Building an online course in WordPress used to mean stitching together three or four separate plugins and hoping they stayed compatible after every update. Learnomy changes that. It ships courses, quizzes, certificates, and built-in Stripe and PayPal checkout as one plugin with a single update stream. Here is how to go from a fresh install to a live, paid course.
Install Learnomy
Download Learnomy Free from wbcomdesigns.com and upload it via Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin. Once activated, a Learnomy admin menu appears in your WordPress sidebar. Learnomy creates 40 custom database tables on activation so all your course data lives in clean, indexed MySQL tables rather than post meta.
Before creating content, visit Learnomy Settings and confirm the front-end page slugs (courses, account, membership) match the URL structure you want. Defaults work for most sites.
Create your first course
Navigate to Learnomy > Courses > Add New. The Course Builder opens with a drag-and-drop interface.
Set up the structure
Every course is organized as: Course > Sections > Lessons. Add a section first (think of it as a module or chapter), then add lessons inside it. You can also add topics inside a lesson for shorter sub-units.
Fill in the course title, a short description for the catalog card, and a longer description for the course landing page. The landing page description supports the full Editor.js toolset including embedded video, callout blocks, and images.
Add lessons
Learnomy supports eight lesson content types:
- Video - paste a URL or upload directly; Plyr handles the player
- Audio - for podcast-style or narrated lessons
- PDF - inline viewer with download toggle
- Rich text - long-form written lessons
- Embedded content - iframes, Vimeo, external tools
- Downloadable file - worksheets, templates, ZIP archives
- Live session - a scheduled date and meeting link
- Protected media - files served only to enrolled students
Pick the content type that fits each lesson. A short introductory lesson works well as rich text; a main teaching lesson works better as video or embedded content.
Add a quiz
With at least one lesson in place, add a quiz from the Course Builder. Learnomy Free includes six question types: true/false, single choice, multiple choice, short answer, fill-in-the-blank, and essay.
Configure passing score, attempt limits, and time limits in the quiz settings. The quiz player comes in five visual templates (Focused, Classic, Sectioned, Conversational, Review Board) so you can match the style to your course tone without touching CSS.
Set the price
Open the Access tab in the course editor. You have four access types:
- Free - anyone can enroll with no payment
- Paid - one-time purchase via Stripe or PayPal
- Membership - enrollment through an active membership plan
- Paid or Membership - either path works
For a paid course, choose Paid and enter the price. No additional plugin is required. Learnomy’s built-in Stripe and PayPal adapters handle the checkout, webhook confirmation, and enrollment automatically. You do not need WooCommerce.
To connect Stripe, go to Learnomy Settings > Payments and paste your Stripe publishable key and secret key. PayPal setup works the same way with your PayPal client ID and secret. Both adapters support test mode so you can verify the full checkout flow before going live.
Create a certificate
Open Learnomy > Certificates > Add Template. The canvas-based Certificate Designer lets you add merge tags (student name, course name, issue date, a unique credential ID), your logo, a signature block, and a QR code.
Once the template is saved, open the Course Builder and set the completion rule. When a student completes the required lessons and passes the quiz, Learnomy issues the certificate automatically. The student can download it as a PDF and the QR code links to a permanent public verification page at /verify/{uuid}.
Publish and share
Set the course status to Published in the Course Builder. Your course now appears on the /courses/ catalog page and has its own landing page at /courses/your-course-slug/.
Learnomy adds JSON-LD Course schema to every course page automatically, so Google can display course rich results in search without any SEO plugin configuration.
Share the direct course URL with your audience or embed the [learnomy_course_card id="X"] shortcode on any page to surface a buy button inline.
What happens next
When a student purchases the course, Learnomy records the transaction, enrolls them, and sends a welcome notification by email and through the in-app notification bell. As they complete lessons, progress is tracked. When they finish, the certificate issues and another notification fires.
You can track enrollments, revenue, and quiz completion rates under Learnomy Commerce > Overview for a real-time snapshot.
That is the complete cycle from install to a paid, certified course. Every step described here works in Learnomy Free.
For the full documentation on each feature, visit learnomy.app/docs/.