What actually sends people looking
Nobody searches for a LearnDash alternative because the software stopped working. The reasons that come up are narrower and more practical than that.
The most common one is the order of operations. There is no free version, so the way you find out whether LearnDash fits your course is to buy a licence and then find out. That is a reasonable ask for a mature product, and it is also the moment a lot of people pause and go looking to see what else exists. If you are at that moment, the useful thing to know is that a free LMS which can already take payments is now a real option, which was not true a few years ago.
The second is the shape of the total. The base licence is rarely the whole bill once you add the pieces a real academy needs. This is not a LearnDash-specific criticism, it is how most of the category is priced, and it is worth adding up before you commit rather than after.
The third is renewal. An annual licence on the thing your business runs on is a recurring decision, and some people would rather that decision not exist.
What we would actually tell you to do
Install the free plugin and build one real course in it. Not a test course with placeholder lessons, but something you would genuinely put in front of a student, with a price on it and a certificate at the end. That takes an afternoon and it answers the question properly, which is the whole advantage of a free tier that is not crippled.
If it works, you have a working academy and nothing to buy. If it does not, you have lost an afternoon and learned something specific about what you need, which makes the LearnDash decision easier rather than harder.
What we would not tell you to do is migrate an existing, working, paid-for LearnDash site on the strength of a comparison page. Course structures differ between plugins, and moving one is a project. If LearnDash is installed and your students are learning, the honest advice is to leave it alone until you have a reason that is worth the work.
Where this leaves the decision
LearnDash earns its reputation on maturity, ecosystem and the number of people who already know it. Those are not small things and no comparison table captures them well.
What has changed is the assumption underneath the category, which used to be that a free LMS is a demo and the real ones cost money before you start. Certificates, memberships and checkout shipping in a free plugin makes the first step cheaper, and that mostly matters to people who have not committed yet. If you have, this page is probably not for you, and that is a fine outcome.