Teachable vs. Thinkific – a Quick Comparison

The debate about Teachable vs. Thinkific , arguably the top two online learning platforms, is an ever evolving one. All kinds of opinions from experienced instructors who have used both platforms can be found online in lengthy, in-depth analyses and comparisons of Teachable vs. Thinkific features.

If you are a Udemy instructor who is experiencing some success, or who has ambitious online teaching goals, you will no doubt come to a point where you will want to start looking at Teachable and Thinkific more closely to see what your post-Udemy move might be. The Teachable vs Thinkific battle has long been raging and is the subject of many debates. In this article, we will discuss the difference between each online learning platform.

For efficiency and brevity, we thought it might be helpful to highlight only the key differences between Teachable and Thinkific, rather than provide a comprehensive in-depth discussion of every feature on both platforms.

What you should know is that both of these platforms have much to offer in terms of features and functionality. On many levels, they offer equally good “all in one” course publishing and marketing capabilities. Their pricing is almost exactly the same. They both provide plenty of course building, marketing and sales features as well as support and training.

So for anyone particular instructor, the deciding factor will be in the details. We’ve rounded up many of those “details” – real differences between Teachable vs Thinkific – at least for now, they are always changing.

Note for each feature compared, where applicable, we’ve highlighted the “winner” in bold.

Teachable vs Thinkific – Overview

	Teachable	Thinkific
Instructors	62,000+	36,000+
Courses	154,000+	not revealed
Students	15 million +	16 million +
Instructor Earnings	$260 million	$ 200 million +
Alexa Ranking (as of 3.13.19)	USA -1,081 Global – 2,248	USA – 2,903 Global – 7,777

Teachable vs Thinkific Takeaway: Teachable is more popular, and Thinkific instructors may earn slightly more (based on these estimates only), but both platforms are doing really well when it comes to their earning potential.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Pricing Tiers vs. Features

Both platforms have the same annualized pricing tiers. The monthly pricing tiers are Free, $29, $79, and $399 if paid annually. While there are many shared features at these price levels, the following are some key differences between Thinkific vs Teachable at each price tier.

		Teachable	Thinkific
FREE PLAN	Email Notifications and Integrations	YES	NO
	Transaction Fee	10%	NO
	Bundling/Subscription	YES	NO*
	Google Analytics	YES	NO
BASIC – $29
	Transaction Fee	5%	None
	Integrated Affiliate Marketing	YES	NO
	Zapier Triggers*	NO	YES
	ConvertKit, AWeber, Mailchimp Integration	NO	YES
	Export Student Data	NO	YES
	>1 admin user	YES	NO
PRO PLAN – $79
	Create Private /Invite Only Courses	NO	YES
	Video Order Compliance	YES	NO
	Live Chat Support	YES	NO
PREMIER/ BUSINESS – $399
	Onboarding Training	NO	YES
	Number of Admin Users	100	50

*Comes with Teachable Pro Plan

Thinkific vs Teachable Takeaway: It’s really hard to say which plans are better or offer more – they are just different. If you are using the free plan to get a lay of the land, you get more with Teachable, but you pay for those extras with transaction fees. For an idea of all that is offered, you can check out these links for a comparison of Teachable plan features here and Thinkific plan features here. This Teachable vs Thinkific debate really needs a lot of discernment to do.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Course Creator

	Teachable	Thinkific
WordPress Style Backend	NO	YES
Simple Text Editor Style	YES	NO
Must know HTML/CSS to Customize Design Features	YES	NO
Built in Surveys	NO	YES
Pre-Populated Course Templates	NO	YES
Suggestion Box for Improving Course	NO	YES
Bulk Edit	YES	NO
Ability to Upload SCORM and Tin Can API Compliant Materials	NO	YES
Advanced Quizzes Capability	NO	YES

Thinkifics vs Teachable Takeaway: Thinkific’s interface is more modern and more user friendly, especially if you do not know any code. It also has some more specific features such as surveys and sample templates. That said the lack of a bulk editor can be a real pain if you have lots of courses to edit. Teachable’s editor is just fine, but if you want to do anything “fancy” you will need to know some CSS/HTML and there are no easy sample templates provided to give you ideas.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Course Delivery

	Teachable	Thinkific
Multiple Content Types in 1 lesson	YES	Only video and text
Mobile App	YES	NO
Total Control over Features	YES	NO

Teachable vs Thinkific Takeaway: In general, Teachable provides the better course delivery experience.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Other Pages

		Teachable	Thinkific
Course Landing Page
	Coding Needed to Customize Landing Page	YES	NO
Checkout Page
	Video	YES	NO
	1 Click Upsell	YES	NO
Sales Page
	Coding Needed to Customize Sales Page	YES	NO
	Course Curriculum Display	YES	NO
	Free Lesson Preview	YES	NO
	Course Reviews Embedded on Sales Page	NO	YES

Teachable vs Thinkific Takeaway: Once again, Teachable’s pages are a bit hard to customize and navigate unless you are comfortable coding a little. If you are not tech savvy, Thinkific is a better choice and is often praised for its user friendly interface.
However for Marketing oriented pages, it’s a toss up – having reviews on a sales page is very useful (Thinkific), but so is having a free lesson preview (Teachable). And Teachable is widely praised for its conversion friendly single, 1 step check out page – a very important sales factor.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Payments

	Teachable	Thinkific
Instant Payments via 3rd party gateways (Paylpal/Stripe)	Pro & Business Plans only*	All plans
Instant Payments Outside of N. America	NO	YES
Proprietary Payment Processing	YES	NO
Manage Affiliate Payouts for You**	YES	NO
Stunning Integration***	NO	YES
Transaction Fees	YES	NO
VAT Tax Collection	YES	NO

*If you use Teachable’s gateway available for other plans only if you are in N. America. ** If you use Teachable’s Payout system only and pay 2% fee. ***Prevents failed Stripe payments.

Thinkific vs Teachable Takeaway: If you are not the best at managing your books, Teachable can do a lot of it for you, provided you use their payment system and pay a 2% fee. If you are going to do high volumes of sales and payments and want to make sure you are paid quickly, without fail, Thinkific is better.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Sales and Marketing

	Teachable	Thinkific
Group/Bulk Sales	NO	YES
Affiliate Cookie Control	YES	NO
Select Which Courses Affiliates Get Commission On	YES	NO
Integrations for Marketing	6	>14
Customisable Checkout Page	YES	NO
1 Step Checkout	YES	NO
Bulk Coupon Generator Built-In	YES	NO

Teachable vs Thinkific Takeaway: Generally, Teachable has a better sales and marketing flow with its affiliate management tools, coupon generator and easy, well designed checkout. However, if you like 3rd party integrations for things like email campaigns, Thinkific provides a lot more choice.

Teachable vs Thinkific: Other Features

	Teachable	Thinkific
Comments System Built In	YES	NO
Blogging Platform Add-on	YES	NO
100% White labeling	NO*	YES
Multiple Currency Pricing	YES	NO
Custom Length Subscriptions	NO	YES
Live Chat Support	Pro and Business Plan	NO

*Although Teachable offers white labeling, the URL on the login page and the checkout URLs will have Teachable references in them.

Thinkific vs Teachable Takeaway: Teachable has some interesting added features that might grab you for one reason or another. But if you want true pure branding for your school when you grow big enough, only Thinkific provides that.

Summary

As you can tell from the many details compared, in the Teachable vs. Thinkific debate, you can’t really lose. Both platforms provide great products, great customer support, equivalent pricing for most levels of features, albeit with key differences. On the whole, Teachable is known for it’s sales, marketing and checkout flow, which is important to conversions – no small matter. However, if you are not technically savvy, Teachable’s interface for course creation and other page creation can be difficult and a bit frustrating, which is also not a small factor. And all Teachable pages kind of look the same for all schools that use the platform, even if many believe they are better looking in the end than Thinkific’s.

On the payment end, both platforms are fine, but Thinkific payment is more straightforward and instantaneous, particularly for non-US instructors. That said, it is Teachable which offers pricing in multiple currencies and EU VAT collection. And, if you don’t want the hassle of managing the books for your online school, Teachable can do a lot of that for you for a small fee.

And let’s not forget what happens as you grow really big, Thinkific may have the edge here with it’s pure white labeling and ability to sell courses in bulk and with a bigger variety of pricing plans.

In short – who wins the debate of Teachable vs. Thinkific is really up to you! But know this: You can’t lose!