What does it actually cost to sell courses on Shopify?
Your total is a stack of three things. Two of them you're probably paying already.
1. Your Shopify plan. Courses don't need a special plan or an upgrade. They sell as normal digital products through the checkout you already have, so whatever your store costs today, it costs the same with courses added. Chapters works on every Shopify plan.
2. Payment processing. Every course sale goes through your store's regular checkout, so it carries the same processing rate as any other order — the same slice you already give up on a t-shirt or a candle. Course apps don't change that rate, and it applies equally no matter which app you pick.
3. The course app. This is the only genuinely new line item, and it's where prices vary wildly — from $0 up front to nearly $200 a month. The rest of this guide is about getting this one right.
One thing to check before comparing app prices: whether video hosting is included. If it isn't, a separate host like Vimeo or Wistia becomes a fourth line item. Chapters hosts your video on a global CDN as part of the app, so there's nothing extra to subscribe to — you upload straight into the course builder.
How much do Shopify course apps cost in 2026?
Course app pricing comes in four shapes. Competitor numbers below are as of August 2026, per their public pricing pages — always confirm on the official sites.
Flat subscription: Tevello at $29/month
Tevello charges a single $29/month plan with a 14-day trial and no per-sale fees. It includes 100 GB of video storage and 500 GB of monthly bandwidth; pricing for going past those isn't published.
Flat pricing is simple and predictable. The catch is timing: it bills the same $29 in the months you're still recording lessons as it does in your best sales month.
Tiered by lesson count: Courses Plus at $19.99–$199.99/month
Courses Plus prices by the size of your curriculum: a free Demo plan capped at 5 active lessons, then $19.99/month for 20 lessons, $79.99/month for 100, and $199.99/month for unlimited. No transaction fees on any tier.
If your course is small and stays small, the $19.99 tier is one of the cheaper subscriptions around. The catch is that lesson counts tend to grow, and each threshold you cross roughly quadruples the monthly bill.
Hosted platform plus fees: Teachable at $39+/month
Teachable isn't a Shopify app — it's a separate platform with its own site, checkout, and customer accounts. Its Starter plan is $39/month (or $29 on annual billing) plus a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale. Builder at $89/month and Growth at $189/month drop the fee to 0%.
For a Shopify merchant, the real cost isn't just the price — it's running a second storefront. Your students check out somewhere else, with a different account, and your orders live in two systems.
Commission-capped: Chapters at $0 until you sell
Chapters has no subscription at all. It's free to install with every feature included — unlimited courses, unlimited students, quizzes, exams, certificates, drip, and video hosting. When a course or exam sells, Chapters takes 5% of that sale, and the commission is capped at $29/month total.
The math has a useful pivot point: 5% of $580 is $29. Below $580/month in course sales, you pay less than any flat $29 subscription. Above it, the cap kicks in and you pay $29 — never more, no matter how much you sell. In a month with zero sales, you pay zero.
The allowances: 30 GB of video storage free, then $0.16/GB/month billed automatically (you're emailed before an overage ever bills), and 300 GB of monthly student streaming free, then $0.08/GB. Everything lands on your normal Shopify invoice — no separate card.
Shopify course app pricing at $0, $500, and $2,000 in monthly sales
Here's what the app itself costs at three realistic revenue levels. Payment processing is excluded because it's the same for every Shopify app; Teachable's checkout is separate from Shopify entirely.
| App & model | $0 sales/mo | $500 sales/mo | $2,000 sales/mo |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chapters — 5% commission, capped $29/mo | $0 | $25 | $29 (capped) |
| Tevello — flat subscription | $29 | $29 | $29 |
| Courses Plus — tier by lesson count (20-lesson plan shown) | $19.99 | $19.99 | $19.99 |
| Teachable Starter — $39/mo + 7.5% fee | $39 | $76.50 | $189 |
Competitor figures as of August 2026, per their public pricing pages. Courses Plus rises to $79.99/mo past 20 lessons and $199.99/mo past 100. Teachable Starter shown at monthly billing; its $89/mo Builder plan drops the transaction fee to 0%.
Two things jump out. At $0 in sales, the spread is $0 to $39 a month — and pre-launch months are exactly when most course businesses have no revenue. And at $2,000, the percentage-fee model without a cap (Teachable Starter) costs six and a half times the capped one.
Hidden costs to check before you pick an app
Video hosting limits. Every app that hosts video has an allowance, and they're not comparable at a glance. Tevello includes more up front (100 GB storage, 500 GB bandwidth) but doesn't publish overage pricing; Chapters includes less free (30 GB, 300 GB) but publishes exact overage rates, so you can do the math before you hit the line.
Tier cliffs. Per-lesson tiers feel cheap until your curriculum grows. Adding lesson 21 on Courses Plus moves you from $19.99 to $79.99/month.
Annual lock-in. The cheapest advertised prices on hosted platforms usually assume annual billing — Teachable's "$29" is really $348 paid up front. Monthly billing costs more.
Feature paywalls. Some pricing pages put quizzes, certificates, or drip content on higher tiers. Chapters ships everything on the one free-to-install plan — the full feature list is the same for every store.
Which pricing model fits your store?
Full disclosure: I built Chapters, so read these recommendations knowing that. The numbers, though, are just arithmetic.
Selling steadily above $580/month, every month? A flat $29 subscription and Chapters' capped commission cost you the same $29.
At that point price stops being the deciding factor, so pick on features instead. If exams, retakes, and verifiable certificates matter to you, that's the corner Chapters is built for. Compare the feature lists and choose on fit, not on cost.
Small, fixed curriculum with reliable sales? Courses Plus at $19.99/month is the cheapest subscription here — as long as you genuinely stay under 20 lessons.
Starting out, pre-launch, or seasonal? Commission-capped wins, and it isn't close. You'll spend weeks or months recording before the first sale, and a subscription bills through all of it. With Chapters those months cost $0, launch month costs 5% of whatever you actually sold, and your worst-case month is only ever $29.
No Shopify store at all? Then a hosted platform like Teachable is a fair option — but if you have a store, adding a second checkout and a second customer database to save nothing on price is a hard sell.
Getting started takes minutes either way: install from the Shopify App Store, approve the $0 plan once, build your course, and publishing auto-creates the Shopify product. The setup guide walks through it step by step.
Cost questions, answered
How much does it cost to sell online courses on Shopify?+
If you already run a Shopify store, the only new cost is a course app. Apps range from free-until-you-sell (Chapters: $0 up front, then 5% per sale capped at $29/month) to flat subscriptions — Tevello at $29/month and Courses Plus from $19.99 to $199.99/month, as of August 2026 per their public pricing pages. Your Shopify plan and payment processing stay exactly what you pay today.
Do I need a special Shopify plan to sell online courses?+
No. Courses sell as normal digital products at your store's regular checkout, so the plan you already pay for is enough. Chapters works on every Shopify plan, and the course product is created automatically when you publish — priced, digital, shipping switched off.
What's the cheapest way to sell courses on Shopify?+
Until your first sale, Chapters is $0 — no monthly fee, with hosting, quizzes, certificates, and unlimited courses included, then 5% per sale capped at $29/month. Courses Plus also has a free Demo plan limited to 5 active lessons, as of August 2026 per its pricing page. If you sell steadily above $580/month, a flat $29 subscription and Chapters' cap cost roughly the same.
Do course apps charge transaction fees on top of payment processing?+
It varies. Chapters charges a 5% commission capped at $29/month instead of a subscription. Tevello and Courses Plus charge flat subscriptions with no per-sale fees, per their public pages as of August 2026. Teachable's Starter plan charges $39/month plus a 7.5% transaction fee. Your store's payment processing is separate from all of these and doesn't change with the app.
Is video hosting included, or do I need Vimeo or Wistia?+
With Chapters, hosting is included — you upload straight into the app and video streams from a global CDN, so there's no Vimeo or Wistia bill. The free allowances are 30 GB of storage (then $0.16/GB/month, with an email warning first) and 300 GB of monthly streaming (then $0.08/GB). If an app you're considering doesn't host video, budget for a separate host as a fourth cost.