When deciding which online course platform to use You’ll likely receive a long list of options. The Thinkific platform is an outstanding choice due to its numerous useful features.
There are many factors to look out for when it comes to online courses and Thinkific offers them all. Continue reading this Thinkific Review below and discover more information about its unique features and benefits.
Overview of Thinkific Review Patreon Vs Thinkific
Thinkific is among the more popular choices for creating and selling online courses. In addition to having an easy-to-use user interface, the platform also comes with pre-designed templates you can build your brand site.
In just a few clicks it’s possible to develop and market online courses, even if you have no previous experience. Drag and drop functionality of the website makes it easy to begin.
Online course creators will be especially interested in the advanced quiz elements for every course you make. They will make the course more appealing to the students.
The online course builder allows you to upload various types of files to enhance your Thinkific course.
And like most online courses, Thinkific offers email marketing tools as well as integration with third-party apps. It is possible to send email sequences through Thinkific itself, or through external apps such as MailChimp, Zapier, etc.
Keep reading through this Thinkific review to learn more about this online learning platform.
Pros
- Easy-to-use drag & drop editor
- Efficient course site builder
- Templates that are pre-made
- Different payment options
- Features for marketing and sales
- Options for student management
- Feedback capabilities for students
- Affordable customer support
- Lifetime access to the free plan
- There are no transaction fees or any hidden costs
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. It means that all content you make on it is automatically saved online. This makes course creation easier and easy.
Furthermore, as it is a Learning Management System (LMS) offers many customizable options for creators of courses. It is easy to create a course, and then upload other materials to supplement your lessons.
If you’re one of those instructors who like to draft your course offline prior to uploading it, then Thinkific is the right choice for you. You can do just that and then upload your course later online.
Thinkific is also the host for all websites you build with it, so you can upload as much content as you’d like.
You can design an online course website even without site design knowledge also. It’s not necessary to endure an arduous learning curve using Thinkific It’s that simple.
There are a variety of distribution and marketing options to accelerate the selling process of your Thinkific course. There’s an online marketplace community where you can sell courses on and collaborate with other creators of courses.
In addition, Thinkific is also a great platform for those who have their own websites but want to improve their marketing efforts and attract more students. You can connect third-party sites to Thinkific for a greater reach audience.
Features and Benefits of Thinkific
In this Thinkific review we review the most important features and benefits that are what make Thinkific stand out.
Drag and Drop Editor
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The way your courses look on your website can greatly affect the conversion rate. This is why we are so happy the fact that Thinkific comes with a drag and drop editor. It is a great way to organize your website and digital products.
You can rearrange the courses and lessons however you like. There is no need to learn complicated code or methods. All you need to do is click on the object you’re looking for and drag it over to the place you’d like it to be.
Almost all of the important elements needed to create a website that looks professional are covered by the Thinkific editor. From the logos, color schemes, and fonts, you’ll find everything you need on the platform.
However, if you want to go that extra mile and make your site better you can still choose to input CSS and HTML code into Thinkific. It’s your choice to make the decision.
In addition, you may make use of the drag and drop feature to upload additional material to your classes. The majority of types of media file is supported with the uploader of your editor. You can upload the audio of your course, as well as quizzes and PDFs to enrich your learning.
Even the quiz types you design can be easily altered with the help of the editor. Simply select the type of assessment you wish to use for your course and then drag it to the appropriate place. You can choose from type forms, surveys as well as multiple-choice assessments, among many others.
Course Site Builder
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Thinkific is much more than the drag and drop editors. 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 be concerned about uploading limits. Your online storage is basically infinite when you’re using Thinkific.
If you’re considering subdomains Thinkific lets you select a unique URL you can use along with its subdomain. Your URL will look like this: .thinkific.com
So, your website is more memorable and easier for students to remember.
If you’d like to avoid the Thinkific subdomain, there’s also an option to get the domain as a separate domain for your website. You’ll just have to pay an extra amount for it.
Templates Pre-Made
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In relation to the site builders for courses, Thinkific has a slew of pre-designed layouts and course templates that you can make use of. This will save you from having to design your website entirely from scratch.
The platform offers templates, based on the kind of Thinkific course it is that you’re making. For example, if you’re creating an introduction course, you can choose an outline-type template. For assessment and culminating for your course, you could pick a review template.
In terms of template layouts and themes, there are also a bunch that you can choose from. And once you’ve chosen something that is suitable for your needs, Thinkific offers settings to customize the fonts, colors, and layout of the elements in the template.
Again, there is absolutely no need to enter complicated codes or text. All you have to do is click on what you want to add to your website and drag it to the layout.
But yes, if you want to continue using HTML and CSS There’s an option to do so.
It is also possible to alter the arrangement and layout of your site at times. The different sections can be arranged chronologically so that your students are aware of which lessons to focus on.
Payment Options
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In terms of payment options, Thinkific offers options to integrate Stripe and PayPal into your website. With these third-party processors it is possible to get your earnings as quickly as 1 to 2 days.
It’s a stark contrast with other online courses which have a pay-out schedule that is 30-day intervals. With Thinkific, you can withdraw more quickly.
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For your students, they can choose from an one-time payment plan or an installment subscription plan. You can also offer bundles, discounts, and coupons with any payment option they pick.
Take note that when you use the one-time payment plan the subscribers will be charged a one-time transaction fee as well. The same goes for the installment subscription scheme, except that transaction fees will be broken down across the installment period.
Sales and Marketing Features
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More than being just an online course creator, Thinkific is also effective in marketing online courses. As already mentioned, it has features that help you develop and sell courses in only a couple of clicks.
Once you publish your course, you are able to immediately place it for sale using the Market and Sell choice on the menu on your Dashboard.
You can customize your website to optimize the conversion rates of your visitors. You can alter the way your checkout and sign up pages will look like to users. So users will be more inclined to check out an online course.
It is also possible to improve the way your courses are displayed on your website. Enhance their visual appeal by separating them into categories that people can easily browse.
In addition, as we’ve discussed previously it is possible to bundle your courses with discount coupons and freebies. This way, your students will be more motivated to commit longer for your program.
A sales widget may also be developed using Thinkific. It’s essentially a button you can embed to third-party websites which will link straight to your course platform. It is possible to personalize them to have a specific design and color scheme so that they are more in line with your brand and also look more professional.
Thinkific can also allow you to run an affiliate program to assist you in reaching more people. Through the website you can make affiliate links that you’ll transmit to the affiliates you have. They’ll use these links in order to bring their followers to your website and to enroll in a class.
Once the affiliate program is in operation you’ll be able to view its progress right on the Thinkific site. You’ll have the ability to monitor the revenue, sales, and other commissions.
Finally, you can choose to add other programs to Thinkific. If you’re considering email marketing campaigns, Aweber is a good tool that you can sync to your Thinkific account.
Student Management
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Learning management systems will not be successful if it doesn’t cover all aspects of online teaching. It’s also important to keep the track of students’ progress.
Thinkific provides a simple student management system for managing students. With it, you can easily access your students’ contact details and other basic details.
You can also customize the sign-up sheet for your subscribers, asking them for specific information. The template by Thinkific requires names emails, names, along with contact number. If you’re seeking more particular details, just toggle with your settings and add a new field to the form to sign up.
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When you’ve had your subscriber pooled, you can categorize them according to the courses they signed up for. This way, you’ll be able to keep track of them for each course simpler.
With the Pro and Premier plans, you can search for a specific user by his/her registration date, the date of their enrollment, subscribed courses and job type. There are even additional categories available when you explore the page.
Student Feedback
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Thinkific is not only focused on the course creators but also the students. This is why feedback from students is highly encouraged when you’re enrolled in the course.
Discussions that are open between students and the instructors can significantly reduce the learning curve of lessons.
There is a discussion section on Thinkific in which students can submit questions that they have about their online courses. The instructors of the course can respond and clarify their answers.
Students can also choose to rate and evaluate the courses they’ve taken. The score will also include the quality of the instructor online as well. This way, course instructors can establish their credibility on Thinkific.
The reviews will also aid students to decide whether or not a course would be right for them. It reduces the likelihood of a student dropping out during a lesson all of a sudden.
And if course creators are worried that the reviews might be detrimental to their business and negatively, they don’t need to. They’ll be the ones to decide whether they’d like reviews published or not. Thinkific will not publish any reviews without their permission.
A good method to keep students engaged is to provide them with regular updates. The Thinkific platform lets instructors send push notifications to their students whenever they publish new lessons or resources through the site.
Customer Support
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As one would expect from systems for learning management, Thinkific does quite a good job with customer support.
Before you sign-up You can look up cases studies and articles on the official site. 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. There, you’ll find information that can assist you in learning how to sell online courses.
Thinkific has guide articles and training videos that will help you navigate the interface. Additionally, as I previously mentioned, there are forums for users to discuss your issues. Instructors and other users can respond to help you out.
If you have more serious problems You can submit a ticket to ask for assistance from the customer service team. If you’re a subscriber to business plan and above, you’ll get first-of-the-line responses.
The only problem is that Thinkific doesn’t have a live chat feature though. It’s just a matter of waiting to see if they respond.
How Thinkific Works
Like any other platform review of course, this Thinkific review will show you how to start using Thinkific. It is as easy as following these steps.
Step 1 Step 1: Create an Account
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The first step is to sign up and then create your Thinkific account. The account will automatically be subscribed to the trial trial that is free after registration.
Step 2: Personalize Your Course Player
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Once you have your account then you can begin to personalize your player. You can choose a particular color scheme that corresponds with your company’s logo and the theme.
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Your course player is what your customers will be using to access your course’s content. Videos, audio files and quizzes will be available through this player.
Step 3: Build Your Course
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Next, you can create an online learning course. With this Course Builder program, you are able to set up the course by adding lessons, modules and other files to it.
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The course material is divided into categories and sections. You may also assign your online courses personalized labels to make them easier to search.
Step 4: Customize Your Website
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After your content is prepared, you can now finalize the design of your website. With Thinkific you can have the option to customize each landing page for every course you offer.
The Thinkific Site Builder lets you set a color scheme and theme for your home page. This is where all the courses you have created will be put up. Students will be able go through it and choose the one that interests them from there.
You can also customize those landing pages to suit each class. It’s recommended to create the look of each course to make them simple to distinguish but blend into your overall branding.
Step 5: Name Your Website
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What you need to do once the material, courses player, and customization are done is to decide on a name for your website. Make sure the name is memorable but is still appropriate for your business.
Step 6: Make Your Course
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And lastly, when everything is all set, you can publish the course. For publishing, you only need to decide on a price and specific details for payment.
A course card must be designed. The course card is the one that appears on your students’ dashboards. When they look it up, they’ll be able to get a quick overview of your online course and content.
A good course card will prove invaluable when marketing courses through Thinkific.
What Needs Improvement on Thinkific
While there’s plenty to like about Thinkific, it isn’t without imperfections. This Thinkific review, we’ve listed below what we believe can be improved.
Limited Quizzing Features
Although we believe that Thinkific does a good job in creating courses and uploading content but we feel that the quiz features could still be improved.
The assessment form on Thinkific is very basic. While it’s adequate to get an idea of how well your pupils are aware of, it’s not enough to be able to answer more complicated questions.
But if you’re satisfied with the short, check-up-style quizzes at the end of every course, then that’s exactly what Thinkific offers you. For questions that require longer and more precise outputs You might want to look at a different platform.
Insufficient Email Marketing Tools
As mentioned, Thinkific can be integrated with third-party applications , and these include tools for email marketing. However, it doesn’t come with email marketing tools of its own.
While there are many third-party tools that are efficient, it still would be nice to know that Thinkific already had the software on its own. It would have accelerated the process.
No Live Chat Support
Even if we believe that the response time to customer inquiries is fast, it does not make up for the fact that there is no live chat feature.
Customers with more urgent problems won’t be able to get the issue resolved in a hurry. They’ll have to just sit and wait for the response particularly if they’re not paying for the paid plans.
Thinkific Pricing
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Thinkific offers three paid plans are available to sign up for. And upon signing to the plan, you’ll then have access to an unpaid plan, without costs for transactions or hidden fees.
Thinkific Free
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Thinkific’s free plan is unique as, unlike the plans of rivals, it doesn’t expire. You can use the free plan all the time you’d like to use Thinkific. Patreon Vs Thinkific
Apart from being free, it doesn’t charge any hidden fees or transaction costs even when you offer courses. It’s ideal for course creators who want to cut down on expenses or for small-scale entrepreneurs just getting started.
The Thinkific FREE plan, users are able to create three courses and then customize them using your own brand. Your courses can be enhanced with quizzes and other tools in addition.
You can enroll an unlimited amount of learners, and automate their signup process, and monitor their progression. Surveys can be also distributed to them so that you can determine how they feel about the courses they’re taking. Patreon Vs Thinkific
Thinkific’s free plan also allows 1 authorized site administrator and multiple instructor profiles and 24/7 access to the students’ information. You can also keep track of conversion rates and click rates of your learners.
The free plan will also allow search engine optimization for your content. So, your course will be more easily discovered by customers. You can also embed third-party websites and applications to your own website to improve the user experience.
Thinkific Basic
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Thinkific Basic costs $49 a month. However, if you decide for a payment plan that is annual, it’ll cost you $39 per month.
You get all the same features that the free plan offers and more premium benefits. First, you are able to create unlimited courses. That way, selling courses is also easier. Patreon Vs Thinkific
Another benefit you wouldn’t get with this plan for free is option to distribute your contents, send out coupons, and accessing analytics.
To simplify, first, to drip content is to provide data to your students at a set and gradual intervals. The second option is to send coupons for discounts and other freebies for students who may need a boost in incentive to remain subscribed. And third, the analytics you can access are marketing conversion and affiliate reporting rates.
With this plan, you can easily connect third-party tools you want to use. They include Zapier, Aweber, and MailChimp, among others.
Additionally, you can design a custom domain to your site with the standard plan. No need to use the Thinkific domain for your URL anymore.
Thinkific Pro
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Thinkific Pro costs $99 per month, but if you are billed annually, it’s only $79 each month.
With this plan, you receive the same features as you would with the Free Basic and Basic plans. The only difference is that there are higher-end settings as well as advantages.
The Thinkific Pro plan lets you have 2 site administrators and five course administrator accounts. Additionally, there will be advanced course pricing options and HTML/CSS code editing. Patreon Vs Thinkific
You’ll have the ability to design individual courses only accessible to a limited amount of users are able to access as well. Plus, you can offer discounts and membership packages to your users.
Course creators can also access the more advanced quiz, assignment, and assessment features.
Growth Package
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With the Pro plan, you can avail something called a Growth Package is available. The thing about it is that once you have more than 100 people subscribed to your plan, Thinkific will automatically charge additional fees on top of the $99 per month.
But don’t fret because the fee entitles you to additional features. You can distribute bulk emails, integrate third-party tools, and group users based on different parameters.
Thinkific Premier
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The Thinkific Premier is the least expensive plan. It is priced at $499 per month. However, when it is billed annually, it will cost $399 per month. Patreon Vs Thinkific
If you’re a subscriber to this plan, you’ll access all the same features as the Free, Basic, as well as the Pro plan. What makes it stand out and the higher price is that it’s designed for larger organizations with more members.
This Thinkific Premier plan lets you have 5 site admin and 50 account admins for courses. It also allows for something known as a Single Sign-On (SSO). This is helpful when you have a huge bulk of customers who will need access to the same web page.
Also, this plan includes an onboarding program that is an onboarding call lasting 30 minutes, as well as a launch preparedness review and online training guide.
You’ll also have access to the Growth package for a lesser cost. There’ll be a fixed fee that you will only need to pay.
Thinkific Reviews
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Reviewers and users of Thinkific particularly appreciate how economical it is. Even when using its free plans, you’ll have access to helpful features. And there are no hidden charges so you won’t end up spending more than you planned to.
Others also liked the white-labeling option of Thinkific. It allows you to enhance your brand’s image even if you’re a small-sized business.
In the end, educators are enthralled working with Thinkific because it’s great for children. It’s easy to navigate and explore.
“I loved that there was 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 for money. There are no transaction fees!” -Anonymous
“I enjoyed the ability to make your access platform, the courses, and the payment options all within one interface, without the need for additional products. I particularly enjoy how easy setting up up the courses up , if you’ve got the curriculum you want to create and it has white-labeling.” – Anonymous
“Thinkific lets you begin producing courses for free and keep them free forever. This is truly an excellent way to get started with how to create courses without paying a penny.” -Anonymous
“Thinkific made it easy to develop and host our digital course for financial advisors. The Thinkific support team was quick to respond and helped us learn the ropes. I am also impressed that you can do white-labeling and also use an individual domain.” – Anonymous
“Classes were more fun engaging, enjoyable, and simple especially for our more advanced learners. Teachers loved using it to create their classes and share their content.” -Anonymous
Alternatives to Thinkific
In case this Thinkific review still hasn’t convinced you of its capabilities as an online platform for online courses, then check out the following alternatives:
Kajabi
Kajabi is one of the very first online course platforms that are likely to be recommended to you once you ask around. It’s an all-in-one system that lets you create and market your online courses. Thinkific is like Kajabi in that sense.
When you subscribe to Kajabi it will allow you to quickly create a course and then add content. The platform offers built-in templates and themes that you can use to customize your site right from the beginning. The editor on your site lets you add multiple sections and sales pages to your courses. Patreon Vs Thinkific
In terms of quiz features, it has an edge against Thinkific because it has more advanced settings. You can make more personalized assessments and quizzes. In addition, you can hold videos and webinars to provide better clarity in teaching.
Many teachers particularly like that they can reward their students with certificates for each successful course. Additionally, they are able to drip content to their subscribers, much as Thinkific.
Another difference Kajabi has from Thinkific is the fact that Kajabi comes with superior marketing features. Though Thinkific lets you easily sell your online courses, it doesn’t let you make an online sales funnel that can help you get your processes more well-organized.
Kajabi also has email marketing tools as well as email automation, unlike Thinkific. You don’t need to install an application from a third party to send emails and broadcasts to your clients.
Do note that Kajabi is pricier than Thinkific.
Read: Review of Kajabi The All-in-One online course platform
Teachable
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Following Kajabi, Teachable is Thinkific’s most similar competitor. It’s because they have plenty of similarities in their online courses platforms.
Teachable’s interface is easy to use and has helpful features that will aid you in creating content. There are pre-made theme templates which you can use to make your site look nice even without prior web design experience.
As with Thinkific instructors have the option to drip the content that they share to their subscribers.
What is what sets Teachable apart from Thinkific is its quiz options. Instead of having basic templates, Teachable lets you customize your quizzes and assessments.
Like Kajabi You can also create webinars and videos in order to increase participation from your customers. It is also possible to create a sales page for your online course for better conversion rates.
Another thing we love about Teachable is that you can also give your subscribers certificates after each course they finish. In contrast to Thinkific, Teachable has email marketing tools allow you to send bulk emails to your users.
Please read: Teachable Review – Unlimited Course Creation Features
Read: Kajabi vs. Teachable
Final Review and Conclusion on Thinkific Review
Patreon Vs Thinkific
Thinkific has plenty of features that make it worth a subscription. One of them is that it’s easy to use. You can create a unique online course and then market it even if you’re an aspiring seller.
The software also includes pre-designed layouts and templates to make it easier to set up your website. You don’t need to input complicated CSS or HTML-related codes in order to have an attractive and professional looking website.
And if you opt for one of the paid plans, you’ll have access to the latest options that will improve your branding. You can choose to skip your Thinkific subdomain and use Advanced users will set up their own domain names using hosting and create the majority of the pages of their website using their own URL.
You can also incorporate third-party apps to Thinkific in particular since it doesn’t have its own email marketing tools.
Students can also interact with instructors via online discussion on Thinkific. They can seek assistance with classes and ask questions on their modules. In turn, the teachers can assist them directly.
Support for customers isn’t bad either. You get prioritized for responses when you’re a subscriber to one of the other paid plans. However, keep in mind that it has no live chat function.
Our overall conclusion on this Thinkific evaluation is worth a test. If you’re a beginner author, Thinkific seems to be an excellent starting point for creating courses.
The free plan is also available 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 incredible features at absolutely no cost.
We highly recommend that you try Thinkific out.
If you enjoyed the Thinkific Review, then you can also read our review on one of the Best Online Course Platforms available today here.
