Thinkific Reviews

“Not easy to use - don't spend money on this

Pros

There are no advantages. The software is incredibly challenging to use, and obtaining human assistance seems impossible.

Cons

This product is incredibly challenging to use. It becomes apparent only after signing up, and they refuse to process refunds. I advise against it unless you're willing to invest full-time effort into figuring out the coursework. Additionally, it's difficult to reach a human being for assistance.

“my account suspended abruptly

Pros

Getting started with the product was a smooth and positive experience. I prepared to launch a digital course, Thinkific met every requirement. Setting up the course and a landing page was simple even on the free trial. I later upgraded to a paid plan so I could offer coupon codes too.

Cons

I had my entire course ready as all content uploaded and the landing page set. I started offering pre-sales to test interest and pricing which is pretty common. After emailing my list, a few people pre-ordered but after an hour everything stopped. People told me the link was broken. I tried logging in and could not and password recovery failed. It was like my site had been deleted without warning. Support chat was just an AI bot that was not helpful and phone support refused to assist because I could not log in. I finally emailed someone and days later they replied that my account was suspended for risk without explaining what that meant or seeming to care.

“you can begin without upfront cost!!

Pros

I like the we can begin without any upfront cost and sell our first product right away.

Cons

The Pro Plans feel lacking to me compared to what competitors offer.

“Affordable and visually appealing

Pros

There is a lot to like. But my fav thing is that it is both affordable and visually appealing.

Cons

We are limited to only one or two admin accounts for our community which is not ideal.

“Easy to manage but unattractive design

Pros

Thinkific was the first e-learning platform I ever used. It was pretty easy to manage, even though I thought the design was really unattractive.

Cons

There are no adjustable themes or color options and the interface did not get any updates the whole year I was using it.

“outdated and poor support

Pros

The login process is easy for members and it's simple to upgrade to other courses or use coupon codes. Having one dashboard for partners, users and affiliates is helpful too and that's a key issue we are trying to handle smoothly. Plus displaying courses clearly on the site works well for an education focused company and it does not require heavy design work which helps our virtual assistants. A mobile app is included but it's very basic and not especially impressive.

Cons

We had to manually import every student and bulk enroll them course by course. The bulk enroll tool only processes one import at a time so it took about two days to get everyone into each course. Adding affiliates was just as tedious as no bulk option so my VA spent three days adding over 300 affiliates one by one and we will have to manually pay them each month. So I would say it is only useful if you buy extra plugins to build a real website but that causes caching issues. The video player is outdated too as we have to manually upload SRT files instead of auto-generating them which will take a VA a week. There is no built-in API to remove a CRM tag when a member cancels which is something basic for any membership platform so we have to use Zapier, adding another cost. Even the support is not much help as they just send links to documents. For instance, we wanted to change the header font size which required code. Though it would have taken their team 30 seconds to help or point us in the right direction but they would not.

“Easy to create and build courses

Pros

Creating and building courses is pretty easy. The interface is user-friendly too and courses are accessible on mobile so learners can easily get to the materials.

Cons

It would be really helpful if the tool could automatically create quizzes based on the course content. Maybe something they could add in a future update.

“Get paid right away for courses

Pros

I get paid right away whenever someone buys one of my courses.

Cons

I noticed it costs more compared to�Systeme.io.�Since they rely on Stripe for payments and Stripe does not work in South Africa, I have to use PayPal instead. That ends up costing me sales.

“Simple setup but impossible to get rid of

Pros

Getting everything up and running is simple and the pricing seems fair.

Cons

Only use this if you never, ever plan to close your account. I have been trying to shut down our account for a year with no luck! You can downgrade to a free account but you are stuck there. You might think that's okay since they won't charge you but the problem is every time you deactivate one course, another one gets reactivated. I just had to refund a bunch of learners who managed to sign up and pay for courses we do not even offer anymore. It is not good for business! I mean there are better and more affordable platforms out there and it is impossible to reach a real person and their help pages are useless.

“Easy to upload and design courses

Pros

What I liked best about Thinkific was how easy it was to use. Uploading videos, adding files, writing the course outline and designing a course landing page were all super simple.

Cons

One thing I liked least was not being able to design the sales page exactly how I wanted. When I used it, the design features were very limited so I felt really restricted in how everything looked. I also thought the pricing was a bit high for what you get. Keep in mind that nowadays there are all in one platforms that offer everything this tool does for a much lower monthly cost.

“Most complete package for testing

Pros

I have tried other e-learning platforms and so far Thinkific offers the most complete package in terms of quality and price for launching an online product test. Plus being able to drag and drop all my content right from the builder toolbar is something I now rely on and expect from a platform like this. It's exactly what lets me build courses quickly and then set them up with options like scheduling modules by day or week or automatically emailing customers when they get access. Even though the design and aesthetics are fairly basic, I find it's enough to create a course that's fast to launch and fully functional.

Cons

Well I do miss the ability to design modules and have more visual details like fonts that better match my brand. Those options feel pretty limited for my taste. But if what you are looking for is a fast, efficient and solid way to build your online academy and courses and you do not mind a more minimalist presentation, then this tool is perfect for starting your online course business. Another thing I'd like to see improved is security or file protection. Plus it would be ideal if you could lock video and audio content so users cannot download or copy it.

“User-friendly with excellent training

Pros

My favorite thing about Thinkific was how user-friendly it was, along with the excellent training materials and pricing plans that fit different budgets.

Cons

To be honest I have been really happy with this platform so far and don't have any complaints.

“poor downgrade support

Pros

We believed this would be a strong LMS solution for both internal training and client onboarding so we committed to a higher-tier plan with a significant investment.

Cons

The features were not great and the user interface and experience were poor. Once we downgraded our plan, customer service went from average to absolutely terrible. We had multiple accounts and could not cancel one so it kept billing us and they would not help remove the subscription or issue a refund. They also overcharged several clients we referred to the software and those clients had similarly awful experiences with support.

“Excels in a thing it does

Pros

Thinkific platform is specifically built for courses and it really excels at that. So if you are mainly focused on selling courses and want them to look polished and work smoothly for your customers, then this is a great choice.

Cons

I was really hoping for a platform that could handle more than just courses like selling digital downloads, memberships and one on one coaching programs. It is not built to do everything as it focuses on doing one thing really well. So if you are looking for an all-in-one solution rather than a specialized tool, this probably is not the right fit.

“Plenty of features and reasonable price

Pros

There are plenty of features available and the price is really reasonable.

Cons

The HTML editor is not very good. I really hope they improve it.

“Easy to use but somewhat limited

Pros

I find it easy to use and the interface is simple to understand.

Cons

It feels somewhat limited when it comes to creating engaging learning experiences and you have to pay for third-party plugins just for basic gamification. Plus there is almost no built-in customer management functionality like email tools and integration with third-party contact systems is limited.

“Integrates smoothly with CRM systems

Pros

Thinkific integrates smoothly with CRM systems which is really important for managing leads and data. It also works well with Zapier, opening up a lot of possibilities.

Cons

I wish some things were a little clearer, it lets you set up courses that renew or memberships but it does not do a great job on the backend explaining the pros and cons of each option.

“Simple to get a course live

Pros

Getting a course live is simple and we can add quizzes to check what students have learned.

Cons

One downside is that we cannot use our own domain name on the free plan.

“quite slow and buggy

Pros

I really like how user-friendly it is as uploading our materials and publishing a course is not a problem anymore.

Cons

My biggest problems with it are the really slow page loading speeds which hurts SEO. Also a broken assignment feature where clicking next page sends you back to page one is a problem and not being able to edit a published course landing page is headache too. Plus our student experience issues like pages not loading properly.

“Looks professional but has very limited admins

Pros

It looks professional and on-brand which makes it great for a startup to use.

Cons

None of the subscription plans let us add a second admin. I cannot even invite a freelancer to help out. To get another admin, you have to upgrade to a much more expensive plan. Overall compared to other platforms, it is pricey and offers fewer features.