Teachable vs Thinkific – Comparison of Two Platforms

Teachable and Thinkific are two platforms that are popular for their course creation and sales features. Though these course platforms do have plenty of similarities, there’s also a handful of things that differentiate them from each other.

Keep reading this Teachable Vs. Thinkific review to find out more about these course platforms.

Overview of Teachable

One of the most popular course platforms available today is Teachable. It’s an online course platform that’s widely used by both course creators and students. (READ: Our detailed Teachable Review)

Put simply, you can create and sell online courses with Teachable. It has all the tools and elements that you need to come up with engaging modules and lessons for students.

And if you’re a student, you can choose from a diverse range of courses available on the platform. It’s extremely easy to navigate the site as well so you can learn at ease.

Even the course builder itself is easy-to-navigate for creators. You can set up modules, create web pages, and then eventually sell your courses in just a few clicks.

As for pricing plans, Teachable has four options that you can choose from. One is completely free while the latter three are paid plans with different prices.

Keep reading this Teachable vs. Thinkific review to find out more about one of the best course platforms today.

Standout Features of Teachable

There are a lot of things to love about Teachable. In writing this Thinkific vs. Teachable review, we found the best features that stand out about the online course platform.

RELATED: Teachable Alternatives

Easy-to-Use Interface

To get started, this aspect stood out the most to use because it bridges the gap between novice creators and course creation. A lot of first-time users have commended how easy it was for them to navigate Teachable.

All they had to do was sign into their account and then the Teachable dashboard had everything they needed to get started. From there, they were able to upload different files to enrich their courses.

We should add that Teachable uses a drag and drop builder that makes the uploading process much faster than other course platforms. It also helps with site customization since you can easily click and drag what specific elements you want on your page.

The Teachable dashboard also contains tabs wherein you can access analytics and payout reports. It simplifies the process of monitoring your site progress and revenue.

Customizable Themes and Layouts

As mentioned, it’s incredibly easy to navigate the Teachable platform. And with ease of use comes advanced customization options.

You can set a color scheme for each course you create on Teachable, as well as add unique logos, text, and photos. These will greatly help you establish your branding and entice more people to subscribe.

And if you aren’t quite satisfied with the pre-made templates on the platform, you can opt for further personalization tools. Teachable allows you to use its Power Editor wherein you can edit the HTML and CSS codes of your site.

File Embedding and Uploading

Teachable allows creators to embed and upload a variety of files to their site. You can add videos, PDFs, and other media to enrich your courses.

Plus, whenever you upload a video, it gets automatically optimized for viewing on whatever device. This is great news for students who prefer to use their phones, tablets, or laptops when studying.

When compared to other course platforms, Teachable stands out because it can already optimize how your uploads will look on almost any device.

Sales Features

Once you’re done creating and setting up your online course, you’ll easily be ready to sell it. Teachable has great sales features that make it easy to market your courses.

Plus, Teachable has an efficient payment collection process. You can easily monitor your sales and revenue as soon as they come in.

Course instructors can also give their subscribers special coupons and discounts. They can even group their courses into bundles so that more students can try them out through one subscription.

And the sales feature that many people love about Teachable is the option to run an affiliate program. You can partner up with affiliates to market your courses to gain new subscribers and, ultimately, more income.

If all those weren’t already enough, Teachable also has an article database on its website. There, you’ll find marketing and sales guides that you can go through.

Email Marketing Tools

Teachable enhances the marketability of your online courses by giving you email marketing tools. That way you can send out offers to a wide range of audiences to subscribe to your course.

And you can use email marketing for your enrolled students as well. You can send updates, announcements, and other materials to your student’s email address. This makes it easier to clarify any questions they might have about your modules.

Third-party applications like MailChimp, InfusionSoft, and ConvertKit can also be integrated into your site. They make it easier to specify what type of audiences you want to send bulk emails to.

Analytics Tracker

Once things are set up and you’ve started selling courses, you can easily keep track of your progress. As mentioned, you can check sales and revenue reports through the dashboard.

Apart from that, you can also monitor the progress of your learners. Teachable lets you see how many students are enrolled in your course, as well as check each student’s progress reports. It’ll be easy to spot which students need more help and attention.

And if you aren’t satisfied with the site’s built-in analytics tools, you can integrate another application like Google Analytics. It will help you determine the specifics of your site’s traffic and engagement rates. Things like click rates and conversion rates will be accessible through it.

Efficient Customer Support

Despite Teachable’s easy-to-navigate interface, it still doesn’t hurt to have customer support to back you up. That’s why we love that they have an efficient team that answers queries.

Similar to other platforms, course instructors can ask for help when creating their modules and students can place queries on how to use the platform for better access. You just have to place a ticket and then you’ll be able to receive a response in as fast as 24 hours.

When you’re subscribed to any of the paid plans, you’ll get to hop onto a live chat with the support team as well.

Other frequently asked questions are also answered on the website’s Knowledge Base. There are plenty of articles that serve as guides and tutorials on how to get started on Teachable.

Teachable Pricing

Teachable provides different scopes of features for every plan you subscribe to. And like other course platforms, Teachable offers a free trial as well.

YOU CAN ALSO READ: Our in-depth review of Teachable Pricing

Teachable Free

Signing up to Teachable grants you a free plan for one whole month. With it, you’ll get to use the platform’s main features at no initial cost.

You should know that the sales features are still pretty limited when you’re on the free plan though. You will be able to create a working online course, as well as sell it. But the more advanced customization options won’t be available.

This is why we recommend that you still subscribe to a paid plan once your 1-month trial is over. Teachable offers better personalization tools with the paid plans.

As for any sales you make when subscribed to this plan, Teachable will charge you a $1 + 10% transaction fee. And if you opt to use a payment processor, an extra 2.9% + 30 cents will be charged.

Though this plan is free, you’ll eventually have to shell out a portion of your revenue because of the transaction fees. So it’s technically not completely free.

As for the payout schedule, if you forego using a payment processor, then expect a 1-month delay.

Teachable Basic

If you’re on a tight budget, then Teachable’s Basic plan is a good place to start from. Despite its affordable price, this plan has all the main features you’ll need to create a course.

This plan costs $39/month but when paid annually, it becomes $29 per month.

When you subscribe to Teachable Basic, you can upload an unlimited amount of content, create a custom domain, and automate student sign-ups for your courses.

Something called Drip Content is also possible with this plan. You can release new content to your students at set intervals. That way, they won’t get too overwhelmed with modules and information all at once.

Teachable Basic also allows you to assign up to 2 authors for your site. You can have a partner to help you manage all your courses and content.

And if you’re interested in marketing your digital courses better, you can even run an affiliate program. Partnering up with affiliates to promote your course will help boost sales.

Take note that for this Teachable plan, you’ll be charged a 5% transaction fee for every sale that you make. And, like the Free Plan, an extra fee of 2.9% + 30 cents will be charged when you use a payment processor like Stripe or PayPal.

Like the Free Plan, the payout will be delayed by a month if you choose to not use a payment processor as well.

Teachable Professional

Teachable’s mid-tier plan is called the Professional Plan. It’s the most popular choice among Teachable subscribers because it offers more custom settings at a still reasonable price.

This plan costs $119 per month but when paid annually, it becomes $99 per month.

Subscribers will get the same features that the Basic Plan has but with more advanced tools and benefits. For example, with Teachable Professional, you can have up to 5 authors instead of just 2.

More advanced module and quiz features are also available. You can set automatic grading for assessments, get compiled reports, and send certificates to your learners.

This plan also gives you priority privileges when placing customer support tickets. Your queries will be responded to much faster and you’ll also get to hop on a live chat with the team.

If you’re worried that this will still have a fee, then you should stop.

Teachable Professional will ask for zero transaction fees for sales that you make.

But do take note that third-party payment processors will still charge you the usual 2.9% + 30 cents fee.

One more good thing about this plan is that it doesn’t follow a required payout schedule. You can access and go through your revenue instantly. No need to wait another month.

Teachable Business Plan

Finally, there’s the Teachable Business plan. This is more recommended for those who plan to create and sell multiple courses.

You get all the same features as the Basic and Professional plans but with extra options.

You can have up to 20 authors for one course and you can also enroll students in bulk. It’s perfect for holding large “classes”.

The subscription costs $299 per month but if you choose to pay annually, then it costs $249 per month.

And similar to the Professional plan, you won’t be paying for transaction fees when you sell a course. The only extra cost you’ll incur is the 2.9% + 30 cents fee from PayPal and Stripe.

We recommend that you upgrade to the Business plan when your course creation business is already more established.

Overview of Thinkific

One of Teachable’s closest rivals is Thinkific. This is since they have plenty of similarities. (READ: Our in-depth Thinkific Review)

As an online course platform, Thinkific helps creators set up their site with modules, lessons, and other media. There are pre-made layout and element templates already available to make getting started a breeze.

Thinkific is probably most notable for its drag and drop editor. It helps you organize the elements you want on your website.

And once you’re all set with the online courses, you can sell them just as quickly as you created them. Other digital marketing options like email automation and third-party app integrations are also part of Thinkific’s features.

Much like Teachable, Thinkific also has four pricing plans that you can choose from, depending on your budget, needs, and level of creation expertise.

Just keep reading this Thinkific vs. Teachable review to learn more and get started on Thinkific’s features.

Standout Features of Thinkific

Many course platforms offer almost all the same features but below are the features that set Thinkific apart from everything else, based on this Thinkific vs. Teachable review.

Easy-to-Use Interface

As mentioned, Thinkific is known for its drag and drop editor. It allows for the interface to be incredibly easy to use, even if you’re a first-time creator. You can re-organize and reformat how your website looks with just a few clicks.

There are built-in templates and layouts that you can choose from to decorate your site. They’ll help you get a professional-looking website in no time.

And if you aren’t satisfied with those, then you still have the option to edit the HTML and CSS codes yourself. That way, you can personalize the branding of your site.

You can choose specific colors, fonts, and layouts to make your site look memorable to your potential subscribers.

The uploading process is simple as well. You can add a variety of resources to your courses. Compatible file types range from PDFs to videos to audio files, among others.

Instructors will also like that there are options to customize your assessments. You can choose to create a survey type, type form, or multiple-choice type of quiz.

Payment Options

Subscribers and users of Thinkific enjoy the payment options that it has. You can use third-party payment processors like PayPal and Stripe when setting up payment schemes.

With those processors, you’ll be able to check your revenue and sales in as fast as just one day after you receive them. No need to follow a delayed payout schedule, which other course platforms offer.

For learners, Thinkific offers two payment schemes when enrolling in a course. There’s a one-time payment option and an installment option.

Just a reminder though that for the one-time payment option, the students will still have to pay a one-time transaction fee. And if they choose the installment option, the transaction fee will just be broken down across the course of the installment period.

Apart from those great features, creators can also offer course bundles, discounts, and other freebies. These add-ons can greatly help entice more people to enroll in a course.

Sales Features

With enticing more people to subscribe to your courses, Thinkific offers many great sales features, which isn’t uncommon for most course platforms.

After you’ve gone through all the motions of setting up a perfectly working course, you can immediately put it up for sale. Thinkific has a Market and Sell option right on its dashboard that you can click on.

You’ll get to personalize your site by choosing how your checkout and sign up pages will look like. This will help improve your conversion rates and student numbers.

Options to filter the digital products you have on your site are also available. You can group each course into different categories so that it’s easier for visitors to navigate the website and check out what they want.

You can even create something called a sales widget. This will be embeddable onto other websites so that you can partner up with affiliates to promote your course. The widget is customizable as well so you can change its colors and even add your brand logo.

And the option to partner up with affiliates means that Thinkific does allow its creators to run affiliate programs. This way, you can reach more audiences to promote your course.

Thinkific’s affiliate program features are highly commendable because everything is automated. You’ll be able to see analytics and progress pretty quickly. Things like revenue, overall sales, and other commissions earned by your affiliates can be viewed in real-time.

Plus, you can easily sync third-party applications to your Thinkific account. This is useful if you want to create email marketing and drip campaigns since you can integrate apps like Aweber and MailChimp.

Student Management

Thinkific offers great student management features. Since it’s a learning management system, there must be an adequate focus on helping the students’ user experience on the site.

Enrolled students can ask questions by posting in the discussion section of the platform. Instructors will be able to reply to them directly to clarify their queries. This allows for better communication between the learners and the teachers.

Teachers will also get to send out push notifications to the students. This way, the students won’t miss out on important updates and announcements. Instructors can also use the notifications to remind pupils when they’ve forgotten to pass a requirement or failed to finish an assessment.

Another student management feature of Thinkific is the option to track student progress. Creators and instructors can easily access their students’ contact details. That way, they can contact them for certain emergencies or deadlines.

And for every course that they create on the platform, instructors can customize the sign-up sheet that the students will fill up. Questions are not just limited to a student’s name, email address, and mobile number. Other specific details can be added to the sheet, depending on what the course requires.

When the students have successfully signed up, the instructor can pool them all together and then categorize them. They can be grouped according to the classes that they’re taking to make for easier monitoring.

For the Thinkific Pro and Thinkific Premier plans, specifically, you can look for a user based on enrollment date. Other criteria that you can filter is job type and name of subscribed course.

Customer Support

Good customer support is highly important because it’s what will save you when you make a mistake on the platform. That’s why it’s great that Thinkific has a competent customer support team like most platforms.

First, even before you can sign up for Thinkific, you can access helpful articles right on the Thinkific site. There is a database of case studies, article guides, and video tutorials that you can go through. Product demos are also accessible for more guidance.

Second, when you’re already settled in and subscribed, Thinkific has its own Help Center. It has even more resources that you can go through. They’re mostly guide articles and videos on how to sell an online course and how to use Thinkific’s interface.

And third, for problems that can’t be solved by looking through the article and resource databases, you can place a ticket to ask for help from the team. They guarantee quick responses, especially when you’re subscribed to the Business plan or higher.

You should note though that Thinkific doesn’t have a live chat option with the support team. You’ll just have to wait patiently for a response to your ticket. It shouldn’t take too long anyway.

And if all else fails, subscribers can begin a discussion to air out their questions and concerns. Other subscribers and instructors can respond to your query if you need immediate help on the platform.

Thinkific Pricing

There are three paid plans and a free one that you can subscribe to on Thinkific. Just keep reading for more information.

ALSO READ: Our Thinkific Pricing article

Thinkific Free

Believe us when we say that you have never experienced a free plan like Thinkific’s. This is because it simply never expires!

And you don’t have to hold your breath finding out what the catch is. There are no hidden transaction fees or charges with the free pricing plan. It’s the perfect option for those on a tight budget but still want to achieve significant results.

We recommend this plan if you’re just starting out with course creation or if you’re a small-scale business on a tight budget. You can access Thinkific’s basic features at no cost at all.

You can create 3 courses and upload relevant resources for each of them. Customization options are also available for the quizzes and assessments you add.

And even though this is a free pricing plan, you can already enroll an unlimited number of students. This ultimately means more revenue! Plus, you can automate the sign-up process for an easier enrollment for them.

Student progress can be monitored instantly and you can even opt to give out surveys. That way, you can also find out how you can improve the students’ user experiences on the platform.

Thinkific lets you assign 1 authorized site administrator, have multiple instructor profiles, and gain round-the-clock access to your students’ information.

Click rates and conversion rates can also be checked to help you improve how your site looks. You can find out what visuals are more appealing to your website visitors.

As if all those weren’t enough for a free pricing plan, you can also integrate search engine optimization (SEO) to your site. When your course is SEO-optimized, they’re much easier for people to find when they’re exploring Google. This means more revenue for you, of course.

And there’s also the option to embed other software to your site, in case there still are features that you want to add.

Thinkific Basic

The most affordable pricing plan on Thinkific is the Thinkific Basic Plan. It costs $49/month but when paid annually, it only costs $39/month.

Thinkific Basic gives you the same benefits that the Free Plan does. But since it’s a paid plan, then you receive more advanced tools and settings.

You can create unlimited courses, instead of just 3. You can also customize a course by setting drip content options, sending out coupons to your students, and also tracking real-time progress.

That means that you can set different interval times for releasing new content to your students. And then they’ll also receive discount coupons for when they have to renew their subscriptions. Plus, progress tracking means being able to view marketing conversion rates.

Like the Free Plan, you can also integrate applications to your site. Aweber and Zapier are some of the most commonly added apps to Thinkific.

You can also set a custom domain for your site with the Thinkific Basic Plan. This simply means that you can forego using the Thinkific domain on your URL. It’ll greatly enhance the branding of your site.

Thinkific Pro

If you’re up for a slightly higher price tag that’s still affordable, then the Thinkific Pro plan is perfect for you. It costs $99 per month but when paid annually, it only costs $79 per month.

All the features from the Free and Basic plans carry over to this plan. It has all of them and then some more advanced benefits as well.

You can assign 2 site administrators, have 5 course administrator accounts, and create unlimited courses. There’s also the option to make a private course that only a certain number of students can access.

This plan allows better customization of your site since it lets you use CSS and HTML codes. You can improve your branding easily.

Course creators can set advanced pricing options for their learners on the platform. Advanced settings for quizzes, assignments, and other requirements are also available.

Growth Package

Adding to the many features of the Thinkific Pro plan is the Growth Package. This is a special option you can avail of when you exceed the 100 subscribers mark on the platform.

For an extra fee, you will receive special features for course creation and management. You’ll be able to send bulk emails, integrate outside applications, and categorize your users according to specific criteria.

Thinkific Premier

For those with already established and stable businesses that are more than ready to splurge, the Thinkific Premier Plan is a good choice for you. It costs $499 per month but when paid annually, it only costs $399 per month.

You can access all of the other plans’ awesome features when you subscribe to Thinkific Premier. And what’s even better is that you’ll be given more large-scale privileges and benefits.

With Thinkific Premier, you can assign 5 site administrators and up to 50 course administrator accounts. This makes it a great pricing plan for big companies with a large bulk of members to be enrolled.

No need to worry about the confusion of having too many members and students either.

Thinkific Premier gives you a Single Sign-On (SSO) feature. This lets all of your subscribers sign in quicker using shared sign-on information.

Other privileges you should watch out for are a free 30-minute onboarding call, preparedness review, and online training guide with the Thinkific team.

The Growth package can also still be availed with this Thinkific plan and at a discounted fee.

Teachable vs Thinkific

Now that we’ve laid out all the wonderful features that both Teachable and Thinkific have, it’s time to finally pit them against one another. Which one is better? Who will emerge victoriously?

For a better analysis of Thinkific and Teachable, we’ve compared their similarities and differences.

Similarities

The most obvious similarity that Teachable and Thinkific have is that they are both easy-to-use right from the get-go. Upon signing up, you can access a variety of built-in templates and layouts that you can use for your site.

Instructors also have a drip content option when using Teachable and Thinkific. They can divide the lessons and modules that they’d be releasing to their students and send them out in intervals. You can even upload different types of files and media onto Teachable and Thinkific.

Other essential course creation features are also accessible on the two platforms. You can create a fully-working and professional-looking site in as fast as a day on Thinkific and Teachable!

The two platforms also allow you to reward your learners with certificates. This is great for motivating them and enticing them to stay subscribed to both Thinkific and Teachable.

In terms of marketing a course, Teachable and Thinkific are also similar. They allow you to run an affiliate program so that you can reach new audiences. Plus, you can customize your landing pages so that conversion rates will be better.

Differences

The most blatant difference we found between the two platforms is that Thinkific’s Free Plan never expires, as opposed to Teachable’s one-month trial.

Once you’ve passed 30 days on Teachable, you’ll have to pay for a subscription. This isn’t great for those on a budget. It’s better to opt for Thinkific. Teachable will just have you spending more.

We also noticed that though both Teachable and Thinkific’s cheapest paid plans cost the same at $39, the succeeding plans differ from each other. Thinkific’s second cheapest plan is $99 while Teachable’s is at $119.

So when considering Thinkific vs. Teachable in terms of pricing, Thinkific is much more affordable compared to Teachable prices.

Teachable also asks for transaction fees, even when you’re subscribed to its Free Plan. So the Free Plan isn’t even actually free.

Another difference we found is that Teachable offers better customer support since it has a live chat feature with the support team. Thinkific only allows you to place a ticket or being a discussion in the discussion section.

When you put Thinkific vs. Teachable in terms of customer support, the better choice is Teachable. Thinkific can definitely still improve.

Thinkific doesn’t have built-in email marketing features either. You’ll have to integrate an outside software to set up your email marketing campaigns. This is as opposed to Teachable which has email automation, ready for you to use.

If you’re pitting Thinkific vs. Teachable in the aspect of email marketing, Teachable seems to be one of the better platforms.

Conclusion

To cap off this Teachable vs. Thinkific review, we’d like to reiterate that both platforms are effective at course creation and marketing. Thinkific and Teachable are easy-to-navigate, even for first-time users.

Whether you choose to subscribe to Teachable or Thinkific, you won’t have regrets because both are what they’ve advertised themselves to be. As platforms, you’ll get your money’s worth either way.

However, Thinkific seems to be a slightly better option for us. It’s mainly because it’s lighter on the wallet. There is an option to stay on the free plan forever and that can seriously cut down on your costs. Plus, the transaction fees aren’t as high as the ones from Teachable.

Teachable’s saving grace is that its features are more complete. This compensates for the higher prices of the paid plans. However, Thinkific still seems like a better choice since there’s a lower risk.

We hope that this Thinkific vs. Teachable review helped you decide which course platform is better for you. No matter which one you choose, it’ll surely be easy to get started on creating your online courses.

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