LearnWorlds vs Thinkific Compared, Which Is Better For You? (Honest Comparison)

1. Course Creation

Since we are comparing between the best course platforms, course creation will probably be the first thing we will want to see. We’ll look at the ease-of-use, the process and the overall user experience during the creation process.

LearnWorlds

Course creation with LearnWorlds, it uses a course creation wizard, where it guide you step by step on all the items to be filled in for your course. Such as your title, description, course content, pricing delivery methods etc.

I find the whole course creation process to be very easy to use, nice design and the layout for the course creation is very intuitive, I don’t even need to watch the tutorial for the course creation.

What’s really make this exceptional is that the the course creation wizard just make it so much better.

As you can see the whole course creation process is fully guided. The process of creating your course takes only a few steps.

1. Go to your dashboard and click “Course” then “+ Create Course”.
2. Type in your course title.
3. Give your course a friendly URL. Be descriptive or just leave it as the same as your title.
4. Select the access type of your course, it can be paid, draft, coming soon, free or even private.
5. Price your course accordingly, and if you want, you can add in a discount price.
6. Upload an image for your course and add in your course description.
7. Determine your course delivery. You can choose drip feed, and when it is “on” you can choose between drip by days or by date.
8. Once done, just click “Finish” and it is create your course page.
9. Review your course page and upload all your videos as well as change any of the detail for you page. Once you are done you can hit save or continue making changes till you are satisfied with it.

Thinkific

Ease of use is the main reason why many users start using Thinkific. The platform is designed for absolute beginner to start creating their first online course without any issues.

It utilize the drag and drop builder to build any types of course.

Here is a quick video showing how it look like when you are using Thinkific to build your course.

The course creation process is pretty simple, and if translated into step, here are the few steps you’ll need to take to create:

1. Create your curriculum.
2. Add in your course contents into your chapters.
3. Use bulk importer to import all your videos and images for fast and easy uploads of multiple files.
4. Update your setting and add in all the information of your course such as; title, description and customizing all parts of your course appearance.
5. Use of drip to schedule your course.
6. Set pricing of your course, it can be one-time payment, subscription or monthly payment plan.
7. Add your post-purchase flow for upsell and customer retention.
8. Publish your course as; draft, pre-order or publish.

My Choice: LearnWorlds

I personally think that LearnWorlds the most user friendly course creation in compared to Thinkific.

Although at the first glance LearnWorld’s dashboard may seems to have quite a lot going on. But in compared to Thinkific, the course creation wizard makes sure the course creator will not miss entering any of the critical information.

2. Student eLearning Engagement Experience

As an online course platform, the eLearning experience is the outmost important. Whether the platform have the features which helps your students to feel engaged or the lack of it can impact the retention rate of your students.

Here we will look into some of the features offered by each of the platform and see which might be a more suitable choice for you.

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds offers one of the most advanced way for course creator to engage with their students.

With their free trial, you can do everything you’ll need to create a professional course platform, but with the paid plans, your course platform will become one that can rival even the best online learning centers in the market.

• Create videos, quizzes, assignments, surveys and downloadable resources which can be interactive, gamifying the whole learning experience.
• Offers the learning experience to be performed while on the go with your own fully white-labelled app.
• Offers push notification that can engage your students anytime.
• Creation of learning path for your students using drip scheduling.
• Community builder with social networking features that allows direct messaging.
• Live sessions, 1-on-1 sessions and events to keep your students engaged.
• Offers bundles and coupons.

Thinkific

Thinkific offers a wide range of features for you to engage with your students. With the free plan you can engage them with assignments and quizzes, and with the paid plans you can do much more.

• Create custom video, quizzes, surveys and downloadable resources.
• Set drip scheduling for courses, where your students can access to the course on a certain time or date.
• Create community spaces where your students can gather
• Live lessons and events to keep your students engaged
• Offers bundles, coupons and cross-selling

My Choice: LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds offered the most wide variety of options that let course creators engage with their students. What’s make LearnWorlds a notch above Thinkific is that it offers gamification of the learning process.

But the deciding factor that raise the engagement level is LearnWorld’s ability to transform your online course platform into an App where your student will carry everywhere, this allows you to create a learning platform that rivals the top brands under your name.

3. Pricing And Free Trials

While price shouldn’t be your only factor to consider when choosing the best online course platform to start your online business. It is still important to understand the different pricing plans that each have to offer.

Here is a quick comparison between LearnWorlds and Thinkific.

LearnWorlds

LearnWorlds offers free trial and 3 paid pricing plans:

• 30-days Free Trial (No Credit Card required): Great way to test out the platform. You’ll get access to everything you’ll need to create your digital course, website, and perform integration.
• Starter Plan for $24 per month: Designed for new course creator who want to get started. Include all basic features such as; basic site builder, create paid courses, eBook, 1-on-1 group sessions, drip courses, custom domain, basic integration, Free SSL-certificate, flexible payment options with coupons and 1 admin.
• Pro Trainer Plan for $79 per month: Recommended for serious course creator and online business owner. Include all features on starter plan plus features such as; complete site and survey builder, unlimited free and paid course, certificates, live classes, 20 SCORMs, pop-up builder, membership installments, affiliate management, premium integration, 5 Admins/instructors and no transaction fees.
• Learning Center Plan for $249 per month: Recommended for mid and large business. Include all features on Pro Trainer plan plus features such as; auto-transcript and subtitles, unlimited SCROMs, full white-labelling for iOS and Android App, automated reporting, bulk user actions, API integration, web hooks and 20 custom user roles (admins/instructors).

Thinkific

Thinkific offers 1 free plan and 4 paid pricing plans:

• Free Account: Best way to test Thinkific for free and build your first online course and community with features such as; 1 course, 1 community, 1 admin, unlimited students, fully integrated e-commerce, theme builder, 0% transaction fee.
• Basic Plan for $36 per month: Recommended for all new course creators who just started their journey, including all features in Free account plus features such as; unlimited courses, live chat support, custom domain, coupons and discount, affiliated management.
• Start Plan for $74 per month: Recommended for online business owner looking to grow into a big business. Include all features in Basic Plan plus features such as; membership and subscription plans, live lessons, assignments, bundles and advance course-building options.
• Grow Plan for $149 per month: Recommended for mid and large business looing to increase their influence in their industry. Including features in Starter Plan plus features such as; 3 communities, 2 admins, phone support, full white-labeling of the platform, bulk student emailer and enrollments and API access.
• Plus Plan to Contact Sales: Recommended for established enterprise. Include all features from Grow Plans plus features such as; unlimited administrators, products, 3+ Thinkific sites, multiple tiered checkouts, enterprise API access and single sign-on (SSO).

My Choice: Draw

Free Account: Thinkific (Free Account)

Thinkific is one of the few platforms that offers free account creation, which really makes it a great way for any course creator to create and polish their course platform before launching and upgrading to their paid plans.

Paid Plans: LearnWorlds (Paid Plans)

Both ThinkiFic and LearnWorlds are very close when comparing their paid plans and here is a breakdown on the comparison.

ThinkiFic vs LearnWorlds Low Tier Plans Compared

At low tier plans, LearnWorlds seems to marginally win ThinkiFic in terms of the pricing, but ThinkiFic offers better features.

ThinkiFic vs LearnWorlds Mid Tier Plans Compared

When comparing ThinkiFic and LearnWorlds, LearnWorlds shows to have added advantage of offering gamification, more admins, and ThinkiFic offers access to ThinkiFic Mobile.

ThinkiFic vs LearnWorlds Top Tier Plans Compared

When comparing ThinkiFic vs LearnWorlds on their top tier plans, while both offer many similar features, it seems that LearnWorlds win by offering more features, and the option to white-label you own personal branded App that can be listed on the App store.

For the paid plans, here is a quick summary:

• At low tier plans, LearnWorlds offer offers gamification, which helps to engage students in their course.
• At mid tier plans, Thinkific is pretty amazing, offering ThinkiFic mobile which is a great plus for student engagement.
• At high tier plan, LearnWorlds marginally win ThinkiFic, especially with it’s option on white-labeling your own personal branded App.

Overall, LearnWorlds shows to be more value for money, and with the long list of integration options available, it offers many possibilities of optimization and automation of your business.