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

Easy login process for members and easier to upgrade into other courses, easier to use coupon codes, etc
Single dashboard for partners, users and affiliates. This is the main issue we are trying to solve in the best way possible.
Easier to display the courses on the site like an education company. Less design needed which is good for our VA's.
A mobile app included, but it's super basic and not at all impressive

Cons

We had to manually import every student and bulk enroll them into every course individually. The bulk enroll will only run 1 import at a time. So it took about 2-days to import them for every course
We had to individually add every single affiliate because they don't have bulk enroll. It's taken my VA 3 days to do since we have over 300 affiliates. We're also going to have to manually pay them each month.
The only way Thinkific is useful is if you buy a bunch of plugins so you can build a proper website. That then causes caching issues.
The video player is old an outdated. We have to now go back and manually add every SRT file. It doesn't auto-generate like most players do these days. This will take a VA about a week to do.
They also don't have an inbuilt API that when a subscription member cancels to remove a tag from your CRM. This blows my mind. It's simple, standard practice for any membership platform. So we have to use Zapier instead which adds another unneccesary cost.
Support team is fairly unhelpful. All they do is send you to a document. They don't every help in any other way. For example, we just wanted to change the font size for the header menu. It had to be done in code. Would have taken someone on their team with develper knowledge 30 seconds to do or point us in the right direction. They wouldn't do it.

Alternatives Considered

Kajabi

Reasons for Choosing Thinkific

Looking for a better user experience for our members

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Thinkific looked like the better one of the lot.

Pros

I loved how versatile it was and their customer support was second to none. Also there was plenty of templates and training modules for absolute novices to set up their school easily. Integrations with other relevant apps and softwares made this very efficient LMS.

Cons

The price increases. I eventually couldn't continue as there was alternatives for better prices

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

Thinkfic integrates well with CRM systems which is so important to manage leads and data. It works well with Zapier as well which gives numerous possibilities.

Cons

I wish some things were a bit more clear. It provides the ability to have courses that renew or memberships but doesn't do great on the backend of highlighting pros and cons of each.

Pros

This is a platform built for courses, and as such, it does that incredibly well. If you are only looking for somewhere to sell courses and are most concerned with those looking great and being well built for your customers, then this is a great program.

Cons

I really wanted a platform that could handle more than just courses (ie, also selling digital downloads, memberships, and 1:1 coaching programs). Thinkific isn't made to do everything because they focus on doing one thing really well. If you're looking for a jack of all trades rather than a master of one, this probably isn't for you.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I chose Thinkific because I had heard good reviews from some of my peers using it and it was easy to set up for someone who wasn't well versed in course management platforms.

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

The way it structures lessons, with sublessons.

Cons

Fiddling to put video content in. Can be fiddly to restructure a course if adding a lesson.

Alternatives Considered

Groove

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Better more robust platform, though Groove has now taken over and I'm moving to them

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 liked the ease of Thinkific the most. It was super easy to upload videos, add files, write course curriculum and design a landing page for the course.

Cons

What I like least is the ability to make the sales page exactly how you want it... Thinkific (at the time when I used it) had a very limited design feature, so I was very restricted with the way everything looked. I also felt the pricing was bit high for what you get...these days there are all-in-one solution platforms that offers everything that Thinkific offers for much less than the monthly cost.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, SamCart, Kartra and Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I was given a 6-month free trial and so I got lucky at the time!

Pros

Thinific customer support is great and I also liked the user platform. It's easy for user to navigate and looks professional. The user has a great experience from purchase to completion.

Cons

Thinkific is missing contact form and blog integration. This means you have to pay 3rd party apps about $70pcm extra! Also the basic plan is completely useless because you can't index to search engine or run successful PPC campaigns. For start ups like myself this is nightmare. So much better options out there offer better value for money.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I thought Thinkfic's basic plan who be good enough to launch my business and I heard their website build was very good. Both these things are untrue.

Pros

Building the sales page was ridiculously simple. The templates kept the process streamlined and allowed for simple edits as needed.

Love the opportunity to build my course with so many options for various types of learners and delivering content in different ways to keep students engaged.

Cons

In the course management page, I would love the ability to map out the various elements within each section, even if I don’t have the content ready to upload yet (ie, I want a video to go here and a worksheet to go there, but they aren’t complete yet)

Alternatives Considered

Teachable and Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

User reviews and Black Friday deal! I had to try it out and have been very pleased so far.

Pros

We researched many Platforms before choosing Thinkific.

We love that Thinkific is Canadian.

We love the journey that students take from first encountering the site landing page, going to the course landing page and then immersing themselves in the course.

I appreciate the helpful support from the Thinkific team. They do a great job of answering our many questions.

I am fortunate that Thinkific rebuilt their course editing software quite soon after we began developing our course. Their new software is quite easy to use and easy to revise.

I really like their flat-rate monthly subscription fee with no hidden costs.

Cons

I wish students could purchase this course in the currency of their own country.
I wish we could pay for our subscription in Canadian funds instead of American.
We have had to purchase a separate Discussion Forum because their Disqus Plug In is a social media plug in that is not confidential, and their built in Discussion Forum is very awkward and poorly organized with no ability to search, edit, or even manage posts.
Thinkific focuses much more on supporting marketing than on supporting online course development. We were fortunate that we had already taken two excellent courses in online course development that we could apply to the Thinkific Platform.
Thinkific is less responsive to good ideas for improvement than I would like them to be. For example, despite many, many requests from many course developers it is still not possible for the course author to copy, paste and edit quizes and so there is a lot of unnecessary labour involved in inputting quizes

Pros

Thinkific is easy to use. Add a new Module, one click to add content, module after module. So easy!

Better yet, I LIKE how it looks to the user. I LIKE how the site can look like mine -- not another platform. It does look different, but MY site name is on top, visible, so users know where they are immediately. I've tried others and never quite liked the look as I work with seniors who have retired... and wanted simplicity. This time I found just that. AND YET -- very functional, with every content option I'd like to add.

Thinkific has a great Facebook group too. Very active and helpful, learned how others are doing their classes so gives me new ideas. Some groups were full of people whining about what the software didn't do or needed to be corrected... that didn't work for me either, yeah, picky picky! :)

Cons

I only had to ask Support one question while adding my first course. My only question was: how to add a manual student who paid me privately (or complimentary class) if they didn't purchase through Thinkific itself. I know its there, just chose to ask instead of searching! :)

I didn't even use HELP pages to learn how to use it... it was pretty intuitive for me and I love that! Please don't think that means its not a fully integrated teaching service, it really is. They simply "got it" where the user (me, the instructor) and the other user (student) is concerned. Someone did the work to think about how both users will interact with the software. Kudos!

Pros

Thinkific is very easy to use, I upload two courses in a few hours and learn how to use it very fast.

Cons

I didn't like the courses landing pages, it would be great to have more flexibility on them.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Choosing Thinkific

Thinkific has more price options.

Switched From

Kartra

Pros

Thinkific was incredibly easy to use to create a professional course and corresponding website. It was well laid out and actually made the process enjoyable. I was especially pleased with how the website turned out and how seamlessly it integrated with the course.

Cons

There was very little I disliked about the platform. It was difficult to tailor the course quite the way I wanted it at times, but I could always find a workaround.

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

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

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

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

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 the drag and drop options. The ease of use and bulk importers. I have such a great contact to my students and abundant options to get my teachings across. The editors are functional and best of all:

The designs are professional and looks like a Tesla ;)

I have room for up to 2gb videos! That is hosting and being serious to support online education. Did I mention it is Per Video!!

Cons

There is one thing I'd like to see different on Thinkific. My ability to have more sub-modules in each Chapter of my courses. That's it. Otherwise, I have nothing to say.

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.