Top 12 Alternatives to Thinkific for Online Courses

Thinkific is like an easy-to-use website where people can create, sell, and teach online courses. It's really popular because it has a lot of useful tools for making and marketing courses.

But some folks who use Thinkific think it's missing some important stuff. For example, it can't work with a type of learning file called SCORM, it doesn't have live chat support, and you can't make your courses look exactly how you want.

Also, it's not great if you want to make everything look only from your brand. This implies it does not support full white labelling for your brand.

So, in this article, we will talk about alternatives to Thinkific that can offer you more of what you need. These alternatives can be a good fit for teachers, small businesses, and companies that want to teach online or provide training.

Why would you be seeking Alternatives to Thinkific?

Let us elaborate our discussion a bit more on Thinkific to better convince ourselves before making another choice. Let us look at the Thinkific pricing plans first:

These were the pricing options that show Thinkific offers a free plan. However, the free plan comes with limited features. Besides this, the paid plan starts at $36 per month, which could be an unaffordable option if you are a beginner.

Despite pricing plans, let us look at the pros and cons of Thinkific, which can help us decide to choose the right Thinkific alternative. 

Thinkific Advantages

Thinkific is a really good choice if you just want to sell courses online. It's super easy to use, and you can make your own courses without any trouble. They even give you a tool to build your website. You can easily make it look how you want without any coding expertise.

The platform also has everything you need for marketing your courses, like getting people to sign up and buy them. And if you ever need something they don't have, they can connect with other tools that do it.

Here are the good things about Thinkific:

Thinkific Disadvantages

Thinkific is one of the best online course creator platforms. However, Thinkific may not be the best choice if you're running a big e-learning business or a professional course creator looking for advanced features.

As your business grows, you might find that Thinkific doesn't have all the fancy stuff you need. For example, if you want detailed reports and advanced learning tools or to turn your simple web pages into full-blown websites, Thinkific might feel limited.

Here are some things that some people don't like about Thinkific:

So, if you're looking for more advanced features, you might want to check out some Thinkific competitors. 

The Best Thinkific Alternative at your Desk

1. Mighty Networks

Mighty Network emerges as a versatile platform, available across iOS, Android, and the Web, setting a benchmark for top community platforms akin to what people seek in Thinkific alternatives. 

It seamlessly integrates online courses, memberships, and offers within a powerful community network under one brand. 

While it offers a user-friendly interface and a range of features for community building, the cost of custom mobile applications can be a drawback.

In a Mighty Network, there are three ways to offer online courses:

1. Content-Only Course: This option provides online courses as part of a larger community. Students join the main Mighty Network community and get access to the courses as part of their membership.
2. Course with its Own Community: There is a separate community exclusively for members of a specific online course. This community is not visible to others.
3. Live Course: In this setup, the focus is on the dedicated course community. Course content is created and added as the course progresses.

The main advantage of using Mighty Networks, compared to other platforms like Thinkific, is its ability to keep students engaged. This leads to higher completion rates, better results, more positive word-of-mouth, and faster growth for your online courses.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Mighty Networks

Thinkific	Mighty Networks
Online learning platform	Platform for creating communities
Offers free plan	Does not give any free plans to their users
Thinkific does not give you any application	Mighty Networks offers a dedicated app

2. Teachable

Teachable is a platform that has everything you need to create courses, get students to join them, and get paid for them. Instructors can add videos, make quizzes, and even link their courses to their website using a custom web address. 

Teachable also lets you have affiliates who can help sell your courses. This is one of the great ways to grow your course. 

However, Teachable is not as good as Mighty Networks at building communities and doesn't have an app.

It also doesn't have built-in email features or some of the advanced marketing tools that another Kajabi platform has. But Teachable is a good choice if you want something similar to Thinkific.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Teachable

Thinkific	Teachable
Better website building and course creation tools	Better marketing and sales tools
Provides free version without transaction fee	Teachable Offers free plan with transaction fee
The course player is outdated and not well-designed	Course player is a modern and professional

3. Kajabi

Kajabi is like a one-stop shop for online businesses, a lot like Thinkific. You can sell courses, digital stuff, coaching, memberships, and even run podcasts using it.

It's not just for selling; you can also handle email marketing, manage affiliates, build your website, and see how well your business is doing.

Kajabi has a simple feature called “pipelines,” which are like pre-made plans to help you get more customers or launch new stuff.

It's a complete package that makes creating, marketing, and selling your online products easy. It's a great alternative to Thinkific and simplifies managing an online business.

With Kajabi, you can make money from different things online. It can be courses, communities, podcasts, coaching programs, and membership sites. It even works with other platforms like Shopify. Hence, you can sell physical things alongside digital ones.

If you want to look professional online, Kajabi helps you make your website. It also has a mobile app for people to access your stuff on their phones.

In short, Kajabi is versatile and easy to use. It's a great choice if you want to make money from your online skills and knowledge.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Kajabi

Thinkific	Kajabi
It is best for beginners with a tight budget.	Best for experienced sellers
Signing is straightforward. Only basic information is needed.	Signing is a smooth process with credit card details to avail of a free trial.
three themes with seven styles are available	Fourteen customizable themes and templates are available.

4. Udemy

Udemy is a popular online marketplace for courses. It's a place where experts can easily put together their course content and make it available to learners. You can list your courses there and use their marketing tools to get more people interested.

However, don't think that Udemy does all the marketing for you because there's a lot of competition on the platform. You'll still have to work hard to promote your courses and get them noticed by students.

Udemy isn't just a course platform. It's more like a big store where people can find courses. You can actually use both Udemy and another course platform at the same time.

This way, you can use Udemy to reach an uncountable audience and introduce them to your courses. Then, you can offer more advanced or expensive courses on your platform or elsewhere.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Udemy

Thinkific	Udemy
Comprehensive course builder	Simple course builder
Offers advanced customization options	Offers limited customization in course builder
Thinkific is a subscription-based model	Free to build and host your course
Self-hosted platform; lets you perform marketing via affiliates as well	Limited built-in marketing features

5. Podia

Podia is a fantastic, all-in-one tool for people running online businesses. Unlike Thinkific, which mainly helps you make courses, Podia does much more.

With Podia, you can sell various things online, like courses, digital downloads, webinars, community memberships, and coaching sessions, all from one place. This means you don't need multiple tools for different parts of your business.

Podia also makes it super easy to manage your business. You can handle your email marketing, work with affiliates, and even take care of your website, all in one spot. It's like having everything under one roof.

If you wish to sell online courses, Podia has a cool course builder that helps you make your courses look great. You can offer different payment options, chat with your students on your course pages, and even add content from many other websites to your courses.

And here's the best part – you can sell unlimited products with Podia's paid plans. So, you can let your creativity run wild, whether you're selling printables, PDF files, or anything else.

If you're considering offering memberships, Podia's got you covered there, too. You can build free and paid membership programs using their communities feature, which lets you keep your audience engaged and coming back for more.

In short, Podia is a powerful tool that helps online creators do more than sell courses. It's a one-stop solution for selling digital products, building communities, and managing your online business easily.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Podia

Thinkific	Podia
Thinkific does not offer webinars	Podia offers webinar
Free migration is not possible	Offers free migration
No in-built buy buttons available	Offers embeddable buy buttons

6. Teachery

Teachery is an online course platform built for individuals and small businesses. It puts a strong focus on simplicity and user-friendliness. The platform provides the necessary tools for online course creation, handling payments, and engaging with students.

This platform stands out for its straightforward and minimalistic approach. This makes it easy for educators to set up and share their courses without dealing with the complexities often found in larger learning management systems(LMS).

If you're looking for a hassle-free course creation experience, Teachery is a highly customizable option to consider. Moreover, it is the best alternative to Thinkific in all aspects.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Teachery

Thinkific	Teachery
Offers more options for teaching	Comparatively fewer options
Limited customization features	Multiple customization options
Expensive	Website builder is very basic

7. LearnDash

LearnDash is a robust tool for making online courses. It is specially designed to work with WordPress. With a few clicks, you can build professional and engaging courses.

The cool thing is it can work with any WordPress theme or page builder you're already using. Moreover, it easily connects with the tools you already know and like.

LearnDash is a top choice if you use WordPress and want to create courses. It's great for its flexibility and how you can match your style. However, it's important to know that setting it up might require technical knowledge.

It's more budget-friendly compared to Thinkific, but there are some extra costs you should be aware of before picking it.

If you're familiar with WordPress and have technical skills, LearnDash is a solid choice. You might want to get help from a developer or web designer to ensure your e-learning site works perfectly.

Key Features

Thinkific vs LearnDash

Thinkific	LearnDash
Presented as a “Software as a Service” platform	WordPress-based platform
Less-developer friendly	Highly customizable
It has different pricing tiers with varied features	Offers similar features in all pricing plans

8. LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds is a fantastic platform for growing your online courses. It is distinct because it offers top-notch features for a great learning experience. LearnWorlds possesses the most customizable site builder and has effective tools for marketing and selling your courses.

People often compare LearnWorlds to Thinkific, but LearnWorlds actually goes a step further. It offers more e-learning options and lets you customize things even more.

Moreover, it has unique features you won't find on Thinkific, like interactive videos, tools to see how people are learning, support for a common e-learning format called SCORM, and even its mobile app.

In simple terms, LearnWorlds is a powerful platform that helps you create, sell, and improve your online courses with some cool features you won't find in similar platforms like Thinkific.

Key Features

Thinkific vs LearnWorlds

Thinkific	LearnWorlds
Thinkific offers a simple drag-and-drop course builder	Offers advanced course creator options
offers robust marketing features	Also offers multiple marketing tools
Provides user-friendly analytics with cohort reporting.	Enables data-driven decision-making

9. Uscreen

Uscreen is a go-to platform, exclusive for video content. It offers tools to help you organize, make money from, and connect with your audience.

It's especially great if you want to create a subscription service, video streaming site, or membership platform, as well as video-focused courses.

While it's a top choice for YouTubers and video creators, it may not be the best fit for educators and businesses looking for an all-in-one solution with more comprehensive features.

Key Features

Thinkific vs Uscreen

Thinkific	Uscreen
Business-friendly course-building platform	Video monetization SaaS organization
Especially meant for freelancers	Not for freelancers
Thinific offers a freemium plan	No freemium plan is available

10. TalentLMS

TalentLMS is a cloud-based learning management system suitable for corporate training and education. It provides various features for creating content, managing courses, conducting assessments, and generating reports.

TalentLMS stands out for its easy-to-use interface and mobile compatibility. It allows users to access it on various devices.

While it offers fewer customization options compared to Thinkific, it provides diverse content formats and serves a broader audience.

The audience includes businesses, educational institutions, and large enterprises. It's a platform designed to help organizations improve their training and development efforts and promote team growth effectively.

Key Features

Thinkific vs TalentLMS

Thinkific	TalentLMS
Supports Web only	Supports Android, iPhone, and Web
Expensive	Cheaper
It has an activity dashboard	Does not have an activity dashboard

11. MoodleLMS

MoodleLMS is a free online learning system that allows you to create custom online courses. It comes with tools for making courses, managing content, doing tests, and talking with students.

MoodleLMS is very flexible, so teachers can make their courses the way they want. It's great for learning at your own pace, which is why schools and businesses like it.

You can put different stuff in your courses, like documents, videos, quizzes, and homework. It's really good for making advanced learning plans and tests.

MoodleLMS is a great Thinkific alternative for creating online courses at ease. 

Key Features

Thinkific vs MoodleLMS

Thinkific	MoodleLMS
Creates basic courses	Best for creating complex assessments
Easy-to-use	Not-easy-to-use
No coding expertise require to understand the interface	technical expertise is required to understand its potential

12. FreshLearn

FreashLearn is a platform with endless possibilities to ace it. You can quickly create and sell online courses. 

FreshLearn is a new and easy-to-use system for learning online. It's made to give you a smooth and straightforward learning experience. With FreshLearn, you can create courses, add videos and other stuff, do tests, and see how you're doing.

The idea is to make it simple for teachers to make courses and help students learn. You can make all kinds of courses, like special classes, digital downloads, and groups, among other things.

Key Features

Thinkific vs FreashLearn

Thinkific	FreshLearn
Expensive	Cheaper
Does not support Blogging CMS	Supports Blogging CMS
Basic Builder	Advanced assessments and certificate builder

Frequently Asked Questions

Did you choose the right Thinkific alternative?

In searching for the perfect Thinkific alternative, the decision ultimately depends on your unique needs and aspirations as an online educator or course creator. Each alternative offers its own set of strengths and weaknesses, catering to a diverse range of preferences and business goals.

If simplicity and a user-friendly interface are your top priorities, platforms like Podia and Teachery may be your ideal companions, providing straightforward course creation and management solutions.

On the other hand, if you require more advanced features, scalability, and robust reporting, you might find LearnWorlds or Kajabi to be better suited to your ambitions.

Ultimately, the right Thinkific alternative depends on your specific goals, budget, technical proficiency, and the level of customization and scalability you desire.

Be sure to thoroughly evaluate each option to make the choice that aligns perfectly with your vision for online course success.