Thinkific alternatives for stores already on Shopify
Alva Courses is a Shopify app that sells and delivers online courses through your store's own checkout. Below, it sits beside three other Shopify-native course apps (Courses Plus, LDT and Tevello) and the standalone platforms Thinkific users weigh next (LearnWorlds, Teachable and Kajabi), with every price taken from the vendor in October 2026.
Thinkific raised Basic, Start and Grow by about 10% in August 2026, to $54, $109 and $219 a month billed monthly, and adds up to 5% on Stripe sales. Alva Courses ($9.99 or $14.99 a month) and other Shopify apps sell courses through your store's checkout. Thinkific still leads for communities and B2B selling.
Why Thinkific users look for alternatives in 2026.
Thinkific users look for alternatives because the platform got dearer and its fees depend on how you take payment. In August 2026 Thinkific raised its three self-serve plans by about 10%, its first increase since 2022. Stripe sales carry an extra gateway fee, and certificates, memberships and branding removal sit on higher plans.
From 13 August 2026, Basic went from $49 to $54 a month, Start from $99 to $109 and Grow from $199 to $219. Annual billing still saves 25%, and annual plans move to the new price at renewal.
For creators in the US, Canada, the UK and the EU, Thinkific adds a third-party gateway fee to Stripe sales: 5% on Basic, 2% on Start and 1% on Grow. Moving to Thinkific Payments avoids it.
Completion certificates, memberships, bundles and live cohorts start on Start at $109 a month. Removing Thinkific branding, group orders and API access need Grow at $219. SSO and SCORM sit on the custom-priced Plus plan.
Thinkific runs its own site, checkout and student accounts. Its Shopify app is temporarily unavailable: the listing says it is not currently available, and Thinkific's help centre says new connections can't be set up for now. Linking a new store takes a third-party connector such as Zapier.
What each Thinkific plan includes
Thinkific sells three self-serve plans plus Plus, its enterprise tier priced through sales. The table lists what Thinkific publishes for each, taken from its pricing page and help centre on 9 October 2026. Prices are per month in US dollars.
| Thinkific plan | Billed monthly | Billed annually | Current students | Video bandwidth | Communities | Certificates | Stripe gateway fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basic | $54/mo | $40/mo | 10,000 | 100 GB a month | 1 | Not included | 5% |
| Start | $109/mo | $82/mo | 10,000 | 200 GB a month | 1 | Included | 2% |
| Grow | $219/mo | $164/mo | 10,000 | 400 GB a month | 3 | Included | 1% |
| Plus | On request | On request | Custom | From 7,500 GB a month | Unlimited | Included | None at present |
Sources: Thinkific pricing, the 2026 pricing update and How much does Thinkific cost?, checked 9 October 2026. Thinkific shows prices in local currency by region: viewed from Europe the page shows €53, €107 and €213, so the US dollar figures come from Thinkific's update article, which lists both. The Stripe fee applies to the first $1 million of sales each calendar year. A branded mobile app is a $199-a-month add-on.
Where Thinkific is strong
Thinkific is a mature, course-first platform. Every plan includes unlimited courses, quizzes, a community and a custom domain, and every account starts with a 30-day free trial. From Start it adds live cohorts with Zoom sessions and bookable calendars, assignments, certificates and memberships.
Its strongest ground is selling training to organisations. Grow adds group orders, B2B seat sales and invoicing, and Plus adds single sign-on, SCORM, learning paths and an AI teaching assistant. If that is your business, no Shopify course app is a like-for-like replacement.
Seven Thinkific alternatives, from Shopify apps to LMS platforms.
Thinkific alternatives fall into two camps, and the camp matters more than any single feature. Four Shopify-native apps, Alva Courses, Courses Plus, LDT and Tevello, sell each course as a Shopify product in the checkout you already run. LearnWorlds, Teachable and Kajabi are standalone sites that swap one platform for another.
Inside your Shopify store
Separate platforms, like Thinkific itself
Thinkific alternatives compared side by side.
Read across a row to see where each Thinkific alternative runs, what its cheapest paid plan costs, which plan includes completion certificates, any per-sale fee, the trial length and whose checkout your buyers see. All prices are monthly-billed US dollar prices from each vendor in October 2026.
| Platform | Runs on | Entry paid plan | Certificates | Vendor fee per sale | Free trial | Checkout |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alva Courses | Shopify app | $9.99/mo | Both plans | None | 14 days | Shopify checkout |
| Courses Plus | Shopify app | $19.99/mo; free plan up to 5 lessons | From Basic ($19.99) | None listed | 7 days | Shopify checkout |
| LDT | Shopify app | $12.99/mo; free plan up to 30 enrolments a month | From the free plan | None listed | 7 days | Shopify checkout |
| Tevello | Shopify app | $29/mo (one plan) | Included | None listed | 14 days | Shopify checkout |
| LearnWorlds | Standalone | $29/mo | From Pro Trainer ($99) | $5 per paid enrolment on Starter | 30 days | Its own checkout |
| Teachable | Standalone | $39/mo | From Growth ($189) | 7.5% on Starter | 7 days | Its own checkout |
| Kajabi | Standalone all-in-one | $179/mo | Not listed on its pricing page | Up to 2% with another processor | Offered | Its own checkout |
| Thinkific (today) | Standalone | $54/mo | From Start ($109) | Up to 5% on Stripe sales | 30 days | Its own checkout |
Two costs are left out: card processing, which every option charges, and the Shopify plan the four Shopify apps run on. A Shopify seller pays that plan either way; anyone without a store should add it to the app's price. Prices change, so check each vendor before deciding.
Where Thinkific's plan features go on Shopify
Much of what Thinkific sells as an upgrade is part of both Alva Courses plans, and some of it has no equivalent at all. This is how each gated Thinkific feature maps across when your courses move to Shopify with Alva Courses.
| Thinkific feature | Thinkific plan | On Shopify with Alva Courses |
|---|---|---|
| Completion certificates | Start and up | Both plans, awarded automatically on completion |
| Memberships | Start and up | A subscription app such as Seal, Appstle or ReCharge tags members; Alva grants courses by tag |
| Bundles | Start and up | One Shopify product linked to several courses |
| Assignments and grading | Start and up | Course evaluation: submitted work, written feedback and a grade scale |
| Live cohorts with Zoom lessons | Start and up | A Button block can link a lesson to a Zoom or other live-session URL; no cohort rosters or booking calendars |
| Bulk student import | Grow and up | CSV import on both plans, up to 1,000 lines a file |
| API and webhooks | Grow and up | Shopify Flow triggers and actions on both plans |
| Remove platform branding | Grow and up | The course player opens inside your store, styled to match your theme |
| Group orders and B2B seats | Grow and up | Not offered: each enrolment is one student (LDT lists seat licensing) |
| Communities | 1 on Basic and Start, 3 on Grow | Threaded comments under each lesson only; Tevello offers community spaces |
| SSO, SCORM, learning paths | Plus | Not offered (Courses Plus lists SCORM and learning paths) |
| Branded mobile app | $199/mo add-on | Not offered; students learn in a web browser |
If cohorts are central to how you teach, read cohort vs self-paced courses first. For the enterprise features no Shopify-native app covers fully, see the gaps listed in Shopify LMS: how to run courses inside your store.
Which Thinkific alternative fits your business?
The right Thinkific alternative depends on what you sell and who buys it. If customers already buy from your Shopify store, a Shopify-native app replaces Thinkific for far less. If you sell training to companies, need SCORM or run live cohorts, LearnWorlds or staying on Thinkific may fit better than any Shopify app.
Choose Alva Courses if you…
- Sell on Shopify and want courses in the same checkout and customer list
- Want certificates and graded coursework without paying for a higher plan
- Don't want a cap on how many students you can enrol
- Need long lesson videos hosted in the app (Unlimited Pro)
- Plan to automate course events with Shopify Flow
Choose another Shopify app if you…
- Want your Thinkific courses migrated for you, or need SCORM (Courses Plus)
- Sell seats to teams or host a large video library (LDT)
- Run an active community next to your courses (Tevello)
Choose another standalone platform if you…
- Don't have, or don't want, a Shopify store
- Need SCORM or white-label below enterprise pricing (LearnWorlds)
- Have a small catalogue and want a lower entry price than Thinkific (Teachable)
- Want a website, funnels and email from one vendor (Kajabi)
Stay on Thinkific if you…
- Sell group seats and invoice companies on Grow
- Run live cohorts with bookable calendars and a community
- Need single sign-on or SCORM through Plus
- Already sell through Thinkific Payments, so the Stripe fee doesn't apply
The general trade-off between a store app and a separate school is covered in Shopify course app vs standalone LMS. If your shortlist is Shopify apps only, start with the Tevello alternatives roundup.
How to move from Thinkific to Shopify.
Alva Courses has no Thinkific importer, so moving is a rebuild. Recreate each course, re-add video from your original files or embeds, give every course a Shopify product and enrol existing students from a CSV file. Run both side by side until test orders enrol correctly, so no student loses access during the move.
- Check your Thinkific renewal date. Annual plans renew at the new 2026 price, and monthly plans can be cancelled at any time, so plan the switch before your next renewal.
- Install Alva Courses and start its 14-day free trial. Pick Unlimited Pro if your Thinkific lessons rely on long uploaded videos.
- Gather your content. Collect your original video files, PDFs and lesson text, note each course's chapter and lesson order, and take your student list from Thinkific.
- Rebuild each course as sections and lessons in the drag-and-drop builder. Upload video to Alva Video Hosting on Unlimited Pro, or embed it from YouTube, Vimeo or Loom, then add quizzes and a certificate.
- Give every course a Shopify product and a price. To recreate a Thinkific bundle, link one product to several courses. Paid orders enrol buyers automatically.
- Switch on enrolment emails. Tick Send enrollment emails in Settings → Email Settings. It starts unticked, and until you tick it neither orders nor imports send students their access link.
- Import existing students by CSV from Members → Bulk Import CSV: one row per email, with course titles in course_1 to course_10. Tick Send enrollment emails to imported members to send each student their link. Imported students start at 0% progress.
- Test, then switch. Place a test order, check the buyer is enrolled and emailed, point your links at the Shopify store, and cancel Thinkific once enrolments arrive.
Step-by-step detail is in how to migrate from Thinkific to Shopify, and the exact CSV columns are in import members with CSV. Prefer someone else to do the moving? Courses Plus and LearnWorlds both advertise migration from Thinkific.
How Alva Courses pricing compares with Thinkific's.
On Alva Courses, Unlimited is $9.99 a month and Unlimited Pro $14.99, each with a 14-day free trial and no free plan. Twelve months of Unlimited Pro, $179.88, cost less than two months of Thinkific Start billed monthly ($218), the first Thinkific plan with certificates. Alva also needs a Shopify plan; Thinkific does not.
| plan | Unlimited $9.99/mo Unlimited courses and members | Recommended Unlimited Pro $14.99/mo Adds video and file hosting |
|---|---|---|
| Courses, members & comments | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Quizzes, certificates & drip | ||
| CSV import & export of members | ||
| 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 |
You pick a plan on Shopify's app pricing page at install, and the charge appears on your Shopify invoice. The Alva Courses pricing page lists every plan detail, and Thinkific's pricing page shows its current tiers.
Moving a whole school? See how Alva Courses works for online educators with larger catalogues, and for corporate training where staff or partners are enrolled by CSV.
Thinkific alternatives: common questions.
Your store, your checkout — your students.
Start with one course. Rebuild your best-selling Thinkific course in Alva Courses, give it a Shopify product and buy it yourself with a test order, while the Thinkific school carries on as normal. The 14-day free trial covers the whole experiment.