Alva Courses is a Shopify app that turns a Shopify store into a learning management system. Courses are built in the Shopify admin, sold as ordinary Shopify products and taken in the storefront, where the app tracks progress.
It is one answer to a question merchants ask often: is there an LMS for Shopify? There are several, built in three different ways, and the right one depends less on features than on who your learners are.
What is a Shopify LMS?
A Shopify LMS is a learning management system that sells through a Shopify store. It holds course content, controls who can open it, records each student's progress, tests them and issues certificates. Shopify supplies the checkout, customer accounts and orders; the learning layer comes from an app, a separate platform or custom code.
The same need goes by several names: Shopify LMS, LMS for Shopify, Shopify learning management system or Shopify course platform. The glossary defines an LMS in general terms. The useful question is where that LMS lives relative to your store.
What Shopify already gives you
A Shopify store already runs the commercial half of a course business: product pages, checkout, discounts, taxes, refunds, customer accounts, order history and, from the Basic plan up, automation through Shopify Flow. A good Shopify LMS reuses those pieces rather than rebuilding them somewhere else.
What Shopify does not give you
Shopify has no place for lessons and no idea of a student: no course player, lesson order, progress record, quiz engine or certificate. A product page can sell access to a course; on its own, it cannot deliver one.
What are the three ways to run an LMS with Shopify?
There are three architectures. A native Shopify course app plays lessons inside your storefront and treats Shopify as the source of truth. A standalone LMS runs courses on its own website and connects to Shopify for sales. A headless or custom build joins Shopify to a learning back end that you develop and host yourself.
1. A native Shopify course app
The app installs into the Shopify admin, each course links to a Shopify product, and buyers are enrolled when the order is paid. Lessons play in your storefront under your theme; students sign in with their Shopify customer account.
Alva Courses works this way, and so do Tevello Courses & Communities, Courses Plus, Inflowkit Courses & Membership and LDT Courses & Communities. The comparison hub covers each one head to head.
The category is not uniform. As of October 2026, Courses Plus lists SCORM import on its Shopify App Store listing and LDT lists seat-based licensing from its Business plan up, two things Alva Courses does not offer.
2. A standalone LMS connected to Shopify
Thinkific, Teachable, Kajabi and LearnWorlds are complete course platforms with their own site, checkout and student accounts. To sell from Shopify, a connector or an automation tool such as Zapier enrols each Shopify buyer on the other platform. Teachable and Kajabi only connect to Zapier from their Growth plans up.
The student then learns on the platform's site, with a second login. You get a mature, dedicated LMS. You also run two platforms, two customer lists and two places where support questions start.
3. A headless or custom build
Some larger brands build their own: a storefront on Shopify's Storefront API or Hydrogen, Shopify checkout, and a learning back end that is custom code or an LMS reached through its API. Everything is yours to maintain.
That route suits a team with developers and requirements no app meets. For most merchants, the cost of building and maintaining access rules, progress tracking and video delivery outweighs the control it buys.
| Factor | Native course app | Standalone LMS + connector | Headless or custom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Where lessons play | Your storefront, in your theme | The LMS's own site or subdomain | Wherever you build it |
| Student login | The Shopify customer account | A second account on the LMS | Whatever you build or integrate |
| Checkout | Shopify checkout | The LMS checkout, or Shopify checkout plus a connector | Shopify checkout |
| Customers and orders | Shopify customers and orders | Split between Shopify and the LMS | Shopify, plus your own database |
| Extra platform fees | The app subscription | The LMS plan, sometimes plus a fee per sale or enrolment | Development and hosting |
| Look and feel | Your Shopify theme | The LMS's own templates | Fully custom |
| Reporting | App reports and exports; Shopify analytics for sales | Usually deeper learning reports | Whatever you build |
| SCORM, SSO, compliance | Rare; varies by app | Common on higher plans | Possible, at a cost |
| Who maintains it | The app developer | The LMS vendor, plus whoever maintains the connector | You |
On fees, as of October 2026, Teachable's Starter plan charges a 7.5% transaction fee and LearnWorlds' Starter plan $5 per paid enrolment. Both drop that platform fee on higher plans, though Teachable's 0% applies only with Teachable Payments.
Kajabi takes no revenue share, but its plans start at $179 a month on monthly billing. A transaction fee applies only if you use a third-party processor, other than PayPal, instead of Kajabi Payments.
The deeper argument about checkout, fees, data ownership and login friction is in Shopify course app vs standalone LMS. The rest of this page is about what an LMS has to do, wherever it lives.
What should a Shopify LMS do? A feature checklist
Judge any Shopify LMS by the jobs a learning management system exists to do: structure and deliver content, pace and sequence it, test and grade students, certify completion, track progress, talk to students, control access and report. The checklist below scores Alva Courses on each, checked against the app in October 2026.
| Feature | What to look for | Alva Courses |
|---|---|---|
| Course structure | Modules and lessons you can reorder without rebuilding | YesCourses, sections and lessons in a drag-and-drop builder, with Create Multiple for bulk lessons and a fullscreen builder. |
| Content types | Video, documents, audio and interactive blocks in one lesson | YesText, video, image, PDF, audio, EPUB, MS Office, file download, HTML, quiz, button, contact form, reflection box and Shopify product blocks, plus a Zoom block once you connect Zoom. |
| Video | Long lessons without a separate video host | YesShopify Files on Unlimited (1 GB and 10 minutes per video), YouTube, Vimeo and Loom embeds, or 50 GB of Alva Video Hosting on Unlimited Pro. |
| Drip | Content released on a schedule | YesLessons or sections open a set number of days after each student enrols; single lessons can also publish on a fixed date. |
| Sequencing | Students finish one step before the next | PartlyPer-lesson gating or a course-wide Require lessons to be completed in order, plus quiz steps. No prerequisites between courses. |
| Quizzes | Question types, pass marks and attempt limits | YesMultiple choice, short answer and long answer, with a passing score, time limit, maximum attempts, shuffling and answer explanations. |
| Grading | Human review of open-ended work | YesA submit-for-evaluation queue with written feedback, an A–F or custom grade scale, and revise-and-resubmit. |
| Certificates | Issued automatically, in your branding | YesAwarded on completion or a passing evaluation, with store-wide or per-course designs, an optional grade and optional PDF email. |
| Progress tracking | Per-student and per-course numbers | YesProgress bars, status and completion rate for each course, plus a Members view across every course. |
| Discussions | Questions answered next to the lesson | YesThreaded comments under each lesson, a teacher badge, a Needs reply filter and image attachments. No approval queue. |
| Branded enrolment and follow-up emails | YesPer-course enrolment emails, certificate emails, a completion email after a passed evaluation, a monthly progress digest and sending from your own domain. | |
| Reporting and exports | Data you can analyse elsewhere | PartlyCourse stats and a CSV export with progress, status, expiry date and grade. No custom report builder: deeper analysis happens in a spreadsheet. |
| Access control | Free, paid, bundles, subscriptions, expiry and refunds | YesFree, Free With Account and One Time Purchase courses; one product can grant several courses; membership tags for subscription apps; access durations; refunds remove access. |
| Multilingual player | Students see the interface in their language | YesThe player interface comes in 35 languages and follows the storefront language. Your lesson content is shown as you wrote it. |
| Automation | Course events reach your other tools | YesShopify Flow with 13 triggers and 7 actions on both plans, plus six ready-made templates. |
| AI assistant | Answers about courses and students in the admin | YesShopify Sidekick can find courses, summarise enrolments, check one student's progress and draft changes to a course's enrolment email for you to review and save. |
| Bulk enrolment | Enrolling a list without orders | YesCSV import, manual Add Member and an Enroll customer in course action in Shopify Flow. |
Two details the table cannot show
Access durations are written onto each enrolment and shown to students as a countdown. Deadlines only start refusing access once Alva support switches enforcement on for your store, so check before you promise a hard cut-off.
Refunds are different: fully refunding a course line in Shopify removes that course at once, with no switch needed. Progress, quiz attempts and any certificate already issued are kept.
The 35-language player translates buttons, menus and dates, not lessons. Selling in several languages usually means one course per language, which is covered in selling online courses in multiple languages on Shopify.
What does a Shopify-native LMS usually not do?
Native Shopify course apps are built to sell courses to customers, not to run training inside an organisation. Enterprise LMS features such as SCORM and xAPI packages, single sign-on, HR system sync, cohort rosters, seat licensing and a built-in virtual classroom are usually missing, though not uniformly, so check each app.
| Feature | Alva Courses | Who offers it (as of October 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| SCORM, xAPI, cmi5 or LTI | NoLessons are built in the app; there is no player for packages from authoring tools. | Courses Plus lists SCORM import. TalentLMS supports SCORM, xAPI and cmi5. LearnWorlds offers SCORM from its Pro Trainer plan, Thinkific on its Plus plan. |
| Single sign-on | NoStudents use their Shopify customer account or the access link in their email. | TalentLMS, LearnWorlds (Learning Center plan) and Thinkific (Plus plan). |
| HR system sync | NoEnrol by purchase, CSV import or a Shopify Flow action instead. | TalentLMS lists HRIS integrations. |
| Cohorts | PartlyDrip by enrolment date and scheduled publish dates, but no cohort rosters or separate start dates per intake. | Varies by platform; check each one against your intake model. |
| Live classes | PartlyA Zoom block adds a join button for a meeting or webinar from your connected Zoom account. The session itself runs in Zoom. | TalentLMS lists instructor-led training. Courses Plus lists Zoom and Google Meet sessions. |
| Seat or team licensing | NoEach enrolment is one student; there is no buy-for-my-team checkout. | LDT lists seat-based licensing on its Business plan and up. Courses Plus says managers can enrol teams. |
| Learning paths | NoSequencing works inside a course, not across courses. | Courses Plus lists learning paths. |
| Branded mobile app | NoStudents learn in your storefront in a web browser. | Kajabi includes one on its Pro plan; Thinkific sells one as an add-on. |
If one of these is mandatory, usually because an auditor, accrediting body or IT department requires it, a native Shopify app is the wrong tool, Alva Courses included. It is a different job, not a weaker product.
Who should choose a Shopify-native LMS, and who should not?
Choose a Shopify-native LMS when your students are your customers: they find you through your store, pay through Shopify checkout and may buy products as well as courses. Choose a standalone or enterprise LMS when learners are employees signing in through a company directory, when compliance needs SCORM or xAPI, or when you do not sell on Shopify.
A Shopify-native LMS fits
- Brands teaching customers to use what they sell, such as a coffee roaster's brewing course.
- Coaches, creators and teachers who already sell on Shopify and want one checkout and one customer list.
- Stores selling courses alongside physical products, shown as product cards inside lessons.
- Training sold to customers or partners who pay through Shopify.
A standalone or enterprise LMS fits
- Compliance training reported as SCORM or xAPI, or signed in through SSO.
- Programmes built around cohort rosters, fixed intakes and live classes.
- Organisations buying seats for employees in bulk.
- Course businesses with no store that want site, email and funnels from one vendor, the case Kajabi is built for.
Internal training sits close to the line. Alva Courses can run onboarding and product training enrolled by CSV, as the corporate training page shows, until the training must be reported in SCORM or sign-in must go through a company directory.
How do you set up a Shopify LMS with Alva Courses?
Setting up Alva Courses takes six steps: install the app and pick a plan, create a course and its Shopify product, build sections and lessons, set the learning rules, give students a way in, and test an enrolment. Each step below links to the help article that covers it in detail, with the exact menu names.
Install and choose a plan
Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store and choose Unlimited ($9.99 a month) or Unlimited Pro ($14.99 a month) on Shopify's plan page. Both start with a 14-day free trial; compare them on the pricing page or follow Install Alva Courses.
Create the course and its product
Click Create Course, then choose Create new product or Select existing product. The pricing type decides who gets in: Free, Free With Account or One Time Purchase. See link a course to a Shopify product.
Build sections and lessons
Add sections, then lessons, and fill each lesson with content blocks. Video can come from Shopify Files, YouTube, Vimeo, Loom or, on Unlimited Pro, Alva Video Hosting. Add sections and lessons covers the builder.
Set the learning rules
Decide how students move through the course: drip lessons after enrolment, require lessons in order, add quizzes with a pass mark and set up certificates, whose email starts switched off. Switch on evaluation if a person should review the work before the course counts as complete.
Give students a way in
Buyers are enrolled when the order is paid. Tick Send enrollment emails in Settings (it starts unticked) so they also get an email with a course link. Add the My Courses page and thank-you block in Shopify's checkout and accounts editor, then link /apps/alva/courses from your menu. See My Courses in the customer account.
Test an enrolment
Buy the course yourself with a 100%-off discount or Shopify's Bogus Gateway, then check the member list, the email and the player. Send yourself a test enrolment walks through it, and how to create an online course on Shopify covers the full build.
Frequently asked questions
No. Shopify handles products, checkout, customer accounts and orders, but it has no course player, progress tracking, quizzes or certificates. Merchants add a learning management system in one of three ways: a native course app such as Alva Courses, a standalone LMS such as Thinkific or Teachable connected to the store, or a custom headless build.
It depends on who the learners are. For customers who buy through your store, a native Shopify course app such as Alva Courses keeps checkout, login and customer records in Shopify. For compliance training that needs SCORM, xAPI or single sign-on, an enterprise LMS such as TalentLMS, or a higher plan of LearnWorlds or Thinkific, fits better.
Alva Courses cannot: lessons are built in its own editor and there is no SCORM or xAPI player. Shopify course apps differ here, and Courses Plus lists SCORM import as of October 2026. Among standalone platforms, TalentLMS supports SCORM, xAPI and cmi5, while LearnWorlds offers SCORM from its Pro Trainer plan and Thinkific on its Plus plan.
Not with a native Shopify course app. Alva Courses students sign in with their Shopify customer account, and buyers can also open a course from the access link in their enrolment email or from the thank-you page, even after a guest checkout. A standalone LMS normally asks students to create a second account on its own site.
Alva Courses has two plans, each with a 14-day free trial and no free plan: Unlimited at $9.99 per month, and Unlimited Pro at $14.99 per month, which adds 50 GB of Alva Video Hosting and 10 GB of Alva File Storage. Both include unlimited courses and members, quizzes, certificates and Shopify Flow. Your Shopify plan is billed separately.