Alva Courses vs Kajabi
Alva Courses is a Shopify app that builds, sells and delivers online courses natively inside the store you already run — using your Shopify checkout, theme, customer accounts and product catalog. Kajabi is a separate all-in-one platform that bundles a website builder, funnels, email marketing and a course area on its own hosted domain. Here's how the two compare on price, features, and the model each one is built for.
Side by side at a glance.
| Feature | Alva Courses | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Course app inside your Shopify store | Separate all-in-one platform & website |
| Starting price | $9.99/mo · Pro $14.99/mo | Higher monthly subscription — check their pricing |
| Checkout | Your native Shopify checkout | Kajabi's own hosted checkout |
| Website / storefront | Uses your existing Shopify theme | Built-in website & page builder |
| Learner login | Shopify customer account — no second login | Separate Kajabi member login |
| Course builder | Drag-and-drop sections & lessons | Drag-and-drop product/course builder |
| Video hosting | Alva Video Hosting (50 GB, Pro) + YouTube/Vimeo/VdoCipher/Loom | Built-in platform video hosting |
| Quizzes & certificates | In-lesson quizzes + auto completion certificates | Quizzes & assessments included |
| Drip scheduling | Drip by days after enrolment + scheduled publish | Drip scheduling included |
| Email marketing & funnels | Transactional course emails only — use your own marketing app | Built-in email marketing, funnels, pipelines |
| Customer & sales data | Stays in your Shopify admin | Lives on the Kajabi platform |
| Best for | Shopify merchants adding courses | Creators wanting one hosted all-in-one home |
Kajabi is a well-established, capable all-in-one platform for creators — its strength is bundling a website, email marketing and funnels with courses in a single subscription. Pricing and tiers change over time, so check Kajabi's current pricing for exact figures. The table above describes the general model rather than specific plan numbers.
When Alva Courses is the better fit.
Kajabi is genuinely good at being a single hosted home for a creator with no existing storefront. But if you already sell on Shopify, an all-in-one platform duplicates the website, the checkout and the customer database you already pay for. Five reasons Shopify merchants pick Alva Courses instead:
Alva Courses is $9.99/mo, or $14.99/mo with Alva Video Hosting — a focused app fee on top of the Shopify plan you already have. An all-in-one platform charges a full second subscription for a website and marketing suite you may not need.
Courses sell as Shopify products and play in your existing theme. There is no separate site to design, no second domain to manage, and no rebuilding of pages you already have. Your brand stays exactly as customers know it.
Students buy through your normal Shopify checkout and find courses in their Shopify customer account — the same login they use for any other order. No separate member portal, no second password, no platform hop between buying and learning.
Orders, customers and revenue stay in your Shopify admin, where the rest of your business already lives. Pair courses with discounts, gift cards, your email app and your analytics — instead of exporting between two platforms.
Rich lessons (video, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office, quizzes), drip scheduling, completion certificates, per-lesson discussions, member management with CSV import/export, and branded enrolment email from your own domain — all inside Shopify.
Choose Alva Courses if you…
- Already sell on Shopify (or plan to) and want to add courses
- Want one checkout and one customer login for products and courses
- Prefer a low monthly app fee over a full platform subscription
- Like your existing Shopify theme and don't want a second website
- Want video hosting, quizzes, certificates, drip & discussions built in
- Value owning customer and sales data inside Shopify
Kajabi may suit you if you…
- Have no existing store and want a single hosted platform
- Want website, email marketing and funnels bundled with courses
- Prefer running marketing and learning in one all-in-one tool
- Are happy to pay a higher monthly subscription for that bundle
Three differentiators, in detail.
All-in-one platform vs native Shopify app
Kajabi's pitch is consolidation: website, funnels, email marketing and courses in one subscription on one hosted domain. For a creator starting from nothing, that's a fast way to launch. But if you already run a Shopify store, much of that bundle overlaps what you own — you'd be paying twice for a storefront and a customer database, and splitting your brand across two sites.
Alva Courses takes the opposite approach. It is a focused Shopify app that adds courses to the store you already have. Course management lives in your Shopify admin; learners watch lessons in your storefront and customer account. You keep one website, one checkout and one source of truth, and add only the piece you were missing — course delivery — for a small monthly fee.
- Alva model
- Course app inside your existing Shopify store
- Kajabi model
- Separate all-in-one platform & website
- Best for
- Alva: existing Shopify merchants · Kajabi: creators with no store
Cost: an app fee vs a full platform subscription
Because Kajabi bundles a website builder, email marketing and funnels, it is priced as a complete platform — generally a substantially higher monthly cost than a single-purpose app. That makes sense when you use the whole bundle, and far less sense when Shopify already provides your store, checkout and customer accounts.
Alva Courses is priced as what it is: a course app. Unlimited is $9.99/mo with unlimited courses, members and comments, progress tracking and custom certificates. Unlimited Pro is $14.99/mo and adds Alva Video Hosting — 50 GB with no per-video limits. Both include a 14-day free trial. For an existing Shopify merchant, that's typically a fraction of an all-in-one platform's monthly bill.
- Alva Unlimited
- $9.99/mo · unlimited courses, members, certificates
- Alva Pro
- $14.99/mo · adds 50 GB Alva Video Hosting
- Free trial
- 14 days on both plans
- Kajabi
- All-in-one subscription — check their current pricing
One storefront vs two: where students buy and learn
With Kajabi, the course and its sales pages live on the Kajabi platform. If your store is already on Shopify, you end up sending customers between two destinations — your shop for products, Kajabi for courses — each with its own checkout, login and look.
Alva Courses keeps everything in one place. A course is a Shopify product, so customers buy it through your normal checkout. The moment the order is paid, the course is delivered via branded email and on the thank-you and order-status pages. Learners then open "My Courses" in their Shopify customer account and play lessons in a branded storefront course player with a sidebar lesson list, progress bar and completion ticks — no second platform, no second login.
- Alva delivery
- Email · thank-you · order status · customer account
- Learner experience
- Branded storefront course player in your theme
- Kajabi surface
- Hosted on the Kajabi platform
Transparent, flat monthly.
Alva Courses has two flat monthly plans, each with a 14-day free trial: Unlimited at $9.99/mo and Unlimited Pro at $14.99/mo. Kajabi is an all-in-one platform priced as a higher monthly subscription that bundles a website, email marketing and funnels — exact tiers change over time, so check Kajabi's current pricing. The two are priced for different jobs: Alva adds courses to a store you already run; Kajabi replaces the whole platform.
| plan | Unlimited $9.99/mo 14-day free trial | Recommended Unlimited Pro $14.99/mo Adds video hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Courses, members & comments | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Progress tracking & certificates | ||
| Quizzes, drip & discussions | ||
| Branded email & custom domain | ||
| Alva Video Hosting (50 GB, no per-video limit) | — |
Compare Kajabi's tiers directly at Kajabi's pricing page. Full details on Alva's two plans are at the Alva Courses pricing page.
Moving from Kajabi to Alva Courses.
- Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store and start the 14-day free trial — course management appears right in your Shopify admin.
- Export your content from Kajabi. Download your course videos and PDFs, and note your section/lesson structure so you can mirror it in Alva.
- Rebuild in Alva's drag-and-drop builder. Create courses, sections and lessons, then add content blocks — video (Alva-hosted on Pro, or YouTube/Vimeo/VdoCipher/Loom), PDF, audio, quizzes and more.
- Map each course to a Shopify product. Set the price and let it sell through your existing Shopify checkout. Add drip scheduling, a completion certificate and discussions as needed.
- Import members, then switch enrolments over. Bulk-import existing students by CSV, run a test purchase to confirm delivery, then point new sign-ups to your Shopify store. Keep Kajabi active until you're confident.
Alva Courses fits many teaching businesses — see how it works for coaches & consultants and business trainers. For a deeper look at the trade-offs, read Shopify course app vs standalone LMS.
Answers before you switch.
Add courses to the store you already run — no second platform.
Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store. Build a course in the drag-and-drop editor, attach it to a Shopify product, and watch the first branded enrolment land — sold through your own checkout, played in your own theme. Start with a 14-day free trial on either plan.