LearnDash integration
Run affiliate, royalty, and revenue-share programs on LearnDash
Siren integrates natively with LearnDash to track course sales, lesson completions, and student engagement, so you can run affiliate programs, pay instructor royalties, and split revenue based on the outcomes that matter to your course business.
Free to start. Paid tiers from $229/year per site.
Can you run an affiliate or royalty program on LearnDash?
Yes. Siren listens to LearnDash transaction and completion events directly, so it works whether you sell through LearnDash checkout or WooCommerce. Run affiliate programs, instructor royalties, and completion-based revenue sharing on the same WordPress site. Free to start on Lite.
What running incentive programs on LearnDash fixes
Most affiliate plugins treat LearnDash like a generic store. They track a link, pay a flat cut, and call it done. That falls apart fast.
Without Siren
- The same flat rate on a $997 certification and a $29 intro course
- No way to reward instructors for creating great content
- Payouts that ignore whether students actually finish
- Two tools fighting when an affiliate and an instructor both earn
With Siren
- Per-course commission rules aligned to real margins
- Instructor royalties that fire on the same sale as the affiliate's cut
- Completion-based revenue sharing, split by engagement
- One engine evaluating every program independently
How Siren connects to LearnDash
It is the same WordPress site, so there is nothing to connect. Install Siren alongside LearnDash and it listens to LearnDash transaction, course-completion, and lesson-completion events directly. No API keys, no middleware.
LearnDash
A student buys a course, or completes a course or lesson.
Native plugin hook
Siren reads the LearnDash event on the same site, instantly.
Siren attributes
Credits the right affiliate or instructor and applies your rules.
Payout
Pays as store credit, or real money via Stripe Connect on Plus.
What Siren does with LearnDash
Every capability this integration implements, and which edition supports it. Not all of them live in every edition.
Track LearnDash transactions
Read course purchases through LearnDash checkout or WooCommerce as conversion events.
Track course and lesson completions
Fire rewards when a student finishes a course or an individual lesson.
Completion-based revenue sharing
Pool revenue each period and split it among instructors by engagement score.
Pay real money via Stripe Connect
Partners self-onboard Stripe Express and get paid automatically on the Plus tier.
What you can track, reward, and run on LearnDash
The events Siren reads from LearnDash, the rewards it can pay on them, and the program types you can build.
Events Siren tracks
- Course purchase (LearnDash or WooCommerce)
- Course completion
- Lesson completion
- Refund or clawback reversal (WooCommerce-routed sales)
- Free enrollments with no payment
Rewards you can pay
- Flat or percentage commission
- Per-course rates
- Instructor royalties
- Completion-based revenue share
- Recurring on renewals (WooCommerce-routed sales)
Program types
- Affiliate program
- Instructor royalty program
- Completion-based revenue share
- Student referral program
- Multi-tier partner program (Pro)
Starter recipes for LearnDash
Pre-built program setups to start from and adjust, not from a blank page.
Recipe
Pay instructors and affiliates on the same sale
When a student buys a course, the affiliate who referred them earns their commission and the instructor who created it earns their royalty. Both fire because they reward different people.
Recipe
Share revenue by who finishes
Pool a percentage of revenue each month and split it among instructors proportionally by tracked completions, so engagement drives the payout.
Recipe
Different rates for different courses
Set a higher commission on a flagship certification than on an introductory course, so payouts match the margin on each offer.
“Robust, flexible, and built by someone who understands real-world affiliate program complexity.” Julian Foster · Digital Strategist
Programs you can run on LearnDash
Pre-built recipes that work on LearnDash. Install one in a click, or open its page for the LearnDash-specific details.
Course Affiliate Program
Percentage commission on every referred LearnDash course sale.
Affiliate program on LearnDash EssentialsInstructor Royalties
Creators earn a percentage when their assigned courses sell.
Royalty program on LearnDash EssentialsRevenue Share
Split a pool of revenue among instructors by engagement.
Revenue share on LearnDashWhich edition you need
LearnDash runs on the editions marked below. Here is what each gives you, what it costs, and what you will need to get going.
Editions
- WordPress Available
Self-host the plugin on the same site as LearnDash and own your data. Tracks transactions and completions out of the box.
Free Siren Lite tier. Paid plans from $229/year per site.
- Cloud Coming soon
Coming soon. The hosted, sign-up-yourself edition will run LearnDash with the same capabilities as the WordPress plugin, with no site of your own to manage. Not live yet.
- Full-Service Available
Prefer it managed? Siren Cloud runs the same engine for your LearnDash site, hosted and supported by our team.
Custom. Hosted and managed.
What you will need
- A WordPress site with LearnDash active.
- Selling through WooCommerce too? Siren tracks both checkouts.
- For instructor royalties and revenue share: the Essentials tier.
- For automatic real-money payouts: Plus (Stripe Connect).
- Course and lesson completion tracking works regardless of how the student originally enrolled.
- Completion-based revenue sharing uses the Distributor feature on Essentials and up.
LearnDash questions answered
Does Siren work with LearnDash's built-in payments or only WooCommerce?
Siren integrates natively with LearnDash. It listens to LearnDash transaction events directly, so it works whether you sell courses through LearnDash's own checkout or through WooCommerce. Course and lesson completion tracking works regardless of how the student originally enrolled.
What LearnDash events does Siren track?
Siren reads transactions when a student purchases a course, course completions when a student finishes an entire course, and lesson completions when a student finishes an individual lesson. You can use any combination of these three event types to power your affiliate, royalty, and revenue share programs.
Can I pay different commission rates for different courses?
Yes. You can set per-product commission rules, so a $997 certification course can carry a different rate than a $29 introductory course. This lets you align payouts with the actual margins on each offer.
Can I run an affiliate program and an instructor royalty program at the same time?
Yes. Siren lets you create independent programs that evaluate the same transaction separately. When a student buys a course, the affiliate who referred them earns their commission and the instructor who created the course earns their royalty. Both fire on the same sale because they reward different people for different contributions.
How does the completion-based revenue sharing work?
Siren's distributor feature pools a percentage of your revenue each month and splits it among instructors proportionally based on engagement scores. You configure which events count (course completions, lesson completions) and how much each is worth. An instructor whose courses generated 40% of all tracked completions receives 40% of the pool.
Do I need a developer to set this up?
If you are comfortable installing WordPress plugins and configuring LearnDash, you can handle the setup. Siren uses a point-and-click interface for creating programs, setting commission rates, and assigning courses to instructors. For complex multi-program setups, we are available in support.
Can I migrate from another affiliate plugin?
In most cases, yes. You can import your existing partner list and begin tracking new referrals through Siren going forward. Historical commission data migration depends on what your current tool can export. We will help you through the process in support.
What happens when a student gets a refund?
You control commission approval timing. Commissions start in a pending state, so you can hold them until your refund window closes and only then mark them payable. LearnDash does not expose a refund event to Siren, so refunds are handled through this manual review window rather than an automatic clawback. If you sell the same courses through WooCommerce, refunds on those orders are tracked automatically.
WordPress edition
Start your LearnDash affiliate program free
Install Siren on your WordPress site, connect it to LearnDash in minutes, and run your first program on the free Lite tier. Upgrade only when your program does.
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