Thinkific vs Teachable (2023 Review)

While searching for the best online course platform or Learning Management System, you may want to know how Thinkific compares to Teachable.

Our team has already tested a huge number of platforms that offer memberships and online courses.

We found that both these two platforms make it easy to create courses and memberships and offer very similar features. Thinkific’s USP is its totally free plan. And Teachable’s is its coaching feature.

Our article will provide a detailed comparison between the two systems to help you decide which platform better suits your needs.

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Thinkific

Thinkific makes it easy for you to create online courses with extra attention paid to your students’ experience.

Users can build a community where students can engage with you and other students.

It provides users with advanced learning tools, a large range of very appealing templates, and an easy-to-use course and page builder.

Its price range is from $39 to $499 per month and includes a free plan.

Teachable

Teachable is a content creation platform offering users the chance to effortlessly build online courses, membership sites and offer coaching services.

It includes a drag and drop page editor, an iOS app, an easy one-step checkout, and an advanced Affiliate Marketing program.

If you know how to code, you can use its Power Editor to further customize your pages. Its price range is from $39 to $299 per month.

Thinkific vs. Teachable at a Glance

	Thinkific	Teachable
Free Trial	Yes, 14 days.	Yes, 14 days for pro plan.
Pricing Range	Free Plan – $0 Basic Plan – $49 per month or $39 per month billed annually. Pro Plan – $99 per month or $79 per month billed annually. *Growth Plan – $99 per month or $79 per month billed annually. Premier Plan – $499 per month or $399 per month billed annually. Plus Plan (assessed privately).	Basic Plan – $39 per month or $29 per month billed annually. Pro Plan – $119 per month or $99 per month billed annually. Business Plan – $299 per month or $249 per month billed annually.
Best For	Creating online courses without technical knowledge. Adding quizzes, assignments, videos, and other features to lessons. Creating a community with students. No transaction fees payable. Mobile responsive. Speakers, writers, entrepreneurs, consultants, course creators, and businesses.	Creating online courses without technical knowledge. Adding quizzes, videos, and other features to lessons. Can integrate a community. – Mobile app. Coaches, speakers, writers, entrepreneurs, consultants, course creators, and businesses.
User Interface Features	Drag and drop builder. Page templates. Admin and student dashboards. Manage students. Manage admins.	Drag and drop page editor. Page templates. Admin and student dashboards. Manage students. Manage admins/authors.
Online Courses	Create free, paid, and time-limited courses. Create prerequisite lessons. Community (built-in). Import files from Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline 360. School branding. Surveys Video Library – Presentation lessons.	Create free, paid, and time-limited courses. Create prerequisite lessons (Course Compliance). Community (integrate). Import files from Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Drive, and Microsoft OneDrive. School branding. – – Blog. –
Monetization Options	Sell non-course items. Run ads. Affiliate marketing.	Sell non-course items. Run ads. Affiliate marketing.
Marketing Options	Offer free trials. Order and conversion tracking, plus retargeting pixel support. SEO Sitemaps. Stripe and PayPal payment methods, and multiple currencies. – Shopify App. Integrates with the following email marketing service providers; Mailchimp, ConvertKit, Constant Contact, AWeber, ActiveCampaign. Built-in marketing analytics integrations With Mixpanel, Facebook pixel, and Google Analytics. Built-in analytics reports. Create coupons. Create payment plans. Create bundles. Market courses to organizations with Groups feature. Affiliate program.	Offer free trials. Order and conversion tracking, plus retargeting pixel support. – Built in payment processing system: debit and credit cards, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, MobilePay, Chargeback and Fraud Protection Support. Can integrate Shopify. Integrates with the following email marketing service providers; Mailchimp and ConvertKit. Built-in marketing analytics integrations with Google Analytics, Facebook pixel, and Segment.io. Built-in analytics reports. Create coupons. Create payment plans. Create bundles. Affiliate program.

You’ll see from our table that both platforms offer very similar features.

If you opt for Teachable and need to integrate with a different email service provider, you can integrate with Zapier.
Although Teachable doesn’t offer a Survey feature, users can embed forms into course lectures.
When it comes to your customers paying, Thinkific has a two-step checkout process, Teachable only a one-step process.
If you’re based in a country not included in Teachable’s eligibility list for a Teachable Payments Gateway, you can process payments through its Monthly Payment Gateway, which means, of course, monthly payments.
Teachable offers a one-on-one Coaching feature; Thinkific doesn’t, but you can add a booking app such as Calendly within your course. You’ll have to meet with the client outside of Thinkific.
Thinkific’s video library is a great advantage to users.Teachable has a built-in Blog feature. Thinkific has a workaround using its Custom Pages.

Thinkific vs. Teachable: Pricing Comparison

On the Teachable Basic Plan, users pay 5% transaction fees and processing, Chargeback, and BackOffice fees on all plans. Although Thinkific doesn’t charge transaction fees, users may have to pay them if they install a 3rd party payment processor.

Thinkific’s Growth Plan charges $0.10 per student per month after the first 100 enrollments.

Thinkific Pricing:

Free Plan ($0) incorporates all the core features. It allows for unlimited students but limited to hosting one course.
Basic Plan ($49 per month or $39 per month if paid annually) – includes email integrations and Affiliate Reporting, unlimited courses, and Custom Domains.
Pro Plan ($99 per month or $79 per month if paid annually) – includes Payment Plans and Live Zoom Lessons.
Growth Plan (Pro Plan Add on) ($99 per month or $79 per month if paid annually) – includes direct ActiveCampaign and Infusionsoft Integrations.
Premier Plan ($499 per month or $399 per month if paid annually) – includes 5 Site Admins and 50 Course Admins.
Plus Plan (for pricing contact sales@thinkific.com). Key features include 3+ separate Thinkific sites and unlimited course admins.

Teachable Pricing:

Basic Plan ($39 per month or $29 per month if paid annually) – includes 3rd party integrations, integrated email marketing, custom domain support, allows for 2 admin users, and unlimited students and courses.
Pro Plan ($119 per month or $99 per month if paid annually) – includes affiliate program and allows for 5 admin users.
Business Plan ($299 per month or $249 per month if paid annually) – includes advanced developer customization and allows for 20 admin users.

Thinkific is more cost-effective because of its free plan, zero transaction fees, and a wider range of features going up the tiers.

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Thinkific Pricing Plans Explained

Thinkific vs Teachable: A Comparison of Features and Tools

Below we compare the main features of the two platforms to help you when deciding which one is best for your needs.

You’ll see there are a few differences between them, and they may be the deciding factor for you. In this section, you can evaluate clearly whether these features live up to your requirements.

Both platforms’ features are easy to use and are constantly updated.

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Thinkific Features Explained

Online Courses

Teachable and Thinkific are very alike when it comes to creating online courses. Both provide easy-to-use drag and drop builders and the ability to add multiple types of media to your lessons.

However, Thinkific offers far more customization options as well as more choices of proven page templates.

Teachable allows you to add text-only quizzes. With Thinkific, you can create multiple choice questions and add video content to the questions.

The Drip Scheduling feature is slightly different. Teachable notifies students of the release of new content automatically by email. Thinkific students see a prompt at each lesson giving them the date of release.

Which Platform Offers the Better Solution for Hosting Online Courses?

Thinkific is better because of its design and customization options.

Sales & Marketing Features

High-converting customizable landing pages are available through Teachable and Thinkific, and both platforms provide captivating designs.

Teachable’s checkout process is more optimized and includes payments by Apple Pay and Google Pay. It also has more advanced affiliate marketing tools and offers users BackOffice financial services.

Thinkific provides a free course with the free Basic plan and up where users can learn to pre-sell courses and market them through marketing funnels. Thinkific gives you more tools for upsells, subscription payments, and you’ll receive instant payments.

Which Platform Offers Better Sales & Marketing Solutions?

We have to call this one a draw. It’s difficult to choose an outright clear winner here as both platforms offer very similar sales and marketing solutions.

Student Experience Features

Students can join a community through Thinkific’s Community feature, or you can integrate with Circle.so on Teachable to create one.

Thinkific’s On-Lesson Discussions and Teachable’s Lecture Comments allow students and course creators to interact during lessons. Students can upload images in posts and replies on both platforms. Thinkific allows for text file upload as well.

Students can view their progress during courses on both platforms’ sidebars. Thinkific also adds progress pages between lesson modules.

Thinkific allows users to remove margins on both sides of the content. This helps decrease the amount of scrolling by students.

Which Platform Offers Better Student Experience?

Thinkific is better because of its more advanced student engagement features.

Analytics Features

Both systems offer advanced analytics and reporting. Users can track course purchases, new users, student progress, video engagement, affiliates, et cetera. You can also add Google Analytics on Thinkific and Teachable.

Teachable allows you to integrate with Segment, an analytics tool that collects data and sends it to any analytics or marketing service you use. And with Thinkific, you can install Mixpanel, which does the same job. This means you don’t have to install other analytic integrations.

Which Platform Offers Better Analytics Features?

Both platforms perform so similarly that there is no clear winner.

Customization Features

Thinkific offers three options for course design templates with three or four styles in each, all of which you can customize.

Users also benefit from a live previewing of the site changes while editing. For developers, there are also options to import and export themes and modify the code.

Teachable offers three course design templates and not so many customization options.

If you need to customize your pages further, you can use its Power Editor, but you will need knowledge of coding.

Which Platform Offers Better Customization Features?

Thinkific is better because of its greater range of customization tools.

Final Thoughts

Choose Thinkific if: you want to create great quizzes, to reach out to organizations and don’t want to pay transaction fees.

Choose Teachable if: you want an easy checkout process, to use an iOS app and to coach.

That concludes our comparison of Thinkific and Teachable. The best part about both platforms is you don’t have to be a technical wizard to create courses.

Thinkific gives tons of advice on giving a great student experience. Its free plan is a great way of testing the system, or if you only ever intend to run one course, it’s more than that.

Although Teachable doesn’t have a built-in community for students, it’s not difficult to integrate one. It allows for discussions and its community for creators is a great feature.

All told, Thinkific’s slick templates alone are so awesome you’re sure to captivate many students just with them. While both platforms are excellent, Thinkific is our clear winner.

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