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 like that it is easy to use, it's easy to upload your course material and publish your course.

Cons

My main issues with thinkific include very slow page load speed (which kills SEO rankings), dysfunction in the assignment feature (specifically, when clicking "next page" on the assignments, it takes you back to page 1 and you have to start all over), inability to edit a course landing page (my course has been published for 4 years and the URL is out in google so I don't want to recreate and for some reason we can no longer edit the page at all), and problems with user experience (students not being able to load a page, etc)

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

At the time, thinkific appeared to be a better solution

Pros

What I liked most about Thinkific was that it was very easy to use and great training material and different price options according to your budget.

Cons

If we are being honest, so far I am very satisfied with this platform so I don't have any complaints.

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

CYPHER Learning and Blackboard Learn

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!

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

That it's really comprehensive, yet still has a free to low-cost entry-level option. It's easy to use and looks visually great too with its customisable interface options. Oh and I love that you can i-frame other websites and URL's into your courses (this is great for spreadsheets and websites) - it saves a lot of time and energy, and updating! Oh, and it has / had a low payment processing fee structure.

Cons

I haven't hit any issues with it yet so to date there's nothing I don't like about it.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

It's entry-level plans (including the free plan that was / is available at the time I joined) are fully featured. Certainly enough to get started and have to commit to a paid or more expensive plan. It looked great and also (at the time of joining and still I think) had a lower fee structure, etc.

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

Ease of use and simple to understand user interface

Cons

Somewhat limited in creating engaging learning, and having to use third party paid plugins for basic gamification. Virtually no customer management functionality built into the platform (such as email management) and limited integration with Third party contact management systems.

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 has all the features I really need to teach and sell my courses online

Cons

Not very easy to customize the way your landing pages, course gallery and course itself looks. What Thinkific has available looks good but sometimes you want to make it more your own and that is not that easy.

Pros

I really like how easy this system is; they have done a lot to make their platform easy to use. The free plan is good.
Pro's:
Easy to use & navigate
Helpful tutorials
Helpful webinars and manuals to help you get the most and market your courses
Clean crisp look
Responsive for mobile, tablet, and pc's

Cons

Pricing for me was the only con; I had purchased a lifetime subscription to another course building platform and decided to switch to that otherwise i'd still be using thinkific.

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

It negates the need to spends thousands of dollars for a LMS website. You really don't need to be a software literate to build this and start using it on the go.

Cons

The users should be trained on how they can land their websites on Search Engines. Even a small fee will be justified, but training will help take this further. Also, more Payment Gateway options should be made available directly and not through Zapier.

Pros

It’s pretty simple and basic so it’s easy-ish for a beginner.

Cons

It could use more ease of functionality. When building a landing page you have to search for certain aspects that you want to change when it should all be right there.
Tech support needs a MAJOR overhaul.

Pros

I loved that I'm able to learn with user-friendly features of the app. I'm able to watch informative videos that are included on certain topics everyday. I also loved the features when taking a quiz which makes me pay attention to details to pass it before proceeding to a next topic.

Cons

Not much least favorite. I'm satisfied with all the features.

Pros

Very complete set of features.
Everything that you need is in one place.
Available on all platforms.

Cons

Better video management.
Better progress track tools for administrators

Pros

I LOVE all the features Thinkific has to support my online course. Completion certificates? Check. Achievements? Check. SINGLE SIGN ON FOR WHEN I SELL TO CORPORATE CLIENTS? CHECK!

But really, the feature list is pretty long and extensive. And the price is pretty good compared to other platforms.

Now, Thinkific won't host all your marketing needs, but it will nail your online course, and I'm a big fan of that.

They also offer GREAT webinars and opportunities for professional development, which I really appreciate. I really do feel like they want me to succeed.

Cons

I wish there were more options for how my course pages are laid out. It's pretty much all standardized with the course online on the left of the page and the content on the left. That course outline is ALWAYS there. Now, that might be really handy for students, but I wish I had some options and maybe could make things a little prettier. (It's not ugly or anything, I just would like another option or two to choose from)

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

Learning Thinkific was really ease, and I also took advantage of their mentoring. The payment integration was self-explanatory as well.

Cons

Several desirable features were only available in the bigger plan, for example group emailing. I was also not too happy with the user reports / quizz reports. Not being able to adapt language presets was also a problem.

Pros

The only thing I liked about the software was that it was inexpensive and so was easy to start. But should have really gone another route.

Cons

It was fairly confusing and not easy to navigate. To make the course have the functions needed was not too easy. The final salt in the wound was that when you cancel, they take off everything. Even though they did BILL for the entire upcoming month. Make no sense? Right... Might be good for revenue but not for customer service.

Alternatives Considered

Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

It was more inexpensive.

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 :-(