MasterStudy LMS specialists - taking new projects

Hire MasterStudy LMS developers

Senior WordPress LMS engineers with 10+ years of experience. We customize MasterStudy LMS and its theme, add the features your academy needs, connect payments and tools, and keep the site fast and secure as it grows.

10+ years in WordPress LMS
Theme and course page changes
Update-safe customizations
Reply within 1 business day

Get a free estimate See engagement models

Get a free MasterStudy LMS estimate

Takes 2 minutes. A senior engineer replies - not a salesperson.

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10+Years in LMS engineering
500+LMS projects delivered
150+Clients served
30+Countries
4.9/5Average client rating
NDA before accessWe sign your NDA before you share code, data or credentials.
You own 100% of the codeCode, documentation and credentials are yours. No lock-in.
Talk to the engineerYou speak with the person doing the work, not a salesperson.
Reply within 1 business dayEvery request is read by a senior LMS engineer.

Common MasterStudy problems we fix

Sound familiar?

MasterStudy LMS gives academies a polished design out of the box. Changing that design, or adding what it does not do, is where most teams need help.

The course pages do not match your brand

We adjust course, lesson and student dashboard templates in a child theme, so your design survives updates.

You need a feature MasterStudy does not offer

A custom add-on built on MasterStudy actions and filters, with its own settings and documentation.

Updates break your customizations

We move edits out of plugin and parent theme files into an add-on and child theme, then test each release on staging.

Payments, memberships and enrolments do not line up

A clean setup for course sales, subscriptions and memberships that enrols students reliably.

Student dashboards are slow

Query profiling, object caching, image and video optimisation and leaner page builder layouts.

You want reports for instructors and managers

Course, lesson and quiz reports, with scheduled exports and instructor-level views.

What our MasterStudy developers do

MasterStudy LMS development services

Custom add-ons

New learning features built on MasterStudy hooks as a separate, updatable plugin.

Theme and template changes

Course pages, lesson views and dashboards in a child theme.

Payments and memberships

Course sales, subscriptions, memberships, coupons and group purchases.

Integrations

CRM, email marketing, Zoom, SSO and webhooks to your tools.

Speed tuning

Faster dashboards and course pages for logged-in students.

Security and updates

Staged updates, role reviews, a WAF and monitoring.

Reports

Instructor, course and quiz reports with exports.

Migrations

To or from MasterStudy, including LearnDash, Tutor LMS and LearnPress.

Maintenance plans

Monthly updates, backups and a developer on call.

Code-level expertise

MasterStudy changes that survive updates

MasterStudy LMS provides actions and filters for key learning events. Building on them, instead of editing the plugin or the parent theme, keeps your academy updatable.

Child theme for design, add-on for logic. Two clear places for every change.
Documented overrides. Every template we override is listed and re-checked when MasterStudy updates.
Background processing. Integrations never slow down lessons or checkout.

This example awards points in a gamification system each time a student passes a lesson, using the stm_lms_lesson_passed action.

<?php
/**
 * Plugin Name: Academy Points for MasterStudy LMS
 * Awards points when a student passes a lesson.
 */
defined( 'ABSPATH' ) || exit;

const ACADEMY_POINTS_PER_LESSON = 10;

add_action( 'stm_lms_lesson_passed', function ( $user_id, $lesson_id ) {
    $user_id   = (int) $user_id;
    $lesson_id = (int) $lesson_id;

    // Award once per lesson, even if the event fires again.
    $done = (array) get_user_meta( $user_id, 'academy_points_lessons', true );
    if ( isset( $done[ $lesson_id ] ) ) {
        return;
    }
    $done[ $lesson_id ] = time();
    update_user_meta( $user_id, 'academy_points_lessons', $done );

    $total = (int) get_user_meta( $user_id, 'academy_points', true );
    update_user_meta( $user_id, 'academy_points', $total + ACADEMY_POINTS_PER_LESSON );

    do_action( 'academy_points_awarded', $user_id, ACADEMY_POINTS_PER_LESSON, $lesson_id );
}, 10, 2 );

stm_lms_lesson_passed passes the user ID and lesson ID. The custom action lets other features (badges, emails) react without changing this code.

Skills

The MasterStudy stack we work with every day

MasterStudy and WordPress

MasterStudy LMS
MasterStudy LMS Pro
MasterStudy theme
Course builder
Assignments
Certificates
Child themes
Elementor
WP-CLI

Commerce and integrations

WooCommerce
Stripe
PayPal
Paid Memberships Pro
Zoom
Mailchimp
HubSpot
Webhooks

Engineering and security

PHP 8
MySQL tuning
Redis object cache
Image and video optimisation
Wordfence and WAF
Staging workflows
Git and CI

Engagement models

Hire MasterStudy developers your way

Pick the model that fits today and switch when your needs change. Every model includes a senior engineer, code review and a staging site.

Hourly

Bug fixes, small changes, audits and urgent issues.

from $45/hour

Billed on hours actually worked
Task-level time log with every invoice
Start with a single task
Senior engineer, not a junior

Hire by the hour

Part-time dedicated

Steady roadmap work and ongoing maintenance.

from 2500/month

A named developer, about 4 hours a day
Shared task board and weekly report
Updates, monitoring and small features
Scale up or down month to month

Hire part-time

Full-time dedicated

Large roadmaps, platform teams and agencies.

from 4500/month

A developer who works only on your LMS
Daily async updates and agreed overlap hours
Code review and QA by a second engineer
Add QA, design or DevOps when needed

Hire full-time

Fixed-price project

Well-defined features, migrations and new builds.

from 3000 minimum

Written scope, price and timeline up front
Milestone-based payments
Staging demos before each release
Post-launch warranty period agreed in the proposal

Get a fixed quote

Every engagement starts with a free technical call and an NDA. Prices exclude applicable taxes.

How it works

How hiring a MasterStudy expert works

Tell us what you need

2 minutes

Use the short form: platform, what is wrong or what you want built, and how you prefer to work. Two minutes is enough.
Free technical call

30 minutes

A senior engineer reviews your site or requirements, asks the awkward questions early and suggests the simplest approach that will last.
Proposal and NDA

1-3 business days

You get a written plan: fixed price and timeline, or the developer profile and monthly plan for dedicated work. NDA signed before any access.
Work starts on staging

Weekly demos

We set up staging and version control, ship in small reviewed increments and demo every change before it reaches your live site.

Compare

A MasterStudy team vs a freelancer vs hiring in-house

Criterion	All-in-One LMS	Freelance marketplace	In-house hire
Engineers who work only on learning platforms	Yes	Partial	Partial
One team for WordPress LMS, Moodle, Open edX, Canvas and custom LMS	Yes	No	No
Cover when your developer is ill or on leave	Yes	No	Partial
Code review and QA before every release	Yes	Varies	Partial
NDA and IP assignment in the contract	Yes	Varies	Yes
No recruitment, payroll or notice periods	Yes	Yes	No
Scale hours up or down month to month	Yes	Partial	No
One accountable point of contact	Yes	No	Yes

A general comparison of how each model usually works. Individual freelancers and in-house teams vary.

Customizing MasterStudy LMS without painting yourself into a corner

Much of MasterStudy's appeal is its ready-made design. The risk is that the quickest way to change it, editing the theme or plugin files, also blocks every future update. We follow three rules on every MasterStudy project:

Design changes go in a child theme, with each overridden template listed so it can be checked after updates.
Behaviour changes go in an add-on plugin that uses MasterStudy actions and filters.
Every update is tested on staging against your key flows: enrolment, lessons, quizzes, assignments, checkout and certificates.

If your site already has edits inside MasterStudy or its theme, we start by finding them and moving each one to the right place.

How to hire the right MasterStudy developer

Ask where your changes will live

The answer should be "a child theme and an add-on", never "inside the theme" or "inside the plugin".

Ask about page builder performance

Heavy builder layouts are a common cause of slow course pages. A good developer will measure before redesigning.

Check they test on staging

Every change and every update should be tried on a copy of your site first.

Ask for an honest view on fit

If your plans need advanced B2B features or a multi-instructor marketplace, a developer who knows other plugins can tell you whether to extend MasterStudy or switch. See our WordPress LMS plugin comparison and our WordPress LMS developers.

Hiring a MasterStudy LMS expert: FAQ

How much does it cost to hire a MasterStudy LMS developer?

Small changes are billed hourly; custom features, redesigns and migrations are usually fixed-price after we have seen the site. You get a written estimate after the free technical call.

Can you change the MasterStudy design without breaking updates?

Yes. We make design changes in a child theme, keep a list of overridden templates and check them whenever MasterStudy or its theme updates.

Can you add features MasterStudy does not have?

Yes. We build custom add-ons on MasterStudy hooks: new enrolment rules, gamification, reports, integrations or anything your academy needs.

Can you speed up our MasterStudy site?

Yes. We profile course pages and dashboards, add object caching, optimise images and video, and simplify heavy builder layouts.

Can you migrate us to or from MasterStudy?

Yes. Courses, lessons, quizzes and students can usually be moved to or from LearnDash, Tutor LMS or LearnPress. What carries over depends on the source, which we confirm first.

Do you provide ongoing MasterStudy support?

Yes: staged updates, security monitoring, backups and development time each month. See LMS maintenance and support.

Free estimate

Tell us about your MasterStudy project

Share your site URL and what you need. A senior WordPress LMS engineer will reply with questions or a first estimate.

A senior engineer reads every request
Written estimate before any work starts
NDA signed before you share access