Thinkific vs teachable: Which one is better?

Struggling to make your choice between Thinkific or Teachable? Wondering which is a good option for hosting online courses? Then you have come to the right place.

Because this is the most detailed comparison of Thinkific vs Teachable out there on the Internet. 😉

Both Thinkific and Teachable are similar platforms but if you notice they also differ a lot. These small differences are crucial when deciding which one to choose.

That's why this is not just another Teachable vs Thinkific comparison with just a summary of the respective company home pages and a little more. Instead, I'm going to go super in-depth in this review and compare every feature in huge detail.  

I've also included a ton of screenshots so that you can better understand exactly what to expect from each feature on each of the two platforms.

So without further ado, here's the plan...

You can also check out all the free guides that you have available here at the Course Creator Academy by clicking on the Academy link on the top menu bar.

If you are looking to learn about other online course platforms similar to Teachable, check out this guide: Best Online Course Platforms (Ultimate Guide).

Here are other articles related to Thinkific or Teachable:

• Thinkific In-Depth Review (Fully Updated)
• Teachable Pricing: Need Help Choosing The Right Plan?
• Thinkific vs Kajabi: The Ultimate Guide
• Thinkific Pricing: What's the Right Plan for You?
• Teachable In-Depth Review: Is It The Right Platform For You?

Thinkific vs Teachable: Full In-Depth Review

As I explore further in this article: Best Online Course Platforms (Ultimate Guide) — there are different types of online course platforms:

• Standalone Online Course Platforms: This option is the most common, which gives you access to the tools you need to create, publish, sell, and promote your course.
• All-in-One Online Course Platforms: This option includes the tools you need to create your online course, but also other website-building tools.
• Self-Hosted Online Course Platform: This option offers a blank slate to create the online course you desire—more freedom, but less support.

Both Thinkific and Teachable are standalone online course platforms.

This is different from another review I recently did, which compares Thinkific vs Kajabi, as Kajabi is an all-in-one platform.

Thinkific and Teachable are much closer in terms of what they offer and how they can help you. Yet, at the same time, they both differ in many ways.

So let’s dive into this review, starting with a few important facts about these two popular online course-building platforms.

As one of the most popular platforms, Thinkific has well over 50,000 customers—including the likes of John Lee Dumas, Jason Yee, and Latrina Walden.

By using Thinkific, you can plan, build, publish, and sell online courses. You can do the most part through the Thinkific dashboard, but it also allows you to integrate other tools to create a richer experience for your students.

Compare this to Teachable, and you’ll find a brand that course creators like Desmond John, Sade Jones, and Tori Dunlap trust.

More than 100,000 creators have used Teachable over the years, which was first founded in 2013 by Ankur Nagpal. Like Thinkific, Teachable gives you all the tools you need to create, publish, and sell your course—as well as an array of promotional tools and integrations.

Core Features (Free Plan): Thinkific vs Teachable

Both Teachable vs Thinkific offer quality features on their Free Plans, including course creation, marketing & sales, and support/admin tools.

They’re similar in many ways, and there’s a lot of overlap.

Yet they also have a few key differences.

Here are some of those core (free) features that stand out on both platforms…

Content Creation

Let's compare the platform in terms of their most important course creation features.

Interactive Course Builder (Thinkific)

Thinkific has a user-friendly course builder that you can access by clicking on the "Courses" under the “Manage Learning Content” section in the left-hand column.

To create a new course, click on the "New Course" button. Your existing courses appear on the main screen below the button.

To create a new course (or edit an existing one) click on it and you’re directed to the main course-builder 👆👆

1: This is the main sidebar that displays all your modules and lessons. You can add new lessons by clicking on the "Add lesson" button (or duplicate an existing one by using the "Copy Lesson From" button), and rearrange them via drag and drop.

2: This is the main area of the screen, which showcases the lesson that you're editing. Here you can edit the title, video, quiz, or assignment, as well as lesson notes and downloadable resources.

3: Using the top menu you can edit the finer details of your course such as the pricing page, SEO, and other paid features like drip content.

You’ll also notice you can preview your lesson/course at any time via the top right-hand corner, as well as edit/build your course’s landing page.

So… how does this compare to Teachable?

Interactive Course Builder (Teachable)

On Teachable, you can access your courses on your dashboard; under the “Courses” tab.

Similar to Thinkific, you can add a new course by clicking on the "New Course" button.

When you create a new course or edit an existing one, you land on the main course builder 👆👆

Compared to Thinkific, this one is a little bit complex.

1: This is the main menu from where you can access all your course’s features, such as the curriculum, pricing page, coupons, and paid features like drip content.

2: This is the main section on the page, which highlights whatever menu you’re on. For instance, when you click on the Curriculum tab you'll be able to edit the first section of the course outline. It lists all modules and lessons, allowing you to rearrange them via drag and drop. You can then go into each one and edit them.

3: This bottom menu shows the main step you need to follow to launch a course successfully.

You can also preview your course/site at the top of the screen, as well as add new sections.

Overall, the Teachable's course builder is similar to Thinkific, but a little less user-friendly in my opinion. It takes a while to get used to where everything is.

Video Hosting (Thinkific)

One of the handy features inside Thinkific is that you can upload videos (in bulk) by using the video library section—under the “Manage Learning Content” tab such that you can upload and edit videos outside of your course and put them in the right lessons later. This nice feature makes your life a little easier.

Thinkific also allows you to customize your video player. Overall, the video hosting feature in Thinkific is great.

Video Hosting (Teachable)

In terms of hosting speed and customization, Teachable is on par with Thinkific. But unlike Thinkific, there's no video library to upload and edit videos. Instead, you have to add them to each individual lesson in your course builder.

This is fine, but it can be a little trickier if you’re building a large course with lots of videos.

Student Engagement (Thinkific)

Thinkific has a “Support Your Student” section from which you can create and edit quizzes, surveys, student discussions, etc. The best part is that you can organize them separately.

You can use the course builder to create quizzes just like creating another course lesson. It’s intuitive, easy to use, and easy to update and rearrange.

Student Engagement (Teachable)

On Teachable, you can add quizzes to your courses directly through the course builder. You cannot organize that in a separate library, as you can in Thinkific.

You also can’t create surveys, but you do have full access to create quizzes. It’s a powerful tool that’s easy to use and can take your course from good to great.

Import Existing Content (Thinkific)

Another feature both Thinkific and Teachable provide in their free plans is the ability to import your content in bulk (but not your students, that is a premium feature).

If you already have an existing course and wish to bring it from somewhere like Google Drive then, on Thinkific click on the "Bulk Importer" inside the course builder.

It’s both easy to upload your various files, videos, and material, as well as to rearrange them.

Import Existing Content (Teachable)

On Teachable’s course builder, you can find the "Bulk Upload" button next to the "New Section" under the curriculum tab and then at the top of the page. This opens up a new mini-window that lets you bring material/files from places like Dropbox and Google Drive.

Unlimited Courses and Students

Before we move into the various free marketing and sales features you get access to, it’s important to note that in Thinkific’s free plan, you can only create 3 courses.

Whereas in Teachable's free plan, you can create as many courses as you like. So Teachable is a better option if as a new course creator you want to experiment and organically scale your growth.

Marketing & Sales

Create Free & Paid Courses (Thinkific)

There are many marketing and sales tools in both platforms’ free plans, including the ability to create free and paid courses.

It's important as you can experiment and get your pricing on point (an undervalued part of the process for course creators).

Inside Thinkific, you do this in the course builder itself, via the pricing tab in the top menu.

In the free plan, you only have options to make your course free or for a one-off payment. If you wish to offer other pricing options like monthly plans, memberships, or subscriptions then you'll have to upgrade to the premium plan.

Create Free & Paid Courses (Teachable)

On Teachable, you can access your pricing in the course-builder itself—in the left column or at the bottom of the page.

Once you click on the “add pricing plan” button, a new window opens that allows you to choose between free, a one-time payment, a payment plan, or a subscription.

(unlike Thinkific, all are available on the free Teachable plan)

Once you choose an option, a new window then opens that allows you to fill in finer details: price, title, brief description, etc…

Transaction Fees (Thinkific)

Another important feature to consider is the transaction fees Thinkific and Teachable charge you per sale—this not only impacts your bottom line, but the price you offer your students.

Thinkific stands out for all the right reasons here, offering zero transaction fees—even on their free plan.

Transaction Fees (Teachable)

In comparison, Teachable charges you $1 + 10% on every paid transaction, as well as additional processing fees—depending on if your student purchases using a credit card, PayPal, etc.

It’s also worth noting these charges remain even when you upgrade to a paid plan. This is far from ideal, as most platforms these days don't charge percentage fees anymore.

Landing Page Builder (Thinkific)

One of the most important features of any online course platform is the ability to create stand-out sales pages. Thinkific provides access to a solid page-builder (even with their free plan). Better yet, you can organize these various pages via a dedicated library that you can find on your main dashboard.

As you can see, each page you create appears in this library, allowing you to edit them with ease.

There’s also a “Theme Library” which allows you to build a site/page on an existing template.

It isn’t a large library, though, with just a few options.

When you create a new page, you’re directed to a dedicated page builder (similar to the course-builder). You can easily design a landing page by dragging and dropping elements.

1: the main menu on the left shows you each section you create, allowing you to move them around and edit accordingly

2: this is where you edit and update your copy, as well as add titles, call to action buttons, videos, and images

There’s also a separate “settings” tab that lets you tweak some of the page’s finer details, such as titles, metadata, etc… As well as the ability to preview your site/page via the top right-hand corner.

It's nice as it lets you see what your page looks like on desktop vs mobile

Landing Page Builder (Teachable)

Teachable provides a similar page builder, which you can access via the left-hand column and the “Site” tab.

Here, you can edit and adjust all sorts, including your site/pages’ branding, menus, bio, as well as adding customized code and text.

To create a new page, you need to navigate to the “pages” tab.

This opens up a separate page builder, which, like Thinkific, uses a drag and drop method.

The various sections appear in the left-hand column, with the main part of the page where you add images, copy, videos, etc. You can also preview your site/page in the top-right corner, but unlike Thinkific, it doesn’t provide a desktop vs mobile option.

Support & Admin

Here are some of the most important features of both Thinkific and Teachable, in terms of admin features.

Analytics (Thinkific)

As important as marketing and sales are, you’ll spend a lot of time maintaining your courses, replying to students, and measuring your success.

As such, you need access to certain support and admin tools—that both Teachable and Thinkific offer.

On Thinkific’s free plan, you only get access to certain analytical tools and data. You find this via the main dashboard, under the “Market & Sell” section.

It allows you to search through various orders and access their data. It’s far from in-depth and not the best when it comes to analytical support.

Analytics (Teachable)

Teachable, on the other hand, does offer a little more—and in a more visual way.

You access this from the main dashboard, under the “Sales” section in the left-hand column.

Here, you can search through individual orders but also access monthly statements and breakdowns. It’s still not as detailed but does offer a more comprehensive insight compared to Thinkific.

App Store/Integrations (Thinkific)

Another vital aspect you need to consider is how your course integrates and aligns with the other tools you use: email marketing, CRM, accounting software, etc.

This is an area Thinkific excels in, providing direct integration to dozens of tools. You can find these via the “Apps” section on the main dashboard, which provides access to their dedicated app store.

As you can see, there are many options to choose from. If you can't find a tool on the screen, you can search for it in the top tab.

Alternatively, you can explore their popular collections (#1) or go through individual categories (#2).

How you connect your tools differs from one to the other. Most are simple to integrate though, allowing you to build a sustainable and ever-growing business around your online courses.

App Store/Integrations (Teachable)

You can achieve the same through Teachable, although you have fewer options.

On Teachable, you can find this in the main dashboard, under the “setting” section and then the integrations tab. On the free plan, you only get access to a selected number of tools/software.

To get access to everything, you'll need to upgrade to a paid plan.

Student Onboarding & Tracking (Thinkific)

As a course creator, your job is to not only bring in new students but then continue to serve them.

It’s important to stand out for all the right reasons, so you need to onboard, track, and communicate with them. Thinkific offers a separate “Support Your Students” section on the main dashboard.

Here, you can access and message each student directly, as well as get progress reports.

These progress reports are great as they show you where your students are in your course (and track their engagement). This not only helps you to better serve and support them but to improve your courses over time.

Student Onboarding & Tracking (Teachable)

Teachable offers something similar via the “Users” section on the main dashboard.

Here, you can access and message individual students/leads, although you don’t get the same type of progress report as you do with Thinkific.

These are some of the core features you get on Thinkific vs Teachable’s free plans. As you can see, they both offer a lot, and although there is a lot of overlap, there are also quite a few differences.

Can you get what you need via their free plans? Maybe… maybe not.

The reality is that you can only access a lot of their best features if you upgrade to a paid plan, as you’ll see in the next section.

Core Features (Paid Plans): Thinkific vs Teachable

As you can imagine, both Thinkific and Teachable reserve a lot of their best features for their paid plans.

Some of the stand-out ones you’ll need as a course creator include…

Course Creation

Here are some of the most important course creation features on both platforms.

Advanced Quizzes/Assignments (Thinkific)

Thinkific goes above and beyond when it comes to features that help you engage your students.

With quizzes and surveys, you can also set assignment exams via their paid plans.

You find these under the “Support Your Students” section on the main dashboard, where you can organize and edit them. In addition to this, you can create these from inside the course builder.

While on the free plan, you’ll get constant prompts and reminders to upgrade to access these.

Certificates (Thinkific)

Another important feature that helps bring your courses to life is to offer your students certificates.

Thinkific allows you to do this on their free plan, but with a large catch (more on that soon).

You create these via the main dashboard, under the “Support Your Students” section.

There are different templates to choose from that you can then edit and personalize.

Although you can create these on the free plan, you can only automatically send them to students if you upgrade to a paid tier. It matters because it otherwise makes the whole process manual and long-winded.

Certificates (Teachable)

Teachable also allows you to give certificates but it’s only on their paid plans.

You access this inside the main course builder, meaning you can set specific certificates for each course you create. You do so via the left-hand menu (at the very bottom), but, again, you’re met with a prompt to upgrade if you’re still on the free plan.

Community Building (Thinkific)

Another essential feature when building an online course business is to build a community for your students to learn from you—and with each other.

On Thinkific paid plans you can create a community.

You find this in the “Support Your Students” section, but as you can see above, you’re met with another call to action box. It’s a great feature that helps you build an engaging community that nurtures your students for the long term, but you do need to purchase their Pro+ Growth Plan!

Community Building (Teachable)

Teachable doesn’t go as deep as Thinkific here, only giving you the option to enable comments on individual courses—found inside the course builder, in the left-hand menu. It still allows engagement, but not in a community setting like Thinkific does.

Drip Course Content (Thinkific)

It doesn’t take long in your journey to appreciate how important engaging your students are. It’s one thing to have them purchase your course, but a whole other for them to DO the work.

An effective way to achieve this is to drip your course material over days, weeks, and even months. This means your students are prompted to do certain lessons and certain times.

You find this inside the course builder, via the top menu under the “Drip” tab. You can customize your entire student’s journey from here. But only if you’re on a paid plan!

Drip Course Content (Teachable)

Teachable offer a similar process, which you can once again access inside the course builder—in the left-hand menu and under the “Drip” tab.

Marketing & Sales

Here are some of the most important marketing features on both platforms.

Email Marketing (Thinkific)

As a course creator, interacting with your students is important—not just in terms of promotion, either, but onboarding them into your course and sending them content.

Thinkific provides some email via their free plans, but most of it’s only available when you upgrade. You’ll find it in the “Support Your Students” section, under the notifications tab.

Here, you can edit your welcome and completion emails, as well as some other messages/sequences.

Email Marketing (Teachable)

The same is true inside Teachable, where most email functionality is only available in their paid plans.

On your main dashboard, you find the “Emails” section, which lets you compose both individual and bulk messages—as well as access your email history, tweak main settings and even work from existing templates.

Overall, Teachable offer solid email resources in their paid plans.

Payment Plans (Thinkific)

As I talk about in this article, pricing your course is important.

Often, you’ll want to sell your course for a one-off payment. But sometimes it makes sense to create a payment plan (or even a subscription service). You can do this in Thinkific, but only if you upgrade.

This takes place in the course builder, via the “Pricing” section in the top menu.

As you can see, the final two options are behind a paywall.

Payment Plans (Teachable)

Teachable, on the other hand, allow you to offer an array of different options with their free plan.

As you can see, both payment plans and subscriptions are available without upgrading.

This allows you to edit your price, frequency, and even which currency you wish to get paid in. It’s a standout feature inside Teachable that does set it apart.

Affiliate Partnerships (Thinkific)

Another important feature to consider as a course creator are affiliate partnerships. Creating a course is one thing, but consistently (and effectively) promoting and selling it is another.

Often, the best way to do this is to partner with someone else that has an existing audience.

There are lots of third-party tools that help you do this, but you can do it inside Thinkific so long as you’re on a paid plan.

This is in the “Market & Sell” section, allowing you to set up, manage, and organize all your partners.

Affiliate Partnerships (Teachable)

Teachable offers a similar service, once again in their paid plans.

You find this in the “Users” section, under the affiliates tab. As with Thinkific, you can add and manage your affiliates here, saving you from using third-party software and tools.

Custom Branding/Domains (Thinkific)

One final marketing/sales feature to consider is your ability to customize your site and overall branding.

You have certain control even on Thinkific’s free plan, but if you want to customize aspects like your URL and add an SSL certificate to your site (to improve security), you need to upgrade.

This is found in the “Settings” section, where you can edit various other branding aspects. Some are available on all plans, but certain ones aren’t. Not ideal when it comes to building your brand.

Custom Branding/Domains (Teachable)

Teachable offers a little more flexibility in this regard, providing good customization even on their free plan—as you can see when you explore the “Site” section on your dashboard.

But if you want access to the Power Editor—this gives you greater freedom to add code, alter your branding, and basically build the site you want—you need to be on one of their paid plans.

Support & Admin

Here are some of the support and admin features of both platforms.

Advanced Reporting (Thinkific)

We talked about analytics earlier, and although Thinkific does give you some data on their free plan, much of the advanced reporting is only available if you upgrade.

You find this in the “Advanced Reporting” section from the main dashboard, which is still in beta at the time of writing. As you can see above, you get access to some nice breakdowns. But they’re still building this feature, and it is one you’ll have to pay for (now, and I imagine in the future).

Advanced Reporting (Teachable)

Teachable provides a similar obstacle, this time giving you detailed reports for each individual course.

They do offer good insights, though, including video engagement, quiz grades, and the sort of information that helps you learn who your audience is (and how engaged they are).

Live Chat Support (Thinkific)

Hopefully, this feature isn’t one you’ll need often. But on occasion, you will come across some issues. Maybe this is a question from one of your students. Maybe it’s a technical error.

Either way, sometimes you need to contact Thinkific, and as I’m sure you’ve experienced, waiting for an email reply is less than speedy.

Once upon a time, you were able to pick up the phone. These days, we often rely on a Live Chat.

Thinkific offers this… but only on their paid plans.

(you also get access to an onboarding call if you’re on either their premier or plus plan)

Not great from a customer support perspective.

Live Chat Support (Teachable)

The same applies to Teachable.

Email support is available to all, but Live Chat is only for those paying at least $99 per month!

Advanced Integrations

Finally, it’s worth noting that Teachable also require you to upgrade if you want full access to their integrations (this is not the case on Thinkific, which opens up its app store to everyone).

You’ll find this in the “Settings” section on the main dashboard, and then under the integrations tab.

In my opinion, this isn’t a good look. It goes to show both Thinkific and Teachable rise in some places and fall in others. They both offer a lot of features, and many of them are great.

Yet the way they promote their free plans is somewhat deceiving, not giving you the full picture.

Well, now you know… although there are still a few other important things worth mentioning!

What Else Do You Need To Know?

Before we summarize Thinkific vs Teachable and provide some pros and cons, it’s worth diving into a few other essential areas you need to know about as a course creator.

The first is important for obvious reasons because it’s sure to have an impact on your budget.

1: Price

Okay… let’s get clear on how much they both cost. After all, cost matters!

Both Thinkific and Teachable aren’t the cheapest options available:

• Click here to explore Thinkific’s pricing…
• Visit here for Teachable’s pricing…

So before we go further, let’s dive into their pricing structures—starting with Thinkific:

Thinkific Pricing

Although Thinkific comes with a free plan, it only offers limited access to certain features.

In short, it’s designed to let you explore and experiment…

If you want to actually create and sell your course, you’ll likely need to upgrade.

For most online course creators, the Basic plan is enough. But as you develop new courses, you’ll likely need to upgrade to the Pro plan (at least) at some point.

But hold on because there's something important you need to know about…

Because although Thinkific promotes their basic plan at $39 per month (and pro plan at $79), this is the annual offer—meaning you’re charged a year’s subscription in advance:

• Basic Plan = $39 x 12 = $468
• Pro Plan = $79 x 12 = $948

If you want to pay month-to-month, the price rises to $49 and $99 respectively.

Make sure you explore Thinkific’s Pricing Page before you make any decision.

Like many, you may find one or two of the features you need are only available at the Pro Plan—such as if you want to offer a subscription price to your students!

Plus, something Thinkific doesn’t promote well but could be important to you is their Growth Add-Ons (click here to learn more). For example, if you want the ability to import your existing students or send them bulk emails, you need a Growth package on top of the Pro plan.

That’s another $50 a month on top of the Pro plan (for a total of $149 a month!!)

And as soon as you subscribe to their email list, they’ll upsell you a  training plan to learn how to become a course creator for $300!

So, yeah… In short, it adds up.

On the surface, Thinkific may seem somewhat affordable compared to some other platforms.

Yet once you dig a little deeper, you see how expensive it is.

Teachable Pricing

Like Thinkific, Teachable does offer a Free Plan.

But like Thinkific, it does offer limited access to many of the features you’ll need.

It’s a great plan for experimenting with. But as soon as you’re ready to publish your course, you’ll likely need to upgrade to either their Basic Plan ($29) or Pro Plan ($99).

BUT… once more, this is for the annual price—meaning you get charged in advance in one go!

• Basic Plan = $29 x 12 = $248
• Pro Plan = $99 x 12 = $1,188

If you want to pay on a monthly basis, the plans come in at $39… $119… and $299…

It’s interesting to see how Teachable’s basic plan is cheaper than Thinkific’s but more expensive than their pro version. For most course creators, either the basic or pro plans are enough (in time, you may need the highest tier, but that’s down the line).

This is interesting because it shows how important it is to hone in on the features you need.

If what you need is inside the basic plans, Teachable’s a better option.

Whereas if what you need is in the pro plans, Thinkific is.

Another thing to note is that although Teachable doesn’t have as many hidden paid features and products (like their growth add-ons and training), they do charge you both a transaction and processing fee…

Once again, it’s important to factor this into your decision as it will impact your bottom line—as well as the price you offer to your students.

The costs quickly add up, whether you choose Thinkific or Teachable.

2: Customer Support

Another important aspect to factor in is customer support, because, in the same way, you need to offer your students a great service, you need your platform to offer you the same:

• Sometimes, a technical issue comes up…
• Other times, you need to learn how to use certain features…
• And when your students ask you questions, you may first need to find the answer…

So before we go further, let’s explore the type of customer service you’ll get on Thinkifics vs Teachable.

Thinkific Support

As you’ll see when you explore this page, Thinkific provides solid training and support.

Through articles, demos, video training, and their training site, Thinkific offers a lot of resources. This is good because there are lots of features you need to learn how to use.

However, training like this only goes so far.

Sometimes you need to email, call, or speak with a real person. On those occasions, you’ll submit a support ticket (click here for more), but this isn’t always ideal, as sometimes you need to speak to someone straight away.

So one thing to be aware is that Thinkific doesn’t provide a phone number or Live Chat feature (unless you’re on a paid plan)

Teachable Support

If we compare this to Teachable, they also have a good support area with lots of articles, tutorials, and the like… click here to explore.

However, what sets Teachable apart is their Teachable: HQ — the private community for their members.

The problem is, you need to be a paid customer to get access to this!

So although Teachable does stand out for the type of training and support they provide, it comes at a cost. And although you can submit support tickets and send emails—no matter what plan you’re on—you only get access to their Live Chat feature if you’re a Pro or Business Plan user.

3: Student Experience

Now we know what you experience as a course creator in both Thinkific vs Teachable…

But what about your students… what do they experience?

This is important because, although your experience matters, you could argue theirs is more so. After all, you create your course for them.

What Your Students See: Thinkific

Once enrolled, your students get access to an overall clean and easy-to-use platform…

In the left-hand column, they get access to all the various course materials you provide.

Then, via the main part of the screen, they see the individual lesson on offer.

On this occasion, it’s a video with a lesson plan beneath it.

It’s similar to other types of course material, although each one differs slightly…

This is what they see when looking at a slide deck/presentation 👆 👆

This is what they see when there’s an audio file 👆 👆

This is what they see when they get access to a downloadable PDF 👆 👆

And for those that like to work in “full-screen mode”, they can access just the lesson without the left-hand column in the view.

This is basically it.

Thinkific provides a clean, easy-to-use platform that gives your students what they need. It’s similar to what they experience with Teachable, although with a few differences along the way…

What Your Students See: Teachable

This is the main dashboard your student sees when they enroll in your course 👇👇

It provides a breakdown of different lectures and modules, as well as further details about you (the instructor) in the left-hand column, and other details you may wish to share about the course.

When your student clicks on a lesson, they see the main material on the right (on this occasion, a video), as well as a progress report of the course so far on the right.

You can also add text beneath any videos, which offers your students greater context.

Overall, the student experience on Thinkific vs Teachable is similar, with both platforms providing a clean, user-friendly interface.

6: Thinkific vs Teachable Pros & Cons

As you can now see, Thinkific and Teachable both provide a lot of great features.

But at this stage, I imagine you’re still unsure which is best for you. So before we bring this review to a close, let’s sum up some of the high-level pros and cons of each platform…

Thinkific Pros

1. Access to a free plan to experiment with your first course
2. Solid engagement tools, such as quizzes, surveys, and assessments
3. Multiple payment options/plans for your students
4. A clean, easy-to-use student experience
5. Lots of integrations with other tools and software

Teachable Pros

1. Access to a free plan that allows you to test, experiment, and explore
2. An easy-to-use course builder with lots of customization options
3. Other customization tools for your pages and website
4. Sophisticated analytical tools and resources
5. Great customer support and training (if you’re willing to pay for it)

Thinkific Cons

1. Many of the features you need access to require you to upgrade to paid plans
2. Limited customization tools (for both pages and courses)
3. Minimal customer support
4. A lack of real marketing/promotional features

Teachable Cons

1. The costs quickly add up with  all the transaction and processing fees
2. You have to pay for a lot of the customer support and training
3. Not the best student engagement tools and features
4. Harder to organize your course material and videos

Final Recommendations

Okay… you now know about Thinkific vs Teachable, and I imagine you have a clear idea of which platform is best suited for you and your students. But if you’re like many course creators, I also imagine you’re still a little unsure.

This is understandable. It’s a big decision.

One that impacts you today, but also further down the road.

This is your time we’re talking about… your money… your energy!

I can understand that, as I'm a course creator myself.

As someone who’s created online courses for several years now, I felt most platforms were either too expensive or targeted other types of professionals like internet marketers, or even meant for large organizations, but not to smaller course creators.

The typical online course creator like me is usually someone with no design or technical skills and doesn’t need a complex drag-and-drop website builder.

I want to focus on what matters… building a premium course and creating great content that attracts students—This is how OnlineCourseHost.com was born 😉

OnlineCourseHost.com is a standalone online course platform that provides access to all the tools you need to create and sell your own online courses (and host them on your own website under your own domain, with no marketplace middleman).

It’s a platform disrupting the online course platform market in the sense that it's by far the most affordable on the market (with an incomparable quality-to-price ratio).

Here are some of the main features:

• Top-Notch User Experience: Both you and your students will have the best course-taking user experiences available. Your students will be able to watch your courses in a beautiful responsive course player, on both desktop and mobile. This user experience is at the level of the best online course marketplaces out there, but it's hosted right there on your own website.
• Ease of use: The platform is designed to be super easy to use so that literally anyone regardless of their technical skills can create a course.
• Free Helpdesk: Independent of your plan, you have full support from the Helpdesk throughout your whole online course journey.
• Affordability: The price of a paid plan is a fraction of the price of other platforms, for a comparable set of features.
• Community: the students can engage with each other in the student discussions section right below each lesson, and have powerful full search capabilities for looking for questions and answers from other students in the whole course. These search capabilities are essential to having an active discussion among students, and they are often missing on other platforms.
• Fast Video Hosting: The video hosting service is super reliable and fast
• Engagement Tools: Keep your students engaged in your course by creating quiz lessons or assignment lessons that they need to submit for your review.
• Sales & Marketing Tools: Sell your courses in all sorts of ways, including one-time charges, via discount coupons, subscriptions, Lifetime plans, Team plans, course bundles, subscription discounts, and more.
• Facebook Ads Integration: The platform is fully compatible with Facebook Ads. Just drop your pixel Id and start running conversion campaigns straight to your course page (no technical skills needed).

For a full list of features, visit here →

Choosing the right online course platform matters. It plays an important role, not only in your experience but the one your students go through.

We have created OnlineCourseHost.com to help out course creators, by creating the easiest-to-use online course platform on the market, that comes with built-in email marketing.

But more than a platform, we want to give you all the information that you need to grow your online course business successfully.

That’s why we have created the Course Creator Academy where you can find everything you need to become a successful online course creator all in one place for free.

To get notified when new content is available here at the Academy, you can subscribe here to our weekly newsletter:

If you are looking to ask any questions on online course creation, you can reach me here on my Facebook group:

Join the Course Creator Academy Facebook Group

Ready to learn how to launch your first course on OnlineCourseHost.com? Here are the helpful guides for you to check out:

• Best Online Course Platforms (Ultimate Guide)
• How To Create An Online Course (In 15 Super-Practical Steps)
• How To Choose An Online Course Topic That Sells
• How To Record And Edit Your First Online Course
• Affordable Online Course Equipment - Complete Practical Guide
• How To Hire An Online Course Team
• The Ultimate Online Course Launch Checklist
• How To Create The Perfect Online Course Sales Page
• Create A Powerful Brand For Your Online Courses (In 5 Steps)
• How To Sell Online Courses? The Ultimate Guide
• How To Promote Your Online Course - Complete Guide

I hope you found this Teachable vs Thinkific in-depth review helpful, let me know in the comments below what other topics you would like me to cover, or any questions that you have.

Thanks for reading… and enjoying the course creation process! 😉

Vasco Cavalheiro

OnlineCourseHost.com Founder & Online Course Creator

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