Thinkific remains one of the most sought-after platforms among online course creators, even as new platforms continue to emerge.
One reason for its popularity is its affordable and flexible pricing. It provides multiple plans catering to creators at different stages of their course creation journey. However, the plans differ significantly in features and costs, making it difficult to pick the right plan.
So, we created this Thinkific pricing guide to help you make the best choice. We’ll break down each plan’s costs and what’s included, and we’ll also compare Thinkific’s pricing to its main competitors.
| Thinkific Plan | Monthly | Yearly |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | $0 | $0 |
| Basic Plan | $49/month | $36/month |
| Start Plan | $99/month | $74/month |
| Grow Plan | $199/month | $149/month |
| Expand Plan | $499/month | $374/month |
Thinkific offers four pricing plans with both monthly and yearly options available.
As you can see, you can save a significant amount of money by paying upfront for a year rather than month to month. However, we recommend starting with a monthly plan and switching to yearly payments once you settle down.
Moreover, Thinkific doesn’t add transaction fees beyond standard payment processing, making its pricing very competitive among top course creation platforms.
Now, let’s get into the details of each of the plans.
Answer these simple questions and immediately find the right Thinkific pricing plan for your business!
Apart from the cost, Thinkific’s pricing plans differ in terms of the included features and the limits on courses, communities, and admin accounts.
In this section, we’ll break down the main differences between them and help you choose the right one for your business.
The Thinkific Free plan offers all the platform’s core features to create and sell an online course, including:
The best thing about the free plan is that you can enroll an unlimited number of students in your school. There’s no transaction fee, and you also get instant access to your funds, making Thinkific the best free online course builder.
However, the free plan has certain limitations you should be aware of:
If you’re new to online courses and want to test the waters, the Free plan is a great starting point. It’s also great for testing the platform and building your course.
Thinkific’s Basic plan costs $49 per month and is the less expensive, entry-level plan.
Apart from everything available on the Free plan, you’ll get:
The Basic plan offers all the essential features to start selling online courses, making it the best plan for beginners to start on the Thinkific platform.
Note on Payment Processing
Thinkific Payments, powered by Stripe, is the default payment gateway in the US, UK, Canada, EU, Singapore, etc., with no extra transaction fees. If you prefer using your own Stripe or PayPal, expect to pay an additional fee.
The fee is 5% on the Basic plan, 2% on the Start plan, and 1% on the Grow plan. The fee is waived if Thinkific Payments isn’t available in your location.
Thinkific’s Start plan costs $99 per month and provides the best value for money.
Apart from everything available on the Basic plan, you’ll get:
The Start plan offers all the important features most people need, making it the most popular plan among online creators. Get a 30-day free trial of Thinkific Start.
users to access your school.
Thinkific also offers a branded mobile app add-on on the Basic plan and
above. It costs an extra $199/month and allows
you to create your own custom-branded app for iOS and Android
Thinkific’s Grow plan costs $199/month and is targeted toward established creators and businesses. Apart from everything available on the Start plan, you’ll also get:
On top of the additional features, you’ll also get increased limits on these features:
| START | GROW | |
|---|---|---|
| Communities | 1 | 3 |
| Site Admins | 1 | 2 |
| Course Admins | 2 | 5 |
| Revenue Partners | 1 | 3 |
| Group Analysts | 0 | 3 |
The Grow plan is suitable for creators and businesses who need better administration tools. Get a 30-day free trial of Thinkific Grow.
Thinkific’s topmost tier is the Expand plan, which costs $499/month. Regarding features, there’s not much difference between the Expand and Grow plans. The difference mostly lies in the limits on communities and admin accounts.
| GROW | EXPAND | |
|---|---|---|
| Communities | 3 | 10 |
| Site Admins | 2 | 5 |
| Course Admins | 5 | 15 |
| Revenue Partners | 3 | 10 |
| Group Analysts | 3 | 15 |
So, the Expand plan is suitable for bigger businesses that reach a limit on any of the factors in the table above on the Grow plan.
If you want to see a side-by-side comparison of what’s included in each Thinkific plan, you should check out this comparison chart.
Thinkific offers great value for money. In a few cases, it’s more expensive than the popular Thinkific alternatives, but that’s because it offers a lot more power and features.
One of Thinkific’s main competitors is Kajabi. Its pricing starts from $149/month, while the best value-for-money plan costs $199/month. On the $149 plan, you can only have up to three courses and 1,000 active students.
While Thinkific is less expensive than Kajabi, it’s not a like-for-like comparison. In fact, Kajabi is an all-in-one platform, meaning that besides the course creation tools, it offers features for blogging, podcasts, funnel building, email marketing, and more.
Read our Thinkific vs Kajabi guide for a detailed comparison.
Thinkific’s other two major competitors—Teachable and Podia—are more comparable in terms of features and pricing.
Both platforms have a free plan, but they charge a transaction fee. Plus, Podia doesn’t even let you create published courses. When considering this, Thinkific’s Free plan is a clear winner.
| THINKIFIC | TEACHABLE | PODIA |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $1+10% per transaction | 10% per transaction |
| $49/month | $59/month + 5% fee | $39/month + 5% fee |
| $99/month | $159/month | $89/month |
| $499/month | $665/month | NA |
| Thinkific vs Teachable | Thinkific vs Podia |
The best value-for-money plans in Teachable and Podia are the Pro ($159/month) and Shaker ($89/month) plans, respectively. They don’t charge any transaction fee and are comparable to Thinkific’s Start plan ($99/month).
In this case, Thinkific is slightly more expensive than Podia, but the price difference is easily balanced by the more powerful course creation and site-building tools you get.
We discussed in detail all the pricing plans and what’s included in each of them. Thinkific offers great value for money, but you’ll need to find the right plan.
If you’re starting an online course business but on a tight budget, you can start with the Basic plan.
For most creators, the Start plan is the best option as it supports an unlimited number of courses and also includes all of the important course creation and selling tools.
However, if you’re an established business, you may need some advanced features (e.g., API access) and more admin accounts. In this case, you should go for the Grow plan.
We hope that this guide will help you choose the right Thinkific pricing plan. If you have any questions or feedback, please let us know in the comments below.
It depends on what pricing plan you choose. There are five pricing plans: Free, Basic ($49/month), Start ($99/month), Grow ($199/month), and Expand ($499/month).
The best Thinkific premium plan is the one that fits your needs. The plan that offers the best value for money is the Start plan ($99/month), and it’s the most popular among creators. The best entry-level plan is the Basic Plan ($49/month), while the best plan for established creators and businesses is the Grow plan ($199/month).
No, Thinkific doesn’t charge any additional transaction fees beyond standard payment processing fees (normally 2.9% + $0.30). The only exception to this is if you choose to use Stripe or PayPal when Thinkific Payments is available in your country, in which case you’ll be charged an additional fee.
No, you don’t need to pay for it with Thinkific. All plans include unlimited content hosting for all your content, including videos.
Apart from the Free plan, which only allows you to create one course, all other plans include an unlimited number of courses. In addition to this, there’s no limit on the number of videos or other content types that you can host on Thinkific.
No, Thinkific has no hidden costs. You pay a subscription fee based on your chosen plan, and there’s no additional cost to using the platform. The only exception is when you’re based in a Thinkific Payment-supported country and use an external payment gateway, for which you’ll be charged a transaction fee.
Hey there! I'm Baidhurya, the brains behind SellCoursesOnline. I used to run a digital agency, where I helped course businesses launch their eLearning platforms. I also led the tech and marketing teams at StationX, helping it grow to 500K+ students. In addition, I created the popular supply chain network design course. With 8+ years of experience, I'm here to share my expertise and insights on course creation and platforms with you.
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Hey there! I’m Baidhurya, the brains behind SellCoursesOnline. I used to run a digital agency, where I helped course businesses launch their eLearning platforms. I also led the tech and marketing teams at StationX, helping it grow to 500K+ students. In addition, I created the popular supply chain network design course. With 8+ years of experience, I’m here to share my expertise and insights on course creation and platforms with you.
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