Thinkific is my favorite course platform for SaaS companies, however if youāre looking for an affordable alternative to Thinkific than this article is for you!
- If you are a solo creator launching your first course go with Podia
- If your business relies on course go with Teachable
- If you want to host your own content & use WordPress go for Thrive Apprentice
- If you have no audience and want to tap into an existing market then go for Udemy
Click Here To Try Podia Free For 14-days
Best Thinkific Alternatives
To save you the time I have decided to only pick the top Thinkific Alternatives, it would’ve been easy for me to make this a “top 10” listicle but let’s be honest, most of the other alternatives aren’t worth your time, so here’s just the best of the best!
1. Podia – Best Thinkific Alternatives For Solopreneurs
Podia is one of my favorite new competitor to Thinkific in 2020 Just as ConvertKit changed the email marketing field by building a product designed for “Creator”, the guys at Podia have done the same for online courses!
Podia is basically an all in one marketing tool and platform for creators to monetize their audience. You can host your online course, market it with landing pages, send email newsletters + drips, and accept online payments, all for one low price.
Their pricing is also one of the simplest in the industry. While many of their competitors complicated things with having many plans that they can upsell you on, Podia keeps things simple.
Podia is available in 2 different pricing plans:
- Mover ($39/month): Online courses, Digital downloads, Email marketing, Zero transaction fees, Unlimited everything, 24/7 support.
- ShakerĀ ($79/month): Everything in Mover + Memberships + Embedded Checkout + Affiliate marketing + Third-Party Code + FREE migration
Click Here To Try Podia Free For 14-days
2. Teachable – Best Thinkific Alternatives For Course Creators
Teachable is best suited for a much different audience than Podia. WhileĀ Podia is best suited for a non technical solopreneur or team who just want to focus on creating.
- Podia isnāt suited for teams to work on
- Podia doesnāt allow multiple instructors on a course
- Podia doesnāt have student progress
Which means that if your business relies on courses heavily, you want a platform thats gear just for courses!
Teachable it literally just a course platform, you have to combine many other services like Clickfunnels for your landing pages, Mailerlite for your drip campaigns, to make your campaign successful.
If youāre just looking for a powerful course platform that will integrate with your existing business, then Teachable is definitely the best one out there.
3. Thrive Apprentice – Best WordPress Alternative to Thinkific
If youāre tired of Expensive Course Platforms; Thrive Apprentice is a godsend!
Thrive Apprentice was recently launched by Thrive Themes in early 2020 and itās honestly a game changer! Itās an easy to use WordPress plugin that can be used to create online courses on your WordPress blog!
Thinkific vs Thrive Apprentice
Thrive Apprentice has easy to follow step-by-step setup process that makes it extremely easy for anyone to create stunning online course Lessons, Chapters and Modules with the fast-action design power of a professional web developer (without having to touch a piece of code).
How does Thrive Apprentice compare vs popular course platforms like LearnDash and Thinkific??
Well, for starters itās cheap!
It only costs aĀ one time fee of $67/website to use Thrive Apprentice for life!
In comparison,
- LearnDash costs $199/year/website!
- Teachable costs $348/year in their basic plan
Price isnāt the only thing Thrive Apprentice stands out in. One of the biggest change that happens when you use a tool like Thrive Apprentice is that you are taking back control of your content.
You are looking at the big gatekeepers (ā¦. Udemyā¦Teachable..) and saying āNO, Iām going to build my audience on my own, Iām going to own my own content!ā
The downside is that you have to handle the structural issues that come with hosting your own content and dealing with WordPress and WordPress plugins. However, for the technical mindset person, Thrive Apprentice is the best value for the money!
How much does Thrive Apprentice cost? well, this will surprise you!
- Single LicenseĀ @ $67
- 5 License PackĀ @ $97Ā (
$335) - 15 License PackĀ @ $147Ā (
$1005)
Click Here to Get Thrive Apprentice
4. Udemy – Best Thinkific Alternative with Marketplace
Theyāre a ton of articles on the Internet on how to make money selling courses on Udemy. I honestly believe that itās not worth it. Having worked with companies in the online course industry (I used to be the head of SEO at Foundr Magazine) Udemy is the bottom of the barrel when it comes to course platforms.
Udemy takes 50% of your course cost on organic Udemy sales. Udemy and the instructor share equally on these sales, which might occur after a user browses the Udemy marketplace for courses, or makes a purchase via a Udemy promotion
Udemy vs Thinkific
Even on sales which you bring to the platform eg. from your own email list using their āinstructor couponā, Udemy takes a 3% cut.
Of course, Udemy might be fine for someone who doesn’t have any audience at all, but you can spend the same amount of time building a brand and sell the course on Podia. Udemy may have a big marketplace but you have to then play by their rules.
Udemy gets to decide how your courses are algorithmically ranked as well as how much you can charge for your courses. Also, Udemy doesnāt market courses that donāt discount themselves a ton.
Udemy is the Fiverr of online courses and if you want to be that kind of content creator then, by all means, go ahead. But if you want to get paid for what youāre worth then itās a better choice to build your own brand and sell your courses on your own platform.
Udemy is great to market any free courses if you want to as a lead generation tool as you can then upsell your premium courses to them. So itās not necessarily useless for someone looking to build an online brand.
Click Here To Give Udemy A Whirl
There you have it!
Cheap Thinkific Alternative
These are the 4Ā Best Thinkific Alternatives in 2020, you donāt need 10 choices to pick from because these 4 will basically cover all your needs and remember, each ThinkificĀ alternative is good and bad in its own way, so there isnāt a single one thatās best.
- If you are a solo creator launching your first course go with Podia
- If your business relies on course go with Teachable
- If you want to host your own content & use WordPress go for Thrive Apprentice
- If you have no audience and want to tap into an existing market then go for Udemy
It makes more sense to understand your preferences and needs before the decision. After all, it doesnāt make sense to get Thinkific when it does tie to the results you want in your business.
All the best!
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