Thinkific Pricing: A Complete Guide to the Pricing Plans

In this article, we’re examining the various Thinkific pricing plans available to course creators and educators. If you’re looking for an online course platform that’s brimming with functionality, easy to use, and flexible enough to scale with your business, Thinkific could be a great choice.

Thinkific offers four pricing plans to its users, including a ‘Free Plan', ‘Start Plan' for $49 per month, ‘Pro Plan' for $99 per month, and ‘Premier Plan' for $499 per month.

The Thinkific platform not only supports course creation, it also comes with a range of “community” features, so you can engage your students, and build a loyal tribe for your brand.

However, like with most SaaS platforms, the features you’ll get from Thinkific depend heavily on how much you’re willing to pay. Read on for everything you need to know about the current pricing plans, as of 2023.

What is Thnkific?

Thinkific is a powerful online course creation platform, and a tool for building engaged communities. The good news, is no matter which plan you choose, you’ll have access to a range of features. Every package, including the free plan, comes with: Support for creating at least 1 course, Secure SSL payments, No transaction fees, Unlimited students, and many more features.

Plus, you own 100% of your content on Thinkific, so you’re free to repurpose any of your courses however you see fit. Thinkific’s pricing plans ensure anyone can get started with their own course creation strategy, connecting with as many students they like.

You don’t have to go through the stress of setting up a separate processing service for payments either. Thinkific has payment processing built-in. Plus, all of your payments are secured, with no transaction fees, and instant payouts for every business. Every plan comes with an easy-to-use course builder, website themes, and app store integrations.

You can cancel your plan whenever you choose, and even save a little extra on the cost of monthly subscriptions by switching to an annual service.

The annual plan will save you around 25% compared to paying monthly if you’re planning on staying with Thinkific for a while.

Thinkific Pricing Plans

Free Plan

The free plan is perfect for beginners who want to dive into course creation as quickly as possible. It comes with all the features mentioned above, however you can only create 1 course, and 1 community with up to 2 spaces. You’ll also only be able to have 1 administrator, but you can connect with unlimited students.

The cheapest plan outside of the Thinkific free plan is the “Basic” package, for $49 per month, or $36 per month if you pay annually. Let’s take a closer look at the premium plans.

The Basic Plan

The Basic plan from Thinkific costs either $36 per month if you pay annually, or $49 per month if you pay on a month-to-month basis. Like all Thinkific plans, there are no transaction fees required, and you can access unlimited students with your courses. Additionally, payments are secured, and available to access immediately, so you can collect your earnings.

With the Basic plan, you can access all of the features on the Free plan, as well as unlimited published courses. You’ll still only be able to create one community, but it can have up to 5 different spaces for customers to explore. Additionally, you’ll have access to both email and live chat for customer service. Integrated payment processing is included, along with full video and content hosting, digital downloads, evergreen classes, and scheduled content.

Other features of the Basic plan include:

• User profiles
• Rich text and mentions
• Community connections
• Live events
• Web notifications
• In-course discussions
• 1:1 emailing
• Instant sales pages
• Custom domain access
• Free, paid, and limited time courses
• Paypal payments
• Order bumps
• Free trials
• Affiliate reporting
• Coupons and promotions
• TCommerce
• Reporting and analytics
• Marketing analytics integrations
• Zapier triggers
• Manual student enrolment

The Basic plan also includes foundation courses from the Thinkific academy, SSL certificates, a 99.9% uptime and 24/7 monitoring solution, access to a private instructor community, and secure cloud hosting. You can also leverage reCAPTCHA traffic protection.

The Basic plan is ideal for course creators looking to start engaging their audience with endless courses, and engaging community experiences. However, it lacks some of the more advanced functionality you might need to scale and grow your service.

While you can create schedule content, evergreen classes, and more, you won’t be able to produce private or hidden courses, deliver assignments, or offer customers certificates.

The Start Plan

The Start plan offers access to all of the same features of the Basic plan, as well as some bonus extras. This solution is available for $99 per month if you pay monthly, or $74 per month if you pay annually. Once again, there are no transaction fees to worry about, although you may have to pay some extra fees if you’re using tools like PayPal to accept payments.

Alongside all of the features mentioned above, you’ll also be able to add 10 spaces to your community, and create 2 course administrator accounts. This plan also allows you to share revenue with partners, and leverage a range of new monetization options.

You can create paid memberships, as well as private and hidden courses. There are tools for delivering assignments, and access to features for host storylines, Captivate, and more. Course compliance tools are included, as well as completion certificates to engage your followers.

Alongside all the community features in Basic, you’ll also be able to create web notifications, bundle your community with your courses, and design paid membership campaigns. There’s support for groups, as well as Zoom Meetings and webinars.

Other advanced features include:

• Advanced CSS/HTML editing
• Members-only website sections
• Payment plans
• After purchase flows
• Additional pricing options
• Product bundles

If you’re committed to a career hosting online courses, this could be the perfect solution for you, as it comes with a range of new ways to engage and monetize your audience. Not only will you be able to engage customers through a more expansive community environment, but you can also create membership campaigns to help boost your income.

This is the first plan from Thinkific which allows you to award your customers completion certificates, which could help you to attract more students. You can also integrate your school with a range of third-party apps, for extra insights into marketing and reporting.The Grow Plan

The Thinkific Grow plan is a step up from the Start plan, designed to attract course creators looking for expansion. It’s available at a price of $199 per month if you pay monthly, or $149 per month if you choose the annual package. This is the most popular plan from Thinkific, at present.

The solution comes with all the features you get from the Start plan, as well as 20 spaces per community, and up to 3 communities. You’ll have 2 site admin accounts, 5 course administrator accounts, and the ability to share revenue with up to 3 partners.

You can also set up 3 group analyst accounts, for extra insights. On this plan, customer service is upgraded to priority email and phone support.

Course creation tools are expanded here too, with access to Brillium exams via an integration, randomized quiz question banks and more. The community tools are the same as on the Start plan, but with more community and spaces. You can also “bulk” email your students.

Other features include:

• Custom domain
• The ability to remove Thinkific branding
• Standard API and webhooks
• Advanced courses from the Thinkific academy

This is a great plan option for companies in search of a rapid way to expand without paying a fortune for extra services and tools. The pricing is relatively good value, particularly for beginners, and comes with access to a host of great features, with no transaction fees.

The Expand Plan

The Expand plan doesn’t appear in some parts of the Thinkific website, but it’s still an option for companies who want something between the Grow plan, and the enterprise service. You’ll pay either $499 per month, or $374 per month if you pay annually.

As you might expect, the Thinkific Expand plan comes with all the features of the Grow option, as well as unlimited spaces per community, and up to 10 communities. You can create 5 site administrator accounts, 15 course administrator accounts, and 15 group analyst accounts. Plus, you can share revenue with up to 10 partners.

Support is upgraded once again to priority phone guidance. You’ll also have access to all the features you could need for course and community creation. This plan also offers Zapier actions and triggers. While the difference in features between the Grow and Expand plans might not be huge, there are a lot more options for expanding your courses and communities.

This could be an excellent choice for a course creator looking to plan with other educators, on a more comprehensive educational website, particularly with all of the different account options available.

The Plus Plan

Finally, we come to the enterprise level plan available from Thinkific. Like most SaaS solutions, Thinkific doesn’t share a specific cost for this plan. You’ll need to contact the company’s customer service team to get a quote.

However, you will still save 25% on an annual subscription.

The Plus plan essentially comes with everything Thinkific has to offer. You’ll get everything from the Expand plan, as well as unlimited communities, spaces, and accounts for administrators across your site and courses. There are also unlimited accounts available for analysts and partner revenue sharing. This plan also comes with your own dedicated customer success team.

The enterprise-level plan allows you to access some extra security and management features too. You can leverage Enterprise APIs and webhooks, the “Plus” portal for management, and single sign on (SSO). There’s a dedicated SLA to protect you from downtime.

Plus, to help you get started, the Thinkific team will give you a launch preparedness review, dedicated sandbox site, and support for advanced password complexity. There’s also an included Master Services Agreement (MSA) for greater peace of mind.

What About Customer Service?

Similar to many SaaS platforms, Thinkific offers different levels of customer support, depending on the plan you purchase for your course. All of the plans come with access to email support, as well as direct access to a chatbot, capable of solving many common queries.

At the same time, you can use the company’s comprehensive knowledge base to access additional guidance, or connect with the Thinkific educator community for more guidance. There are plenty of tools and resources to address common FAQs.

Live chat support is available on some plans, alongside phone support, if you’re willing to pay extra. Additionally, you can access a dedicated customer success plan on the Thinkific enterprise plan. All courses come with an academy course to get you started, although some will allow you to access a wider range of educational resources.

The Thinkific Academy courses are ideal for beginners, with step-by-step guidance on how to set up your courses, connect with your students, and build your educational brand.

With all that covered, let’s dive into the pricing plans.

How Does Thinkific Measure Up?

There’s no denying Thinkific is a powerful platform for creating courses and communities. However, there are still a range of different alternatives you can consider if you’re not entirely thrilled with what Thinkific can offer. Some top options include:

Teachable

Teachable is one of the better-known course creation platforms on the market today, offering a huge range of features for business leaders. You’ll have a fantastic course creation and site builder, which doesn’t require any coding knowledge. There are also coaching tools to help you connect with customers on one-to-one basis.

You can brand your courses however you choose, and access a dedicated iOS and Android mobile app for teaching on the move. Plus, you’ll be able to sell courses either on an individual basis, or use subscriptions to create recurring revenue. There are even some great community features, like in-course chat, comments, and integrations with LinkedIn.

You can provide certificates of completion, leverage integrated payment processing, and experiment with marketing and sales tools to help boost your conversions. However, there are transaction fees included with all of the company’s pricing plans.

Pros:

• Unlimited courses and students in all plans
• Free starter plan for beginners
• Lots of ways to customize and brand courses
• Various engagement options for students
• Payment processing and marketing tools included.

Cons:

• Transaction fees on all plans
• Limited multi-lingual support

Kajabi

Kajabi is another fantastic course creation tool for anyone looking to go beyond the basics of WordPress and other site builders for selling knowledge online. The platform is brimming with amazing features to help you transform your company. You can host videos, sell online courses, create landing pages, and even design sales funnels.

There are integrations available for social media and email marketing, as well as a host of valuable course creation and management tools. You can handle everything from a mobile app when you’re on the move. Plus, you can build on your online presence with a blog and SEO articles.

Kajabi is a little more expensive than some online creation platforms, but it does help companies to accelerate sales with pipelines and other services. There are also no transaction fees to worry about either. However, you can’t create certificates to reward your students, which is something you can do on certain Thinkific plans.

Pros:

• Lots of tools for building and promoting your course
• Various customization and branding options
• Blog and website functionality for growth
• Marketing automation and sales funnels
• Great customer support
• Mobile apps for Ios and Android

Cons:

• Minimal reporting and analytics
• No certification options
• Can be quite pricey

Podia

Podia often ranks as one of the top course creation platforms on the market, with endless tools to support educators. This powerful online tool ensures anyone can create webinars and courses to sell online in no time. The multi-media content support ensures you’ll have no trouble uploading lectures, audio, and video, as well as various other course assets that match your branding.

Podia is fantastic if you’re looking to create a comprehensive membership site with tons of community features. You can speak to students through live chat, and create one-off posts to help your customers learn more about your brand. However, you will pay a little extra for all the advanced features, depending on what you need.

Podia is great if you’re migrating from another course creation platform too. You can move content from virtually any other platform onto your site in no time. However, there are some limitations in terms of affiliate and VAT support, as well as course customization.

Pros:

• Great course creation platform for beginners
• Live chat and customer support
• Lots of membership and community features
• No transaction fees
• Easy migration from other services
• Exceptional hosting

Cons:

• No certificates and quizzes
• Limited integrations for some solutions

FAQ

Is Thinkific Better than Teachable?

There’s no one-size-fits-all strategy to choosing a learning platform for your online course business. For entrepreneurs getting started online, Thinkific can be an excellent pick. Alongside paid plans, users can experiment with a free service, to start developing their brand with no initial investment.

Is Thinkific Expensive?

If you want to purchase a Pro plan from Thinkific, some of the options can get a little expensive. Products like Thinkific Plus will cost you a lot more than the Basic plan. However, they do come with more templates, features, and options for live lessons. When purchasing any software, it’s worth thinking carefully about your budget, and how many additional features you can afford to add-on.

Can you make money with Thinkific?

As you can see in our Thinkific review, it’s entirely possible to make money on Thinkific. In fact, you can constantly increase your earnings, with upsell and marketing strategies, or engaging communities. Thinkific gives users plenty of ways to monetize their content and collect payments through Stripe, and other payment processors. You can even boost your chances of success by advertising your course content through integrations with Aweber, ConvertKit, and other tools.

How many courses can I create with Thinkific?

There’s no limit on the number of courses you can create with the Thinkific learning management system, provided you choose the right plan. If you sick with the free plan, you’ll only be able to create one course. However, on the Growth package, you’ll be able to create numerous additional courses.

Is Thinkific good?

Overall, Thinkific is a great tool for creating and hosting course content. It allows you to work with multiple course admins on some packages, making it great for collaboration. Plus, the LMS comes with built-in community features, a reliable course player, and a host of useful tools for onboarding and managing your students. Even on the Thinkific basic plan, you’ll be able to create some amazing courses with minimal effort.

Which Thinkific Plan Should You Choose?

Ultimately, the Thinkific pricing plan you choose will depend on what you need from a course creation platform. Thinkific makes it relatively easy to invest in white labelling solutions for your course strategy, with your own custom domain and the ability to remove additional branding. You can use APIs and webhooks to integrate other tools like Infusionsoft and ActiveCampaign, plus you’ll have plenty of templates and guides to get you started.

If you’re unsure which Thinkific solution is right for you, we’d recommend getting started with either the Free or basic plan. This will give you a chance to get a feel for the Thinkific Pros and Cons most relevant to your business. As your company grows, and you want to access more features, you can consider upgrading to more expensive packages.