Frequently asked questions
General
What is an LMS, in one sentence?
A learning management system is software that hosts your lessons, tracks who finished what, and often handles enrollment or payment — so you're not emailing PDFs and spreadsheets by hand.
Is Sikshya LMS free?
Yes. The free plugin ships a complete LMS — courses, lessons, quizzes, assignments, certificates, native checkout with PayPal, coupons, orders, learner dashboards, and email notifications.
Sikshya Pro is a separate plugin that unlocks licensed add-ons (drip, gradebook, subscriptions, premium gateways, marketplace, white label, etc.). See Pro add-ons.
Do I need coding skills?
No for day-to-day course building. Developers can extend Sikshya with hooks and filters and the REST API.
What's the difference between Sikshya and Sikshya Pro?
Sikshya is the free plugin. Sikshya Pro is a separate plugin that requires Sikshya to be installed first. Pro unlocks licensed add-ons and premium gateways.
What URLs does Sikshya create?
| URL | What it shows |
|---|---|
/courses/ | Public course catalog |
/{course-slug}/ | Single course page |
/cart/ | Cart |
/checkout/ | Checkout |
/my-learning/ | Learner account |
/learn/ | Learn hub (after enrolling) |
/login/ | Login form |
/order/ | Order receipt |
You can rename any slug under Sikshya → Settings → Permalinks.
Compatibility
Does Sikshya work with any WordPress theme?
Yes — designed for broad theme compatibility. If layouts clash, briefly switch to a default theme (Twenty Twenty-Five) to isolate theme CSS. You can override any Sikshya template by copying it from wp-content/plugins/sikshya/templates/ to wp-content/themes/{theme}/sikshya/.
Does Sikshya work with the block editor?
Yes. Use Shortcode blocks for [sikshya_courses], [sikshya_login], and [sikshya_registration]. Course pages and learner templates work alongside block-based pages and FSE themes.
Does Sikshya work with Elementor / Divi / Bricks / Oxygen?
Yes — all of them. Use a Posts widget targeting the sik_course post type, plus a Shortcode widget for catalog or auth forms. See Blocks & page builders.
Can I use WooCommerce instead?
The free core emphasizes native course checkout for speed and clarity. WooCommerce can run alongside Sikshya — see WooCommerce co-existence.
Is Sikshya multisite compatible?
Yes — Network: true. Each subsite has its own data. The Pro Multisite & network license tools add-on helps you manage licenses across subsites.
Selling courses
How do I sell courses?
- Create a paid course, set a price.
- Connect PayPal (free) or Stripe / Razorpay / Mollie / Paystack / Square / Authorize.Net PRO under Sikshya → Settings → Payment.
- Run a test transaction with sandbox keys.
- Switch to live keys.
See Payments for the full guide.
What payment gateways does the free plugin support?
The free plugin ships PayPal (fully working) and Offline / manual (admin marks orders paid). Stripe is not in the free plugin — Stripe is a Pro-only add-on, along with Razorpay, Mollie, Paystack, Square, Authorize.Net, and Bank Transfer. Activate Sikshya Pro and toggle the gateway on under Sikshya → Add-ons.
Does Sikshya support subscriptions?
Recurring billing is part of the Subscriptions add-on (Growth tier). The free tier focuses on one-time and free-course selling.
Unlock subscriptions →Can I issue refunds?
You can mark an order as Refunded in Sikshya, which revokes enrollment and writes the refund metadata. The actual money movement happens in the gateway dashboard. Refund first in the gateway dashboard, then mark refunded in Sikshya — that's the most reliable workflow.
How do coupons work?
The free plugin supports percentage or fixed discounts, redemption limits, and optional date windows. The Pro Advanced coupons add-on adds minimum cart total, exclusions, first-time-buyer rules, and stacking guards. See Enrollment & access.
Learners
How do learners enroll?
- Free courses: sign in, click Enroll.
- Paid courses: sign in, add to cart, pay at checkout.
- Manual: an admin enrolls them from People → Enrollments.
What happens after a learner completes a course?
Sikshya marks the course complete, fires sikshya_course_completed, issues a certificate (basic in free; advanced builder + QR in Pro), sends the Course completed + Certificate issued emails, and updates progress.
Can learners see only their own data?
Yes. Capability checks are enforced everywhere. Learners get the sikshya_student role, scoped to their own enrollments, attempts, certificates, and account.
Do you support drip / cohort programs?
The free plugin supports sequential progression (each lesson unlocks after the previous).
Date-based, X-days, and cohort drip — plus "lesson unlocked" emails — live in the Content drip, Drip notifications, and Prerequisites add-ons.
Unlock drip & cohorts →Quizzes & assessment
What quiz types are supported?
Free: multiple choice, true / false, short answer, fill in the blank.
Question banks, randomization, random pools per learner, and advanced types are part of the Advanced quiz types add-on.
Unlock advanced quizzes →Do you support assignments?
Yes — basic in free (file upload + pass / fail). Advanced (rubrics, restricted file types, resubmissions, grading queue) is the Advanced assignments + Gradebook Pro add-ons.
Do you support a gradebook?
The Gradebook add-on consolidates quiz scores and graded assignments into a per-learner / per-course view, with export and drilldown.
Unlock the gradebook →Certificates
Are certificates included?
Yes — the free plugin issues certificates on course completion using two presets (Regalia and Vertex).
The Advanced certificates add-on adds a drag-and-drop builder, more merge fields, and QR codes that link to a public verify page.
Unlock advanced certificates →Can certificates be verified externally?
Yes (Pro). The QR code on the certificate links to a public verify URL (/wp-json/sikshya/v1/public/certificates/verify?serial=...). Anyone can verify a certificate without authentication.
Privacy, GDPR, data ownership
Is my data shared with Mantrabrain?
No. Sikshya is self-hosted — every learner record, order, certificate, and quiz attempt lives in your WordPress database. Optional, opt-in usage insights can be enabled / disabled (off by default).
Is Sikshya GDPR-compliant?
Sikshya is built on WordPress and stores user data in your own site. WordPress's standard Tools → Export Personal Data and Erase Personal Data flows work for Sikshya data.
How do I report a security vulnerability?
Email [email protected] privately with details. Don't post exploit steps in public reviews.
Translation
Can I translate Sikshya?
Yes — text domain is sikshya (free) and sikshya-pro (Pro). Loco Translate, WPML, TranslatePress, Polylang, and Weglot all work.
Multilingual catalog?
The Multilingual add-on registers Sikshya strings for translation in WPML / Weglot.
Unlock multilingual →Performance
How many courses / students can Sikshya handle?
There are no hardcoded limits. Performance is driven by your hosting (PHP-FPM workers, MySQL configuration, page cache). For 10k+ learners and heavy reporting, the Pro Advanced analytics & exports + Enterprise reporting add-ons + a managed-WordPress host or VPS is the right combination.
Will Sikshya hurt my SEO?
No. Sikshya outputs normal WordPress pages and URLs. Yoast / Rank Math / SEOPress all index Sikshya correctly.
Developer
Where's the REST API documentation?
REST API. Routes live under /wp-json/sikshya/v1/.
Where are the hooks and filters?
Hooks & filters. Free + Pro share the same sikshya_* action / filter naming.
Pricing & support
Where can I get help?
- Sikshya LMS Facebook Community — peer discussion.
- WordPress.org support forum — public threads.
- GitHub — bug reports.
- Mantrabrain priority support — Pro license holders.
See Support for routing details.