Hey there, I’m glad you’re here. You’re probably considering using Thinkific for your online course needs, right? Well, I’m here to share my honest, no-nonsense review of the platform. I promise you, there’s no hidden agenda. I’m not pushing any other software or trying to sell you on an alternative. I’m just a guy who’s been there, done that, and wants to save you from making the same mistakes I did. Let’s dive right in, shall we?
What Is Thinkific?
Thinkific, in a nutshell, is an online platform that helps you create and sell your own online courses. It’s like a digital classroom, right at your fingertips. It’s got the bells and whistles – quizzes, surveys, and discussion forums. It even promises to help you with marketing your courses. Sounds pretty neat, doesn’t it?
But, hold on to your horses. It’s not all rainbows and butterflies. Sure, it looks good on paper. But when you actually get down to using it, you might find yourself in a bit of a pickle. The platform’s functionality doesn’t always live up to its hype.
So, before you jump on the Thinkific bandwagon, let’s take a closer look at what you’re signing up for. Trust me, it’s better to know what’s under the hood before you hit the road.
The Thinkific Review Platforms
When you search “Thinkific Reviews” you’ll find fairly positive stuff overall.
But then you read a little deeper.
These reviews? They’re not the whole story.
New users, especially, can be easily misled. You have no context of who left the reviews. Typically, they are left by beginners, who’ve not made money yet.
What you quickly realise is that any functionality you need to build a respected business is missing. An easy overlook for a beginner!
Major Issues With Thinkific
Let’s cut to the chase. Thinkific has problems. Big ones.
In fact, I had to leave 2 reviews on their Trustpilot because they were so bad.
Checkout the reviews here: https://au.trustpilot.com/reviews/654c1fb1495ed8ce8633427d
And here: https://au.trustpilot.com/reviews/65e65d712ef940b68edc80c2
Enrollment Problems
First, let’s talk about enrollment. You’d think it’d be a breeze, right? Wrong. It’s a slow, clunky process that feels like it’s stuck in the 00s.
I had the “pleasure” of enrolling 15,000 students. Well, it was an absolute nightmare.
Bulk enrollment should be as easy as a few clicks and uploading a nicely structured CSV file. But nope.
The process is outdated, like using a dial-up modem when everyone else is on 5g. The only way you can upload your students is a csv for each individual course. And each upload takes 10-20 minutes per upload. And you can only have 1 upload running at a time!!!
Affiliate System Flaws
Let’s talk about the affiliate system. It’s a pain, to put it mildly. You see, you have to manually register each affiliate. Yep, you heard me right. No automation, no streamlined processes, just good old-fashioned manual labor.
And it doesn’t stop there. Once your affiliates start making sales, you need to manually approve each payment.
Now, I’ve used other systems before. They were smooth sailing compared to this. You’d set up your affiliates, they’d start selling, and the system would handle the rest.
What this now means is that one of my VA’s will now have to spend a half-day to an entire day once a month approving commissions and paying our affiliates. The old system we used to do it in 10 minutes.
Video Player Limitations
The video player is old and outdated. It has no automatic captioning. You need to upload every SRT file individually.
Subscription Management
Subscription management 101:
Step 1: Identify when someone becomes a member and tag them.
Step 2: Identify when someone cancels their subscription, and remove their tag.
Thinkific decided step 2 has no importance and left it out. Quite possibly the stupidest design failure I’ve ever seen from a software company.
Lack Of Updates And Support
For the past six months, I’ve not see a single new feature shipped of any significance. Plus the support pretty much just send you generalised answers to support docs. Even when you need more substantial advice.
Upsells
The upsell flow they claim to have is below average at best. There’s no real option to edit the design. The design is simply a tiny text element at the bottom of the page with a button. Your characters are limited. I’m sure less than 5% of your audience even see the upsell button.
It’s impossible to build a proper marketing funnel upsell.
Slow AF
The whole backend is just slow.
Conclusion
Don’t use it! WordPress is far superior for 10% of the cost.
For the latest tools I recommend, check out this page.