Thinkific review

How much does Thinkific cost?

Thinkific costs $109, $219, or $499 a month on monthly billing, or $82, $164, or $374 a month billed annually. Plus, the enterprise tier, is priced through sales.

Thinkific no longer has a free plan. Its pricing FAQ says so directly and points to a 30-day free trial instead, and you can upgrade, downgrade, or cancel during that trial.

A branded iOS and Android app is a $199 monthly add-on on Start, Grow, and Expand. $109 a month is 10.9% of $1,000 in sales and 1.1% of $10,000, so Thinkific makes more sense once you have steady revenue.

Here is what Start leaves you from US card sales of $150 each through Thinkific Payments, after the subscription, processing, and the 0.5% sales tax fee. See how that compares on our fee table.

• $1,000 a month in one-time sales: $855.
• $1,000 a month in subscription charges: $848, after the extra 0.7%.
• $10,000 a month in one-time sales: $9,531.
• $10,000 a month in subscription charges: $9,461.

Does Thinkific charge transaction fees?

Thinkific takes no platform cut through Thinkific Payments, but every paid US sale costs 2.9% + $0.30 in card processing plus a 0.5% sales tax fee.

The 0.5% applies to every paid sale to a US or Canadian buyer, even when the calculated tax is $0. Sales tax handling for those buyers is on by default and mandatory on Thinkific Payments, and in return Thinkific calculates, collects, and remits the tax. For UK, EU, and Swiss buyers, it applies only where you are registered for VAT.

The US fee schedule adds 1.5% for international cards, 1% for currency conversion, and 0.7% on subscriptions and payment plans. The 0.7% applies to every charge in the series, so memberships cost a little more to run here.

If you connect Stripe instead, Thinkific adds a gateway fee of 2% on Start, 1% on Grow, and 0.5% on Expand. It applies to creators in the US, Canada, the UK, and the EU, only on the first $1 million of sales each calendar year. Thinkific says the fee will extend to other third-party providers such as PayPal in the future.

What does Thinkific do better than other course platforms?

Course structure. Every plan includes quizzes, assignments, graded work, branded certificates, and live cohorts with unlimited Zoom sessions, bookable calendars, and attendance tracking.

That matters if you teach skills that need assessment. Teachable keeps certificates on its $189 Growth plan, while Thinkific includes them at $109.

Grow adds exams and question banks, B2B sales with invoicing, and student engagement reports. Expand adds revenue sharing with up to 10 partners and 15 admin accounts, which suits training companies with several instructors.

Communities are standalone products you can charge a recurring fee for. Start includes 1 community with 10 spaces and 5 live events, Grow raises that to 3 communities with 20 spaces, and Expand to 10 communities with 200 spaces.

What is missing on the Start plan?

Bulk email. Start includes email automation but not bulk sends to students, so you will need a separate email tool or the $219 Grow plan.

Start also keeps Thinkific branding on your site and products. It includes 1 community with 10 spaces, 200 GB a month of course video bandwidth, and groups of up to 50 learners.

Start, Grow, and Expand all cap you at 10,000 current students, meaning students with unexpired access to at least one course. That is plenty for most solo creators.

If you mainly sell one course to individuals and email them often, the math favors Podia or Teachable. Thinkific earns its price when the learning experience itself is what you sell.

How do Thinkific payouts work?

Thinkific Payments pays US businesses on a standard 2-business-day schedule. Canada, the UK, and the EU get 3 business days, and Singapore and Hong Kong get 7 calendar days.

Thinkific Payments runs in 36 countries, including the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, and New Zealand. Creators elsewhere can still sell through Stripe or PayPal, with payouts on those processors' schedules and no gateway fee.