Here’s an article breaking down why I would recommend Thinkific every time over Kajabi, Teachable, Podia, Udemy, LearnDash, and definitely over ClickFunnels.
When it comes to selling online courses and tutoring students, the obvious names that instantly come to mind are Udemy, Coursera, Kajabi, etc. But Thinkific could be the website that does the trick for you, as it has been for my clients. Funny thing is, they advertise themselves as the “#1 Udemy Alternative”, which means they know their position in the market.
To set themselves apart from the crowd, Thinkific goes above and beyond by giving you versatile affiliate handling options. You can allow students to resell your courses without relying on tricky and complicated third-party affiliate tracking software. Thinkific also allows for revenue sharing among partners and multiple instructors.
One standout feature of Thinkific is the ability to sell online courses from your website. Some of its most prominent clients include Hootsuite, Intuit, and York University. Thinkific can be used for internal training or as a for-profit course module, which is how most universities and schools operate.
But unlike Udemy, Thinkific gives its users complete power over their online course design.
Drag and Drop Editor
Thinkific introduces seamless automation tools that will simplify your work. It was designed by experts who’ve been in the e-learning industry for over 20 years and know a thing or two about designing and implementing online courses. So it comes as no surprise that they allow for quick course creation using a simplified drag and drop editor. It’s like WordPress (which I love by the way) in a sense – but for websites, in that; you can just drag and drop your favorite features and you’re done. You can start promoting your courses and selling right away.
You do not have to temper with the code or consult a professional software developer for the most part. Thinkific also supports almost all types of media, from PDFs to surveys, quizzes, and audio files – giving you the ability to offer a wide range of learning resources to students.
The best part is that all these files are hosted internally on Thinkific severs. This protects your brand and stops people from downloading your valuable videos and content directly from the web. This means faster loading time, almost zero lagging, and the possibility of uploading huge files. Most competitor software, even TalentLMS and Kartra store larger files on third party sites which reduces their quality.
In most cases, you can adjust items like banners, logos, color, schemes without ever touching the code. But if you’re an advanced developer or have access to a team of developers, Thinkific gives you complete control over their CSS and HTML, allowing you to hold nothing back in terms of creating a unique site.
Effectively Communicating with Your Students/Customers
Thinkific makes communication between students and instructors simple and effective. You can send custom emails to your students and start conversations with them. It gives you access to a robust visual student management portal complete with pictures of your students, their contact information, and details about how far they are into your course.
Instructors can use several incentives to create a more rewarding learning environment. Thinkific offers report cards, completion certificates, and emails for sending out anything you want during the course. These are the features that make Thinkific a great option.
For the most part, your students will feel right at home because of Thinkific’s great user experience and mobile optimization. Students can watch unlimited replays of the course material, which isn’t usually the case with most online tools.
Marketing for Membership Sites and Courses Done Right
Most online courses fail when it comes to marketing and promo campaigns. This isn’t good news for people who quickly want to get the word out. However, Thinkific even provides tutors with effective marketing and promotional tools that are built right into the software. Plus most of it is completely automated, so in some cases, you won’t have to lift a finger.
So, if you would like to release content bit by bit over a certain time period, Thinkific gives you that functionality. You can also target your potential clients using automated emails on a schedule.
Thinkific offers a fully fleshed out affiliate marketing program if people recommend your course. You can provide coupon codes through Thinkific and customize them to different amounts and date ranges, allowing you to create promo campaigns and ads to convince students that your course is worth getting into.
It is possible to track your marketing campaigns’ progress without ever leaving the Thinkific dashboard. You can also link in your Google Adwords account, Facebook, and other social media and advertising accounts to gain more information about student analytics.
Pricing Done Right
The standout feature of Thinkific is its emphasis on zero hidden fees and contracts. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about other online course and membership softwares. You can try Thinkific for free here to test out the platform without getting bogged down by limitations. At a low price of $0, the Starters package on Thinkific lets instructors launch their course and start building a student base from the ground up without having to pay a dime.
Once you start selling, Thinkific will charge 10% transaction fees on all of its tools that have been used to create your course. However, this is understandable since they have their upkeep costs, including content hosting and server upkeep.
• Essential – For a fee of $49 per month, you can receive all the core and starter features and reduce transaction fees to 5%. You will also gain access to promotions, coupons, course bundles, drip content, affiliate reporting, custom domains, and more.
• Business – This feature is for advanced users and beginners will not need to use it for now. For $99 a month, you’ll gain access to advanced HTML and CSS editing, customer support, 3-course admin accounts, hidden courses, and completion certificates. You also qualify for zero transaction fees.
• Advanced – This is for users who pocket a large chunk of change through Thinkific. For only $279 a month, you can eliminate your transaction fees and receive all features from the previous versions such as SSO, ten-course admin account, access to an onboarding specialist, advanced integrations, and more.
Support Team
Thinkific has a vibrant community forum that is filled with real-time conversations from users and students. You can also refer to the support doc to find detailed technical information. If you want to reach customer support, you can fill a contact form that will place you in a ticketing queue. You won’t be able to directly call someone through the chatbox or a support line.
If this is important to you, you’ll have to sign up for their Business Plan. This is one area that we feel Thinkific strongly lacks in, the absence of a customer support team.
Click here to get started on Thinkific for free!
PS – If you’re interested in checking out my Thinkific website or purchasing any of my training, you can do so here.
