Millions of people have knowledge worth paying for.
Thinkific turns that knowledge into a real online business, without requiring any coding skills.
More than 35,000 creators have used Thinkific to impact over 200 million learners worldwide.
That kind of scale is hard to ignore.
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There are many course-building platforms out there, but Thinkific comes with its own perks and benefits to using it.
These are important to learn about if you are interested in using Thinkific to create your own courses.
Every course building site is going to be different and will cater more to certain people, which is why you will want to do your research.
Keep reading to find out more about Thinkific and if it is the right fit for you.
What is Thinkific?
Thinkific is an easy to use course building website that gives you as the creator all of the power.
This takes away all of the complicated elements of course building so that you can do what you do best.
With Thinkific, you can turn an idea into a reality and share your experience with the world.
You can use this site to create any kind of course, from writing courses to sewing courses to web design courses.
You have the freedom to create what you want with the skills that you have in one easy-to-use location.
No coding or technical knowledge is required, just an idea and some experience in that area.
This is a platform that makes course creation easy so that anyone can do it if they have a skill to share.
Then they can sell their courses to students who are interested in learning about that particular topic.
In case you are not interested in creating courses, but in learning, we recommend Coursera and Babbel.
Thinkific Features
There are so many amazing Thinkific features that you can benefit from when using this site.
When it comes to features, Thinkific is a winner as it offers a staggering variety while staying very affordable compared to its competition.
Thinkific gives you access to templates to make your life easier as you put courses together for your students.
These courses can also include several different kinds of lessons to improve the experience of the student and make the course richer.
In 2025, Thinkific added an AI teaching assistant called Thinker, which answers student questions automatically, saving creators a lot of time.
They also added built-in community spaces where students can connect, share ideas, and learn together right inside the platform.
This means you no longer need to send students off to a separate Facebook Group or Slack channel.
Some features that you can expect to get from Thinkific are:
- Easy course builder program
- Different lesson types, including videos, quizzes, surveys, and live lessons
- Drip content to help students pace themselves
- Landing page builder with exceptional templates
- Outstanding support team for help when you need it
- Plugin options for additional features and tools
- Outstanding security
- Built-in community spaces for student interaction
- AI-powered student re-engagement tools
As you can see, you get a lot from Thinkific when it comes to using this site to create your courses.
This is an all-in-one platform where you can create your website, landing page, courses, and start to earn money from them.
This takes some of the complexity out of the process and makes it easier to do for most people.
This is especially handy if you are technically challenged and are easily overwhelmed by all of the different areas of course building.
You can also expect to get a variety of more high-tech features as you upgrade to higher-priced plans.
Thinkific also now supports order bumps, buy-now-pay-later, and digital wallets through their Tcommerce checkout system, making it easier to earn more from every sale.
Thinkific Free Trial
Thinkific previously offered a free plan, but as of 2025, the free plan has been removed.
This is a big change and puts Thinkific more in line with other paid platforms.
You can still try the platform before committing, as Thinkific offers a free trial period on its paid plans.
This gives you a chance to test the tools and see if it is the right fit for you before spending any money.
Is Thinkific Free?
Thinkific is no longer free.
The free plan that Thinkific was known for has been discontinued as of 2025.
This is one of the biggest changes to the platform in recent years and is worth knowing before you sign up.
You will need to choose a paid plan to get started, though the entry-level options remain affordable.
The good news is that none of the paid plans charge transaction fees, so every dollar you earn stays with you.
How Much is Thinkific?
Thinkific comes with paid plan options that give you access to a variety of different tools and benefits.
This really allows you to grow your business and expand to earn more money through your courses.
All while charging you an affordable rate with no extra fees applied.
The plans that Thinkific offers are:
Basic
The basic Thinkific plan costs $49 per month and includes a variety of features. This includes things like live chats and integrations.
This basic plan is an option that is fully capable of being the only plan that you need.
Unless you want to grow your business into a huge company, this plan will suit many creators’ needs.
You can expect the basic plan to have:
- Integrations
- Affiliates and coupons
- Live chats
- A custom domain
- Unlimited courses
- Unlimited content
- Access to Thinkific Basic Academy
Pro
The pro plan is $99 a month and is designed for more serious course creators.
This is the perfect plan to get if you want to create expensive courses with lots of learning features and benefits.
A pro plan guarantees that you will have everything that you need to make serious money and create a consistent income stream.
It opens up many doors and gives you access to features that the basic plan does not have.
You can expect the pro plan to include:
- Live sessions and webinars
- An extra admin account
- Subscriptions and flex prices
- Extracurricular assignments
- Student communities
Premier
The premier plan is where things really get serious if you plan on fully expanding your business.
This will give you all of the tools that you could ever possibly need to use for your courses.
This plan costs $499 a month because only those who really earn the big bucks upgrade to this level.
Chances are, you are earning more than enough with this plan to afford the price.
With the premier plan, you can expect to get:
- 15 admin accounts
- Unlimited communities
- Full API access
- Groups
- Brillium exams
Growth
Growth is an add-on package that you can add to your plan to make it richer and full of more features.
This is a great option if the other plans just are not covering all of the bases for you.
With the growth add ons you can get:
- Groups
- Public API
- Extra integrations
- Bulk emails
- Communities
- The ability to remove Thinkific branding
Thinkific Free Courses
With Thinkific, you have the option of making some or all of your courses free.
Not only is this just a nice option to have, it can actually help to drive sales.
Many creators use this option to draw students in before encouraging them to actually buy courses as well.
Offering free options is a great way to establish trust and gives students a chance to see your work.
This is also a great option if you just enjoy creating courses and do not necessarily want to make a profit off of them.
You can make as many courses free as you like and always charge for them later if you change your mind.
Thinkific Pros and Cons
There are plenty of Thinkific pros and cons that you need to think about before making your mind up.
This is important as you want to make the best decision according to what you are looking for.
If you do not do this and later change your mind about Thinkific, you have wasted your time and have to start all over again.
Thinkific is a great option but it is going to have its pros and cons just like any other course-building website.
Pros
- Thinkific charges zero transaction fees on all paid plans, which means more money in your pocket with every sale.
- Thinkific offers a voice-over PowerPoint tool that makes this side of creating courses ridiculously easy. You do not need any technical knowledge or a dozen tools to create a voice-over for your course.
- Thinkific offers amazing landing page templates that are designed to drive sales. All of the work is done for you, all you have to do is customize it slightly and set it up to attract customers.
- One thing that really sets Thinkific apart from the crowd is the fact that it offers phone support. This is highly unusual for a website and makes getting support that much easier. It also offers email and Facebook support as well.
- Thinkific offers several different outlets that allow you to better connect with your students. Not only does this create more room for profit, it helps you to create richer courses and a better learning experience.
- Thinkific now has built-in community features, so students can connect and learn together without leaving your platform.
- The new AI teaching assistant (Thinker) answers student questions for you, saving hours of support time every week.
Con
- If you really want to upgrade your course to a substantial online income, you will need to download lots of plugins. This is necessary to have a fully rounded and successful course. Though this is not a big deal, it can make running your course more complicated and time-consuming.
- Thinkific does not have the best integrations and has to do most integrations through Zapier. This creates one extra subscription and can make the process of integrating much more complicated.
- Thinkific has no built-in sales funnel builder. You will have to use a different tool to create sales funnels if you actually want your course to take off and be successful.
- The free plan has been removed, which makes it harder for brand new creators to test the platform without spending money first.
- The mobile app has limited branding options unless you pay extra, which can feel restrictive for creators who want a fully branded experience.
Thinkific Support
When it comes to deciding on a course-building platform to go with, one thing you should always consider is the support team.
This can be very important if you have trouble with the site or encounter a time-sensitive issue.
Not every course site is going to offer the best support, so you want to go with an option that excels in this area.
Thinkific really does excel when it comes to support and offers some of the best support that you will find.
Thinkific offers phone, email, and Facebook support, which gives you plenty of options.
This allows you to get to the bottom of an issue quickly and painlessly if you are having difficulties.
Phone support is especially unheard of and gives you the ability to get down to the bottom of the problem immediately.
Is Thinkific Worth It?
Just about anyone who has used Thinkific would clearly say that they found it to be worth it.
Unlike many other larger course building sites, Thinkific is not there to steal your earnings after charging you a monthly fee.
It may not cater directly to those wanting to create very expensive or technical courses, but it can do most things.
Most course creators only need the basics to create exceptional courses for their students.
Thinkific offers you everything you need and allows you to get creative with your work.
It also offers all of this at a fraction of the price of other course building sites that drastically overcharge for their plans.
The online learning market continues to grow fast, and you can learn more about that at our online learning market size page.
This truly allows you to build your business and make real profits without having it eaten away by fees and expensive plans.
Thinkific Alternatives
There are many Thinkific alternatives that you can choose from if you are not quite decided on what course building platform is right for you.
There are many course building sites, and not all are made equally.
Thinkific is generally one of the best options, but how does it hold up to alternatives, such as Skillshare or Teachable?
Keep reading to find out how other course-building sites compare to Thinkific.
Thinkific Vs Teachable
Thinkific and Teachable are another pair of course building sites that are very similar.
Though it is very noticeable that Teachable is more expensive and less geared towards the creators.
Teachable not only charges far greater prices for its plans, it charges a transaction fee on lower-tier plans.
This can eat away at your earnings and result in you losing hundreds of hard-earned dollars.
Thinkific, on the other hand, charges no transaction fees on any paid plan.
Teachable also caters to a larger variety of topics, while Thinkific leans more towards academic and educational topics.
Teachable also offers more flexibility and customization, but Thinkific has more handy features.
Overall, both options are great, but Thinkific generally wins against Teachable.
Thinkific Vs Kajabi
Kajabi is very similar to Thinkific, except it basically gives you all of the top features of Thinkific once you start out.
This sets Kajabi’s basic plan at $119 a month.
This website includes all of those important key features, such as quizzes, lectures, community building, and more.
Kajabi also has the option of creating sales funnels, which is something that Thinkific does not offer.
This can be a deal-breaker if you want to be able to easily create sales funnels in the same place you create your courses.
Despite these benefits, Kajabi is known for being complex and complicated to use.
Depending on your skill level, this can be a deal-breaker as it is not for just any beginner to use.
Overall, Kajabi is really better for those who are already experienced and are looking for an all-inclusive option with many features.
Beginners may want to stick with Thinkific, at least for now.
Thinkific Vs Skillshare
Thinkific and Skillshare are similar in what their goals are, they both are created for the creator and the student.
Skillshare is a bit more relaxed and gives creators the ability to create courses on anything that they like.
Skillshare also has a built-in audience that is just sitting there waiting for new courses to be dropped.
Skillshare operates mostly through video courses that enable the student to watch the course.
Though Skillshare does not allow you to host live courses.
Thinkific has far more features than Skillshare and offers even more depending on the plan that you choose.
It is designed more toward helping you build your course business rather than simply putting out the occasional course.
That is why Thinkific is designed more toward serious creators while Skillshare is a more relaxed space for course creators.
Thinkific Vs Udemy
Unlike Thinkific, Udemy requires you to use your own tools to create courses.
This is not a one-stop website for creating courses to sell.
You will have to already have access to other tools such as Google Docs or Microsoft Word to create courses.
Udemy provides options to help you learn how to create courses, but it has no real course creator.
You can add your course to Udemy once you have created it, and it will be reviewed.
Udemy is much more interactive than Thinkific though, and you can keep in contact with your students easily.
With Udemy, you can create as many courses as you want free of charge, while Thinkific requires a paid plan.
Though Udemy has many excellent features, it is not the best platform for growing a course business.
Thinkific has much more room for growth and profit.
Alternatively you could check out Teachery here.
Is Thinkific Legit?
Thinkific is an entirely legitimate platform that allows you to build your business and create courses.
It is very trustworthy and has an outstanding reputation that speaks for itself.
You do not have to worry about Thinkific being out to get your money or steal your information.
More than 35,000 businesses and creators trust Thinkific, including major companies like GoDaddy and Nasdaq.
Not only that, but Thinkific also has outstanding security so that no one can hack your information or earnings.
Thinkific FAQs
What Can You Do With Thinkific?
With Thinkific you can create courses, establish an online presence, and build a business. This is a well-rounded platform that allows you to do almost everything for your business in one place.
Can I Use Thinkific as My Website?
You cannot embed Thinkific sites onto an external domain or embedded within an iframe. Your Thinkific site must exist as a separate entity, though you are free to have external websites or marketing options.
Does Thinkific Work With Wix?
Yes, you can easily connect your Wix automation to your Thinkific site, so that you can use Wix tools.
Is Thinkific Really Free?
No. Thinkific removed its free plan in 2025. You will need a paid plan to get started, though a free trial is available on paid plans.