LearnDash vs. Thinkific | Which Platform is Better for You?
If you want an unbiased comparison between LearnDash and Thinkific, you have landed at the right place. Both platforms can integrate well with your WordPress website. Yet, which one should you choose to run a successful business?
The answer depends on your priorities as a course creator. Are you looking for a simple platform to set up, or do you want total control over your LMS features? Do you need advanced customization, or is an all-in-one solution more appealing?
This is your guide to answer all your doubts, find pros and cons, and compare functionality and opportunities for growth. Both LearnDash and Thinkific made a similar comparison. But nothing can make it as honest and unbiased as user reviews.
That is why we went the extra mile to check what people truly experienced using those solutions. You are five minutes away from making the most important decision for your business.
Let’s see which solution works best for you.
| LearnDash | Thinkific |
|---|---|
| Requires WordPress installation and some technical skills to set up. | Fully hosted platform, easy to set up with no technical skills required. |
| Needs plugins for eCommerce integrations | Built-in e-commerce tools like coupons, subscriptions, and bundles |
| Highly scalable for those familiar with WordPress | More suited for small businesses and solo course creators |
Breaking down LearnDash
LearnDash is an original WordPress plugin that helps users create and sell online courses. Since the websites are hosted on WordPress, there are many customization options for your course website. You can design lessons, add quizzes, and give certificates. It has features like drip-feed content and gamification to keep learners engaged. If you want control and flexibility, LearnDash is an excellent choice.
Here are a few reasons why people choose LearnDash:
- Has gamification options like badges, leaderboards, and extra points so lessons become more engaging.
- Lots of opportunities for customization since you can always use a plugin.
- Will scale with you as you scale.
Is LearnDash what you are looking for?
- You must know your way around WordPress and how it works with plugins.
- No built-in marketing features to scale your course business.
- You must keep up with constant plugin updates, setups, and compatibility issues.
LearnDash does not claim to be a platform for everyone like Thinkific does. They know that not everyone is tech-savvy or wants to spend more time figuring out technical stuff. Yet, if you are willing to go that extra mile, you will have many opportunities to customize your website and learning experience.
Key marketing and sales functionality
Do you need to send promotional emails, build sales funnels, create communities, or create bundles? You cannot market your course without using the additional plugin.
While you have more options with integrations and plugins, they come with additional cost and effort to set up. For example, LearnDash users have
- WP Fusion for CRM,
- Solid Affiliate for referrals
- UpSells to create upselling offers
- Etc.
Since you have your website in WordPress, you can at least optimize your course website.
Course building opportunities
The LearnDash course builder organizes the content into Sections, Lessons, and Topics.
Building the outline within the course builder is a little complicated since you create the courses and lessons separately. Then, you assign those lessons to different courses, which makes you go back and forth too many times.
The lesson editor is almost the same as creating a blog post on WordPress. There are few opportunities when it comes to adding media to the lessons, including videos and paragraphs.
Payment options and integrations
LearnDash has about 30 integrations with popular CRM, communication, email marketing, event management, and other tools.
As for the payment options, you can receive payments mainly with
- Stripe
- PayPal
There are also integrations with Razorpay, SamCart, ThriveCart, WooCommerce, plus third-party plugins.
Read more: LearnDash Review 2025: Alternatives, Pricing, Pros, Cons & More
Thinkific at a glance
While Thinkific is mostly good for selling pre-recorded courses, you can also offer coaching, memberships, and digital downloads. If you already have a WordPress website, you can easily integrate it with Thinkifc. The platform helps you with most administrative tasks, including calculating and remitting taxes for the US and Canada sales.
What makes Thinkific great?
- The course player and interface, from the student’s perspective, are modern and intuitive.
- Has an app store that helps you go beyond the Thinkific experience
- Offers funnels for lessons and sales
Does it live up to its hype?
- No opportunity to share blogs
- Limited customization opportunities, as reported by users
- Not all integrations are free
We asked some users what they did not like about the platform. Here is a direct quote:
“I am frustrated that I can not customize the Thinkific app more, and I think the platform is overpriced. I find Thinkific has things "tucked away" in hard-to-find places sometimes and that can be annoying”.
Lauren Wiremen, creator at Thinkifc
Course building functionalities
As you create courses on Thinkifc, you can go three ways.
- First, base your curriculum on the course outline generator.
- Next, you can add the lessons one by one, or
- use bulk upload to import your lesson content at once.
As for the lesson types you can include in the overall course, there are a number of options. So, you are able to create Videos, Quizzes, Multimedia, Text, Presentations, Assignments, and Live chapters.
Key marketing functionalities
Thinkific presents a number of opportunities to help creators make more sales.
Thinkific creators can implement the “Buy now, pay later” methods, use the abandon cart emails, place order bumps, and more.
Payment options and integrations
Thinkific offers more than 80+ apps and integrations so that you can extend beyond the functionalities of the platform. The most popular integrations include MailChimp, Shopify, Zapier, and Salesforce.
Besides the common payment options like Stripe and PayPal, Thinkific has introduced Thinkific Payments. They claim that their customers have 22% more transactions on average due to that method.
Read more: Thinkific Review 2025: Alternatives, Pricing, Pros, Cons & More
User verdict on LearnDash and Thinkific
Thinkific and LearnDash have been in a battle for the spotlight for quite some time. And they even announced it publicly on their blog page.
Both platforms have presented their own comparisons to prove they are the better solution. To make a fair comparison, I have gone through user reviews on reputable review platforms so that you can learn about the users’ take on this matter.
Let’s discuss what people’s experiences were like while exploring these two solutions.
The reason why most people chose LearnDash initially was because they had an existing WordPress website and found the plugin useful. On the bright side, it is great for those who already use WordPress and want a plugin offering solid features like progress tracking and quizzes.
However, many users find it hard to set up and use, even if they are familiar with WordPress. When you factor in the cost, quite a few folks feel it does not quite deliver the value they expected, especially compared to other course platforms they used.
If we were to sum up, people choose LearnDash because
- Integration with WordPress themes
- Good reputation on the market and positive reviews
- Rich documentation
Now, let’s have a look at the Thinkific user experience.
Thinkific gets a lot of praise for being a solid LMS platform with built-in integrations that make course creation easier. Users love the community discussion functionality, which brings an interactive touch.
However, the main limitations mentioned were about the customizing fonts, instructor bios, buttons and other website elements.
Is it LearnDash, Thinkific, or a smarter alternative for you?
As you have already seen, both platforms are super-functional, and you can create and sell courses easily. Yet, which should you choose?
Are you someone who just wants to focus on creating content without dealing with all the technical setup? Thinkific might be your go-to. Especially if you focus on not only courses but want to sell digital products as well, you can do that on Thinkific. And if interactive course community and mobile app are a priority for your business, you can find them here, too.
Do you love WordPress and want full control over your course design? LearnDash could be the better option for you. It is ideal for tech-savvy creators or those willing to put in the time to customize every detail of their LMS. The integration with WordPress opens up endless possibilities.
At the end of the day, it comes down to your priorities. Do you want an all-in-one, hassle-free platform? Go with Thinkific. Need maximum customization and do not mind a little extra work? LearnDash has you covered.
So, what is your focus, simplicity, or control?
If you answered both, we have a great alternative for you - Uteach.
With Uteach, you can have an optimized course website like you would build with WordPress but still manage your courses easily. Uteach is an all-in-one solution that goes beyond course selling. You can offer memberships, create blog posts, run live lessons, and sell coaching, digital, and even physical products.
LearnDash vs Thinkific: Detailed comparison
Still cannot choose between LearnDash and Thinkific? Let’s have a side-by-side comparison on their functionality and options
Usage & Limitations
Some platforms put limitations on their main features. Is this the case with LearnDash & Thinkific? Here is a rundown of what you can find.
| Up to 120GB Storage | Unlimited Storage |
| Up to 25000 Students | Unlimited Students |
| - | Unlimited Products (Only in Plus) |
Unlike LearnDash and Thinkific, which impose limits on key features like storage, number of admins, and product offerings, Uteach gives you unlimited access to students, courses, storage, and more. This way, you have more flexibility and scaling opportunities. Plus, the limitations are not restricted to individual plans.
Builder Opportunities
Whether your business is going to run on a LearnDash website or a Thinkific website, their website builders will decide for you. The website-building functionalities these platforms offer include the following:
| Ready-made templates | Ready-made templates |
| Responsive design | Responsive design |
| - | Code editor (Starting from an expensive plan) |
Both platforms offer almost everything to customize your website and establish a professional online presence. However, all the features listed below depend on what plan you are on.
On the other hand, Uteach gives you the opportunity to enjoy vast customization for your website regardless of the plan you pay for.
Courses & Learning Products
The platform choice between LearnDash & Thinkific largely depends on what products you will be offering. Which platform allows you to better deliver your online courses, quizzes, webinars, digital downloads, and more?
| Free courses | Free courses |
| Drip Feed Courses | Drip Feed Courses |
| - | Private Courses |
When it comes to offering a wide range of products, Uteach stands out over LearnDash and Thinkific. While all three platforms support online courses, quizzes, and live sessions, Uteach takes it further by allowing you to sell also physical products. So, if you have resources you did not manage to convert to digital, do not worry. You can sell the physical copies with Uteach.
The platform that checks all the boxes
If you are not looking for not just a platform that helps you create and sell courses but a solution helping you manage all your business aspects, you already found it.
With Uteach, you have 100% control over the look and feel of your online school. At the same time, you do not have to do any complex setups or use plugins that slow down your website performance. Do you need online courses, digital products, community, branded app?
You name it; everything is there. What's better is that Uteach is much more affordable than Thinkific and LearnDash. With local payment gateways, you have more options for receiving payments and making your courses accessible to students.
We are not saying this to be biased. User reviews speak for themselves:
“One of the things that I like and that makes my life so much easier is that Uteach will host all the content, including videos, for me. Uteach has a beautiful & logical UI, which makes it easy to use. I didn't need any help creating my first course or branding the portal. I also really like the student experience”.
Biggi F.,
Uteach creator, IT specialist
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Happy customers everywhere
Angel Rodriguez CPP
Owner - Alliance Training & Testing
If you are looking for a great platform to launch your course then Uteach will meet all your needs. It comes with great templates that are highly customizable. Everything is laid out logically and the white-label is truly white-label. The advanced SEO capability is a major plus.I cannot say enough good things about the Uteach platform and how happy I am that I made the change.
Bekah Bottone
English Coach/Motivator
Thank you Uteach, for creating a platform that motivated me to set up a new webpage for my new businesses. I love how everything is included, that I can offer live sessions and also have a way to sell my workbooks. I will be launching my new website soon! The best part about working with Uteach is that they get back to me within a day with exactly what I need to know anytime I have a question.
Ivan Bayross
Sales Funnel Creation Consultant, Digital Marketing Strategy Specialist
Uteach, is intuitive, and easy to use. I've been asking Uteach support a ton of detailed questions. I've got perfect, easy to understand / implement answers to all my questions.
Luca Madonia
Coach
Uteach is absolutely insane. Everything about this tool is right down to the smallest detail. Whit labeling is all available and can be set up completely within a few minutes. I am an absolute FAN of Uteach.
Mark Dickenson
Coach
Finally found the perfect LMS ? I have tried a bunch of LMS and so far this is the best. What I love about Uteach is their templates, I am not stuck with just the standard look for my site and I can customize it easily. Also having unlimited students and no commission fee is great. They have very good support that answers quickly. So far im loving it, easy.
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Author, lecturer and coach
After 15 years of coaching and mentoring people, we've tried a lot of similar apps and platforms, but this one is truly made for creators. Everything is intuitive, simple and beautiful at the same time.
