Course Scale Up

If you’re evaluating Thinkific for your training programmes, community portal or online-learning business, a big question is: How much will this cost and what value do you get for the money? In this Thinkific pricing review I’ll walk you through what I’ve learned from my own use on the Plus tier, from building multiple learning environments, and from working with organisations as a Thinkific Expert and consultant.

Ready to explore Thinkific for yourself? Try Thinkific and use a free trial to test its features.

Thinkific is a leading online course platform designed to empower individuals, educators, and businesses to create, market, and sell online courses with ease. As an all-in-one solution for online education, Thinkific offers everything course creators need to launch and grow their digital learning business—without the hassle of managing complex technology or payment systems.

Whether you’re an experienced educator or launching your first online course, Thinkific’s user-friendly interface and intuitive drag-and-drop course builder make the course creation process straightforward. You can quickly design engaging courses using customizable templates, upload a variety of course content, and organize learning paths that suit your audience. With unlimited courses and unlimited students included on all paid plans, Thinkific is built to scale as your business grows.

One of Thinkific’s standout advantages is its low learning curve, making it accessible for new course creators who want to get started quickly. The platform provides dedicated support, including live chat, detailed reporting, and a comprehensive knowledge base, ensuring you have help every step of the way. Thinkific also offers zero transaction fees, so you keep 100% of your course sales revenue—a major plus for anyone looking to maximize profits from selling online courses.

Thinkific’s key features go beyond just course creation. You can create quizzes and assignments, offer digital downloads, and set up flexible payment plans to suit your students’ needs. The platform’s marketing tools help you design high-converting sales pages, manage landing pages, and integrate with popular external tools for email marketing and social media promotion. With the ability to use a custom domain and manage multiple courses from a single dashboard, Thinkific gives you full control over your brand identity and student experience.

For those just starting out, Thinkific offers a robust free plan with essential features to launch your first course. As your needs grow, you can upgrade to paid plans that unlock advanced features, enhanced analytics, and additional support options. This flexibility makes Thinkific a top choice for both solo creators and organizations looking to manage multiple courses or scale their online education offerings.

In summary, Thinkific is a user-friendly, feature-rich course platform that supports every stage of the online course journey—from creation to marketing to sales. Its combination of unlimited courses, advanced features, excellent customer service, and zero transaction fees makes it an ideal choice for anyone looking to create, market, and sell online courses successfully.

I’ve used Thinkific Plus in a full-scale environment (via Schudio’s learning platforms) and I guide other organisations through platform selection, including evaluating Thinkific alongside other platforms, build-out, and scaling. For example, Schudio launched multiple Thinkific sites (SchudioTV and The Ability Bridge) using Thinkific Plus with custom domains, API features to integrate Thinkific with external tools and systems, and multi-site environments. Because I’ve lived this, I know where the pricing tiers make sense, where the hidden costs can creep in, and when a move up to a higher tier is justified. I’ve placed a deeper explanation of my experience and how I can help further down the page (see end section).

Typical tiers:

• Thinkific Basic plan / Basic plan / Entry tier – for individuals, beginners, or simple course delivery. The Thinkific Basic plan is an affordable option with fundamental features, suitable for testing ideas or small-scale educators.

• Thinkific Start plan / Start plan – an entry-level subscription designed for small businesses, coaches, and consultants, offering features like live lessons, memberships, and flexible payment options. The start plan is ideal for growing educators looking to scale up.

• Growth / Pro tier / Grow plan – adds more features like memberships, advanced design, analytics, and is suitable for established businesses, educational teams, or creators managing multiple courses and learner communities. The Thinkific Grow plan provides advanced management tools, customization, and integrations for scaling operations.

• Plus / Business / Enterprise tier – for organisations, multi-site, API, single sign-on, developer access. (Thinkific’s site shows the Plus tier as custom pricing.) FreshLearn+2Thinkific+2

The Thinkific Grow plan (or grow plan) is specifically designed for established businesses and educators with more advanced needs, offering robust tools and scalability.

From my usage I can say: if you’re serious about long-term use, a tier with multi-site / API / SSO is where the value kicks in, and you benefit from key upgrades as you move up each pricing plan.

What you get as you move up:

• More admin seats / roles

• Group or cohort management

• API access and Single Sign-On (SSO)

• More advanced analytics

• Custom domains, white-labelling (removing Thinkific branding)

• Multiple site environments (important for B2B use)

• Enhanced support (dedicated/enterprise)

• Access to all the features and all the tools needed for comprehensive course creation, management, and scaling

From the Schudio case study: they chose Thinkific Plus because API + SSO were key.

Overall, Thinkific offers a range of pricing plans and pricing plan options, each with different features and key upgrades to match your business size, course volume, and growth needs.

From my actual experience using Thinkific Plus:

• Being able to deliver multiple learning sites under one account means you avoid having separate platform/hosting costs for each programme.

• Having API + SSO means you can integrate seamlessly with an existing website or portal — that avoids paying for custom development or multiple platforms.

• The flexibility in site design, membership options, digital downloads, scalable enrolments means you don’t frequently hit “you must upgrade or pay extra” walls.

• Predictability of cost: the higher tier means more “included” features, so fewer surprise add-ons or third-party plugin fees.

In short: once you move beyond a simple course, the higher tier becomes cost-effective because the alternative is to build multiple platforms or plug a lot of gaps manually.

Even with a platform as clean as Thinkific, you’ll want to keep an eye on the following:

• If your enrolment volumes or active user seats grow massively, you may hit limits (depending on region or plan) or need add-ons.

• If you need extensive integrations (complex CRM, LMS-ERP sync, many automations), you may need to budget for external tools or custom build.

• Marketing and sales funnel features: Thinkific includes many, but if you’re used to an All-in-One marketing platform (email sequences, funnels, advanced automations) you might still invest in external tools. Additionally, flexible payment options—such as installment plans or multiple payment gateways—may only be available on higher-tier plans or require integration with external tools.

• Migration or future-proofing: If you begin with a low tier and grow quickly, you may pay some duplication cost when you upgrade, or you may need to rework branding/design as you scale. From my consulting work, I see clients who start simple and then spend time and money “fixing” the platform later. It’s worth starting with the right tier if your roadmap includes growth.

• If you’re an individual creator delivering one or two courses and you expect modest student numbers: go for the entry or growth tier, such as the thinkific start plan, thinkific basic plan, or thinkific grow plan, depending on your needs and budget.

• If you’re a training company, business selling to other organisations, or you expect high volumes, multi-stakeholder groups (employees + clients + partners): move directly to the business/plus tier because the added functionality pays off. Higher-tier pricing plans like Thinkific Plus also provide access to an enhanced support team, offering priority support and multi-channel assistance to ensure your organization's success. In our Schudio example, we used Thinkific Plus from the beginning of scaling because we needed the multi-site and API features.

If you’re considering Thinkific and want a reliable estimate of cost vs value:

• Choose a tier that supports your growth in student numbers, stakeholder types, and site complexity.

• Factor in external costs for integrations or advanced marketing if needed.

• Use the free trial to test key features you’ll need (e.g. groups, SSO, custom domain) so you avoid surprises when you upgrade.

Ready to explore? Try Thinkific
If you’d like help planning your setup, selecting tier, scaling your design and structure, you can find more at CourseScaleUp.com and book a conversation with me.

• As mentioned earlier, I’ve built and delivered large-scale learning environments on Thinkific, including as a Plus-tier user. I work with training providers, education organisations, and creators through Course Scale Up to design and implement their Thinkific setups. This includes designing and delivering a Thinkific course, where I’ve worked extensively with the platform’s course player—its customizable and modern interface significantly enhances the user experience and visual professionalism for learners. Because of that hands-on exposure, I’ve seen pricing tiers in action, experienced when an upgrade was required, and know the value you’re getting (and the costs you avoid) when you choose the right plan from the start.

  Whether you’re delivering one course or building a full learning academy, Thinkific as a learning management system supports a wide range of course delivery needs. I’m happy to chat through what tier makes sense, how your costs should look, and what to consider beyond just the monthly/annual fee.