Alva Courses vs Inflowkit
Alva Courses is a Shopify app that lets you build, sell and deliver online courses natively inside your store — with a rich lesson editor, built-in video hosting, quizzes, certificates and drip scheduling. Inflowkit (Courses & Memberships) is a fellow Shopify-native app known for simple setup of courses, memberships and digital products. Alva is just as simple to launch — and adds deeper per-lesson content blocks and video hosting. Here's how the two compare.
Side by side at a glance.
| Feature | Alva Courses | Inflowkit |
|---|---|---|
| Runs natively in Shopify | Yes · admin + storefront course player | Yes · Shopify-native courses & memberships |
| Setup effort | Drag-and-drop builder · live in minutes | Drag-and-drop editor · also quick to start |
| Lesson content blocks | Text, video, image, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office, quiz, Zoom, button | Lessons with text, video and file/PDF attachments |
| Built-in video hosting | Alva Video Hosting · 50 GB, no per-video limit (Unlimited Pro) | Embed-focused · check current Inflowkit hosting options |
| External video embeds | YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher, Loom on every plan | Supports embedded video |
| Quizzes | Build quizzes inside lessons | Available — check current plan tier |
| Completion certificates | Custom certificate, auto-awarded & emailed · every plan | Certificates available |
| Drip scheduling | Drip by days after enrolment, schedule or draft per lesson | Drip scheduling supported |
| Memberships / subscriptions | Course-access & limited-time access; subscriptions via Shopify | Native membership & subscription tiers |
| Discussions / comments | Per-lesson comments with moderation & email alerts | Not a listed primary feature |
| Branded email + custom domain | Customizable enrolment/certificate email; send from your own domain | Email notifications; check custom-domain support |
| Member management & CSV | Bulk import / export CSV, progress tracking, completion rate | Student dashboard & progress tracking |
| Pricing model | Two flat plans · $9.99 & $14.99/mo · 14-day trial | Free tier + paid tiers that scale up — check listing |
Inflowkit is a well-reviewed Shopify-native app (around 4.8 stars on the App Store) for selling courses, memberships and digital products with a clean learner dashboard. Feature availability and pricing change over time, so check the Inflowkit app listing for current details.
Same simplicity, more in each lesson.
Inflowkit is a genuinely simple, Shopify-native way to start selling courses and memberships — and Alva Courses is just as fast to set up. The difference shows once a course grows past a few text-and-video lessons and you want richer content, built-in hosting and a branded learner experience. Four reasons merchants pick Alva:
Each Alva lesson can mix full rich text, video, images, PDFs, audio, ePub, MS Office documents, quizzes, Zoom links and buttons — with "require completion before next lesson" gating. You build the lesson the content needs, not just text plus one video.
Alva Video Hosting on Unlimited Pro gives you 50 GB with no per-video size or length limit, so course videos can live inside Alva instead of public YouTube. You can still embed YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher and Loom on any plan when you prefer.
Award a custom, auto-emailed completion certificate, test knowledge with in-lesson quizzes, and run a per-lesson comment thread with moderation and email alerts — the engagement layer that turns a course into a community, included on every Alva plan.
Alva keeps it to two flat plans — Unlimited at $9.99 and Unlimited Pro at $14.99 — both with unlimited courses and members and a 14-day free trial. No per-transaction course fees and no tier maze as your catalogue grows.
Choose Alva Courses if you…
- Want simple setup but richer lessons (text, video, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office, quizzes)
- Would rather host course videos privately than publish them on YouTube
- Want certificates, in-lesson quizzes and discussions on every plan
- Like predictable two-tier pricing from $9.99/mo with no course transaction fees
- Want learners to stay inside your branded Shopify storefront and customer account
Inflowkit may suit you if you…
- Want a simple Shopify-native app for courses and memberships
- Lead with subscription/membership tiers as your core model
- Sell a mix of courses and standalone digital products
- Are happy embedding video and keeping lessons mostly text plus video
Three differentiators, in detail.
Setup: both are simple — here is what "simple" buys you
Inflowkit earns its reputation for ease: install it, build a course in the editor, attach it to a product, and you are selling. Alva Courses is the same shape — a drag-and-drop builder for courses, sections and lessons, with reorder-by-dragging, duplicate, rename and "Create Multiple" for bulk lessons. There is no separate platform, no second login for students, and no theme surgery.
The question is what happens after the first three lessons. With Alva, the same simple editor opens up into a full content toolkit per lesson, completion gating between lessons, and per-section visibility. You do not graduate to a different, harder tool when the course gets ambitious — the simple builder scales with you.
- Alva setup
- Drag-and-drop builder, live in minutes
- Inflowkit setup
- Drag-and-drop editor, also quick to start
- Difference
- Alva keeps it simple while adding depth per lesson
Lesson content blocks — text and video, or everything
A course is only as good as what's inside each lesson. Many simple course apps centre lessons on a block of text plus a video. That covers a lot — but real courses often need a downloadable workbook PDF, an audio version, an ePub, a slide deck, a live Zoom session, or a knowledge-check quiz before the student moves on.
Alva Courses gives every lesson the full set: rich text (fonts, sizes, tables, alignment), video (uploaded or embedded), image, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office documents, quizzes, Zoom links and buttons. Toggle "require completion before next lesson" to sequence learning, and centre lesson titles for a cleaner reading view. The lesson adapts to the content, instead of forcing the content into one layout.
- Alva blocks
- Text · video · image · PDF · audio · ePub · MS Office · quiz · Zoom · button
- Sequencing
- Require completion before next lesson
- Best for
- Courses that go beyond text plus a single video
Built-in video hosting vs public embeds
Shopify's native file limits (around 1 GB and roughly 10 minutes per video) push many course apps toward embedding YouTube or Vimeo. That works, but it can mean publishing your paid lessons on a public platform, dealing with related-video distractions, or paying separately for a private host.
Alva Courses includes Alva Video Hosting on the Unlimited Pro plan: 50 GB of storage with no per-video size or length cap, so full lessons stream from inside Alva, gated behind enrolment. You keep the option to embed YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher or Loom on any plan — but you are not forced onto public video to run a serious course.
- Alva hosting
- 50 GB, no per-video limit (Unlimited Pro)
- Embeds
- YouTube · Vimeo · VdoCipher · Loom on any plan
- Shopify file cap
- Bypassed by Alva Video Hosting
Two plans, both with a free trial.
Alva Courses keeps pricing to two flat monthly tiers, both with unlimited courses, unlimited members and a 14-day free trial. Inflowkit offers a free tier plus several paid tiers that scale up as you add features and members — check the Inflowkit listing for current numbers, since vendor pricing changes over time.
| plan | Unlimited $9.99/mo 14-day free trial | Recommended Unlimited Pro $14.99/mo 14-day free trial |
|---|---|---|
| Courses & members | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Lesson content blocks | All block types | All block types |
| Quizzes, certificates & drip | ||
| Discussions & custom email domain | ||
| Alva Video Hosting (50 GB, no per-video limit) | — |
Compare Inflowkit's tiers directly at the Inflowkit listing. Full details on Alva's plans are on the Alva Courses pricing page.
Moving from Inflowkit to Alva.
- Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store and start the 14-day free trial — no separate platform to provision.
- Rebuild your course outline. Use the drag-and-drop builder to recreate sections and lessons. "Create Multiple" makes bulk lessons fast.
- Add your lesson content. Paste text, upload videos to Alva Video Hosting or embed YouTube/Vimeo/Loom, attach PDFs and audio, and add quizzes where you want knowledge checks.
- Map courses to Shopify products and import students. Link each course to its product, then bulk-import existing learners with a CSV. Your Shopify catalogue stays untouched.
- Test, then switch over. Place a test enrolment, confirm the enrolment and certificate emails and the storefront course player. Inflowkit can stay installed during the transition while you move courses across.
Alva Courses works across every teaching niche on Shopify — see how it fits online educators and content creators. For the full setup walkthrough, read how to sell online courses on Shopify.
Answers before you switch.
Just as simple to set up — with more in every lesson.
Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store, build a course with the drag-and-drop editor, add rich lessons with video, PDFs and quizzes, and enrol a test student through your own checkout. Alva can run alongside Inflowkit while you evaluate. The 14-day free trial starts when you install.