Thinkific Reviews

4.4
Overall rating
Reviews

4.4
Overall rating
Reviews
Learn More

User Reviews Overview

About Thinkific

Thinkific is a versatile and comprehensive online course platform designed for entrepreneurs and educators. It excels in offering an array of features for course creation, marketing, and sales. Users can build personalized,...

Learn more

Feature ratings

Value for Money
4.2
Features
4.2
Ease of Use
4.3
Customer Support
4.2

Browse Thinkific Reviews

184 of 184 reviews
Sort by:
Dani
Dani
  • Industry: Financial Services
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 27/04/2023

The best online course platform for those who are starting out.

Excellent, it has helped us get more clients and earn more money without having to set up a website from scratch.

Pros

The number of options available and the affordable price.

Cons

Poor HTML editor. I hope they can improve this.

Pamela
Pamela
  • Industry: Entertainment
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 21/04/2020

This is where I have my courses

Anytime I have a problem their tech support is great. And I haven't had any tech problems with the platform - my students are happy and use it easily.

Pros

When I was researching all the different software for course hosting, I liked that this had a place to upload documents in the discussions. That might be really important for people teaching code or other products. Then I'm glad I choose this one because others take a % of income AND you have to wait longer for money.

Cons

The layout isn't as clean and modern as others - I'm hoping that will be updated at some point. It's a little ugly.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Thinkific had the ability to upload docs in the discussion area of courses. And doesn't charge a transaction fee.
Jonathan
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
N/A

4
Reviewed on 31/08/2024

Great tool for creating learning content

Superb tool to create learning content and sell it to customers

Pros

A very user-friendly tool to create learning content

Cons

It was missing some key features to report on learner progress

Alternatives Considered

Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Ease of use and possibility to start free

Top Thinkific Alternatives

Farah
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
3
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

3
Reviewed on 07/02/2021

Good overall with critical limitations for teaching online live

Good. They have excellent customer support and they responded to me quickly even during busy times. I actually recommended them for a company that has recorded videos and could benefit from using a modern LMS to share their recorded lessons.

Pros

I think I like the idea of the software. There are alternatives. I think I picked Thinkific first because they have clear description about their software, seemed reputable and seemed like they have good customer service and responsiveness. Their website is nicely responsive for different screen sizes. Although the theme itself is limited, and you are on your own to customize it, I felt that the drag and drop choices for the editor covered everything I need.

Cons

There were critical limitations that I felt decreased the value of the software for my business. The first thing that made me feel uncomfortable is that the website you build for your business through their LMS software would publish to the public immediately as you save the changes. I look thoroughly through the website theme settings, but there was no way to keep the website as "password protected" or "private" before it is published. As a result, I felt I should hold on about sharing important details until I write the entire content of the website, then drag and drop the content for the layout, and then put the content.

After that first issue, I felt less excited. There were other limitations that resulted in me losing interest. I didn't feel like I want to pay to customize my website with HTML and CSS. importing your own website website was not a convenient option.

My courses were live online but their website had no way of sharing the time on the website based on the user local or system time. I would have to pay for their Pro plan and do it myself with javascript. I could look up and learn how to do it, but I didn't want to. I felt like the software was good for only recorded content. The price they were asking for was not convincing anymore. Slowly and slowly I lost interest.

Finally, I saw that they charge a flat fee for each student plus their monthly fee, for any student after the 100th student. I decided not to move forward with them.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, TutorBird and Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I ended up not choosing Thinkific and went with an alternative.
Hamood
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 18/07/2024

I Think Not

Its a good software with friendly support, but if you're a small business launching its first course there are better value products in the market.

Pros

Interface is modern and is easy to navigate. Easy to remove and add content. No lagging with video and other features which provide an excellent end user experience.

Is a proven learning system used by millions globally.

It is easy to move away from Thinkific.

Cons

Have to use a lot of 3rd party vendors due to product limitations. So you can not add a blog page, have to use Thinkifics recommended providers, they are very expensive.

Recently Thinkific announced Stripe and other payment terminals can not be used, again you have you their providers.

Setting up meta tags for social media marketing was easy, and support couldnt help. So I had pay someone to sort this out.

They need more custom options building website, currently too basic.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Price and end user experience
SherriLee
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
4

4
Reviewed on 12/08/2022

Using Thinkific has helped me grow my business!

LOVE thinkific!

Pros

It's so easy to use, has great tutorials and their support is amazing.

Cons

It's gotten more technical over the years and really now a designer is needed to create beautiful landing pages unless you have time to figure it out.

Alternatives Considered

Udemy Business

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Easier to use and no one critiqued my course to allow it to be on the platform
Becky
  • Industry: Professional Training & Coaching
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
2

4
Reviewed on 12/06/2023

A great platform, but not as robust as others

Thinkific was fine for when I started selling courses, but ultimately it wasn't the right tool for my business and needs.

Pros

This is a platform built for courses, and as such, it does that incredibly well. If you are only looking for somewhere to sell courses and are most concerned with those looking great and being well built for your customers, then this is a great program.

Cons

I really wanted a platform that could handle more than just courses (ie, also selling digital downloads, memberships, and 1:1 coaching programs). Thinkific isn't made to do everything because they focus on doing one thing really well. If you're looking for a jack of all trades rather than a master of one, this probably isn't for you.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

I chose Thinkific because I had heard good reviews from some of my peers using it and it was easy to set up for someone who wasn't well versed in course management platforms.
Joe
Joe
  • Industry: Financial Services
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 07/09/2019

The Best Online Course Creator

We started with an idea to help colleagues and turned it into a course. Thinkific allowed us to get our idea out of our heads and into reality, and a usable product people could buy & use.

Pros

Thinkific made it easy to create & host our digital course for financial advisors. With any platform there is a learning curve at the beginning. Thinkific's support team was always quick to reply and help us learn the ropes.

Cons

I don't really have any complaints. It would be nice if the WYSIWYG editor were as good as Apple Pages, and turned out prettier text layouts in the templates. But, it's good enough.

Jeremy
Jeremy
  • Industry: Media Production
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 08/12/2021

Fun and Flexible Course Platform

I found Thinkific to be very satisfying. I had everything I needed to launch a single course on the free plan (one free single course), but I was looking for a fully-integrate funnel solution, so I went with a competitor that had that feature. But this will be very good for most users.

Pros

It is very easy to get up and running with Thinkific. The course templates are a breeze to edit; users can easily see how to add and edit content, and the presentation is slick and professional.

Cons

Thinkific does not have an integrated email marketing feature, but users can connect MailChimp, et al., with Zapier. The design templates look okay until the user starts to change fonts and adds more content, then they start to look like a Wordpress template. Not bad, but not slick.

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, Systeme.io and Kajabi

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Teachable takes too big a cut from sales, while Kajabi is very expensive.
Kitti
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 01/09/2024

Easy to use, overall great course provider platform

Pros

Ease of use, option to share certificates with students

Cons

Managing students is a little complex from the admin dashboard

Steph
  • Industry: Health, Wellness & Fitness
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Features
1
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
1

2
Reviewed on 01/02/2023

Awful customer support, slow page load speed and terrible for SEO

I got the plus plan so that I have a "dedicated rep" who is almost always out of the office. Whenever I contact customer support because of a problem, which is several times a day, they "can't duplicate the issue" so they don't have a solution. The page load speed fails every test. When I contacted them for support on this issue, they recommend I have the site redesigned by a professional who could help with page load speed. I hired one of their "experts" to redesign the site, and her design does not look or feel any better than mine and also did not help with the page load speed so I'm out $40k for no reason.

Pros

I like that it is easy to use, it's easy to upload your course material and publish your course.

Cons

My main issues with thinkific include very slow page load speed (which kills SEO rankings), dysfunction in the assignment feature (specifically, when clicking "next page" on the assignments, it takes you back to page 1 and you have to start all over), inability to edit a course landing page (my course has been published for 4 years and the URL is out in google so I don't want to recreate and for some reason we can no longer edit the page at all), and problems with user experience (students not being able to load a page, etc)

Alternatives Considered

Teachable

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

At the time, thinkific appeared to be a better solution
Korinne
  • Industry: Education Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
1
Features
2
Ease of Use
1
Customer Support
1

3
Reviewed on 22/10/2019

Customer Service Very Disappointing

Very frustrating! Not a customer-friendly service. While they are friendly and say they hope you are having a nice day, they do not answer questions (or apparently read email chains).

There is no support for European customers I fed this back to them when I first signed up around 2 years ago and nothing has changed. I have given them all of the feed back given here but they do not take any action.

Waiting at least a day for an answer is totally unacceptable. What makes it even more frustrating is that, after waiting for a reply, they ask for information that was already included in your original email (and then you have to wait another day for a response).

It just seems as though they work at their convenience, not the customer's. And yet they are happy to take the subscriptions when they are not providing an adequate service.

Pros

I was so excited to find this product and thought it would be ideal for my needs

Cons

The software is not user-friendly. I was hoping that it would be more straightforward and my staff have also commented that is it not user-friendly.

There is nobody to call when you have a query and can only email. It takes them a day to get back to you. And we are based in the UK and with the time difference, we have to wait at least a day for an answer. What makes it even more frustrating is that, after waiting for a reply, they ask for information that was already included in your original email (and then you have to wait another day for a response).

I sent a query on Monday asking how to do something and the reply said 'see instructions below' and there were no instructions there. In the same email, they asked me to confirm the email address (which I had emailed them on and they had clearly not tried this). I responded right away and just got an email asking how they could help me! (They clearly had not read the email chain).

It is now 9pm at night on Tuesday and will be at least Wednesday afternoon with the time difference until I may get a reply and actually proceed.

Alex
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: 51–200 Employees
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
2
Features
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
1

3
Reviewed on 14/09/2023

Only use if you never want to close account

Ended very badly, we are having our reputation damaged

Pros

Easy to set up. Seems reasonably priced

Cons

Only use if you never (and I mean never) want to close accountI have been trying to close our thinkific account for a year, it is impossible! It will let you downgrade to a free account but there you are stuck! You might think, that’s ok, they’re now charging you. Well, the problem is that every time you disable a course another one is reactivated. I have just had to refund a load of learners who have managed to sign up and pay for courses that we no longer run.. Not good for business!!!! There are other, better and more cost effective platforms out there.Impossible to speak to a person, Help pages are a joke

Dan
Dan
  • Industry: Marketing & Advertising
  • Company size: 201–500 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
3
Ease of Use
3
Customer Support
5

4
Reviewed on 15/08/2017

Good for small, basic needs

Value for the money, attractive front end with little effort.

Pros

The way Thinkific presents content, from landing page to course completion page, is beautiful and appealing to the user. There are ample ways to connect with the user through various integrations if desired. It's also useful that you can customize the branding and even your own site theme if you have the available resources to do so! After switching from a sub-par LMS, our users are more engaged and more excited about signing in to consume our courses.

Cons

Reporting leaves much to be desired - best count on using Zapier to pull data into a 3rd party for analyzing user progress and completion rates. It's also frustrating that I have to wait for some reports to be emailed to me after requesting them. Perhaps the most frustrating part is that the front-end is designed using Liquid, which is difficult for a novice with basic CSS / HTML knowledge to navigate in order to make small text changes across the site.

Valamere
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
3
Features
3
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
3

4
Reviewed on 29/11/2021

Think Simple Online Course Creation

Pros

I like Thinkific because it offers a simplified way to create, market, and sell online courses all in one platform. Thinkific have many content creation resources to design multimedia online courses or trainings. For example, there's an intuitive drag and drop feature that allows you to create classes, videos, and other digital tools for content with easy placement onto the platform. What makes this platform unique is the Thinkific Academy that is full of resources to walk you through creating, marketing, and selling your content, especially if you are new to this concept. What is great about Thinkific is the ability to customize and brand your online platform using low code development.

Cons

Although the interface is simple with a basic look and the ability to use low code development to customize the layout, it does not offer flexibility in making changes to fit your brand. Also, if you are not skilled in frontend development the visual elements of the platform, you will have to pay for additional fees.

Alternatives Considered

SmarterU LMS and Wisetail LMS
Katie
  • Industry: Religious Institutions
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 02/07/2018

Love it!

I got leads into students who enjoyed this platform. I really loved setting up courses and I think this is a great product.

Pros

I really like how easy this system is; they have done a lot to make their platform easy to use. The free plan is good.
Pro's:
Easy to use & navigate
Helpful tutorials
Helpful webinars and manuals to help you get the most and market your courses
Clean crisp look
Responsive for mobile, tablet, and pc's

Cons

Pricing for me was the only con; I had purchased a lifetime subscription to another course building platform and decided to switch to that otherwise i'd still be using thinkific.

Julie
  • Industry: Hospital & Health Care
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 18/03/2021

Incredible course creation platform!

A++

Pros

I love using Thinkific and wish I'd found it sooner! If I have any questions, their customer service response is outstanding and they even follow up with an email covering the details discussed. The training videos and course guidelines are so helpful. It's so easy to make edits and update course content any time. Stripe is a good company that allows us to sell courses in many other countries, bonus! I'm not tech savy so this program fit like a glove. Thank you so much for your committment to helping others by creating an incredibly user friendly and highly functional program.

Cons

I would like to be able to add a course instructors signature to the certificates and better options in the certificate blocks.

Hansome
  • Industry: Financial Services
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 18/03/2021

Hansomekelly

Covers literally all of my needs and services

Pros

The different type of quizzes that I can offer

Cons

The growth package monthly payment per student

Monica
Monica
  • Used Daily for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 14/06/2018

The best eLearning platform for beginners and experts

Pros

I have produced more than 200 online courses and used several platforms. Thinkific is my favorite. I have three schools there. It's easy to use, clean design, and the upgrades are customer-centered.

Cons

I don't like the new admin organization. It's text heavy and not intuitive. I prefer simple headers like courses, users, admin, etc.

Rocky
Rocky
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Monthly for 2+ years
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 24/06/2018

For the non-developer who wants to create great online courses - go with Thinkific

It's just a great piece of software to deploy an online course without having to rely on a expensive developer (like myself.)

Pros

I deploy Thinkific to my clients who need to an online course, but don't have the expertise or resources to recruit someone with technology skills. It's really easy with a short learning curve. If building a website with drag/drop tools is easy to you - this is even easier.
Their support is fantastic! Their response time is quick, their team is helpful, and their reply is always clear and coherent. I've spoken to them as both a user, and a developer - and they were always willing to find a way to help me solve things.

Cons

For the scenario of building a training program - Thinkific is great - no issues. If I had to say something, like anything - the only thing I can think of is, as a developer - I wish I can build add-ons to extend Thinkific's features. I'm probably in the 1% who wants it, which shows how much Thinkific really thought things

Shawn
  • Industry: Nonprofit Organization Management
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 1+ year
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
3
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 07/05/2021

Budget Friendly Software for developing your program

Overall I am very happy with this software for my program and it's been a very helpful tool.

Pros

I love that it is one of the most budget-friendly software that I know to create an online program on.

Cons

I do believe that the software has the potential to grow more and be a little bit more professional looking, I would recommend adding more features and better design options.

Abigail
Abigail
  • Company size: 11–50 Employees
  • Used Weekly for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 07/12/2017

Thinkific is easy to use, the interface is friendly both for the administrator and for the...

I get to sell my courses to students directly and receive a hire percentage than I would on Udemy and Skillshare.

Pros

I needed to create online courses to sell directly to students rather than putting all my eggs in one basket... in this case 2 baskets; Udemy and Skillshare. I began looking for cheap or free LMS system, and after vetting my options I was down to two choices Thinkific and Teachable. Thinkific isn't as popular as Teachable so I was already partial, expecting less from it than Teachable. I was surprised that Thinkific was the better option.
Thinkific is easy to use, intuitive and very user-friendly, they have lots of resources on how to create courses. I hit a snag in the video production phase of my courses and I was surprised when they reached out to me, I explained that I hadn't been online as I was still creating my course and they sent links to resources that would help. That was a biggy for me, as I really needed that.

The staff and the software itself has been amazing.

Cons

Non really, at least for now. I'm on the free plan which has limited features, I'd need to upgrade to fully explore its capabilities but for now, I'm content

Shane
  • Industry: Professional Training & Coaching
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 1-5 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
4
Features
4
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 20/05/2020

A great platform for the less technical

A really great platform that is easy to tailor to my business needs. Where I was unable to make a change to the system defaults, the customer service team made them with out any issues.

Pros

Very easy to use and has excellent customer support

Cons

For the plan I am on it is a shame there certificate functionality is not available

Alternatives Considered

Teachable, Udutu Guru LMS, iSpring Suite and Litmos

Reasons for Switching to Thinkific

Price and functionality
Linda
Linda
  • Industry: Professional Training & Coaching
  • Company size: Self Employed
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
5
Ease of Use
5
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 27/03/2020

Best money for value for startups

Easy to use and set up. I am not a tech person and I set up a whole online course in 3 days so pretty cool.

Pros

There is a free function you can actually set up a whole program completely for free and they only charge a % of the sale. It’s perfect for start ups.

Cons

I found anything I don’t like so far. I am really happy with it.

Craig
  • Industry: E-Learning
  • Company size: 2–10 Employees
  • Used Daily for 6-12 months
  • Review Source
Value for Money
5
Features
4
Ease of Use
4
Customer Support
5

5
Reviewed on 15/02/2022

Thinkific Has A Lot Going For It

Pros

The look presented to students, and options for directing their learning process is thoughtful and creative. When I have a question that the help file can't answer, the live chat has been helpful a number of times.

Cons

Some options are "all or nothing", in other words, I can't customize to individuals as much as I might like.

184 reviews