Thinkific for memberships
A course-first platform with communities and memberships attached, built for people whose product is genuinely teaching.
What Thinkific is
Thinkific is a course platform first. Communities, memberships, and coaching sit around a course engine that handles quizzes, assignments, drip, and certificates properly.
Who it’s best for
Educators and training businesses where the teaching structure matters, and who want no platform cut of course revenue.
- Businesses whose core product is structured teaching
- Course creators who need quizzes, assignments, and certificates
- Anyone who wants zero platform fees on course revenue
Who should avoid it
Community-first memberships, and anyone hoping the $54 Basic plan will do: communities and memberships both require the $109 tier.
- Community-first memberships
- Newsletter, podcast, and video-library products
- Anyone who needs communities on the cheapest plan
Membership models it supports
Not every platform suits every kind of membership. These are the models we consider it a genuine option for.
- Course and community
- Coaching or group program
- Migrating an existing membership
Pricing and fees
Read from Thinkific's own pricing page on 2026-07-28. Always check the official page before you buy.
| Plan | Monthly | Annual, per month | Platform fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| BasicAnnual billing saves up to 25%. Communities are not on this tier. | $54 | Not offered | None |
| StartAdds communities, memberships, and assignments. | $109 | Not offered | None |
| GrowAdds bulk enrolments, advanced permissions, and API access. | $219 | Not offered | None |
Payment processing. Thinkific charges 0% transaction fees on its own plans. Using an external gateway instead of Thinkific Payments adds a per-plan gateway fee that Thinkific does not publish as a single rate. The standard US card rate is used here as an estimate.
Trial. Free plan available
What it costs in practice
Cheapest plan that holds the member count, including the platform's cut and payment processing.
Just starting
25 members at $20 a month
$76 / month
On Basic. About 15% of your revenue.
Established
100 members at $25 a month
$157 / month
On Basic. About 6% of your revenue.
Growing
500 members at $25 a month
$567 / month
On Basic. About 5% of your revenue.
Feature support
What is included, what needs a higher plan, and what simply is not there.
Community features
Higher plan requiredCommunities start on the Start plan; Basic is courses only.
Courses
SupportedAmong the strongest course builders here, with quizzes, assignments, and certificates.
Coaching and live events
Partially supportedCoaching and webinar products, but scheduling is lighter than dedicated tools.
Video hosting
SupportedNative hosting with no separate storage bill.
Livestreaming
Not supportedNewsletter and publishing
Not supportedPrivate podcast support
Not supportedPayments and monetization
SupportedSubscriptions, payment plans, and bundles, with 0% Thinkific transaction fees.
Branding and customization
SupportedCustom domain and full site theming.
Branded mobile app
Higher plan requiredThinkific offers a branded mobile app on upper tiers, but the plan that includes it was not confirmed during research, so no plan is treated as providing it.
Audience discovery
Not supportedEmail and marketing
Partially supportedBasic email tools; most creators integrate a dedicated platform.
Integrations and API
Higher plan requiredAPI access starts on Grow.
Migration support
SupportedImport tooling and migration assistance for course libraries.
Customer and data ownership
SupportedStudent and order export.
Important limitations
- Communities and memberships are not available on the Basic plan, so the practical entry point is $109 a month.
- The gateway fee for using an external processor is not published as a single rate, so external-processor costs cannot be estimated precisely.
- No livestreaming, newsletter, or podcast support.
Data ownership and migration
Solid. Students, orders, and content export, migration help is available coming in, and you can bring your own gateway if you accept the unpublished gateway fee.
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Sources
Every fact on this page traces to one of these official pages.