No. Edutain Certificate Validator works as a completely standalone WordPress plugin. You do not need LearnDash, Tutor LMS, WPLMS, or any other learning management system. All you need is a record of who completed which course and when — the plugin handles the rest.
However, if you have an LMS, it works just fine. With or without an LMS, Edutain Certificate Validator works seamlessly.
Yes. Once the plugin is activated, it automatically creates a public “Validate Certificate” page on your WordPress site. Anyone — learners, employers, or other visitors — can visit that page, enter a certificate code, and instantly see whether the certificate is valid.
Yes. The free version lets you bulk import Course Name, Student Name, Course Completion Date, and Certificate Code via CSV. The Pro version also supports bulk importing custom fields.
No. All certificate records are stored securely in a dedicated table within your own WordPress database. No certificate data — including learner names, course names, completion dates, certificate codes, or custom fields — is ever sent to any external service.
Yes, with the Pro licence. Pro allows you to generate QR codes that link directly to a certificate’s verification page. You can download QR codes as PNG or PDF, and create multi-certificate QR sheets for printing.
Yes. The
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The free version includes four core fields: Course Name, Student Name, Course Completion Date, and Certificate Code. There is also an optional Student Email field. With Pro, you can add up to 30 custom fields per certificate record — such as expiry date, GPA, Grade, or any other data relevant to your certificates.
Edutain Certificate Validator is translation-ready. You can contribute translations or find existing ones via the WordPress.org translation project at translate.wordpress.org. The plugin’s admin interface and public-facing text can be translated into any language supported by WordPress.
Not currently. Edutain Certificate Validator focuses on certificate verification via unique codes and QR codes. OpenBadges integration is not a built-in feature at this time.
Students can share their certificate verification link publicly, which can be added manually to their LinkedIn profile as a credential URL, allowing anyone to click through and verify the certificate on your site.
Yes. Students can download their certificate verification details as a PDF. Admins can also export all certificate verification data in CSV or XLSX format for easy management and reporting.
The public verification form is site-wide. However, you control which certificates exist in the system — if you do not import records for a particular course, those certificates simply cannot be verified.
The verification page is a standard WordPress page containing the
Yes. The Pro version automatically generates a unique QR code for each certificate, making certificate verification quick and easy.
Yes. Employers simply visit the public Validate Certificate page on your website, enter the certificate code (or scan the QR code with Pro), and instantly see whether the certificate is genuine — no admin access, no account, and no login required.
Yes. All certificate records are stored in a dedicated table in your own WordPress database and never sent to any external service. The public verification form is nonce-protected and rate limited — by default, a single visitor can make a maximum of 10 verification attempts per 60 seconds, which prevents automated code guessing. QR codes and PDFs are generated entirely on your own server. The only external connection the plugin makes is to Freemius, which handles Pro licence management — and your certificate data is never included in any Freemius communication.
There is no record limit imposed by the plugin. You can store as many certificates as your WordPress database can handle. Each individual CSV upload is limited to 10 MB and 100,000 rows, but you can upload multiple CSV files to build up your dataset beyond that.
Yes. Each CSV upload is merged into the existing dataset. Records already in the database are not overwritten — if a certificate code in your new file matches one already stored, that row is skipped and reported as a duplicate in the import summary.
Certificate codes must be unique. If a CSV contains a code that already exists in the database, that row is skipped and listed separately in the import summary so you can identify and correct the duplicate. The existing record is never overwritten.
Yes. Go to Data Management > Manage Data to search, sort, and edit individual certificate records at any time. You can correct a name, update a date, or change any field without needing to re-upload a CSV.
Yes. go to Data Management > Add Data and you can download an example CSV template that shows the required column headers and format. This is the easiest way to make sure your data is structured correctly before importing.
The plugin requires PHP 7.2 or higher. It has been tested up to PHP 7.0 as listed on WordPress.org, and most modern hosting environments will meet this requirement comfortably.
Yes. Append ?certificate_code=CODE or ?code=CODE to the URL of your verification page — for example, https://yoursite.com/validate-certificate/?certificate_code=ABC123. When someone visits that link, the form fills in automatically and verification begins instantly.
Only Administrators can access the certificate admin area by default. Editors, Authors, and other lower roles cannot see or manage certificate data unless you explicitly grant them the manage_options capability.
Your certificate data remains stored even if you deactivate the plugin. If you prefer, you can also delete all certificate data before deactivating the plugin.
No. Updates preserve all your existing records and migrate them into the current format automatically. If you previously used the separate Pro add-on, any email data stored there is also migrated into the Student Email field during the update.
Yes, with Pro. You can add an expiry date to any certificate record. Once a certificate passes its expiry date, the public verification result automatically updates to show the expired status.
Yes, with Pro. You can mark any certificate as revoked or suspended at any time, and optionally add a reason. The public verification result will immediately reflect the updated status.
With Pro active, the verification result card changes to clearly display the certificate’s current status — expired, revoked, or suspended — instead of showing a valid result. PDF download is only offered for certificates that are currently valid.
Yes, with Pro. You can send or resend certificate emails manually to individual students or in bulk, using the Student Email address stored against each record. Bulk sends are queued in the background in batches of 15 to avoid server timeouts. Note that email sending is always manual — importing records does not trigger emails automatically.
The Pro email subject and message support the following placeholders: {student_name}, {course_name}, {completion_date}, {certificate_code}, {verify_link}, and {site_name}.
Yes, with Pro. The PDF certificate generator supports an optional logo (loaded from your WordPress Media Library), a custom accent colour, and a signature name. An embedded QR code is also included in the generated PDF.
Yes, with Pro. The analytics feature logs every verification attempt and lets you view totals, failed attempts, recent activity, and a list of the most-verified certificates.
With Pro, you choose how long logs are retained. You can set a specific retention period or opt to keep logs indefinitely. Logs can be reviewed from the Pro Settings Analytics tab.
Yes, with Pro. Each certificate’s QR code links directly to its unique verification page. Any visitor with a QR code scanner or smartphone camera can scan it and be taken straight to the verified certificate result — no code entry required.
Prepare a CSV file with the four required columns — Course Name, Student Name, Course Completion Date, and Certificate Code — then go to Certificate Validator > Data Management and upload your file. Each file can contain up to 100,000 rows and up to 10 MB. You can upload multiple files and each one is merged into the existing dataset.
Yes, with Pro. When a learner verifies a valid certificate on the public page, Pro can optionally present a download button allowing them to save a branded PDF copy of their certificate. This option is not shown for expired, revoked, or suspended certificates.
The plugin does not require any LMS and works entirely independently. It is not a native integration or add-on for LearnDash, Tutor LMS, or WPLMS — but it can be used alongside any of them. You simply export your completion data from your LMS as a CSV and import it into Edutain Certificate Validator.
Yes, with Pro. You can add up to 30 custom fields per certificate record — such as Roll Number, GPA, Grade, or any other data you need. You can also choose which custom fields are displayed publicly on the verification result.
The plugin accepts dates in dd/mm/yyyy or yyyy-mm-dd format on import.
Edutain Certificate Validator is open source software developed by Edutainment UK. The plugin fires lifecycle actions — edcv_record_saved, edcv_record_imported, edcv_record_deleted, edcv_all_records_deleted, and edcv_verification_attempt — and provides card output filters including edcv_card_status, edcv_card_details, edcv_card_actions_html, and edcv_success_card_html. The rate limit defaults (10 attempts per 60 seconds per IP) can be adjusted with the edcv_rate_limit_max_attempts and edcv_rate_limit_window filters. You can browse the source code, check out the SVN repository, or contribute translations at wordpress.org/plugins/edutain-certificate-validator.
Visit the Validate Certificate page on the issuing organisation’s website, enter the certificate code printed on your certificate, and click Verify. If the certificate is genuine and valid, the page will display the student name, course name, and completion date. If the code does not exist or the certificate has been revoked or expired, the result will say so.
The most reliable way is to verify it directly on the issuing organisation’s website using the certificate code. Edutain Certificate Validator gives every organisation a public verification page where anyone can enter a code and see an instant result. A certificate that cannot be verified on the issuer’s site, or where the details do not match what is printed on the document, should be treated as suspect.
Go to the verification page of the organisation that issued the certificate — this is often linked or printed on the certificate itself. Enter the unique certificate code into the verification form. Within seconds you will see whether the certificate is valid, along with the name of the student, the course, and the completion date.
Certificate validation is the process of confirming that a certificate was genuinely issued by the organisation it claims to be from, and that it has not been forged, expired, or revoked. With Edutain Certificate Validator, each certificate is assigned a unique code at the point of issue. Anyone — an employer, institution, or individual — can enter that code on the issuer’s public verification page to confirm the certificate is authentic.
Trusted certificates are those issued by recognised organisations and verifiable through an official channel. When using Edutain Certificate Validator, you can confirm a certificate is trustworthy by verifying it on the issuing organisation’s website. A valid result showing the student name, course, and completion date confirms the certificate is genuine and has not been tampered with.
The best certificate checker is the one operated directly by the issuing organisation, as it queries the original records with no intermediary. Edutain Certificate Validator provides exactly that — a self-hosted, instant verification system that organisations embed on their own WordPress website, so verifiers always check against the issuer’s own database.
A fake certificate typically cannot be verified through the issuing organisation’s official verification page — the code will return no result, or the details will not match. Other warning signs include missing or vague certificate codes, no verification URL on the document, design inconsistencies, and completion dates that do not align with known course schedules. Always verify using the issuer’s official online verification tool.
Visit the certificate verification page of the organisation that issued the certificate — there is no charge to verify. With Edutain Certificate Validator, the public verification form is completely free to use for anyone checking a certificate. Simply enter the certificate code and the result is displayed instantly.
To authenticate a certificate, locate the unique certificate code on the document and enter it into the issuing organisation’s online verification page. Edutain Certificate Validator provides a public verification form where the submitted code is checked against the organisation’s secure database in real time. A successful result — displaying the student name, course, and date — confirms the certificate is authentic and has not been revoked or altered.