Thinkific and Udemy are some of the most popular online course platforms for first-time online course creators.
These are online platforms that are used by instructors for hosting online courses and selling courses. However, Udemy and Thinkific’s comparison is not exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.
They are different teaching platforms with unique features and pricing models. In this article, we will discuss and compare Thinkific vs Udemy.
The analysis will help you understand the differences and identify which platform offers what you are searching for.
Thinkific
Thinkific is an online course creation platform to teach online recommended by top marketing experts.
It provides packages for everyone from free to premium. The platform has an easy and intuitive tool for designing your online courses based on a simple drag-and-drop editor.
You can stack all the content you want to include & rearrange it however you choose.
Pros
- You can create your brand with Thinkific, and it perfectly suits long-term business development in the online learning niche.
- This platform supports most media types without limiting course inclusion.
- It provides an easy tool to design your online courses to your exact needs, even if you don’t have experience with coding or web design.
- Unlimited students and content
- Active peer support from over 12,000 members Facebook group
- Powerful customization with the click of a button
- There are multiple online course payment options for various types of students and schools.
- It optimizes mobile devices, and you can incorporate language controls in your online courses.
- Another great thing about Thinkific is the inclusion of several promotional and marketing tools. You can create schedules to send out automated emails to target the right audience.
- Email Marketing is one of the effective business tools in digital marketing that Thinkific uses to run a successful campaign.
Cons
- It doesn’t offer live chat for customer support
- The platform can be costly for beginners. It charges a 10% course revenue transaction fee and will raise the prices if you build more courses.
- If you build online courses on a free plan, you’ll find that you have to upgrade before publishing the work.
- It also has limited customization and poor-quality check-out.
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Udemy
Udemy is an online course creator and online course hosting platform that allows people to share their skills with students. Udemy courses are easy to design and sell courses.
It does most marketing for you, though you cannot manage your business with the lack of marketing tools. Compared to Thinkific, Udemy is student-centered rather than instructor Center. Udemy courses can be marketed using built-in marketing tools.
It is one of the largest online educational platforms with over 180,000 online courses and over 44 million students. It is a well-established and proven marketplace with Global outreach. All the courses are accessible to students of every field.
Pros
- Udemy courses are available starting at $11.99 and going up to $199.99.The platform doesn’t charge monthly fees, and you can earn 97% of all sales you drive with your coupon code
- It offers close to 600 courses on a selection of topics
- There is a wide selection of courses on dozens of categories and subcategories
- The platform grants you instant access to every cause you adjust for life
- Udemy would have a 30-day refund policy if the course weren’t what you expected
- This platform focuses more on enabling learners to find tons of courses easily where they can choose whatever topic they like. It fits perfectly avid learners who wish to upskill without paying a lot of money.
Cons
- On Udemy, there is not much easy-to-find guidance for instructors, and there is nothing like a complete list of features for instructors to use. Dig deep and search for more information on the options available for instructors.
- Udemy focuses on helping learners rather than people who want to start an online course business.
- You don’t own your students as the platform has strict guidelines on what you can do with your students.
- The platform is not the best choice for an official certification because it doesn’t offer accredited certificates.
- Since Udemy doesn’t create course content, it can compromise the quality of courses.
- There is less chance of standing out because of the high level of noise in the marketplace.
Courses
Course creation on Thinkific and Udemy is a streamlined experience for course creators. The best thing about these platforms is that they do not require any coding or design experience to create a course.
The drag-and-drop interface allows users to build their courses with ease.
When creating courses on these platforms, you can integrate any content such as videos, images, texts, presentations, and any other type of content. There are also many pre-made course templates that you can use to get started.
You can create unlimited courses on both Thinkific and Udemy.
However, they differ and how you can create and manage courses. Let’s compare how these two platforms differ in course creation.
Thinkific
Thinkific platform allows you to do whatever you want with your course builder because you own it. You can create online courses and membership sites with Thinkific and enjoy the best support in the industry.
The advantage of membership sites is long-term customer retention. Moreover, membership sites also help students to explore and purchase newly updated courses.
It is a platform where instructors can create a market and start selling online courses on their course site. The platform focuses on instructors, giving them all the business tools to build, maintain and grow their online education business.
Another advantage of Thinkific is the creation of high-definition course material. The use of high-definition course material attracts customers.
Udemy
Udemy allows you to create online courses and find anything on your schedule. It is a big course market where everybody has their stand where they sell courses. Udemy practice courses can help students practice the tests before the final assessment.
This platform suits complete beginners who want to manage an online learning niche and are not concerned about building their brand.
However, you won’t have your site with Udemy, but you’ll be part of a huge marketplace with other competitors.
The platform doesn’t allow you to have full ownership of your course though you can have your name on the course and update lessons.
On successful online course completion, you aren’t able to remove the course from the platform and it doesn’t offer accredited certification or other completion certificates after completing a course.