If you’re searching for the best course creation platform to launch your first online course, you’ve landed in the right place.
Thinkific and Teachable are among the titans in course-platform land. Both have evolved a lot, especially in 2025, and each can help you go from idea to income. But depending on your priorities, speed, control, cost, and features, one might be a better fit for you.
In this Thinkific vs Teachable guide, I’ll walk you through both, show real 2025 pricing, pros/cons, and help you decide which gives you the fastest launch with the least headache.
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Quick Comparison: Thinkific vs Teachable (2025 Overview)
Before we dive deep, here’s how these platforms stack up side-by-side:
|
Feature |
Thinkific |
Teachable |
|---|---|---|
|
Starting Price |
$49/month ($36/month annually) |
$39/month ($29/month annually) |
|
Transaction Fees |
0% on all plans |
7.5% on Starter plan, 0% on higher plans |
|
Free Plan |
Free (limited features) |
30-day trial only |
|
Unlimited Courses |
Yes (from Basic plan up) |
No (limited by plan tier) |
|
Ease of Use |
Moderate learning curve |
Very beginner-friendly |
|
Customization |
Extensive (HTML/CSS access) |
Limited (template-based) |
|
Community Features |
Built-in communities |
Basic student discussions |
|
Mobile Apps |
iOS & Android |
iOS only |
|
Email Marketing |
Built-in (basic) |
Built-in (more advanced on higher plans) |
|
Best For |
Long-term course businesses seeking control |
Quick launches and coaching-focused creators |
Thinkific in 2025: What You Get
What Is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a course platform and learning management system (LMS) that lets you build, host, and sell online courses, memberships, and communities. Over time, it’s added features not just for course delivery, but for the full student journey: drip content, assessments, integrations, and more.
What sets Thinkific apart is its focus on giving you complete control over your content. You’re not just uploading videos to someone else’s platform—you’re building your own course website that you can customize, brand, and grow however you want.
Thinkific Pricing (2025)
Here are the key plans (monthly billing) and what they cost:
- Free plan — $0 (allows you to test the platform)
- Basic — $49/month (or $36/month when billed annually)
- Start — $99/month (or $74/month annually)
- Grow — $199/month (or $149/month annually)
- Plus / “Expand / Enterprise / Custom” — custom pricing for high-demand or enterprise use cases.
Key notes:
- All paid Thinkific plans and even the free tier do not charge transaction fees (you still pay Stripe/PayPal, etc.).
- When billed annually, you typically save ~25% versus monthly pricing.
- The free plan is quite generous — you can build one course, have unlimited students, use the core builder, and test a lot before upgrading.
Pros
✅ Control & Branding: You get more flexibility in design, site structure, and removing Thinkific branding on higher tiers.
✅ No transaction fees: You only lose fees to payment processors (Stripe, PayPal), not the platform itself.
✅ Scalable: As your course business grows, Thinkific gives you room to expand without needing to migrate.
✅Good ecosystem & integrations: Works with email tools, automation, analytics, etc.
Cons
❌ Learning curve: For someone brand new, it can feel more technical than turnkey solutions.
❌ Fewer built-in marketing automations (compared to some platforms that emphasize funnels).
❌ Some advanced features are locked to higher tiers; you’ll likely need Start or Grow to unlock things like communities, advanced assessments, etc.
Teachable in 2025: What You Get
What Is Teachable?
Teachable is also a platform for course creators, with a focus on simplicity and quick setup. It’s been around a while, and 2025 brings updated plans and restructured pricing. Its appeal is in letting creators focus more on content and less on tech.
Teachable handles payments, taxes, and student management automatically, which makes it attractive for creators who want to focus purely on teaching rather than platform management.
Teachable’s New Plans & Pricing (2025
In 2025, Teachable overhauled its pricing, migrating old users to new tiers. Here’s how the new pricing landscape looks:
- Free plan — $0 (allows you to test the platform)
- Starter — $39/month (or $29/month when billed annually) with a 7.5% transaction fee.
- Builder — $89/month (or $69/month annually)
- Growth — $189/month (or $139/month annually)
- Advanced — $399/month (or $309/month annually)
Teachable is currently offering 3 months for the price of 1 on any monthly plan. Plus, a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Key notes:
- The free rate is no longer a permanent free platform. Instead, Teachable now uses limited-time trials for new users.
- The Starter plan, while cheap, has a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale, meaning you lose a chunk of revenue on low-priced courses.
- Higher tiers (Builder, Growth, and Advanced) eliminate the transaction fees, giving you more favorable margins on sales.
Pros
✅ Ease & speed: You can get a course live quickly. The learning curve is lower.
✅ Sales tools baked in: Affiliates, upsells, and checkout flows are more built-in.
✅ Good for validation: If you just want to test a course idea, the lower-tier gives you the minimal viable setup.
✅ Support and community: They have mature infrastructure and resources for creators.
Cons
❌ Transaction fees on lower plans: At Starter, 7.5% is significant for small-course businesses.
❌ Restrictions on products: On Starter, you’re limited to just 1 published course (though you may have drafts and future capacity).
❌ Higher cost for serious use: Once you scale, you’ll likely need to jump to Builder or Growth just to avoid the revenue leakage from fees.
❌ Recent price hikes: Many users have complained about the increases and plan migrations
Head-to-Head: Thinkific vs Teachable for Fast Launch in 2025
I want to break down side-by-side where they differ, and which platform helps you launch faster without sacrificing what matters.
Ease of Use & Setup Time
- Teachable tends to win here. Because many marketing tools are baked in and setup is more streamlined, you can get a course live quickly.
- Thinkific, while intuitive, might require more setup (theme tweaking, integrations), especially for custom branding.
Want to focus on teaching, not tech? Teachable makes it easy to create and sell courses without the overwhelm — start free today.
If your main goal is “get something live fast, validate, make first sales,” Teachable edges ahead.
Course Creation Tools
- Both support modules, quizzes, drip content, multimedia lessons, and certificates (depending on tiers).
- Thinkific offers stronger site-building and page control (useful when you want your course site to look unique).
- Teachable’s advantage is bundling marketing/sales tools with the course builder (less fiddling with external tools early on).
Pricing & Revenue Retention
- Thinkific: no transaction fees; you keep more of your revenues.
- Teachable: You’ll pay 7.5% on the Starter plan until you upgrade. So if you stick with Starter, that fee eats into your profits.
If you expect modest sales, that 7.5% matters. But if your goal is “just get something live,” paying the fee early might be acceptable.
Customization & Branding
- Thinkific offers more flexibility in how your site looks, what pages you build, and removing platform branding (on higher tiers).
- Teachable is more template-based, which is okay if you don’t care about a hyper-unique design early on.
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Marketing / Sales Features
- Teachable has a slight shortcut: affiliate programs, upsells, cart flows, and abandoned cart recovery are often easier to set up.
- With Thinkific, you may need to integrate or configure some of that yourself (but once it’s done, it’s solid).
Student Experience & Delivery
- Both deliver content well, support quizzes, certificates, and mobile access.
- Thinkific’s edge is more consistency in branding (because you control pages more).
- Teachable is dependable and polished; because many creators use it, tweaks and fixes tend to get addressed faster.
Support, Community & Resources
- Both have credible support systems, help centers, docs, and creator communities.
- Teachable being more mature in marketing tooling means you’ll find more “how-to” guides for funnels, sales, etc.
- Thinkific’s community is strong on course pedagogy, design, and scaling.
Still on the fence? Test both platforms for free — Thinkific and Teachable both offer trial options, so you can find the one that feels right before you commit.
Verdict: Which Lets You Launch Your First Course Faster (Without Regrets)?
If your priority is speed, validate your idea, hit “publish,” start making income; Teachable is probably your fastest path. Its built-in marketing tools and streamlined setup make it a low-friction start.
But here’s the caveat: early on, you’ll pay transaction fees (7.5%) until you upgrade, and you’ll be more constrained in customization. As your business grows, you might find yourself pushing up tiers just to remove limitations.
If your longer-term mindset is “I want full control, no hidden fees, scalability built in,” Thinkific is the safer bet. You may spend a bit more time on setup, but you’ll avoid migration headaches later. Once it’s built, your infrastructure is yours.
So the fastest yet sustainable route might be: start with Teachable (to test), then migrate to Thinkific when things scale. Or, start on Thinkific from the beginning if you’re comfortable with setup and want consistency.
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Alternative Platforms to Keep in Mind
When you compare Thinkific vs Teachable, don’t forget there are strong alternatives:
- Kajabi — All-in-one (site, email, funnel) but pricey.
- Podia — More lightweight and user-friendly; great for creators who want fewer headaches.
- LearnWorlds — Strong for assessments, interactivity, and advanced learning features.
- Systeme.io — Lower-cost, funnel + course hybrid.
Use these as “Plan B” if neither Thinkific nor Teachable fully clicks with your style.
Final Thoughts & Recommendations
- If you want to get your first course live as fast as possible, go with Teachable Starter, knowing you’ll pay a 7.5% cut.
- If you want to build a foundation you won’t regret later, go with Thinkific, even if the launch feels slower.
- If possible, run tests or pilot courses to see which fits your workflow better.
✅ My Pick: Thinkific — it’s faster to set up, gives you more control, and has the best free plan for new creators.
→ Try Thinkific Free and start building your first course today.
Whatever you choose, don’t let perfect get in the way of finished. Launch, get feedback, iterate.
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