How to Create Certificates in WordPress (Step by Step)
By Eshaan Manchanda ·
WordPress has no built-in way to create certificates, but a certificate plugin can turn your site into a complete issuing system. This guide walks through the whole process using Certificate Generator: designing the certificate, adding recipients, generating PDFs, sending them, and letting people verify them.
1. Design the certificate background
Start in any design tool — Canva is a popular choice. Create the border, logo, title and signatures, but leave blank space where the recipient's name, date and other details will go. Export it as a PNG or JPG, ideally A4 landscape.
2. Turn it into a template
In WordPress, go to Certificate Generator → Templates → Add New and upload the image. Drag the Name, Certificate Type, School and Date fields into the blank areas and set the font, size and colour of each. Click Preview — the sample PDF shows field boundaries so you can line everything up precisely.
3. Add the people receiving certificates
For a handful of people, add them one by one under Students. For a class or cohort, put them in a spreadsheet with the columns student_name, email, school_name, certificate_type and issue_date, save it as CSV, and upload it under Bulk Import.
If your courses run on Tutor LMS, LearnDash, LifterLMS or Sensei — or you sell courses with WooCommerce — you can skip this step entirely and let certificates issue automatically on completion.
4. Set up email delivery
Certificates go out by email, so configure SMTP first with the free WP Mail SMTP plugin. The From Email must match your SMTP login exactly. Send a test from Settings → Email before sending to real recipients.
5. Send the certificates
Go to Bulk Send, filter to the group you want, preview the list and click Send Certificates. Each recipient gets a PDF with a unique serial number and a QR code. The queue runs in the background and retries failed emails automatically.
6. Let people verify them
Anyone who scans the QR code lands on a verification page on your site confirming the certificate is genuine. You can also add a verification form anywhere with the [cg_verify_certificate] shortcode, and a lookup page where students find their own certificates with [student_search].