Learnworlds Vs Thinkific: Side-by-side Comparison

We can all agree that learning doesn’t stop after leaving school, which is probably one of the reasons that online learning courses have become so popular over the last few years!

In the last 5 to 10 years, there has been a massive explosion in the number of platforms that provide these online learning courses, all of which are trying to carve out their niche in an already crowded market.

This can make it quite difficult to pick out a platform to use for yourself, whether you are a student who is looking to pick up a skill or two or a person who is looking to set up their training courses online.

Well, this is where we come into the picture!

In this comparison guide between Learnworlds Vs Thinkific, we are going to compare two very popular platforms that are used to sell these learning courses and build communities.

We’re going to briefly outline what these companies and platforms do first, before delving into detail about how these services directly compare to each other.

What Is Learnworlds?

As we have already outlined, Learnworlds is an online training platform that allows individuals and companies to package and sell their learning courses.

Started in 2014 by a small dedicated team, the platform prides itself on its easy-to-use tools that are perfect for training associates and employees in relevant courses to their roles.

From this snippet alone, it is pretty clear that Learnworlds is a pretty company-focused learning site that is geared towards helping companies get the resources they need to help train their employees and staff as a whole.

What Is Thinkific?

Like Learnworld, Thinkific is another online platform where individuals can both pay to take online courses in their chosen subjects, as well as for them to set up their courses, and earn money from them.

The company was originally founded in 2021 when co-founder and CEO of the company Greg Smith decided to put his LSAT learning course online so that it could reach a wider audience.

With the help of his brother Matt, they were soon able to get over 50,000 people taking the course, which then lead to the business expanding from just a single course, into a full platform, with multiple course creators selling their knowledge and experience.

If it wasn’t already clear, the fact that the company is only a year old, and is already doing incredibly well, is a mark of the high-quality service that they provide.

Comparing Learnworlds Vs. Thinkific

So, on the surface, it appears like there are quite a lot of similarities between these two course and training platforms.

And, unfortunately, this also makes them direct competitors to one another.

So, it’s time to see where exactly these companies differentiate themselves from each other, as well as see if one of them pulls ahead of the competition in any way.

Pricing Plans

Let’s start with one of the first factors that many people will often look at when concerning creating courses.

If you are a small business or educational service, you’re probably going to be interested in a platform that allows you to sell your courses at a low cost to you.

So how do these two services compare to each other?

Learnworlds

Well, Learnworlds is certainly a very tempting option for companies that are just setting themselves up for the first time on an educational platform.

Learnworld offers many first-time customers free trials for most of their price packages.

Probably one of the most popular on the market is their starter pack, which equates to roughly $24 a month.

For this price, you get to create an unlimited amount of courses in your account, as well as the tools to allow you to create community areas for each course, so students will be able to discuss the content with others, as well as a way for them to talk to you and ask you any questions.

However, you will be charged a $5 transaction for every successful sale that you make.

It should also be noted that, although you are allowed to create as many different courses as you want, you will only be able to have 3 different pages for your account:

• A Home page
• A Community page
• An After Login page

This starter package also allows you to receive payments from many different services like PayPal, Shopify, Stripe, and 2Checkout.

The next tier of subscription up from that, the Pro Trainer plan, will cost you $79 per month and will give you full access to the site’s course designer features, as well as the ability to select 5 instructors or admins for each course.

All of this is alongside the unlimited course option (including paid ones), as well as not having to pay a transaction fee for every successful sale.

The $249 per month Learning Center gives you access to all the previous features we have discussed, as well as being able to bulk upload students, gives you white-label options, as well as assigning as many as 20 instructors or admins to a given course!

Thinkific

So, the gauntlet has been thrown down. How does thinkific compare?

Well, for one, it does offer course creators a free online plan, which makes it one of the few platforms of this kind to do so.

This does come with a more restrictive amount, as creators will only be able to create 3 courses on this plan.

However, you will be able to host an unlimited number of students for each course, so this can be a great way of testing the waters to see if the site is a viable option for you.

Up from that, the basic plan for Thinkific costs $39 per month, which gives you full access to all the basic tools that allow you to create courses, of which you can now have an unlimited number, alongside that no-cap for student numbers.

You’ll even get access to email integration features and a custom domain!

At the next tier of pay, at $79 per month, you’ll get all the previous features, plus more advanced tools for course creation, as well as creating 2 admin roles and 5 authors for your courses.

The top tier for Thinkific, at $499 per month, is designed for large-scale education businesses that are looking to give classes and courses on a large scale, with growth packages benign offered to students, free for the first 100, then at 10 cents for any student after that, up to $499 per month.

These help distinguish your account and course from the Thinkific brand, which can help the business grow on its own over time.

Course Creation

Of course, the pricing isn’t everything.

You’re going to need to create some actual courses if you are looking to make your online learning into a full business!

Learnworlds

Learnworlds boasts one of the best course-creation systems in the market, with the system allowing for virtually unlimited potential for your course content, deepening how deep you’re prepared to go with your content.

The course creator even allows you to create interactive videos, which can be a great way to keep student engagement up throughout the course, which will leave a better image in their head of their experience with you.

Thinkific

However, Thinkific’s course creation system is also pretty great in its own right.

Its drag-and-drop course features are noticeably more intuitive than Learnworld’s system, which, while great for its potential once you do understand it, can be a little hard to figure out at first.

Plus, with the option to create mandatory viewing sections for parts of your course, you can make sure that students are at a decent level of understanding before delving deeper into your content.

However, the relative simplicity might hold the course creator back in the long run, as it does not have the upper potential that you can reach with Learnworlds.

Ease Of Use

Of course, having a great course creator should be no surprise.

But all the tools in the world don’t mean much if they are indecipherable from the get-go, and are effectively unusable!

Learnworlds

This is an area where Learnworld’s steep learning curve might prove to be a bit of a shortcoming, especially for new users.

Its main interface can be learned and understood, but from a newcomer’s perspective, it can be a little overwhelming to try and understand.

Plus, without an active customer support service, actually learning the ropes or finding help can be a real hassle.

Thinkific

This is an area where Thinkific shines in comparison, as its intuitive design makes it incredibly easy to learn as you go about making your courses.

Creating a section of a course can be as easy as uploading the content and dragging it to the correct spot.

Plus, Thinkific also gives you customer support and tutorial documents to help you out too!

Final Thoughts

Overall, your experience with online courses will be the biggest factor. If you are completely new, Thinkific will be a great starting point for you.

But if you already have a little experience, you are probably better off going with Learnworlds.