Thinkific stands out as a premier platform dedicated to course development, while WordPress holds the title of the most widely used content management system on the internet.

A large number of creators leverage both Thinkific and WordPress concurrently. They typically employ Thinkific to manage their educational courses and membership programs, while utilizing WordPress for establishing their blogs and constructing marketing pathways.

Therefore, the question arises: how can these two distinct platforms be effectively connected? What available methods exist for integrating them seamlessly?

Within this instructional guide, we will explore the various approaches available for linking your Thinkific and WordPress sites, providing straightforward steps to accomplish this integration effortlessly.

1. Establish a Navigation Link to Your Thinkific Site

Suppose you operate a primary website using WordPress and intend to construct your online educational hub with Thinkific, or perhaps the reverse situation applies.

Your objective is to facilitate a smooth and uninterrupted experience for users navigating between your main web presence and your dedicated course platform.

So, what is the recommended method for achieving this?

The process is remarkably straightforward. Simply incorporate a direct link pointing to your Thinkific site within the navigation menus located in both the header and footer sections of your WordPress website. This ensures that individuals visiting your site can reach your online course offerings through just one click.

To enhance clarity and user understanding, it’s beneficial to use descriptive anchor text, such as “courses,” clearly indicating the destination of the link. Additionally, designing a visually prominent button can help ensure that visitors easily notice and engage with your course materials.

The illustration provided below demonstrates an instance of a hyperlink from a WordPress-based site leading directly to its associated Thinkific school environment.

You can further enhance the integration by incorporating a link on your course platform that conveniently guides users back to your primary website.

To implement this, access the Design Your Website → Site Pages section within your Thinkific administration panel and select the specific page you want to modify. Upon entering the page editing interface, click on the Header component, and it is here that you can embed the hyperlink leading back to your WordPress site.

Beyond establishing the actual connection, it is also highly recommended to strive for a unified brand presentation across both platforms. This consistency ensures that visitors can navigate between your websites smoothly, without experiencing confusion or disorientation.

Here are several branding suggestions to consider:

• Host your Thinkific school on a subdomain associated with your primary website domain. For instance, the website showcased earlier utilizes the subdomain courses.kylieminteriors.ca for improved continuity.
• Endeavor to align the color palettes, logo usage, and header designs on both your Thinkific platform and your WordPress site for visual coherence.
• Evaluate the option of applying white-labeling to your Thinkific educational site to further reinforce your brand identity.

2. Connect WordPress Sales Pages to Thinkific Checkout

Although Thinkific provides a capable page construction tool suitable for crafting your sales pages, it may not offer the extensive customization capabilities found in dedicated WordPress page builders, such as Elementor.

Consequently, numerous Thinkific-powered educational sites opt to employ WordPress for their sales page creation as well. Nevertheless, the actual transaction processing is typically managed through the Thinkific system.

To guarantee an uninterrupted purchasing experience for your clientele, you will need to establish a link from your WordPress-hosted sales page directly to the corresponding Thinkific checkout sequence.

To retrieve the specific checkout URL for your course, navigate within your Thinkific dashboard by selecting Manage Learning Products → Courses, and then choose the particular course for which you require the checkout link.

Upon clicking the course selection, you will be directed to the course editing interface. From this point, proceed to the Pricing tab; it is within this section that you will locate the Copy Link function.

Retrieve the URL, navigate to your preferred WordPress page editing tool, and assign the copied link to the designated buttons on your sales page. As a result, individuals who click these specific buttons will be immediately forwarded to your Thinkific checkout interface.

You are relieved from the task of establishing account creation mechanisms or course entry permissions within the WordPress environment, given that the payment processing aspect is managed entirely through Thinkific.

Thus, when a visitor transitions from your WordPress platform to Thinkific, they will be granted admission to the course you’ve guided them towards, and concurrently, they will complete the account setup procedure during the checkout steps.

3. Utilize Thinkific’s Sales Widgets Feature

Now, if you desire to highlight your educational programs in significant areas across your WordPress website, you have the option to leverage Thinkific’s Sales Widget feature. This particular widget is exceptionally well-suited for presenting your course details within your blog’s sidebar area, on your primary homepage, at the conclusion of blog articles, and in other appropriate sections throughout your site.

To initiate this, access your Thinkific administrative panel and navigate to the “Sales widgets” selection located within the Market & Sell division.

This action will launch the Sales Widget configuration area, presenting you with a sequence of available options:

• Identify the specific product for which you intend to generate a widget.
• Determine the particular components you wish to feature, such as textual content, visual images, or interactive buttons.
• Personalize the colors for the background, buttons, and accompanying text to align with your branding.
• Specify the target destination for the button click, for instance, directing users to the online course landing page or initiating the checkout process.

Upon completing the customization of your widget, proceed by clicking the Generate Code Snippet button and then copy the provided HTML code.

The final step involves inserting this copied code snippet into the desired location on your WordPress site where you intend for the widget to appear.

4. Connect WooCommerce and Thinkific Using Zapier

Unlike platforms such as Shopify, Thinkific does not incorporate a comprehensive shopping cart system that permits users to gather multiple items into their cart for a single combined purchase. Rather, it generates a distinct checkout page dedicated to each individual course or bundled offering.

Should you wish to introduce shopping cart capabilities to your educational platform, this can be accomplished by employing WooCommerce, a powerful eCommerce extension designed for WordPress. Under this arrangement, payment transactions would be transitioned to WooCommerce, while your Thinkific site continues to serve as the host for the member access area, and the integration between these two systems would be facilitated through Zapier.

To set up the integration, go to your Zapier account and create a new Zap. Make sure to select WooCommerce as the trigger app and select an event (e.g., Order).

The action will be at Thinkific’s end and select Enroll User, so when a user makes a purchase through WooCommerce, you can automatically grant access to purchased courses or bundles.

That’s it!

5. Set Up a Single Sign-on Between WordPress and Thinkific

So far, we’ve discussed the scenarios in which the user database is in Thinkific.

But what if you have an existing user database in WordPress that you don’t want to move to Thinkific for some reason? In this case, you can use Thinkific’s single sign-on functionality to allow users to access your Thinkific school using their WordPress credentials.

For this to work, you need to enable Single sign-on from your Thinkific account by going to Settings → Orders and Accounts → SSO.

After activating this capability, you have the option to utilize WooNinja’s dedicated WordPress plugin, which facilitates a login process for your Thinkific students without requiring passwords.

As another possibility, engaging a skilled developer allows you to construct a tailored Single Sign-On bridge connecting WordPress and Thinkific specifically for your needs.

Conclusion

Multiple pathways exist for establishing a connection between Thinkific and WordPress, and the specific method you select will hinge upon your particular circumstances and requirements.

Should your current web presence or blog operate on the WordPress platform, linking conveniently to your Thinkific site directly from your navigation menu, various WordPress pages, and other strategic locations is straightforward. Additionally, integrating Thinkific with WooCommerce through Zapier is a viable approach, as is implementing a Single Sign-On system which enables users to access your course platform utilizing their established WordPress login details.

This implies that a choice between the two isn’t necessary; instead, you can effectively have both a WordPress site and a Thinkific site functioning in unison to serve your audience.

For those who have yet to delve into Thinkific and examine its features for course creation, you are invited to begin this exploration by selecting the button provided below.