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Free vs. Pro

Design Upgrade for LearnDash comes in two versions. The free version restyles LearnDash automatically, with no settings to manage. Design Upgrade Pro adds a full set of design controls in the WordPress Customizer, so you can match LearnDash to your brand.

Free Version​

Download it free from the Design Upgrade for LearnDash page on WordPress.org.

How It Works​

Install and activate the plugin, and you're done. There are no settings, no admin screens, and nothing to configure.

The free version loads a stylesheet that refines LearnDash's default design. It inherits your theme's fonts and colors, so the result blends in with the rest of your site. The changes are intentionally subtle: cleaner spacing, more consistent text sizes, and tidier lists and buttons.

What it styles​

The free version restyles these LearnDash areas:

  • Course pages, including the course status box and course content lists
  • Focus Mode, including the sidebar, header, and comments
  • Quizzes, including every question type, answer highlighting, and results
  • Buttons, alerts, tooltips, progress bars, and pagination
  • The login and registration popup
  • The [/ld_profile] page
  • The Course Grid add-on and the Achievements add-on
  • Supported third-party plugins, such as Uncanny Toolkit and the WisdmLabs plugins

It works with both the LearnDash 3.0 template and the Legacy template, and it supports right-to-left (RTL) languages.

Theme fixes​

When the free version detects the Astra or OceanWP theme, it turns off that theme's own LearnDash styles to prevent conflicts. See which themes work with Design Upgrade for the full list.

Pro version​

Design Upgrade Pro includes everything in the free version, plus design controls for nearly every part of LearnDash.

How it works​

Design Upgrade Pro adds a LearnDash Design Upgrade panel to the WordPress Customizer. Every option previews live before you publish it, and you can export, import or reset your whole design from the plugin's settings page.

Your design starts with five color hues and a few global border settings on the General Design panel. Every other panel builds on those values, so a single change can update your whole site. Learn how settings inherit from your color hues.

Pro styles both the classic LearnDash templates and LearnDash's Modern course, group, lesson, and registration pages.

LearnDash design settings in Pro​

Pro's settings are grouped by area in the Customizer:

Pro also includes plugin updates and support while your license is active.

Pricing​

Every plan includes every feature, quiz styling included, plus a year of updates and support. Plans differ only in the number of live sites, and some are also sold as a one-time lifetime license. Licenses count live sites only, so you can use Pro on as many staging and dev sites as you need. If you don't renew, the plugin keeps working, but updates and support stop.

See Design Upgrade Pro plans and pricing for current prices.

Upgrading from free to Pro​

Design Upgrade Pro is a separate plugin, not an add-on to the free version. After you install and activate Pro, deactivate and delete the free version. Pro already includes all of the free version's styles.

Why you need to delete the free version​

If both plugins stay active, the free version's stylesheet loads in place of Pro's. Your site won't show an error, and your Customizer settings still save, but most of them won't appear on the page:

  • The color hues, Global Border Radius, Border Width, and Bold Border Width have no visible effect.
  • Quizzes, Focus Mode, the profile page, and the course grid keep the free version's styling instead of Pro's.

If your Pro settings don't seem to change anything, check Plugins > Installed Plugins and make sure the free version is deactivated.

Follow the steps to install Design Upgrade Pro and activate your license.

Using the free version?​

The rest of these docs cover Design Upgrade Pro's settings. If you use the free version, install it from WordPress.org and you're done: there's nothing else to set up.

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