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When deciding which online course platform to use You’ll likely be presented with a variety of options. It’s a standout due to its many useful features.

There are a variety of criteria to watch out for when it comes to online courses and Thinkific is one of them. Continue reading through the Thinkific reviews below to find more information about its unique advantages and features.

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A brief overview of Thinkific Review Thinkific In China

Thinkific is one of the most popular choices for creating and selling online courses. Apart from having an easy-to-use design, this platform has ready-made templates that you can build your personal website.

With just a few mouse clicks and a few clicks, you can create and sell online courses, even if you have no prior experience. The drag and drop mechanism of the website makes it simple to begin.

Online course creators are interested in the advanced quiz elements in every course you design. They will make the course more enticing to learn by the students.

This online tool for creating courses allows you to upload various types of files that can be used to build the content of your Thinkific course.

And like most online courses, Thinkific offers email marketing tools as well as third-party app integration. You can distribute email sequences either through Thinkific itself or via external apps such as MailChimp, Zapier, etc.

Continue reading the Thinkific review to find out more about this online course platform.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use drag & drop editor
  • Efficient course site builder
  • Templates that are pre-made
  • Different payment options
  • Sales and marketing features
  • Options for managing students
  • Student feedback capabilities
  • Support for customers in a timely manner
  • Access to the plan for life. plan
  • No transaction fees , or concealed charges

Cons

How do you define Thinkific?

Thinkific is an online course platform built on cloud technology. This means that everything you create on it is automatically saved online. This makes course creation more efficient and easy.

Plus it functions as it is a Learning Management System (LMS) offers many customizable options for instructors. You can create an easy course and then upload different material to complement your lessons.

If you’re among those course creators who prefer to write your course offline prior to uploading it, then Thinkific is just right for you. You can do that and then upload your course online later on.

Thinkific also hosts all web pages that you create and can upload whatever content you’d like.

You can design an online course site without any design expertise as well. It’s not necessary to go through an excruciating learning curve when you use Thinkific It’s that simple.

There are a variety of ways to market and distribute your course to speed up the selling process of your Thinkific course. There is an online marketplace community where you can sell courses on and collaborate with other course creators.

Finally, Thinkific is also a great platform for those who already have their own site but just want to enhance their marketing efforts and attract more students. You can link third-party sites to Thinkific to reach a larger market.

The benefits and features of Thinkific

In this Thinkific review We break down the key features and benefits to make Thinkific shine.

Drag and Drop Editor

Drag-and-Drop-Editor

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The way that your courses look on your website will significantly affect the conversion rate. That’s why we love the fact that Thinkific comes with a drag and drop editor. It helps you organize your website and digital products.

You are able to arrange the courses and lessons the you’d like. No need to be concerned with complicated code or methods. You just have to click on the element you want and then drag it to where you want it to appear.

The majority of the essential elements that make your website appear more professional are covered by the Thinkific editor. From logos to color schemes, as well as fonts to discover everything you need from the site.

However, if you want to go that extra mile and make your site better, there’s still the option to input CSS and HTML code into Thinkific. It’s up to you to choose.

Plus, you can also use drag and drop to upload additional material to your classes. Almost every kind of media is supported through the editors uploader. You can upload the audio of your course, as well as quizzes, and PDFs to enrich your class.

Even the quiz types you design are easily modified using 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 select from type forms, surveys, and multiple-choice types, among many others.

Course Site Builder

Course-Site-Builder

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Thinkific goes beyond simply a drag and drop editor. Its general course website builder can be effective in getting everything set up and up and running.

As previously mentioned, Thinkific does its own web hosting. That means that you don’t be concerned about uploading limits. The storage space you can upload online is infinite when you’re using Thinkific.

If you’re thinking about subdomains Thinkific lets you select a unique URL you can associate in conjunction with its subdomain. Your URL will look like this: .thinkific.com

This way, your site is more memorable and easy for students to remember.

If you prefer to skip using the Thinkific subdomain, you have an option to register an individual domain to your website. You’ll need to pay an extra amount to get it.

Templates that are pre-made

Pre-made-templates

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In relation to the site builders for courses, Thinkific has a slew of pre-made layout and course templates you can use. It will help you avoid having to design your website completely from scratch.

The platform gives you templates that are based on what type of Thinkific course it is that you’re making. For instance, if you’re making an introduction course, you could choose a mini course-type template. For the assessment and culmination it is possible to select a template that is review-oriented.

In terms of template layouts and themes There’s also many to select from. Once you’ve picked one which is appropriate for your style, Thinkific offers settings to customize the fonts, colors, and design of the elements of the template.

In addition, there is no need for you to input complicated codes or even text. You simply have to select what you would like to put on your website and drag it into the layout.

However, if you still want to use HTML and CSS There’s the option of doing so.

It is also possible to alter the arrangement and layout of your website at times. The different sections can be arranged in order of priority so that students know what lesson to prioritize.

Payment Options

Payment-Options

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For payment, Thinkific offers options to connect Stripe and PayPal into your website. With these third-party processors it is possible to get your earnings in as little as 1 – 2 days.

It’s a stark contrast to other online course platforms which have a pay-out schedule that is 30-day intervals. With Thinkific you can withdraw more quickly.

Payment-Options

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And for your students they have the option of choosing between one-time payment plans or an installment plan. Additionally, you can provide discounts, bundles, and coupons with any payment option they choose.

Take note that when you use the one-time payment option the subscribers will be charged an one-time transaction fee in addition. The same goes for the installment subscription scheme, except that the transaction fee will be broken down across the installment period.

Sales and Marketing Features

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Beyond being an online course creation tool, Thinkific is also effective in marketing online courses. Like we said, it comes with features that allow you to create and sell courses with just a few clicks.

When you’ve published your class, you may immediately put it up for sale by using the Market and Sell option on your dashboard.

From there, you are able to modify your website in order to increase the conversion rate of your customers. You can change the way that your checkout and sign up pages will look like to users. That way they’ll be more enticed to check out the online course.

You can also enhance how your courses appear on your site. Make them look more interesting by categorizing the courses in categories users can easily explore.

And as we discussed earlier it is possible to bundle your courses with discounts coupons and freebies. This way, your students will be enticed to sign up longer for your program.

A sales widget may be made using Thinkific. It’s basically a button that can be embedded on other websites that link straight to your course platform. You can personalize the buttons to use a particular design and color scheme so that they are more in line with your brand as well.

Thinkific also lets you manage an affiliate program that will allow you to reach more audiences. On the website, you can create affiliate links which you can forward to your affiliate partners. These links will be used to direct their customers to your website and to enroll in a class.

When the affiliate program is running, you can access its progress right on the Thinkific site. You’ll be able to track the revenue, sales, and other commissions.

Finally, you can choose to incorporate other apps into Thinkific. If you’re considering emails for marketing, Aweber is an excellent tool to sync with your account.

Student Management

Student-Management

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Learning management systems can not be successful when it does not cover every aspect of online teaching. It’s also important to keep track of student performance.

Thinkific has a convenient student management system for managing students. With it, you can easily access the contact information of your students and other basic details.

You can also customize the sign-up sheet for your subscribers to ask for specific information. The template by Thinkific requires names emails, names, as well as contact phone numbers. If you’re seeking more specific details, you can toggle with your settings and add an extra field to the sign-up sheet.

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When you’ve had your subscriber pooled, you can categorize them according to the courses they signed up for. That way, you can monitor them per course much more easily.

With the Premier and Pro plans, you are able to search for a specific user based on their enrollment date, subscribed courses and job type. There are more categories to choose from when you explore the page.

Student Feedback

Student-Feedback

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Thinkific places a high value on not only the course creators, but as well the students. So, feedback from students is encouraged when enrolling in an online course.

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

There is a discussion section on Thinkific where students can ask questions that they have about their online courses. From there, 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 rating will include the performance of the instructor online as well. So, instructors can prove their expertise on Thinkific.

The reviews will also aid students to decide which course is suitable for them. This reduces the chance of a student being dropped out in the middle of the lesson all of sudden.

If course creators are worried the reviews might impact them negatively but they don’t have to. They’ll have to decide whether they’d like to publish a review or not. Thinkific will never publish them without their permission.

Finally, a good way to keep students engaged is to keep them informed with constant updates. The Thinkific platform lets instructors send notifications via push to their students when they update their lessons or resources on the platform.

Customer Support

Customer-Support

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

Before you sign up, you can access articles and case studies on the official site. There are also easily accessible videos and demos of the product to browse through.

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

Thinkific includes guides, articles as well as training videos to guide you through the interface. In addition, as we stated earlier, there are also forums for users to voice out your concerns. Other users and instructors are able to assist you.

If you have more serious problems you may submit a ticket to ask for help from the service team. And if you’re subscribed to the Business plan or higher, you’ll receive priority response.

One issue is that Thinkific does not offer a live chat feature though. You’ll have to wait patiently for the ticket response.

How Does Thinkific Works

Similar to any other platform review of course, this Thinkific review will help you understand how to begin using Thinkific. All you have to do is follow these six simple steps.

Step 1 Step 1: Create an Account

Step-1-Create-An-Account

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The first step is to sign up and then create your Thinkific account. You’ll be automatically subscribed to the trial for free upon signing up.

Step 2: Personalize Your Course Player

Step-2-Customize

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Once you have your account, you can begin customizing your course player. You can choose a particular colour scheme to ensure it is in line with your logo and the theme.

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Your course player is what your subscribers will use to access your course’s content. Videos, audio files and quizzes will be accessible through the course player.

Step 3: Build Your Course

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Next, you can create the online class. With the Course Builder tool, you can start the course by adding lessons, modules and other documents to it.

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The content of the course can be broken down into sections and categories. You may also assign your online courses personalized labels that help them be easier to find.

Step 4: Customize Your Website

Step-4-Customize

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Once your content is all ready, you can finish the design of your website. With Thinkific You have the option of customizing each landing page for every course you’ve got.

This Thinkific Site Builder lets you create a color scheme and theme for our home page. This is where all the courses you have created will be put up. Students will be able to look through it and decide which ones they like from there.

You can also customize the landing pages for each course. It’s best to set an entirely different design for each course so that they’re easy to differentiate but still be consistent with your overall branding.

Step 5: Name Your Website

Step-5-Name-Your-Site

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What you need to do after the material, courses player and the customization is to name your site. Make sure that the name is memorable but still the right fit for your brand.

Step 6: Make Your Course

Step-6-Publish

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Finally, once everything is in place, you can publish the course. To publish, you simply must set a cost and specific payment details.

A course card must be designed. The course card is the one that appears on your students’ dashboards. If they view it they’ll be able look up quick information about your online course and content.

A great course card can make a huge difference when marketing courses through Thinkific.

What needs to be improved on in Thinkific

There’s a lot to love about Thinkific however, it’s not with no imperfections. In this Thinkific review we’ve listed down what we think can still be improved.

Limited Quizzing Features

We think Thinkific does an excellent job in creating courses and uploading content but we feel that quiz features could be enhanced.

The assessment form on Thinkific is very basic. While it’s adequate to get a general grasp of how well your pupils know, it’s not enough to ask more difficult questions.

If you’re content with short check-up type tests at the end of every course, then that’s what Thinkific can offer you. For questions that require longer and more specific results You might want to look at a different platform.

The absence of Email Marketing Tools

As mentioned, Thinkific can be integrated with third-party applications , and these include email marketing tools. But that’s only because it doesn’t come with 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 this on its own. It would have accelerated the process.

No live chat support

And even though we think that the response time to customer inquiries is quick, it still doesn’t make up for the absence of a live chat option.

Users who have more urgent issues aren’t likely to get the issue resolved in a hurry. They’ll have to just wait for the ticket response in particular if they’re not signed up to paid plans.

Thinkific Pricing

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Thinkific offers three plans with paid subscriptions that are available to sign up for. And upon signing to the plan, you’ll then have access to a free plan without any fee for transactions or other hidden charges.

Thinkific Free

Thinkific In China

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Thinkific’s free plan is unique because unlike that of competitors the plan doesn’t expire. You can avail of the free plan for the duration you wish to use Thinkific. Thinkific In China

Apart from being absolutely free, it does not have any hidden charges or transaction costs, even when you sell courses. It’s perfect for course designers who wish to cut down costs, or small entrepreneurs who are just starting out.

With the Thinkific free plan, you can create three courses and then customize them using your own brand. Your courses can be enhanced with quizzes and other tools as well.

You are able to enroll an unlimited number of students, and automate the process of signing up, and monitor their progress. Surveys can also be sent to them so that you can gauge what they think about the classes they’re taking. Thinkific In China

Thinkific’s free plans also allow an administrator with authority to the site as well as multiple instructor profiles and 24/7 access to student data. You can even monitor the click rate and conversion rates of your learners.

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

Thinkific Basic

basic-pricing

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Thinkific Basic costs $49 per month, but if you choose to pay annually, it’ll only cost you $39 per month.

It comes with all the same features that the free plan has and more premium benefits. First, you are able to create unlimited courses. Selling courses will also be easier. Thinkific In China

Another thing you won’t have in your free subscription is the capability for drip-feeding your posts, to send coupons, or access analytics.

To break that down in two steps, firstly, drip content means to release information to your students on a set and gradual intervals. Additionally, you can mail coupons for discounts and other freebies to students who may require additional motivation to stay engaged. Thirdly, the analytics that you are able to access include the affiliate reports and conversion rates.

And with this plan it is easy to connect third-party tools you want to use. They include Zapier, Aweber, and MailChimp, among others.

In addition, you could make a custom domain for your website with the basic plan. You don’t need the Thinkific domain for your website’s URL any longer.

Thinkific Pro

pro-pricing

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Thinkific Pro costs $99 per month, but if you are annual billing, it’s $79 per month.

With this plan, you have the same benefits like you do with the Free and Basic plans. The only difference is that there are higher-end settings as well as benefits.

The Thinkific Pro plan lets you have two site administrators and five course administrator accounts. Additionally, there will be advanced pricing options for courses and editing HTML/CSS codes. Thinkific In China

You’ll be able create exclusive courses which only a limited number of users can access. In addition, you’ll be able to offer discounts and membership packages to your users.

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

Growth Package

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And with it being 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 subscribers to you, Thinkific will automatically charge additional fees in addition to the $99 per month.

However, don’t worry because the cost of your subscription grants you access to additional features. You can send out bulk emails, integrate third-party toolsand groups users based on different criteria.

Thinkific Premier

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The Thinkific Premier plan is the most expensive plan. It costs $499 per month but when it is billed annually, it costs $399 per month. Thinkific In China

If you’re subscribed to this plan, you’ll get access to the same features that are available in the Free, Basic, or Pro plans. What gives it its edge and a higher cost is the fact that it’s targeted at larger organizations with more members.

The 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 large number of customers who will need access to the same website.

Also, this plan includes an onboarding package which is an onboarding call lasting 30 minutes, as well as an onboarding review of preparations and an online training manual.

You’ll also have an access Growth package at a lesser cost. There’ll be a flat fee that you will only need to pay.

Thinkific Reviews

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Users who have reviewed and used Thinkific particularly appreciate how economical it is. Even with its free plans, you will have access to helpful features. Also, there aren’t any extra charges, so you will not be spending more than you planned to.

Other users also adored the white-labeling function of Thinkific. It lets you improve your brand’s image even if you’re a small-sized company.

Many educators also love using Thinkific because it’s perfect for children. The interface is easy to navigate and explore.

“I found it interesting that this site had a place to upload documents in the discussions. Then I’m glad I choose this option because other sites take an amount of your income and you have to wait longer for funds. No transaction fees!” -Anonymous

“I enjoyed the ability to design an access gateway, courses as well as the payment options all within one interface without any needs for additional software. I particularly enjoy how easy setting up the courses up , if you’ve got your curriculum designed and has white-labeling.” – Anonymous

“Thinkific lets you begin producing courses for free and will keep them for free for the rest of your life. Really, this is an excellent way to get started with how to create courses without having to pay a cent.” -Anonymous

“Thinkific made it easy to design and host our digital course for financial advisors. Thinkific’s support team was always quick to respond and helped us get started. I am also impressed the ability to white-label and use an individual domain.” – Anonymous

“Classes were more enjoyable as well as entertaining and easy especially for our more advanced learners. Teachers enjoyed using it to build their classes and then share their ideas.” -Anonymous

Alternatives to Thinkific

If the Thinkific review still hasn’t convinced you of its capabilities as an online course platform take a look at the following alternatives:

Kajabi

Kajabi is among the first online courses platforms that will probably get your attention once you start asking around. It’s a complete platform that lets you create and market the online course you’ve created. Thinkific is similar to Kajabi in this way.

If you sign up to Kajabi the platform, you’ll be able to quickly create a course and then add content. The platform offers built-in templates and themes that you can modify your website from the get-go. The editor for your website allows you to add several sections and sales pages to your courses. Thinkific In China

In terms of quiz features, it has an edge over Thinkific because it has more sophisticated settings. You can create more customized quizzes and assessment types. Plus, you can conduct webinars and video tutorials to ensure better clarity in teaching.

Many educators particularly love the fact that they can award their students with certificates for every accomplished course. They can also opt to send content out to their subscribers, just as Thinkific.

But another difference that Kajabi has in comparison to Thinkific has to do with the fact it has better marketing features. Though Thinkific lets you easily sell your classes online, it doesn’t permit you to build a sales funnel builder which could make your process more organized.

Kajabi also has email marketing tools as well as email automation, unlike Thinkific. You don’t need to install with a third-party program to send emails and broadcasts to your clients.

Do note however that Kajabi is costlier than Thinkific.

Check out the Kajabi review – the All-in-1 Online Course Platform

Teachable

learning-platform

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In addition to Kajabi, Teachable is Thinkific’s other closest rival. It’s because they have plenty of similarities as online course platforms.

Teachable’s interface is also easy-to-use and includes useful features that can aid you in creating content. There are templates for themes that have been created that you can utilize to make your site look nice even without previous web design experience.

Also, like Thinkific instructors have the option to distribute the content they share to their subscribers.

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

Similar to Kajabi You can also host webinars and videos to encourage the participation of your followers. You can also create a sales page for your online course for better conversion rates.

One more thing we love about Teachable is that you can also offer your subscribers certificates for every course they finish. And , unlike Thinkific, Teachable has email marketing tools that you can use to send mass email to our subscribers.

Please read: Teachable Review – Unlimited Course Creation Features

Please read: Kajabi vs. Teachable

Final Report on Thinkific Review

Thinkific In China

Thinkific is a great product with a lot of advantages which make it worthy of an annual subscription. It’s user-friendly. It’s possible to create an original online course and then sell it, even if a first-timer.

The software also includes pre-made templates and layouts to simplify setting your site. It isn’t necessary to enter complicated CSS or HTML code to have a professional-looking site.

If you select any of these paid options, you get access to advanced options that will improve your brand. You can choose to skip your Thinkific subdomain and instead use Advanced users to set up their own domain names with hosting and create the majority of the pages on their website on the domain’s own address.

You can also incorporate third-party apps to Thinkific, especially since it doesn’t have its own built-in email marketing tools.

Students can also interact with their instructors via online discussion on Thinkific. They can conveniently seek assistance with classes and ask questions on their modules. In turn, the teachers will be able to respond to questions in person.

Support for customers isn’t bad also. Prioritization of responses is given when you’re subscribed to other plans with a paid subscription. Be aware that it has no live chat feature.

In the end, our conclusion for this Thinkific review is that it’s well worth a test. If you’re a beginner author, Thinkific seems to be the ideal place to start learning how to create courses.

The free plan also lasts for the duration of time and is not tied to other platforms. If you’re in a pinch for money and want to save money, this is an excellent choice since you can access incredible features at no cost at all.

We strongly recommend that you test Thinkific out.

If you’ve enjoyed this Thinkific review, you can also read through our review of one of the Best Online Course Platforms available right now 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.