How membership tags work
Alva Courses checks a signed-in customer's Shopify tags the moment they open a One Time Purchase course they have not bought. If the customer carries any tag you have added to that course, access is granted instantly and an enrolment is created automatically — quizzes, progress and certificates all work exactly as they would after a purchase. Alva Courses does not add or remove these tags itself: a subscription app applies the tag while billing is active and removes it when a subscription lapses, so access always reflects the customer's current subscription status. This is the reverse of the separate Customer Tagging option you'll see nearby when creating a course, which adds a tag to a customer after they buy — Membership Tags instead reads a tag that is already on the customer to decide whether to let them in.
Set up membership tags
1. Configure your subscription app’s active tag
In your subscription app (Seal Subscriptions, Appstle Subscriptions, ReCharge, or similar), turn on the setting that adds a tag to a customer's Shopify profile while their subscription is active, and removes it when the subscription is cancelled or lapses. Note the exact tag it uses, such as Active-Subscriber.
2. Set the course to One Time Purchase pricing
Open the course in Alva Courses, go to Settings, then Pricing & access, and confirm the pricing type is One Time Purchase. Membership tags only affect One Time Purchase courses — they have no effect on Free or Free With Account courses. Free courses are open to everyone with no login, and Free With Account courses only require the customer to be signed in — neither needs a membership tag.
3. Add the tag to Membership Tags
Scroll to the Membership Tags card and click Add Tag to add the exact tag your subscription app applies. Add more than one tag if several subscription tiers should unlock the course — a customer needs only one matching tag to get in.
4. Save the course
Save your changes. From this point, Alva Courses checks for the tag automatically every time an unenrolled customer opens the course — there is nothing further to configure.
5. Test with a tagged customer
Apply the tag to a test customer in Shopify (or trigger a test subscription in your subscription app), then open the course while logged in as that customer. Access should appear immediately, with no order or checkout involved.
What students see
A subscriber who is signed in to their customer account and opens the course link lands straight in the storefront course player — no purchase screen, no separate sign-up. If they have never opened one of your courses before, Alva Courses creates their student record automatically from the tag match. If the subscription later lapses and the tag is removed, the course disappears from My Courses on their next visit, but their progress is kept in case they resubscribe.
See also
Was this helpful?
Last updated 2026-10-08