When it comes to platforms that allow you to develop and sell your online classes, there are quite a few options out there that are available to you.
And Thinkific, we think, is among the best ones out there.
However, that is not to say the others aren’t as great. They all have their pros and cons, as does Thinkific. So today, we’re going to have Thinkific clash against some of the best out there, so that you can make an educated decision on which platform works best for you.
Everybody has different needs, expectations and capabilities.
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Thinkific VS Teachable Thinkific Vs Gumroad
First thing’s first, let us get one of the bigger, and more difficult, comparisons out of the way. Thinkific and Teachable are both great. They offer the essentials that you’ll need, easy to use whether you have experience or not, are fairly priced and are just really great solutions. They are quite similar so it makes choosing between the two of them a little bit more difficult, but we’ll try our best anyway.
Let’s start with who uses which platform! Although they both have a broad appeal that may cater to single individuals or businesses and groups, there are preferences.
Because Thinkific’s main goal is to empower teachers more, to help those who really care about their students’ experience, their customers are more often that not entrepreneurs — usually masters of a specific craft such as writing, or coaches and speakers — and businesses who wish to grow and develop their businesses through education for their preferred audience.
Teachable on the other hand truly imbibes their mantra of “Everything is Teachable.” Their target audience is still quite wide even crossing over to a few of those that Thinkific targets, but they also cover people who want to start teaching online and earning through it.
So which are you? Who they appeal to can be very revealing for what they stand for and what they can do.
Moving on to course creation and student engagement, both Teachable and Thinkific are really good at what they do. It’s really tough to go wrong with one or the other. There are of course differences between the two.
While Teachable provides you more flexibility with its course builder, extensive course reporting tools and an iOS app for your student, Thinkific can give you advanced quizzing features, the ability to create surveys and assignments as well as a”communities” and”Groups” features.
Teachable is much easier to use from the two, and actually has more to offer when it comes to the sales and marketing features. It also helps that they have some pretty strong course reporting programs, and their checkout process is optimized — complete with 1-click upsells, support for Apple Pay, Google Pay, etc..
Thinkific really hones in on the side a bit more, with a greater focus on students. You can see that in its stronger quizzing capability, the way its built to support missions. Create communities and manage your students.
It also wins out a bit more in terms of its site builder, which is a major consideration if you don’t have an existing website already as it is.
Finally, in terms of cost, Thinkific kind of wins because they have a plan that’s absolutely free. Sure it offers just the basics, but it’s free. And that’s a significant thing.
In regards to the paid portion though, Thinkific includes a more beginner-friendly rates, but it can actually end up becoming more expensive than Teachable, based on needs and add-on features that may not be available on certain plans. Teachable however offers everything right off the bat, depending upon your plan.
Thinkific can be somewhat sneaky that way. But if you do not need those additional bells and whistles, Thinkific is the less expensive option between the two.
If we’re gonna have to provide the crown to somebody, it would need to be Thinkific, with it barely beating out Teachable. It is so close that, at the end of the day, it’s really more of a personal preference and contextualized need that will guide you to which of the two platforms you should work with.
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Thinkific VS Udemy
Thinkific and Udemy will be a tiny bit easier to compare than our previous match up, due to the fact that they’re two quite different platforms with their own pros and cons. Thinkific Vs Gumroad
With Thinkific, you can really design your site. Yeah, there are templates you can use, but if you decide so and are capable, you can take control of your site’s design and customize a lot of it. With Udemy, you do not really get that choice. You’re limited in your choices for design. You can choose your course graphic, but otherwise things like course layout and style can’t really be touched.
Udem does have a market feature though, which can be really helpful. However, it’s a double edged sword. You own the course, but you can not take it out of Udemy’s marketplace, while with Thinkific, you can do anything you want with your own courses.
You can price your course however way you see fit, offer any type of discounts and in regards to Affiliate programs, you decide how much the commission percentage is onThinkific. But with Udemy, you have to follow their pricing , coupon system and all Affiliate Programs for your class are set at 50% commission.
There is more freedom and flexibility with Thinkific, enabling it to stand above the competition.
And that is why Thinkific kind of stands head and shoulders over Udemy for us.
Udemy is great to begin with from scratch, especially if you don’t really have an audience yet, or If you don’t have experience in creating an internet course. It’s the basics of what you need and the market is a fantastic starting point. It also helps that it is pretty inexpensive.
However, Udemy is not ideal if you want to grow beyond that. If you want to expand, to take control or to simply go larger, it is not the perfect platform for you.
We highly advise you to go with Thinkific instead, if that’s the case.
If you would like, you do not even have to take our word for it. One good thing you can do is try it out yourself actually. Thinkific has their free plan including all the basics, while Udemy doesn’t charge you a monthly fee if you combine. First Hand experience is always one of the best ways to see if it works for you.
> > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < <
Thinkific vs Kajabi
The gap between Thinkific and Kajabi can be observed in their messaging.
Thinkific’s homepage says “Easily Create, market and sell your online course. You get complete control and great support.”
Kajabi’s says,”Sell Your Knowledge. Get Set up in minutes. Everything under one roof.”
Kind of similar, yeah? Yes and no. We’ll get to it in just a bit. Thinkific Vs Gumroad
But even here you can see what they concentrate on, and who they’re for specifically. For one, from the way it was structured and rolled out, it is possible to see that Kajabi was created for people that wish to feature and sell individual pieces of content, rather than a more expansive and structured learning.
You go for Kajabi if you wish to teach someone let us say how to do Shakespeare really well. A masterclass in that specific topic.
Thinkific is for those who wish to sell a whole structured course on acting, from its history, to its techniques, to the different kinds and styles there are out there in the world. We are by no means saying one is far better than the other in this respect, but instead saying that it actually depends on your requirements and exactly what it is you want to sell and teach.
Do you only need to sell a course, or an entire expansive curriculum? It’s up to you, and either or is fine.
Taking a look at the features, that’s also reflected. Thinkific offers a great pure course builder, while Kajabi is more of a marketing platform with sales automation tagging features. With Thinkific, you are able to offer certifications, while with Kajabi, you can’t. Kajabi comes with an email-builder and a landing page builder, while Thinkific doesn’t. Kajabi is the way to go if sales funnels are what you need with your software. That being said, Thinkific has a cool blog post about increasing sales for your online course here.
Again: What are your needs?
Kajabi s a fantastic all-in-one marketing solution, however it has a tendency to overextend its offerings, trying to do too much and not really attaining it. And it does that while being more expensive that Thinkific, so that’s another huge consideration.
As we’ve mentioned before, Thinkific includes a free plan you can avail of and not just test, but use indefinitely if it satisfies your needs. Kajabi has a 14 day trial and that’s it. If you want to give both a spin to see if it works for you, go ahead, but for this specific item, Thinkific clearly wins.
‘At the end of the day, Kajabi does indeed have an edge in terms of the marketing suite if offers — and we can not stress enough how important marketing is! Doesn’t matter how great a course is if your”classroom” is empty. However, if you will need to construct a program, which is exactly what we assumed you want, hence you exploring these options, then Thinkific is your clear choice.
Thinkific is, at its core, the answer to everything you need in the first place: A platform that will help you educate.
> > Click here to try Thinkific for Free Now! < <
And The Winner is?
We had to take our time deciding who is the best here, especially since its quite an important decision which tool you’re going to outsource to. Picking the right software is no small matter.
After going three rounds with a few of the heavy hitters out there, Thinkific with its core focus on its class builder, great plan options that includes a basic free service, and it’s focus on making the experience of getting out there to make a powerful online educational platform, clearly wins. Thinkific Vs Gumroad
Give it a think and you’ll see what we mean.
