Thinkific vs Teachable – A Complete Comparison Chart (2023)
Are you considering Thinkific vs Teachable?
Starting your own course business is a hot topic these days. After all, you can teach people something you know and earn a nice side or full-time income.
With platforms like Teachable and Thinkific available, making this dream a reality may not be as far-fetched as you might think. In this article, I will compare the two hottest learning management solutions on the market, Thinkific vs Teachable.
With that said, let’s get started.
Side Note: Click here if you want to see who the winner is now..
Before You Start
Before we start, I want to share a few things you should know.
First, I am an affiliate of both platforms and will earn a commission if you buy through my link. If you do, I want to thank you upfront for supporting us and what we do here.
Second, I recommend signing up for a free account on both platforms. This will help you see the differences for yourself and choose the one that’s best for you.
Sign up for the Thinkific Free Plan and the Teachable Free Plan here.
Thinkific vs Teachable – A Complete Comparison Chart
Below is a complete comparison chart of all the most important things to know about Thinkific and Teachable.
| Thinkific | Teachable | |
| Course Amounts? | Free Plan: 1 Course All other plans have unlimited courses | Free Plan: 1 Course Basic Plan: 1 Course Pro Plan: 5 Courses Business Plan: Unlimited |
| Transaction Fees | None | Free Plan: $1 + 10% Basic Plan: 5% Pro Plan: None Business Plan: None |
| Community Area’s | Yes, you can create at least one community area, even with the free plan | Not Available |
| Student Limits | Unlimited Students | Free Plan: 10 Students All other plans are unlimited |
| Do They Offer Refunds? | No Refunds | 30 Day refund from the date of purchase |
| Saving for Paying Annually? | 25% Savings | 33% Savings |
| Free Plan? | Yes | Yes |
| Monthly Pricing | Free Plan: $0 Basic Plan: $49/month Start Plan: $99/month Grow Plan: $199/month | Free Plan: $0 Basic Plan: $59/month Pro Plan: $159/month Business Plan: $665/month |
| Annual Pricing | Free Plan: $0 Basic Plan: $36/month Start Plan: $74/month Grow Plan: $149/month | Free Plan: $0 Basic Plan: $39/month Pro Plan: $119/month Business Plan: $499/month |
| Sign Up Offer | Get a 30-day Free Trial Offer on Paid Plans | Get a 14-Day Free Trial Offer on Paid Plans |
12 Ways Thinkific vs Teachable Differ From Each Other
Now that you’ve had a chance to compare Thinkific vs Teachable, here are 10 of the most significant differences between Thinkific and Teachable.
#1 Payment Gateways
To start, Teachable is the only one of the two platforms that offer its internal payment gateway. You can link your PayPal or Stripe account to Teachable but upgrade to the Professional Plan or higher.
Teachables payment gateway allows you to collect payment with minimal setup. The only downside is that you won’t receive your payments for at least 30 days.
Thinkific doesn’t offer a payment gateway but rather lets you link your Stripe or PayPal account on day 1, even with the free account.
Who Wins: Teachable Wins
#2 Transaction Fees
Next, Teachable has slightly higher transaction fees than Thinkific. The free plan on both platforms charges a 10% transaction fee. However, Teachable also collects an extra $1 per transaction.
So if you have a course that sells for $97, Thinkific and Teachable would collect a $9.70 fee, but Teachable would collect an extra $1 taking $10.70 total.
Thinkific removed all of its transaction fees, so you won’t be charged a transaction fee even if you have a course on the free plan.
So if you want to earn as much as possible, Thinkific could be the better option here.
Who Wins: Thinkific Wins
#3 Higher Savings on Annual Plans
I also noticed that Teachable offers more significant savings than Thinkific if you sign up for one of their annual plans. Signing up for a Thinkific paid plan gives you a 25% discount over paying monthly.
Whereas with Teachable, you only get a 33% discount when you sign up for one of their paid plans. I should add that this doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll pay less overall because you have a more significant discount.
I’ll talk more about this in point 10.
Who Wins: Teachable Wins
#4 Trial Offer
While both Thinkific and Teachable have free plans that are great for starting, they both differ in the trial offer they give.
Teachable offers a 14-day free trial on all paid plans, while Thinkific offers a 30-day free trial.
That’s twice as long of a trial period compared to Teachable.
Score: Thinkific Wins
#5 Presentation Tools
Thinkific also offers a valuable presentation tool that lets you do a voice-over for your slides.
So whether you use PowerPoint or Keynote, this tool lets you create excellent presentations, especially if you’re on a tight budget.
I haven’t used this tool yet, but I can see how this tool could be of enormous value.
Score: Thinkific Wins
#6 Community Area
One thing I feel both of these platforms lacked for the longest time was a community area similar to a forum for students to congregate and ask questions. However, this has changed.
While Teachable still does not offer this feature, Thinkific has made strides to allow you to create a community section inside of your online course business.
The best part is you can even set all of this up with the free plan on Thinkific as well.
Score: Thinkific wins
#7 Course Amounts
One thing that has recently changed with Thinkific and Teachable is the number of courses you can create on each plan.
It used to be that you could create unlimited courses with any plan, including the free plan, but now it has all changed.
With Teachable, you are limited to 1 course with the free plan.
With Thinkific, you are limited to 1 course with the free and basic plans. With the Pro plan, you can create five courses; with the Business plan, you can create unlimited.
Score: Teachable Wins
#8 Apps
One area Thinkific doesn’t do well is that they don’t have a mobile app. I feel this is a massive downside to their program.
With the growing amount of people using mobile devices, an app would make perfect sense here. However, for whatever reason, they don’t have one yet.
On the other hand, Teachable has a mobile app, which is one of my favorite things about this platform, and I’m sure the people who take your course will like this feature.
With a mobile app, you can work on a course while on your lunch break, sitting down and relaxing for the night, or even while waiting at the doctor’s office.
When it comes down to it, people aren’t as motivated to sit in front of their computer and take a course, but an app. It gives them an additional way to do it in their spare time.
Who Wins: Teachable Wins
#9 Training
When starting an online course business, you won’t be able to do it all yourself. You will need some help; this is where education comes into the mix, and both platforms do this differently.
With Teachable, you don’t get much in the way of education unless you sign up for the Professional Plan, where you will get access to The Profitable Teacher, a course made by Teachable on how to create your course.
With Thinkific, they offer now offers Thinkific Academy. This free online education center for course creators is entirely free.
Best of all, it’s not just taught by random people at Thinkific, but instead, they’ve enlisted the help of top course creators from Adam Enfroy to Neil Patel.
Who Wins: Thinkific
#10 Monthly Fees
Finally, we have monthly fees, with the Thinkific vs Teachable pricing. Let’s start with their basic student pricing options.
- Teachabe’s Basic Plan runs $59/month or $708/year.
- Thinkific Basic Plan runs $49/month or $468/year.
Regarding the basic plan, Thinkific is far cheaper on the monthly and annual costs. Now let’s look at their professional plans.
- Teachable’s Business Plan runs $499/month or $5988/year.
- Thinkific’s Grow Plan runs $149/month or $1788/year.
When you compare these pricing plans, Thinkific wins out both times, and not by a little.
Thinfic is hundreds of dollars cheaper than Teachable. With Teachable’s annual plan, you may save more, but Thinkific is still cheaper overall.
Who Wins: Thinkific
#11 Different Types of Products
Another thing to consider is the diversity of products you can sell with each platform. Each platform has a different option here.
With Thinkific, you sell courses, memberships, and communities and bundle products together. So overall, you can only create courses and communities. If you plan to sell other types of products, you won’t have this option.
With Teachable, you can sell various products from courses, coaching, digital downloads, and bundles. Teachable gives a wider variety of product options.
Who Wins: Teachable
#12 Free Plans
Both Thinkific vs Teachable offer a free plan to allow you to get started at no cost. You’ll want this with any course platform you decide to join. This allows you to create your first course and make your first sales without investing money.
That being said, both platforms are not the same. Here are a few differences
With Teachable, they charge high transaction fees on their free plan. On top of that, you can only have ten students and create one course. Any more than that, and you’ll have to sign up for a paid plan.
With Thinkfic’s free plan, unlimited students can sign up for your course without transaction fees. However, you can only create one course.
Who Wins: Thinkific
And The Winner Is… Thinkific vs Teachable
Final Score: Thinkific 7 vs Teachable 5
Thinkific is the winner here. Based on twelve key areas, Thinkific wins seven of those twelve. On top of that, you get more for your money versus Teachable.
Teachable has a much high monthly and annual cost over Thnkinkific. On top of that, they also charge transaction fees on the free and basic plans, whereas Thinkific does not charge any fees.
Click here to sign up for Thinkific now.
