Courses Plus vs Recurpay: Subscriptions appfor Shopify (2026)
Courses Plus and Recurpay: Subscriptions app both operate within the Shopify Subscriptions category, but cater to distinct merchant needs. Courses Plus is positioned as an eLearning platform, allowing merchants to create, sell, and manage online courses and digital products. Its strength lies in offering tools for course creation (including AI quiz generation), student management, and certification. Recurpay: Subscriptions app, on the other hand, is a general subscription management solution focused on recurring revenue through product subscriptions. Its key strengths include flexible subscription plans, a customizable customer portal, and robust support options. Therefore, Courses Plus targets merchants selling knowledge-based products, while Recurpay serves those offering physical or digital products on a subscription basis. Although both apps share a 'Subscriptions' category, their feature sets are quite different. Courses Plus offers features designed to support course delivery, student management and certification, while Recurpay provides subscription management features, allowing merchants to create flexible subscription plans, manage recurring payments, and provide their customers with a self-service subscription portal. The review volume suggests Recurpay is a more widely used option. While Courses Plus provides an integrated solution to sell courses within your store and subscriptions, Recurpay would require a separate course/product delivery system if selling courses, and is mainly focused on existing product subscriptions.
At a Glance
Courses Plus
160 reviews
Recurpay: Subscriptions app
400 reviews
Detailed Overview
Courses Plus
Create online courses & digital products with your store. Sell more via bundles and subscriptions
Key Features
- Create and sell your own online courses
- Provide tests and exams with quizzes (AI course and quiz creation available)
- Monitor customers progress and quiz scores, verify students' assignments
- Generate PDF certificates for students who successfully completed your courses
- Offer bundles, membership subscriptions, add managers for team enrollments
Recurpay: Subscriptions app
Subscriptions app to unlock recurring revenue with intuitive customer portal & 24/7 human support.
Key Features
- Support upfront and pay-as-you-go plans with flexible renewal, 24/7 live support
- Design custom subscription widget for your brand in few clicks with full access.
- Let customers manage subscriptions: skip, edit, reschedule, or cancel anytime
- Renew subscriptions on a specific day or date, offer tiered discount, free gifts
- Developer-friendly setup with full access to APIs, code & technical support
Feature Comparison
| Rating | 4.9/5 | 5/5 |
Rating Courses Plus4.9/5 Recurpay: Subscriptions app5/5 | ||
| Reviews | 160 | 400 |
Reviews Courses Plus160 Recurpay: Subscriptions app400 | ||
| Primary Focus | Online Courses & Digital Products | General Product Subscriptions |
Primary Focus Courses PlusOnline Courses & Digital Products Recurpay: Subscriptions appGeneral Product Subscriptions | ||
| Course Creation Tools | Yes (AI quizzes, student management) | No |
Course Creation Tools Courses PlusYes (AI quizzes, student management) Recurpay: Subscriptions appNo | ||
| Customer Subscription Management | Bundles and Subscriptions | Comprehensive (Skip, Edit, Cancel) |
Customer Subscription Management Courses PlusBundles and Subscriptions Recurpay: Subscriptions appComprehensive (Skip, Edit, Cancel) | ||
| Customer Support | Not Specified | 24/7 Live Human Support |
Customer Support Courses PlusNot Specified Recurpay: Subscriptions app24/7 Live Human Support | ||
| API Access | Not Specified | Full API Access |
API Access Courses PlusNot Specified Recurpay: Subscriptions appFull API Access | ||
| Target Merchant | Educators, Coaches, Knowledge Experts | Merchants selling products on subscription |
Target Merchant Courses PlusEducators, Coaches, Knowledge Experts Recurpay: Subscriptions appMerchants selling products on subscription | ||
| Value Proposition | Monetize audience via online courses | Unlock recurring revenue through flexible subscriptions |
Value Proposition Courses PlusMonetize audience via online courses Recurpay: Subscriptions appUnlock recurring revenue through flexible subscriptions | ||
- Conversion Audit
- Speed Audit
- SEO Audit
Conversion Audit
Our Verdict
For merchants looking to build and sell online courses directly within their Shopify store, Courses Plus is the clear choice. Its features are tailored to course creation, student management, and certification. However, if the primary goal is to offer flexible subscription options for existing physical or digital products, and customer self-service is a priority, Recurpay: Subscriptions app is the better option. The significant number of reviews and emphasis on robust support suggests Recurpay is a more mature and widely adopted solution for general subscription management. If a merchant only needs general subscriptions features, Recurpay likely offers a more robust offering.
Consider that if a merchant *only* offered courses, then Courses Plus will be a better fit since it handles course delivery. If a merchant sells physical products *and* courses and wants to offer subscriptions on all of them, Recurpay is probably still the better option and the merchant would have to look at alternative ways of delivering the course content.
Common Questions
Which app is easier to set up?
The descriptions suggest Recurpay: Subscriptions app has a quick and easy setup that works within minutes, while Courses Plus doesn't specify setup ease. However, setting up a course will naturally take time.
Can I use both apps together?
Potentially, but it would likely be redundant. Courses Plus offers subscriptions for courses, and Recurpay offers subscriptions for other product types. If you had both, there would be two different interfaces for subscription management, creating a confusing user experience.
Does Courses Plus support multiple instructors?
Courses Plus allows adding managers for team enrollments which suggests support for multiple instructors, indirectly.
Which app is better for offering discounts?
Recurpay: Subscriptions app explicitly mentions tiered discounts, free gifts, and free shipping, indicating it offers more robust discount options for subscriptions.
Which app handles payments better?
Both apps handle recurring payments. However, Recurpay's description focuses more on automated subscription management and recurring payments specifically, indicating it likely offers more payment-related features and integrations. Courses Plus focuses on the full course ecosystem.
Get More From Your Shopify Store
Run audits for SEO, CRO, PageSpeed, and AI visibility. Get a clear report and actionable fixes.
Try Fix My Store