Digitally ‑ Digital Products vs. Courses Plus Comparison

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Digitally ‑ Digital Products vs. Courses Plus: At a Glance
3. Deep Dive Comparison
4. The Alternative: Unifying Commerce, Content, and Community Natively
5. Conclusion
6. FAQ

Introduction

Expanding a Shopify store into the world of digital goods presents a unique set of technical and strategic hurdles. While physical retail relies on logistics and shipping, digital commerce demands secure file hosting, automated delivery, and often, a structured environment for customer learning. For many merchants, the choice often narrows down to two popular but distinct tools: Digitally ‑ Digital Products and Courses Plus.

Short answer: Digitally ‑ Digital Products is a specialized utility designed primarily for secure file delivery and license key management, making it ideal for software and asset sellers. Courses Plus is a dedicated Learning Management System (LMS) focused on structured education, quizzes, and student progress tracking. While both facilitate digital sales, merchants seeking a truly frictionless experience often find that native platforms offer a more cohesive way to unify these functions without operational fragmentation.

The purpose of this analysis is to provide a neutral, feature-by-feature comparison of these two applications. By examining their workflows, pricing models, and specific use cases, merchants can determine which tool aligns with their current business model. This guide focuses on the practicalities of setup, the customer experience, and the long-term scalability of each platform within the Shopify ecosystem.

Digitally ‑ Digital Products vs. Courses Plus: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

To understand the value these apps provide, it is necessary to look past the marketing descriptions and examine how they function during daily operations. While both apps reside in the digital products category, they solve different sets of problems.

Core Workflows and Functional Philosophy

Digitally ‑ Digital Products operates as a fulfillment engine. Its primary goal is to ensure that when a customer purchases a digital asset, that asset is delivered securely and instantly. This app is built around the concept of the "file" or the "key." For example, a merchant selling software licenses or unique vouchers needs a system that can pull from a pool of keys and assign them to specific orders. Digitally handles this through automated license tracking and delivery via email or the checkout page. Its security features, such as PDF stamping—which places a customer’s details on the file to discourage piracy—are central to its design.

In contrast, Courses Plus is built around the "lesson" and the "student." It is not merely delivering a static file; it is providing an environment where content is consumed over time. The workflow involves creating a curriculum, organizing videos and images into modules, and tracking how far a student has progressed. It offers pedagogical tools like quizzes and exams, which are entirely absent in Digitally. For a brand focused on education, the ability to issue a certificate upon completion is a major functional requirement that Courses Plus fulfills.

LMS Capabilities and Content Delivery

When evaluating Courses Plus, the depth of its educational features is its strongest selling point. It supports AI-driven course and quiz generation, which can significantly reduce the time required to launch a new program. The inclusion of drip content—where lessons are released over a scheduled period—allows for a managed learning experience. This is essential for coaching programs that want to prevent students from feeling overwhelmed by too much information at once.

Digitally ‑ Digital Products does not claim to be an LMS. If a merchant attempts to use Digitally for a complex course, they will find the experience lacking. There is no way to track progress, no way to gate content based on previous lesson completion, and no way to foster community interaction. However, for a merchant who simply wants to sell a high-quality PDF guide or a collection of stock photography, the simplicity of Digitally is an advantage. It avoids the overhead of a complex course structure when only a simple download is required.

Customization and Branding Control

Branding is often a point of friction for Shopify merchants. Ideally, every interaction a customer has should feel like it belongs to the store. Digitally allows for customization of the delivery emails and the download pages. This ensures that the post-purchase experience matches the visual identity of the brand. Since it is primarily an asset delivery tool, it stays relatively out of the way once the file is downloaded.

Courses Plus requires a more significant visual presence because the customer spends a long time inside the app’s interface while watching videos or taking quizzes. On lower-priced plans, Courses Plus includes its own branding, which can be a drawback for premium brands. To remove this and fully customize the experience, merchants must move to higher-tier plans. The app does offer certificates that can be branded, providing a professional touch for students who successfully complete a curriculum.

Pricing Structure and Value Analysis

The pricing models of these two apps reflect their different target audiences. Digitally ‑ Digital Products uses a volume-based pricing model.

• Free Plan: Allows up to 50 orders per month with 5GB of storage. This is a robust entry point for small stores.
• Pro Plan ($7.99/month): Increases the limit to 200 orders and 15GB of storage, adding email templates and auto-fulfillment.
• Plus Plan ($12.99/month): Designed for growing stores, offering 500 orders and 30GB of storage.
• Unlimited Plan ($24.99/month): Provides unlimited orders and storage, making it a predictable cost for high-volume asset sellers.

Courses Plus, on the other hand, scales based on the complexity of the content and the features required.

• Demo Plan (Free): Extremely limited with only 5 lessons per store, primarily meant for testing the interface.
• Basic Plan ($29.99/month): Supports 20 lessons and introduces drip content and certificates, but retains app branding.
• Professional Plan ($79.99/month): Increases the limit to 100 lessons and adds subscriptions, quizzes, and learning paths.
• Enterprise Plan ($199.99/month): Removes all limits and adds memberships and custom certificates.

For a merchant, the value for money depends on the business model. A merchant selling thousands of low-cost PDF templates would find Digitally’s $24.99 unlimited plan much more sustainable than Courses Plus’s higher tiers. Conversely, an educator selling a single $500 course would find the $79.99 Professional plan in Courses Plus reasonable because of the educational tools provided.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

Compatibility with other Shopify tools is vital for automation. Courses Plus integrates with Zoom for webinars and Shopify Flow for automation, which is a significant benefit for merchants running live coaching sessions. It also works with various membership and community apps, helping to create a broader ecosystem.

Digitally ‑ Digital Products focuses on the "Checkout Extensions" and "Customer Accounts" side of the Shopify ecosystem. It is designed to work within the standard Shopify order flow. It supports license keys and QR codes, which are specific types of digital products that require specialized delivery logic. If a merchant is using Shopify Flow to trigger marketing emails based on a purchase, Digitally provides the necessary data to ensure those flows remain accurate.

Performance and User Experience

A common complaint in the digital product space is the difficulty customers face when trying to access their purchases. Digitally aims to solve this by providing instant delivery on the checkout page. This reduces the number of support tickets from customers who "never received the email."

Courses Plus faces a different challenge. Because it is an LMS, customers must often log into a separate area or an app-specific interface to view their lessons. This can lead to login issues or confusion if the interface does not perfectly match the Shopify store’s theme. While Courses Plus is highly rated for its functionality, any external layer added to a Shopify store introduces a potential point of friction for the user.

The Alternative: Unifying Commerce, Content, and Community Natively

While both Digitally ‑ Digital Products and Courses Plus offer valuable tools, they often lead to what experts call "platform fragmentation." This occurs when a merchant's digital strategy is split across multiple third-party interfaces, separate login systems, and disjointed customer data. When a customer has to navigate away from your store to view a course, or when their purchase data lives in an external database, the brand experience suffers.

The philosophy of a native, all-in-one platform is to eliminate these barriers by keeping the entire customer journey "at home." Rather than treating digital products as an add-on that requires an external player, a native approach integrates the content directly into the Shopify theme. This means the customer uses their existing Shopify account to access their courses, downloads, and community forums. There are no separate logins to manage and no fragmented branding. Merchants can see how merchants are earning six figures by adopting this unified approach, which simplifies the technical stack while maximizing customer lifetime value.

By using a native platform like Tevello, brands can seamlessly bundle physical and digital products. Imagine a merchant who sells crochet kits and wants to include an instructional video course with every purchase. In a fragmented system, the customer would buy the kit on Shopify and then receive an email to create a new account on an external site for the video. With a native solution, the course appears in their account the moment the transaction is complete. This has led to significant growth for many, such as how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses alongside their physical inventory.

The benefit of this native integration extends to conversion rates. When the sales funnel and the learning environment are the same, there is less friction in the buying process. A unified system has doubled its store's conversion rate by fixing a fragmented system that previously confused customers. Furthermore, when the platform is built specifically for Shopify, it leverages native tools like Shopify Flow and the Shopify checkout without needing complex workarounds.

For those concerned about costs, a native platform often provides a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses, avoiding the steep price jumps associated with per-lesson or per-student limits. This predictability is essential for scaling. Brands that focus on strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively find that removing technical barriers allows them to focus on marketing and community building rather than troubleshooting login issues.

Ultimately, the goal of any digital product strategy should be to create a seamless experience that feels like a natural extension of the store. Whether it is achieving a 100% improvement in conversion rate or simply success stories from brands using native courses to build deeper loyalty, the evidence points toward the power of integration. By predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees and avoiding per-user fees as the community scales, merchants can build a sustainable digital empire directly within the Shopify ecosystem.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Digitally ‑ Digital Products and Courses Plus, the decision comes down to the specific nature of the digital goods being sold. Digitally ‑ Digital Products is the superior choice for merchants who need a lightweight, cost-effective way to deliver files, license keys, and assets with high security. Its volume-based pricing is ideal for asset marketplaces. Courses Plus is the better option for those building a true educational brand, where quizzes, certificates, and structured lesson paths are necessary for the customer's success.

However, as a business grows, the limitations of using multiple specialized, external apps often become apparent. Fragmented systems create support overhead and can dilute the brand experience. Moving toward a natively integrated platform allows for a more cohesive strategy where commerce, content, and community live together. This unity not only improves the user experience but also provides the data clarity needed to scale effectively. When you are ready to move beyond basic file delivery and want to see how your store can flourish with seeing how the app natively integrates with Shopify, the native path is often the most rewarding.

To build your community without leaving Shopify, start by reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from.

FAQ

Which app is better for selling software license keys?

Digitally ‑ Digital Products is specifically designed for license key management. It allows merchants to upload a list of keys that are automatically assigned to orders upon purchase. It also tracks the usage and delivery of these keys, which is a feature not natively found in Courses Plus.

Can Courses Plus handle large file downloads like e-books?

While Courses Plus can host files within its lessons, its primary focus is on the learning interface. If your business model is strictly selling e-books without any educational curriculum or quizzes, the lesson-based structure of Courses Plus may feel unnecessarily complex compared to the direct delivery model of Digitally ‑ Digital Products.

How does a native, all-in-one platform compare to specialized external apps?

A native platform lives inside your Shopify theme, meaning it uses the store's existing layout, navigation, and customer accounts. Specialized external apps often host content on their own servers and use their own interfaces, which can lead to a disjointed customer experience. Native platforms typically offer better data integration, allowing you to use Shopify’s native tools to track customer progress and trigger marketing automation more effectively.

Is there a limit on how many students I can have?

According to the provided data, Courses Plus offers unlimited students on all its plans, including the free Demo plan. This is a significant benefit for educators who expect high traffic. Digitally ‑ Digital Products does not limit students but does limit the number of orders or digital products depending on the plan you choose. For merchants who want to scale without these constraints, checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals can help verify how different apps handle high-volume traffic in real-world scenarios.