Thinkific is a one-stop shop for entrepreneurs and businesses looking to design, market, and sell online courses. It has a plethora of features that make it simple for anyone, regardless of technical knowledge, to begin developing and selling online courses. However, as with any platform, Thinkific may not be the best fit for everyone.
There may be certain features or capabilities that it lacks, which could be necessary for a specific business or individual. Beyond that, some users may find that the pricing plans offered by Thinkific do not align with their budget, or their business has outgrown the platform and requires more advanced or specialized features that Thinkific doesn’t offer.
In this post, we’ll be comparing the best Thinkific alternatives to help you understand what’s the right online course platform for you.
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is the best overall Thinkific alternative thanks to its free plan and powerful marketing tools.
Teachable
Teachable is an ideal choice for beginners as it's been built in a simple and easy-to-use way.
Podia
Podia is excellent for letting your audience book and pay for coaching sessions - all within your Podia site.
LearnDash
LearnDash is the best platform to use for integration with WordPress. It also comes with a free gamification add-on.
Systeme.io
Systeme does an awesome job of giving users a full suite of online course solutions at a fraction of the price.
Pros and Cons of Thinkific
Pros
Simplicity
Thinkific is simple to use and intuitive, making it easy for anyone to develop and design an online course. It also comes with a number of customizable templates and themes that customers can use to make courses that look like they were made by a professional. Thinkific lets customers host their courses on their own domain, which helps them build a stronger brand identity and makes people more likely to trust them.
Extensive feature set
Thinkific has an extensive feature set that includes quizzes, polls, and multimedia support. It also has an email marketing tool that lets users automate their email campaigns and interact with students. It works with other technologies, like Stripe and PayPal, making it easy to sell courses, process payments, and automate business tasks.
Comprehensive knowledge base
Thinkific’s comprehensive knowledge base is valuable for users of all skill levels. It provides detailed information and step-by-step instructions on using the platform’s features and tools, as well as a troubleshooting guide for common issues.
In addition to the knowledge base, Thinkific also offers a variety of tutorials, which are short, video-based guides that walk users through specific tasks or features. These tutorials are a great way to learn how to use the platform and can be a helpful resource for users who prefer a more visual, hands-on approach to learning.
Cons
Thinkific features and tools have a steep learning curve
To take full advantage of the platform and its capabilities; you’ll need to invest time and effort into learning how to use them.
Limited payment gateway
Thinkific’s payment gateway is only for Canada and the United States. Users may have to compromise on their preferred payment gateway or go through additional steps to integrate a different payment gateway.
Now that we’ve discussed the positives and negatives of this platform, now let’s get into the best Thinkific alternatives you can get.
1. LearnWorlds
Best Overall Thinkific Alternative (Starts from Free, then $24/month)
LearnWorlds is an online course creation software that offers interactive features such as a video player and E-book reader to help users sell online courses in a unique way. It has many of the same features as Thinkific, such as course creation and design tools, marketing and sales tools integrated into, and student management capabilities. LearnWorlds, on the other hand, has some features that Thinkific does not have.
The interactive video feature is one of the key differences between LearnWorlds and Thinkific. LearnWorlds offers interactive video editing tools that allow users to directly add interactive elements like buttons, quizzes, labels, and annotations into their videos.
These interactive elements keep students engaged and enable users to assess their understanding of the material in real-time. The platform also allows adding of captions and subtitles, making the videos more accessible to a broader range of learners.
All of these features make it one of the best Thinkific alternatives out there.
Pros of Learnworlds:
- Assessment Quiz: A learning quiz that can be implemented for users to assess their understanding of the material
- Modern Gradebook: Designed specifically for today’s remote teachers
- “Real” Question Banks: With LearnWorlds, you can create multiple question banks to draw questions for both quizzes and exams. Thinkific only offers a quiz randomization option.
- Automatic Video Transcription Tool: You can automatically create subtitles and transcripts from videos.
- Interactive ebooks: Includes multimedia elements such as audio, video, and animations, allowing the reader to interact with the content in new and engaging ways.
- Watermarks for Both PDF and Video Formats: An excellent copyright protection tool that only LearnWorlds offers.
2. Teachable
Best Online Course Platform for Beginners ($39/month)
Teachable allows you to create a successful business by turning your expertise into an online course. It, too, has a wide range of capabilities for course creation and design, marketing and sales, and student management, similar to Thinkific. On the other hand, Teachable provides several unique features and capabilities that Thinkific does not have.
Teachable and Thinkific vary in that Teachable has a student referral program. The former is built-in, while the latter requires installation from a third-party provider.
Perhaps one great differentiator is Teachable’s mobile app (available for iOS devices only) specifically for students. This feature allows students to access their online courses from their mobile devices, regardless of their location. It allows students to learn at their own pace and on their own schedule. Students can access their course materials, watch videos, take quizzes and tests, and communicate with their classmates and instructors on iOS.
Pros of Teachable
- Built-in e-commerce Capabilities are Provided: Enable users to sell their courses easily.
- Unlimited One-on-one Coaching: No limit on personalized guidance and mentorship to your clients.
- Teacher-Friendly: Instructors are not required to spend significant time learning how to code or navigate new software, allowing them to focus on their knowledge and course content.
- Automatic Affiliate Payout Management: With Thinkific, you can only automate the tracking of affiliate commissions, but not the payouts.
- Free Trial: Teachable allows instructors to offer free trials for students.
3. Podia
Best Thinkific Alternative for Booking Coaching Clients ($33/month)
Podia is a comprehensive one-stop shop that enables entrepreneurs and businesses to create and sell online courses, memberships, and digital downloads. With Podia, you can build a beautiful and professional-looking online course that your customers will love. Over 150,000+ creators have used Podia as their online course platform, and it’s easy to see why.
The video hosting is already included in the package. Say goodbye to the added cost of third-party video hosting. Podia offers unlimited video bandwidth on all their paid packages. You don’t have to worry about hitting a video bandwidth limit – you can upload as many videos as you want without interruption.
Podia offers a range of course types, allowing you to build your online course how you want. You can choose to sell a standalone course, drip course, bundle of courses, pre-sell courses, cohort-based courses, or pre-launch courses.
In terms of customization, Podia makes it easy to build an online course with a beautiful, clean look. You can customize your entire site in minutes. No design or code skills needed. You can create an online course that truly represents your brand with rich media options, customizable branding, flexible layout, and beautiful design across all devices.
Pros of Podia:
- Free Migration from Thinkific: Free migrations on all yearly plans
- Book and Pay: Your audience can book and pay for a coaching session all within your Podia site. No need to navigate new technology or juggle multiple platforms.
- Embeddable Buy Buttons: You can add a “Buy” button to your page, allowing direct purchase from your students.
- Live Support: Live chat support (every day) and live video support (every weekday).
- On-Page Chat Widget: Allows you to connect with site visitors in real time and answer any question they might have.
4. LearnDash
Best Thinkific Alternative for WordPress Website Integration ($29/month for full site or $199/year for WordPress plugin)
LearnDash is an online education system explicitly designed for the WordPress open-source platform. If you’re looking for a comprehensive and powerful online education system for your WordPress site, then LearnDash is an excellent option. It combines cutting-edge e-learning methodology with the flexibility and ease of use of WordPress.
LearnDash is more than just a plugin; it’s a complete solution for creating and delivering online courses. E-learning experts have designed it, and the course content is structured using leading online learning principles to maximize content delivery and increase completion rates.
One of the key advantages of LearnDash over other platforms is the level of control it gives users over their online course sales. They can choose the pricing model, up-sell offerings, collect all student emails, and set reminder notifications, which can help increase sales.
LearnDash offers users complete control over how they present and sell their courses. Users can choose the best way to promote and monetize their online content. Moreover, LearnDash seamlessly integrates with popular platforms such as WooCommerce and various other plugins, providing users with more options to enhance their online course offerings. A drawback of using LearnDash is that users must find a separate hosting solution for videos.
Pros of Learndash:
- Seamless Integration Into an Existing WordPress Website: This eliminates the need for additional expenses and the hassle of building a separate platform.
- Gamification: LearnDash has a gamification add-on that can make learning more engaging and interactive. This add-on is free to all users with an active license. It allows you to create leaderboards based on points earned by learners.
- 8 Types of Quiz Question Formats: LearnDash offers eight different types of quiz question formats, including single choice, multiple choice, free choice, sorting choice, matrix sorting choice, fill-in-the-blank, assessment, and essay.
5. Systeme.io
Best All-in-One Solution for Price Conscious ($27/month)
Systeme.io is a comprehensive all-in-one platform that allows online business owners to effortlessly create and manage sales funnels, webinars, membership sites, affiliate programs, and email campaigns, as well as sell physical products. With its user-friendly interface and wide range of features, systeme.io is a popular choice among entrepreneurs and is trusted by over 11,000 customers.
With Systeme.io, you can create and sell online courses, membership sites, and webinars all in one place – WITHOUT 3RD-party integrations. Meaning, you don’t have to install additional software or apps.
The platform also includes built-in email marketing and automation features to easily promote offers and send bulk emails and course notifications to students. Moreover, it offers the ability to run evergreen webinars for creating timeless, on-demand content for students.
Pros of Systeme.io
- Unlimited Bulk Emailing on All Its Pricing Plans: Thinkific offers this feature only on its “Growth” and above package plans.
- Foreover Free Plan: Its “Free” account is free forever with many valuable features, such as unlimited students and unlimited file storage space.
- No Credit Card Required: You don’t have to provide your credit card information upon setup.
6. Kartra
Best Thinkific Alternative for Automating Lead Generation (14-day trial for $1, then $79/month)
Kartra is one of the best Thinkific alternatives if you’re looking to automate lead generation. It provides entrepreneurs and businesses with the tools they need to achieve their goals.
From creating effective sales pages and managing product carts to building membership sites and setting up help desks, Kartra has got it all. It also offers affiliate management tools that easily track and manage your affiliate partners, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking for an all-in-one solution.
Kartra’s analytics features are designed to give you a deep understanding of what’s working and what isn’t with your promotional marketing campaigns. With Kartra, you can access a wide range of analytics tools that will help you track key performance metrics, such as funnel conversions, lifetime value reports, broadcast analytics, affiliate sales reports, sales & transaction analytics, helpdesk, and membership site reporting.
Pros of Kartra:
- Behavioral Adaptive Marketing Tool: Kartra has a Behavioral Adaptive Marketing feature that allows you to create an automated custom path for your leads based on their actions throughout the sales process.
- Lead Behavior Tracking Optimization: Data and insights from your leads’ behavior can be used to determine the best course of action for each individual lead, and then adapts your marketing efforts accordingly. This allows you to provide a more personalized and effective customer experience, which can result in higher conversion rates and increased sales.
- Dynamic OTO: Another great feature of Kartra is its dynamic OTO (One-Time Offer) capability. With OTOs, you can present special offers to your customers at the right time, increasing your chances of upselling and cross-selling. This can be done in various ways, such as through upsells, downsells, order bumps, etc.
7. Teachery
Best Thinkific Alternative for Automating Specific Tasks (14-day trial, then $49/month)
Teachery is an online course platform that offers a unique set of features designed to make it easy for course creators to sell and manage their online courses. It’s a relatively new player in the online course platform market, but it has quickly made a name for itself as an excellent option for beginners.
Its user-friendly interface and easy navigation are perfect for those new to creating and selling online courses, as it eliminates the confusing functionality and design that other platforms may offer. One of the key benefits of Teachery is that it does not charge any additional transaction fees, which can be a significant plus for course creators.
Pros of Teachery:
- Straightforward Payment Options: Monthly and annual. Both plans come with everything you need to create, market, and sell online courses, so you don’t have to worry about upgrading or paying for additional add-ons as you grow your business.
- Zapier Integration: It enables you to connect with a wide range of other tools, allowing you to automate specific tasks and streamline your workflow. This integration means you can quickly transfer data between Teachery and other apps.
8. Graphy
Best Thinkific Alternative for Student Engagement (10% per sale plus a $999 onboarding fee)
Graphy is a platform that enables creators and educators to expand their online presence and business by creating and selling online courses. The platform allows for the creation of courses and the development of white-labeled websites and mobile applications for course distribution.
As of the time of this writing, over 100,000 creators have utilized the platform to establish their own online teaching businesses. Graphy’s features are versatile and can accommodate various course formats, including live, instructor-led, scheduled, and drip-released courses.
Graphy allows creators and educators to host their courses on a custom domain. This feature enables users to use their own domain name or select from a list of free domains provided by Graphy. This customization option allows creators to maintain a consistent and professional image across their online presence and branding.
Pros of Graphy:
- Content Security: Graphy provides anti-piracy measures through the prevention of screen recording, dynamic watermarking, and secure video streaming to safeguard your content.
- Cross-Platform Mobile: Deploy your own mobile apps for both iOS and Android platforms
- Unlimited Push Notifications: Capability to send an unlimited amount of push notifications to increase engagement
If you’d like to learn more about this tool, check out my Graphy review for more info.
9. Yondo
Best Thinkific Alternative for Presentations and Real-time Communication (14-day trial, then $69/month)
Yondo is the best platform for selling live sessions. It is the world’s first video e-commerce solution of its kind, revolutionizing the way businesses sell online. With Yondo, you can sell videos on demand, online group classes, webinars, and even book live video & phone consultations. You can present the perfect recorded video as a live presentation, modernizing how you offer online sales demos, property tours, group classes, and more.
Pros of Yondo:
- Pre-recorded “Live” Presentations: The ability to pre-record your presentations and deliver them as if they were “live”, allowing you to provide a polished and professional experience for your audience.
- Live Experience: You can conduct your presentations on a schedule or play them on demand, with the added benefit of real-time communication from anywhere.
- Integrated Experience: Seamless integration with Zendesk and Slack.
Summary and Top Picks
When it comes to online course platforms, there are a few key things that people are looking for to ensure that their investment is worth it. These include: course creation capabilities, marketing and sales, instructor support, and student management.
There are several online course platforms that can serve as alternatives to Thinkific. Each platform offers a range of tools and features for creating, marketing, and selling online courses.
While Thinkific is a well-established player in the market, there are many other strong alternatives to consider before you make your final decision. The great news is that the best Thinkific alternatives are all excellent in their own way so you’ll be spoiled for choice.
LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds is the best overall Thinkific alternative thanks to its free plan and powerful marketing tools.
Teachable
Teachable is an ideal choice for beginners as it's been built in a simple and easy-to-use way.
Podia
Podia is excellent for letting your audience book and pay for coaching sessions - all within your Podia site.
LearnDash
LearnDash is the best platform to use for integration with WordPress. It also comes with a free gamification add-on.
Systeme.io
Systeme does an awesome job of giving users a full suite of online course solutions at a fraction of the price.