Thinkific ‑ Online Courses vs. Conjured Memberships Comparison

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Thinkific ‑ Online Courses vs. Conjured Memberships: At a Glance
3. Deep Dive Comparison
4. The Alternative: Unifying Commerce, Content, and Community Natively
5. Conclusion
6. FAQ

Introduction

Choosing the right infrastructure for digital products often presents a crossroads for Shopify store owners. Merchants frequently find themselves caught between two distinct paths: adopting a specialized, external learning management system or utilizing a membership-focused tool that operates within the existing store framework. Each approach carries significant implications for the customer experience, technical maintenance, and long-term scalability of the brand.

Short answer: Thinkific ‑ Online Courses is a robust, external platform designed for structured education but often faces integration friction, while Conjured Memberships excels at loyalty perks and recurring revenue with a native feel. For merchants seeking a unified solution that combines deep course logic with a seamless Shopify-native experience, evaluating a platform that keeps all data under one roof is essential.

This comparison provides an objective analysis of Thinkific ‑ Online Courses and Conjured Memberships. By examining their feature sets, pricing models, and merchant feedback, store owners can determine which tool aligns with their specific business goals, whether they are selling high-ticket education or building a perk-based subscription community.

Thinkific ‑ Online Courses vs. Conjured Memberships: At a Glance

Deep Dive Comparison

Core Features and Workflows

Thinkific ‑ Online Courses is primarily a bridge to a powerful, external learning management system. It allows Shopify merchants to sell access to courses that are hosted on Thinkific’s own servers. This means the actual learning environment, the video hosting, and the student progress tracking live outside the Shopify ecosystem. The app focuses on monetizing expertise through structured content, offering tools like quizzes, surveys, and a drag-and-drop course builder.

In contrast, Conjured Memberships is designed to master the "Prime" or "Peloton" model within Shopify. It does not focus on curriculum building but rather on the logic of membership. It allows merchants to gate content, offer early access to new product drops, and provide exclusive shipping or discount perks. The workflow is centered around the customer account and the native Shopify checkout, ensuring that the membership feels like an extension of the shopping experience rather than a separate destination.

Customization and Branding Control

Branding consistency is often a point of contention when using external platforms. With Thinkific ‑ Online Courses, the "Grow" plan at $199 per month is required to remove Thinkific branding entirely. On lower tiers, customers are aware they have been redirected to a third-party service. While Thinkific provides website themes and a custom domain option on its "Basic" plan ($49/month), the transition from a Shopify store to a Thinkific course site can still feel disjointed for the end user.

Conjured Memberships leans heavily into the native Shopify theme. Because it connects directly with customer accounts and the theme's frontend, the membership portal can be styled to match the brand perfectly. This reduces the cognitive load on the customer, as they do not have to wonder why they are being asked to log in to a different-looking site. The focus here is on building trust through a fully integrated portal that mirrors the store's existing aesthetics.

Pricing Structure and Value

The pricing strategies of these two apps cater to very different business stages. Thinkific ‑ Online Courses offers a free tier for up to three courses, but scaling quickly becomes expensive. The "Start" plan at $99 per month is the first level that includes memberships and bundles, while the "Grow" plan reaches $199 per month. For a merchant just starting to experiment with digital products, these fixed costs can represent a significant barrier to entry, especially if student volume is initially low.

Conjured Memberships uses a more accessible entry-level price point. Their "Starter" plan is $19 per month and allows for unlimited members and membership revenue. However, higher-tier plans like the "Growth" plan at $69 per month are positioned to offer lower transaction fees. This means that as a membership program scales, the merchant is incentivized to move up the tiers to protect their margins. This model is often more attractive for brands that are testing a loyalty program and want to keep fixed overhead low in the early phases.

Integrations and Ecosystem Fit

The "Works With" list for each app reveals their divergent philosophies. Thinkific ‑ Online Courses integrates with a wide array of external marketing tools such as Zapier, ConvertKit, Keap, and ActiveCampaign. This is ideal for professional course creators who run their entire marketing engine through specialized email and automation platforms outside of Shopify.

Conjured Memberships stays closer to the Shopify core. It lists compatibility with Shopify Flow, Churnbuster, and CreditsYard, as well as email tools like Klaviyo and Sendgrid. By working with Shopify Flow, Conjured Memberships allows merchants to trigger internal Shopify actions based on membership status, such as tagging customers or sending personalized win-back emails through a Shopify-native tech stack. This creates a more cohesive data loop for merchants who want to see all customer activity inside their Shopify admin.

Support and Reliability

A significant gap exists in the merchant feedback for these two apps. Thinkific ‑ Online Courses currently holds a 1.9-star rating based on 17 reviews. This often indicates merchant frustration regarding the integration between the external Thinkific platform and the Shopify store, or perhaps challenges with the login sync. Low ratings in this category usually stem from "platform fragmentation," where the two systems fail to communicate effectively, leading to support tickets from confused students.

Conjured Memberships enjoys a much higher rating of 4.7 stars from 77 reviews. The developer emphasizes "outstanding, responsive support direct from the folks who built the app." For a merchant managing recurring revenue, reliability and fast support are non-negotiable. If a membership perk fails to apply at checkout, it directly impacts the store's reputation and conversion rate. The positive feedback for Conjured suggests a more stable integration with the Shopify checkout process.

The Alternative: Unifying Commerce, Content, and Community Natively

While both Thinkific and Conjured offer valuable tools, many merchants eventually hit a wall caused by platform fragmentation. When courses live on one site and physical products live on another, the customer experience suffers. Users often face login issues, broken links, and a sense of confusion when they are bounced between different domains. This fragmentation does more than just annoy customers; it actively suppresses conversion rates and increases the burden on support teams.

A native platform approach solves these issues by keeping everything "at home." When you choose to build on a system that resides entirely within Shopify, you eliminate the need for external syncs. This is why many growing brands are moving toward all the key features for courses and communities that are built specifically for the Shopify ecosystem. By keeping customers at home on the brand website, merchants can offer a single login that handles both their physical orders and their digital learning content.

The financial benefits of a native integration are equally compelling. Instead of navigating complex tiered pricing that punishes growth, merchants can find a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses. This allows for a predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, ensuring that as your community grows, your margins remain healthy. High-growth brands have seen significant success with this model; for example, one merchant achieved a 100% improvement in conversion rate simply by doubled its store's conversion rate by fixing a fragmented system.

The ability to bundle products is perhaps the strongest argument for a native platform. Imagine a customer buying a physical craft kit and instantly receiving access to a video course that teaches them how to use it—all within the same checkout and account. This strategy has allowed brands to scale rapidly, with some strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively resulting in massive revenue gains. By how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses, it becomes clear that the future of e-commerce lies in the intersection of physical goods and digital education.

If you are currently reviewing the Shopify App Store listing merchants install from, it is worth considering how much time you want to spend managing separate platforms. By checking merchant feedback and app-store performance signals, you can see that the market is shifting toward unified experiences. Avoiding the "duct-tape" approach to software allows you to focus on content creation and community engagement rather than technical troubleshooting.

When verifying compatibility details in the official app listing, look for tools that leverage Shopify’s own infrastructure, like Shopify Flow and native customer accounts. This ensures that your digital products are as stable and reliable as your physical store. Ultimately, the goal is to create a frictionless journey for your customers, where they can learn, shop, and engage with your brand without ever feeling like they’ve left your digital storefront.

Conclusion

For merchants choosing between Thinkific ‑ Online Courses and Conjured Memberships, the decision comes down to the specific type of digital experience you intend to build. Thinkific is a heavy-duty option for those who need deep LMS functionality and don't mind the friction of an external site. Conjured Memberships is a lighter, more integrated choice for brands focused on loyalty perks and subscription-based access within the Shopify theme.

However, the modern merchant often needs both: the depth of an online course platform and the seamless integration of a native membership tool. Fragmented systems inevitably lead to higher technical debt and customer frustration. By evaluating the long-term cost of scaling membership and choosing a native alternative, you can provide a unified experience that drives higher lifetime value and simplifies your daily operations.

Transitioning to a platform that hosts your community and courses directly on Shopify is the most effective way to eliminate login headaches and keep your branding 100% consistent. Before committing to an external architecture, consider the benefits of a system that grows with you without adding complexity.

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

FAQ

Is Thinkific better for high-ticket courses than Conjured Memberships?

Thinkific is generally better suited for high-ticket courses because it includes specialized educational tools like quizzes, assignments, and certificates that are not the primary focus of Conjured Memberships. Conjured is better for "perk-based" memberships, such as offering free shipping or exclusive discounts to a loyal group of repeat buyers.

Do I need a separate website for Thinkific?

Yes, Thinkific usually requires you to set up a subdomain (e.g., courses.yourstore.com). This means your customers will essentially be visiting two different websites: one for shopping and one for learning. Conjured Memberships stays on your main domain, as it integrates directly into your existing Shopify theme and customer account pages.

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

A native platform lives inside your Shopify admin and uses your store's native checkout and customer database. This eliminates the need for "syncing" data between two companies. While external apps might offer more "niche" educational features, native apps typically provide a much higher conversion rate and lower support requirements because the customer never has to create a second account or navigate away from your brand.

Which app is more cost-effective as my student count grows?

Conjured Memberships is generally more cost-effective at scale because it offers a "Starter" plan with unlimited members for a lower monthly fee, though you must watch for transaction costs. Thinkific's pricing scales by feature set, and you will likely find yourself on the $99 or $199 plan to get the branding and membership tools needed for a professional presence. A flat-rate native app often provides the best value by removing per-user or high-tier pricing hurdles altogether. Scanning reviews to understand real-world adoption can help you see which pricing model merchants prefer as they scale.