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Looking for the best online course platform to create, host, and sell your online courses? You probably landed here trying to figure out how LearnWorlds stacks up against Thinkific.
Well, the comparison table above should give you all the info you need.
The people have voted and LearnWorlds is the superior platform. Save your time and start your 30-day free trial of LearnWorlds to build your school today!
If you are looking for the details, though, we have prepared a super thorough article to help you decide.
First, we would like to acknowledge the team over at Thinkific. They’ve built a great product and helped a large number of trainers and businesses get into online training. We have much respect for the work they have been doing.
At first glance, the two platforms seem to offer similar features, and indeed, there are many similarities between the two.
Our DNA is very much different, however. LearnWorlds didn’t just stumble onto e-learning. With three co-founders having spent over 20 years researching and designing e-learning products (two of them holding PhDs in EdTech), e-learning and user experience are in our blood.
LearnWorlds has been designed from scratch with the intention of creating beautiful, engaging, and interactive learning experiences. We deeply “get” e-learning and we have been in the shoes of trainers, so we know how to help them transform their content into the best possible online course and maximize their results and earnings.
To make your life a little easier while choosing between LearnWorlds vs. Thinkific, we have written a detailed overview of both platforms and how they compare.
Disclaimer: The information in this in-depth comparison is based on publicly available information on Thinkific’s pricing and support pages, as well as our individual research and review of their account. We are also comparing both platforms on the terms of their top tier plans where they can be compared in full with all features and capabilities enabled.
This comparison was updated in August 2023. If you find any discrepancies do let us know.
💡Ready to find the perfect platform for your online courses? Discover how to choose the right elearning solution in this FREE expert webinar.
LearnWorlds is the top online learning platform for creating, managing, and selling online courses. It beats Thinkific in every aspect of online learning and offers a higher degree of branding and customization to represent your brand.
LearnWorlds is the choice of top course creators, serious educators, and businesses looking for a flexible LMS solution.
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*When comparing the differences between the two platforms, we use a ✔️ to identify where a feature exists and a ❌ where it does not. A slightly darker background indicates where a platform has a better or more advanced version of the feature. Both cells are dark where features are slightly different but equivalent.
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LearnWorlds
LearnWorlds aims to improve e-learning for small to medium businesses selling online courses or contact internal/external training.
LearnWorlds’ customers are entrepreneurs, educators, and SMEs that value education and want to deliver the best elearning experiences to their learners, customers, partners, and employees.
Thinkific
Thinkific aims to provide a platform for online courses and an e-commerce solution.
Thinkific customers range from entrepreneurs to mid-sized businesses looking to grow their companies with education for their audiences.
LearnWorlds vs. Thinkific Reviews Comparison
Individual reviewers also prefer LearnWorlds over Thinkific giving it a higher score in every platform:
Are you ready to compare? You can get a 30-day free trial on LearnWorlds and then continue to read the most detailed comparison of LearnWorlds vs. Thinkific, side-by-side.
In terms of the ease of use in creating an online course, both course platforms have a simple and straightforward process. Both come with an intuitive course builder, unlimited hosting for videos, PDFs, and text, and several options for quizzes, assessments, and certificates.
Here is a quick break-down of the common features in both course platforms:
Although, here is where LearnWorlds really shines above Thinkific, as we go one step beyond simple course creation and offer more advanced learning tools.
This is evident in recent decisions by both companies, as Thinkific dropped their SCORM support and LearnWorlds is working to expand and improve its SCORM hosting capabilities.
But, your most pressing question is where we differ. Here are the main differences between LearnWorlds and Thinkific in relation to course creation:
When choosing a course platform another important part of your research should include the website building capabilities and design. Especially if you are looking for a white-labeled platform, you want to be able to customize the look and feel to suit your brand.
Both LearnWorlds and Thinkific offer an easy-to-use system – drag-and-drop functionality, to build, customize, and white-label your elearning website.
However, LearnWorlds offers a more robust, modern, and powerful no-code Website Builder with full website templates and more control over the elements of each page.
So first, here are the similarities:
However, there are some clear distinctions when you dig into the details of what is actually offered by each platform:
With LearnWorlds’ no-code Website Builder, you get full control over the design of your online academy and you get to personalize your users’ journey by choosing from many different templates. It comes with fully customizable website templates, designer assets – widgets that you can add on your pages (calendar, timers, testimonials), pop-ups, a form builder, and the ability to change the color theme, to match your brand’s logo, style and personality.
Another impressive feature of LearnWorlds’ Site Builder, is the ability to control who sees specific zones in a page. For example, if you want to have an offer specifically for non-buyers on your course pages, you can show the zone to registered users who did not purchase, and users who purchased will not see it.
LearnWorlds is a clear winner when creating an elearning website to sell online courses. You can have an academy website with a few clicks and control your brand down to the finest details. Check out the video below for a quick introduction to the Website Builder:
With both LearnWorlds and Thinkific, you can use your own website or domain to connect your academy and you have different levels of white-labeling your website – removing the platform’s name and showing your branding only.
While Thinkific offers a basic white-labeling of the footer and course player on their Grow plan, email notifications are still being sent from a no-reply@notify.thinkfic.com address, and this can only be removed on Thinkific Plus, but has no option to white-label the social logins of a school.
When all is setup and ready to go, you will need to start marketing your courses. Here, LearnWorlds and Thinkific have the most common features with a few slight differences and different implementations of the features (i.e. small settings or how they are used).
Both platforms tick all the boxes on the main features and marketing tools you need to promote and sell your online courses like:
However, there are a few differences here.
Thinkific has a slight advantage on the marketing side with email broadcasts), while LearnWorlds wins on the sales side with the option to include 1-click sales funnels for quicker checkouts on the pages.
Both platforms offer more or less the same features in marketing, sales, and automations. They both have third-party integrations and connect with a variety of tools via Zapier (e.g. Google Analytics, ActiveCampaign, etc.).
A huge part of elearning is administration. Whether you are a course creator looking to better understand your students & sales, an HR manager or trainer interested in seeing the progress of your learners.
LearnWorlds and Thinkific both offer many options for managing and reporting on your students:
Here at LearnWorlds, we also feel that administration and security are hugely important, going closer to administration features you will only find in Learning Management Systems. For this reason, we are taking some additional precautions, offering more control, in-depth customization options, and protection of your own and your students’ data:
If you are residing in Europe or have customers there, then the GDPR-compliance features of LearnWorlds are an absolute must for your online school.
In terms of customer support, both Thinkific and LearnWorlds come with 24/7 availability. Apart from a ticketing system, LearnWorlds also comes with a dedicated knowledge base, detailed documentation, how-to articles, and video tutorials to help beginners navigate the platform step-by-step.
Slightly less powerful when it comes to admin roles, LearnWorlds is a clear winner when it comes to the Administration and Security options of your online school.
Now that most things are covered, you are probably wondering, what about scalability? How does LearnWorlds compare with Thinkific when your business is growing?
What about larger audiences and big surges of traffic?
The answer is that both platforms are able to support huge amounts of traffic and simultaneous users, as well as corporate-level requirements:
Although, on the premium services, you can see that there are some differences between the platforms you might want to consider:
LearnWorlds is again, the clear winner here, by having the option of a white-labeled mobile app to be developed – via a robust Mobile App Builder, and a flexible invoicing process that Thinkific does not provide.
The crucial question for every business is how much will it cost you?
Both online course platforms offer unlimited courses and users with most of their pricing plans and different features at each level.
LearnWorlds’ pricing offers a lower barrier of entry at $29/month, while Thinkific offers a very limited free plan and starts its paid plans with the Basic plan at $49/month.
On the higher end, LearnWorlds’ full features come at only $299 per month, while Thinkific charges $499 per month. Both offer enterprise-level pricing which you need a quote for.
As you can see, LearnWorlds offers more for a better price in the higher plan. You won’t find its unique features like the interactive video & ebook, gradebook, or have so much control over the branding and look of your academy at Thinkific or anywhere else.
While there are many similarities between these two platforms, LearnWorlds offers the most advanced features for a better price.
LearnWorlds is a user-friendly, lightweight, and e-commerce-ready online learning platform that enables you to deliver the best learning experiences to your students, employees, partners, and customers.
It also provides you with all the tools you need to scale your online business and build your academy from scratch. With it, you can easily create, manage, and sell your courses, but also customize the look and feel of your academy website that suit your brand.
If you are looking for the best representation of your brand, LearnWorlds is the definite choice!
Kyriaki is a Content Creator for the LearnWorlds team writing about marketing and e-learning, helping course creators on their journey to create, market, and sell their online courses. Equipped with a degree in Career Guidance, she has a strong background in education management and career success. In her free time, she gets crafty and musical.
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