If you want to learn how to create and sell an online course, you need to know the differences between Thinkific vs Teachable. Creating an online course can be a great way to market your book and increase sales, all by providing value to your customers.
I’ve taught workshops, led a three week writing cohort, recorded online courses, and coached writers, and the one thing I learned through it all? Teaching is a fantastic way to give back.
We’ve taught over 8,000 authors how to write, publish, and market their books over the last 10 years and now it’s time for us to teach you how to give back too!
Whether you know how to write a novel and have done so countless times before or it’s your first time publishing and you want to create a course on another area of expertise, we’re here for you.
Learn the differences between Thinkific and Teachable so you use the best platform for your course.
Thinkific vs Teachable: what you learn
- Thinkific vs Teachable: what is Thinkific?
- Thinkific vs Teachable: what is Teachable?
- Thinkific vs Teachable: main features
- Pros and cons
- What people are saying
Thinkific vs Teachable: what is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a software platform that helps individuals through every step of creating, marketing, selling, and delivering their online courses.
They state that, “Our mission is no less than to revolutionize the way people learn and earn online by giving them the tools they need to turn their expertise into a sustainable business that impacts both them and their audience.”
Because you can easily use a self-help book or a leadership book to build your business and grow your career, it’s important to pinpoint what platform is best for you to do so.
Thinkific is trusted by brands such as Hootsuite and Shopify, so it’s definitely not a small, unknown software platform.
How did they start? Well, Greg Smith decided to shift his LSAT course online so he could reach more people. Before too long, the revenue from his course exceeded that of his law practice.
Greg and his team, “Set out to build the best platform for course creators and businesses looking to educate clients and potential clients.” This is a bit about Thinkific, but what about Thinkific vs Teachable?
Thinkific vs Teachable: what is Teachable?
Teachable is another online platform for creating, hosting, and selling courses. Their mission is to “transform the lives of creators and their audiences through the power of knowledge.”
As someone who has been called a “learner” and spends a lot of my time investing in courses, listening to podcasts, and generally reading 5 to 7 books at a time, I’m a huge fan of this mission.
Teachable has served over 32 million students, sold over 30 million products, and even offers a community for those who use it.
In fact, we love Teachable so much we even use it internally! For us, we believe it’s one of the best online course platforms. Let’s take a closer look at the Thinkific vs Teachable features so you can decide which platform is best for you.
Thinkific vs Teachable: main features
The main features of each platform are important to understand before settling on either. As you look through the following features, keep in mind where you want to sell your course (for example, via your author website) and how you want to spread the word about your course.
Thinkific: features to know
Thinkific offers a variety of main features to both build and sell:
- Courses
- Community online learning spaces
- Digital product downloads
- Interactive coaching and webinars
- Exclusive perks via memberships
Thinkific’s marketing tools include the ability to:
- Use AI to create landing pages
- Build email automation
- Articulate what you’re doing right/room for growth through analytics
- Receive a custom mobile app
Thinkific’s sales tools include:
- TCommerce and other ways to boost sales
- Automation for administrative tasks
So that’s a bit on Thinkific, but what about Thinkifici vs Teachable’s main features?
Teachable: features to know
Teachable offers you the ability to sell:
- Online courses
- Coaching
- Digital downloads
- Memberships
- Community access
However, Teachable also capitalizes on AI to help you:
- Generate course outlines
- Create quizzes
- Automate subtitles and translations
Teachable includes sales tools such as:
- Buy now, pay later options
- Tax-inclusive pricing
- Affiliate marketing tools
- Tracking and analyzing for your marketing funnels
This overview of the Thinkific vs Teachable main features can help get you started on choosing the best platform for you.
Before choosing between Thinkific vs Teachable, ask yourself the following questions:
- What is the number one feature I need?
- What three features would make selling my course most simple?
- Do I want to make use of AI or not?
Now that you have some of the groundwork laid for Thinkific vs Teachable, it’s time to look at the pros and cons in the areas of price points and other offerings. Just as finding the best editor for your book matters, finding the best platform for your courses matters too!
Pros and cons
Alright, I always want to know price points before letting myself be sold, literally, on a product, so let’s take a look at the Thinkific vs Teachable packages.
Thinkific price points
- Basic: $36/month
- Unlimited courses
- 1 community
- 5 digital downloads
- 5 coaching and webinar sessions
- Sales tools
- Abandoned cart
- Start: $74/month
- Everything above, plus unlimited live lessons
- Unlimited memberships
- Unlimited digital downloads, coaching, and webinar sessions
- Edit HTML and CSS
- Sell bundles and add-ons
- Grow: $149/month
- Everything above, plus 3 communities
- Remove Thinkific branding
- Thinkific analytics
- Group orders
- Plus: Custom pricing
- Everything Thinkific has to offer
- Unlimited everything
- CRM integrations (Hubspot, Salesforce)
- Single sign on (SSO)
- SCORM compliant
- API access
- Create student learning paths
- Dedicated onboarding and customer support
These offers seem to include a variety of needs you may encounter and come in at a pretty standard price point.
Thinkific cons
The main con I see is that you have to invest all the way up to their Grow package before you can remove their branding.
Because branding is such a crucial component of effective marketing, this raises a bit of a concern for me as far as smooth, streamlined branding. However, it’s not necessarily a dealbreaker and can always be avoided by purchasing the next package.
Teachable price points
We’ve covered Thinkific, so now it’s time for Thinkific vs Teachable. Which one will come out on top?
Teachable has four main packages as well:
- Basic: $39/month
- 5% transaction fee
- Unlimited product creation
- 5 published products of each type
- Create with AI
- iOS student mobile app
- Sales tax, VAT, and GST handling
- Upsells, coupons, and abandoned cart
- Pro: $119/month
- 0% transaction fee*
- Unlimited product creation
- 50 published products of each type
- Create with AI
- iOS student mobile app
- Sales tax, VAT, and GST handling
- Upsells, coupons, and abandoned cart
- Affiliate program
- Course certification
- White label website
- Live chat support
- Pro+: $199/month
- 0% transaction fee*
- Unlimited product creation
- 200 published products of each type
- Create with AI
- iOS student mobile app
- Sales tax, VAT, and GST handling
- Upsells, coupons, and abandoned cart
- Affiliate program
- Course certification
- White label website
- Live chat support
- Custom admin permissions
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
- Custom pricing
- Migration assistance
- White glove onboarding
- Premium enterprise support
Teachable cons
Teachable cons include having a transaction fee on top of the monthly payment. This is something to note as you project your monthly sales, the ROI you want to make, and factor this 5% fee into your final numbers.
Again, this does not need to be a dealbreaker, but is worth taking note of. If you jump from the Basic to the Pro plan, you can avoid this fee altogether.
What people are saying
Finally, a quick look at what users are saying.
Thinkific reviews
While currently Thinkific does not share reviews on their website, TrustPilot has over 800 reviews spanning 1 to 5 stars.
Some reviews showcase a great user experience, while others do not. For example, this 1 star review says, “Was on trial when they charged my credit card for over 100 Euro without any prior notice. Contacted support to cancel, very difficult procedure. Have enough evidence and screenshots showing I was not on any plan. Will now start dispute with my credit card company. Stay away from Thinkific.”
However, someone else left a 5 star view that says, “We have already upgraded twice since starting with our basic Thinkific! Their features have inspired us in directions we had not initially thought of and have helped our business to grow quickly. Their support pages are hugely helpful to learn what functions are possible and tech support has been awesome. They are interested in what we do and want to help us thrive.”
Teachable reviews
Teachable posted several reviews on their website, which showcase happy customers:
- “My favorite thing about Teachable is the support they give to their creators, especially when they’re just starting out. They also make it extremely easy for you to use the platform.” —Laticia Brice, Laticia Brice Consulting
- “Teachable has enabled us to have an incredible impact on the lives of over 60,000 students (and generate millions in revenue) in just a few short years. Creating courses and digital products on this platform could not be easier!” —Ben Burns, the Futur
- “I’ve used Teachable to sell millions of dollars in digital products & courses. It has allowed my company, Boss Project, to work with more than 30,607+ students from around the world, ensuring a quality experience and better results for our clients.” —Abagail Pumphrey, Boss Project
Thinkific vs Teachable: take your next step
Now that you have read through the Thinkific and Teachable features, take your next step toward authorship today by using our free Publishing Path Assessment!
