Best Software to Create an Online Course for Shopify

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Why Native Integration is the Standard for Success
3. The Financial Impact of Transaction Fees
4. Essential Features for Modern Online Courses
5. Boosting Revenue: The Physical and Digital Hybrid
6. Comparing Native Shopify Apps to External Platforms
7. Strategies for Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)
8. The Tevello Advantage: Simple, Powerful, Native
9. How to Build Your First Course Using Tevello
10. Setting Realistic Business Expectations
11. Conclusion
12. Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

The global e-learning market is projected to soar to a staggering $325 billion by 2026. This isn't just a statistic; it’s a fundamental shift in how people consume information and how entrepreneurs build wealth. For many years, the barrier to entry for digital education was technical complexity and high inventory costs. Today, that barrier has vanished, but it has been replaced by a different challenge: fragmented data. Most creators are forced to host their store in one place, their courses in another, and their community in a third, leaving their customer journey scattered across various third-party platforms.

The purpose of this blog post is to provide a deep dive into selecting the best software to create an online course, specifically for merchants who want to leverage the power of the Shopify ecosystem. We will explore why a native integration is superior to external "all-in-one" platforms, how to structure your digital products for maximum impact, and the financial advantages of choosing a partner that respects your profit margins.

At Tevello, our mission is to turn any Shopify store into a digital learning powerhouse. We believe that you should own your customer data and your brand experience completely. By the end of this article, you will understand how to choose a solution that keeps your customers on your own URL, increases your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), and simplifies your business operations into a single, cohesive dashboard.

Why Native Integration is the Standard for Success

When searching for the best software to create an online course, many merchants are initially lured by external platforms that promise simplicity. However, these platforms often operate on subdomains or entirely separate URLs. This creates a "leaky bucket" in your marketing funnel. Every time a customer is redirected to a third-party site to access their content, you lose control over the user experience and, more importantly, the data.

Keeping Customers at Home

A primary technical advantage of a native solution is the ability to keep your audience on your primary domain. When your course lives directly on your Shopify store, there is no jarring transition between browsing a physical product and accessing a digital lesson. This unified login experience reduces customer support friction significantly. Customers don't have to remember two sets of credentials or navigate different interfaces.

We built Tevello specifically to ensure a unified login that reduces customer support friction. When your digital products live directly alongside your physical stock, the administrative burden of managing two separate platforms disappears. This isn't just a matter of convenience; it’s about brand integrity. Your customers bought into your brand, not a third-party hosting service.

Owning Your Data

Data is the most valuable asset in modern e-commerce. External course platforms often gatekeep your data, making it difficult to track exactly how a student's behavior in a course correlates with their purchasing habits in your store. By using a native Shopify app, you maintain 100% ownership of your customer list and engagement metrics.

When you can see that a student who just finished "Module 3" of your gardening course is also looking at your premium seed kits, you can trigger automated, highly relevant marketing emails. This level of synchronization is only possible when your course software speaks the same language as your e-commerce platform.

The Financial Impact of Transaction Fees

The "best" software isn't just about features; it’s about your bottom line. Many popular course platforms lure creators in with low monthly fees but hide the true cost in "success fees" or transaction percentages. These can range from 3% to 10% of every sale you make.

The Hidden Cost of Success

As your business grows, these percentages become a significant drain on your resources. If you are selling $10,000 worth of courses a month, a 5% transaction fee means you are handing over $500 of your profit every single month—on top of your subscription fee. This is a "success tax" that penalizes you for doing well.

At Tevello, we reject this model. We believe you should keep 100% of what you earn. This is why we charge 0% transaction fees. Whether you have ten students or ten thousand, your costs remain predictable. We provide predictable pricing without hidden transaction fees, allowing you to reinvest that capital into your marketing or content production.

Simplified Pricing Structure

Instead of complex tiers that limit your growth, we offer The Unlimited Plan at $29.99 per month. This flat-rate model is designed to support your business as it scales. You shouldn't have to worry about hitting a cap on student numbers or course uploads. Our focus is on securing a fixed cost structure for digital products, ensuring that your margins stay healthy as your community expands.

Essential Features for Modern Online Courses

Selecting the best software to create an online course requires a checklist of features that facilitate both learning and engagement. A platform should be more than a video player; it should be a comprehensive learning environment.

Video Hosting and Bandwidth

Video is the backbone of most online courses. However, hosting high-definition video can be expensive and technically demanding. When evaluating software, look for platforms that include unlimited video hosting. This removes the need for expensive third-party video hosts and ensures that your students have a buffer-free experience.

Drip Content Scheduling

Not all information should be delivered at once. Drip content allows you to release lessons over time—daily, weekly, or after a specific milestone is reached. This prevents student burnout and keeps engagement high over a longer period. It also serves as a powerful retention tool for membership models.

Quizzes and Assessments

To ensure your students are actually learning, the software must support interactive elements. Quizzes not only reinforce knowledge but also provide you with data on where students might be struggling. This allows you to improve your curriculum over time. Our Unlimited plan includes all the key features for courses and communities, including robust quiz builders and progress tracking.

Community and Engagement

The shift in the industry is moving away from passive "watch-only" courses and toward active communities. Students want to interact with the creator and their peers. Look for software that offers:

• Member directories.
• Social feeds.
• Individual member profiles.
• Discussion boards within lessons.

Creating a "sticky" environment where students talk to each other increases the perceived value of your product and drastically improves retention for recurring revenue models.

Boosting Revenue: The Physical and Digital Hybrid

One of the most significant advantages of using Shopify as your base is the ability to seamlessly blend physical and digital products. This is where the true potential of the "digital learning powerhouse" comes to life.

Practical Scenario: The Specialty Coffee Roaster

Imagine a merchant selling premium coffee beans. By using the best software to create an online course, they can create a "Home Barista Masterclass."

1. The Initial Sale: A customer buys a bag of espresso beans.
2. The Digital Upsell: On the thank-you page, the customer is offered the "Barista Masterclass" for a small add-on fee.
3. The Engagement: The customer watches the videos, learning how to properly grind and tamp those specific beans.
4. The Recurring Sale: Because they now know how to get the best flavor from the beans, their satisfaction is higher, and they subscribe to a monthly bean delivery.

This model requires no extra shipping boxes, no physical inventory for the course, and offers nearly 100% profit margins on the digital portion. If unifying your stack is a priority, start by a simple, all-in-one price for unlimited courses.

Real-World Success in Bundling

The ability to bundle digital education with physical goods is a proven strategy for increasing Customer Lifetime Value. We have seen merchants transform their businesses by moving away from one-off sales and toward an ecosystem of value. For example, see how merchants are earning six figures by implementing these native strategies.

Specifically, look at how one brand sold $112K+ by bundling courses. This wasn't achieved by luck; it was the result of strategies for selling over 4,000 digital courses natively alongside their physical craft supplies. When the friction of the purchase is removed via a native Shopify checkout, conversion rates naturally climb.

Comparing Native Shopify Apps to External Platforms

While external platforms like dedicated SaaS LMS providers are popular, they often fall short for the serious Shopify merchant. Let’s break down the comparisons in terms of branding, user experience, and long-term scalability.

The URL Problem

Most external platforms host your content on yourbrand.externalplatform.com or require a complex setup for a custom subdomain like courses.yourbrand.com. This breaks the SEO continuity of your primary site and can confuse customers. A native app ensures keeping customers at home on the brand website, which is better for your search engine rankings and brand recall.

Payment Gateways and Trust

External platforms often require you to set up separate payment processors (like Stripe or PayPal) within their own dashboard. This means your financial data is split between two systems. By using Tevello’s native Shopify integration, you use the payment gateways you already trust and have already configured in Shopify. This ensures a seamless, one-click checkout experience that customers are already comfortable with.

Scalability and Membership Costs

Many platforms charge per user. As your community grows, your monthly bill balloons. If you have 5,000 students, a platform charging $0.10 or $1.00 per student per month becomes an enormous liability. By avoiding per-user fees as the community scales, you ensure that your software costs don't eat your profits. We believe in a flat-rate plan that supports unlimited members, giving you the freedom to market aggressively without fear of a higher software bill.

Strategies for Increasing Customer Lifetime Value (LTV)

The goal of selling online courses isn't just the first sale; it's about building a sustainable, recurring revenue stream. Digital products are uniquely suited for this because they have zero marginal cost for each new student.

Retention Through Community

A course is a transaction; a community is a relationship. When students can see their own profiles and interact with others, they are less likely to cancel their subscriptions. This is particularly important for membership sites. By providing a member directory and social feeds, you turn a static product into a living experience.

Upselling Existing Customers

It is significantly cheaper to sell to an existing customer than to acquire a new one. By offering advanced courses or "inner circle" community access to people who have already purchased from you, you maximize the value of every lead. We have seen incredible results from this, such as generating over €243,000 by upselling existing customers. This success is driven by retention strategies that drive repeat digital purchases, all managed within the Shopify environment.

The Tevello Advantage: Simple, Powerful, Native

We designed Tevello to be the tool we wished we had when we started our own e-commerce journeys. We saw too many merchants struggling with "software bloat"—using five different apps that didn't talk to each other.

The All-in-One Ecosystem

When you install Tevello, you aren't just getting a course builder; you are getting an ecosystem. Physical products, digital courses, and community engagement all live side-by-side in your Shopify admin. This means:

• One Checkout: Use Shopify's world-class checkout for everything.
• One Customer List: No more syncing CSV files between apps.
• One Dashboard: Manage your entire business in one place.

Professional and Accessible

We understand that you are a business owner, not necessarily a developer. That’s why our interface is intuitive. You can build your entire curriculum using our drag-and-drop tools without touching a single line of code. Before committing, you can start your 14-day free trial and build your first course now to see just how simple the process is.

How to Build Your First Course Using Tevello

Starting can be the hardest part, but we’ve streamlined the process to make it as fast as possible. Here is a realistic roadmap for launching your first digital product.

Phase 1: Planning Your Curriculum

Don't try to build a 50-hour masterclass on your first go. Start with a "Mini-Course" that solves one specific problem for your audience.

• Identify the "Big Win" your students want.
• Break the process down into 5–7 logical steps (Modules).
• Create a simple quiz for the end to validate their learning.

Phase 2: Content Creation

You don't need a Hollywood studio. Most successful courses are filmed with a smartphone and a basic microphone.

• Record your videos.
• Create supplemental PDFs or worksheets.
• Draft your "Welcome" email for new students.

Phase 3: Technical Setup

This is where Tevello shines. Instead of worrying about hosting, you simply:

1. Install Tevello from the Shopify App Store today.
2. Create a new course in the dashboard.
3. Upload your videos (remember, bandwidth is unlimited).
4. Set your price and link it to a Shopify product.

Because of our native integration, your course is automatically linked to a Shopify product. When a customer buys that product, they are instantly granted access to the course area on your domain.

Setting Realistic Business Expectations

While the "get rich quick" narratives of the internet are enticing, we prefer to focus on sustainable growth. Adding digital products to your Shopify store is a marathon, not a sprint.

Diversifying Your Revenue

The real power of this model is stability. If you rely solely on physical products, you are at the mercy of supply chains, shipping costs, and inventory management. Digital products provide a buffer. They offer high-margin revenue that flows even if your physical warehouse is closed for the holidays.

Building Brand Loyalty

Education is the ultimate way to build authority. When you teach your customers how to use your products or how to excel in your niche, you are no longer just a "vendor." You become a mentor. This level of brand loyalty is impossible to replicate with price discounts or flashy ads. By comparing plan costs against total course revenue, it becomes clear that the investment in education pays for itself through increased customer retention.

Conclusion

Choosing the best software to create an online course is a decision that will define the trajectory of your business. You can choose to fragment your brand across multiple third-party platforms, or you can choose to build a unified empire on Shopify.

By selecting a native solution, you ensure that your customers stay on your domain, your data remains in your hands, and your profit margins aren't eroded by unnecessary transaction fees. Tevello’s Unlimited Plan provides a robust, scalable, and simple way to transform your store into a digital learning powerhouse for just $29.99 a month. With unlimited courses, students, and video hosting, the only limit is your creativity.

We invite you to experience the difference of a truly integrated system. Start your 14-day free trial today and begin building your curriculum. You can fully design and organize your content before you ever pay a cent, ensuring that the platform is the right fit for your unique brand.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Tevello charge a percentage of my course sales?

No. One of our core values is transparency. We charge 0% transaction fees. You keep 100% of your earnings, minus whatever standard processing fees your chosen payment gateway (like Shopify Payments or PayPal) charges. Our flat-rate Unlimited Plan covers all your course-hosting needs.

Will my students have to log in to a different website to see my course?

Absolutely not. Tevello is a native Shopify app, meaning your course area is hosted directly on your Shopify store’s URL. Your customers use their existing Shopify account credentials to log in, creating a seamless and professional experience that keeps them connected to your brand.

Is there a limit to how many videos I can upload?

Under our Unlimited Plan, you get unlimited video hosting and bandwidth. You don't need to pay for external services or worry about hitting a storage cap. This allows you to focus on creating high-quality content without technical limitations or surprise overage charges.

Can I sell memberships and recurring subscriptions?

Yes. Tevello is designed to handle one-time course sales, bundles, and recurring memberships. Because we integrate natively with Shopify, you can use Shopify’s subscription tools and apps to manage recurring billing while Tevello handles the content delivery and community engagement.