Courses Plus vs Chapters
Courses Plus prices by subscription tier. Chapters doesn't have one: install free, keep every feature, and pay a flat 5% only when a course or exam actually sells — capped at $29 a month. Here's an honest side-by-side so you can pick the model that fits your store.
Free to install · No monthly fee · 5% only when you sell, capped at $29/month
The short version
Courses Plus is an established Shopify course app with a flat monthly subscription — tiers run from a free 5-lesson demo plan to $199.99/month, gated by how many active lessons you have, with no transaction fees stated on its public pages. Chapters flips the model: there's no subscription at all, every feature is included from day one, and we take 5% of each sale, capped at $29 a month. If you want memberships, subscriptions, or SCORM import, Courses Plus covers ground we don't. If you want your cost to be zero until students are actually paying you — and to never exceed $29 a month in commission after that — that's exactly what Chapters is built for.
Side by side
The differences that actually change what you pay and how your students learn.
| Chapters | Courses Plus | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Free to install, no plans or tiers. 5% commission on course and exam sales, capped at $29/month. Billed on your normal Shopify invoice. | Flat monthly subscription in tiers gated by active lesson count: free Demo plan (5 lessons), $19.99/mo (20 lessons), $79.99/mo (100 lessons), $199.99/mo (unlimited), plus a custom Ultimate tier. No transaction fees stated. |
| Monthly cost at $0 in course sales | $0 — no sales, no commission, regardless of how many lessons you've built. | Your plan fee: $0 on the 5-lesson Demo plan; $19.99–$199.99/mo once your curriculum needs a paid tier. Fees are based on lesson count, not sales. |
| Monthly cost at $500 in course sales | $25 (5% of $500). | Unchanged — your plan fee ($19.99–$199.99/mo, depending on lesson count). |
| Monthly cost at $2,000 in course sales | $29 — the 5% would be $100, but the commission is capped at $29. | Unchanged — your plan fee ($19.99–$199.99/mo, depending on lesson count). |
| Video hosting & streaming | Included on a global CDN — signed expiring URLs, per-student watermark, copy/print blocking. 30 GB storage free ($0.16/GB/mo after), 300 GB student streaming free each month ($0.08/GB after). | Video, audio, and PDF uploads from the free plan. Watermark removal is listed on the Professional plan; unlimited storage is listed on Enterprise. |
| Exams & certificates | 7 auto-graded quiz types, timed exams with retakes and randomized pools, standalone sellable exams, graded assignments — all included. Certificates with public verification pages; optional paid certificates. | Quizzes and learning paths are listed on the Professional plan; AI quiz generation on Enterprise. Branded PDF certificates from the free plan; unlimited custom certificates on Enterprise. |
| Where students learn | A branded student portal on your own domain (/apps/courses), installable to the phone home screen. | Not stated on the public pages we reviewed. |
| Checkout | Courses sell as native Shopify products at your own checkout — instant enrollment on payment, including guest checkout, with multi-currency support. | One-time payments from the free plan; subscriptions are listed on the Professional plan and memberships on Enterprise for recurring revenue. |
Courses Plus details as of August 2026, per their public Shopify App Store listing and pricing page. Plans, limits, and prices can change — always confirm on the official pages. Chapters details are from our own pricing and feature list.
Why the model matters
With a lesson-gated subscription, your cost is set by how much you've built — it's the same in a month with zero sales as in your best month ever. With Chapters, cost tracks revenue instead: $0 while you build and launch, 5% of what you actually sell after, and never more than $29 a month in commission no matter how big the month gets.
Building & pre-launch — $0 in sales
$500 in course sales this month
$2,000 in course sales this month
Examples assume you're within the free storage and streaming allowances, and are before Shopify's own payment processing fees, which Shopify bills separately on any app's orders.
No tiers, no unlocking
There's one plan, and it's the whole product. These are included the moment you install — not at a higher tier.
Courses sell as real Shopify products at your own checkout, with instant enrollment on payment — guest checkout included — and multi-currency support.
Upload straight to a global CDN — no separate video host needed. Streams behind signed, expiring URLs with a per-student watermark and copy/print blocking.
Timed exams with retakes and randomized pools, 7 auto-graded quiz types, graded assignments — and exams you can sell on their own, no course required.
Branded certificates with public verification pages anyone can check — and the option to sell the certificate itself as a paid add-on.
Students learn in a branded portal at /apps/courses on your own domain — installable to the phone home screen, no separate app store download.
Drip content by date, days, or sequence; bundle courses with compare-at pricing; set seat caps and access windows; and run live Zoom classes inside lessons.
To be fair
Courses Plus has been on the Shopify App Store since January 2020, carries the Built for Shopify badge, and holds a 4.9-star rating across 206 reviews as of August 2026 — a genuinely strong track record. It also covers things Chapters doesn't: memberships and subscriptions for recurring revenue, SCORM import, free migration from Teachable, Kajabi, and Thinkific, AI-drafted course creation, and Google Meet alongside Zoom for live lessons. If recurring membership billing or a SCORM library is central to your business — or your whole curriculum fits within 20 lessons, where their $19.99/month Basic plan can undercut our $29 monthly cap once you're selling steadily — Courses Plus may be the better fit. Our case is the model: with Chapters you pay nothing until students pay you, and every feature is included from day one rather than arriving at a higher tier.
FAQ
Chapters is free to install with no monthly fee and no plans or tiers — every feature is included from day one, with unlimited courses, lessons, and students. We earn a flat 5% commission only when a course or exam sells, capped at $29 a month. Video hosting is included too, with 30 GB of storage and 300 GB of monthly student streaming free. The full details are on our pricing page.
The pricing model. As of August 2026, per its public listing, Courses Plus charges a flat monthly subscription in tiers gated by how many active lessons you have, with no transaction fees stated. Chapters has no subscription at all: it's free to install and takes 5% of each sale, capped at $29 a month — so your cost tracks your revenue instead of the size of your curriculum.
The 5% commission is how Chapters can be free until you sell. There's no fixed fee while you build and launch, nothing to pay in a month with no sales, and the commission is capped at $29 a month no matter how much you sell — at $2,000 a month in course sales that's an effective 1.45%, shrinking as you grow. It's the same trade in both directions: a flat subscription is predictable but always due; commission is $0 when your revenue is.
No. Chapters has no caps on courses, lessons, or students — there's a single plan and it includes everything, so nothing about the size of your curriculum changes what you pay. The only metered usage is video: 30 GB of storage free (then $0.16/GB/month) and 300 GB of student streaming free each month (then $0.08/GB), measured and billed automatically, with an email warning before storage overage ever bills.
Install Chapters free alongside your current setup and rebuild your curriculum in the course builder — chapters, lessons, quizzes, and exams — then upload your videos; hosting is included, so there's nothing external to configure. Publishing a course creates a native Shopify product at your own checkout, so your store's buying experience doesn't change. Since installing is free, you can build everything and compare before switching anything off. If you'd like a hand planning the move, email chapters@pixipace.com.
Something we didn't cover? Email chapters@pixipace.com and a human will answer.
Install Chapters free from the Shopify App Store — every feature included, and nothing to pay until a student pays you.
Install FreeFree to install · No monthly fee · 5% only when you sell, capped at $29/month
Courses Plus is a trademark of its respective owner. Chapters is not affiliated with or endorsed by Courses Plus. Comparison details were retrieved from public sources in August 2026 and may change — always confirm current pricing on the official pages.