Alva Courses vs Trainn
Alva Courses is a Shopify app that builds, sells and delivers online courses natively through the Shopify checkout — with built-in video hosting, certificates, drip scheduling and branded email. Trainn is standalone customer-training software for creating product-training videos and walkthroughs. They aim at different jobs — here's how the two compare across features, pricing, and who each one fits best.
Side by side at a glance.
| Feature | Alva Courses | Trainn |
|---|---|---|
| Starting price | $9.99/mo · Pro $14.99/mo · 14-day trial | Standalone tiers + free trial; see Trainn's pricing |
| Primary focus | Selling & delivering courses on Shopify | Creating customer-training videos & walkthroughs |
| Sell as a Shopify product | Buy at checkout, instant access on order paid | Not a Shopify app; see Trainn's site |
| External video sources | YouTube · Vimeo · VdoCipher · Loom | Video-creation tool; see Trainn's site |
| Completion certificates | Custom template, auto-awarded & emailed | Check Trainn's site |
| Quizzes & assessments | Built into lessons | Check Trainn's site |
| Drip scheduling | Drip by days after enrolment + scheduled publish | Check Trainn's site |
| Discussions | Per-lesson discussions with moderation | Check Trainn's site |
| Branded email + custom domain | Customizable templates, send from your domain | Check Trainn's site |
| Native Shopify checkout delivery | Checkout · thank-you · order status · account | Not a Shopify app |
| Member & enrolment management | CSV import/export, per-course & global views | Check Trainn's site |
| Limited-time access | Sell time-boxed course access | Check Trainn's site |
Trainn is a customer-education platform built for SaaS teams to create product-training videos and walkthroughs and publish them to a knowledge base or LMS. It is not a Shopify app and is not built to sell courses through the Shopify checkout. Features and pricing change over time, so check Trainn's official website for current details before deciding.
When Alva Courses is the better fit.
Trainn is a strong tool when your job is producing customer-training video content. But Shopify merchants who want to sell and deliver paid courses need something different: native checkout, video that isn't capped by Shopify's file limits, certificates students can show off, and email that comes from their own brand. Five reasons merchants pick Alva Courses:
Alva Video Hosting on the Pro plan gives you 50 GB of dedicated storage with no per-video limits, so you're not boxed in by Shopify's 1 GB / 10-minute cap. You can also pull in YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher or Loom on any plan.
Alva is a course platform end to end: build sections and lessons, add quizzes and certificates, drip the content, sell it as a Shopify product, and deliver instantly on order paid. Trainn focuses on producing training video; Alva turns content into a purchasable, gated course.
Award a custom-designed certificate automatically on completion and email it to the student. Drip lessons a set number of days after enrolment, or schedule them to publish on a date — built in, not bolted on.
Enrolment and certificate emails are fully customizable — from-name, subject, message, footer and a "Start Learning Now" CTA — and you can verify your own sending domain so students hear from your brand, not a third party.
Courses are delivered the moment an order is paid — on the thank-you page, the order status page, and in the customer account. Students watch lessons in a branded storefront player with no second login and no separate platform.
Choose Alva Courses if you…
- Sell paid online courses to customers on a Shopify store
- Need video hosting that bypasses Shopify's 1 GB / 10-min cap
- Award completion certificates and run quizzes
- Drip content or sell time-boxed access
- Send branded enrolment email from your own domain
- Prefer two simple flat plans at $9.99 and $14.99/mo
Trainn may suit you if you…
- Run customer education or success at a SaaS company
- Mainly need to produce product-training videos and walkthroughs
- Publish how-to content to a knowledge base or in-app, not Shopify
- Aren't selling structured, paid courses to storefront customers
Three differences, in detail.
Selling on Shopify vs producing training video
Shopify's native files have a 1 GB and 10-minute limit per file. For a course with long-form lessons, that ceiling is the first thing merchants hit. Trainn is a customer-education tool built to create training videos and walkthroughs — it is not a Shopify app, so it does not sell or deliver courses through your checkout. See Trainn's website for how it hosts and publishes video.
Alva Courses is built for the storefront. Alva Video Hosting on the Unlimited Pro plan ($14.99/mo) gives you 50 GB of dedicated storage with no per-video limits, so multi-hour lessons upload and stream without workarounds — and customers buy the course as a normal Shopify product. On the Unlimited plan ($9.99/mo) you can still host through Shopify within the file cap, and every plan supports YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher and Loom for hybrid setups.
- Alva video
- 50 GB hosting on Pro, no per-video limit
- External sources
- YouTube · Vimeo · VdoCipher · Loom
- Trainn
- Training-video tool, not a Shopify app; see its site
A sellable course vs a library of training videos
Trainn is geared toward producing customer-training content: a slide-by-slide video editor for walkthroughs, voiceovers, subtitles and multi-language output, published to a knowledge base, LMS or in-app. That is genuinely useful when the goal is teaching existing customers how to use a product — not packaging a paid course for sale.
Alva Courses is a course platform end to end. The core loop is build, sell, deliver: a drag-and-drop builder, a rich lesson editor with text, video, PDF, audio, ePub, MS Office, quiz, Zoom and button blocks, plus sequential gating, drip, quizzes and certificates. The course becomes a Shopify product customers can buy, and access is gated to enrolled students. Discussion is native and lesson-scoped, with moderation and email notifications.
- Alva model
- Sellable, gated courses on Shopify
- Trainn model
- Customer-training video creation & publishing
- Best for
- Alva: selling courses · Trainn: product-training content
Native delivery and a branded learner experience
Because Trainn is not a Shopify app, students reach its content outside your store — typically a knowledge base, LMS or in-app embed. Alva keeps everything in the storefront, so there's no separate platform to send buyers to and no second login to manage.
Alva delivers a course the moment an order is paid — on the Shopify thank-you page, the order status page, and in the customer account under "My Courses." Students watch in a branded storefront player with a lesson sidebar, progress bar and completion ticks; no second login. Enrolment and certificate emails are fully customizable and can send from your own verified domain, so every touchpoint stays on-brand.
- Delivery surfaces
- Checkout · thank-you · order status · account
- Learner login
- Shopify customer account — no second login
- Branding
- Custom email domain + storefront player
Two flat plans, no surprises.
Alva Courses keeps pricing simple: two flat monthly plans, both with unlimited courses, members and comments, and a 14-day free trial. Trainn is priced as standalone customer-education software with its own tiers and a free trial aimed at SaaS teams — exact figures change over time, so check Trainn's official pricing page rather than relying on a number here.
| 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 | ||
| Limited-time access | ||
| Alva Video Hosting (50 GB, no per-video limit) | — | |
| 14-day free trial |
Compare Trainn's tiers directly on Trainn's pricing page. Full details on Alva's pricing are on the Alva Courses pricing page.
Turning Trainn videos into sellable courses.
- Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store and start the 14-day free trial — no separate platform to set up.
- Build your course structure. Create courses, sections and lessons by dragging; use "Create Multiple" for bulk lessons and reorder freely.
- Bring your training videos across. Upload to Alva Video Hosting (Pro), or link from YouTube, Vimeo, VdoCipher or Loom. Add quizzes, PDFs, audio and certificates per lesson.
- Add students via CSV. Bulk-import members, map them to courses, and set drip or limited-time access where needed.
- Run a test enrolment, then sell. Place a test order and confirm delivery on the thank-you page, order status page and customer account, then list the course as a Shopify product.
Alva Courses fits a wide range of teachers on Shopify — see how it works for coaches & consultants and online educators. Comparing the whole category? Read the guide to the best Shopify course apps in 2026.
Answers before you switch.
Build it, sell it, and deliver it — all inside Shopify.
Install Alva Courses from the Shopify App Store. Build a course in the drag-and-drop editor, add a video lesson, place a test order, and watch it delivered on the thank-you page and in the customer account. If you've been producing training video in Trainn, Alva turns that content into a paid, gated course — and the 14-day trial means no commitment to start.