ClickFunnels 2.0 and Thinkific both provide course-building features but what else do they offer? This comparison reveals the better platform.
- Plans cost from $147/month
- ClickFunnels 2.0 is rated as the #3 best platform on SupplyGem
- Rated 4.6 on Trustpilot
- ClickFunnels 2.0 is our favorite for this comparison
- Plans cost from $49/month
- Teachable is rated as the #6 best platform on SupplyGem
- Rated 4.7 on Trustpilot
- Thinkific is an affordable course-building platform
Key Takeaways:
- ClickFunnels 2.0 has excellent features and user experience and is our favorite in this comparison
- Thinkific is good purely for course-building and communities
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific at a Glance
| Feature | ClickFunnels 2.0 | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Current Promotion | 14-day free trial | 30-day free trial for paid plans |
| Free Plan | ❌ | ✅ |
| Funnels | ✅ | ❌ |
| Web Page Builder | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email Campaigns | ✅ | ❌ |
| Blogs | ✅ | ❌ |
| Split A/B Testing | ✅ | ❌ |
| Courses | ✅ | ✅ |
| Quizzes and Assessments | ❌ | ✅ |
| Communities | ❌ | ✅ |
| Coaching | ❌ | ✅ |
| Live Video Streaming | ❌ | ❌ |
| Automation | ✅ | ❌ |
| Analytics | ✅ | ✅ |
| Native Checkout | ✅ | ✅ |
| CRM | ❌ | ❌ |
| Integrations | ✅ | ✅ |
What Is ClickFunnels 2.0?
ClickFunnels 2.0 is primarily a sales and marketing platform with a best-in-class funnel-building tool.
The platform also has additional features for e-commerce and tools for creating learning and digital products.
What Is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a platform that has all the tools necessary to create learning and digital products such as courses and communities. It’s extremely affordable and also has a free-for-life plan.
However, the platform lacks any kind of marketing tools beyond creating web pages.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Key Differences
The biggest difference between the two platforms is the number of sales and marketing tools available. ClickFunnels 2.0 was built for marketing and therefore has a funnel builder, web and landing page builder, as well as email campaigns and sophisticated automation capabilities.
On the other hand, Thinkific lacks all these features and instead focuses on tools to help you build courses and communities.
Additionally, ClickFunnels 2.0 is very expensive in comparison to Thinkific ($147/month vs $49/month), but this price is reflected in the quality and number of tools and features you get with each platform.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Pros and Cons
ClickFunnels 2.0 Pros
- Highly versatile web page builder
- Full suite of sales and marketing tools
- Excellent help and support
- No need to integrate with third-party apps
- High-quality templates for all features
- Great user experience
ClickFunnels 2.0 Cons
- Very expensive, even on the cheapest plan
- No community feature
- No native live streaming feature
Thinkific Pros
- Free plan
- Very affordable paid plans
- More diverse course-building tools
- Student management tools
- Direct integrations with tons of apps
Thinkific Cons
- No sales and marketing tools
- Website builder can only be used with courses
- Website builder is glitchy and unreliable
- No native live streaming feature
- Platform requires third-party apps for full functionality
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Affordability
- Thinkific has a limited free-for-life plan and four paid plans starting from $49/month
- ClickFunnels 2.0 has three paid plans starting from $147/month
| Price | ClickFunnels 2.0 | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly | From $147/month | From $49/month |
| Annually | From $127/month ($1,524 total) | From $36/month ($432 total) |
| Discount for Paying Annually | 20% | 25% |
| Standard Free Trial | 14 days | Free plan available |
| Money-Back Guarantee | 30 days | 30 days |
Winner Is Thinkific
ClickFunnels makes no secret of the fact that it’s premium priced, and as such it can be considered unaffordable. Thinkific, on the other hand, has priced itself at entry-level. Its free plan lets you get started with the basics, and paid plans are less than $50/month, making it very affordable.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Website Builder
ClickFunnels 2.0: Website Builder
ClickFunnels 2.0 lets you create just about any type of web page you need. Whether it’s a full-blown website, a single landing page, or a blog, the platform has the tools to create all these things.
Furthermore, you get access to some pretty stunning templates. The designs are modern and fresh and are designed for different purposes. For example, sales pages, information pages, offer pages, and more.
Everything is edited using a super intuitive drag-and-drop tool which even beginners won’t have a hard time getting to grips with. You get a wide choice of page elements such as video, audio, pop-ups, and more.
Thinkific: Website Builder
While ClickFunnels 2.0’s web pages can be built for any purpose, Thinkific’s pages can only be built for the purpose of hosting and selling your learning products. As such, it is far less versatile.
You get a choice of three themes, then you can create individual pages for your site and edit them in the side panel. It’s not drag-and-drop, though. Thinkific uses a WYSIWYG format which in our experience, isn’t the best. It’s slow and glitchy, and annoyingly we kept finding that some of our created pages refused to load. Not the best experience.
Winner Is ClickFunnels 2.0
If you want to design beautiful-looking web pages quickly and easily, ClickFunnels 2.0 is a great choice. They have put a lot of thought and effort into the user experience of this feature and it shows. The tools are a pleasure to use and produce professional results.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Course Builder
ClickFunnels 2.0: Course Builder
You build your courses in much the same way as you create web pages inside ClickFunnels 2.0. As such, you have loads of prebuilt page templates that you can repurpose for your course content using the drag-and-drop tool.
To make your courses unique, you can add videos, images, documents, and audio files. Sadly, the platform does not support live streaming. Also lacking is the ability to create quizzes and assessments.
When selling courses, you can pick the payment type – one-time fee or subscription – and sell your courses individually, via a membership site, or bundle them and sell a few together.
Thinkific: Course Builder
Course building is the backbone of the Thinkific platform, and therefore has comprehensive tools to help you create engaging course content.
The templates aren’t so great and act more like instructional walkthroughs rather than providing preset design elements. However, with the tools you get, you can build everything from mini-courses right up to in-depth learning programs.
And while the platform does not have a native live stream feature, you can integrate with Zoom and other live stream apps to enable you to hold live coaching sessions.
Inside your lessons, you can add video, audio files, documents, and presentations. The platform also has tools for creating assessments, quizzes, and exams, and you get a big range of student management features, too.
Like ClickFunnels 2.0, you can bundle courses or create a membership site, and you have flexible payment options such as subscriptions.
Winner Is Thinkific
While we wish that Thinkific would put some effort into providing more templates for its users, there’s no doubt you can do more with Thinkific’s course builder than you can with ClickFunnels 2.0’s.
The fact that you have a range of student assessment tools is really useful and the student management options are also extremely handy.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Communities
ClickFunnels 2.0: Communities
Unfortunately, ClickFunnels 2.0 does not offer any kind of community feature on its platform and there are no tools that allow students to engage with each other.
Thinkific: Communities
Thinkific has a full community feature where you can build standalone communities or link them to specific courses and sell/offer them as a bundle.
While it’s not the most sophisticated community tool out there, it still provides you with enough to fully engage with your students.
After creating your community, you can post and comment on the newsfeed, upload documents, images, and videos, and create separate spaces for conversation threads on specific topics.
Winner Is Thinkific
No competition here since ClickFunnels 2.0 has no community feature available. Thinkific’s community feature is perfectly adequate to get the conversation flowing, but it’s not as sophisticated as others on the market such as Kajabi or Mighty Networks.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Sales and Marketing Tools
ClickFunnels 2.0: Sales and Marketing Tools
Now it’s ClickFunnels 2.0’s time to shine. While Thinkific may have the edge for building learning products, ClickFunnels 2.0 blows it out of the water for sales and marketing tools.
First, you have an advanced funnel builder with awesome templates for just about any type of funnel you can think of. These funnels can be automated, plus you can also incorporate email marketing into the workflow.
Next, you have a full email campaign builder where you can create and send one-time email blasts or create a full campaign and set it to send on autopilot.
Of course, you also have the ability to create websites, blogs, and landing pages, and you get a range of revenue-increasing features such as upsells, order bumps, one-time offers, and more.
Really, if you were looking for a marketing platform that has everything, you can’t go wrong here.
Thinkific: Sales and Marketing Tools
Thinkific is not a marketing platform, so don’t be surprised by the lack of tools for this purpose. Beyond creating a website and adding sales coupons to your checkout page, there really isn’t anything else you can do to market your learning products.
If you do want to use marketing tools with Thinkific, you’re going to have to purchase and integrate a third-party app such as Mailchimp or ActiveCampaign.
Winner Is ClickFunnels 2.0
Zero competition here. ClickFunnels 2.0 wins this round in most cases thanks to its advanced and sophisticated sales and marketing features.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Payment Gateway
ClickFunnels 2.0: Payment Gateway
ClickFunnels 2.0 recently ramped up its payment options by introducing Payments AI. This acts as a native payment gateway, so you don’t need to connect a third-party provider if you don’t want to.
However, you are also able to connect with other payment gateways such as PayPal, Stripe, and Klarna to offer more payment options to your customers.
Payments AI also allows customers to pay in Bitcoin if they wish, and you can route your revenue into different gateways to avoid having all your earnings in one place.
Thinkific: Payment Gateway
Thinkific also has its own payment gateway called TCommerce, thus also removing the need to integrate with third-parties. The gateway provides one-click purchase options, and you can integrate with Apple and Google Pay.
The gateway also collects customer location data making it easier to charge the relevant sales taxes and there’s supposedly an integration with Quickbooks arriving at some point, but we’re not entirely sure when.
Winner Is ClickFunnels 2.0
It’s great that both platforms offer a way to take payments without having to set up with a third-party payment gateway. However, ClickFunnels Payments AI offers more flexibility and functionality while also providing more security for your existing revenue.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Integrations
ClickFunnels 2.0: Integrations
There aren’t that many direct integrations for ClickFunnels 2.0 because you don’t actually require them. The platform already provides most of the tools and features that you’re ever going to need.
That said, if you want to, you can integrate some payment providers such as PayPal and Stripe, and a scattering of marketing platforms such as ActiveCampaign and GetResponse. You can also use Zapier to connect with other platforms if you wish.
Thinkific: Integrations
As this article has shown, Thinkific has some serious limitations where sales and marketing are concerned. However, it has made it easy for you to use numerous third-party platforms with Thinkific thanks to its extensive app store.
These include everything from sales and marketing to social media, CRM tools, and business operations. There are over 80 to pick from, so you will easily find one that fits the bill.
Winner Is Thinkific
Although the winner is Thinkific here, we’re not sure if it’s something to necessarily be proud of. We feel that a platform should include all the tools necessary to do the job right and properly without having to spend extra money on additional third-party apps.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: User Experience
ClickFunnels 2.0 User Experience
ClickFunnels 2.0 has put a lot of thought and effort into its interface and the overall user experience. As such, it’s intuitive and easy to grasp – even for beginners. While some things take some learning – the automation workflows for example – there are plenty of prompts and screen guides to help you through it.
All the tools and features work smoothly, and we don’t recall the platform ever crashing or glitching on us.
Thinkific: User Experience
Thinkific is not the worst platform we’ve ever used, but it’s not the best, either. Most things are pretty easy to grasp and most tools are fairly intuitive and run well. But on the other hand, other areas – such as the website builder – leave a lot to be desired.
The setup wizard is handy, though, and you do get help as you navigate the platform. We would also love to see Thinkific up its template game, as these are vital for overcoming creative blocks.
Winner Is ClickFunnels 2.0
There’s no comparison, really. ClickFunnels 2.0 offers a superior user experience with tools that run like a dream. Thinkific could take a few lessons from it.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Help and Support
ClickFunnels 2.0: Help and Support
ClickFunnels 2.0 has a great Knowledge Hub packed full of walkthrough guides and videos. Most of the time, you can find exactly what you’re looking for and the material answers your query. Occasionally, the material can be out of date or wrong which can be a little frustrating.
Live chat is available, and although it’s not up and running 24/7, the response times are fast and the team is willing to go above and beyond to help you out.
On a couple of occasions, the agents have quickly gone and made a Loom video to walk us through a few issues we were having. This was useful since it’s not always possible to make sense of things via just text.
Thinkific: Help and Support
Thinkific’s support depends on the plan you choose. Email support is available for 30 days on the free plan, and then you’re on your own. The paid plans can enjoy email and live chat support with the two most expensive plans getting priority support.
When testing this out, we found that email responses took a day or two to arrive, and live chat was a bit hit-and-miss. Usually, we’d get a response within around ten minutes, so it’s not too bad. Sometimes, it took up to 20 minutes.
Winner Is ClickFunnels 2.0
ClickFunnels 2.0 provides the level of support you’d expect from a premium-priced product. The agents are responsive and extremely polite and helpful. And although their Knowledge Hub could see a bit of improvement, it’s still very comprehensive and useful.
ClickFunnels 2.0 vs Thinkific: Conclusion
ClickFunnels 2.0 definitely costs more, but then, you can do so much more with it. Thinkific has the slight edge for course building, but if you’re looking for a comprehensive platform with sales and marketing included, ClickFunnels 2.0 is the much better option.
- Choose ClickFunnels 2.0 if you want a high-quality platform that does it all.
- Choose Thinkific if you purely want a course-builder at an affordable price.
Frequently Asked Questions
ClickFunnels 2.0 and Thinkific; How Are They Different?
Thinkific solely focuses on course building and learning product creation and communities, whereas ClickFunnels 2.0’s main focus is on sales and marketing. Thinkific has a free plan and cheap paid plans, while ClickFunnels 2.0 is a premium-priced product.
Is ClickFunnels 2.0 or Thinkific Better?
Thinkific is slightly better than ClickFunnels 2.0 for course building and communities. However, ClickFunnels has a much wider range of features and tools, so you get a lot more functionality. Therefore, ClickFunnels 2.0 is the better platform overall.
Is ClickFunnels 2.0 or Thinkific More Affordable?
Thinkific has a free plan and paid plans start from $49/month. When compared with ClickFunnels 2.0’s cheapest plan at $147/month, we can see that Thinkific is the more affordable option.
Is ClickFunnels 2.0 or Thinkific Better for Course-Building?
Thinkific is better than ClickFunnels 2.0 for course building because it has a better range of features that are unavailable in ClickFunnels 2.0, such as quizzes, exams and assessments, student management tools, and communities.
Is ClickFunnels 2.0 or Thinkific Better for Sales and Marketing?
ClickFunnels 2.0 is much better than Thinkific for sales and marketing. ClickFunnels 2.0 provides web page builders, sales funnels, and email marketing, whereas Thinkific only has a website builder.
