Why merchants move from Thinkific to Shopify
Thinkific is a capable standalone learning platform that runs on its own site, with its own checkout, login and course player. Merchants who already sell on Shopify often move to keep courses, customers and revenue in one place instead of two systems.
On Shopify with Alva Courses, a course enrolment is a normal Shopify order and every student is a Shopify customer. Students check out once and sign in with the account they already have — no second login, no separate subdomain to maintain.
There is no fictional "one-click" Thinkific importer, and tools that promise one rarely move everything cleanly. The honest path below is manual but fast: rebuild structure, re-add content, then move students with a single CSV. Most catalogues fit inside the free trial.
What actually moves — and what you rebuild
Knowing what carries over before you start prevents surprises. The migration splits cleanly into three buckets: structure you rebuild, content you re-add, and students you import. None of it is automatic, but each part is straightforward.
| Asset | On Thinkific today | In Alva Courses |
|---|---|---|
| Course outline | Chapters & lessons | Rebuilt as sections + lessons in the drag-and-drop builder |
| Videos | Hosted on Thinkific | Re-uploaded to Alva Video Hosting or embedded from YouTube / Vimeo / Loom |
| PDFs, audio, slides | Lesson attachments | Re-added as downloadable file blocks (PDF, ePub, MS Office) and audio blocks |
| Quizzes | Built into lessons | Rebuilt with the quiz / assessment block inside each lesson |
| Students | In the Thinkific platform | Imported by CSV; each becomes a member with a progress record |
| Checkout & login | Thinkific's own | Your existing Shopify checkout and customer account |
A migration map. Structure and content are rebuilt by hand; students arrive in one CSV import.
Step 1 — Install Alva Courses and start the free trial
Begin by installing Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store and starting the 14-day free trial. There is no free plan; both tiers are flat monthly. Your Thinkific school stays live the whole time, so nothing is at risk while you build.
If your library is large, pick the Unlimited Pro plan at $14.99/mo before uploading video — it includes Alva Video Hosting with 50 GB, which comfortably handles long lessons. You can change plans during the trial.
Step 2 — Rebuild your course outline
Recreate each course as sections and lessons in the drag-and-drop builder, mirroring the chapter structure your students already know. Reorder, duplicate and draft lessons as you go, and schedule any you are not ready to publish yet.
This is the moment to tidy the outline rather than copy it exactly. If a Thinkific chapter sprawled, split it; if two lessons always belonged together, merge them. The builder makes restructuring fast before any content goes in.
Step 3 — Re-add your video and lesson content
Video is the part that does not transfer automatically, so plan a session for it. Inside each lesson you have two reliable options for getting your existing videos in, depending on where the source files live today.
Option A — Upload to Alva Video Hosting
Download your masters from Thinkific (or use the originals you kept) and upload them to Alva Video Hosting. The Pro tier's 50 GB handles large files well beyond Shopify's roughly 1 GB and 10-minute native file limits, and lessons stream inside your storefront.
Option B — Embed an existing video link
If your videos already sit on YouTube, Vimeo or Loom, just embed the link in a video block — no re-upload needed.
With video sorted, re-add the rest of each lesson: rich text, images, downloadable PDF, ePub and MS Office files, audio, buttons, Zoom blocks for live sessions, and quizzes. For more detail on rebuilding assessments cleanly, see embedding quizzes and assessments.
Step 4 — Attach each course to a Shopify product
Connect every course to a Shopify product so it sells through your normal checkout, payment providers and discount codes. This is what makes each enrolment a real Shopify order and each buyer a Shopify customer in your admin.
While you are here, configure drip scheduling to release sections by day or date, turn on require-completion gating for sequential courses, design your completion certificate, and set up the enrolment email — which can send from your own domain. It only sends once you tick Send enrollment emails in Settings → Email Settings.
Step 5 — Import your students with CSV
This is how your existing learners move over. Export your student list from Thinkific to a spreadsheet, then bulk-enrol everyone into the matching course in one step using Alva Courses' CSV import — no order placed per student.
Prepare the file. One row per student, with columns headed email (required), first_name and last_name, plus course_1 holding the course title exactly as it appears in Alva Courses. Save it as a .csv of up to 1,000 lines.
Open the Members page. In the Shopify admin, open Alva Courses, go to Members and click Bulk Import CSV. Import runs from this store-wide page, not from a course's own Members tab.
Import and confirm. Upload the file — there is no column mapping; the importer reads your headers and checks each course title. Review the preview and fix any flagged rows. Tick Send enrollment emails to imported members if you want each student to receive a branded enrolment email (it starts unticked), then click Start Import. Every valid student is enrolled with a progress record.
The exact column format and verification steps are documented in Import members with CSV. Members & enrolment also supports CSV export and per-student progress tracking, so you can audit the move afterwards.
Step 6 — Test, switch over, and wind down Thinkific
Before you flip the switch, run a test enrolment on a course. Confirm the storefront course player loads, video streams, the certificate generates, and the enrolment email lands (with Send enrollment emails switched on). Check My Courses appears in the customer account.
Once verified, import your real student cohort, point new sales at your Shopify products, and only then cancel your Thinkific subscription. Because you tested first and kept Thinkific live throughout, learners never lose access during the move.
For a fuller picture of the trade-offs between staying inside your store and running a separate platform, read the Alva Courses vs Thinkific comparison.
Frequently asked questions
No. Alva Courses does not offer a one-click Thinkific importer, and you should be wary of any tool that claims to move your whole school automatically. The realistic path is manual but quick: rebuild your course outline in the drag-and-drop builder, re-upload or re-embed your videos and files, then bring your students across in one step with a bulk CSV import. Most catalogues take a few focused sessions inside the 14-day free trial.
Export your student list from Thinkific to a spreadsheet of emails and names, add a course_1 column holding the exact Alva Courses course title, then import it as a CSV. Open Members in Alva Courses, click Bulk Import CSV, upload the file, review the preview, and click Start Import; there is no column mapping. Every valid row is enrolled at once with a progress record, and if you tick Send enrollment emails to imported members (with Send enrollment emails also on in Settings), each student receives a branded enrolment email with a link to start learning in your storefront.
Your video files do not move automatically. You re-add them inside each lesson in one of two ways. Upload the source files to Alva Video Hosting, which on the Unlimited Pro plan gives 50 GB and handles large videos beyond Shopify's roughly 1 GB native file limit. Or embed a YouTube, Vimeo or Loom link if your videos already live there. Both stream inside your Shopify storefront course player.
No. Build everything in Alva Courses during the 14-day free trial while your Thinkific school stays live. Rebuild the outline, add content, attach each course to a Shopify product, and run a test enrolment to confirm the storefront player and emails. Only when you have verified the experience do you import students, point new sales at Shopify, and wind down the Thinkific subscription, so learners never lose access mid-move.
Students sign in with their normal Shopify customer account on your store's domain, with no second login and no separate platform. After enrolment they open My Courses in their account and play lessons in your branded storefront course player. There is no Thinkific subdomain to remember and no extra password to reset, which usually cuts the access-related support emails you handle.