):
[student] ... [/student] - Student profile / dashboard:
[ld_profile] - User’s course list:
[ld_course_list]
So the add-on does not add anything new, it just makes course development easier with drag and drop objects. And unlike a shortcode, which has no preview, with the add-on’s elements you can see how they look while editing the page.
Where This Add-on Falls Short 😞
Honestly, this add-on is not interesting at all, and it makes me question whether it should even exist.
As we discussed, it only creates a handful of LearnDash shortcode blocks inside Elementor and gives you little to almost no customization options. It is basically the same as copying a shortcode and pasting it inside a page.
I believe anyone considering this plugin expects to be able to create a really nice looking layout for their course inside Elementor, and that is not quite the case. It will not give you anything new for that, and it is very limited in blocks.
Another problem I found is that when editing the topics and lessons page in Elementor’s Theme Builder, no changes were applied, even after correctly configuring the display options. I wonder if it is just me, or if the plugin has not kept up with several of Elementor’s latest updates.
Another issue I found was a conflict between Gutenberg blocks and the add-on. For example, I added an F.A.Q. block in Gutenberg on a course page, and when I activate the add-on, that block breaks.
I found real user comments on LearnDash videos on YouTube, on a blog post from Elementor about the add-on, and on a video from a creator reviewing the add-on, and I wanted to bring up the main problems that were found.
- Other links:
- youtube.com/watch?v=HGRoCeuReCo
- youtube.com/watch?v=Uozg9HTf1Iw
- elementor.com/blog/learndash-integration
It is worth noting that some of these comments were made over a span of 6 years, but since I ran into similar problems myself, I believe these issues are still persistent, and I have not seen either company respond to users with any kind of update.
Missing Download Files and Lack of Template Support
One of the biggest frustrations in tutorial videos is when the instructor teaches how to build a beautiful layout in Elementor but never provides the file for download (.json).
What users say: several commenters (such as @arthurdavidson7360, @was955, and @SugarTravels) beg for it.
The impact: developers get stuck trying to recreate complex interfaces from scratch because the official documentation or the video does not provide the ready made structure.
Difficulty Scaling Global Layouts With Custom Fields (ACF)
When you try to go beyond the basics in LearnDash and create dynamic pages with ACF (Advanced Custom Fields) or native fields, the process turns into a technical nightmare.
What users say: user @loiceokaday656 asks whether the custom fields created will carry over from course to course or whether they depend on each individual post.
Plugin conflicts with ACF: user @herekletechnology5943 reports content restriction errors (um_content_restriction) when trying to pull custom field keys inside Elementor.
Outdated Educational Material
Since the Elementor Pro and LearnDash interfaces change constantly, the lack of updated tutorials leads to a huge waste of time.
What users say:
Display Conditions Not Applying (Single Lessons, Topics, and Groups)
Even after configuring Elementor Pro’s Theme Builder to apply the design to every lesson or topic, WordPress simply ignores the display rules (Display Conditions).
What users say:
Another creator (@patwekaraftab) complains that they tried to create dynamic layouts for Groups (Groups or Archive Groups) in Elementor and the integration does not respond.
The Layout Breaks and Forces Full Screen With No Editing Option
LearnDash’s native layout conflicts with Elementor’s sections and containers, breaking out to full screen width without allowing any adjustments.
What users say:
Frustration Styling Specific Pages (e.g., Quizzes)
The add-on focuses heavily on the Course and Lesson pages, but it falls short when it comes to styling secondary elements, such as tests and quizzes.
This is a classic limitation, since LearnDash’s Quiz widget renders the form inside a rigid LearnDash iframe or block that does not easily accept customization through Elementor.
So, as we can see, this is an add-on that does not seem to have been designed with LearnDash users in mind, or that was not tested very much.
Best Use Cases
With new options available on the market, I would only recommend this add-on if you want something simple and, after testing it, it is not breaking your site or conflicting with other plugins and add-ons. Other than that, I do not find it very interesting. It is better to add and configure the shortcodes manually, since you will have more options and fewer chances of internal conflicts.
Alternatives Worth Considering
LearnDash Design Plugin
If the goal is to customize LearnDash pages, this plugin does it by refining WordPress’s native global CSS. It does not conflict with Focus Mode, and you can make global edits, for example one setting that applies to every lesson. It offers several customization options.
LearnDash Visual Customizer
There is also the LearnDash Visual Customizer by SnapOrbital, which works as a good replacement for the Elementor add-on. It is actually integrated with Elementor as well, and it is useful for building pages from scratch. It offers the ability to add custom fields to lessons and topics, an estimated time for each lesson, a content type indicator with an icon, and a short text summary under each lesson title. The plugin also comes with ready made layout styles that can give your site a really interesting look, among other features.
Final Verdict
- If your goal is to design each section from scratch using Elementor Pro blocks for simple things, use the Elementor Add-on / Shortcodes. However, check whether your site will conflict with the add-on.
- If your goal is to adjust the CSS so that LearnDash looks clean, fast, and matches your site’s theme colors, use Design Upgrade for LearnDash.
- If your intention is to enrich the LMS with extra information (lesson duration, content type, timeline layout in the lesson list, widget areas in Focus Mode) without technical complications, the SnapOrbital Visual Customizer works very well.
Overall Rating
★☆☆☆☆ 1/5
Have a question?
If you have any questions about the Elementor Add-on for LearnDash, or if you have had a different experience than mine, feel free to leave a comment below. I would be happy to hear your thoughts.
If you need a LearnDash developer to configure this addon on your LearnDash website and more, just say the word!
