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If you’re deciding on which online course platform to go with there’s a chance you’ll be presented with a variety of suggestions. The Thinkific platform is an outstanding choice because of its many helpful features.

There are many factors to look out for when it comes to online courses and Thinkific offers them all. Read this Thinkific Review below and discover more information about its unique features and advantages.

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A brief overview of Thinkific Review Thinkific Custom Css

Thinkific is among the most well-known options to create and sell online courses. Besides having an easy-to-navigate interface, it also comes with already-designed templates that you can use for building your personal website.

With just a few mouse clicks it’s possible to create and sell online courses even without prior knowledge. Drag and drop functionality of the site makes it simple to get started.

Online course creators will be particularly curious about the advanced quiz elements in every course you design. They will make the course more appealing to the students.

This online tool for creating courses lets you upload different types of files that can be used to build your Thinkific course.

And like most online courses, Thinkific offers email marketing tools as well as integration with third-party apps. You can send out email sequences through Thinkific itself or via outside apps like MailChimp, Zapier, etc.

Keep reading through this Thinkific review to learn more about this popular online course platform.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use drag & drop editor
  • Efficient course site builder
  • Pre-made templates
  • Different payment options
  • Marketing and sales features
  • Student management options
  • Student feedback capabilities
  • Affordable customer support
  • Lifetime access to the free plan
  • There are no transaction fees or any hidden costs

Cons

Is there anything Thinkific?

Thinkific is an online course platform that is cloud-based. This means that anything you create there is automatically backed up online. It makes course creation more efficient and convenient.

Plus, as an Learning Management System (LMS) offers many customizable options for creators of courses. It is easy to create a course and then upload different materials to supplement your lessons.

If you’re among those people who would prefer writing your course offline before uploading it to the internet, Thinkific is the right choice for you. You can do just that and then upload your course online later on.

Thinkific also hosts all the websites you build and can upload as much content you want.

It is possible to create a brand new online course website even with no design experience and. You won’t have to endure an arduous learning curve when you use Thinkific, that’s for sure.

There are also plenty of marketing and distribution options which will accelerate the selling process of your Thinkific course. There is an online marketplace community where you can offer courses and interact with other creators of courses.

In addition, Thinkific is also a excellent platform for those who have their own websites but would like to improve their marketing efforts and attract more students. You can link third-party sites to Thinkific to reach a wider market.

The benefits and features of Thinkific

This Thinkific review we review the key features and advantages to make Thinkific distinguish itself.

Drag and Drop Editor

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The way that your courses look on your website will significantly affect the conversion rate. This is the reason we love the fact that Thinkific offers an editor that you can drag and drop. It is a great way to organize your website and digital products.

You can arrange the classes and lessons however way you want. There is no need to learn complicated codes or methods. All you need to do is click on whatever object you’re looking for and drag it over to the place you would like it to appear.

A majority of the crucial components needed to make your site look more professional is covered by Thinkific’s editor. From the logos, the color schemes and fonts, you’ll find everything you require to make your site look professional on this platform.

However, if you want to go the extra mile and personalize your site better you can still choose to input CSS and HTML code into Thinkific. It’s your choice to choose.

Plus, you can also utilize the drag and drop feature to upload additional material to your lessons. Nearly every type of media file is supported through the editors uploader. You can upload the audio of your course, as well as quizzes as well as PDFs, to add value to your class.

Even the quiz types that you design can be easily altered with the help of the editor. Choose the assessment type you want to be under your class and then drag it to the appropriate place. You can pick from type forms, surveys as well as multiple-choice assessments, among many others.

Course Site Builder

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Thinkific goes beyond the drag and drop editors. Its overall course site builder can be effective in getting everything set up and up and running.

As mentioned, Thinkific does its own web hosting. That means that you don’t have to worry about upload limitations. Your online storage capacity is unlimited when you use Thinkific.

If you’re thinking about Domains Thinkific lets you choose a unique URL that you can use along with its subdomain. Your URL will look something like this: .thinkific.com

That way, your website is more memorable and easy for students to remember.

And if you want to forego the Thinkific subdomain, there’s an option to register an individual domain to your site. It’s just a matter of paying an extra amount for it.

Templates that are pre-made

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Regarding the site builders for courses, Thinkific has a slew of pre-made layout and course templates that you can make use of. It will help you avoid needing to create your site completely from scratch.

The platform gives you template choices, depending on the type of Thinkific course it is that you’re creating. If, for instance, you’re creating an introduction course, you can choose an outline-type template. For the assessment and culmination for your course, you could pick a review template.

In terms of template layouts and themes, there are also many to select from. And once you’ve chosen something which is appropriate for your style, Thinkific offers settings to customize the colors, fonts and the layout of the elements within the template.

Again, there is absolutely no need for you 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 into the layout.

However, if you’re still interested in using HTML and CSS, there’s still the option of doing so.

It is also possible to change the layout and arrangement of your site periodically. The various sections can be placed in order of priority so that students know which lesson they should be focusing on.

Payment Options

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In terms of payment options, Thinkific offers options to connect Stripe and PayPal on your website. With these third-party payment processors, you can easily access your earnings as quickly as 1 to 2 days.

It’s a stark contrast to other online course platforms that have a payout time of 30 days. With Thinkific, you can withdraw more quickly.

Payment-Options

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Students, they can choose from a one-time payment scheme or an installment plan. Additionally, you can provide discounts, bundles, and coupons along with whichever payment method they select.

It is important to note that with the one-time payment plan your customers will have to pay a one-time transaction fee in addition. Similar to the installment subscription scheme, except that transaction fees will be divided over the installment period.

Marketing and Sales Features

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More than being just an online course creation tool, Thinkific is also effective in promoting online courses. Like we said, it has features that help you create and market courses in just a few clicks.

Once you publish your class, you can immediately put it up for sale by using the Market and Sell choice on the menu on your Dashboard.

From there, you can modify your website in order to increase the conversion rates of your visitors. You can improve how your checkout and sign-up pages will look like to the users. So users will be more inclined to take a look at the online course.

You can also improve how your courses are displayed on your site. Enhance their visual appeal by categorizing your courses into groups that users are able to easily navigate.

In addition, as we’ve discussed previously You can also bundle your courses with discounts coupons and freebies. So, your customers will be enticed to sign up longer for your program.

A sales widget can be made using Thinkific. It’s essentially a button you can embed to other third-party sites that will direct users to your platform for courses. You can personalize them with a certain color scheme and logo to ensure that they look more on-brand and also look more professional.

Thinkific also lets you manage an affiliate program that will assist you in reaching more people. Through the website you can make affiliate links that you’ll transmit to the affiliates you have. These links will be used to direct their customers to your site and sign up in a class.

Once the affiliate program is running it is possible to check the progress of the program right on the Thinkific site. You’ll be able to track revenue, sales, as well as other commissions.

Finally, you can choose to incorporate other apps into Thinkific. If you’re interested in email marketing campaigns, Aweber is a good tool that you can sync with your account.

Student Management

Student-Management

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A learning management system can not be efficient in the absence of covering all aspects of online education. And that includes keeping the track of students’ performance.

Thinkific provides a simple student management system. With it, you can easily pull up the contact information of your students and other basic details.

You can also customize the sign-up form for your subscribers by asking for specific information. Thinkific’s template asks for names emails, names, as well as contact phone numbers. If you’re looking for more particular details, just switch your settings to add an extra field to the form to sign up.

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When you’ve had your subscribers pooled, you can classify them based on the courses they signed up for. That way, you can monitor them per course much simpler.

In addition, with the Premier and Pro plans, you can also find a specific user by his/her dates of enrollment, courses enrolled as well as job-type. There are many different categories you can choose from on the website.

Student Feedback

Student-Feedback

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Thinkific prioritizes not just the course creators but also students. So, feedback from students is encouraged whenever you’re enrolled in the course.

Discussions that are open between students and their instructors can significantly reduce the learning curve with the lessons.

There is a discussion area on Thinkific where students can ask questions about their online classes. After that, course instructors can reply and clarify with answers.

Students are also able to rate and evaluate the courses they’ve completed. The ratings will reflect the performance of the online instructor as well. In this way, instructors can prove their expertise through Thinkific.

These reviews can also assist other students determine which course is right for them. It reduces the likelihood of a student dropping out within the middle of an entire class all of a sudden.

If course creators are worried the reviews might be detrimental to their business and negatively, they don’t need to. They’ll have to decide if they want reviews published or not. Thinkific will never publish them without permission.

Finally, a good way to keep students interested is to provide them with regular updates. Thinkific allows instructors to send push notifications to their students whenever they publish new content or other resources through the site.

Customer Support

Customer-Support

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Finally, as is expected from learning management systems, Thinkific does quite a great job with its customer service.

Before you sign-up, you can access articles and case studies on the official website. There are also readily available product demos and video tutorials which you can browse.

And once you’re already subscribed You can log into Thinkific’s Help Center. Thereare tools to help you get started on how to market online courses.

Thinkific offers guides and training videos that will help you navigate the interface. Plus, as mentioned, there are forums where you can discuss your issues. Instructors and other users can assist you.

For more severe issues you may submit a ticket to ask for assistance from the customer service team. If you’re on business plan and above, you’ll receive first-of-the-line response.

The only problem is that Thinkific doesn’t have an option to chat live, however. You’ll have to wait patiently for the ticket response.

How Does Thinkific Work

Like every other review of course platforms This Thinkific review will help you understand how to get started with Thinkific. You just have to follow these simple steps.

Step 1 Step 1: Create an Account

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First, sign-up and then create an account on 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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After you have created your account and you have it, you can begin to customize the course players. 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 utilize to access your course’s content. Videos, audio files, and quizzes will be accessible via the course player.

Step 3: Build Your Course

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After that, you can design the online class. Utilizing this Course Builder program, you can create an entirely new course by adding lessons, modules and other documents to it.

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The course content can be broken down into sections and categories. You can also give your online courses custom labels to help them be easier to find.

Step 4: Personalize Your Website

Step-4-Customize

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When your content is ready, you can finish the design of your site. With Thinkific You are able to personalize every landing page to suit each course you offer.

This Thinkific Site Builder lets you set a color scheme and theme for our home page. This is where all of your courses will be set up. Students will be able to browse through the course and select which ones they like from there.

You can also customize your landing page for every course. It’s recommended to create a slightly different look for each course, so that they’re simple to distinguish but fit in with all of your branding.

Step 5: Name Your Website

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What you need to do once the contents, the course player and the customization is to identify the name of your website. Make sure that the name is memorable and still appropriate to your business.

Step 6: Create Your Course

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Finally, once everything is all set, you can publish the course. To publish, you simply need to decide on a price and the specific payment details.

A course card will have to be created. The course card will be what appears on your students’ dashboards. When they look it up they’ll see quick details about your online course and the content.

A well-designed course card can prove invaluable when marketing courses through Thinkific.

What is the need for improvement on thinkific

While there’s plenty to like about Thinkific however, it’s not without a few shortcomings. This Thinkific review, we’ve listed below what we believe could be improved.

Limited Quizzing Features

Although we believe that Thinkific is doing a great job at course creation and content uploading however, we believe that quiz features could be enhanced.

The assessment template available on Thinkific is very basic. While it’s adequate to get an understanding of how much your pupils know, it’s not enough to be able to answer more complicated questions.

But if you’re satisfied with the short, check-up-style exams at the end of every course, then that’s what Thinkific can provide you with. If your questions require longer and more specific results, you might want to try another platform.

Lack of Email Marketing Tools

As mentioned, Thinkific can be integrated with third-party applications , and these include tools for marketing via email. But that’s only because it doesn’t have email marketing tools on its own.

Though there are many third-party software that is efficient, it still would be nice if Thinkific already had the software on its own. It would have speeded up the process.

No live chat support

And even though we think that the customer service response is swift, it doesn’t make up for the lack of a live chat feature.

Customers with more urgent problems aren’t likely to get them resolved quickly. They’ll need to sit and wait for the response, especially if they aren’t subscribed to the paid plans.

Thinkific Pricing

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Thinkific has three paid plans are available to sign up for. After signing up, you’ll be able to sign up for the free plan with no costs for transactions or hidden fees.

Thinkific Free

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The Thinkific free plan is distinctive because unlike that of competitors the plan doesn’t expire. You can avail of the free plan the duration you wish to continue using Thinkific. Thinkific Custom Css

In addition to being completely free, it doesn’t charge any hidden fees or transaction fees even when you offer courses. It’s ideal for course creators who want to cut down costs, or small entrepreneurs who are just beginning their journey.

Through the Thinkific FREE plan, users can create three courses that you can customize by incorporating your personal branding. You can enrich your courses with quizzes and other tools as well.

You can enroll an unlimited number of students, streamline the process of signing up, and monitor their progression. Surveys can be also distributed to them, so you can determine how they feel about the classes they’re taking. Thinkific Custom Css

The free plan of Thinkific also provides 1 authorized site administrator, 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.

Finally, the free plan also allows for search engine optimization for your content. That way, your courses will be more easily discovered by customers. You can also embed third-party applications and websites to your site to improve user experience.

Thinkific Basic

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Thinkific Basic costs $49 a month but when you opt for a payment plan that is annual, it’ll cost $39 per month.

You get the same features the free plan offers and more benefits that are premium. First, you can make unlimited courses. This way, selling your courses will be much easier. Thinkific Custom Css

Another benefit you wouldn’t get in this plan for free is ability to distribute your contents, to send coupons to customers, and gain access to analytics.

To simplify, first, to drip content is to provide information to your students at regular intervals over time. The second option is to send coupons with discounts or other freebies for students who might need extra incentive to keep them connected. Thirdly, the analytics you can access are marketing conversion and affiliate reporting rates.

With this plan it is easy to integrate the third-party tools that you’d like to use. These include Zapier, Aweber, and MailChimp as well as others.

Finally, you can also make a custom domain for your website with the basic plan. You don’t need the Thinkific domain to host 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 each month.

This plan get all the same features that you get with the Free and Basic plans. The only difference is that there are greater options for setting up and advantages.

Thinkific’s Pro plan lets you have 2 site administrators and 5 course admin accounts. Additionally, there will be advanced course pricing options and editing HTML/CSS codes. Thinkific Custom Css

You’ll be able to create exclusive courses which only a certain amount of users are able to access. In addition, you’ll be able to offer membership bundles and freebies to your customers.

Course creators also have access to the more advanced assessment, quiz and assessment features.

Growth Package

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With it being the Pro plan, you can avail something called a Growth Package that you can avail of. The best part is that once you have more than 100 subscribers to your plan, Thinkific will automatically charge an additional fee in addition to the $99 per month.

But don’t fret because the price grants you access to extra features. It is possible to send large quantities of emails, use third-party toolsand groups 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. However, when it’s billed annually, it is $399 per month. Thinkific Custom Css

If you’re subscribed with this program, you’ll have access to all the same features as the Basic, Free, as well as the Pro plan. What makes it stand out and higher price point is that it’s geared towards bigger companies with more members.

The Thinkific Premier plan lets you have five site admin accounts and 50 account admins for courses. There is also a feature known as a Single Sign-On (SSO). This is helpful when you have a large number of customers who will need to access the same page.

Additionally, this plan comes with an onboarding program that is 30 minutes of onboarding and a launch preparedness review and online training guides.

You’ll also have an access Growth package for a much cheaper price. There will be a flat cost that you only have to pay.

Thinkific Reviews

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Reviewers and users of Thinkific particularly love how cost-efficient it is. Even with the free plan, you get access to some useful features. Also, there aren’t any fees hidden, so you don’t be spending more than you originally planned to.

Others also liked the white-labeling feature of Thinkific. It lets you enhance your own company’s branding even if it’s an individual company.

Many educators also love working with Thinkific because it’s ideal for children. The interface is simple to use and explore.

“I found it interesting that this site had a place to upload documents in the discussions. I’m happy I chose this particular option as others require a % of income AND you have to wait longer for money. There are no transaction costs!” -Anonymous

“I enjoyed the ability to make the access portal, the courses as well as the payment options all within one interface without any needs for additional products. I especially like how simple setting up up the courses up , if you’ve got your own curriculum and it has white-labeling.” – Anonymous

“Thinkific lets you begin making courses for free, and keep them free forever. It’s the best way to master the art of course creation without having to pay a cent.” -Anonymous

“Thinkific made it simple to design and run our online course for financial advisors. The support team at Thinkific was always quick to get back to us and helped us get started. I also love the fact that you can do white-labeling and have an individual domain.” – Anonymous

“Classes were fun, entertaining, and easy especially for our more advanced learners. Teachers were thrilled using it to build their classes and share their work.” -Anonymous

Alternatives to Thinkific

If the Thinkific review still hasn’t convinced you of its potential as an online course platform, then check out the following alternatives:

Kajabi

Kajabi is one of the very first online course platforms that will probably be recommended to you once you ask around. It’s an all-in-one platform that lets you create and sell your courses online. Thinkific is similar to Kajabi in this way.

When you subscribe to Kajabi it will allow you to create your own course and then add content. The platform offers built-in templates and themes you can make use of to personalize your site from the get-go. The editor on your site allows you to add several sections and sales pages to your courses. Thinkific Custom Css

In terms of quiz features It has an advantage over Thinkific due to its more advanced settings. You can make more personalized assessments and quizzes. Plus, you can conduct videos and webinars to provide greater clarity in teaching.

Many educators particularly love the fact that they can award their students with certificates after each successful course. They can also opt to drip content to their followers, just like Thinkific.

Another distinction that Kajabi has over Thinkific is the fact that Kajabi comes with superior marketing features. While Thinkific does let you easily market online courses, it does not allow you to create a sales funnel builder which can help you get your processes more organized.

Kajabi also offers tools for marketing emails and email automation, which is different from Thinkific. It isn’t necessary to incorporate with a third-party program to send out broadcasts and email sequences to your subscribers.

It is worth noting that Kajabi is pricier than Thinkific.

Read: Review of Kajabi The All-in-One online course platform

Teachable

learning-platform

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Next to Kajabi, Teachable is Thinkific’s second closest rival. It’s because they have plenty of similarities as online learning platforms.

Teachable’s interface is user-friendly and has helpful features that can aid you in creating content. There are pre-made theme templates which you can use to make your website look attractive, even if you have no previous experience in web design.

As with Thinkific instructors are able to choose to distribute the content they distribute to their subscribers.

But what is what sets Teachable apart from Thinkific is its quiz-taking options. Instead of having basic templates, Teachable lets you customize your assessments and quizzes.

And like Kajabi it is possible to create webinars and videos in order to boost engagement with your subscribers. There’s also an option to include a sales page to your online course to increase conversion rates.

One last thing that we love about Teachable is that you can also offer your subscribers certificates after each course they take. In contrast to Thinkific, Teachable has email marketing tools you can use to send mass emails to our users.

Please read: Teachable Review – Unlimited Course Creation Features

Read: Kajabi vs. Teachable

Final Verdict on Thinkific Review

Thinkific Custom Css

Thinkific has plenty of features that justify the cost of a subscription. It’s simple to use. It’s possible to create an original online course, and then make money from it even if you’re an aspiring seller.

It also comes with pre-designed layouts and templates that make it easier to set up your website. It isn’t necessary to enter complex CSS or HTML code to have professional-looking websites.

If you choose any of these paid options you’ll have access to the latest features that will enhance your brand. You can choose to skip using the Thinkific subdomain and use Advanced users to create their own domain names with hosting and develop the majority of the pages of their website using the domain’s own address.

You can even incorporate third-party apps to Thinkific in particular since it doesn’t have its own email marketing tools.

Students can also interact with instructors online via a discussion forum on Thinkific. They can ask for help with lessons and post queries about their classes. In turn, the teachers will be able to respond to them in person.

Customer support isn’t too bad as well. It’s a priority for replies in the event you’re on the other plans that are paid. However, keep in mind that there is no live chat option.

Our overall conclusion in this Thinkific evaluation is well worth a test. Especially if you’re a novice instructor, Thinkific seems to be a good starting point for learning how to create courses.

The free plan also lasts for the duration of time unlike other platforms. If you’re strapped for cash this is a great choice as you’ll be able to access incredible features at no cost at all.

We strongly suggest that you try Thinkific out.

If you enjoyed the Thinkific Review, then you can also read through our review of our pick of Best Online Course Platforms available today . Click here.

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About the author

jack_morris

Jack has worked on the video production, audio mastery, and physical coursework for over one-hundred popular online courses to date. He’s here to share his experiences with you, as well as show you what tools are worth your time, how to spot those that aren’t worth a penny, and above all else, how to keep yourself informed about how to navigate online course creation efficiently and effectively.