Thinkific Review - Best Online Course Creation Platform of 2023?

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Thinkific Review 2023: Key Features

Who is it Designed For?

Detailed Thinkific Review: Why Do Its Features Stand Out?

The corporate online learning market is estimated to reach USD37 billion by 2026 and this excludes student enrollments. This clearly shows the huge earning potential of selling online courses, provided you have the right tools.

If you want to make money off of online courses, Thinkific is definitely one of the best online course platforms you want to bet on. That is precisely why I decided to write this Thinkific review 2023.

How can I be so sure?

It’s because I’ve used any number of online course platforms, and Thinkific has emerged as an undisputable winner.

There are two core features that especially set Thinkific’s online course platform apart from its competitor tools.

Firstly, Thinkific is one of the few best e-learning platforms that has a truly free version. It allows you to make up to 3 online courses, market them, and sell them completely free of cost. I’ll cover the details of the free plan later in this Thinkific review.

Over the course of time, if you feel the need to access more features, you can upgrade your plan to a paid version of this online course platform.

How awesome is that?

Secondly, the level of customization Thinkific offers is almost unreal. From online courses to branding to site themes and landing pages, you can edit pretty much everything on this online course platform as per your whims and fancies. Don’t worry, you’ll get all the details you need in this detailed Thinkific review 2023.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

As you keep reading this Thinkific review 2023, you’ll discover the rest of Thinkific’s spectacular features. Let’s continue reviewing this online course platform.

I’ll lay it all out—the pros, the cons, as well as how to use each feature, in this Thinkific review 2023.

Note that this Thinkific review 2023 will present my opinions and my experiences with the platform.

My goal for this Thinkific review 2023 is simply to give you a clear idea of what Thinkific as an online course platform can do. Hopefully, this Thinkific review 2023 will help you decide if the platform is a good investment for you.

Now, it might be difficult to cover all of Thinkific’s features in this review simply because there are far too many.

But I’ll try my best to include the most important ones in this Thinkific review 2023.

Ready to get started?

Let’s dive right in.

Getting Started

First things first, start by creating an account on Thinkific, a leading online course platform.

The process is simple and demands minimum details, viz. your name, email ID, and a password of your choice.

Depending on your needs, you can either create a Thinkific free account or choose a paid plan.

As for me, I started with a free one, and tell you what?

It did not disappoint like free versions of several other course creation tools. Another reason why I was so motivated to write this Thinkific review 2023.

Don’t believe me?

Once you have your account on this online course platform, this is what your screen will look like:

It may help to take a quick look at the admin dashboard on the left. This is where you can access all of Thinkific’s core features.

Let’s discuss everything that you can do with this tool, as part of this Thinkific review 2023.

1. Build Online Courses

This feature is where I think Thinkific, a top online course platform, really shines.

To start building your first online course using this platform, you need to click on ‘Manage Content Learning’ and then ‘Courses’.

Now, you can either build an online course from scratch or plan to make use of one of Thinkific’s templates. These different templates are carefully designed keeping in mind most course creators’ needs and assist them in content creation.

At the moment, Thinkific offers 6 different templates that you can access to build your course by going to ‘+ New Course’.

You will then get the option to choose from the available templates on this online course platform.

Thinkific offers the following six different template options to create a new online course:

• Blank Course: This is the template that you should choose if you want to upload your own content and create an online course from scratch. It has a bulk import option that will make your content creation job a lot easier.
• Mini-Course: Using this template you can create a short free or low-cost online course aimed at building an audience. Think of it as a lead magnet to attract new students and engage them enough to join longer paid courses.
• Pre-Sell Course: If you want to make students enroll for your online course before you officially launch the online course, then this template is what you need. Make use of this you can show some elements of the course to pique interest and get early enrolments.

• Flagship Course: This is the template that you need to use to create your premium courses. Such online courses often come with extra add-ons like coaching services or physical products.
• Membership Resource Library: If you want to offer your students a membership bundle with tons of useful content, you can make use this template. This is something that you can offer as a bonus when you build a premium course or subscription program.

• Webinar Replay: If you host webinars, it is prudent to save those so that people can rewatch them later. This is the template designed to help you do just that.

Once you have chosen a Thinkific’s template, you can customize it to your heart’s content.

You can add, delete, and rearrange chapters and lessons. Also, don’t forget to add visual elements like engaging graphics to make the content for your online course more interesting.

What’s more, lessons that are works in progress can be added as drafts in the course. Though the online course builder is fairly easy to use, I must add for the sake of an honest Thinkific review that you will take a bit of time to make yourself comfortable and use it like a pro.

However, if you have ever worked on different content systems like WordPress, then you’ll find working on the Thinkific, an online course platform extremely easy.

Let’s pace this Thinkific review 2023 up a little bit and talk about creating the Chapters.

For the record, you can call Chapters on Thinkific platform whatever you like—Modules, Lessons, or something entirely different.

Simply click on the “Add Chapter” option, name your online course, and start making the content for a new chapter. Yes, building a chapter is as simple as that.

To each lesson that you make, you can add videos, quizzes, surveys, audio tracks, and more, as can be seen in the screenshot below.

To make this a truly detailed Thinkific review, let’s discuss each of these different elements in more detail.

Video: Create and upload video files to add to your online course and save them in the resource library for future reuse. Don’t forget to use a good video editing software solution to create high-quality videos.

Quiz: Build quizzes to make your online courses more interactive and keep the students engaged.

Multimedia: Link to different online content like webinars, presentations, Google Docs, or any other type of content that is not hosted on Thinkific’s online course platform.

Text: Add all the main content of the course using this option.

Survey: Go here to add an online survey to seek feedback from your students on how they found your online course.

PDF: If you want to add a PDF file as one of the free resources that you want to provide your students, you can make use of this option.

Audio: Add audio files to go with the other content on your online course.

Download: If you want to make certain free resources available for download by students, then you can go here and upload.

Presentation: If you want to upload different presentations on Thinkific’s online course platform you’ll need to convert the content into a PDF file and add or record corresponding audio files.

Brillium Exam: Get a Brillium license (separate from Thinkific) and add an exam at the end of your online course to test your students’ learning.

Assignment: If you don’t want to invest in a Brillium exam you can still receive completed test assignments using this Thinkific feature. This option basically allows your students to upload their assignment files on the online course platform.

Live: This feature allows you to schedule live online classes by integrating with tools like Zoom Meetings or Zoom Webinars. Simply connect your Zoom account and use this awesome feature.

I absolutely love the kind of versatility offered here by Thinkific, one of the top online course platforms!

In case you have these lessons created in the form of any multimedia on another program, you can simply drag and upload it to Thinkific online course platform through the ‘Bulk Importer’ option. Also, don’t forget to audit your content before you upload it on this online course platform.

My suggestion here?

Don’t be afraid to play around with different forms of content to make your online course unique.

In fact, Thinkific users’ success stories say the same. Let’s discuss one such success story to make this Thinkific review 2023 more authentic.

Kat Norton is a course creator at Thinkific who is already making over $20K a month using this online course platform.

Yes, you read that right.

She harnessed the power of webinars to reach this number.

In the words of Norton, “When I do webinars, hundreds of sales come in at once. The automated enrollment and payment collection process has been critical for keeping up with the volume. I also love how easy it is to create new courses on Thinkific. The platform allows me to stay creative with all the different content types available and user-friendly site-building features.”

BTW, throughout the process of building a course, the platform offers smart coach course building tips, ensuring you’re never left in the dark.

Isn’t that great?

Now, onto the last steps of building your online course on Thinkific, a top online course platform…

By hovering over to the ‘Settings’ tab, you can customize your online courses using parameters like:

• Course name
• Course URL
• Choosing an instructor (Thinkific allows you to create numerous Instructor profiles that can include their name, email, title, bio, and image)
• Uploading the course image
• And much more…

As this Thinkific review moves forward, let's discuss paid plans.

Now, if you’ve opted for a paid plan on this online course platform, you’re naturally going to want to make the most of it, right?

One of the ways you can do this is by controlling when students will have access to your course content using the Drip feature.

Finally, it’s time to set the price of your course on Thinkific platform.

While doing this you’ll have several pricing options:

• Free: Make good use of this to offer free content to your students. This is useful for short courses of lead magnets that can help you build brand awareness.
• One-Time Payment: You can receive a one-time payment to give students either one-time access to the course or set a duration for which they can access the content. Many may opt for this paid option.
• Subscription: Charge students a recurring monthly fee for access to courses and other useful content.
• Payment Plan: If you offer a long, premium, paid course on this platform, then you can allow students to break the cost and make monthly payments.
• Additional Pricing: If you want to offer multiple pricing options for the same course, then you can make use of this feature.

Review these options on the tool and choose the price that suits you best. But remember that the options available to you will depend on the kind of paid plan you’ve subscribed to.

P.S: The core features of building a course I’ve explained in this Thinkific review 2023 simply scratch the surface. There’s so much more to it, and I’d highly recommend spending some time on the online course platform before you publish your course content.

Don’t—and I repeat—don’t rush the process.

You’ll thank me later.

Now, as from my experience, choosing an online course price can be tricky. And I want to share my learnings through this Thinkific review 2023.

You want to make sure you get a good number of sign-ups on the online course platform, while you also make sure you’re not undervaluing your online course. I recommend using the mini-course option as a lead magnet to build some credibility and then launch a premium paid online course.

That’s all for this section of the Thinkific review 2023.

Curious to learn what you will find in the next part of this Thinkific review?

Keep reading.

How to Make Quizzes Using Thinkific Platform

Adding quizzes to your online courses helps make them more engaging and interactive for students. You can also test their level of learning. That is why I thought that this deserved a separate section in this Thinkific review 2023.

So, let’s get right to it in this Thinkific review 2023 and discuss how to create a quiz on Thinkific, your favourite online course platform.

Quizzes on this online course platform can have one or more answers and are in the multiple-choice format. So, you can ask a question and then add multiple answers, one or more of which can be right.

Here’s what you need to do:

• Go to the “Manage Learning Content” tab and choose “Courses”

• Thinkific, as an online course platform, allows course in which you want to add a quiz from the options given
• Go to the Curriculum tab and select the “Add Lesson” option

• Choose Quiz from the various options
• Enter a title for your quiz
• Choose whether your question will have one or multiple correct answers

• Write your question and provide the multiple answer choices
• Repeat this for adding multiple questions to your quiz

Liking this portion of the Thinkific review 2023 so far?

It’s not over yet.

There are some other quiz options available for you on this online course platform. For example, you can choose whether taking the quiz is mandatory to complete the online course or if students can skip it.

You can also make it necessary for students to get a passing grade for a quiz before they can move further. Let me quickly touch upon this in our Thinkific review 2023. Here are all the options available for you:

But what if you already have created a quiz and don’t want to put an extra effort to create another one on this online course platform?

In that case, you can make use of the “Import Questions” option and upload an XLSX file. You can also download their XLSX template and create a quiz using that and simply import it to this online course platform.

That marks the end of this section of the Thinkific review 2023.

What’s next?

Well, next on this Thinkific review, I will discuss how you can give online course completion certificates to your students.

Course Completion Certificates

For this section of the Thinkific review 2023, I will focus on how to get online course completion certificates for your students to reward their learning.

It is simple: Thinkific, as a comprehensive online course platform, provides seamless integration with Accredible for course completion certificates. You simply need a Pro or higher paid plan to access this smart feature that will make your online courses more credible.

As a course creator, how can you add a certificate to your online course?

Simply go to the “Settings” tab in the online course builder and click on the “Course progress & completion” option. You will find the option to add an online course completion certificate.

Pro Tip: Add course completion certificates to add more value to your online courses and also give your students a sense of accomplishment.

2. Design Your Website

So you’re done with the first step of how to create a sellable online course.

What’s next in this Thinkific review 2023?

It’s time to create a crisp website to showcase your course.

After all, a striking website is an effective way to draw potential students to your online course.

So, what are the steps to create a website on Thinkific online course platform?

Let me show you in this Thinkific review 2023!

To get started, head over to the ‘Design Your Site’ tab on the admin dashboard.

What’s best is that Thinkific doesn’t require any coding to build a website. It’s as simple as it can get.

No kidding!

Now, before you get to building your website on this online course platform, I’d highly suggest picking a theme. Let’s discuss that next in this Thinkific review.

Choose A Theme of Your Choice

The content of your course may be amazing, but is it going to attract students if your website isn’t visually appealing?

Maybe not.

A visually appealing theme with great graphics will definitely help you get higher conversion rates.

Lucky for you, Thinkific’s Site Builder offers three responsive themes that suit all types of content.

Let me briefly touch upon this in my Thinkific review.

You can explore these under the ‘Theme Library’ tab.

The three themes on the online course platform are named Vision, Empire, and Vogue, all of which are available in 3-4 different styles.

Wait—what does a style mean?

Simply explained, a change in style will bring about changes in color and font selections within the chosen theme.

For example, here are four styles available for the Empire theme.

Important to note here is that changing a theme resets content. So, if you choose the Vision theme, build a home page, and then switch to the Empire theme, you’ll have to start building the home page from scratch.

Yep—don’t make that mistake.

If you want to go the extra mile with your site theme, you can customize it in the HTML and CSS editor. Needless to say, this will need you to know how to code.

However, it is worth mentioning in this Thinkific review 2023 that this option isn’t available for free versions.

My advice?

If you’re just starting off on this online course platform, keep things simple.

Thinkific’s themes are quite rocking without any coding. Here’s a sneak peek into the Empire theme:

Pretty, right?!

Keep it simple and use one of the themes and styles available on Thinkific’s platform. Trust me, that’s all the customization you need to make for your online courses.

Liking this Thinkific review 2023 so far?

Then stick around to find more useful information in the following sections of this Thinkific review 2023.

Customize Your Landing Page

The reason why I use the word ‘customize’ is because for every online course you create, Thinkific, online course platform, automatically creates a landing page for you.

Awesome, right?

Let’s continue further with this Thinkific review 2023 and understand how to customize your landing page.

To start fine-tuning your course landing page, head over to the tab ‘Site Builder’ under the tab ‘Design Your Site’. Then, click on ‘Courses’ and choose the online course you want to start working on.

Here’s what your screen should look like on this online course platform:

A shortcut to get to the landing page is to simply click on ‘Build Landing Page’ at the top right corner of your screen when you go on to create your online course.

Remember that building a compelling landing page is a great way to leave leads in no doubt about signing up for your online course.

How, you may ask?

My recommendation is to start by editing your Header and Footer on this online course platform.

Some of the edits you can make in the landing page are as follows:

• Add/change the logo
• Play around with the page’s style and alignment

Neat, right?

You’ll also notice that there are some links in the Header.

These can be used to link to other pages on your course website or to any other page on the internet.

Are you liking this online course platform already?

You can make edits to the landing pages you want to link to under the ‘Blocks’ tab on your admin dashboard.

Once you’re satisfied with your page’s header and footer, move on to the next stage of landing page optimization.

As for the banner of your landing page, you can add a suitable hero image, and of course, experiment with different headings, colors, and styles.

I’m sure you know the drill by now.

You’ll notice that the Curriculum tab says ‘Smart Section’.

In layman’s words, ‘Smart’ implies that this section will update automatically for you. That’s yet another cool feature of this online course platform.

I am keeping this Thinkific review 2023 as fun and simple as possible to help you understand each and every element of the landing page.

For instance, if you add a new lesson to your curriculum, it will automatically show on your landing page.

Talk about the beauty of technology!

Thinkific, a top online course platform, lets you customize pretty much everything on your landing page.

What’s next in this Thinkific review 2023?

You can also add extra sections to your landing page by clicking ‘+ Add Section’. A bunch of options will then pop up on your screen.

I always make sure to add a compelling CTA on the landing page, so that I can direct my students to a page of my choice.

P.S: Make sure you hit ‘Save’ every time you make any change on this online course platform.

I’d hate for you to lose any of your work!

Now, if you’re feeling overwhelmed by any of this, don’t worry.

Should you run into any problem while crafting your landing page, simply head over to the little ‘HELP’ tab on the left bottom corner of your screen.

This will open up Thinkific’s Help Center which should sort out any queries you have regarding the landing page.

Now that's great news for everyone reading this Thinkific review 2023.

Build Your Homepage

What’s next in this Thinkific review 2023?

Building your website’s homepage on this online course platform.

Simply put, a website’s homepage is your online course’s digital storefront.

It introduces who you are, what your online course is about, and what students can expect from it. Figuratively speaking, it is the face of your website.

With Thinkific online course platform, I found building a homepage the way I want it pretty straightforward.

We’ve already covered landing pages earlier.

Building and customizing a homepage for your website is not too different.

So, I’m simply going to skim through this one, since we’ve got many more Thinkific features to cover in this Thinkific review.

To get started, click on ‘Home page’ in your Site Builder.

Here, you can change your pages’ header and footer, and upload an attractive banner with compelling copy.

The All products section is a smart section on this online course platform, meaning it will get populated automatically every time you publish an online course.

Here, you can customize the number of online courses displayed.

You can also update section headings and adjust alignment.

And if you limit the number of online courses displayed, you can include a button that directs users to a website page where all your online courses can be viewed on this online course platform.

Custom Pages

The next on this Thinkific review 2023 is the process to create custom pages.

Thinkific’s Site Builder has a set of default pages that serve the core functionality of your website. Some examples of such pages are:

• Sign In
• Sign Out
• Coming Soon page
• Student Certification page

Good thing is, you are not limited to these pages on this online course platform!

You can create any number of additional pages for your website by hovering over to the ‘Custom Pages’ tab in your Site Builder.

This option is ideal if you want to enrich your website with an FAQ page, an About Me page, a Contact Me page, etc.

You can also create custom pages that only students signed up for your course can access.

Isnt this online course platform cool?

And that’s it for this section of the Thinkific review!

You are now equipped with the basics of building your site on Thinkific online course platform.

Easy, right?

For this part of the Thinkific review, let me give you some bonus tips and features for building your website on this online course platform.

Bonus Features

This Thinkific review would be incomplete without the mention of these amazing features of this online course platform that further enhance its site-building capabilities.

Here are some additional features that you can access on this online course platform:

• Whitelabeling – You can buy the “Growth” add-on with the Pro plan to remove Thinkific branding and add your custom branding. I’ll discuss the Growth pack in more detail in the “Pricing” review.
• Custom URL – When you build a website using Thinkific’s free plan, by default you will get a site URL with a thinkific.com address. However, if you buy any paid plan on this online course platform, you have the option to get a custom URL.

With that, I’ll conclude this part of the Thinkific review.

Pro Tip: There’s a hack for if you ever want to go back to a previous version of your theme on this online course platform. Simply head to the Theme Library, and modify your URL to /manage/theme_installation_versions. Here, you can access all the previous versions of the themes you ever used on your Thinkific online course platform.

3. Market and Sell Your Courses

This section of the Thinkific review 2023 deals with marketing and promoting your online courses.

For several course creators, marketing their online course can be harder than creating it itself.

If you’re one of them, I hear you.

Lucky for you, Thinkific, as a top online course platform, provides immense support for its users to generate leads for their online courses.

And that’s not it.

The platform also offers several key features that will make your course developed on Thinkific online course platform more sellable than it already is.

Since there are far too many marketing features, I’m only going to cover two of them here, for this part of the Thinkific review.

Coupons

What’s one of the most effective marketing techniques to promote your online courses?

You know it…

Offers and discounts.

After all, who doesn’t like a bargain?

To run special promotions for your online course, you can avail of Thinkific’s Coupons feature.

So, how do you create a coupon?

Like the rest of Thinkific’s features, this one’s super easy to implement too.

Under the ‘Market and Sell’ tab of your admin dashboard, select ‘Coupons.’

Now, you’ve got to start filling in details such as the coupon name and its expiry date (optional).

This review touches upon the steps too.

Some of your next steps will involve the following:

• Choosing a discount type (fixed discount or percentage discount)
• Selecting the products you want to discount
• Entering a coupon duration
• Picking a unique code that students can apply to receive their discount
• Specifying the number of times a code can be used (optional)

However, note that the Coupons feature isn’t available with the Free plan.

You have to subscribe for a paid plan.

Good thing is, Thinkific, a top online course platform, offers users 1month free trials on the higher-tier plans.

I am sure you are enjoying this Thinkific review.

Sales Widgets

These are small cards that you can place on a website to allow people to buy your courses from anywhere. This marketing technique works well, I must say. You can choose to create it only in the button form or can add the course image and price as well.

This feature allows you to promote your courses on multiple websites and get enrollments directly from there.

We are touching upon some interesting features of this online course platform on this Thinkific review, aren’t we?

Affiliates

For this part of the Thinkific review, I am going to reveal something big:

You can set up affiliates directly from the Thinkific online course platform.

How?

Here’s a step-by-step guide:

• Go to the “Users” tab under “Support Your Students” on this online course platform

• Choose a user who you want to make an affiliate
• Click on “Edit” and choose user role as “Affiliate”

• Choose their commission and save

But why should you set up affiliates on your website in the first place? Because they contribute to your marketing strategy.

Well, ensuring that your paid online courses get enough enrolments is not easy, especially for a first-timer. Affiliates can help you get more enrolments for paid courses as they are incentivized by commissions that they get for each enrolment. Marketing that is mutually beneficial.

The “marketing and selling” portion of this Thinkific review 2023 is not over yet. There is one more marketing feature of this online course platform that can help you get more enrolments for your courses.

Curious?

Find out in the next section of this Thinkific review.

Free Preview

Want to give your students a sneak peek into your amazing Thinkific online course to boost sales?

Thinkific’s Free Preview, an exclusive feature of this online course platform, will come to your rescue.

As the name suggests, this feature allows your students to take some lessons of your online course for free. Students will be prompted to purchase your course when:

• They finish the free preview
• They click on any lesson that’s not covered under the free preview

To create a free preview, choose a specific course under the ‘Manage Learning Content’ tab on the online course platform.

Then, choose your desired lesson.

Now, simply tick the box to the left of ‘Make this a free preview lesson.’

And that’s it!

Easy, right?

Liking this section of the Thinkific review?

Pro Tip: Setting an expiry date for your coupons is an excellent way to instill a sense of urgency amongst potential customers. Coupons with a deadline have helped me generate way more leads than those without one.

4. Support Your Students

A course creator’s work doesn’t just end at selling their online course.

Good instructors support their students to the best of their ability.

Again, this is something Thinkific, a leading online course platform, makes easy to do and that’s why I am covering this aspect in this Thinkific review.

Under the ‘Support Your Students’ tab of your admin dashboard, you’ll find a host of core features helpful for increasing student learning, engagement and providing support.

Although some of these are only available for higher-tier plans, most of them are compatible with the Thinkific Free Plan.

Through this Thinkific review I’d highly recommend exploring all of these core features to improve your students’ experience taking your online course(s).

However, here’s a quick rundown on my favorite features in this regard:

Progress

Student Progress Reports give course creators a great idea of how their students are faring.

This feature on this online course platform allows you to see when each of your students started and completed the online course, their last sign-in, as well as their view and completion rate.

Why do I like this feature so much?

In addition to helping me track students’ progress, it also allows me to gauge the quality of my online course.

In addition to helping me track students’ progress, it also allows me to gauge the quality of my online course and make changes if required.

Now let me talk in this Thinkific review about something the students well love.

Communities

In simple words, a Thinkific Community is a place where your students can talk to you, and with fellow students directly—think of it as a Facebook Group.

Online education can be lonely.

The Communities feature helps make the experience not-so-lonely both for students, as well as for course creators.

Sweet feature of this online course platform, isn’t it?

Reviews

As a course creator, what is one of the best ways to measure the success of your course?

Ask your students for a review.

Thinkific’s Reviews feature is a great way for you to get feedback from your students.

Such reviews will not just make your students feel heard, but it could also be a potential source of testimonials that will further help you as the course creator in marketing your course and boost your sales.

Pro Tip: Leverage Thinkific’s Progress feature to identify possible pain points in your course. For instance, if a large number of students are getting stuck at a particular point of the course, you might want to relook into that part.

5. Security

Security is an integral part of this Thinkific review.

If you’re anything like me, you’d probably be concerned about how safe your content and website are with Thinkific, a top online course platform.

Given the nature of today’s internet world, this concern is only natural.

Fortunately, Thinkific gives its users enough reason not to worry about the security of your content.

Let me touch upon the online course platform’s security features in this Thinkific review.

Here is a quick rundown of Thinkific’s security-related features so that you can rest assured your course content is in good hands.

1. Secure cloud hosting & daily backups: All of Thinkific’s information is stored in secure databases hosted on the AWS cloud platform.
2. Instant access to updates: All of Thinkific’s updates are automatic, ensuring that you always have access to the latest features.
3. Service Level Agreement: The Thinkific team leverages 24/7 monitoring, making sure your site is always working optimally for you and your students.
4. Built-in security and SSL: Thinkific’s built-in SSL certificates automatically instill confidence in its users.

Pro Tip:If you’re worried about content privacy, create a course that consists of multiple types of media. In addition, consider adding watermarks to videos and PDFs.

Thinkific App Store

This is one of my favorite sections of this Thinkific review.

Keeping aside Thinkific’s robust core features, what makes me rate this as one of the best platform?

The fact that Thinkific is constantly rolling out new updates and features.

I love how Thinkific, as a noted online course platform, keeps getting substantially better by the day.

Back in May, the online course platform introduced the Thinkific App Store.

Thinkific App Store is spectacular if you want to:

• Make your course(s) more interactive
• Grow your audience
• Sell more online courses

So, what really is the Thinkific App Store?

This section of the review speaks specifically about that.

As the name suggests, the Thinkific App Store is a central hub for course creators to choose and install tools for their courses.

The kicker?

The installation takes just a few clicks.

What’s more?

No technical expertise is required. That's the speciality of this online course platform.

Is this Thinkific review 2023 piquing your interest?

Once you’re done installing the app through a few steps, it will show up in the ‘Apps’ tab of your Thinkific admin dashboard.

Here, you can further play around with the settings of this online course platform to see what works best for you.

Now, you may be wondering how these apps are any different from integrations.

That’s a valid question.

In simple words, apps are new, simpler, and improvised versions of integrations. While both serve more or less the same purpose, the ease of use differs greatly.

Think of it as transitioning from driving a manual car to an automatic one.

Tools from the Thinkific App Store can help you make your courses more engaging.

For instance, you can incentivize learning with gamification!

How cool is that?

The Thinkific App Store is available to all those who have subscribed to paid plans. However, while some of the apps are offered for free, some app developers may charge users a fee. Thats how flexible this online course platform is.

Pro Tip: While upgrading to a paid plan simply to access the Thinkific App Store may seem unnecessary, it is 100% worth it. Some of the apps won’t just save you a whole lot of time, but they will also greatly increase your ROI, eventually making up for the extra cost you paid.

To create your account, register here.

Detailed Review of Thinkific’s Pricing Plans

Pricing plans are naturally one of the most important factors to consider before investing in any online course platform. Thinkific brings you both free plans and paid plans.

In this section of the Thinkific review 2023, let’s take a deep dive into the details of each pricing plan.

Free Plan

One of the main reasons why Thinkific online course platform is lauded is the versatility of its Free Plan.

While the free plan naturally has limited features for course creators, they’re more than enough for a course creator just starting off.

The catch?

It doesn’t offer access to the Thinkific App Store.

Not that big a deal if your needs are basic or using this online course platform for the first time.

What Does the Thinkific Free Plan Include?

Let’s talk about the key features offered by this free plan. In addition to Core Thinkific Features such as discussion forums, secure cloud hosting, easy drag and drop Course Builder, etc, here’s what’s included:

• Up to three courses
• Unlimited students
• Email support
• Quizzes & surveys
• Content hosting
• Instant access to your funds

Who is the Thinkific Free Plan Designed for?

• Freelancers
• Entrepreneurs
• Small businesses
• Anyone just starting off

Basic Plan

Let’s review the Basic Plan.

The Basic Plan includes all the features of the Thinkific Free Plan.

However, it offers more options to customize and monetize your courses on Thinkific’s online course platform.

But how much does it cost?

$39 per month.

What Does the Thinkific Basic Plan Include for course creators?

• Unlimited courses & students
• Live Chat support
• Coupons
• Email students
• Drip (scheduled) content
• Affiliate reporting
• Custom domain
• Email integrations
• Zapier triggers
• Manual student enrollment & exports
• Thinkific App Store

Who is the Thinkific Basic Plan Designed for?

• Small and medium-sized businesses
• Anyone who has the ability to transition to a paid plan

Pro Plan

The next on this Thinkific review 2023 is the Pro Plan, which is Thinkific’s most popular pricing plan, and for obvious reasons.

At a price tag of $79 per month, this paid plan offers pretty much all the core features you’d need to create a successful online course on this online course platform.

The catch?

There’s none.

What Does the Thinkific Pro Plan Include?

I’m going to mention features that are an add-on from the Basic Plan:

• 2 Site admin accounts
• 5 Course admins/authors
• Private & hidden courses
• Advanced course pricing options
• Memberships and bundles
• Certificates
• Advanced Customization
• Priority Support
• Assignments
• Communities
• Live Lessons with Zoom

Who is the Thinkific Pro Plan Designed for?

• Big businesses
• Experienced coaches and entrepreneurs
• Anyone who wants to squeeze the most value out of their Thinkific courses

Premier Plan

Wait! This Thinkific review 2023 is not complete yet.

How can this Thinkific review 2023 be complete without the mention of the Premier Plan? After all, it is the best paid plan that Thinkific online course platform has to offer and is an important part of this review.

In the words of Thinkific, the Premier Plan is for “advanced customers ready to invest in a paid plan to build an education empire.”

But what’s the price?

$399 per month.

Steep, right?

However, I personally think that the features offered in this paid plan justify its price.

What Does the Thinkific Premier Plan Include?

The Thinkific Premier Plan includes all features from the Pro Plan.

In addition, this paid package makes it easy to sell courses to groups or cohorts, along with making the onboarding of students a breeze!

Some of the key features of the Premier Plan are:

• 5 Site admin accounts
• 15 Group Analysts
• 50 Course admins/authors
• Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Onboarding package
• Unlimited Growth Package

Who is the Thinkific Premier Plan Designed for?

• Professional associations
• Established education organizations
• Anyone looking to scale their online course business

As we move ahead with this Thinkific review 2023, let's discuss add-ons.

Growth Add-On

This is an add-on package available with the Pro plan, for accessing additional features without directly moving to the Premier plan, which is quite expensive.

How does it work?

The Growth add-on provides you access to all the advanced features of the Premier plan with your Pro plan. It offers a flexible variable pricing of $0.10 per active student with the first 100 students free.

So, if you can’t afford the Premier plan, but want the advanced features, then this is the way to go. It is especially useful if you don’t need access to unlimited courses and students, but better features for your limited courses.

Thinkific, as the top online course platform, caters to all kinds of content creators, I must say.

So, what all does it offer on top of the Thinkific Pro paid plan features?

Here is a quick reference list of features on Thinkific online course platform:

• Groups – assign reporting analysts to different corporate clients
• Custom branding
• Advanced segmentation – advanced search filters and bookmarks
• Public API – give Thinkific and site access to developers
• Webhooks – send Thinkific course data to any tools
• Communities – build an online community around your content
• Infusionsoft integration
• Zapier actions
• Brillium exams integration
• ActiveCampaign integration
• Bulk enroll students – add or delete multiple students at once
• Import students – add students from other platforms using XLSX or CSV files
• Bulk emails – send emails to multiple students at once

Who is the Growth add-on designed for?

• anyone who needs more advanced features on their Pro plan without having to invest in the Premier plan

Pro Tip: Remember, the price of the Growth add-on will increase by the number of active students. So, if it comes close to the cost of the Premier plan ($399 per month, billed annually) then it makes more sense to opt for that.

Hold on, there is a little more to this Thinkific review.

Thinkific Plus

If you think that’s all I have for the pricing section of this Thinkific review 2023, then you are wrong.

For this part of the Thinkific review 2023, I want to discuss the Thinkific Plus plan designed specifically for Enterprises.

If you feel that your requirements are not met by any of this online course platform’s plans mentioned above, then you should definitely check this out.

Who is the Thinkific Plus plan designed for?

This plan is basically for Corporates that want a comprehensive online learning platform for their employees.
If you want to upload tons of e-learning resources to upskill your employees and need a customized plan, then you can go for this option.

What all features will you get?

Here’s a quick list, for your reference:

• Access to the Plus portal
• Single Sign-On (SSO)
• Custom migration planning
• Unlimited users
• More Thinkific sites (3+)
• Sandbox site
• CSS customization
• Salesforce integration
• Enterprise API access
• Service Level Agreement (SLA) 99.9%
• 24/7 online monitoring
• Advanced security features

Whether you want to train your customers about your products or upskill your employees through e-learning online courses built using this online course platform, this plan has all that you will ever need.

But how much does it cost?

Well, it depends on your individual needs and requirements. So, get in touch with their sales team to discuss your requirements and get a custom price quote for this version of the tool.

Thinkific Review: What Are Others Saying About The Platform?

FAQs

Q1. Is Thinkific any good compared to other tools? Can you make money on Thinkific platform?

A. Yes, Thinkific is one of the best online course platforms that you can use to design and sell online courses.

As I have discussed in this Thinkific review 2023 you can make tons of money on Thinkific, a trusted online course platform, depending on your choice of the topic, target audience, and course price. You can even sell your online courses and training content on this tool to corporates to earn a steady income.

However, you need to grow your brand awareness and online visibility before you will get a lot of enrolments. So, I recommend using a mini-course or lead magnet for that.

Q2. Who should use Thinkific?

A. Thinkific, a comprehensive online course platform, is for anyone who wants to get into or expand their reach in the online education space. The platform doesn’t require any expertise, making it easy to navigate. It can be used by teachers, entrepreneurs, coaches, authors, freelancers, small to large businesses, and professional associations alike to create engaging and effective online courses.

Currently, over 25,000 course creators are using this online course platform for creating, marketing and delivering education in 164 countries.

Q3. How much does it cost to use Thinkific platform?

A. For those just starting off, the Thinkific as an online course platform offers a Free Plan that comes with loads of spectacular features. For those that need more advanced features, Thinkific offers three paid plans:

• Basic: $39 per month
• Pro: $79 per month
• Premier: $399 per month

At the moment, they are also offering a 1month free trial of the tool. This is a great way to test out this online course platform’s core features before you invest in it.

Apart from these they also offer a Growth add-on for the pro plan for $0.10 per active student. And they have a customized plan called Thinkific Plus for enterprise customers.

Q4. Can I use Thinkific for free?

A.Yes, Thinkific offers a Free Plan that’s very generous. This online course platform comes with a number of key features that generally suffice new online course creators. Read this Thinkific review 2023 and try the free plan before you invest in a paid plan.

Q5. Do you need a credit card to sign up on Thinkific?

A. No, you don’t need a credit card to sign up on Thinkific platform. Simply enter your name, email address, and password to create your account and start using the tool.

Q6. Is Thinkific better than Teachable?

A. Yes, Thinkific is better than Teachable in many aspects, especially for building a website. It offers amazing site design and landing page optimization features, while Teachable has better marketing features.

Overall, both are good platforms for online courses, but Thinkific has a slight edge over the other platform. And ofcourse, the features justify the pricing.

Q7. Is Thinkific easy to use?

A. Yes, Thinkific online course platform is not only the best but is very easy to use and enables users to create online courses in record time. The tool has a simple drag and drop online course builder, requires no coding to build websites, and offers unconditional customer support every step of the way.

Q8. Can I build my website on Thinkific?

A. Yes, Thinkific’s Site Builder feature allows users to create beautiful and customized websites without any need for coding. We have reviewed this feature in detail. If you already have a website, you can integrate it with Thinkific platform in just a few steps to offer a variety of online courses.

Here’s a quick overview of what has been covered in this Thinkific review 2023 and what all you could do to build an impressive website:

• Choose a template and style
• Add headers and footers
• Create a course landing page
• Customize your site’s homepage
• Create custom pages

All these are clearly explained in my detailed Thinkific review. So, check out the review post to learn how to build your course website using Thinkific platform.

Remember, Thinkific, as a tool, is only good for building a course website and not your main website. For building your main website, opt for more advanced and specialized website builders.

Q9. Does Thinkific offer integrations with other software?

A. Yes. Thinkific seamlessly connects with a host of other tools that can help you with marketing automation, e-commerce, and achieving higher student success.

For payments, for example, you can integrate with tools like Stripe, Thinkific Payments, and PayPal. Similarly, you get Zapier and Infusionsoft integrations with higher tier plans.

The recent launch of the Thinkific App Store makes integration effortless. Read the detailed Thinkific review 2023 to learn more about the App Store and all that it has to offer.

Q10. Which languages does the Thinkific platform support?

A. Thinkific allows you to create online courses in any language you want. The e-learning platform also allows users to adjust the language in website elements with the option to choose from more than 30 languages from across the world.

Thinkific Review: What’s the Final Verdict?

Given the pace at which the online learning space is growing, I simply had to review one of the best online course platforms out there—Thinkific.

According to a recent report, the global e-learning market is projected to be worth $374.30 billion by 2026.

That’s huge, right?

If you ask me, I think this is a great time to enter the online learning space and I have given you enough reasons in this Thinkific review 2023 to choose this platform.

What’s great is that Thinkific online course platform makes it extremely easy for both beginners and experts to create, market, and sell their online courses and their content.

It has helped me diversify my courses, marketing those courses to grow my audience, and improve my bottom line.

So, is Thinkific a tool worth trying?

YES.

Hopefully, this Thinkific review 2023 would have convinced you of that.

Although there are several learning management tools on the internet today, Thinkific is definitely one that shines.

Is there any other online course platform or tool you have tried? Do you have any questions about using Thinkific? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

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