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Obtain a free trial of Thinkific if you don’t already have one. With themes created exclusively for promoting and selling education, Thinkific makes it extremely easy to build and market your courses.
Thinkific has long been recognized as one of the top virtual learning platforms, with well over 100 million enrollments. The simplicity of use and dedication to assisting independent producers and companies grow their eLearning services make the online education solution stand out.
But is Thinkific the best option for everyone wishing to start a business offering online courses?
Over the years, the site has helped millions of students improve their abilities and thousands of producers make a job, but Thinkific is not without its flaws.
Knowing what else is out there can help you compare options and choose the best course of action for your digital education firm. We investigated and discovered the top Thinkific alternatives.
What is Thinkific?
What is the definition of thinkific?Features of Thinkific, reviews of Thinkific, applications of Thinkific, and workings of Thinkific
According to its own website, Thinkific is “a technology company with a forum that allows people & businesses to create online classes from their existing knowledge & then deliver or sell those courses to their audiences from their website, and under their own brand.”
If that sounds a little complicated, Thinkific is an online education solution with all the tools required to design, organize, and deliver courses. The platform enables information sharing and potential revenue generation for both independent producers and companies.
In addition, Thinkific offers a variety of learning tools, including as course players, quizzes, tests, live courses, gamification, communities, and even course completion certificates, to support instructors in providing excellent learning experiences for students.
The ease of use of Thinkific is lauded. Making an account, a course, and your own course website are simple processes. Additionally, Thinkific enables users to include dozens of outside applications to assist with tasks like marketing, student administration, and design. You can literally provide students with any kind of experience and create your course website in a number of different ways.
Thinkific is a great option for educators, innovators, and businesses alike because to its extensive feature set for online course development and delivery. Naturally, not everything is ideal. Let’s examine some of Thinkific’s major benefits and drawbacks.
Pros:
- Ease of use for developing a course website and for producing courses
- Free plan that enables testing of the platform’s essential features
- eLearning platform with full-service features that also allows for course promotion, student management, and payment processing
- There is a drag and drop site builder and course editor available, so coding is not required.
- extensive app store with a variety of beneficial integrations
- the capacity to design countless courses (available exclusively with premium subscriptions) and host an endless number of students
- Adaptable to your brand’s style (full white label is only offered with the Premier Plan)
- Custom domains may be available
- Allows users to add courses to Thinkific from other websites such as WordPress, Weebly, and others.
- Along with phone and email help, there is also a sizable knowledge base for customers.
- A range of course delivery and payment alternatives to accommodate various student types and learning preferences
- Supports group sessions, pre-recorded webinars, live hosted classes, one-on-one training, and these
- Support for a variety of learning content formats, including presentations, audio, video, HTML, and PDF
- Highly scalable – users range from independent producers with much smaller businesses to huge education companies with thousands of students and dozens of courses.
- No transaction fees are applied to student payments to access educational content.
- The ability for individuals with the necessary expertise to alter the underlying code plus access to APIs (Premier Plan)
Cons:
- The most basic functions are all that the free plan gives.
- For those just starting their online course business, premium programs might be pricey.
- The absence of an internal email marketing tool is lamented by certain users. It is necessary to use a third-party app, which comes at an additional expense.
- Though their course player is entirely mobile responsive, Thinkific does not yet have a mobile app.
- According to some assessments, the site builder is too constrained.
Thinkific Pricing
Cost is another aspect to consider. Among online learning systems, Thinkific is not the most affordable option, but it is also not the most expensive either. The price largely depends on the features you require and the type of education business you intend to launch. The quantity of third-party integrations you choose to use, however, might significantly affect the price because most of them come with a cost. Having said that, here is a summary of the Thinkific pricing schemes.
Free Plan: Provides the essential functions needed to create and launch an online course, including:
- One admin account per website
- Unlimited enrollment yet few course options
- Course creator with drag and drop
- Complete e-commerce abilities
- Using the app store
- Website layouts
- Support by email and telephone
Basic Plan: Appropriate for people who want to create their first online course with more features than what the free plan offers; it includes all the free features in addition to:
- Unending programs
- Specific domain
- Live-chat feature
- The capacity to create drip scheduling
- Individual emails with students
- Being able to give deals and coupons
- Basics of Thinkific Academy courses
Pro Plan: Ideal for seasoned course designers who wish to grow their course business and offer more assistance to students. Features of the Pro Plan in addition to those of the Basic Plan include:
- Two site administrator accounts
- Private/hidden courses
- Priority assistance
- Advanced features and tools for course construction
- Options for flexible pricing, such as subscriptions
- Certificates of completion of courses
- One neighborhood
- Courses from Thinkific Academy Pro
Premier Plan: For those looking to expand their current course enterprises on a large scale. Includes:
- Five site admin accounts maximum
- Many communities
- The capacity to form groupings
- Complete white label and access to API
- Fifteen team analysts
- Adaptation to Brillium tests
Top 5 Best Thinkific Alternatives In 2024
In this article, you can know about Thinkific Alternatives here are the details below;
You ought to now have a better understanding of what Thinkific has to offer in terms of starting an online education venture. It is obvious that the platform is useful for those who want to build online courses and perhaps make money from them. To determine if there is a better option for your particular needs, it is necessary to become familiar with other alternatives.
We chose five from the previously mentioned list of alternatives to talk about—not necessarily because they are better or worse than Thinkific, but rather because of how well they compare.
1. Podia
Podia is another all-in-one tool that can be used to produce and market a variety of digital products, and it is frequently compared to Kajabi. Podia accepts webinars, memberships, downloadable materials, and courses. Also check Sites like Civitai
Podia is a considerably more lightweight alternative to Thinkific for developing online courses. The platform offers a straightforward, one-page site that can be altered to suit your online course demands, and it is quick to set up. Podia also has a variety of marketing tools that developers may utilize to draw in students, advertise their services, and even provide analytical data.
Podia Features
- Tools for upselling to boost sales
- Content of the course is scheduled in sections.
- Emails from the student dashboard with the ability to monitor open rates
- Enables the embedding of material from over 1,900 third-party applications
- Possibility of providing discounts, course bundles, pre-sales, and payment plans
- Hosting live and recorded webinars is made feasible by the integration of Zoom and YouTube.
- Powerful email marketing tools for sharing broadcasts and building campaigns
Podia Advantages
- Less money is needed up front to start selling online courses, plus you can do it for free.
- Everything is unlimited, including courses, students, content, and correspondence.
- enables users to sell other digital products such as downloaded files, webinars, memberships, and communities in addition to courses.
- You can include any type of content in your course, including text, videos, photos, PDFs, audio files, PSDs, and more.
- Ability to add a logo and brand colors to your course website
- Flexible layout possibilities in a contemporary site builder
- When using a premium plan, there are no transaction costs.
- Contains a community and a discussion board to assist increase participation.
Podia Disadvantages
- Lacks many of the advanced functionality and learning management tools necessary to provide an online classroom environment.
- No cutting-edge reporting or analytical tools
- Unable to build a course website with a fully white label
- The free plan has extremely few features and charges an 8% transaction fee.
- Site builders only offer a few functionalities.
Podia Price
Podia has three pricing stories: Mover Plan for $33 per month, Shaker Plan for the $75 per month, & Earthquaker Plan for $166 per month, making it one of the least expensive solutions in its class. Of course, a free plan is also available.
2. Teachable
Teachable is a tool that enables developers to create and market online coaching programs. In that it is developed from the instructor’s perspective rather than the student’s, the platform is comparable to Thinkific. However, Teachable prioritizes independent creators and instructors above established educational institutions and businesses (although it can still serve these clients).
Teachable is really simple to use because it focuses on creative people. The platform lacks many of the sophisticated tools found on Thinkific and other comparable solutions, making it one of the easiest to manipulate.
An online course on Teachable may be launched in a matter of minutes. Because so much of the technical stuff has already been taken care of, you only need to supply the content. Teachable has so far brought in over $1 billion in revenue for the platform’s 100,000+ creators.
Teachable features include:
- Drag and drop course builder that is practical
- User-friendly UI that is simple and intuitive
- Supports a variety of course material, including presentations, audio, video, PDF, and other types.
- Commenting functionality to involve students
- A very simple online course can be set up for free using the available free plan.
- The capacity to design tests and give certificates of course completion
- Support for subscriptions, coupons, order bumps, upsells, and course bundles
- Tools for affiliate marketing and a student referral scheme
- There are various payment methods, including flexible ones like subscriptions, instalments, and free trials.
- Supports the movement of students and courses from other platforms
- Accepts payments in more than 130 different currencies, along with Apple Pay, PayPal, Google Pay, and other methods.
- Both desktop and mobile compatible
- Support for multiple languages
- Support options include live group coaching sessions, email and live chat, as well as member communities.
- Direct interface with well-known programs like Google Analytics, Zapier, and Mailchimp, among others
Teachable advantage
- Ideal for new learners who wish to learn about online courses without a lot of frills
- Through the Spotlight app, provides a course marketplace that assists users in having their courses found.
- Users may not have to spend a lot of money on other third-party apps because marketing and sales tools are included.
- Easily adaptable and giving some branding possibilities
- No technological knowledge is necessary because many features involve drag and drop construction.
Teachable Disadvantages
- Teachable’s lack of sophisticated learning and educational assessment capabilities may make it inappropriate for more experienced course designers.
- The free version of the platform is solely suitable for testing it out.
- Can be pricey, especially for newcomers who desire more features than those offered by the free plan.
- White labeling not an option
- Teachable has prioritized coaching services more recently, which raises some concerns about whether it will continue to be a viable alternative for course developers.
Teachable Pricing
Teachable has a simple price structure with three monthly plans: the Basic Plan for $39, the Professional Plan for $99, and the Business Plan for $499. Additionally, big businesses can enroll in an Enterprise Plan by speaking with Teachable’s sales division. This is another Thinkific Alternatives. Also check SmHaggle Alternatives
Through its online learning platform, Skillshare facilitates knowledge sharing, as the name suggests. The online education solution provides teams and individuals with self-paced video courses (also known as classes) that can be taken from any location.
On Skillshare, anyone can create a course, but many of the teachers are professionals in their industries. High-profile figures including Roxane Gay, Gary Vaynerchuck, and Seth Godin are among the instructors on the site. This is another Thinkific Alternatives.
Looking through the roughly 35,000 lessons available on Skillshare as a Thinkific substitute reveals that the learning content is geared towards creative and business-minded people. Graphic design, spirit, photography, writing, web development, & productivity are just a few of the many topics covered in these courses. Additionally, there is useful, non-traditional instructional material in categories like motivation and life hacks.
- Individual and group instruction
- Videos as instruction
- Brevity of the lessons
- A joint educational experience
- In addition to desktop access, there are mobile apps for iOS and Android.
- Creating and posting classes is simple, and there is no application or approval process.
- Community of learning for educators and students
- Student comments
- Catalog of the highest class
- Referral process
- Connecting channels
- A class preparation lesson to assist teachers in organizing concepts and course material
- A class’s capacity for promotion
- Students can access study materials offline (only for premium members).
- Anyone who want to offer their knowledge or gain insight is welcome.
- A useful and reliable cloud platform
- Learning communities promote knowledge sharing to enhance instructional material.
- Smaller classes and projects improve students’ learning experiences.
- Numerous ways for earning money via student memberships
- A referral scheme enables teachers to get paid for each new student who signs up as a premium member.
- Comprises live performances
- Free trial is offered
- No effective Thinkific alternatives with learning management capabilities
- Unable to assess the quality of the learning materials
- No accreditation or certificates of completion for the course
- Not being able to create your own learning website
- There are no free lessons (aside from the free trial), however members frequently get access to continuing discounts and specials.
- White labeling attributes are absent.
- The sole available option is online classes (as opposed to all-inclusive choices like Gumroad or Kajabi).
You can use Skillshare’s 7-day free trial to access all of the platform’s courses. Beyond that, though, its pricing schemes remain unclear to people. Teams can choose from Skillshare’s Starter, Enterprise, or Revive plans. The Starter Plan is appropriate for groups of two to nineteen people and costs $159 per user annually. Users who want to enroll in the Enterprise Plan, which covers 20 or more users, must speak with Skillshare sales. The Revive Plan, which serves teams with 51 or more users, operates similarly.
4. Gumroad
Gumroad is an additional choice that enables the sale of a variety of digital goods in addition to online courses. The permitted offerings include subscriptions, software, e-books, printables, and more. Actually, the site serves as an online market place for thousands of creators worldwide. This is another Thinkific Alternatives.
Gumroad makes it simple to set up your own storefront and gain access to a ready-made market of more than 200,000 monthly visitors. Additionally, Gumroad enables you to accept payments via credit cards and PayPal and lets you sell your courses through your social media profiles or current website.
Gumroad features include
- Simple but effective eCommerce tools for audience development and conversions
- Being able to make unique URL links that can be distributed anywhere
- Strong payment processing that accepts PayPal and the majority of the major credit cards
- Flexible payment choices, such as installment plans, one-time payments, and subscriptions.
- Pleasant user interface
- Flexible page editor with the ability to add brand colors and more
- Platforms for social networking and payments are among the embeddable power-ups.
- Accepts a variety of currencies
- Import/export for followers and an email list
Gumroad advantages
- Simple selling strategy: create a storefront, add courses, and begin selling
- There are no monthly fees, thus there are no up-front expenditures to use the site.
- As lifetime incomes rise, transaction fees decrease.
- Ability to sell subscriptions, printables, software, e-books, and other digital things alongside your online course
- There are no price tiers, so you immediately have access to all functions.
- Vibrant community of supporters
Gumroad disadvantages
- Users with lifetime earnings under $1000 are charged a 9% transaction fee plus 30 cents on each sale, even though signing up is free.
- No free demo is available to test the platform.
- Has limited capability for advanced learning management.
- There are restrictions with mobile apps.
- No major analytical reporting or tracking capabilities
Gumroad pricing
Gumroad is free for creators to use, and when there are purchases, the site earns money from transaction fees.
5. Kajabi
The platform is utilized by trained professionals such as educators & business owners, as well as DIY producers wishing to make money from a range of digital products, and is marketed towards the market sector known as “knowledge entrepreneurs.” As a result, the platform is employed to host online courses, develop membership websites, provide coaching services, launch podcasts, and establish online communities. This is another Thinkific Alternatives.
With regard to selling courses, Kajabi’s pre-made templates make it simple to create and publish online courses. Users of the forum have access to a wide range of tools and functionality for building sales-focused landing pages, writing marketing emails, and implementing automations.
Users can also access tools for managing students, establishing course websites, making quizzes and evaluations, and more. Since its launch in 2010, Kajabi has assisted more than 50,000 people in earning more than $3.5 billion.
Features of Kajabi include
- Along with online access, there is a mobile-friendly app for iOS and Android.
- To generate, promote, and monetize learning content, a variety of tools are required.
- Helps creators establish and market additional digital items including podcasts, memberships, and coaching services
- Up to three custom domains or webpages are supported.
- Basic aspects of social networks and discussion forums
- Website builder with drag and drop
- Tools for extensive email marketing and automation to aid artists in increasing their income
- Integrated SEO
Kajabi advantages
- Users can save money by using the built-in email marketing and management capabilities (unlike Thinkific).
- The integrated checkout feature enables developers to accept money via PayPal or Stripe.
- You can create courses with audiovisual content at no additional cost thanks to unlimited video hosting.
- Possesses a reputation for offering excellent customer service
- An eLearning business, as well as other digital products, is simple to start up and launch.
- Before choosing a package, you may test out all the features during the 14-day free trial.
Kajabi disadvantages
- Does not provide a free plan, but does provide a free trial.
- Among the priciest options to Thinkific, with the lowest affordable option costing more than Thinkific’s middle tier
- Not as capable a learning management solution as Teachable or even Thinkific
- There is no opportunity to make endless courses.
- Certain promised features of the website builder are missing, according to several evaluations.
Kajabi Pricing
As previously indicated, Kajabi is more expensive than many of its rivals; the second tier (Growth Plan) costs $199 per month, while the Basic Plan is $149. The Pro Plan, which is Kajabi’s most expensive plan, is $399 a month, which is quite reasonable when compared to other platforms. In addition, if you pay yearly, you can save 20% off the given costs.
Conclusion
As an online education platform, Thinkific has a lot to offer, but it also has some shortcomings that make it inappropriate for many people and organizations. When looking for reliable Thinkific alternatives, the ones above are among the most frequently suggested. Before selecting a choice, make sure to thoroughly compare options’ prices, features, and how each aligns with your long-term objective.