Thinkific Reviews

Pros

I love that Thinkific is comprehensive so I get to focus on content creation and student outreach. Thinkific manages the payment portal and moves students smoothly through the course experience. In a lot of ways, it's set-it-and-forget-it, meaning - once you have a course set up the way you want inside Thinkific, students move through it beautifully and all you have to worry about is getting new students!

Cons

My only suggestion for Thinkific would be to provide a few more options for testimonials layouts on the sales/landing pages. I'd like more flexibility and options to showcase or emphasize certain student experiences... but otherwise, I wouldn't change anything.

Pros

This is an absolutely beautiful platform. Thinkific has been in the elearning industry for years and it shows - the portal is easy to navigate and set up courses. The tutorials section is robust and detailed, giving step-by-step information on how to set up various course features and troubleshoot any issues that may come up. There is the ability to issue certificates of completion, add an assignment section for students to upload their work, basic quiz functionality, drip-scheduling as well as compulsory lessons which need to be completed before the student can move on. The lessons can consist of videos, text, PDF's (which can be downloadable or not), or quizzes. You can embed videos and links from other sites too. The course analytics allow you to see how much of a course/lesson was completed before a student drops off, giving valuable insight which enables the course creator to edit and adapt the courses to make them more engaging for the students. There is also a 'community' feature which gives students the chance to chat and give/feedback away from an external site (like a Facebook group). Thinkific does not take any of the course fees and allows the course creator to keep 100% of the profits earned. There is also a free version which has a lot of features included.

Cons

The certificates are quite basic and it's necessary to be design-savvy and tech-savvy to create a certificate which would be accepted in the upload process. The quizzes are very basic and do not support time-limits, limited retries or anything more robust than true/false or multiple choice. Should you want to integrate with a more robust quiz software, their native integrative party is quite pricey! There is no built-in email functionality aside from the notifications that can be sent to existing students. As email is becoming more popular among other learning management systems this is quite a big negative point against them. The option to whitelabel the site completely is only available on the 'Growth' plan which over and above the 'Pro' plan which is already $99.

Alternatives Considered

Ruzuku, Podia, Kajabi and LearnWorlds

Reasons for Choosing Thinkific

Option to do upsells and order bumps with Thinkific. Option for assignment uploads for students. All-round more robust LMS.

Switched From

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Value for money and number of features offered. It's an established product with years of market research and expertise.

Pros

I think I like the idea of the software. There are alternatives. I think I picked Thinkific first because they have clear description about their software, seemed reputable and seemed like they have good customer service and responsiveness. Their website is nicely responsive for different screen sizes. Although the theme itself is limited, and you are on your own to customize it, I felt that the drag and drop choices for the editor covered everything I need.

Cons

There were critical limitations that I felt decreased the value of the software for my business. The first thing that made me feel uncomfortable is that the website you build for your business through their LMS software would publish to the public immediately as you save the changes. I look thoroughly through the website theme settings, but there was no way to keep the website as "password protected" or "private" before it is published. As a result, I felt I should hold on about sharing important details until I write the entire content of the website, then drag and drop the content for the layout, and then put the content.

After that first issue, I felt less excited. There were other limitations that resulted in me losing interest. I didn't feel like I want to pay to customize my website with HTML and CSS. importing your own website website was not a convenient option.

My courses were live online but their website had no way of sharing the time on the website based on the user local or system time. I would have to pay for their Pro plan and do it myself with javascript. I could look up and learn how to do it, but I didn't want to. I felt like the software was good for only recorded content. The price they were asking for was not convincing anymore. Slowly and slowly I lost interest.

Finally, I saw that they charge a flat fee for each student plus their monthly fee, for any student after the 100th student. I decided not to move forward with them.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, TutorBird and Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I ended up not choosing Thinkific and went with an alternative.

Pros

The intuitive nature of your interface is extremely helpful for both course designers and students. As a site and course administrator, I'm exceptionally impressed with the ease of use. Thank you for incorporating finance management functions. Sleek design, ease of use, great price point. Don't change the price, it's one of your best market differentiators. I switched to Thinkific for the Pro Growth plan which was the key difference for me from other providers like Matrix.

Cons

I really need to market courses via social media with the least number of accounts and steps. It would be awesome if you could integrate some social media marketing tools into the site rather than link accompanying providers. The more I can do WITHIN thinkific, the better. The same applies for business functions like website management, sales of non-course materials (e.g., printed books, e-books), and perhaps QuickBooks

Alternatives Considered

NEO LMS, Blackboard Learn and MATRIX LMS

Reasons for Choosing Thinkific

Price and ability to scale my costs via the Pro Growth plan. I really liked the Matrix site itself but couldn't justify the price as soon as I saw the Thinkific plans and the product. Your site is excellent!

Switched From

MATRIX LMS

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Price and ability to scale my costs via the Pro Growth plan. I really liked the Matrix site itself but couldn't justify the price as soon as I saw the Thinkific plans and the product. Your site is excellent!

Pros

I liked that you could design the access portal, the courses, and the payment methods all in 1 interface without any needs for additional products. I particularly enjoy how easy it is to set the courses up if you have your curriculum designed.

Cons

I wish there was an option to be able to have access to all the course features without fees. We are a startup and just are not in a position to charge for courses yet, meaning this would be a huge investment for us that we are not willing to make. It would be great if you could get a 6month burn-in period to test and market before going live.

Alternatives Considered

Moodle, Blackboard Learn and BRIDGE

Reasons for Choosing Thinkific

Easier to configure and set up and did not require additional setup or management.

Switched From

Moodle

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Payment portal and customization features.

Pros

Branded and look profesional, easy to use for startup

Cons

All the suscribtion not allowed another admin , I can’t invite freelancer to do the job. And the suscription exeoensive to allow another admin, compare to other platform thinkific is expensive with less feature

Pros

I spent last year writing my first professional training course and was looking for a platform to use for the beta run. I wanted something that could handle the multi-media aspect of the delivery of my course, but that was also easy to set up for a non-techy beginner as I didn't have an assistant to set it up for me. Thinkific fit this need perfectly.

Cons

If anything the aesthetic of the platform could be a bit better (personal preference). While it is easy to follow it's just not as sleek as I'd like. And as a non-web-designer, I'd like to be able to customize the course landing pages to fit my brand with a bit more DIY ease.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable and Podia

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Drag and drop course set up was super easy and had all the features I needed in the basic option.

Pros

Other than being a good Learning management platform, students could upload video contents and gifs in the communities of a thinkific school. This isn't possible with other LMS I've used. I think this is a great advantage in my opinion as videos drives conversations better.

Cons

If I could upload SCORM/HTML5 contents it'll be a better product for me.
Also, the course builder layouts are not as sleek as I expected in comparison to other products.

Alternatives Considered

LearnDash

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I didn't want to get involved in the technical stuffs involved in building an LMS from scratch. I preferred using a SAAS platform (in this case Thinkific) that would cater for the technical aspects of the platform while I cared about creating contents for my students.

Pros

For me is it was the user friendly features of the program. I was able to train myself on the features in a few hours.

Cons

Our company has enjoyed using Thinkific and in comparison to to other programs we don't find any negative issued with Thinkific.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, WebinarNinja and Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Thinkific was the first program we tried and once we tested others we just never found another program that was better for our needs.

Pros

I do really like Thinkific although the price seems a bit higher than some new online platforms that are coming through. I like the course layout and the amount that you can edit. It's a bit more tech-savvy than some which I don't mind. I've built fast courses with Thinkific and enjoyed being a user on a weekly basis. I do just hope that Thinkfics features get more modernised as time goes on as it can seem a little outdated at times. Just my opinion :)

Cons

It's a bit more tech-savvy than some which I don't mind, but even a tech-savvy person wouldn't mind more convenience every day. This could come from more drag and drop and more templates to use as there doesn't seem to be any help in building your courses. There may be tutorials that I haven't come across the mind. I would like to see the price drop down before I go elsewhere.

Pros

Just as the title has mentioned, my company came towards this software because of a recommendation by our consultant. After much difficult times to look for a proper affiliate software, we decided to opt in for Thinkific as it doesn't just serve as an E-learning platform but also provides affiliation feature for enrolled students.

So far, it can create unique link for each student as a referral and we are able to set up commission percentage for them. It has cut off a lot of manual work which we were previously doing. Thus, subscribing to a Pro plan in spite of the price, it is well-worth to consider for anyone looking for affiliate feature which is this simple.

Cons

The themes available are quite limited, and I do wish Thinkific would provide more samples of website for us to refer to since not everyone is good at designing. I only manage to find a few on Google which helped a little.

Sizes of the images are only limited to JPG file which I didn't know why after a constant struggle of failures to upload a PNG image. Perhaps you could label JPG file instead of telling me the SIZE would be more helpful.

Since my webinar courses are in Chinese and English, I do hope you would allow more choices of fonts instead. Also, as most of our students are Chinese, it would be helpful if other buttons such as "sign up" , "register" , "free preview" would have an option of languages.

The Video file size is limited as well. It wasn't much of a bother as I know it is trying to promote shorter videos for better students' engagement. But the uploading can be quite slow and my speed is 160mbps. So, I doubt it's my problem??

Pros

I liked most that there was a free option to get started and that there is a front end option that shows all courses owned by an account native to the program. Thinkific is easy to use and now that it has added a community feature it's almost perfect.

Cons

At the time I switched from Thinkific, I did so to get a native community feature so my students wouldn't have to go to Facebook for community. Now that Thinkific has added it, there's only one complaint I have, and that is that I need another layer of complexity for my courses. Unfortunately, I haven't found an LMS that has that, so Thinkific is no worse in that regard than any other LMS I've explored.

I do have an issue with the pricing model, which is too complex and confusing. That makes it hard to compare with other options.

Pros

I like Thinkific because it offers a simplified way to create, market, and sell online courses all in one platform. Thinkific have many content creation resources to design multimedia online courses or trainings. For example, there's an intuitive drag and drop feature that allows you to create classes, videos, and other digital tools for content with easy placement onto the platform. What makes this platform unique is the Thinkific Academy that is full of resources to walk you through creating, marketing, and selling your content, especially if you are new to this concept. What is great about Thinkific is the ability to customize and brand your online platform using low code development.

Cons

Although the interface is simple with a basic look and the ability to use low code development to customize the layout, it does not offer flexibility in making changes to fit your brand. Also, if you are not skilled in frontend development the visual elements of the platform, you will have to pay for additional fees.

Alternatives Considered

SmarterU LMS and Wisetail LMS

Pros

It's mobile friendly for my students. It's a very simple to use a system which means even if you're, not super tech you can make it work.

I get awesome student feedback on how easy Thinkific is to use, especially on the go.

It's got great reporting and you get paid right away instead of having your money held up. Even on the free account which is awesome to better manage cash flow needs.

I also love that you can see how your students are progressing and where people might be getting stuck on your content.

Cons

Probably the only big negative for me is that is I want to include writing below my video training it doesn't show the student how long the video is or even that there's a video there at all.

So sometimes people have missed training parts because of the formatting of their system. Not the biggest deal, but I like to streamline my lesson by putting a small blurb under the video and the easiest way to do this means it doesn't show up as a video on the sidebar for the student.

Pros

A very easy to use application that projects your career as an instructor and educator, you can sell the courses to students or companies, allowing you to take better advantage as it allows you to enlarge your professional profile, showing the courses you have done and who and how many have seen, making you notice in the professional area, it is quite complete and easy to use, with an attractive cost for the market.

Cons

I think they should improve a little the visual and design area, to make it more pleasing to the eye, allowing you to customize more each course and let your imagination fly to catch a larger audience, doing this would improve even more this excellent application.

Pros

Relatively easy to set up - as long as you don't want to have helpers.

Cons

HORRID for anyone working with a few helpers... they want to rape you on fees for additional admins.
Can't remove/archive past offerings
Customer service SUCKS.

Pros

I searched and searched for an affordable way to host my free Fearless Budgeting training program for compulsive spenders. I tried a couple of sites before launching, but they all had problems and were difficult to use.

When I found the free plan on Thinkific, I was blown away. It was so easy to set up and everything just flowed. I had one issue with the sort order of multiple download files. Customer service was great and helped me figure out how to sort them properly within a couple of hours.

It was incredibly easy to set up the two courses (total of 50 lessons) and two additional products. My products and courses look professional. Oh, and I love the student discussion forum, which I've used to let students know about an update to one of the courses and an upcoming Q&A call. Plus, I was able to easily integrate my mailing list into the program.

I couldn't be happier with the service and support. I heartily recommend Thinkific. For me, it blows away the competition!

Cons

Nothing. Not one thing. It's perfect for my needs.

The fact is, I'm amazed at all the features I get with the free option. It's working out great for me and my students.

Pros

I like that it has a lot of features, but the way the arranged them is not easy to use
The homepage is more customizable than other programs

Cons

I don't like Thinkific for some reason the design is not appealing to me what so ever...
I wish it was because some of my clients prefer this program over others.

Pros

Easy to use and explains everything very very well- the best platform I’ve used so far for my business

Cons

Nothing to complain about except not needing so many videos to split it up but to turn it into a pro makes it shorter and brings my clients attention back

Pros

There is a free function you can actually set up a whole program completely for free and they only charge a % of the sale. It’s perfect for start ups.

Cons

I found anything I don’t like so far. I am really happy with it.

Pros

Thinkific is so easy to set-up and has a wealth of customisation options. I like being able to rely on the platform to provide a good experience for users, even at scale.

Cons

It is sometimes incompatible for users of older browsers.

Pros

Thinkific covers course the basics very well. It also provides strong administrative functions to support the student and teacher. Payment works well too.

Cons

The question import and question change functions need to be improved. Currently, they are unwieldy and time consuming. Support could be easier to connect to. But, as seems to be everywhere, you have to start with an email or chat.

Pros

it has most of my desired features
I find it a little complicated to use although the support is great and so are the tutorials
did not try to integrate with other apps...

Cons

compared to other softwares I am used to create or design something, I find the surface a little outdated and for me it’s complicated to find my way through to set everything up. that is the reason for why it is sitting there for more than a year without me having created one single course :-(

Pros

Very easy and intuitive to use. Whether it's the process of storing, structuring and promoting courses, or engaging and paying affiliates who promote them. Apart from the design that could be improved, the user experience (from end to end) is simple and intuitive.

Cons

The design/interface of the course pages is not very modern when compared to other alternatives and has limited customization options. It lacks features for creating and boosting a community (increasingly important these days).

Pros

Ease of use, attractive platform, modern and slick.

Cons

None I can think of yet!