When deciding which online course platform to go with there’s a chance you’ll receive a long list of possibilities. Thinkific is a worthy standout due to its many useful features.
There are many criteria to watch out for when using an online course platform and Thinkific offers them all. Continue reading the Thinkific review below to discover more information about its unique advantages and features.
Overview of Thinkific Review Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
Thinkific is one of the most well-known options for creating and selling online courses. Apart from having an easy-to-use user interface, the platform also has ready-made templates that you can use for building your brand site.
In just a few clicks it’s possible to develop and market online courses, even if you have no prior knowledge. The drag and drop mechanism of the website makes it simple to start.
Online course creators are curious about the advanced quiz elements for every course you make. They will make the course more interesting to the students.
The online course builder allows you to upload various types of files to enhance your Thinkific course.
As with other online courses platforms, Thinkific offers email marketing tools and third-party app integration. It is possible to send email sequences either through Thinkific itself or via outside applications like MailChimp, Zapier, etc.
Keep reading through this Thinkific review to learn more about this well-known online course platform.
Pros
- Easy-to-use drag & drop editor
- Efficient course site builder
- Pre-made templates
- Different payment options
- Marketing and sales features
- Options for student management
- Feedback capabilities for students
- Support for customers in a timely manner
- Access to the plan for life. plan
- No transaction fees or hidden charges
Cons
- Limited quizzing features
- Insufficient email marketing tools
- No live chat support
How do you define Thinkific?
Thinkific is an online course platform that is cloud-based. This means that everything you make on it is stored online and automatically backup. This helps to make course creation more efficient and easy.
Plus, as it is a Learning Management System (LMS), it provides many custom options for course creators. You can create an easy course and then upload various resources to enhance your lesson.
If you’re among those course creators who prefer to draft your course offline prior to uploading it online, Thinkific is perfect for you. It allows you to do this and then upload your course online later on.
Thinkific is also the host for all the websites you build and can upload as much content you want.
It is possible to create an online course website even without any design expertise also. You won’t have to go through an excruciating learning curve when you use Thinkific It’s that simple.
There are many ways to market and distribute your course to accelerate the selling course’s selling Thinkific course. There’s an online marketplace community where you can market your courses and collaborate with other course creators.
Finally, Thinkific is also a good option for people who already have their own websites but would like to improve their marketing and gain more students. You can connect third-party sites to Thinkific to reach a larger public.
The Benefits and Features of Thinkific
In this Thinkific review we review the key features and advantages which make Thinkific stand out.
Drag and Drop Editor
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The way that your courses appear on your site will greatly impact conversion rates. This is the reason we love that Thinkific has an editor that you can drag and drop. It is a great way to organize your website and other digital products.
You can rearrange the courses and lessons in any way you want. There is no need to learn complicated code or methods. Simply click on whatever item you’d like to display and drag it to where you would like it to appear.
Almost all of the important components needed to create a website that looks professional are covered by the Thinkific editor. From the logos, color schemes, and fonts, you’ll discover everything you require from the site.
However, if you want to go the extra mile to make your site better you can still choose to input CSS and HTML codes into Thinkific. It’s up to you decide.
In addition, you may use drag and drop to upload additional materials for your classes. The majority of types of media is supported by the editor’s uploader. You can upload questions, audio file, as well as PDFs, to add value to your learning.
Even the quiz types that you design are easily altered with the help of the editor. Simply select the type of assessment you would like to include in your course and then drag it there. You can choose from surveys, type forms, and multiple-choice types, among many others.
Course Site Builder
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Thinkific offers more than simply a drag and drop editor. Its site builder for the course helps you get everything all set up and in place.
As previously mentioned, Thinkific does its own web hosting. This means you don’t need to worry about uploading limits. The storage space you can upload online is unlimited when you use Thinkific.
If you’re considering domains, Thinkific permits you to choose a unique URL that you can associate along with its subdomain. The URL you choose will look like this: .thinkific.com
This way, your site is more memorable and easier for students to remember.
If you’d like to skip your Thinkific subdomain, there’s the option of registering the domain as a separate domain for your site. You’ll need to pay a little bit more for it.
Pre-Made Templates
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Regarding the course site builder, Thinkific has a slew of pre-made layout and course templates that you can choose from. It saves you from having to design your website completely from scratch.
The platform offers templates, based on the type of Thinkific course it is that you’re creating. If, for instance, you’re making an introduction course, you could choose an outline-type template. For the assessment and culmination, you can select a template that is review-oriented.
For layout and theme templates There are many to select from. Once you’ve picked one that fits your course, Thinkific offers settings to customize the colors, fonts, and design of the elements of the template.
In addition, there is no need to input complicated codes or even text. You simply have to click on what you want to put on your website and drag it to the layout.
But yes, if you still want to use HTML and CSS, there’s still an option to do so.
You can also alter the arrangement and layout of your site periodically. The different sections can be organized in order of priority so that students know which lesson to prioritize.
Payment Options
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For payment, Thinkific offers options to connect Stripe and PayPal on your website. With these payment processors from third parties you will be able to access your earnings in as soon as 1 – 2 days.
This is in stark contrast from other online course platforms that have a payout schedule of 30-day intervals. With Thinkific you can cash out more easily.
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For your students you can offer them an one-time payment plan or an installment-based subscription plan. Additionally, you can offer discounts, bundles and coupons with any payment option they choose.
Just note that for the one-time payment option, your subscribers will pay a one-time transaction fee too. Similar to the installment subscription scheme, except that transaction fees will be broken down across the period of installment.
Sales and Marketing Highlights
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More than being just an online course creation tool, Thinkific is also effective in promoting online courses. As already mentioned, it comes with features that allow you to create and sell courses with just a few clicks.
After you have published the course you are able to immediately place it for sale through Market and Sell. Market and Sell option on your dashboard.
You can modify your website in order to increase the conversion rates of your clients. You can improve how your checkout and sign-up pages look to the users. So, they’ll be more encouraged to check out an online course.
It is also possible to improve the way your courses appear on your site. Enhance their visual appeal by categorizing your courses into groups that the people can easily browse.
In addition, as we’ve discussed previously You can also bundle your courses using discounts coupons and freebies. This way, your students will be more motivated to commit more often to your course.
A sales widget may also be developed using Thinkific. It’s basically a button that you can add to other third-party sites that will link straight to your platform for courses. It is possible to personalize them to have a specific design and color scheme so they appear more consistent with your brand too.
Thinkific can also allow you to run an affiliate program to help you reach more audiences. Through the website you can make affiliate links to transmit to the affiliates you have. These links will be used to lead their audience to your site and sign up in a course.
Once the affiliate program is running, you can access its progress on the Thinkific website. You’ll be able to track the revenue, sales, and other commissions.
You can also choose to integrate other applications to Thinkific. If you’re looking into emails for marketing, Aweber is a great tool that you can sync directly with the account you have.
Student Management
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A learning management system will not be successful if it doesn’t cover all aspects of online education. This includes keeping an eye on student progress.
Thinkific has a convenient student management system for managing students. It lets you quickly access your students’ contact details and other basic details.
You can also customize the sign-up sheet for your subscribers by asking for specific information. The template from Thinkific asks for names, email addresses, along with contact number. If you’re looking for more particular details, just switch your settings to add a new field to the sign-up sheet.
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When you’ve had your subscribers pooled you can classify them based on the courses they signed up to. That way, you can keep track of them for each course simpler.
And with the Premier and Pro plans, you are able to search for a specific user based on his/her registration date, the date of their enrollment, subscribed courses and job type. There are different categories you can choose from on the website.
Student Feedback
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Thinkific is not only focused on the course creators but also students. So, feedback from students is encouraged whenever you’re enrolling in an online course.
An open discussion between the students and the instructors will greatly decrease the learning curve associated with lessons.
There’s a discussion forum on Thinkific in which students can submit questions that they have about their online classes. The instructors can reply and clarify with answers.
Students also have the option to rate and evaluate the courses they’ve taken. The score will also include the performance of the instructor online as well. This way, course instructors can demonstrate their authority on Thinkific.
The reviews will also aid students to decide which course would be right for them. It decreases the chances of a student being dropped out within the middle of the lesson all of abruptly.
And if course creators are worried that the reviews could be detrimental to their business and negatively, they don’t need to. They’ll be the ones to decide whether they’d like a review published or not. Thinkific will never publish them without permission.
Finally, a good way to keep students interested is to keep them informed with constant updates. Thinkific lets course instructors send push notifications to their students when they post new content or other resources on the platform.
Customer Support
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In addition, as one would expect from systems for learning management, Thinkific does quite a excellent job in providing customer support.
Before you even sign up, you can access case studies and article guides on the official website. There are also readily available videos and demos of the product that you can go through.
Once you’ve signed up to Thinkific, you’ll be able to access the Help Center. You’ll find a wealth of resources that will aid you in understanding how to sell online courses.
Thinkific has guide articles and instructional videos that help you navigate the interface. Additionally, as I stated earlier, there are also user discussions wherein you can discuss your issues. Users and instructors can assist you.
For more severe issues you may submit an online request for help from the service team. If you’re on the Business plan or higher, you’ll receive priority responses.
One catch is that Thinkific does not have an option to chat live, however. It’s just a matter of waiting to see if they respond.
How Does Thinkific Work
Like any other course platform review like any other course platform review, this Thinkific review will teach you how to start using Thinkific. It is as easy as following these simple steps.
Step 1 Step 1: Create an Account
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It’s the first thing to do is register and set up your Thinkific account. You’ll automatically be enrolled in the trial trial that is free after registration.
Step 2: Customize Your Course Player
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After you have created your account then you can begin to personalize the course players. You can use a specific color scheme so that it is in line with your logo and theme.
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Your course player is what your users will be using to access the content of your course. Videos, audio files, as well as quizzes will all be accessible through your course’s player.
Step 3: Build Your Course
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The next step is to create your online course. Utilizing the Course Builder software, you can set up an entirely new course by adding modules, lessons and other files to it.
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The course content is divided into categories and sections. It is also possible to give your online courses personalized labels to make them easier to search.
Step 4: Customize Your Website
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When your content is set, you can finalize the overall look of your website. With Thinkific you can have the option to customize each landing page for each course you’ve got.
It is the Thinkific Site Builder lets you choose a color scheme as well as a the theme of our homepage. This is where all classes will be put up. Students will be able go through it and choose which ones they like from there.
You can also personalize the landing pages for each course. It’s best to choose the look of each course, so that they’re easy to differentiate but still blend into your overall branding.
Step 5: Name Your Website
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The next thing to do once the contents, the course player and customizing are completed is to decide on a name for your website. Be sure the name is memorable and still appropriate to your brand.
Step 6: Publish Your Course
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Finally, once everything is set, you can publish the course. To publish, you simply need to decide on a price and the specific details for payment.
Something called a course card will have to be created. The course card will be the one that appears on your students’ dashboards. If they view it they’ll look up quick information about your online course and the content.
A great course card can be a great help for making courses available on Thinkific.
What Needs Improvement on Thinkific
There’s a lot to like about Thinkific, it isn’t with no shortcomings. This Thinkific review, we’ve listed below what we think can still be improved.
Limited Quizzing Features
Although we believe that Thinkific is doing a great job of creating courses and content uploading however, we believe that quiz features could still be improved.
The assessment template available on Thinkific is very basic. Though it’s enough to get a general grasp of how well your pupils are aware of, it’s not enough to be able to answer more complicated questions.
If you’re content with short check-up type tests at the conclusion of every course, then that’s what Thinkific can provide you with. If your questions require longer and more specific outputs It’s a good idea to consider a different platform.
The absence of Email Marketing Tools
As we’ve mentioned earlier, Thinkific can be integrated with third-party applications and these include tools for marketing via email. However, this is only because it doesn’t come with email marketing tools of its own.
Though there are many third-party tools that are efficient but it would still be nice if Thinkific already had the software on its own. It would have speeded up the process.
There is no live chat support
We’re sure that the customer service response is swift, it isn’t enough to make up for absence of a live chat option.
Users with more urgent issues will not be able to have them resolved quickly. They’ll be forced to sit and wait for the response particularly if they’re not subscribed to the paid plans.
Thinkific Pricing
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Thinkific has three paid plans that you can subscribe to. And upon signing to the plan, you’ll then be able to access an unpaid plan, without fee for transactions or other hidden charges.
Thinkific Free
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Thinkific’s free plan is unique because unlike that of competitors It doesn’t have a time limit. It is possible to use the free plan for all the time you’d like to keep using Thinkific. Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
Apart from being free, it does not charge any hidden fees or transaction costs even when you offer courses. It’s perfect for course creators who wish to cut down costs, or small entrepreneurs who are just beginning their journey.
With the Thinkific Free plan you can create 3 courses and customize them using your own brand. Your courses can be enhanced by adding quizzes, other materials and more as well.
You are able to enroll in a amount of learners, streamline the sign-up process, then also track their progress. Surveys can also be sent to them, so you can gauge what they think about the classes they’re taking. Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
Thinkific’s free plan also allows 1 authorized site administrator as well as multiple instructor profiles and access to all students’ data. You can also keep track of the conversion rates and click rates of your students.
Finally, the free plan allows search engine optimization of your content. This way, your courses will be more easily discovered by potential customers. You can even embed third-party websites and applications to your site to improve user experience.
Thinkific Basic
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Thinkific Basic costs $49 per month. However, if you decide to make your payments annually it’ll cost you $39 per month.
You get all the same features that the free plan has along with additional benefits that are premium. You can first create unlimited courses. Selling courses is also easier. Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
Another benefit you don’t get in your free subscription is the capability for drip-feeding your posts, mail out coupons, and accessing analytics.
To put it into perspective in two steps, firstly, drip content is to provide information to your students at an interval that is set and gradually. Second, you can send out coupons for discounts and other freebies for students who may need a boost in motivation to stay connected. And third, the analytics that you have access to are affiliate reporting and marketing conversion rates.
With this plan, you can easily connect third-party tools you’d like to use. These include Zapier, Aweber, and MailChimp, among others.
In addition, you could make a custom domain for your site using the base plan. You don’t need the Thinkific domain for your website’s URL any longer.
Thinkific Pro
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Thinkific Pro costs $99 per month. However, if you’re annual billing, it’s $79 per month.
This plan receive the same features that you get with the Free Basic and Basic plans. The only distinction is that you have more advanced settings and benefits.
Thinkific’s Pro plan lets you manage 2 sites and five course administrator accounts. There will also be advanced course pricing options and HTML/CSS code editing. Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
You’ll be able create individual courses only accessible to a certain amount of users are able to access. In addition, you’ll be able to offer discounts and membership packages to your subscribers.
Course creators can also access the more advanced assessment, quiz, and assessment features.
Growth Package
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And with the Pro plan, you can avail something called a Growth Package that you can avail of. The thing about it is that once you’ve got more than 100 subscribers to your plan, Thinkific will automatically charge you an extra fee over the monthly fee of $99.
However, don’t worry because the cost of your subscription grants you access to additional features. You can distribute bulk emails, integrate third-party software, and organize your users according to various parameters.
Thinkific Premier
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The Thinkific Premier plan is the most expensive plan. It costs $499 per month but when billed annually, it will cost $399 per month. Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
When subscribed with this program, you’ll access the same features that are available in the Basic, Free or Pro plans. What makes it stand out and a higher cost is that it’s geared towards larger companies that have more members.
Its Thinkific Premier plan lets you have five site admin accounts and 50 courses admin accounts. It also allows for something called a Single Sign-On (SSO). This is helpful when you have a large number of subscribers that will have access to the same website.
The plan also includes an onboarding plan that’s 30 minutes of onboarding and an onboarding review of preparations and an online training manual.
You’ll also have access to the Growth package for a much lower fee. There will be a flat cost that you only have to pay.
Thinkific Reviews
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People who’ve used and reviewed Thinkific particularly love how cost-efficient it is. Even when using its free plans, you get access to some useful features. And there are no extra charges, so you will not spend more than you originally planned to.
And other users also loved the white-labeling function of Thinkific. It lets you improve the branding of your company even if it’s a small-sized business.
In the end, educators are enthralled the use of Thinkific because it’s great for learners. The interface is easy to navigate and explore.
“I found it interesting that this site had a place to upload documents within the discussion. I’m happy I chose this particular option as others require an amount of your income and it takes longer to wait to receive money. There are no transaction fees!” -Anonymous
“I liked that you could design an access gateway, the course as well as the payment methods all in 1 interface, without the need for additional products. I particularly enjoy how easy it is to set the courses if you’ve had the curriculum you want to create and it has white-labeling.” – Anonymous
“Thinkific allows you to begin producing courses for free and will keep them for free for the rest of your life. Really, this is a great way to learn course development without paying a penny.” -Anonymous
“Thinkific made it easy to design and host our digital course for financial advisors. Thinkific’s support team was always quick to get back to us and helped us to understand the process. I also love the fact that you can do white-labeling and use a custom domain.” – Anonymous
“Classes were more fun, entertaining, and easy especially for our older learners. Teachers loved making use of it to design their classes and to share their ideas.” -Anonymous
Alternatives to Thinkific
If the Thinkific review hasn’t convinced you of its capabilities as an online learning platform, then check out the following alternatives:
Kajabi
Kajabi is one of the first online courses platforms that will probably get your attention once you start asking around. It’s a complete platform which lets you design and sell the online course you’ve created. Thinkific is like Kajabi in that way.
When you sign up with Kajabi, you’ll be able to quickly create a course and then add content. The platform offers built-in templates and themes that you could modify your website immediately. The site editor lets you add multiple sections and sales pages to your courses. Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
As for quiz features It is a step ahead against Thinkific because it has more sophisticated options. You can create more customized quizzes and assessment types. Plus, you can conduct videos and webinars to provide better clarity in teaching.
Many educators particularly love the idea of rewarding their students with certificates for each successful course. And they can also choose to deliver content to their followers, just like Thinkific.
Another distinction that Kajabi differs from Thinkific is the fact that Kajabi has better marketing features. Although Thinkific lets you easily sell online courses, it does not let you make a sales funnel builder which will help keep your process well-organized.
Kajabi also offers email marketing tools as well as email automation, which is different from Thinkific. You won’t have to integrate an application from a third party to send out broadcasts and email sequences to your subscribers.
Do note however that Kajabi is costlier than Thinkific.
Check out the Kajabi review – the All-in-1 Online Course Platform
Teachable
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In addition to Kajabi, Teachable is Thinkific’s other closest rival. This is because they share a lot of similarities in their online learning platforms.
Teachable’s interface is easy to use and comes with useful features that can aid you in creating your content. There are themes pre-designed that you can utilize to make your site look nice even without previous web design experience.
Like Thinkific instructors have the option to drip the content that they distribute to their subscribers.
But what distinguishes Teachable different from Thinkific is its quiz-taking options. Instead of just basic templates, Teachable lets you customize your tests and quizzes.
And like Kajabi, you can organize webinars and videos to encourage participation from your customers. You can also add a sales page for your online course for higher conversion rates.
Another thing we like about Teachable is that you can also offer your subscribers certificates for every course they take. And , unlike Thinkific, Teachable has email marketing tools that you can utilize to send out bulk email to our subscribers.
Please read: Teachable Review – Unlimited Course Creation Features
Please read: Kajabi vs. Teachable
Final Report on Thinkific Review
Does Thinkific Integrate With WordPress
Thinkific is a great product with a lot of advantages that make it worth an annual subscription. It’s user-friendly. You can create a unique online course and then sell it, even if a first-timer.
Additionally, it comes with pre-made layouts and templates to help you set up your site. You don’t have to input complicated CSS or HTML-related codes in order to get an attractive and professional looking website.
If you select one of the paid plans you will have access to more advanced options that will improve your branding. You can forego your Thinkific subdomain and opt for Advanced users to set up their own domain names with hosting and build out most of the pages on their website using their own URL.
You can even incorporate third-party apps to Thinkific particularly as it doesn’t have its own marketing tools for email.
Students can also interact with instructors online via a discussion forum on Thinkific. They can conveniently ask for help with classes and ask questions on their modules. Teachers will be able to answer them promptly.
Support for customers isn’t bad as well. It’s a priority for replies when you’re subscribed to the other paid plans. Be aware that it has no live chat feature.
Overall though, our verdict in this Thinkific Review is it’s worth a try. Especially if you’re a novice instructor, Thinkific seems to be a good starting point for creating courses.
The free plan also lasts for a lifetime, unlike other platforms. If you’re strapped for cash, then it’s a good choice as you’ll be able to access amazing features for absolutely no cost.
We strongly recommend that you test Thinkific out.
If you’ve enjoyed this Thinkific review, you can also read through our review on our pick of Best Online Course Platforms available right now here.