Shopify course apps let merchants build and sell online courses without leaving their store. Learners buy through the normal Shopify checkout, then watch lessons inside their customer account. This article compares six Shopify course apps in 2026 — Alva Courses, Tevello, Courses Plus, Inflowkit, LDT Courses & Communities and Coursebox — notes what we could not verify about Skola, and names the kind of seller each one fits.
Five of the six keep students inside your Shopify store. Coursebox is the exception: its Shopify app enrols buyers into courses hosted on the separate Coursebox platform. Beyond that, the real differences are in video hosting, assessments, drip scheduling, community tools and price. Use the shortlist below to match an app to how you actually teach; standalone platforms such as Kajabi and Teachable are covered at the end.
What makes a great Shopify course app?
A great Shopify course app builds, sells and delivers courses entirely inside your store. The essentials are a drag-and-drop builder, rich lesson content, reliable video, member and progress tracking, and instant delivery at checkout — without forcing students onto a second login or external website.
- Native delivery: students access courses from their Shopify customer account, not a separate platform.
- Content depth: video, PDFs, audio, quizzes and certificates inside each lesson.
- Video that scales: a way past Shopify's 1 GB / 10-minute native file cap.
- Member management: progress bars, completion rates, CSV import and export.
- Fair pricing: a clear monthly price and a free trial to test before you commit.
Alva Courses — best for native, all-in-one course delivery
Alva Courses is a Shopify app that lets merchants build, sell and deliver professional courses natively inside their store. It pairs a drag-and-drop builder with video, quizzes, PDFs, completion certificates, member management and branded email — at $9.99/mo for the Unlimited plan, with a 14-day free trial.
The rich lesson editor supports text, video (Alva-hosted plus YouTube, Vimeo and Loom), image, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office, quiz, Zoom and button blocks. Drip scheduling releases lessons X days after enrolment, and sequential gating can require completion before the next lesson unlocks. Courses are delivered the moment an order is paid.
The Unlimited Pro plan at $14.99/mo adds Alva Video Hosting — 50 GB of storage with no per-video limits — so you can upload long lessons without hitting Shopify's native file caps or relying on external embeds. Custom completion certificates are awarded automatically, with an optional email that sends each one as a PDF, and a custom email domain lets enrolment emails send from your own address.
See the full breakdown: Alva Courses vs Courses Plus
Both plans also include:
- Grading: review a student's work before the course counts as complete, give a grade and feedback, and print the grade on the certificate (turn on course evaluation).
- Automation: Shopify Flow with 13 triggers, 7 actions and 6 templates (Shopify Flow guide), plus Shopify Sidekick, which answers questions about your courses and students in the Shopify admin.
- Student touchpoints: an optional monthly progress digest email and a course player interface in 34 languages.
- Selling inside lessons: a Shopify Product block that shows live products, with prices and an Add to cart button, inside a lesson.
Best for: creators and brands that want one native, affordable app covering the whole journey — builder, video hosting, assessments, certificates and member analytics — without bolting on extra tools.
Tevello — best for community-led learning
Tevello (Courses & Communities) is a popular Shopify course app that pairs course delivery with community and discussion features. As of October 2026 it bundles communities, a mobile app and its own video hosting into a single $29/month plan, with a focus on building a learning community around your content, which appeals to creators who treat conversation as part of the product.
If your offer is community-first — cohorts, forums and ongoing discussion — Tevello's emphasis there is a strong fit. Merchants who instead want leaner course delivery with certificates, drip and branded email from a flat $9.99/mo often weigh it against Alva Courses.
Compare Alva Courses and Tevello side by side
Best for: educators whose programmes revolve around community and discussion. Tevello's single plan includes a 14-day free trial; always check its current listing for up-to-date pricing.
Courses Plus — best for advanced quizzes and assessments
Courses Plus is a Shopify course app known for advanced quizzes, assessments and certificates. It suits merchants whose courses are graded or assessment-heavy, where testing knowledge and issuing proof of completion matter more than community or marketing extras.
Alva Courses offers comparable quizzes built inside lessons, automatic custom-designed completion certificates and teacher grading that can print a grade on the certificate, all on both plans, and adds Alva Video Hosting plus a custom email domain on top. If assessments are central to your course, weigh both feature sets before deciding.
Compare Alva Courses and Courses Plus side by side
Best for: certification programmes, professional training and any course where quizzes and graded assessments drive the learning outcome. As of October 2026, Courses Plus has a free plan for up to 5 lessons and paid plans from $19.99 to $199.99/mo, with certificates from Basic ($19.99/mo), quizzes from Professional ($79.99/mo) and a 7-day free trial.
Inflowkit — best for simple, fast setup
Inflowkit (Courses & Membership) is a Shopify course app valued for straightforward setup and membership-style access. It is a good fit for sellers who want to publish a course quickly without a long configuration process, and who prefer a smaller, focused feature set.
Alva Courses keeps setup just as simple and offers a wide range of content blocks — ePub, MS Office, audio, Zoom — plus Alva Video Hosting for lessons that exceed Shopify's file limits. Sellers choosing on speed-to-launch should compare the two directly.
Compare Alva Courses and Inflowkit side by side
Best for: merchants who want to launch a single course or membership fast, with minimal setup and a clean learner experience. As of October 2026, Inflowkit has a free Lite plan plus Starter ($19/mo) and Basic ($49.99/mo) plans with a 14-day free trial.
LDT Courses & Communities — best for starting on a free plan
LDT Courses & Communities is a Shopify course and LMS app known for a free tier and storage-based paid plans. As of October 2026 its free plan allows 30 enrolments a month, and paid plans step up by storage — 50 GB on Starter ($12.99/mo), 300 GB on Business ($19.99/mo) and 1.5 TB on Ultra ($49.99/mo) — with a 7-day free trial.
Alva Courses takes the flat-pricing route instead: two plans at $9.99 and $14.99/mo, both with unlimited courses, members and comments, so the bill doesn't change as your catalogue grows. Sellers weighing a free start against predictable pricing can compare the two at Alva Courses vs LDT Courses & Communities.
Best for: merchants testing course ideas who want minimal upfront cost and are happy to pay for storage in steps as they grow. Always check LDT's current listing for up-to-date plan limits.
Coursebox — best for AI-generated courses on a separate platform
Coursebox is a standalone, AI-first learning platform with a Shopify app attached. The app lists your existing Coursebox courses on your store and automatically enrols buyers when they purchase, but the courses are hosted on the separate Coursebox platform, so learners leave your store to study.
That suits merchants who already run Coursebox, or who want its AI to generate courses, quizzes and an AI tutor for each learner. Alva Courses keeps the whole journey inside Shopify instead — students learn in your storefront and customer account with no second login, and you write each lesson yourself. See Alva Courses vs Coursebox for the full comparison.
Best for: teams that want AI-generated course authoring and don't mind learners studying off-store. As of October 2026 Coursebox runs from a free plan up to contract-based Enterprise tiers; check its current pricing before deciding.
Skola — features and pricing unverified
Skola is sometimes presented as another way to sell courses. As of October 2026 we could not find it on the Shopify App Store, so its features and pricing are unverified and this guide does not rate it. If you are considering it, confirm its current details with its developer. Our notes are on the Alva Courses vs Skola page.
Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific and Trainn — often compared, but not Shopify apps
These platforms come up in the same searches, but none of them is a Shopify course app: each runs on its own site, separate from your store's checkout and customer accounts.
- Kajabi: an all-in-one platform that bundles a website builder, funnels, email marketing and courses on its own hosted domain, typically at a far higher monthly price. See Alva Courses vs Kajabi.
- Teachable: a standalone LMS that hosts your courses, checkout and student accounts on its own site, with a transaction fee on its entry plan. See Alva Courses vs Teachable.
- Thinkific: a standalone learning platform on its own site and subdomain, with its own checkout, login and course player. See Alva Courses vs Thinkific.
- Trainn: customer-training software that helps SaaS teams create product-training videos and walkthroughs, rather than a way to sell courses through a Shopify checkout. See Alva Courses vs Trainn.
How to choose the right app for your store
Start from how you teach, not the feature list. Match community-led programmes to Tevello, assessment-heavy courses to Courses Plus, quick launches to Inflowkit, and a free start with storage you buy as you grow to LDT Courses & Communities. Coursebox fits if you already run Coursebox or want AI-generated courses, and are happy for students to learn on its platform. Choose Alva Courses when you want one native app that covers the full builder, video hosting, grading, certificates and member analytics together.
- List your must-haves — video length, quizzes, certificates, drip, community.
- Check video limits — if lessons exceed 1 GB or 10 minutes, you need built-in hosting like Alva Video Hosting.
- Confirm it stays native — students should never leave your Shopify store to learn. Coursebox and standalone platforms like Kajabi send them elsewhere.
- Read the free plan's limits — LDT Courses & Communities caps free enrolments each month, Courses Plus' free plan stops at 5 lessons, and Tevello's free plan is for development stores only.
- Check the App Store listing — install from the Shopify App Store and confirm current plans there; as of October 2026 we could not find Skola on it.
- Use the free trial — build one real course before committing to a plan.
Frequently asked questions
There is no single best app for every store — it depends on what you sell. Alva Courses suits merchants who want native course delivery, built-in video hosting, quizzes, grading and certificates from $9.99/mo. Tevello leans toward communities, Courses Plus toward assessments, Inflowkit toward simple setup, and LDT Courses & Communities toward a free start. Coursebox suits AI-generated courses that students take on its own platform.
Native Shopify course apps like Alva Courses, Tevello, Courses Plus, Inflowkit and LDT Courses & Communities keep students inside your store. Learners check out through Shopify and open their courses on your storefront — no second platform, subdomain or separate login. Coursebox is the exception: its Shopify app auto-enrols buyers into courses hosted on the separate Coursebox platform. Standalone tools like Kajabi, Thinkific or Teachable host students on their own websites instead.
Pricing varies by app and usage tier, so always check each listing for current rates. Alva Courses has two plans: Unlimited at $9.99/mo and Unlimited Pro at $14.99/mo, both with a 14-day free trial. The Pro tier adds 50 GB of Alva Video Hosting with no per-video limits. As of October 2026, Tevello sells a single $29/mo plan, Courses Plus runs from a free plan (5 lessons) to $199.99/mo with quizzes from its $79.99/mo Professional plan, and Inflowkit, LDT Courses & Communities and Coursebox each offer a free plan plus paid tiers.
Yes. Shopify caps native files at 1 GB and 10 minutes per video, which is tight for full lessons. Alva Courses Unlimited Pro adds Alva Video Hosting with 50 GB of storage and no per-video limits, so you can upload long lessons directly without external embeds.
Courses Plus is known for advanced assessments, with quizzes from its $79.99/mo Professional plan as of October 2026, and Alva Courses offers comparable quizzes plus automatic completion certificates, with an optional email that sends each one as a PDF. With Alva Courses you build quizzes inside lessons and award a custom-designed certificate the moment a student finishes a course. Turn on course evaluation and you can grade the student's work first, then print the grade on the certificate.