If you are planning to host your course or are thinking of building a course and publishing it, then there are good chances that you have heard of the Teachable vs. Thinkific debate. Probably that’s why you have landed here.
On first look, you can say that these are similar or like to like kind of platforms. If you plan to publish your course, sell them and grow the business, then the purpose is solved by both of them.
Then why is there a debate? And why do we have to make the comparison between Teachable vs Thinkific? You will get all the answers by the time we wrap up our discussion. First, let’s begin with an introduction to the tools.
Teachable is an easy-to-use course-publishing platform and allows a beginner-friendly setup to help you start monetizing your courses. Thinkfic, on the other hand, with its wide range of features, brings more options in regard to publishing your courses.
Let’s see the comparison between them based on certain parameters:
| Parameter | Thinkific | Teachable |
| Free Plan | Allows up to 3 courses under the free plan. | Allows publishing of 1 course under the free plan. |
| Number of students that can be added | Unlimited students can be added. | Teachable also offers the facility to add unlimited students to your course. |
| Payment options | Uses a third-party integration. | Accepts PayPal, Google Pay, and Apple Pay among others. |
| Mobile app support | Students can access courses through the app. | App-based course access supported. |
| Live session | A tutor can conduct live online sessions via Zoom integration. | Live session supported as a built-in feature |
| Number, of course, that can be added | Allows unlimited courses but for paid plans. | Unlimited course addition for paid plans |
| Discounts and coupons to be offered to students | Available | Available |
| Transaction fee on sales | 0% on any plan | $1 +10% on the free plan, 5% on the basic plan, 0% on higher plans. |
| Onboarding support | Only for premier plan users | Only pro users get onboarding support. |
| Customer support | Live and write-in chat | Live chat and email support |
With the overview of differences between the two that you saw in the above table, let’s see these platforms one by one now as we go ahead in the Teachable vs Thinkific match-up.
Teachable helps you present your courses more beautifully. What that means is that it has options through which you can build your course more aesthetic and attractive. Also, you get good bandwidth; that is, you can upload long videos under your courses.
Not only videos, but you can also upload all kinds of material related to your course, like audio, PDFs, Doc files, PPTs, etc. You can directly import the content from Google Drive, Dropbox, etc.
Thus, you can create a course holistically, and students can get all resources in one place. The video player and student interface are very user-friendly and interactive. You can say it’s a mix of modern and professional.
To create an interactive learning environment for students, you can create quizzes, add question banks, and offer explanations as well. There is a specified format for each, which makes putting this up all easy.
So, we see that course structuring and presentation become easy with Teachable. In terms of marketing, the platform offers an email marketing option that can be set up in automation mode. You can send emails easily to your students and inform them about any new course or offer.
Talking about the sales part, then, Teachable scores well here with its one-click checkout feature. Checkout pages are make-or-break situations, and you don’t want the user to stay for long and think. A single-click checkout reduces the possibility of bounce rate big time. Also, you can set recurring payment options for your learners.
The only part that might hit you is the transaction fee on sales. Though initially, it might not hurt as you grow your sales, then this can pinch your hard.
Thinkific
The experience in Thinkific is not second to any. Talking about the aesthetics and presentation of the course then, it does not have as many attractive in-built options as Teachable. However, with behind-the-scenes editing and addition, you can add more presentations to your courses.
In terms, of course, structuring the Thinkifc offers more flexibility and options. Like Teachable here, also you can add quizzes, PDFs, audio, explanations, etc, apart from your course videos to make things interactive and holistic.
Students can easily submit assignments and get evaluated as a part of their course progress. One on one Live class session through Zoom is of great help when you plan to conduct individual sessions. Also, you can teach a group of students together in a live session.
Though bulk content upload and long videos can be easily made available on the platform, the problem comes in a small part. Thinkific doesn’t allow importing data from Google Drive or Dropbox. However, the cloud import feature is available only while adding videos.
Unlike Teachable, it does not offer an automated email marketing option, but you can integrate your mail for that purpose. In terms of check out page, it has a 2-page checkout feature. Comparing it with Teachable, it can be seen as a drawback as you want to offer a single page or single click exit to the user at the payment page to avoid bounce rate.
The best part here is obviously the 0% transaction fee on sales for all plans, which gives it an edge over Teachable.
Plan Pricing: Teachable vs Thinkific
| Plan | Thinkific | Teachable |
| Basic | $36 Per Month | $29 Per Month |
| Pro | $74 Per Month | $99 Per Month |
| Advanced | $149 Per Month | Variable based on Customization |
Teachable vs Thinkific: The winner is..
As we saw throughout our discussion in this blog that the competition: Teachable vs Thinkific: is a neck on the neck for both platforms. In terms of a cheaper basic plan and more presentability for the course, Teachable offers the edge. Thinkific balances that out with a 0% transaction fee on sales and more flexibility in course structuring.
Our advice would be that if you are a beginner, then try out the free versions of both and see what suits your need. If you have experience in course creation and have a student base, then go for Thinkific, considering its 0% sales transaction fee.
That’s our take, and the final decision is obviously yours, which now you can make better with the information in your bucket. Hope you got the answers from the Teachable vs Thinkific battle, and we would love to hear your views on this. Don’t forget to share your views and tell us what next topic you want to hear from us.
If you are looking to create an online course using Teachable, please check out this FREE COURSE.
