Alva · For membership creators

Membership · Community drip lessons · discussions · one portal

Alva Courses for membership creators

Your membership lives on Kajabi or Skool, your community Q&A is on Patreon or a Discord, and your store is somewhere else entirely. You pay three subscriptions, reconcile two member lists, and send people to a second login every time you post. Alva Courses is a Shopify app that lets membership and community creators run a drip membership inside their own store. Release lessons week by week, host per-lesson discussions with comment moderation, and keep every member in one native portal — no second platform.

Install on Shopify A creator's workflow →

★★★★★ 5.0 ·

· 13 App Store reviews · 14-day free trial · By Tom Rushmore, Founder

Drip lessons

Paced

New content week by week

Discussions

Built in

Per-lesson Q&A, moderated

Member portal

My Courses

One login, no second app

Replaces

3 tools

Kajabi, Skool & a store

A day in the life

How a monthly membership runs on Shopify + Alva Courses, in one place.

08:00 · PUBLISH

Drop this week's lesson into the membership.

Open the builder in the Shopify admin and add this week's lesson to the membership — a video, a worksheet PDF, a short quiz. Set it to drip three days after each member's join date so newcomers get the same paced run as long-timers. The library structures itself before the first coffee is cold.

10:30 · COMMUNITY

Answer the Q&A on each lesson.

Overnight, members posted questions in the per-lesson discussions — and you got an email ping for each. You answer them where the content lives, pin a great reply, and hide one off-topic comment with the moderation tools. No Discord to scroll, no separate community tab to police.

13:05 · JOIN

A member subscribes. Access fires itself.

The order is paid and Alva Courses grants access instantly. A branded welcome email arrives from hello@yourmembership.com, the thank-you page invites them in, and lesson one is waiting in the "My Courses" portal of their Shopify customer account. No separate platform to set up.

18:30 · RETAIN

Check who's active and who's drifting.

You open the Members Overview: who finished last week's lesson, who hasn't logged in, who's close to completing the cohort. You drop a note to the quiet ones and post a heads-up in the discussion. Retention is a number you can see, not a guess.

What membership creators actually use

Alva Courses, re-angled for a membership and community.

01 / 06Community

Per-lesson discussions, with moderation.

A membership is a community, not a video dump. A native per-lesson comment system lets members ask questions and reply right where the content lives, so the conversation stays tied to the lesson instead of scrolling away in a chat feed. You get moderation tools to hide, edit or remove comments, and an email ping when someone posts.

That replaces the Discord or separate community platform most memberships bolt on — and members never leave your store to take part. Answer the day's questions in one pass, pin the best replies, and keep the discussion on-topic.

02 / 06Drip & pace

Drip lessons so there's always a reason to stay.

Drip scheduling releases a lesson or section a set number of days after a member joins, so everyone gets a steady drip of new content paced from their own start date — and a binge can't empty the library in a weekend. Schedule a lesson to publish on a fixed calendar date for a live cohort, keep future content as Draft, and members always have something new to come back for.

03 / 06Access & billing

Recurring and limited-time access, your way.

Sell membership access as a Shopify product and use Shopify's native subscription apps for recurring billing — or run time-boxed rounds with Limited-time access, which closes a member's access after a set window. A 90-day challenge, a seasonal cohort or an evergreen monthly membership all map to one Shopify product, and members enrol the instant their order is paid.

04 / 06Portal

A native member portal — no second login.

Members watch every lesson in a branded "My Courses" portal inside their Shopify customer account — the same login they use to check an order. There's no separate membership site to send people to and no extra password to reset. Enrolment and content-update emails send from your own custom domain, so the whole experience feels like part of your brand, not a third-party tool.

05 / 06Members & retention

Member onboarding & progress, automated.

The moment an order is paid, a branded welcome email greets the member and lesson one is in their customer account — no manual handover. The Members Overview shows progress bars, completion rate and status for everyone; add a member by hand, bulk-import a cohort by CSV, or export the roster. You can spot who's drifting before they churn and nudge them back into the community.

06 / 06Migration

Move off Kajabi, Skool or Patreon.

Rebuild the library in the drag-and-drop builder, paste your existing YouTube, Vimeo or Loom links, or upload video to Alva Video Hosting on the Pro plan. Bulk-import your current members from a CSV export so everyone keeps access on day one, and a quiz, certificate and content-update email round out the experience. One Shopify subscription replaces a membership platform, a community tool and a separate store.

The builder — your membership as sections and lessons, with drip, scheduled and draft controls per item.

Pricing, membership-sized

What plan does a membership actually need?

Alva Courses has no per-sale fee and no per-member fee — both plans carry unlimited courses, members and comments. Compared with a membership platform's percentage cut and a community tool's seat pricing, a flat $9.99 looks very different at scale. So the only real question for a membership is your video. Short lessons and screen recordings sit fine within Shopify's hosting on the Unlimited plan. A growing library of long, high-quality footage that exceeds Shopify's 1 GB / 10-minute-per-video file limit is the one thing that points you to Pro.

PLANPRICEFITS

Unlimited$9.99/moMost memberships. Unlimited lessons, members and discussion comments, drip scheduling, comment moderation, certificates, Limited-time access and branded email. Video hosted on Shopify within a 1 GB / 10-min-per-video limit. 14-day free trial.

Unlimited Pro$14.99/moEverything in Unlimited plus Alva Video Hosting — 50 GB and no per-video limits. The right plan once your membership library is long-form HD that outgrows Shopify's native file caps. 14-day free trial.

Both plans include the full builder, drip scheduling, quizzes, certificates, member & progress management, CSV import/export, discussions and moderation, instant access and the custom email domain. See the full breakdown on the pricing page. Each plan starts with a 14-day free trial.

Migration path

From Kajabi, Skool or Patreon to Shopify in 4 steps.

You already have the membership — it's the lessons on Kajabi, the discussions on Skool or Patreon, and the store on Shopify. The work is consolidating it into one place your members log into once.

01
Rebuild the library as sections.
In the builder, create one section per module and one lesson per piece of content. Use "Create Multiple" to add a batch of lessons at once. Don't perfect it yet — get the skeleton of your Kajabi or Skool curriculum in, then fill each lesson with the rich editor.
02
Bring over your video and add a quiz.
Paste your existing YouTube, Loom or Vimeo links, or upload footage to Alva Video Hosting on the Pro plan. Attach a PDF, add a quiz to check understanding, and turn on per-lesson discussions so the community moves over with the content.
03
Bind it to a Shopify product and set drip.
Connect the membership to a Shopify product — pair it with a native subscription app for recurring billing, or set Limited-time access for a time-boxed round. Turn on drip so lessons release week by week, and edit the welcome and content-update emails to send from your domain.
04
Import your members and switch over.
Export your current members from Kajabi, Skool or Patreon and bulk-import the roster via CSV so everyone keeps access on day one. New members enrol automatically when they buy. Watch the Members Overview fill with progress, then point your audience at the new product page.

Shopify App Store reviews

What merchants say

“Cannot recommend it enough. Finding Alva Courses after migrating to Shopify was the best thing I’ve done — the support is second to none and Tom is exceptional.”
— Matt Jackson Photography, United Kingdom · Shopify App Store review

“So glad I found this app. It integrates with Shopify, building my courses was clear and easy, and Tom has been a great help throughout.”
— Kim Knoll Art, United States · Shopify App Store review

“Very easy to use and customizable, and it works seamlessly for selling online courses on Shopify. The support is outstanding and genuinely responsive.”
— Tokos, Canada · Shopify App Store review

FAQ for membership creators

Questions membership creators ask.

Can I run a membership on Shopify instead of Kajabi, Skool or Patreon?

Yes. Alva Courses lets you run the whole membership inside Shopify — members buy access through your existing checkout and watch lessons in the native 'My Courses' member portal in their customer account. There is no second login, no separate community tool to herd people into, and no extra store to keep in sync. You own the member data and pay a flat $9.99 or $14.99 per month instead of a membership platform's higher fees plus transaction cuts.

Does Alva Courses have community discussions and comment moderation?

Yes. A native per-lesson comment system lets members ask questions and reply right where the content lives, so discussion stays tied to the lesson instead of scrolling away in a chat feed. You get moderation tools to hide, edit or remove comments, and an email notification when someone posts so you can answer the day's questions in one pass. It replaces the separate community platform most memberships bolt on.

Can I drip-release lessons so members get new content each week?

Yes. Drip scheduling releases lessons or sections a set number of days after a member joins, so everyone gets a steady flow of new content paced from their own start date. You can also schedule a lesson to publish on a fixed calendar date for a live cohort, or keep lessons as Draft until they're ready. Dripping gives members a reason to stay subscribed and keeps a binge from emptying the library in a weekend.

Can I sell recurring or limited-time access to my membership?

Yes. Sell access as a Shopify product and use Shopify's native subscription apps for recurring billing, or run time-boxed rounds with Alva Courses Limited-time access, which closes a member's access after a set window. Seasonal cohorts, a 90-day challenge or an annual membership round all map to one Shopify product. Members enrol the instant their order is paid and land in the member portal automatically.

How do I migrate my membership from Kajabi, Skool or Patreon?

Rebuild the curriculum in the drag-and-drop builder — one section per module, one lesson per piece of content — and paste your existing YouTube, Vimeo or Loom links, or upload video to Alva Video Hosting on the Pro plan. Then bulk-import your current members from a CSV export so everyone keeps access on day one. New members enrol automatically when they buy, and the Members Overview tracks the whole community from one screen.

Do members get a single login for the membership?

Yes. Everything runs natively inside Shopify. Members buy through your existing checkout and watch every lesson in a branded 'My Courses' portal inside their Shopify customer account — one login, no separate membership site. Branded enrolment emails welcome them the moment their order is paid, content-update emails send from your own custom domain, and you pay a flat $9.99 or $14.99 per month with a 14-day free trial.

Guides for running a membership on Shopify.

Guide

How to create a membership site on Shopify

The full walkthrough — from building a drip library to taking your first recurring member with Alva Courses.

Comparison

Alva Courses vs Kajabi

A flat Shopify subscription against Kajabi's tiered pricing — feature by feature, for memberships and communities.

Guide

Drip-feeding course content: when and how

Why dripping a membership week by week gives members a reason to stay subscribed — and lifts retention.

Install in 90 seconds

Run your membership this week.

Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store, build your library into sections and lessons, bind it to a Shopify product, and place a test order — watch the welcome email land and lesson one appear in the "My Courses" portal. Drip new content, turn on per-lesson discussions, and run it all from the store you already own. The 14-day free trial starts when you do.

✓ Drip lessons that keep members subscribed ✓ Per-lesson discussions, moderated in your store ✓ One member portal — replace Kajabi & Skool

Install on Shopify See pricing & plans

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Alva Courses for membership and community creators