Install Sikshya

You install Sikshya LMS the same way you install any WordPress plugin — there is no SaaS to sign up for. Sikshya runs entirely on your own site.

First time in WordPress? After you activate the plugin, open Sikshya in the left sidebar and use Your WordPress admin (Sikshya) as a plain-English map of every section.

Before you start

Make sure your site meets these:

What	Minimum	Recommended
WordPress	6.0	6.4 or newer
PHP	7.4	8.1 or newer
MySQL / MariaDB	5.7 / 10.3	MySQL 8 / MariaDB 11
Memory	128 MB	256 MB or more
HTTPS	Required to take live payments	Always recommended

Not sure what your hosting has?

Open Tools → Site Health → Info in WordPress. The PHP and database versions are listed there.

Step 1 — Install the free plugin

The free Sikshya LMS plugin gives you a complete LMS — courses, lessons, quizzes, certificates, native checkout (PayPal), coupons, and learner dashboards.

You have three options:

1. The easy way — In WordPress, go to Plugins → Add New, search Sikshya LMS, click Install Now, then Activate.
2. If you have the ZIP file — Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose sikshya.zip, click Install Now, then Activate.
3. The technical way — drop the sikshya/ folder into wp-content/plugins/ over SFTP, then activate from the Plugins screen.

When you activate, Sikshya does a one-time setup behind the scenes:

• Creates three new user roles (Sikshya Instructor, Sikshya Student, Sikshya Assistant).
• Creates the database tables for enrollments, orders, certificates, and progress tracking.
• Seeds the default email templates.

You'll see a new Sikshya item appear in the WordPress admin sidebar.

Step 2 — Install Sikshya Pro

PROSikshya Pro is the upgrade plugin

Sikshya Pro is a separate plugin that unlocks licensed add-ons — Stripe, Razorpay, Mollie, Paystack, Square, Authorize.Net, Bank Transfer gateways; subscriptions; bundles; multi-instructor; gradebook; advanced certificates; drip; prerequisites; webhooks; marketplace; and more. The free plugin must be installed and active first.

View Sikshya Pro plans →

If you bought a Pro license:

1. Make sure the free Sikshya LMS plugin is installed and active first. Sikshya Pro depends on it.
2. Download sikshya-pro.zip from your Mantrabrain account.
3. Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin, choose the ZIP, Install, and Activate.
4. Open Sikshya → License. Paste your license key into License key, then click Save & activate.
5. Open Sikshya → Add-ons and turn on the add-ons your plan includes.

Tip: If you cloned the source from Git instead of downloading a release ZIP, run composer install --no-dev --optimize-autoloader from the sikshya-pro folder before activating.

Step 3 — Confirm Sikshya is healthy

Run this quick checklist before adding real content.

Check	Where
The Sikshya item appears in the admin sidebar	Admin sidebar
Permalinks are not set to Plain	Settings → Permalinks
Visiting /wp-json/sikshya/v1/ returns JSON (not a 404)	Browser address bar
Visiting /cart/ and /checkout/ shows a page (even if empty)	Front of your site
License says Active PRO	Sikshya → License

If any of these are red, head over to Troubleshooting.

Multisite

Sikshya is Network: true — it can be activated across a WordPress multisite network.

1. Place the sikshya/ (and sikshya-pro/) folder into wp-content/plugins/.
2. Go to Network Admin → Plugins and choose Network Activate.
3. Visit each subsite once to let Sikshya create that subsite's tables and roles.
4. Activate the Pro license per subsite (one license slot each by default).

PROMultisite license tools

If you run a network with many subsites, the Multisite & network license tools add-on (Scale plan) helps you manage license slots across the network.

See Scale plan →

What's next

• Run the Quick start — picks pages, currency, and gateways and gets you to your first published course in under an hour.
• Or jump straight to Courses & curriculum to start building.