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If you’re deciding on which online course platform to choose there’s a chance you’ll receive a long list of possibilities. It’s a standout due to its numerous useful features.

There are many criteria to watch out for when using an online course platform and Thinkific is one of them. Keep reading this Thinkific Review below and discover more about its unique advantages and features.

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A brief overview of Thinkific Review Thinkific Legacy Plan

Thinkific is among the more widely used options to create and sell online courses. Besides having an easy-to-navigate design, this platform offers pre-designed templates you can build your personal website.

In just a few clicks, you’ll get to develop and market online courses even without prior experience. The drag and drop feature of the website makes it easy to start.

Online course creators will be particularly interested in the advanced quiz components for every course you make. These can make your lessons more enticing to learn by the students.

This online tool for creating courses lets you upload different kinds of files to enhance the content of your Thinkific course.

And like most online courses platforms, 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 applications like MailChimp, Zapier, etc.

Continue reading through this Thinkific review to find out more about this well-known online course platform.

Pros

  • Easy-to-use drag & drop editor
  • Efficient course site builder
  • Templates pre-made
  • Different payment options
  • Marketing and sales features
  • Student management options
  • Capacity for student feedback
  • Support for customers in a timely manner
  • Access to the plan for life. plan
  • No transaction fees , or concealed charges

Cons

Is there anything Thinkific?

Thinkific is a cloud-based online course platform. This means that anything you create on it is automatically saved online. It makes course creation easier and convenient.

Furthermore, as an Learning Management System (LMS), it provides many custom options for instructors. It is easy to create a course and then upload different material to complement your lessons.

If you’re one of those instructors who like writing your course offline before uploading it, then Thinkific is the right choice for you. You can do that and then upload the course online later on.

Thinkific can also host all of the web pages you make on it so can basically upload as much content as you’d like.

You can create an entirely new online course site even with no design experience and. You won’t have to endure an arduous learning curve with Thinkific It’s that simple.

There are a variety of marketing and distribution options that will speed up the selling procedure of your Thinkific course. There’s an online marketplace community where you can offer courses and communicate with other course creators.

Additionally, Thinkific is also a good alternative for individuals who have their own website but would like to improve their marketing and gain more students. You can link third-party sites to Thinkific to reach a larger public.

The benefits and features of Thinkific

This Thinkific review we review the most important features and advantages to are what make Thinkific stand out.

Drag and Drop Editor

Drag-and-Drop-Editor

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The way your courses look on your site will greatly influence conversion rates. This is the reason we love the fact that Thinkific has an editor that drags and drops. It helps you organize your website and other digital products.

You can rearrange the courses and lessons in any you like. No need for any complicated codes or methods. You just have to select the item you’d like to display and drag it over to the place you want it to appear.

The majority of the essential elements that make your site look more professional is covered by Thinkific’s editor. From logos to colors, and fonts, you’ll find everything you need from the site.

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

In addition, you may use drag and drop for uploading supplemental materials for your classes. Almost every kind of media file is supported through the editors uploader. You can include the audio of your course, as well as quizzes, and PDFs to enhance your course.

Even the quiz types that you design can be easily altered using the editor. Simply select the type of assessment you would like to include in your instruction and drag it there. You can pick from type forms, surveys and multiple-choice forms among others.

Course Site Builder

Course-Site-Builder

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

As mentioned, Thinkific does its own web hosting. This means that you won’t be concerned about uploading limits. Your online storage is basically unlimited with Thinkific.

If you’re considering subdomains Thinkific permits you to choose a unique URL that you can associate in conjunction 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.

If you’d like to avoid your Thinkific subdomain, you have an option to get the domain as a separate domain for your site. It’s just a matter of paying a little bit more for it.

Templates Pre-Made

Pre-made-templates

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In relation to the course site builder, Thinkific has a slew of pre-designed layouts and course templates you can choose from. It saves you from having to design your website entirely from scratch.

The platform offers templates, based on the type of Thinkific course it is that you’re making. If, for instance, you’re creating an introduction to course, you can select an outline-type template. For the assessment and culmination it is possible to choose a review-type template.

For layout and theme templates There’s also many to select from. And once you’ve chosen something that is suitable for your needs, Thinkific offers settings to alter the fonts, colors, and the layout of the elements within the template.

There is no need for you to enter complex codes or text. All you have to do is click on the content you wish to put on your website and drag it into the layout.

However, if you’re still interested in using HTML and CSS, there’s still an option.

You can also change the layout and arrangement of your site at times. The different sections can be placed in order of priority so that students know which lesson to prioritize.

Payment Options

Payment-Options

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As for payment, Thinkific offers options to incorporate Stripe and PayPal to your site. With these third-party processors it is possible to get your earnings in as soon as 1 – 2 days.

This is in stark contrast from 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 you can offer them a one-time payment scheme or an installment-based subscription plan. You can also provide discounts, bundles, and coupons along with whichever payment option they choose.

It is important to note that with the one-time payment plan the subscribers will be charged one-time transaction fees in addition. Same applies to the installment plan, with the exception that the transaction fees will be broken down across the duration of the installment.

Sales and Marketing Features

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Beyond being an online course creator, Thinkific is also effective at marketing online courses. As already mentioned, it includes features that let you create and sell courses with just a few clicks.

Once you publish your class, you may immediately put it up for sale through the Market and Sell option on your dashboard.

From there, you can modify your website in order to increase the conversion rate of your clients. You can change the way that your checkout and sign up pages look to visitors. That way they’ll be more enticed to sign up for an online course.

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

As we mentioned earlier, you can opt to bundle your courses using discounts coupons and freebies. This way, your students will be more motivated to commit more often in your class.

A sales widget may also be developed using Thinkific. It’s essentially a button you can add to third-party websites which will connect directly to your course platform. You can customize the buttons to use a particular color scheme and logo to ensure that they are more in line with your brand as well.

Thinkific also allows you to create an affiliate program to assist you in reaching more people. Through the website you can design affiliate links which you can send to affiliate partners. These are what they’ll use in order to bring their followers to your site and sign up in a class.

Once the affiliate program is in operation it is possible to check the progress of the program right on the Thinkific website. You’ll get to monitor sales, revenue, and other commissions.

You can also choose to integrate other applications to Thinkific. If you’re interested in email marketing campaigns, Aweber is an excellent tool to sync directly with the account you have.

Student Management

Student-Management

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Learning management systems can not be effective in the absence of covering every aspect of online teaching. This includes keeping an eye on student progress.

Thinkific has a convenient student management system for students. With it, you are able to quickly access your students’ contact details and basic information.

You can also personalize the sign-up form for your subscribers by asking for specific information. Thinkific’s template asks for names as well as email addresses as well as contact phone numbers. If you’re looking for more specific details, you can switch your settings to add a new field to the sign-up form.

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Once you have your subscribers pooled, you can categorize them based on the courses they signed up for. So, you can track them by course simpler.

With the Pro and Premier plans, you are able to look up a particular user based on his/her dates of enrollment, courses enrolled and job type. There are many different categories you can choose from as you browse the site.

Student Feedback

Student-Feedback

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Thinkific prioritizes not just the course creators but also the students. That’s why student feedback is encouraged whenever you’re enrolling in the course.

An open discussion between the students and the instructors can significantly reduce the learning curve with the lessons.

There is a discussion area on Thinkific where students can ask questions they have regarding their online classes. The instructors can reply and clarify their answers.

Students also have the option to rate and review the courses they’ve completed. The score will also include the performance of the online instructor as well. So, instructors can demonstrate their authority on Thinkific.

These reviews can also assist other students determine which course is right for them. It decreases the chances of a student leaving in the middle of an entire class all of a sudden.

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

Another way to keep students engaged is to keep them informed with constant updates. The Thinkific platform lets instructors send push notifications to their students when they post new lessons or resources via the website.

Customer Support

Customer-Support

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As one would expect from learning management systems, Thinkific does quite a good job with customer support.

Before you even sign up You can look up articles and case studies on the official website. There are also easily accessible product demos and video tutorials that you can go through.

Once you’ve signed up to Thinkific, you’ll be able to access the Help Center. Thereare resources that will aid you in understanding how to market online courses.

Thinkific offers guides as well as training videos to help you navigate the interface. In addition, as we mentioned, there are forums where you can discuss your issues. Other users and instructors are able to assist you.

For more serious issues You can submit a ticket to ask for help from the service team. If you’re on an Enterprise plan, or higher you’ll receive prioritised response.

The only problem is that Thinkific does not offer live chat, but it does have. It’s just a matter of waiting to see if they respond.

How Does Thinkific Works

Like every other review of course platforms, this Thinkific review will help you understand how to get started with Thinkific. It is as easy as following these 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 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, you can begin customizing your course player. You can choose a particular colour scheme to ensure it is in line with your logo and theme.

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The course player is the tool your subscribers will use to access your course’s content. Audio files, videos, and quizzes will be accessible via your course’s player.

Step 3: Create Your Course

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The next step is to create an online learning course. Using the Course Builder program, you can start the course by adding modules, lessons and other documents to it.

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The course material can be divided into sections and categories. You may also assign your online courses customized labels that make them easier to search.

Step 4: Personalize Your Website

Step-4-Customize

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Once your content is all set, you can finalize the design of your site. With Thinkific You have the option to customize every landing page to suit each course you’ve got.

This Thinkific Site Builder lets you create a color scheme and the theme of our homepage. This is where your courses will be set up. Students can look through it and decide the one that interests them from there.

You can also customize the landing pages for each course. It’s best to set a slightly different look for each course so that they’re easy to differentiate but still blend into the overall brand.

Step 5 Step 5: Name Your Website

Step-5-Name-Your-Site

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What you need to do once the content, course player and the customization is to decide on a name for your website. Be sure the name is memorable but still the right fit for your business.

Step 6: Create Your Course

Step-6-Publish

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

Something called a course card must be designed. The course card is what appears on your students’ dashboards. When they see it they’ll see quick details about your online course as well as the content.

A great course card can be a great help for marketing courses through Thinkific.

What needs to be improved on in Thinkific

While there’s plenty to like about Thinkific but it’s not with no flaws. For this Thinkific review we’ve listed down what we believe could be improved.

Limited Quizzing Features

We think Thinkific does a good job of creating courses and uploading content, we think that the quiz features can still be enhanced.

The assessment template on Thinkific is extremely basic. Although it’s sufficient to gain an understanding of how much your pupils know, it isn’t enough for asking more complex questions.

If you’re content with the short, check-up-style exams at the end of each course, then that’s what Thinkific offers you. For questions that require longer and more precise outputs You might want to try another platform.

Lack of Email Marketing Tools

As previously mentioned, Thinkific can be integrated with third-party applications , and these include tools for marketing via email. However, this is only because it doesn’t provide email marketing tools of its own.

While there are many third-party tools that are efficient however, it would be nice if Thinkific already had it on its own. It would have speeded up the process.

There is no live chat support

Even if we believe that the response from customer service is quick, it still does not make up for the lack of a live chat feature.

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

Thinkific Pricing

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Thinkific has three paid plans that you can subscribe to. And upon signing up, you’ll first be able to sign up for the free plan with no costs for transactions or hidden fees.

Thinkific Free

Thinkific Legacy Plan

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The free plan offered by Thinkific is unique because unlike that of competitors the plan doesn’t expire. You can avail of the free plan all the time you’d like to keep using Thinkific. Thinkific Legacy Plan

Apart from being absolutely free, it also doesn’t 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 beginning their journey.

Through the Thinkific FREE plan, users can create 3 courses and customize them with your own branding. You can enrich your courses with quizzes and other resources as well.

You can enroll in a quantity of pupils, automate the process of signing up, and follow their performance. Surveys can be also distributed to them so that you can assess how they feel about the classes they’re taking. Thinkific Legacy Plan

Thinkific’s free plan also allows 1 authorized site administrator as well as multiple instructor profiles and access to all student data. You can also keep track of the conversion rates and click rates of your learners.

Additionally, the free plan allows search engine optimization for your content. That way, your courses are more easily found by customers. You can also embed third-party websites and applications to your own website to improve user experience.

Thinkific Basic

basic-pricing

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Thinkific Basic costs $49 a month. However, if you decide to make your payments annually it will cost you $39 per month.

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

Another thing you don’t get on your free subscription is the option to distribute your contents, send coupons, or access analytics.

To simplify, first, to drip content, you must release information to your students on an interval that is set and gradually. The second option is to send coupons with discounts or other freebies to learners that might need extra incentive to remain subscribed. Thirdly, the analytics that you have access to are marketing conversion and affiliate reporting rates.

With this plan it is easy to integrate the third-party tools that you would like to utilize. They include Zapier, Aweber, and MailChimp as well as others.

In addition, you could create a custom domain for your site with the standard plan. There is no need to use 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 get the service annually, it’s $79 each month.

This plan have the same benefits as you would with the Free Basic and Basic plans. The only difference is that you get greater options for setting up and advantages.

Thinkific’s Pro plan will let you manage 2 sites and five course administrator accounts. It will also include advanced pricing options for your courses as well as editing HTML/CSS codes. Thinkific Legacy Plan

You’ll have the ability to design exclusive courses which only a limited number of users can access as well. Plus, you can offer discounts and membership packages to your users.

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

Growth Package

growth-package

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And with the Pro plan, you can avail something called a Growth Package you can take advantage of. The thing about it is that once you have more than 100 people subscribed to you, Thinkific will automatically charge an additional fee over the monthly fee of $99.

But don’t fret because the cost of your subscription grants you access to additional functions. It is possible to send large quantities of emails, use third-party software, and organize users based on different criteria.

Thinkific Premier

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Thinkific Premier is the most expensive plan. It costs $499 per month but when billed annually, it will cost $399 per month. Thinkific Legacy Plan

When subscribed with this program, you’ll have access to all the same features as the Free, Basic, and Pro plans. What gives it its edge and the higher price is that it’s geared towards larger organizations with more members.

The Thinkific Premier plan lets you have five site admin accounts and 50 account admins for courses. You can also have something called a Single Sign-On (SSO). This is useful when you have a lot of customers who will need access to the same website.

The plan also includes an onboarding plan that’s an onboarding call lasting 30 minutes and an onboarding review of preparations and an online training manual.

And you’ll also get access to the Growth package at a lesser cost. There’ll be a fixed cost that you only have to pay.

Thinkific Reviews

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People who’ve used and reviewed Thinkific especially appreciate how affordable it is. Even when using its free plans, you’ll have access to some useful features. And there are no extra charges, so you will not be spending more than you anticipated to.

And other users also loved the white-labeling option of Thinkific. It lets you improve your brand’s image even if you’re an individual company.

Many educators also love the use of Thinkific because it’s great for children. It’s easy to use and explore.

“I loved that there was the option to upload files in the discussions. It’s a good thing I picked this one because others take an amount of your income and you’re forced to wait for money. No transaction fees!” -Anonymous

“I liked that you could design the access portal, courses, and the payment options all within one interface, without the need for additional products. I really appreciate how simple you can set up the courses if you’ve had your own curriculum and it has white-labeling.” – Anonymous

“Thinkific lets you begin making courses for free, and keep them free forever. Really, this is the best way to master how to create courses without having to pay a cent.” -Anonymous

“Thinkific made it easy to develop and run our online course for financial advisors. The Thinkific support team was quick to respond and helped us get started. I also love the fact that you can do white-labeling and also use a custom domain.” – Anonymous

“Classes were more enjoyable engaging, enjoyable, and simple particularly for our students who were older. Teachers loved making use of it to design their classes and share their ideas.” -Anonymous

Alternatives to Thinkific

In case this Thinkific review still hasn’t convinced you of the capabilities of this platform as an online course platform, then check out the following alternatives:

Kajabi

Kajabi is among the first online course platforms that is likely to get your attention when you begin asking questions. It’s an all-in-one system which lets you design and sell the online course you’ve created. Thinkific is similar to Kajabi in that sense.

If you sign up to Kajabi the platform, you’ll be able to create your own course and add content. The platform offers built-in templates and themes that you could make use of to personalize your site right from the beginning. The editor for your website allows you to add multiple sections and sales pages to your courses. Thinkific Legacy Plan

For quiz functions It is a step ahead over Thinkific because it comes with more advanced options. You can create more customized quizzes and assessment types. In addition, you can hold videos and webinars to provide better clarity in teaching.

Many educators particularly love the idea of rewarding their students with certificates after each successful course. Additionally, they are able to drip content to their subscribers, much as Thinkific.

But another difference that Kajabi has from Thinkific is the fact that Kajabi has superior marketing features. While Thinkific lets you easily market on-line courses but it does not allow you to create an online sales funnel that will help keep your process well-organized.

Kajabi also offers tools for marketing emails and automated email, in contrast to Thinkific. You won’t have to integrate an application from a third party to send out broadcasts and email sequences to your customers.

You do have to note however that Kajabi is more expensive than Thinkific.

READ: Kajabi Review – the All-in-1 Online Course Platform

Teachable

learning-platform

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Following Kajabi, Teachable is Thinkific’s second closest rival. This is due to the fact that they share lots of similarities in their online learning platforms.

Teachable’s interface is also easy-to-use and has helpful features that will aid you in creating content. There are templates for themes that have been created that you can utilize to make your website appear attractive even if you don’t have any previous experience in web design.

Like Thinkific instructors are able to choose to drip content they share to their subscribers.

However, what sets Teachable against Thinkific is the quiz features. Instead of having basic templates, Teachable lets you customize your quizzes and assessments.

Similar to Kajabi You can also create webinars and videos in order to encourage participation from your customers. It is also possible to create a sales page for your online course for higher conversion rates.

Another thing we like about Teachable is the ability to give your subscribers certificates for each course they take. And unlike Thinkific, Teachable has email marketing tools that allow you to send out bulk email to our subscribers.

Please read: Teachable Review – Unlimited Course Creation Features

READ: Kajabi vs. Teachable

Final Review and Conclusion on Thinkific Review

Thinkific Legacy Plan

Thinkific is a great product with a lot of strengths that make it worth the cost of a subscription. For one, it’s extremely simple to use. You can create a unique online course and then market it, even if you’re an aspiring seller.

Additionally, it comes with pre-designed layouts and templates to make it easier to set up your website. You don’t need to input complex CSS or HTML code to have professional-looking websites.

If you select one of the paid plans, you will have access to more advanced options that will improve your branding. You can choose to skip your Thinkific subdomain and opt for Advanced users to set up their own domain name with hosting and build out most of the pages of their website on their own URL.

You can also integrate third-party applications to Thinkific, especially as it doesn’t have its own email marketing tools.

Students are also able to interact with their instructors through online discussions on Thinkific. They can conveniently request assistance during lessons or post questions regarding their courses. The teachers will be able to respond to questions in person.

Customer support isn’t too bad also. You get prioritized for responses when you’re subscribed to other plans with a paid subscription. But just remember that there is no live chat feature.

In the end, our conclusion in the Thinkific evaluation is well worth a try. Particularly if you’re just beginning to become a author, Thinkific seems to be an excellent starting point for developing courses.

The free plan is also available forever and is not tied to other platforms. If you’re strapped for cash, then it’s a good choice since you can access great features at no cost at all.

We highly recommend that you try Thinkific out.

If you’ve enjoyed reading this Thinkific review, you can also read through our review on 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.