Thinkific: How Best is It for Creating and Selling Courses Online?
Last updated: January 1, 2023
What is Thinkific?
Do you want to create and sell online courses? If you are looking for the best platform out there, you need to look no further than Thinkific. It is easy to use, affordable, and has many features that will make your online course business thrive.
In addition, Thinkific is a great place to start if you are just getting started. Here I will elucidate the remarkable capabilities of Thinkific when it comes to creating and selling courses online.
The features of Thinkific
Thinkific is a powerful yet easy-to-use platform that allows you to create and sell courses online. With Thinkific, you can create free, paid, and time-limited courses without design or technical experience. You can also enhance your learners’ experience with a custom-branded site.
Additionally, you can create self-directed, scheduled groups and even hybrid classes with online and offline course components to match your teaching style completely. The student purchase and enrollment processes are fully automated, and there is solid security support as it offers built-in SSL. Hence, Thinkific is an excellent choice for anyone looking to create and sell courses online.
With Thinkific, create amazing products.
With the help of the carefully chosen tools and features of Thinkific, you can transform your expertise into learning materials that demand attention, elicit excitement, and delight learners. To increase engagement and diversify your course offering, you can do everything through Thinkific, from live lessons and memberships to online courses with connected communities.
Thinkific lets you make a website to promote your business.
No coding knowledge is necessary to create a professional web storefront to market your online course. Using one of our ready-made, editable themes, you can build a website that accurately represents your company (and actually sounds like you).
With Thinkific, generate income by selling.
Thinkific provides the tools, you supply the knowledge and experience. You can quickly sell and promote your learning products without using pushy sales techniques, thanks to our integrated features of marketing and e-commerce.
Thinkific is the place to interact with your learning community.
Take advantage of the convenience of developing and growing your learning community in one location. Our Communities feature adds valuable members-only content, live classes and events, and coaching to your online course offerings. Your students benefit from an improved learning environment while you gain complete control over your content and business insights into your target audience. It is a win-win situation with Thinkific.
Grow and scale your business with Thinkific.
The apps and tools of Thinkific enable you to seamlessly build online programs that scale with your clients, staff, and partners as your business requirements increase. You will always have the adaptability and dependability you require.
Complete hosting of video and content on Thinkific.
If you are looking for a reliable and fast hosting solution for your videos and course content, Thinkific has you covered. They offer full video and content hosting, so you do not have to worry about dealing with an external host. Moreover, their hosting is incredibly reliable, so you can be confident that your content will always be available to your students. For a hassle-free hosting solution, Thinkific is a perfect choice.
Create courses on Thinkific with any kind of content.
With Thinkific, you can use any content type to create your course, including video, audio, PDF, text, HTML, voice-over slide presentations, surveys, quizzes, and downloadable attachments. In addition, you can also integrate third-party content tools like Typeform, Google Docs, and more. With Thinkific, you can easily create a professional and engaging online course that will exceed your students’ expectations.
Import existing content on Thinkific.
Thinkific’s intuitive drag-and-drop course builder makes it easy to import existing content into your courses. With just a few clicks, you can seamlessly integrate existing video, audio, and text-based content into your Thinkific courses. This allows you to quickly create engaging and comprehensive courses that meet the needs of your students. So if you are looking for a way to import existing content quickly, the drag-and-drop course builder of Thinkific is the ideal solution.
Retain ownership over your content with Thinkific.
As an educator, you know the importance of owning your content and being able to distribute downloadable content. With Thinkific, you always own your content and student data. You can also distribute downloadable files and assignments directly through your course on Thinkific. So grow your brand with Thinkific, and rest assured that you retain full ownership over your valuable content.
Built-in content creation tools of Thinkific
Thinkific includes built-in content creation tools that you can use to create text and HTML lessons, presentations, quizzes, surveys, and more. These tools make it easy to create and manage your content. With Thinkific, there is no need to invest in expensive third-party software or hire a designer—everything you need is right at your fingertips.
Select the type of content you want to create, enter your text and media, and Thinkific will take care of the rest. To create content, you can embed third-party tools like Typeform Forms, Google Apps, and so on.
Student discussions and surveys with Thinkific
Thinkific’s student discussion tools allow you to engage with your students and build community within your course. You can choose from built-in, Disqus, or third-party discussion tools.
On the other hand, Thinkific’s student survey tools allow you to collect assignments and student feedback. This feedback can improve your course and make it more engaging for future students. Thinkific’s student discussion and survey tools are essential for any online instructor who wants to create a successful and engaging course.
Pass/fail quizzes and unlimited courses on Thinkific
Thinkific’s pass/fail quizzes are a great way to assess student outcomes. You can identify areas of strength and weakness by tracking which questions students answer correctly and which they do not. This information can then be used to improve the course content.
In addition, Thinkific’s learning quizzes allow you to provide explanatory feedback for each question. This way, students can understand why they got the question wrong and how to correct it in the future.
Finally, Thinkific’s feature of unlimited courses means that you can create and deliver as many courses as you want without worrying about exceeding your plan’s limit. This makes Thinkific an ideal platform for online educators.
Instant access to your funds on Thinkific
As an educator, you know that getting paid promptly is essential. That is why we have made it easy for your students to pay you directly without delays.
When a student purchases one of your courses, the funds are transferred immediately to your Stripe merchant account. They can be transferred to your bank account at your convenience. With Thinkific, you have instant access to your earnings, focusing on what is essential: teaching your students.
Thinkific offers multiple payment methods and currencies.
When you sell courses online, it is essential to offer your customers a variety of payment options. With Thinkific, you can easily set up Stripe or Paypal as your payment processor. This way, no matter where your customers are located, they can quickly check out.
With Thinkific’s built-in currency conversion, you can sell courses in over 130 currencies. So, regardless of your customers’ preferences, Thinkific has you covered.
Affiliate reporting, coupons, and promotions available on Thinkific
Affiliate reporting with Thinkific makes it easy to see who owes you commissions and how much they owe. You can also design promotions to grow your audience and increase sales with Thinkific.
Configure % or $-based discounts, set quantities, and expiry dates, and choose which products your coupons can be used towards with Thinkific. This makes it easy to control your promotions and ensure you get the most out of them. You can maximize your sales and reach your target audience by configuring your coupons properly.
With Thinkific, launch a membership site.
In today’s competitive market, offering your customers a well-rounded online learning experience is more important than ever. That is where Thinkific comes in. In addition to creating individual courses, Thinkific also allows you to launch a membership site or portal. This way, your customers can access all of your courses in one place, and you can easily keep track of their progress.
Offer free trials of your courses and flexible payment plans with Thinkific.
With Thinkific, it is easy to configure free trial lessons within your course. This way, you can gather visitor leads and increase purchase conversions. You can also be flexible by offering payment plans for your courses with Thinkific. This allows you to offer your courses at an affordable price for your students while still making a profit.
Different pricing options for courses on Thinkific
Thinkific’s additional course prices are a great way to sell your course with different price options. For example, you can offer your course an hour of coaching for a different price or sell one month of access for a different rate than lifetime course access.
This is a great way to cater to different learners’ needs and budgets, and it also allows you to upsell your course by offering more value-added features. So if you are looking for a flexible and affordable way to sell your courses, Thinkific’s additional course prices are a great option.
Direct ActiveCampaign integration with Thinkific
Thinkific’s ActiveCampaign integration allows you to create highly targeted campaigns and automate emails to the right people at the right time. This powerful tool can segment your courses by interests, demographics, or behavior and trigger automated emails based on those segments.
For example, you could send a welcome email to new subscribers, an invitation to a course preview webinar to those who have not enrolled in your course yet, or a congratulations email to those who have completed your course. Thinkific’s ActiveCampaign integration makes it easy to create and deliver personalized emails that will engage and convert your audience.
Compatible with existing websites and offering customizable landing pages for courses on Thinkific
Thinkific is a powerful online course platform that is compatible with existing websites. You can use Thinkific to add courses to any website, including WordPress, Squarespace, Wix, Weebly, Virb, and custom sites. Thinkific offers customizable course landing pages with clear calls to action and optional promotional videos. You can also use your landing page to maximize purchase conversions.
Branded course catalog and custom site links on Thinkific
Thinkific is a platform that allows you to create an online school for your students. You can direct them toward individual courses or the entire catalog and customize header links so they connect with related websites easily.
Thinkific provides a rich student environment and resumes on any device.
With Thinkific, you can create a rich student environment with a platform designed specifically for learners. You can include clear student progress indicators, unlimited replays of course material, and flexible video playback control features.
With Thinkific, students resume learning exactly where they left off on any device, including mobile, tablet, laptop, or desktop. Whether learners pick up from where they left off on their commute or in a different time zone, they can be confident they will not miss a beat. Undoubtedly, you can offer your students the best possible learning experience with Thinkific.
Thinkific offers easy course navigation and language selection.
Thinkific’s easy course navigation is crucial for students trying to learn something new. They need to understand where they are in the curriculum and how individual chapters and lessons fit together.
That is why we are excited about Thinkific’s straightforward curriculum-forward navigation. It supports student progress through individual chapters and lessons, so they can always see how far they have come and how much more they have to learn.
Plus, choosing your site’s language allows you to make your courses easily accessible to students worldwide. So if you are looking for a way to go global with your learning content, Thinkific is a great option.
Thinkific lets you test your students' knowledge and keep track of their progress.
Student assessments are an essential part of the learning process, providing educators with valuable insights into what students have learned and identifying areas where they may need additional support. Thinkific’s quiz and survey tools make it easy to collect this data, and the progress tracking features let you see how individual students and groups are doing.
This information can inform course updates and target students who may need extra help. By monitoring student progress and using this data to improve your course, you can ensure that your students get the most out of their learning experience.
Deliver evergreen classes and multiple instructor profiles with Thinkific.
Thinkific provides everything you need to launch courses that can be purchased anytime, with each student working through the course independently. You can deliver evergreen classes on your Thinkific site with complete control over the user experience, branding, and pricing.
You can also create individual instructor profiles for multi-course sites. This allows you to showcase the different instructors teaching on your site and allows students to find courses taught by their favorite instructors. With Thinkific, you can go big with your online school.
Scheduled classes and certificates of completion on Thinkific
Thinkific makes it easy to launch scheduled courses, with all students working through the course content together. This is a great way to offer live, interactive classes online and keep everyone on track.
You can also set up automated completion certificates based on successful course completion and minimum passing grades. This is a great way to reward your students for their hard work and motivate them to keep learning.
With Thinkific, you have everything you need to launch a successful online school. Schedule classes, interact with students, and reward them with certificates of completion. It is easy and fun!
Site monitoring dashboard and site administrator accounts with Thinkific
Thinkific’s site monitoring dashboard is a great way to stay on top of new enrollments, sales, and student progress. You can also add additional site administrators to fully manage all aspects of your Thinkific site, students, and data. This makes it easy to keep your online school running smoothly and efficiently. With all of this information at your fingertips, you can be confident that your site is performing well and meeting the needs of your students.
Enroll as many students as you like, enroll them manually, and get updates from Thinkific.
Thinkific makes it easy to enroll unlimited students in your online courses. You can also manually enroll or remove students, extend expiry dates, or update student login details easily on Thinkific. This makes it simple to keep your courses up-to-date and ensure that only those who should have access to them do.
Email students in bulk and create private, concealed courses on Thinkific.
As an instructor, you may find yourself needing to email multiple students at once for various reasons. Maybe you need to announce a change in the course schedule or remind them of upcoming assignment deadlines. Perhaps you need to give bulk feedback on a recent project.
Thinkific has you covered with our bulk student emailer feature for whatever reason! You can easily select specific students from your dashboard or use our custom segmentation tool to create a custom group of students to email. You can close off courses to new enrollments with private classes or create invitation-only courses! So whether you need to reach all your students at once or just a few select individuals, Thinkific gives you the tools you need to get the job done.
Thinkific offers 24/7 monitoring, 99.99% uptime, and SSL.
SSL is essential to providing a secure and trustworthy learning environment for your students. At Thinkific, we make it easy for you by providing SSL as part of our platform. This means that your course content is automatically served securely to your students, without any additional setup or maintenance required.
Moreover, you can rest assured that your site is available and working optimally, thanks to our 99.99% uptime and 24/7 monitoring. So if you are looking for a platform that can help you deliver a great learning experience to your students while keeping their data safe and secure, Thinkific is the right choice.
Thinkific provides expert customer support and a comprehensive knowledge base.
At Thinkific, we understand that customer support is essential to your success. That is why we have a dedicated team of expert customer support representatives who are knowledgeable and friendly. We also have a comprehensive knowledge base that includes detailed guides, videos, and answers to your questions.
In addition, our support forum and training site are always available to help you with any issues you may encounter. With Thinkific, you can be confident that you will always have the support you need to be successful.
Thinkific offers a private instructor community, safe cloud hosting, and daily backups.
Thinkific offers a private instructor community on Facebook for users to connect and learn from one another. This is an excellent resource for users looking to launch their online courses.
Trust is essential when choosing a hosting provider. With Thinkific, you can be confident that your site and its contents are safe. They offer reliable, secure cloud hosting with daily backups.
In addition, your site is PCI-compliant, and SSL-enabled. With Thinkific, you can be sure that your online courses are in good hands.
Thinkific provides immediate access to upgrades and priority support
With Thinkific, instant upgrade access is just one of the many benefits you will enjoy. You will never have to worry about missing a version, as all updates are automatic. This means you will always have access to the latest features and updates.
Our attentive support team will also provide top-of-the-queue support, so you can always get the help you need. With Thinkific, you will enjoy peace of mind knowing that you always get the best possible service.
Onboarding call on Thinkific
Getting started with Thinkific is easy with their onboarding call. A customer success coach will walk you through setting up your account and answer any questions you may have. This call is designed to help you get the most out of the platform and ensure that you are on track to achieving your goals. The onboarding call is a great way to kickstart your journey with Thinkific and get the guidance and support you need to be successful.
How can Thinkific be used to create, manage, and market a learning environment?
Custom web themes and domains
Quizzes and assignments
Drip Scheduling
Community spaces and notifications
Live lessons and events
Bundles, coupons and cross-selling
How one can earn money from Thinkific?
Create courses that sell: Easily organize and present your knowledge to students so they can learn from you on their time, not yours.
Engage with communities: Build your business by having your students participate in a collaborative learning experience that you design, manage, and charge for.
Offer memberships that matter: Earn recurring income from personalized learning opportunities that are only accessible to paying subscribers.
What are the powerful and flexible ways in which Thinkific can be utilized?
White-labeled Environment: From a single platform, deliver and sell customized online academies to various audiences.
Plus Portal: From a single, user-friendly portal, create and manage distinctively branded learning environments for all of your stakeholders.
Single Sign-on OpenID Connect: Simplify the user experience for your students by using a single sign-on with your current system.
Plus API: Create unique connections and solutions to extend and increase Thinkific’s functionality.
Unlimited Admins: With unlimited Course, Group, and Site admin accounts, you can give your team more authority.
Bulk Sell: Make it simple for you and your customers to sell and manage multiple seats in a course to a single buyer.
Thinkific App Store: Use any of the more than 80 apps available in the Thinkific App Store to improve learning, save time, or improve your marketing.
Expert Marketplace: Gain experience by learning from seasoned experts in course development, design, marketing, and development.
How does Thinkific keep your audience coming back?
Course and Community Connection: Create online learning communities that seamlessly connect with your courses to give students a seamless learning experience.
Flexible Spaces: Create specialized virtual Spaces to host discussions on particular subjects, facilitate introductions, or post significant updates.
Profiles and Mentions: With learner profiles and @mentions, put faces to names so students can quickly connect in a collaborative learning environment.
Reactions and Threads: Allowing for context and continuity, let students respond to comments in a thread directly.
Live Events: You can transform your neighborhood into a classroom with interactive, synchronous learning opportunities like workshops, Q&A, office hours, coaching, and more.
Notifications: Members of the community can instantly see when someone comments on their posts or @mentions them in conversations thanks to web notifications. This keeps the conversation going and encourages repeat visits from your audience.
How does Thinkific make selling simple and authentic?
Raise awareness: Thinkific enables you to connect with more students by connecting with webinars and blog apps in the Thinkific App Store, reaching wider audiences with Groups, and attracting new students with coupons and promotions.
Build interest: Make sure your products are packaged to meet particular learning needs and use bundles and subscriptions to create a tempting offer.
Complete the sale: Make education-focused websites, landing pages, and course pages that effectively showcase your offering. Additionally, optimized checkout makes it simple for your students to accept.
Create lifelong learners: Thinkific offers an all-in-one platform that enables you to keep your students interested in their studies through subscriptions and communities that improve the educational process.
How does Thinkific make course building and marketing easy?
Customizable website themes: Thinkific enables you to connect with more students by connecting with webinars and blog apps in the Thinkific App Store, reaching wider audiences with Groups, and attracting new students with coupons and promotions.
Multiple pages: Make sure your products are packaged to meet particular learning needs and use bundles and subscriptions to create a tempting offer.
Custom domains: Make education-focused websites, landing pages, and course pages that effectively showcase your offering. Additionally, optimized checkout makes it simple for your students to accept.
How does Thinkific boost enrollment for your course?
Easy but powerful: Thinkific enables you to connect with more students by connecting with webinars and blog apps in the Thinkific App Store, reaching wider audiences with Groups, and attracting new students with coupons and promotions.
Your brand, your way: Make sure your products are packaged to meet particular learning needs, and use bundles and subscriptions to create a tempting offer.
3. Your success is limitless: Make education-focused websites, landing pages, and course pages that effectively showcase your offering. Additionally, optimized checkout makes it simple for your students to accept.
Why is Thinkific built for modern learning businesses?
No experience required: Considering its strength, Thinkific is surprisingly user-friendly so that you and your team can concentrate on making excellent products rather than technology.
Stay in control: Ensure you have complete control over your brand, content, customers, and revenue.
Invested in you: We make investments in creating quick, dependable, and secure technology so you can rely on it to run your business.
Built to scale: Our world-class platform and team are committed to assisting you in developing outstanding learning products that scale as your company becomes wildly prosperous.
How does the marketing toolkit of Thinkific help grow your business?
Generate revenue: With practical selling tools based on education, you can spread your knowledge more quickly.
Save time: Easy-to-use built-in tools let you focus more on creating new products and instructing others while spending less time on marketing and administration.
Authentic selling: selling educational resources that come across as genuine and natural. Avoid gimmicky methods and spammy offers!
Supercharge your growth with TCommerce: Adding more integrated marketing, payment, and bookkeeping tools will help you sell more while managing less. Study up on the TCommerce package.
How does Thinkific help you build and grow a learning community?
New and steady income stream: You can choose to offer your Community as an add-on at checkout, sell it as a standalone product, or bundle it with a course. Communities provide a variety of ways to monetize and expand your business while giving your audience more opportunities to improve their educational experience.
All in one place: Improve the learning process by adding a community that seamlessly complements your course offerings on a single, well-known platform. There is no longer a need to combine various tools or services.
Your community your way: greater than merely another social group. Establish a comfortable environment free from outside advertisements or distractions where your students can interact and share in the spirit of education.
Retain your audience: Keep students returning to a vibrant, interactive hub of activity and learning where they are invited to share their thoughts, opinions, and feedback.
Learn from your community: Understanding student experiences and concerns expressed in online discussions, questions, and comments will help you better design and plan your courses.
The pros of Thinkific
✔️ Good Pricing Plans: To accommodate the needs of each creator, they provide a variety of plan options. It starts with 39$
✔️ Free Plans and No Transaction Fee: There is no transaction fee and a free option on only one learning platform. This online course creator will not deduct anything from your earnings.
✔️ Good Payment Options: The payment method is entirely up to you.
✔️ Good Payout Options: Your money will be accessible to you immediately.
✔️ Excellent Lesson Options: On Thinkific, you can create a wide range of lessons.
✔️ Zapier Triggers: You can connect Zapier to Thinkific to automate your tasks.
✔️ Remarkable Speeds: While creating courses on Thinkific, you experience quick loading times and smooth performance. No lags or bugs have been noticed.
✔️ Smooth Video Playback: Both mobile and desktop devices are fully compatible with the video playback feature. The volume, video quality, speed, and subtitles can all be easily changed.
✔️ Good Analytics: Thinkific integrates with effective analytics tools like MixPanel, Facebook Pixel, and others to monitor the performance of your website.
✔️ Phone Support: The only platform that provides phone support is Thinkific. On more expensive plans, they also provide priority phone support.
✔️ Customization Options: You can coordinate your company’s or website’s appearance and feel.
✔️ PPT tool: Video production is made simple with the voice-over PowerPoint presentation tool.
✔️ Student Payment Flexibility: You could provide students with payment plans like a monthly installment plan for more expensive courses.
✔️ Membership Option: Through a membership model, you can offer a recurring subscription fee for ongoing access to a course.
The cons of Thinkific
❌ No integrated email marketing
❌ No course and marketplace
❌ No integrated sale funnel builder
❌ No chat support, only phone support
❌ No automated VAT payment
Thinkific Pricing
Thinkific provides creators with four pricing plans designed to meet the needs of creators of all sizes. The Free plan offers a way to test-drive the platform and determine if it suits their requirements.
The Basic plan, starting at $49 per month, is suitable for creators who are starting out. For creators looking to take their business to the next level, the Start plan, starting at $99 per month, offers a great option. For those who aim to sell more and expand into multiple learning products, the Grow plan, starting at $199 per month, provides an ideal solution.
What are the top alternatives to Thinkific?
Kajabi
LearnDash
LearnWorlds
Kajabi
FreshLearn
Podia
Teachable
Teachery
Udemy
Xperincify
My final thought on Thinkific
If you are looking for a platform to create and sell courses online, look no further than Thinkific. We make it easy for you to get your content online and start making money immediately. Plus, our platform is packed with features that will help you succeed in selling your courses. Sign up today and see how easy it is to become a course instructor.
Frequently asked questions or FAQs I Thinkific
What is Thinkific and how does it work?
Thinkific is an online course platform that enables users to create, sell, and deliver online courses. It works by providing a user-friendly interface where you can build and customize your courses, manage student enrollments, and track progress.
Is Thinkific suitable for beginners with no technical experience?
Yes, Thinkific is designed to be beginner-friendly, requiring no technical experience to create and launch your online courses. Its intuitive interface and step-by-step guidance make it accessible to users of all skill levels.
Can I customize the look and feel of my online courses on Thinkific?
Absolutely! Thinkific allows you to personalize the look and feel of your courses. You can customize the course layout, branding, colors, fonts, and more to align with your brand identity.
Does Thinkific provide marketing and sales tools to promote my courses?
Yes, Thinkific offers a range of marketing and sales tools to help you promote and sell your online courses. You can create sales pages, offer coupons and discounts, integrate with email marketing platforms, and track conversions.
Can I integrate third-party tools and services with Thinkific?
Definitely! Thinkific supports seamless integration with various third-party tools and services. You can connect with email marketing platforms, payment gateways, analytics tools, and more to enhance the functionality of your courses on Thinkific.
Is it possible to offer certificates to students on Thinkific?
Yes, Thinkific allows you to issue certificates of completion to your students. You can customize and automate the certificate issuance process to provide recognition for students who reach 100% completion in your course.
Can more than one person work on the same course at the same time?
Yes, it is possible for more than one person to work on a course at the same time. However, it is generally recommended to have only one person working on the course at a time. This is because changes made to a course are not automatically saved, and if multiple users are editing simultaneously, there is a risk of work being overridden or changes being lost.
If multiple people need to collaborate on the same course, a suggested workaround is to duplicate the course and keep it in draft mode. The other user can then make edits to the draft course, and once the changes are finalized, you can copy the lessons from the draft course into the actual course. This method helps avoid conflicts and ensures that the changes are properly integrated into the main course.
Does Thinkific offer a mobile app?
Yes, Thinkific offers a mobile app.
Can I delete or archive a community in Thinkific?
No, you cannot permanently delete or archive a community. However, you can change its publish status from “published” to “draft” to keep the public from seeing it.
Can students access course content offline in Thinkific?
No, the Thinkific Mobile App does not support the delivery of the content offline.
