Is Thinkific the best course creation platform for you? Find out in this Thinkific review!
A well-crafted online course can add a lot to your repertoire and author brand. And I believe Thinkific is one of the best course creation platforms available. It's the one I use personally, and I've tried several. However, there are a couple situations where it might not be the right choice for you. Keep reading to learn more.
- What Thinkific is and what it can do for you
- The Major Features that make Thinkific a great course creation choice
- The Minor Features that you'll find useful when creating your courses
- Whether Thinkific is right for you
Table of contents
Quick Disclaimer: I will be using affiliate links in this article. However, that does not influence my opinion in any way here. I have been a personal user of Thinkific for years now and think they're great. The affiliate links–should you choose to utilize them–only help keep my coffee pot hot and full.
That being said… Let's jump on in!
What is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a neat course creation platform in which you can build, host, and distribute an online course that you've created. They look to change and modernize the way that education is achieved online.
By utilizing Thinkific's course creation software, you can easily supplement an existing venture or establish a high impact, sustainable business model.
Thinkific Review: Major Features
There are 4 main features I like to consider when looking at Thinkific as a whole. While these are far from all of the features available, these particular selections were some of the main reasons I chose Thinkific when creating my Amazon Ads marketing course.
Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Thinkific is one of the best around. When compared to Teachable (a rival Course Creation platform), Thinkific beat out Teachable hands down.
FREE | 1 Course 1 Community, 2 Spaces Unlimited Students No Sign Up Fees |
Basic | 1 Community, 5 Spaces $49/month or $36/month billed annually No Sign Up Fees Affiliate Selling |
Start | Unlimited Courses 1 Community, 10 Spaces No Sign Up Fees $99/month or $74/month billed annually. |
Grow | Unlimited Courses 3 Communities, 20 Spaces 2 Administrators $199/month or $149/month billed annually No Sign Up Fees |
Let's start by saying that Thinkific's Free model is quite simply…amazing. With the free option, you can still charge a premium for your course, and Thinkific doesn't take a transaction fee. Couple that with the right to unlimited students, and you've got yourself a great starting point. And all for nothing!
Now, you may be saying… “Hey Dave, that's all fine and dandy… But what about the 3 course limit?”
To be honest, I bet there's not many of you out there building more than three courses. And if you are, it's probably better that you go ahead and splurge on the basic pricing because that comes with unlimited courses.
Another thing that goes along with base pricing is the integration costs for other platforms–such as your email provider. Thinkific integrates superbly with so many different email platforms. For instance, I don't have to sign up for third-party programs such as Zapier to integrate with ConvertKit (my service). Thinkific has native support and saves me money in the long run.
Course Layout and Design: What Will Your Students See?
Full transparency here. Up until recently, I wasn't too keen on Thinkific's layout. As a matter of fact, I thought it was kind of lousy. And because of that, I almost made the switch to another course building service.
Thankfully, Thinkific came out with a new streamlined design. It looks and feels so much better. Plus, they added branding capabilities, so I can have my Kindlepreneur logo at the top of the course player. That's a huge win in my book.
And when it comes to actually designing your course, this is where Thinkific truly shines.
Customize your online course to the absolute fullest with Thinkific!Click To TweetWith Thinkific, you pretty much customize every single part of the course to fit your particular style. And for the technologically inclined, you can even enter custom HTML and CSS changes. But that's not even the best part.
Thinkific provides so many templates you can utilize! Not just generic ones either. If you have a fitness blog, there's a template available just for you. Even pro DJ's have their very own template. So as far as layout and design is concerned, Thinkific gets two big thumbs up from me.
Ease of Course Creation
If you're wondering how difficult it is to build a course on Thinkific, here's your answer. Not very.
And that's because of the way the team over at Thinkific has designed their platform. Everything is made easy with a simple drag and drop mechanism. Simply click-and-hold whatever you want to insert, and release when it's in the right spot. But drag-and-drop isn't the only trick Thinkific has up its sleeve.
I've found their Video Library to be exceptionally helpful for me. Using videos in my course is a big part of how I pass along information. Thinkific allows me to upload and store my videos just in case I ever need to use them again–which is actually quite often. The Video Library is easily one of my favorite features about Thinkific.
Sales/Landing Page Capabilities
No Thinkific review would be complete without mentioning their ability to create stellar landing pages.
Using the same drag-and-drop methods as before, Thinkific makes organizing your sales page a breeze! And there's so much you can edit or add on to it.
You can personalize your sales page by adding your author bio, CTAs (Calls-to-Action), ratings, testimonials, curriculum overviews, and so much more. For an awesome example of what Thinkific can do for you, check out my own personal sales page for my Free AMS Course. And if you want to sign up while you're there…
Anyway, I think there are just a few minor tweaks that Thinkific could do to make this perfect. Perhaps offering a class on how to actually build a landing page could be a great way to make this even better.
Format Beautiful Professional Books
Easy to use, and and full of amazing features, you can quickly turn your book into a professional book.
Check It OutThinkific Review: Minor Features to Better Your Course
Now that we've covered the main points of Thinkific, let's look at what else they have to offer us.
Content Quizzes:
What's a class without a quiz? Thinkific allows for you to create some of the best quizzes available on any course creation platform. There's just so many options. Be sure to take advantage of their image and video capabilities as well. Or create your own quiz bank to further streamline your courses.
Mass Video Importing:
Thinkific allows you mass import videos from just about everywhere. They have the standard options of uploading from sources such as OneDrive and Google Drive. But what makes them unique is the ability to upload from platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Amazon Cloud.
Sales Page Countdown Timers:
Landing page countdown timers are a very powerful way to help convert prospective clients into paying customers. Thinkific makes it super easy to add one with a One Button Click.
Surveys:
I'll be the first to tell you that I don't do enough surveys, but when I get around to doing more… Thinkific's got me covered. This feature is native to Thinkific, meaning I don't need to go through another platform such as Google Forms to get set up.
Training:
It should come as a given that any online platform like Thinkific should have decent documentation. But Thinkific goes far above that, with training materials that will not just help you use the platform, but teach you about how to build and sell courses online.
Support:
For those of you who don't know, good support holds a dear place in my heart. With Publisher Rocket, I'm lucky to have in place one of the best support teams ever. But Thinkific does a pretty good job themselves. Hats off to Thinkific's support personnel!
Is Thinkific the Right Course Creation Platform for You?
Now, while I absolutely love Thinkific, there are a few caveats that might turn you off.
- Do you require iOS app capabilities?
- Are you selling over 10,000 Euros worth of courses in the EU?
- Or do you need in-depth reports on how your students are doing?
If you answered yes to any of these three questions, Teachable may be a better option for you. But if not, Thinkific might just be exactly what you need to get your course out of the planning stage and start making money!