If you’ve tried to download LearnDash recently and ended up on a Liquid Web page wondering if you were in the right place, you’re not alone. I ran into this myself: I went to grab a fresh copy of the plugin, got redirected to a completely unfamiliar domain, and spent a few confused minutes figuring out how to even log in. I knew LearnDash had been acquired over the past few years, but I wasn’t expecting this.
Here’s a breakdown of what actually happened and what it means for your site.
A bit of history
LearnDash was originally built and owned by Justin Ferriman, who co-founded the plugin back in 2012. In September 2021, Liquid Web acquired it and placed it under their StellarWP brand, an umbrella that eventually held around 10 WordPress products, including Kadence, GiveWP, and iThemes.
For most users, day-to-day things stayed pretty much the same after that acquisition. LearnDash kept its own website, its own support, and its own identity. StellarWP was mostly a corporate structure you never had to think about. That changed in 2026.
What happened in 2026
In November 2025, Liquid Web restructured internally and laid off roughly 25% of the StellarWP team. Among those let go was Taylor Walden, LearnDash’s Product Owner. Several other key people across the StellarWP portfolio departed around the same time. If you want to understand more about why people are frustrated with that, you can read The Repository’s coverage of the StellarWP wind-down.
In late 2025, a series of leadership transitions followed. Benjamin Ritner, founder of KadenceWP, left StellarWP. GiveWP co-founders Matt Cromwell and Devin Walker gave notice, and Devin Walker, wrote publicly that “private equity often takes a hard edge, putting profits over people and disregarding morale.”
Then, on April 22, 2026, Liquid Web made it official: StellarWP as a brand was being dissolved. The portfolio of around 10 products was consolidated down to four that Liquid Web plans to keep investing in: LearnDash, Kadence, The Events Calendar, and Give.
On May 12, 2026, learndash.com stopped being listed as its own website and started redirecting to a landing page on liquidweb.com, the same treatment being applied to the other products mentioned. Account management and license keys moved to software.liquidweb.com. The sudden change along with some bumpy transitions for holders of retired license deals was what caused a lot of the confusion in the LearnDash community.
What this means for your site
LearnDash is not going away. It’s one of the four products Liquid Web explicitly committed to keeping. Here’s what practically changed for existing users:
- Your current plan, pricing, and features stay as they are.
- Your license keys are still valid.
- Your site data stays on your own hosting. Nothing about this requires you to move to Liquid Web or Nexcess.
- Support for LearnDash add-ons like Instructor Role, Group Registration, and Reports is transitioning to a unified LearnDash help desk.
What about LearnDash Cloud?
If you were on a LearnDash Cloud hosted plan, there’s a bit more to unpack. The cloud offering still exists, but it’s been restructured under Nexcess (Liquid Web’s managed hosting brand) and rebranded with new plan names. The old Starter, Growth, and Pro tiers are now Essential (29/mo),Plus(29/mo), Plus (29/mo),Plus(55/mo), and Ultimate ($79/mo) when billed annually. All three include unlimited courses and unlimited learners, managed WordPress hosting, daily backups, and SSL. The Plus plan and above add things like ProPanel analytics and multi-instructor support.
If you’re on a legacy cloud plan, log into software.liquidweb.com and check your subscription details, it’s worth confirming how your old plan maps to the new structure before your next renewal.
What’s still uncertain
The team that built and ran LearnDash for the past few years has largely moved on. That matters for things like roadmap momentum, support responsiveness, and how quickly bugs get fixed. Liquid Web has committed to critical security patches for retiring features through April 2027, but beyond that the long-term direction for specific add-ons is not fully clear yet.
None of this means you should panic or start migrating your platform. It does mean it’s worth keeping an eye on how things develop over the next year.
Where to go from here
To download LearnDash or manage your license, head to software.liquidweb.com and log in with your existing credentials. The plugin itself works exactly as it always has once you have it installed.
At Tangible, we’ve been building on LearnDash since 2016 and we’re keeping a close eye on how things develop. If you’re unsure what any of this means for your specific setup, feel free to get in touch.
Responses