Why Choose Thinkific?
A Practical Guide for Training Providers Who Want Room to Grow
Choosing a platform for your courses or training programmes is a big step. I work with organisations every week to help them plan, build, and grow their online learning spaces, and most of that work is done on Thinkific. It’s an online course platform designed to support online education, offering user-friendly tools for course creation, delivery, and customer education. The right choice gives you a place that’s easy to manage, flexible enough to develop over time, and capable of supporting the people you’re trying to help. Thinkific allows content import through a bulk content uploader for existing materials, making it easier to transition to the platform. Having built and run two large communities on Thinkific — and supported many others doing the same — I’ve seen where it stands out in real use.
This practical Thinkific review focuses on the reasons many creators, educators, and training teams choose Thinkific when they’ve compared it with other course platforms like Kajabi, Teachable, LearnWorlds, and TalentLMS. Everything here comes from hands-on experience creating full learning environments rather than quick one-off courses, with an additional section at the end explaining why I’m able to speak from direct experience as a Thinkific Expert.
Built for teams who want clean structure and room to scale
Thinkific makes it straightforward to organise content, create a clear learning path, and keep everything tidy using dedicated course pages. As your programme grows, you can offer unlimited courses and structure your content to accommodate different learning styles. Thinkific also allows you to track student progress as you add new material, ensuring learners stay on course. Additionally, the platform includes built-in features for student engagement, such as automated emails, quizzes, and community features, to keep learners motivated and connected.
Clients tell me this is one of the main reasons they stay on Thinkific rather than moving to more restrictive alternatives.
Strong tools for organisations training staff or partners with online courses
Lots of B2B training teams choose Thinkific because it offers features that make life easier when you’re working with companies, schools, or groups of learners.
Tools such as:
multi-seat licences
single sign-on
private course areas
clear student management
Thinkific also supports corporate training and coaching programs, making it easy to deliver structured, interactive learning to staff or partners. Completion certificates and engagement tools are available to keep students engaged and recognise their achievements. These features enhance course delivery and the overall learning experience for organisations.
Course creation and design flexibility without chaos
Thinkific gives you far more room to personalise your site than many platforms in its space. You can use a custom domain and remove Thinkific branding for a fully branded experience, ensuring your site truly reflects your school or trust. You can create something that looks like your brand, not a copy of everyone else’s.
If you want to go deeper, Thinkific’s site builder offers drag and drop features, making it a user friendly platform with a user friendly interface. The landing page builder allows you to easily create and customise landing pages, sales pages, and even a branded mobile app for advanced customisation. Building and customising sales pages and landing pages for marketing purposes is straightforward, giving you the flexibility to design high-converting pages tailored to your needs. Thinkific also provides built-in tools for creating marketing funnels, allowing you to automate and optimise your sales processes directly within the platform. We do this often for clients and it turns a standard Thinkific site into something that feels like a proper digital campus. Moreover, Thinkific includes robust integration capabilities with over 90 native integrations, including tools like Mailchimp and Google Analytics, to enhance functionality and streamline operations.
Clear pricing with fewer hidden costs and no transaction fees
A lot of LMS options look affordable at first, then become expensive when you start adding essential features. Thinkific tends to be clearer. The functionality most organisations need is already included, and you don’t need dozens of extra plugins or custom development to get started.
Thinkific offers a range of paid plans, including a basic plan for those with minimal needs and a business plan with advanced features for larger organisations. Choosing a paid plan gives you access to advanced features, unlimited courses, and the benefit of no transaction fees, which helps maximise your revenue. Unlike some competitors, Thinkific no longer offers a free plan, but you can start with a free trial to explore its features. Their pricing structure is transparent, with no hidden transaction fees on most paid plans, making it easier to retain more of your revenue. Flexible payment plans are available, allowing you to offer one-time payments, subscriptions, or installment options to your customers. You can process payments seamlessly using integrated gateways that support Apple Pay, Google Pay, Stripe, and PayPal. Thinkific’s payment system is a comprehensive solution, providing an all-in-one dashboard for managing transactions and supporting multiple digital wallets. Thinkific offers four pricing plans: Basic, Start, Grow, and Plus, catering to a variety of needs and budgets.
A good choice for long-term communities
Thinkific works particularly well for communities that grow over time. For example:
ongoing CPD programmes
membership-style learning
communities with live sessions and regular updates
organisations delivering both internal and external training
Thinkific supports student engagement through interactive features and provides dashboards to track which students complete courses or assessments. You can also offer digital downloads and sell digital downloads such as eBooks, templates, and guides alongside your online courses. The platform allows you to host courses and supports online learning with robust creation tools, making it easy to build and manage your educational content. Thinkific also provides built-in community features that allow course creators to engage students through discussions and group coaching. This enables you to deliver high quality learning experiences and varied learning experiences for all community members.
Both SchudioTV and The Ability Bridge grew far beyond their first course, and Thinkific handled that growth without needing a full rebuild.
How it compares to Thinkific alternatives when people are deciding between platforms
When I speak with clients comparing Thinkific with Kajabi, Teachable, or LearnWorlds, they usually focus on three things
Ease of use for the team
Admin areas are clean and don’t overwhelm new users, making it easy for course creators to get started with course creation and manage their online courses efficiently using robust creation tools.
Design freedom
Thinkific offers far more flexibility without needing to move to WordPress or a full custom LMS. A Thinkific course can be customized easily, and the platform supports engaging course pages, smooth course delivery, and the ability to sell online courses directly. Compared to other course platforms, Thinkific stands out for its user-friendly interface and strong support for selling courses.
Strong features for business training
This is often the deciding factor for B2B learning teams, as Thinkific provides essential tools for course creators, including built-in tools for marketing and sales, such as marketing tools, sales tools, and marketing features. While Thinkific offers basic sales funnel and marketing funnel options, platforms like Kajabi provide more advanced and customizable sales funnel tools. Specifically, Thinkific’s sales funnels are more limited, whereas competitors like Kajabi offer comprehensive and flexible sales funnels designed to guide customer journeys and increase conversions. For advanced marketing automation, email marketing, and integrations, users may need to rely on third party tools, third party tool, third party apps, or external tools, as Thinkific’s native options are limited. However, Thinkific supports integrating multiple tools and offers built in tools for core business operations. Higher-tier plans like Thinkific Plus include features such as API access and advanced analytics for enterprise-level needs. Thinkific also provides a dedicated support team and a strong support system to assist users. When comparing both Thinkific and its alternatives as course platforms, it’s important to consider features like creation tools, course delivery, course pages, selling courses, and the ability to sell online courses. Overall, Thinkific delivers essential tools and strong value for course creators seeking a reliable online course platform.
It’s this mix — structure, flexibility, and practical business tools — that usually leads people to choose Thinkific over other options.
Who Thinkific suits best
From experience, Thinkific is a strong fit for:
education-focused organisations
businesses selling training to companies or schools
creators building a full learning community
course creators and those looking for an online course platform or course platform to deliver and sell courses
teams who want a clean LMS without needing developers at every step
users who want access to robust creation tools and a business plan with advanced features
anyone who wants to keep control of design, structure, and student experience
those seeking a high quality learning experience and engaging learning experiences for their students
users with limited technical skills who need an accessible platform
It’s a good choice for people who want their learning environment to grow with them rather than hold them back once things become more organised or more professional.
Why I can speak with confidence about choosing Thinkific
I’ve spent years building training platforms for organisations across the UK and beyond, and most of that work has been done directly on Thinkific. My team and I run two large communities of our own — SchudioTV and The Ability Bridge — both of which grew from single courses into full learning platforms serving thousands. Because we’ve lived through that journey ourselves, we’ve learned what works, what doesn’t, and what actually matters when you’re choosing where to build.
Alongside that, I work closely with B2B training providers, education teams, charities, and specialist organisations through Course Scale Up. Much of my work involves helping people design their course structure, refine their student experience, and get the most out of Thinkific’s tools in a way that fits their goals. That means I spend every week inside the platform building full programmes, custom layouts, and advanced integrations — and seeing how Thinkific performs under real pressure, not just surface-level testing.
If you’re reading this because you’re comparing platforms or planning a new build, you’re welcome to explore Thinkific for yourself. You can start a free trial here using my link: Start with Thinkific.
And if you prefer a guided approach or want help planning your setup, you can find more about how I support organisations at CourseScaleUp.com — or get in touch any time for a chat about your plans.
If you’re ready to look at Thinkific in more detail, here’s the same link again so you don’t have to scroll: Try Thinkific.
Final thoughts
Thinkific works well for teams who care about clarity, structure, design, and long-term programmes. If you’re building something serious — something more than a single course — it’s a strong, dependable platform that gives you room to grow without becoming complicated behind the scenes.