Teachable vs. Thinkific - Which platform's right for your course?

Tech and Systems

Jul 11

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I know what you're thinking.

"I am dying to get this amazing course I created out into the world. BUT I DON'T KNOW HOW!"

Don't worry girl. I got your back.

There are a TON of course platforms out there...it can be nearly impossible to decide which one is best for you, your tech skill level, and your business.

So I'm here to break it down for you!

Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi are by far three of the most popular platforms out there for hosting courses, and even membership sites. So it'd be no surprise if you've stumbled upon these in your research.

Teachable and Thinkfic in fact, are incredibly similar. Both offer a fully hosted place for you to create and store your course. No worrying about purchasing or linking a domain or hosting service. Just sign up and you're ready to go!

They also both offer easy to use dashboards and you can customize your colors, images, links, etc to really make your course your own and bring in your own branding. We could sit here and discuss all the differences all day long, so let me break it down for you.

Pricing - both Teachable and Thinkific offer free plans! Woohoo for getting started on a budget! Of course free usually means limitations and it does here too. With Teachable the free plan means payouts are every 30 days instead of instantly and higher fees. While there are no limits on the number of courses or students, there are some limits to features, such as coupons, affiliates, and dripped content. Thinkfic offers instant payouts even with the free plan, but also has limitations on the features available.
Payouts - With both platforms, the higher level your monthly plan, the lower your transaction fees. Teachable's fees are $1 + 10% of course price plus 2.9% + 30¢. Thinkific's fees are a straight 10% on the course fee, for the free plan. Their Essentials plan is $49 a month with a transaction fee of 5%. Higher plans have no transaction fee.
PayPal/Stripe - Both platforms can send payouts to PayPal or Stripe!
Emails - you can connect your courses to your email service! Think Seva, MailChimp, etc. So if you have a follow up sequence or just want to keep in touch with your students outside of the course, you absolutely can!
Neither Teachable or Thinkific is a marketplace. Which means your courses aren't searchable or in a catalog like with Udemy. It also means the marketing is all on YOU, babe.
You do get a customized URL. Depending on which platform you choose, it will look something like: YourBusiness.Teachable.com This is great because it means you can use Teachable or Thinkific as your full website when launching your course. Sales page, payment, thank you page, and of course, the course. No extra website or domain expense needed.
Both platforms offer email customer service and Facebook group communities where you can ask all your questions.

In all honesty, the platforms really do run neck in neck as far as the features go, and you can't go wrong choosing either one!

But if you know that tech is something you struggle with and you're looking for simplicity, I'd recommend going with Thinkfiic. The user interface is just a touch simpler than Teachable and that alone can make all the difference.

If you're ready to get your course out to the masses so you can live your life with passive income, but the tech has you cussing up a storm, I got you. You've got the info, now let's get it out to the world! Click here to learn how we can work together to finally finish that course!