Exploring Thinkific in 2025 Could It Be Your Ideal Course Platform

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Our Verdict

Thinkific presents itself as a highly comprehensive platform for online courses, equipped with superior tools for constructing educational content and encouraging student interaction. Moreover, it incorporates inherent resources designed for crafting your website and facilitating the sale of your courses.

Even though navigating the platform is exceptionally straightforward, it offers extensive customization possibilities via its dedicated app store. Coupled with its versatile and budget-friendly pricing structure, this creates a system accommodating content developers across the experience spectrum.

Thinkific has maintained a prominent position within the online course platform industry for quite some time. Consequently, it often emerges as a primary consideration when individuals contemplate offering online instruction.

However, does it represent the optimal choice specifically for your requirements? Which capabilities does it provide, and what is their level of effectiveness? How does it stack up against alternative platforms in the market?

To address these inquiries thoroughly, we have developed this comprehensive Thinkific analysis. Our evaluation process included meticulous hands-on examination of the platform, judging it against crucial criteria like ease of use, available functionalities, and cost structure.

In the sections that follow, we will meticulously detail all the essential information regarding Thinkific, encompassing its advantages and disadvantages, while also contrasting it with other leading course platforms to empower you in making a well-grounded choice.

Understanding Thinkific

Thinkific operates as a fully managed platform for online courses, empowering you to market educational content directly through your own website, even if your technical expertise is limited or nonexistent.

This platform boasts nearly a decade of presence in the industry. Currently, upwards of 50,000 course creators rely on it to operate their digital learning businesses, positioning it as one of the most well-regarded and longstanding solutions available.

Circle’s homepage

Utilizing Thinkific enables you to house your educational materials, present them in a polished manner, design assessments, conduct real-time interactive sessions, foster a learning community, and oversee your student base. Beyond these core functions, it empowers you to construct your website, develop compelling sales pages, and process customer payments.

Managed platforms such as Thinkific enjoy widespread favor because they eliminate the need for assembling numerous plugins to create a functional learning management system. In contrast to options like WordPress, you are relieved from the burdens of overseeing plugins, web hosting arrangements, or intricate coding. The platform adeptly manages all these technical intricacies on your behalf.

Furthermore, it’s important to distinguish Thinkific from course marketplaces like Udemy. With Thinkific, you retain full authority over your course content, pricing strategies, and operational rules. However, this autonomy also means the responsibility for promoting and attracting students to your courses rests entirely with you.

Let us now proceed with an in-depth examination of the Thinkific platform’s offerings.

Platform Usability

Becoming proficient with Thinkific is a notably smooth process. The platform requires only a minimal learning adjustment, allowing users to quickly familiarize themselves with all available functionalities.

The interface boasts a clean design, and individual features are thoughtfully grouped into logical sections, making them simple to locate. For instance, core offerings like courses, memberships, and communities are intuitively positioned within the Products category.

Concerning the experience for your students or members, the interface they encounter largely resembles your administrator view, albeit without the administrative control panel.

It presents a tidy and user-friendly layout. All essential functionalities are readily reachable through the left-hand navigation bar, enabling participants to navigate efficiently and locate desired resources with ease.

Furthermore, they can utilize the conveniently placed search bar at the page’s header to swiftly locate specific content entries, comments, or fellow participants.

Thinkific’s admin interface

Furthermore, the procedure for building a course using Thinkific is quite simple. You just establish your course structure and determine the pricing, letting the platform manage the remaining aspects. The system automatically generates the essential landing, checkout, and course delivery pages. Also, everything connects dynamically, removing the need for manual links or further setup.

A walkthrough of Thinkific’s admin interface

Beyond these aspects, features such as the course construction tool and the page design interface are notably intuitive, incorporating drag-and-drop capabilities that significantly shorten the learning duration.

In summary, Thinkific stands out as one of the most accessible platforms for developing online courses, facilitating both rapid learning and straightforward operation.

Course Creation and Engagement

Rating
Curriculum Builder
Excellent
Video Hosting
ContentUnlimited
Course Player Themes
Single
Mobile App
Free + Branded
Quizzes
Advanced
Advanced
Certificates
Live Classes
Zoom
Interactive Video
Community
Basic
Coaching
Content Drip
Course Compliance
Gamification
Gamification
Copyright Protection
Basic

A capable online course system should equip you with all the functionalities needed to construct your educational programs effortlessly and provide an outstanding learning environment for your students. Let’s examine how Thinkific measures up in these critical areas.

Creating Your Course Structure

Thinkific incorporates an intuitive, drag-and-drop course construction tool that facilitates rapid uploading of your materials and the efficient organization of your course framework.

It structures courses using a hierarchy of chapters and lessons. Individual lessons house the specific educational content, while chapters function as organizational groupings that contain several lessons.

When beginning a new course creation process, you can choose to start entirely fresh or leverage Thinkific’s AI-powered outline generator to automatically propose a course structure based on the topic you provide.

Thinkific’s outline generator

Following this, you can begin incorporating the actual lessons. Thinkific accommodates a variety of content formats, including video files, textual content, PDF documents, audio recordings, live interactive sessions, and HTML5 elements. There’s also a multimedia capability allowing you to embed content hosted on external platforms directly as lesson material.

Additionally, you are relieved of any content hosting concerns because Thinkific furnishes unlimited hosting space for every type of content, videos included.

Thinkific’s course builder

While incorporating content into a lesson, beyond the main lesson format, you have the option to supplement it with textual information and downloadable resources. The text editing tool offers considerable versatility, permitting the insertion of videos, audio files, and even embedded content from other sources.

Within this area, you can also configure specific parameters for your lesson. Options include designating a lesson as a complimentary preview, establishing it as a required step before proceeding, activating the comments feature for discussion, and enabling the download capability for video content.

Creating a lesson with multiple content types

The Bulk Importer stands out as a particularly valuable asset in the course builder, significantly streamlining course assembly. Upload your content files together, and Thinkific instantly creates corresponding lessons. You can then adjust their order simply using the drag-and-drop feature.

How the bulk uploader works in Thinkific

Finally, Thinkific’s video library function allows for straightforward management and repurposing of video content throughout your various courses. The system additionally provides the capability to bring in materials from a different lesson within a course you’ve already created.

In conclusion, the course creation tool offered by Thinkific is notably user-friendly and furnishes you with the adaptability required to develop diverse kinds of online educational programs.

Beyond traditional online courses, the Thinkific platform facilitates the offering of several alternative product formats, such as:

  • Digital Downloads: You have the option to market downloadable assets, for example, electronic books, ready-made templates, and audio recordings.
  • Communities: It enables the establishment of exclusive online communities where your learners can interact and build connections amongst themselves.
  • Live Events: You can offer personalized coaching consultations or host real-time events like interactive webinars and practical workshops for sale.
  • Memberships: This allows you to package various products together and establish different subscription levels for ongoing access.
  • Bundles: Similar in concept to memberships, bundles let you combine multiple individual products for sale as a single package.

It’s worth noting, though, that these function more as methods for packaging and selling content rather than distinct product categories with unique delivery functionalities. As an example, the platform doesn’t inherently include tools for live video streaming or appointment booking.

Enhancing Student Learning and Interaction

While outstanding course content is fundamental, utilizing effective learning tools is crucial to foster interactivity within your course and keep your students actively involved. We will now examine the array of learning resources that Thinkific provides.

Knowledge Checks and Formal Recognition

Thinkific furnishes robust capabilities for constructing assessments within your courses. It grants you the ability to design graded quizzes and define a specific threshold score required for passing.

Regarding the available formats for questions, the platform supports both multiple-choice and multiple-selection styles. Additionally, Thinkific incorporates a versatile text editor for composing both questions and answers, empowering you to insert text, images, and videos, and apply formatting according to your preferences.

As an example, if your goal is to formulate a question comprising both video and text elements, paired with an answer presented purely as text, the system readily accommodates this arrangement.

Creating a quiz question in Thinkific

Thinkific has additionally integrated an AI-powered quiz creation tool, which autonomously crafts quiz questions drawing from the textual lessons within a given chapter.

Furthermore, Thinkific provides several supplementary quiz functionalities that enhance its robustness:

  • the capacity to include explanatory notes for answers
  • pools of questions presented in random order
  • the facility to bring in questions from external sources

Areas where functionality is currently absent include time-limited quizzes and more complex question formats such as matching or sequencing tasks. However, this is balanced by offering a direct integration with a comprehensive examination platform known as Brillium.

Regarding assignments, Thinkific provides a dedicated lesson format specifically for this purpose. Incorporating an assignment lesson into your course enables your students to submit their completed work files directly through the platform. Subsequently, you possess the ability to review and either approve or decline each submitted assignment.

A sample Assignment lesson in Thinkific

Lastly, Thinkific enables you to generate and distribute certificates of completion. You have access to seven distinct certificate designs, and you can readily personalize the wording and integrate custom information fields. Further customization includes altering the font style, text coloration, and background visuals. Ultimately, this offers the flexibility needed to craft a completely unique certificate tailored to your course.

Thinkific certificate templates

Furthermore, Thinkific seamlessly handles the automatic distribution of course completion certificates once learners conclude their designated programs.

Controlling Content Availability and Sequencing

Typically, upon enrolling in a course, students gain instant access to all its content simultaneously. However, you might prefer to deliver your lessons sequentially, making modules available progressively over time.

Thinkific provides the functionality to schedule the release of lessons according to a drip sequence based on three distinct triggers:

  • Following a student’s official enrollment in the course
  • Subsequent to a student accessing the course initially
  • Commencing on a predetermined calendar date

Creating a drip schedule

Nevertheless, a significant capability currently absent is the function to automatically dispatch emails notifying students as new lessons are unlocked. You will need to depend on your external email marketing service to facilitate this communication.

Regarding ensuring sequential course completion, Thinkific allows you to designate any specific lesson as a mandatory prerequisite. When this setting is applied, a student is restricted from proceeding to the subsequent chapter until they have successfully finished the required lesson.

Prerequisite lesson feature

A notable strength is that the prerequisite lesson functionality integrates seamlessly with all lesson formats. For instance, if a lesson includes a quiz or an assignment, the student cannot finalize that lesson until they achieve a passing grade on the quiz or receive approval for their submitted assignment.

Furthermore, you possess the capability to specify a required viewing completion percentage for video lessons. This ensures that your students are unable to mark a lesson as finished until they have watched the video up to that designated point.

Building Your Learning Community

Thinkific provides the capability to establish a community environment associated with your course or membership program. These Thinkific community spaces present a crisp, contemporary aesthetic right from the start. You also possess the flexibility to tailor their visual presentation by selecting specific colors and typefaces, as well as incorporating a distinctive banner graphic.

Within each community, you can utilize Spaces as a means to maintain organized conversations. For instance, you could dedicate separate Spaces to distinct discussion subjects or create individual Spaces for different cohorts of students enrolled in your program.

Regarding interactions, both you and your members have the ability to initiate posts containing text, images, downloadable files, and embedded content. Additionally, members can choose to follow particular posts, ensuring they receive notifications whenever new comments are added.

It’s also possible to schedule events within your community framework, although it’s important to note that the platform does not offer built-in live video streaming functionality.

A sample community built on Thinkific

A significant advantage is that these community spaces are also reachable through Thinkific’s mobile applications, simplifying the process for students to remain connected and contribute to discussions while away from their computers.

Finally, you have the flexibility to package a community together with your course offerings, or alternatively, market it independently as a distinct product.

Although Thinkific Communities offers a respectable foundation, certain key functionalities are notably absent:

  • There is no provision for incorporating interactive elements like polls, quizzes, or structured articles directly within the community.
  • A native feature for conducting live video streaming sessions is not included.
  • Members lack the capability to engage in private, one-on-one communication with each other.

Despite these limitations, the community feature proves quite effective for establishing a supportive environment connected to your online educational programs.

Hosting Real Time Classes

Conducting live instructional sessions is an excellent strategy for enhancing the interactive nature of your courses and establishing a direct connection with your students as events unfold.

Thinkific facilitates the embedding of live sessions directly into your established course framework. It offers a native integration with Zoom, which means you can input the pertinent details for the session (like its duration) and set the schedule entirely from within the Thinkific administrative area.

Thinkific live lesson settings

Your enrolled students can access the live meeting conveniently either via the course player interface or through the automatically generated reminder email containing the necessary Zoom connection link.

The primary limitation to consider is that utilizing this integrated feature necessitates possessing a subscription-based Zoom account. Despite this requirement, if your intention is to leverage Thinkific as a platform for delivering structured cohort programs, you will likely find this capability extremely beneficial.

Extending Thinkific Functionality

Beyond these core learning functionalities, you can augment your platform’s capabilities using numerous third-party applications available through the dedicated app store. For example, you could:

  • Employ Wobo to incorporate digital workbook features
  • Utilize Pointagram to introduce gamification elements to your courses
  • Leverage ThingLink for creating more interactive educational experiences

Thinkific uniquely distinguishes itself among hosted course platforms by offering such an expansive app marketplace. This allows it to successfully merge the operational simplicity characteristic of hosted solutions with the enhanced flexibility often associated with platforms like WordPress.

Delivering Your Course Materials

From the student’s viewpoint, Thinkific’s course delivery interface features a contemporary and aesthetically pleasing design.

Your video lessons, quizzes, and other educational materials are presented within the main area on the right side of the course player. Concurrently, a navigation panel displaying all course sections and individual lessons resides conveniently on the left.

Thinkific’s course player

Students also have access to a visual progress indicator and a search function specifically for locating required lessons, ensuring straightforward navigation throughout the course. Furthermore, an immersive full-screen mode is available, which conceals the navigation panel, thereby promoting a focused learning environment free from potential distractions.

Additionally, a dedicated discussion area accompanies every lesson, permitting both instructors and learners to contribute posts. These contributions can include titles, descriptive text, relevant hyperlinks, and even the inclusion of pertinent images to enhance communication.

A walkthrough of Thinkific’s course player

You possess a degree of control over the visual presentation of the course player, allowing you to select between a light or dark theme. Furthermore, you have the ability to define the primary color scheme and choose the typography utilized.

While the course player itself is designed to adapt seamlessly to mobile devices, Thinkific also provides complimentary mobile applications for your learners. Thinkific’s mobile application offers straightforward navigation, simplifying how students engage with your course content and community features using their phones or tablets.

Additionally, you have the option to acquire custom-branded mobile applications specifically for your educational platform, which Thinkific develops and manages entirely. These branded apps support both course access and community interaction, alongside enabling transactions directly within the application.

This premium service does involve an extra investment, yet we appreciate that Thinkific presents multiple choices in this area, catering to varying needs.

Thinkific mobile app’s interface

Thinkific further enhances content distribution through the capability to construct custom pages, populate them with various materials, and regulate viewership based on individual student purchases.

This particular functionality is quite beneficial for offering standalone content or developing exclusive resource sections accessible only to members, thereby strengthening Thinkific’s proposition as a robust platform for membership sites.

Summarizing Course Creation Features

Thinkific provides a straightforward, adaptable course construction tool compatible with diverse content types. Its student-facing interface is well-crafted, and the accompanying mobile application offers a convenient method for accessing materials while mobile.

Furthermore, it delivers potent instruments for interaction, including real-time classes, knowledge checks, practical exercises, certifications, sequential content release, and integrated community areas.

Altogether, Thinkific excels remarkably regarding facilitating learning and fostering student participation. It encompasses all the vital functionalities one would anticipate from a premier online course delivery system.

Site Design and Customization

Rating
Hosting
Unlimited
Custom Domain
Site Themes
Page Builder
Intermediate
Advanced Customization
Blogging
Podcasts
White-Labeling
Change Site Language
Modify Default Text

Site Appearance and Modification Capabilities

Site Appearance and Modification Capabilities

Contemporary online course systems typically incorporate functionalities for constructing a complete brand website. Within this segment, we will assess the site construction resources provided by Thinkific.

Focusing on the fundamental aspects, Thinkific delivers:

  • Comprehensive hosting services along with a complimentary SSL certificate for security.
  • Provision of a free subdomain name, coupled with the option to integrate your own custom domain.
  • Capability to customize standard website text and instantly switch the site’s language setting.
  • Option to eliminate Thinkific branding elements and present your educational platform under your own identity.

Let’s now delve into the specific tools available for building your site.

Site Design Templates

Thinkific’s collection of site designs includes three professionally crafted and contemporary templates. Furthermore, each of these templates offers several variations, which are termed styles.

All the available theme variations present markedly distinct aesthetics, effectively providing you with nine unique design options from which to select for your website.

Thinkific site themes

Upon settling on a design template, you retain the ability to adjust particular details throughout your website, including the color scheme applied to various site elements, the visual style of clickable buttons, and the chosen font pairings.

Furthermore, for users possessing advanced technical skills, Thinkific permits direct modification of the theme’s foundational code. It’s even feasible to construct an entirely bespoke theme and implement it for your digital platform.

Visual Editor

Selecting and setting up a theme represents merely the initial phase of your website creation journey. Following this, the task involves constructing your individual site pages, and Thinkific facilitates this with an intuitive drag-and-drop visual editor specifically for this purpose.

Upon navigating to the Website area within your Thinkific dashboard, you are presented with a comprehensive inventory of every page, which notably includes your specific course promotional pages. This section allows you to either initiate the development of a completely new page or modify one that already exists.

The interface for the visual editor is designed for ease of use; you will observe the various page components and related settings arranged on the left-hand side, while the main area on the right displays the actual content of the page as you build it.

This editor provides a selection of over 20 distinct page elements enabling you to assemble features like an engaging top banner, display your course outline, integrate call-to-action buttons, and much more. Once you incorporate an element, its specific configurations can be adjusted conveniently through the panel on the left.

Available page sections in Thinkific

Despite the availability of a reasonable number of sections, the editing possibilities offered for each one are somewhat restricted. In practice, every section includes its own specific set of parameters, meaning extensive adjustments to the layout aren’t really possible.

To give an example, when you incorporate the banner section, it displays elements like a background visual, the primary course titles, and the button for accessing product pricing details. You have the option to embed a video within this section too, but you lack the control to shift the video’s position relative to the text – it cannot be moved higher or lower. Additionally, inserting entirely new components into these existing sections is not supported.

Modifying a page section in Thinkific

Furthermore, the pages you construct are designed to adapt to mobile devices automatically, and the platform provides a feature within the site editor itself to preview how your content appears on smaller screens. Nevertheless, you do not have the capability to selectively display or conceal particular elements specifically for the mobile version of your website.

A significant advantage offered by Thinkific is the ability to utilize the page editor for modifying even the standard system pages, which include areas like the course collection display, the user sign-in page, and others.

In summary, the Thinkific page editor is quite intuitive to operate, allowing you to rapidly assemble an attractive landing page for your course. However, it may not meet the needs of users aiming to implement highly unique or completely customized page layouts.

If you’re interested in exploring the potential for your website’s appearance, feel free to review this comprehensive collection of Thinkific examples.

Website Building Summary

Thinkific’s website creation tool is straightforward to handle and provides the necessary tools for developing a visually appealing online course site.

You gain access to a collection of themes offering various design aesthetics. Additionally, the intuitive drag-and-drop page editor empowers you to construct and tailor your specific website pages.

Sales and Marketing

Rating
Product Pricing Options
Multiple
Coupons
Payment Gateways
Thinkific Payments + Stripe + PayPal
Checkout Process
1-Click Upsells
Sales Taxes
Affiliate Marketing
Marketing Funnels
Very Basic
Landing Pages & Popups
Webinars
Email Tools
Very Basic

Thinkific equips you with the fundamental sales and marketing tools required to expand your digital course enterprise. We will now delve into these capabilities more thoroughly.

Available Pricing Models

Using Thinkific grants you significant freedom in determining how you price and market your offerings, allowing you to choose the methods that best suit your strategy.

You have the option to present a single course for sale on its own, or alternatively, you can combine multiple courses and access to communities into attractive packages. If your goal is to provide different levels of access, creating several unique bundles and allocating specific products to each is entirely feasible.

Following that, you can establish the cost for your products through various distinct structures:

  • Complimentary access option
  • A single, upfront purchase fee
  • A recurring subscription structure
  • An installment plan with monthly payments

Focusing on subscriptions, you can set up billing cycles on either a monthly or yearly cadence. Additionally, the platform allows you to define a specific amount for the initial payment and to extend the benefit of a free trial period to prospective students.

Product pricing options

For one-time pricing, you can establish an enrollment duration that determines how long students maintain access to your course materials.

Additionally, you have the flexibility to create multiple pricing structures for identical courses or bundles. For instance, you might offer both one-time payment options and installment plans for your course. Likewise, you can provide monthly and annual subscription tiers for your membership community.

Thinkific’s platform empowers you to generate discount codes. You can implement either fixed-amount or percentage reductions on courses and bundles. The system also supports setting expiration dates and quantity limitations for your promotional offers.

The single limitation is the inability to customize currency at the individual product level. The platform currently supports just one sitewide currency setting.

Beyond this minor constraint, you maintain complete pricing freedom. You can market standalone courses as well as membership communities on Thinkific.

Payment Processing and Checkout Experience

Thinkific offers its native solution, Thinkific Payments, as the default payment gateway. This integrated service runs on Stripe infrastructure and delivers numerous advantages.

Beyond standard credit card transactions, the system accommodates digital wallet options including Apple Pay and Google Pay, plus various buy now pay later (BNPL) alternatives.

Furthermore, the platform handles tax collection and remittance automatically, simplifying your compliance with relevant tax regulations.

Users face no supplementary transaction charges beyond standard processing fees when utilizing this service. The system currently operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, European Union, Singapore, and additional territories.

Thinkific maintains compatibility with Stripe and PayPal payment processors. However, transactions through these alternative gateways incur an additional 0.5% to 5% fee. This surcharge is eliminated in regions where Thinkific Payments remains unavailable.

When examining the checkout experience, Thinkific implements a streamlined, single-step procedure where customers complete their payment first, then receive prompts to establish their account credentials.

A sample checkout page built on Thinkific

Thinkific automatically incorporates key branding elements like your logo and color scheme, creating a polished checkout interface without additional effort. You retain the ability to showcase testimonials, though further customization options for the checkout environment remain limited.

Additionally, Thinkific enables customers to register multiple participants for individual products or present your course as a gift to others. The platform also supports adding supplementary offers and single-click upgrade options throughout your purchase flow.

Partner Promotion Program

Thinkific provides integrated capabilities for establishing and overseeing your partner promotion initiative. The platform allows you to designate current users or enroll new individuals as promotional partners. You can register partners individually or import multiple participants simultaneously.

During program configuration, you can establish commission percentages and specify which courses or bundles you want partners to market on your behalf.

Upon enrollment, partners receive access to their dedicated control panel where they can retrieve promotional links and monitor their earnings and payment history.

Within your administrative interface, you can evaluate partner performance metrics and generate comprehensive reports for processing compensation distributions.

Thinkific affiliates payout report

However, Thinkific’s partner system does have several notable limitations:

  • The platform lacks an open enrollment portal for potential partners; you must manually register each participant yourself.
  • While you can customize commission rates for individual partners, the system doesn’t support setting different percentages at the product level.
  • The standard 30-day attribution window remains fixed with no adjustment options.

Despite these constraints, Thinkific’s partner promotion toolkit provides robust functionality that adequately serves the needs of most educational content creators.

Additional Marketing Capabilities

Thinkific has recently rolled out a comprehensive funnel-building capability. This innovation empowers educational entrepreneurs to rapidly assemble sequential landing pages that effectively guide prospective learners toward course enrollment.

The platform currently offers three distinct funnel frameworks, including Sample Lesson, Downloadable Resource, and Product Showcase funnels. After selecting your preferred funnel structure, Thinkific automatically generates the appropriate landing page sequence, which you can then enhance with your distinctive branding elements and personalized messaging.

Funnel types in Thinkific

However, this functionality faces significant constraints that currently limit its practical value:

  • The system prevents adding, removing, or rearranging pages within your conversion pathway, restricting you to the predefined funnel structures.
  • Users must work with a single standard template, while the editing interface for modifying funnel components offers minimal customization capabilities.

Beyond conversion pathways, Thinkific delivers several additional noteworthy marketing instruments:

  • Communication capabilities Thinkific manages essential automated messages like purchase confirmations and course achievement notifications while enabling broadcast communications to your student base. Though not replacing dedicated email platforms, these tools effectively support learner engagement.
  • Promotional elements The platform enables creation of embeddable promotional modules for your educational products, which can integrate with any external website and direct visitors to your course landing environment to finalize registration.

Sales and Marketing Final Assessment

Thinkific excels at revenue generation and promotional capabilities. Their flexible product pricing structure allows for multiple payment collection methods to accommodate your needs.

Their streamlined checkout experience is designed to maximize conversion rates, while providing essential online commerce tools including product bundles, discount codes, additional purchase offers, and partner marketing programs.

The Thinkific team has recently unveiled a sales funnel creation tool, though this functionality remains in its developmental phase.

Reporting and Administration

Analytics platforms provide crucial insights into your business performance and highlight potential growth areas, while administrative functions enable effective management of learners, educators, and other stakeholders connected to your enterprise.

Let’s examine how Thinkific delivers in these critical operational domains.

Reporting and Analytics

Thinkific offers a comprehensive analytics dashboard featuring several detailed report categories:

  • Marketing
  • Revenue
  • Orders
  • Enrollments
  • Engagement

Every report enables customizable time frame selection with data visualization options ranging from hourly breakdowns to yearly summaries. Additionally, you can refine your analysis using various filters such as product category, specific course titles, customer acquisition status, and partner performance metrics.

For example, the revenue dashboard displays financial performance during your selected timeframe. You can drill down into individual transaction details whenever necessary.

Thinkific also incorporates a subscription analytics section within this reporting suite, allowing you to monitor current subscription counts, monthly recurring revenue (MRR), average revenue per user (ARPU), and customer attrition statistics.

Thinkific revenue dashboard

For monitoring learner participation and advancement, utilize the Enrollments report. This dashboard displays individual student progression metrics with filtering capabilities by specific courses, learning cohorts, or completion percentages.

Meanwhile, the Engagement report provides comprehensive insights into overall learner interaction patterns, course content engagement levels, assessment performance analytics, video viewing statistics, and additional behavioral metrics. These analytics can be customized to focus on either individual courses or multiple program selections.

Thinkific’s student performance report

The most impressive aspect of these analytics dashboards is their visual presentation. Each report incorporates diverse graphical elements and data visualizations that enable quick information processing and insight discovery.

Without question, Thinkific delivers industry-leading reporting capabilities, and we anticipate their continued development of additional analytical tools.

People Management

Thinkific provides a dedicated interface titled All Users located within the Users navigation menu, displaying a comprehensive registry of every learner enrolled in your educational platform.

The system offers sophisticated filtering mechanisms enabling precise learner segmentation based on multiple criteria. You can also save these custom filters as favorites for convenient access in subsequent sessions.

Thinkific user section

When administering learner accounts, several bulk operations are accessible. After selecting either all users or applying specific filters, you can perform any of these administrative functions:

  • Distributing communications
  • Enrolling or removing participants from cohorts
  • Granting or revoking access to specific courses/packages
  • Generating participant data reports

Additionally, you can examine individual user journeys in detail, including personal information, course enrollments, platform interactions, group memberships, and assessment response data.

For onboarding new participants, two methodologies exist: manual individual registration or mass enrollment through CSV file upload.

Groups

The Groups functionality represents a distinctive Thinkific offering that enables learner categorization into structured teams while facilitating enterprise-level course sales to organizations.

Upon establishing a new group, you can create a specialized enrollment URL. Any participant registering through this link gains automatic group membership. Alternative enrollment methods include mass user importation and individual manual additions.

Thinkific’s Groups feature

We appreciate how Thinkific provides dedicated group progress monitoring capabilities. You can also designate Group Analysts who have permissions to oversee students and generate these detailed reports.

Whether you need to organize groups at the corporate or departmental level, Thinkific accommodates both structures. This versatility makes Thinkific an exceptional choice when marketing educational content to corporations and institutions.

Team Member Access

Setting up user permissions works exceptionally smoothly in Thinkific. When registering a new team member, you can designate them with one of these four administrative permission levels:

  • Site Admins receive comprehensive platform control but cannot transfer ownership rights, access financial reports, or adjust payment system connections.
  • Course Admins possess abilities to develop fresh curriculum and include instructors. They maintain editing privileges, student performance monitoring, and discussion forum oversight for their designated courses.
  • Group Analysts hold responsibilities for student management and learning progression tracking within their assigned student groups.
  • Revenue Partners receive allocated portions of your educational content earnings. This feature proves valuable when featuring third-party courses within your educational ecosystem.

From every angle, Thinkific delivers exceptional analytics and management capabilities, leaving absolutely nothing to be desired in this department.

Thinkific Integration Marketplace

Thinkific stands alone among hosted educational platforms by providing an comprehensive integration marketplace. We’ve referenced this feature several times throughout our Thinkific evaluation, but now we’ll delve into greater detail about its capabilities.

While the marketplace includes connections to standard services like Zapier, Google Analytics, and various email marketing tools, it transcends being merely a collection of integrations. Instead, external developers can create specialized applications, which represents the platform’s primary vision.

The fundamental purpose behind this approach enables content creators to enhance functionality without depending on Thinkific’s development timeline or investing in custom programming solutions.

The Thinkific integration ecosystem currently features over 90 complimentary and premium applications that help elevate learner engagement, streamline your promotional efforts, and accomplish numerous additional objectives.

Thinkific App Store

Here are several illustrative integrations demonstrating how they can enhance your educational platform’s capabilities:

  • Omnisearch enables learners to conduct comprehensive searches within video content, PDF documents, and various lesson materials.
  • Circle SSO facilitates seamless connection between Thinkific and Circle to incorporate robust community engagement features.
  • Shopify integration allows course monetization through its advanced commerce platform while maintaining content delivery through Thinkific.
  • Flix transforms your student interface into an engaging streaming experience reminiscent of popular entertainment platforms.

Numerous additional integrations exist beyond these examples, and should you require functionality not inherently available, you’ll likely discover a solution through Thinkific’s integration marketplace. No competing educational platform has developed such a comprehensive ecosystem surrounding their core product, representing a truly revolutionary advancement.

Client Assistance

Educational platforms offer various assistance channels for their customers, and in this segment, we’ll examine the support options Thinkific provides.

Initially, Thinkific maintains an extensive knowledge base containing over 800 instructional resources addressing every component of their platform.

Should you require additional guidance beyond these self-service materials, you can reach their support team through email correspondence, telephone consultation, or instant messaging. The real-time chat support operates weekdays from 6 am until 5 pm Pacific Standard Time.

Customer support options

Thinkific client assistance personnel demonstrate exceptional courtesy and promptness, and our interactions with their team have consistently exceeded expectations.

An additional support avenue exists through Thinkific’s Facebook community, where members can pose inquiries and connect with fellow platform users.

Furthermore, subscribers gain access to Thinkific Academy, offering complimentary educational resources designed to help develop and expand your digital education enterprise.

Additionally, Thinkific maintains a professional directory where you can engage specialized consultants with expertise across various operational domains.

Subscription Options

Thinkific’s subscription structure offers remarkable adaptability and value. The platform includes a complimentary tier, positioning it among the select educational platforms available without cost.

The no-cost option enables you to develop a single curriculum, although it places no restrictions on content storage capacity or student enrollment numbers.

Beyond the complimentary option, Thinkific presents four premium subscription levels:

  • The Basic subscription ($49/month) accommodates personalized domains and fundamental course development tools (assessments and scheduled content delivery) making it appropriate for newcomers with limited financial resources.
  • The Start subscription ($99/month) encompasses all essential course creation functionalities (including completion certificates, homework evaluation, interactive sessions, and mobile applications) representing their most frequently selected package.
  • The Grow subscription ($199/month) delivers sophisticated capabilities (such as developer interface access and eliminating Thinkific brand elements) perfectly suited for expanding educational businesses.
  • The Expand subscription ($499/month) furnishes additional administrative user accounts ideal for larger educational enterprises.

Thinkific’s pricing plans

Thinkific applies no processing surcharges when utilizing their standard payment processing system. However, should you implement your personal Stripe/PayPal integration, they assess a 5% fee with Basic subscriptions, 2% with Start subscriptions, and 1% with Grow subscriptions.

Importantly, all premium subscriptions support unlimited learner enrollment and curriculum offerings, enabling you to establish a comprehensive digital learning institution.

Furthermore, Thinkific provides a customized application enhancement available for an additional $199/month beyond your selected subscription level.

Thinkific delivers subscription options appropriate for every operational scale. Regardless of whether you’re just launching your educational venture or operating an established enterprise, you’ll discover a package perfectly aligned with your operational requirements.

Thinkific Compared to Alternative Platforms

Before wrapping up this Thinkific evaluation, it’s essential to understand how the platform measures up against its rivals.

Teachable represents Thinkific’s primary competitor. Though these platforms share similar capabilities, Thinkific delivers superior options for course development and student interaction. It features enhanced evaluation tools, real-time class sessions, and dedicated mobile applications.

Even regarding website building and management capabilities, Thinkific clearly outperforms. Additionally, it provides more budget-friendly pricing across all subscription levels. Explore our comprehensive Thinkific vs Teachable analysis for additional insights.

Kajabi follows as an integrated online course solution. While Kajabi offers impressive course creation functionality, it truly excels with its robust collection of sales and marketing resources for blogging, podcast hosting, conversion funnels, email campaigns, and workflow automations.

Consequently, content creators typically select Kajabi over Thinkific when seeking to manage their entire online education business within a single platform. Discover our detailed Thinkific vs Kajabi comparison for complete details.

Thinkific Assessment Concluding Perspective

Thinkific stands unquestionably as the premier independent online course solution available today!

The platform boasts exceptional course development capabilities, including a highly adaptable course construction tool, thoughtfully engineered content delivery interface, dedicated mobile applications, integrated Zoom learning sessions, comprehensive assessment options, and robust community building functionality.

Furthermore, it delivers powerful tools for designing effective course sales pages, processing transactions and revenue collection, and managing your promotional partner network.

The platform also features a specialized application marketplace, providing truly the best combination of benefits. Users enjoy both the simplicity of a hosted learning platform and the customization potential typically associated with WordPress.

In conclusion, Thinkific ranks as our highest recommendation for educators seeking to develop and market engaging digital learning experiences, and we wholeheartedly suggest exploring what it has to offer.

We trust this Thinkific evaluation provided valuable insights for your needs. Please feel free to share your thoughts or inquiries in the comments section below.

4.7

Ease of Use
Course Creation
Website Building
Sales & Marketing
Customer Support
Pricing

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Frequently Asked Questions

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About The Author

Daniel Nic

Daniel NicFounder, SellingOnliceCoursesGuide.comis an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.

Related Post

Daniel Nic

Daniel Nic is an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.

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