Alva Courses vs LearnDash
Alva Courses is a Shopify app that sells and delivers online courses inside the Shopify store you already run. LearnDash is a WordPress LMS plugin from Liquid Web that you install on a site you host, selling through Stripe, PayPal or WooCommerce. Here is how they compare for Shopify merchants, and for WooCommerce sellers weighing a move.
LearnDash is a WordPress plugin licensed at $259, $399 or $599 a year as of October 2026, with hosting and upkeep on top. Alva Courses runs inside Shopify at $9.99 or $14.99 a month. LearnDash suits WordPress and WooCommerce sites that want full control; Alva suits stores that already sell on Shopify.
Side by side at a glance.
Alva Courses and LearnDash both build and sell structured courses with quizzes, certificates and progress tracking. The difference is the platform underneath. Alva Courses runs inside Shopify and is maintained for you. LearnDash runs on a WordPress site that you host, update and secure, which gives you more control and more work.
| Capability | Alva Courses | LearnDash |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | A Shopify app, installed from the Shopify App Store | A plugin for WordPress, installed on your own site |
| Where students learn | Your Shopify storefront, under your theme | Your WordPress site, under your WordPress theme |
| Checkout | Shopify checkout, in the same cart as your products | Built-in Stripe and PayPal, or WooCommerce through the included integration |
| Student login | Shopify customer account, or the access link in the enrolment email | A WordPress user account on your site |
| Price | $9.99/mo or $14.99/mo, billed through Shopify | $259, $399 or $599 a year for the licence |
| Hosting & updates | Included: Alva Apps runs and updates the app | Yours to arrange: WordPress hosting, backups, plugin and security updates |
| Video | 50 GB Alva Video Hosting on Unlimited Pro; Shopify Files or YouTube, Vimeo and Loom on Unlimited | No video hosting included; its docs recommend a service such as Vimeo, Wistia or Amazon S3 |
| Quizzes | Multiple choice, short and long answer, with pass mark, time limit and attempt limit | 8 question types, including essay, sorting and fill-in-the-blank |
| Grading | Evaluation queue with written feedback and a letter-grade scale | Assignment management on every plan; Gradebook with weighted grading on Pro and Elite |
| Certificates | Included on both plans | Certificate builder on every plan |
| Reporting | Members overview, completion rates and CSV export | ProPanel analytics on Pro and Elite |
| Memberships | Membership tags applied by a Shopify subscription app | MemberDash built in: tiers, subscriptions and bundles |
| Group & seat sales | Not offered | Elite plan: sell seats, group management |
| SCORM & xAPI | Not supported | Through paid third-party add-ons |
| Customisation | Appearance settings and custom CSS; the player's code can't be changed | Full code access, with any WordPress theme or plugin |
| Gamification | Not offered | Badges and points on every plan |
LearnDash figures come from its pricing page on liquidweb.com and its documentation on video and SCORM, checked on 9 October 2026. Card processing fees apply on both platforms and are not shown.
LearnDash plans and what each licence includes.
LearnDash sells three annual licences as of October 2026: Essentials at $259 a year, Pro at $399 and Elite at $599. Each includes unlimited courses and learners with no per-student fee, and renews every year. Pro adds ProPanel reporting and the Gradebook; Elite adds group management, seat sales and an instructor role.
Scroll sideways to see every column →
| LearnDash plan | Price | What it includes | Positioned for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essentials | $259/year | Course and quiz builders, MemberDash memberships, Stripe and PayPal, certificates, assignments, video progression, and the WooCommerce and other integrations | Solo instructors |
| Pro | $399/year | Everything in Essentials, plus ProPanel reporting, a Gradebook with weighted grading and report cards, student notes and group leader messages | Growing programmes |
| Elite | $599/year | Everything in Pro, plus group course management, seat sales, an instructor role with front-end course creation, and ratings and reviews | L&D teams and institutions |
Source: LearnDash pricing, checked 9 October 2026. The page lists no separate renewal price and does not say how many sites one licence covers, so ask LearnDash before buying for several sites. The licence covers the plugin. WordPress hosting, a domain, video hosting and any paid theme or extension are bought separately, and prices for those vary widely by provider.
Running LearnDash next to a Shopify store.
A Shopify merchant who chooses LearnDash runs two websites: the Shopify store and a WordPress site for courses. LearnDash's integration list includes WooCommerce, ThriveCart and SamCart but not Shopify, so a course bought in Shopify needs a connector to enrol the buyer, or courses sell separately on the WordPress site.
A second site to run
LearnDash is software you install, not a hosted service. The WordPress site needs hosting, a theme, backups, and updates to WordPress, LearnDash and every other plugin. LearnDash's own FAQ says it suits high-traffic learning sites best when paired with managed WordPress hosting.
None of that is unusual for a WordPress business, and it buys real freedom. For a merchant whose store already runs on Shopify, it is a second platform to keep secure, fast and on brand.
Connecting Shopify orders to LearnDash
To sell LearnDash courses in the Shopify checkout, something has to pass each order across. Zapier lists a Shopify "New Paid Order" trigger and a LearnDash "Enroll Into Course" action that can be joined into a workflow.
Students then learn on the WordPress site with a WordPress login, separate from their Shopify customer account. Refunds, access changes and customer records have to be kept in step across the two systems by hand or by more automations.
Costs that sit outside the licence
The LearnDash licence is only part of the bill. Hosting, a premium theme if you use one, a video host, and paid extensions such as WooCommerce Subscriptions for recurring billing through WooCommerce, or a SCORM add-on, are separate purchases with their own renewals.
Alva Courses has fewer moving parts. The app subscription covers the software and its hosting, and Unlimited Pro includes 50 GB of Alva Video Hosting. The Shopify plan is the other cost, and a Shopify merchant already pays it.
If you sell with WooCommerce today.
LearnDash and WooCommerce work well together: a WooCommerce product can unlock one or more courses, and refunds or cancelled subscriptions remove access. If you are happy on WordPress, that pairing is hard to beat for control. If you are moving the store to Shopify anyway, Alva Courses gives your courses the same product-based model there.
How the pieces map across
The everyday jobs of a LearnDash and WooCommerce setup each have a match on Shopify; group seats and gamification do not. The table shows where each job goes when Alva Courses handles the courses and Shopify handles the store.
| Job | LearnDash + WooCommerce | Shopify + Alva Courses |
|---|---|---|
| Selling a course | A WooCommerce product linked to one or more courses | A Shopify product, or a single variant, linked to one or more courses |
| Refunds | Refunded orders remove access through the integration's enrolment settings | A full refund of a course line removes that course automatically |
| Recurring access | WooCommerce Subscriptions, a paid extension, or MemberDash | A Shopify subscription app tags members, and Alva Courses grants access by tag |
| Student accounts | WordPress users | Shopify customers, with existing students imported by CSV |
| Quizzes | 8 question types | Multiple choice, short and long answer |
| Certificates | Certificate builder | Completion certificates, with a store-wide or per-course design |
Moving the store itself is a separate project. Shopify's guide to migrating from WooCommerce covers products, customers and order history, including which parts need a third-party app. For recurring access on Shopify, see grant course access with membership tags and refunds and course access.
Where LearnDash is the stronger choice.
LearnDash is stronger when you want ownership and flexibility. It runs on open-source WordPress with full code access, works with a long list of WordPress plugins, offers eight quiz question types, assignments and a gradebook, sells group seats on Elite, and plays SCORM through paid add-ons. Alva Courses has neither seat sales nor code access beyond custom CSS.
LearnDash runs on your own WordPress site and hosting, so you choose the host, the theme and every plugin, and a developer can change anything. Its FAQ describes no hosting lock-in and no proprietary dependencies.
Quizzes offer eight question types, including essay, sorting and fill-in-the-blank, and assignment management comes on every plan. Pro and Elite add a Gradebook with weighted grading and custom report cards.
Elite lets organisations buy seats for a team, lets clients manage their own people, and adds an instructor role with front-end course creation. Alva Courses enrols the customer who placed the order and has no seat sales.
MemberDash, included on every plan, sells membership tiers, recurring subscriptions and course bundles from the same plugin. On Shopify, Alva Courses relies on a subscription app to tag members.
Elementor, WooCommerce, MemberPress, Paid Memberships Pro, Gravity Forms, bbPress, ThriveCart and SamCart integrations come with every plan, along with badges and points for gamification.
LearnDash's documentation says its own content is not SCORM compliant and points to third-party add-ons, GrassBlade xAPI Companion or Uncanny Owl's Tin Canny Reporting. Both are paid plugins that list SCORM 1.2 and 2004 support. Alva Courses cannot play SCORM packages.
Where Alva Courses is the better fit.
Alva Courses is the better fit for merchants whose business already runs on Shopify. There is no second website to host or update, courses sell in the same checkout as your products, video hosting is included on Unlimited Pro, and every student is a Shopify customer you can reach with Shopify Flow, Shopify Email or Klaviyo.
Alva Courses is a Shopify app, so Alva Apps runs the servers and ships the updates. You never update a plugin, renew a separate hosting plan for courses or test a WordPress upgrade before a launch.
A course is a Shopify product, bought in the same cart as physical products with your usual discounts and payment methods. Students open courses from My Courses in their Shopify customer account or from the emailed access link.
Unlimited Pro includes 50 GB of Alva Video Hosting with no limit on video length, playing inside the storefront player. On Unlimited, lessons use Shopify Files, or YouTube, Vimeo and Loom embeds.
Thirteen Shopify Flow triggers and seven actions connect course events to Shopify Email, Klaviyo, customer tags or Google Sheets, and Shopify Sidekick answers questions about your courses and students.
Quizzes come with pass marks, time limits and attempt limits. An optional evaluation step lets you review coursework, add written feedback and award a letter grade before the certificate is issued.
Enrolment, certificate and monthly progress emails are built into Alva Courses and can send from your own verified domain. Their templates are edited in the app, with nothing extra to install.
Choose Alva Courses if you…
- Run your store on Shopify and don't want a WordPress site as well
- Want courses and products in one checkout and one customer list
- Would rather not handle hosting, plugin updates or security patches
- Want video hosting included (Unlimited Pro)
- Don't need SCORM, seat sales or changes to the player's code
Choose LearnDash if you…
- Already run your business on WordPress or WooCommerce
- Want full control of hosting, theme and code
- Sell seats to organisations or need group management (Elite)
- Need SCORM packages through a WordPress add-on
- Want memberships, gamification and many WordPress integrations in one plugin
Comparing hosted course platforms instead? Alva Courses vs LearnWorlds covers a standalone LMS with SCORM and single sign-on, and the Shopify LMS guide lists the enterprise features Alva Courses does not have.
What each costs in year one.
Paid monthly, Alva Courses costs $119.88 a year on Unlimited or $179.88 on Unlimited Pro; yearly billing cuts that to $99.99 or $149.99, with hosting and updates included. A LearnDash licence costs $259, $399 or $599 a year, before WordPress hosting, a domain, video hosting and paid add-ons. Alva needs a Shopify plan; LearnDash does not.
| plan | Unlimited $9.99/mo Everything to sell courses | Recommended Unlimited Pro $14.99/mo Adds Alva Video Hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Courses, members & comments | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Quizzes, certificates & drip | ||
| Branded email + custom domain | ||
| Shopify Flow triggers & actions | ||
| Alva Video Hosting (50 GB, no per-video limit) | — | |
| Alva File Storage (course files up to 500 MB) | — | |
| 14-day free trial |
If you already pay for WordPress hosting to run a WooCommerce store, LearnDash adds only its licence and whatever extensions you need, so the gap narrows.
Alva Courses plans are chosen on Shopify's app pricing page when you install and billed on your Shopify invoice. The Shopify App Store listing also offers yearly billing at $99.99 or $149.99, about 17% less than paying monthly. Full details are on the Alva Courses pricing page.
Moving from LearnDash to Alva Courses.
Moving from LearnDash to Alva Courses is a rebuild: Alva Courses has no LearnDash importer. Recreate each course's sections and lessons, re-upload or embed your videos, rebuild quizzes, link each course to a Shopify product and enrol existing students from a CSV of their emails. LearnDash progress and quiz history do not transfer.
- Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store and start the 14-day free trial. Leave the WordPress site running while you build.
- Map the structure. LearnDash nests topics inside lessons, sometimes under section headings. Alva Courses has two levels, sections and lessons, so a LearnDash lesson usually becomes a section and its topics the lessons inside it.
- Rebuild the content. Upload video to Alva Video Hosting on Unlimited Pro, or embed it from YouTube, Vimeo or Loom, then add PDFs, audio and Quiz blocks. Essay questions become Long Answer questions, which you grade by hand in Review Responses.
- Set each course's pricing type and products. Every course is created with a Shopify product; choose Free, Free With Account or One Time Purchase, and link more products or single variants if you need them. Tick Send enrollment emails in Settings → Email Settings so buyers get their access link.
- Import existing students by CSV from Members → Bulk Import CSV: email, name and up to ten course titles per row, up to 1,000 lines per file. The import email is optional and starts switched off.
- Test, then switch. Place a test order, check the email and the player, then point your course links at the Shopify store.
The CSV format is in import members with CSV, and automating courses with Shopify Flow shows how to rebuild any enrolment and follow-up automations you ran in WordPress.
Alva Courses fits Shopify sellers who teach. See how it works for online educators and membership creators, or weigh a Shopify app against any separate platform in Shopify course app vs standalone LMS.
Alva Courses vs LearnDash: common questions.
Sell courses on Shopify — nothing extra to host.
Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store, rebuild one course, link it to a product and place a test order while your WordPress site keeps running. Both plans start with a 14-day free trial.