Frequently Asked Questions

Absolutely! That's the beauty of Thinkific—you have the freedom to build your entire online education business, both courses and your overall brand, right within one seamless platform. The best part is that you don't need any experience with web design in order to get up and running (although if you do have that technical expertise, you can certainly leverage it for further customizations!). Thinkific is designed to faciliate building, marketing, and selling online courses, so our platform comes pre-loaded with tools that simplify the entire process from end-to-end. Choose the right plan for your needs today!

We accept it all, whether it be video, audio, images, PDFs, or presentations. We've also made it incredibly easy to add dynamic lesson types like assignments and quizzes so you can build a course that not only works, but that your students will enjoy. Having access to a variety of media and lesson types allows you to create an interactive and engaging learning experience for your audience.

We offer four different plans to choose from depending on your needs. Our Free plan includes our core feature set and is a great starting point if you're looking to test the waters with online course creation. Our paid plans provide an extended feature set, ranging from $49 to $499/month. Our most popular plan, Thinkific Pro, costs $99/month and provides a complete suite of tools to deliver an incredible student experience. We also offer some advanced features like Groups and API on an as-you-grow basis so you won't pay a ton upfront. Click here to choose the right plan for you!

No, we do not charge any transaction fees nor do we take commission from course sales, so the sky's the limit. We have course creators earning millions through their course sales, and they keep every penny they earn. We want to see you make a major impact in your business and for the students you help along the way!

Our Free plan was designed to give you everything you need to start building your own online courses. It includes all our core features, plus the following:

• Unlimited students
• The ability to create limited courses
• Quizzes & surveys
• Content hosting
• Instant access to your funds
• Customer support

See our feature comparison to get a complete picture of what you get with each plan.

No, our Free plan does not expire and you are welcome to stay on it as long as you like. It's a fantastic way to start your online education business since you get unlimited students! Many of our customers start on the Free plan and eventually grow their business enough to warrant upgrading to a more extensive feature set, especially if they want to scale. So while you're likely to find that a paid plan can unlock more opportunities to expand down the road, you're certainly never obligated to leave the Free plan. Get started today!

The Growth package is an add-on to Thinkific's Pro plan. It gives you access to additional features designed specifically to help you scale. These features include student groups, bulk emails, advanced segmentation, bulk enrollment, and more. We designed this package to grow with you as you need it, so you only pay when you grow. Pricing is set at $0.10 per active student, with the first 100 students being free! Click here to learn more and to use our handy cost calculator.

We believe strongly in empowering course creators to make a difference in the world. If you work for a registered non-profit, we'd love to help. Apply for a non-profit discount here »

Yes, we offer a 30-day money back guarantee. We have full confidence in the value that Thinkific provides and we want our customers to be able to discover that for themselves, risk-free.

Absolutely! You can find a quick 15 min demo of Thinkific here. It will cover everything from building out your course and customizing your website, to integrating with the business tools you already use and love. We recommend that you sign up for a free account so you can follow along with the demo and start building your course right away.

We understand that setting up your first online course can be overwhelming, so our team is here to work with you each step of the way. A great place to start is our on-demand training video, The 5-Step Blueprint to Creating and Selling Successful Online Courses, which covers the need-to-know steps to set you up for success as a course creator. We also have a ton of content dedicated to helping customers get started with Thinkific. As always, feel free to reach out to our Support team if you have further questions.

You sure can! In fact, Thinkific was designed to get your online education business up and running without any advanced technical experience. That means you don't have to be a developer to build your site and online courses. We provide out-of-the-box themes and templates to simplify every step of the course creation process, so you'll never have to write any code. Plus, our Support team and knowledge base are available if you need extra help.

It's perfectly fine if you don't have training content yet because you can create it from scratch right within Thinkific! Building your content on Thinkific is actually a great way to get started because our platform is equipped with tools, templates, and lesson types to create the perfect curriculum for your audience. Since Thinkific was built with students and course creators in mind, it handles the heavy lifting so you can deliver the best learning experience. Get started for free!

Not a problem! Every course creator needs to start somewhere, and having a large audience is certainly not a requirement for using Thinkific. In fact, online courses are a perfect way to build an audience if you don't have one yet. By publishing and marketing thought leadership content, you can start generating a following of individuals who share your passion and seek your expertise.

Not to worry! Nerves typically fade with experience, so don't let that stop you from getting started with online courses. We'll give you tips for working in front of a camera to help you get comfortable more quickly. We do recommend that you start your course with even a short introduction video to allow your students to get familiar with you, but after that, you can use text lessons, screen recordings, PDFs, or anything else to teach your content. In fact, there are course creators who choose not to use video for teaching. So you're never obligated to create video content if it doesn't suit your curriculum.

Yes! We surveyed data from over 40,000 course creators and put together some quick start templates to save you time and help organize your content into the perfect course. You can choose from 6 different template types, including pre-sell, mini-courses, and full flagship courses. You can always start from scratch if you prefer, but using a template can jumpstart your course creation process, especially if it's your first time. Get started free to access these templates.

Absolutely! You can create memberships and course bundles on our Pro plan, which can be a great way to generate recurring revenue and keep your audience engaged on an ongoing basis. Start your membership site on Thinkific Pro today!

Yes, customers on our Basic plan and higher are able to create drip schedules. With drip schedules, course creators are able to deliver content at the cadence that works best for their curriculum.

Yes, we support livestreaming and webinars. Many livestreaming platforms such as YouTube Live, Zoom, and Live Stream are embeddable into other sites, which means you can add your live video right within a Thinkific course lesson. Even if you're using a live streaming platform that isn't embeddable, that doesn't mean it can't work alongside your Thinkific course! You can always create a lesson with instructions and a link for your students to join the livestream. Click here to learn more about livestreaming in Thinkific.

Yes! Certificates are a great way to recognize students who pass key milestones in their education. They not only boost motivation and provide a sense of accomplishment—they can also serve as a verifiable measure of success. On Thinkific's Pro plan or higher you have the option to offer certificates to your students upon course completion.

Yes, bulk enrollment can be accomplished in Thinkific. There are a couple different use cases, each with its own approach:

1. You're switching to Thinkific from another platform and want to transfer all of your student enrollments over. In this case you can send a spreadsheet of your student enrollments to info@thinkific.com and we'll take it from there. Check out our article on importing students to learn more about this service and how to request a quote.

2. You want to take a set of students from one of your courses and enroll them in another one. This is possible on our Pro plan with the Growth package, as well as our Premier plan. Our article on bulk enrollment provides further detail on this process.

Each video uploaded to Thinkific must be less than 2GB. But even if your files happen to exceed 2GB, Handbrake can be used to reduce the size without sacrificing quality. If you're hoping to use PDFs, files up to 25MB can be uploaded. You can always run larger PDFs through smallpdf.com in case you need to reduce their size. If you'd like to know size limits for other file types, feel free to reach out to our Support team.

Definitely! By default, students will be able to skip over lessons and jump around within your course. However, if you want to ensure that they complete particular lessons before moving on to the next, you can choose to set any lesson as a prerequisite for others.

While students will not be able to log into your courses offline, you always have the option to offer downloadable content such as video files, audio files, or PDFs in your lessons. That way your students can download these files while connected to the internet and still access them later.

Yes, course creators have complete ownership over the content they build on our platform. Thinkific does not claim any intellectual property rights over your materials, so anything you build and publish on our platform is 100% yours.

Absolutely! Custom domains are great for establishing your brand as professional and trusted, and you can certainly use one on any of Thinkific's paid plans (Basic and above).

Definitely! While Thinkific does allow you to build an entire website, you can choose to use the platform for course creation alone. So you're free to use Thinkific as the education portion to complement your existing website, whether it's custom built or created on a CMS like WordPress. Either way, you'll be able to create a fully integrated and seamless experience, from your domain and URLs to the visual branding. Your audience will see your courses and main site as one holistic ecosystem.

Yes! We're proud to offer an all-in-one ecosystem to create, market, and sell online courses. Thinkific connects with various tools to help you with marketing automation (such as Active Campaign and MailChimp), e-commerce (PayPal and Stripe), analytics (Facebook Pixel, Google Analytics, Mixpanel, and more), and student success (including Intercom and Accredible). With such robust integrations, it's so easy to make Thinkific your one-stop shop for building and scaling your entire online education business. For more information, check out our list of integrations.

If you've previously built a SCORM course, you'll be able to upload it to Thinkific on our Pro plan or above, as long as the course has been exported for web/HTML 5. Please note that while SCORM courses can be hosted on Thinkific, our platform does not support SCORM reporting.

Thinkific makes it easy to charge for your courses through our integrations with PayPal and Stripe, two of the most widely used payment processors. Simply create a PayPal or Stripe account, if you don't already have one. You'll then be able to connect your account with the click of a button. Whenever your students make a purchase, your funds will go directly to into your PayPal or Stripe account and you can access them instantly.

No, we do not hold course creators' funds for any period of time. Unlike other systems we grant you access to your funds right away.

As a course creator, you can build out your educational content in any language you want. Thinkific also allows you to adjust the language in which your site elements (such as buttons and menu items) are displayed, with the freedom to choose from 30 of the most widely spoken languages in the world.

Using Thinkific's integration with the payment processor Stripe, course creators can charge customers in any of over 135 supported currencies.

Yes! By partnering with affiliates you can greatly expand your marketing reach in exchange for paying a commission. On our paid plans you're able to add users as affiliates to your Thinkific site and provide them with unique links so you can track and report on enrollments by affiliate, as well as make payments accordingly. Click here to learn more about working with affiliates in Thinkific.

Yes, joining our affiliate program is a great way to earn a recurring commission for referring new customers to Thinkific. If you're a course creator who loves Thinkific, you may be interested in becoming an affiliate partner. If you're ready to sign up, click here!

Our goal is to help you every step of the way. Whether you're a prospective or current customer, we offer a few options for getting in touch:

• Email us at info@thinkific.com;
• Submit a support ticket here;
• Give us a call at 1-888-832-2409. We’re available Mon-Fri from 9-5 PST.

You can also search our Knowledge Base in the Thinkific Help Center—chances are we have an article that may answer your question right away!

We're always thrilled to see the incredible websites Thinkific course creators have built, and we've showcased samples from a variety of domains including Health & Fitness, Creative & Craft, and Memberships. You'll see that each site has its own unique look and feel, which is a testament to the creative freedom course creators have on Thinkific. You can customize as much as you like so that your own brand takes the spotlight.

Yes! We know that as a course creator, it can help to see a sample course in-action and experience Thinkific as if you were a student. That's why we're happy to grant you free enrollment to a course created by a Thinkific customer. Click here to find a free course that interests you!

Thinkific has a network of experts who are dedicated to providing services in marketing, web design and content creation. So if you're looking for assistance in any of these areas, we're happy to connect you with an expert for extra support. We also have a wealth of resources that can point you in the right direction when you're ready to market and sell the courses you've created.