Thinkific vs Shopify (2024): A Comprehensive Comparison

Thinkific vs Shopify: Which platform should you be using to develop your business? On the surface, it might seem like an odd comparison. After all, while both tools are SaaS platforms designed for entrepreneurs and business owners, they serve different purposes.

Shopify is a commerce platform, allowing companies to sell virtually any product (digital or virtual) through a range of different channels. Thinkific is a course building platform, specifically intended to support educators selling virtual resources to students.

Of course, there are some overlaps. After experimenting with both tools in depth, here’s my complete comparison review of Shopify and Thinkific.

Shopify Pros and Cons

Thinkific Pros and Cons

Comparison Table

	Shopify	Thinkific
Core features	Everything from comprehensive website and page building to marketing tools, business management apps, analytics and reports, and integrated payment processing. You can also create your own blog, sell subscriptions and virtual products, and sell offline via Shopify POS.	Powerful course creation and community tools for online educators, as well as a website and page builder, ecommerce tools, and analytics. You can also design your own branded mobile app for an additional fee.
Pricing	Users can get started with Shopify for just $5 per month. However, the more advanced plans, with website building tools start at $39 per month. Transaction fees are also included on every plan.	You can get started with Thinkific for free, if you want to create a single course or community. Paid plans start at $49 per month with access to more community features and sales tools.
Web design and templates	Shopify offers a huge range of templates and themes to choose from, including paid and free options. The website builder is easy to use, and every page is highly customizable.	Thinkific provides access to a range of themes and templates for both websites and courses. The building tools are also extremely straightforward, with drag-and-drop elements.
Ecommerce	Shopify allows companies to sell on any channel, including in-store with their POS solution. It supports a range of payment methods, automatic tax calculation, and offers powerful financial reports.	Thinkific offers comprehensive ecommerce tools, with payment processing for multiple types of payment, automatic tax calculation, and cross-channel selling options.
Course builder	The only ways to create a course with Shopify is to sell subscriptions to gated content, or add an app for course creation to your existing online store through the app market.	Thinkific offers powerful course creation tools with quizzes, graded assignments, multi-media lessons, live webinars, and community features.
Apps and Integrations	Shopify integrates with marketplaces, social media platforms, Google analytics and more directly. There’s also a robust app market with dozens of add-ons to choose from.	Thinkific integrates with website building platforms, sales and analytics tools, and marketing platforms for automated email and SMS marketing.
Customer support	Shopify offers a robust help center, and lots of online resources for self-help. There’s also the option to contact the team via chat or email.	Thinkific offers a range of powerful educational resources, including guides and “Accelerator” programs. Plus, you can reach out to the team through chat, email, or phone.

The Overall Features

While Shopify and Thinkific might not seem too similar on the surface, they do have overlapping features. For instance, both platforms will allow you to build your own website, connect with your community (or customers), process a range of different payment options, and even sell subscriptions.

Let’s take a closer look at the core features of Shopify and Thinkific.

Plus, Shopify is ideal for omnichannel sales, thanks to its integrations with major marketplaces and social media channels. There’s even a Shopify POS solution, which empowers companies to sell products in-person, and sync their inventory between online and brick-and-mortar stores.

The key features of Shopify include:

• A powerful website builder: Shopify has a fantastic website builder, with an easy-to-use editor, so you can customize every aspect of your site. There are dozens of premium and free themes to choose from, as well as handy page-building tools for individual site components.
• Versatile sales features: While you can’t build a course directly on Shopify, you can still create community environments, and sell “subscriptions” to content to your customers on a recurring basis. You can also sell anything you like, from digital downloads to physical items.
• Payment processing: Shopify has its own dedicated payment processing solution “Shopify Payments”, which supports virtually any payment option, from credit and debit cards to online wallets, gift cards, and more. You can even create invoices.
• Branding tools: If you need help developing your own brand, you can access a range of helpful tools from Shopify. You can purchase your own domain, create custom assets with Shopify’s design tools, and even design your own free logo.
• CMS: The content management system built into Shopify gives you full freedom over creating different types of pages and content. You can make certain pages private to subscribers, and design a blog with built-in SEO solutions.
• Customer engagement: If you need help connecting with your clients or community, Shopify offers a range of options, from built-in email marketing to Shopify Inbox for chat. Plus, there are customer insights tools to help segment your audience.
• Analytics and reporting: Shopify’s advanced reporting tools make it easy to track everything from inventory and tax information to your most popular products and services. You can even create custom dashboards, or use pre-built report templates.

Shopify also has a massive app marketplace, the “Shopify App Store”, where you can find endless integrations for everything from course building tools to marketing, bookkeeping, analytics, and sales apps. This means you can easily expand the functionality of any site.

You can also build websites to help market your business, leverage automated tax tools, and access a range of solutions for growing and scaling your company.

Thinkific’s core features include:

• Course creation tools: Course creation tools are at the heart of Thinkific’s platforms. You can design courses featuring a range of different styles of content, from quizzes to videos. Plus, you can decide exactly how you want to deliver lessons to students.
• Website builder: Thinkific’s simple website builder makes it easy to create a professional “storefront” for your online course. There are no coding skills necessary, and companies can choose from a range of different customizable templates and themes.
• Payment processing: Thinkific ensures companies can take payments for their courses using any method of their choice. You can accept debit and credit card payments, and gift cards, send invoices to customers, and accept payments in multiple currencies.
• Community features: If you want to build an active community around your course, Thinkific Communities offers everything you need. Features range from live lessons, to events, coaching options, and members-only exclusive content management.
• Mobile app builder: While Shopify’s websites are mobile responsive, Thinkific goes a step further by allowing you to actually create your own branded app. You can even trust Thinkific to take care of creating and managing your app for you.
• Analytics and reports: Behind-the-scenes insights and reports on Thinkific help you to keep track of your sales, your high-performing courses, and other valuable data. You can even track the performance of your students.
• Enterprise LMS: Thinkific’s enterprise LMS solution comes with access to an innovative portal for creating branded learning environments, single sign-on, and API solutions. Plus, you get access to unlimited admin accounts and SOC2 compliance.
• TCommerce: TCommerce from Thinkific is the all-in-one sales processing solution that combines payment processing, with automated tax calculations and even order bumps, so you can increase sales with “upsell” strategies.
• Marketing tools: Although there aren’t a lot of marketing tools included as-standard with Thinkific, you can create a custom domain, and leverage affiliate selling tools on the premium plans. Plus, there are plenty of marketing integrations available.

Like Shopify, Thinkific also offers a comprehensive range of integrations to choose from to help elevate your business. You can connect the platform to email automation tools, marketing apps, sales solutions, and accounting apps too.

Pricing Plans

Although it’s easy to get caught up looking for the “least expensive” solution when you’re buying tools to grow your business, it’s worth remembering that price isn’t everything. Make sure you consider the actual range of features you’re getting in exchange for your subscription.

Thinkific Pricing

Thinkific does make it easier to get started if you’re on a budget, thanks to its free plan. You can create 1 course, 1 community (with 2 spaces), and have 1 administrator on a free Thinkific account. This plan also includes payment processing, training academy access, app integrations, the drag-and-drop course builder, and website building tools.

The premium plans for Thinkific include:

• Basic: $49 per month: All the features of Free, plus unlimited courses, 5 spaces per community, a custom domain, affiliate selling, coupons and discounts, email and live chat support, and free access to the Accelerator program.
• Start: $99 per month: All the features of Basic, plus 10 spaces per community, assignments, bundles and add-on packages, memberships and payment plans, live lessons, advanced course building options, and website code editing.
• Grow: $199 per month: All the features in Start, plus 3 communities with 20 spaces per community, 2 administrators, no Thinkific branding, bulk student emailing, API access, and priority email and phone support.
• Expand: $499 per month: All the features of Grow, plus 10 communities with unlimited communities, 5 administrators, customizable checkout, no transaction fees, and priority support on all channels.

There’s also the Thinkific Plus enterprise plan, which includes access to a branded mobile app (available for an extra cost on other sites), and support for unlimited administrators. You also get a service level agreement, 3+ separate Thinkific sites, bulk selling tools, email white-labeling, and a dedicated customer success team.

Shopify Pricing

Shopify offers slightly fewer plans to choose from, and there’s no free plan. You can try Shopify for 3 days, then access the service for 3 months, for $1 per month.

The core plans include:

• Basic: $39 per month with basic reports, up to 1,000 inventory locations, SSL certificates, 2 staff accounts, payment processing, blogging, marketing tools, the full website builder, and access to apps and integrations.
• Shopify: $105 per month for all the features of Basic, plus professional reports, 5 staff accounts, multi-channel global selling, shipping discounts, and other advanced tools.
• Advanced: $399 per month for all the features of Shopify, plus 15 staff accounts, a custom report builder, access to import tax tools, and gift cards.

There’s also the Shopify Plus plan for Enterprise users, which comes with all the features of Advanced, plus more customization options, API access, uptime guarantees, and dedicated customer support and security. Notably, all of these plans include payment processing fees, and you need to pay an extra transaction fee if you don’t use Shopify Payments.

There’s also a handy “Starter” plan for $5 per month if you want to just add ecommerce functionality to an existing website, or sell through social media and messaging apps.

Website Design and Templates

Though Shopify and Thinkific might serve slightly different audiences, they do both allow companies to build their own unique websites.

Thinkific

Thinkific’s website building tools are a little basic, but they’re straightforward and user-friendly, excellent for beginners.

You can access a range of customizable website themes, and even add your own HTML and CSS code into the mix. There are tools for creating a range of sales pages, and implementing your own domain. Plus, you can add unique functionality to your site with the Thinkific app store.

The overall website builder is very easy to use, with everything you need to succeed included, such as blog functionality, so you can boost your online presence.

Shopify

Shopify’s website building tools are also extremely simple, but they’re a lot more comprehensive. There are tons of options for customizing everything on every page, whether you’re experimenting with sections, adding buttons to sales pages, or embedding videos and other content.

You can design almost any kind of website, from a portfolio to a subscription-based website. Plus, blogging tools come integrated into the experience, along with SEO features, so you can ensure you stand out online. Plus, Shopify offers tools to help you build branded assets for your website too.

For instance, you can create a free logo, buy a custom domain, and more. When it comes to themes, there are endless options to choose from, ranging from free themes to premium options.

Ecommerce Features

Both Thinkific and Shopify offer creators and entrepreneurs the opportunity to sell their products online. Thinkific only focuses on the sale of digital products and services, such as coaching, courses, and webinars. Shopify allows companies to sell anything, on virtually any channel.

Thinkific

Thinkific’s ecommerce tools are relatively easy to use, and pretty comprehensive. You can create coupons and gift cards for customers, as well as special deals and bundles for different groups. There’s also the option to create landing pages to boost your chances of sales.

The “TCommerce” service from Thinkific is at the heart of its ecommerce solution. This solution allows companies to take payments from credit and debit cards, as well as tools like Apple Pay and Google Pay. There’s also buy now pay later options available.

You can upsell customers with order bumps, process payments quickly and securely, and even automatically calculate taxes on all of your sales.

Shopify

As a dedicated commerce platform, Shopify does offer a lot more functionality for ecommerce. You can sell any product you like; however you like. Shopify’s in-built payment processor supports all kinds of payments, from debit and credit cards to gift cards and mobile wallets.

Plus, you can sell offline with the Shopify POS system, and integrate all of your online and in-store inventory information in seconds. Shopify supports the sale of digital and physical products, as well as recurring subscriptions.

Plus, there are various tools to help you run your store more effectively, from tax and VAT calculation tools, to integrated shipping and fulfillment services. There’s even the option to send abandoned cart emails from Shopify to reduce your chances of lost sales.

Course Creation

Thinkific

If you’re looking for course creation, Thinkific is clearly the way to go. Not only does it offer an online course platform, complete with user-friendly templates and customization tools, but it makes it easy to create powerful courses from scratch.

You can drag and drop components into your courses, test students with assignments and quizzes, and even track their progress.

There’s also the option to create scheduled, cohort, and self-paced courses, host live lessons and webinars through your community channels, and send completion certificates to students. Plus, for an extra fee, you can create a dedicated mobile app for your students.

Thinkific also has fantastic community tools, so you can engage your students constantly and increase potential sales.

Shopify

Unfortunately, Shopify doesn’t offer any of these features directly.

You can create private pages, and sell access to site content to customers through subscriptions. There’s the option to create pages and blog posts which can include video and audio files. You can’t design quizzes or assignments.

One thing you can do with Shopify, is access integrations and add-ons that offer their own course-building tools. There are tons of options on the Shopify app store, although using some of these solutions may incur an additional fee.

Apps & Integrations

Thinkific Apps

If you’re looking for a way to align all of your digital tools, both Thinkific and Shopify offer highly flexible platforms. Thinkific’s apps and integrations cover everything from email marketing tools like ActiveCampaign, to selling and conversion apps.

Shopify Apps

Shopify does offer a lot more integrations to choose from, ranging from innovative tools for accounting and bookkeeping, to page builders and even course creators.

Plus, the platform automatically integrates with Google Analytics and Meta Pixel, as well as various social media platforms and marketplaces for omnichannel selling.

Customer Support

If you need help building your online presence, both Shopify and Thinkific offer a range of options. With Shopify, you can contact the team directly through chat or email, but there’s no phone support option. There are various valuable online resources available, such as guides, videos, and blogs. Plus, you can hire a Shopify Expert for extra help.

Thinkific offers a wider range of tools to choose from. There’s the Accelerator program to get you started (included in most plans), as well as various FAQs, guides, videos, and online resources. You can access Thinkific’s Facebook community, or talk directly to a solutions expert too.

Plus, on top of chat and email support, Thinkific offers phone support too. Although this is only available on certain paid plans.

Thinkific vs Shopify: The Verdict

Ultimately, Thinkific and Shopify are both extremely powerful platforms with lots of valuable tools to offer business leaders. They both allow companies to sell products online, create subscriptions, and even design websites and unique pages.

Thinkific is intended primarily for online educators, looking to sell digital products and build online communities of students. Shopify, on the other hand, is a comprehensive commerce platform, allowing businesses to sell any kind of product on multiple channels.

The right option for you ultimately depends on your business model.

FAQs

Does Shopify Integrate with Thinkific?

Yes, you can integrate Thinkific with Shopify through the Shopify app store. This allows you to sell courses directly through Shopify, while accessing all of the course creation and community tools offered by the Thinkific brand.

Can I sell a course on Shopify?

The only ways to sell courses on Shopify is to offer subscriptions to premium, gated content, or you can add a course creation tool to your Shopify store, like Thinkific. Shopify doesn’t have its own native course creation platform.

How do I link a Thinkific Course on Shopify

After you connect your Thinkific account to Shopify through the Shopify app store, you’ll be able to access all of the courses in your Thinkific platform through Shopify. You can then list these courses on your ecommerce website, like any other digital product.

Is it worth Starting a Shopify Store?

If you’re looking to get started in the world of ecommerce, starting a Shopify store could be an excellent option. Shopify is easy to use, and it supports a range of omnichannel selling solutions, so you can increase your profits over time.