AI Plugin Leaderboard · LMS · September 2026
Which WordPress LMS plugins do ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode recommend?
LearnDash is named in all 9 answers and first in 7, and it is not in the wordpress.org directory at all. Tutor LMS, the most-installed LMS plugin in the directory results we pulled, is named in 8 but first only once.
The leaderboard
Sorted by how many of the nine answers named the plugin, then by its average position when it was named. Position is the order of first mention in the answer; the C · P · G column shows how many of the three ChatGPT, Perplexity and Google AI Mode answers named it.
| # | Plugin | Named in | C · P · G | Avg. pos. | First |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | LearnDash | 9 of 9 | 3 · 3 · 3 | 1.2 | 7 |
| 2 | LifterLMS | 8 of 9 | 3 · 3 · 2 | 2.4 | 1 |
| 3 | Tutor LMS | 8 of 9 | 3 · 2 · 3 | 2.4 | 1 |
| 4 | Sensei LMS | 7 of 9 | 1 · 3 · 3 | 4.6 | 0 |
| 5 | LearnPress | 7 of 9 | 3 · 3 · 1 | 4.9 | 0 |
| 6 | Masteriyo | 4 of 9 | 1 · 0 · 3 | 3.8 | 0 |
| 7 | MemberPress Courses | 4 of 9 | 1 · 2 · 1 | 5.0 | 0 |
| 8 | MasterStudy LMS | 3 of 9 | 1 · 2 · 0 | 5.3 | 0 |
| 9 | WP Courseware | 2 of 9 | 0 · 2 · 0 | 7.5 | 0 |
| 10 | Thrive Apprentice | 1 of 9 | 0 · 1 · 0 | 6.0 | 0 |
What stands out
- The leader is a plugin with no free listing. LearnDash is sold from its own site; the engines name it first anyway.
- Masteriyo is a Google-only answer. Named in all three Google AI Mode answers and none from Perplexity.
- lifterlms.com is the most-read domain in the category. A source in 7 of 9 answers, on all three engines, while LifterLMS itself was first only once.
- ChatGPT reads small blogs the other engines do not. mantrabrain.com, phpyouth.com, wprigel.com and wp-tutoring.com were each in 3 ChatGPT answers and in no Perplexity or Google answer.
Which sites the engines read for this category
Domains that appeared as a source, counted once per answer. For Perplexity and Google AI Mode this is the full source list the answer shows; for ChatGPT it is the retrieval set stored with the conversation, which is larger than the handful of citations it displays (Run 05 explains the gap).
| Domain | Answers | Engines |
|---|---|---|
| lifterlms.com | 7 of 9 | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Perplexity |
| booknetic.com | 4 of 9 | ChatGPT, Perplexity |
| tutorlms.com | 4 of 9 | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode |
| masteriyo.com | 4 of 9 | ChatGPT, Google AI Mode |
| thrivethemes.com | 4 of 9 | Google AI Mode, Perplexity |
| mantrabrain.com | 3 of 9 | ChatGPT |
| phpyouth.com | 3 of 9 | ChatGPT |
| wprigel.com | 3 of 9 | ChatGPT |
| wppioneer.com | 3 of 9 | ChatGPT |
| wp-tutoring.com | 3 of 9 | ChatGPT |
Big on wordpress.org, quiet in AI answers
Active installs are the ranges wordpress.org publishes, pulled from its public API on 17 September 2026. Installs are not quality, but a plugin this widely used being absent tells you the engines are not reading the directory to decide.
| Plugin | Active installs | Named in |
|---|---|---|
| Tutor LMS | 100,000+ | 8 of 9 |
| LearnPress | 70,000+ | 7 of 9 |
| MasterStudy LMS | 10,000+ | 3 of 9 |
| LifterLMS | 10,000+ | 8 of 9 |
| Sensei LMS | 10,000+ | 7 of 9 |
| FluentCommunity | 8,000+ | 0 of 9 |
How this was measured
Three prompts, each put to ChatGPT (temporary chat, unpersonalized, web search on), Perplexity and Google AI Mode on 17 September 2026. The wording is taken from Google autocomplete, so these are phrasings people actually type:
best lms plugin for wordpresswordpress lms plugin comparisonbest online course plugin for wordpress
Plugin names were matched against a fixed candidate list, so the counting is mechanical rather than a judgement call. Treat a difference of one answer, or of one position, as noise: when the same prompt goes to the same engine twice, only about three quarters of the named products repeat (Run 01). The next update uses different real phrasings from the same autocomplete set, because repeating an identical prompt returns a cached source list (Run 04).
Is your LMS plugin in these answers?
Send me your wordpress.org slug, or your product URL if you are not in the directory. I will run your category on all three engines and tell you which ones name you, which sites they read instead, and what that points to. Free, no call.
Other categories
Booking · Caching · Backup · Membership