LearnDash vs Thinkific: Which is the better LMS platform?

Looking for a detailed article on LearnDash vs Thinkific? You have arrived at the right place.

In this article, we will be comparing LearnDash and Thinkific. These are popular LMS platforms catering to different groups of users.

So, which one is the best platform for you? Let’s find out.

LearnDash vs Thinkific At a Glance

Before we begin, let’s quickly introduce LearnDash and Thinkific.

LearnDash, the brainchild of Justin and Kloé Ferrima, is an LMS plugin for WordPress. It adds LMS features to the CMS (Content Management System) platform. It debuted in 2013 and has been part of the StellarWP from 2021 onwards.

On the other hand, Thinkific is a software-as-a-service for online course platforms. This means it offers a complete LMS solution with an LMS plugin, hosting, domain, and other required services in the same package.

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Plans and Pricing

LearnDash

LearnDash’s pricing is pretty rigid. There is no free tier or lifetime license, either. You will have to sign up for one of the three yearly subscriptions, which start at $199 per year.  

LearnDash doesn’t have many add-ons since most of the features are included in the plugin itself. However, you’ll have to pay an additional $49 per year for each premium add-on you use. 

LearnDash Plans	Pricing	Benefits
Basic	$199/year  No Lifetime Package	1-site license  Core LMS Features  Free integrations and add-ons  1 year of updates and support
Plus	$399/year  No Lifetime Package	10-site license Core LMS Features  Free integrations and add-ons  1 year of updates and support
Pro	$799/year  No Lifetime Package	Unlimited site licenses Core LMS Features Free integrations and add-ons 1 year of updates and support
Cloud	$25 – $83/month	Fully hosted website with LearnDash LMS

Thinkific

Thinkific has a free plan, but it is only good for testing purposes. The premium plan starts at $49/month for the basic plan and goes all the way up to $199/month. However, if you pay annually, the effective price drops to $36 month and $149/month, respectively.

However, not all features are available on all plans. Thus, if you want to use all features, you must sign up for the Grow plan.

Thinkific	Pricing	Benefits
Free	FREE	Unlimited Students 1 Course 1 Community (2 spaces per community) 1 administrator Email (30 days) and chatbot
Basic	$49/month $432/year	Unlimited Students Unlimited Courses 1 Community (10 spaces per community) 1 Administrator Access to the Accelerator Program Email and live chat support Branded Mobile (Add on)
Start	$99/month $888/year	Access to the Accelerator Program Unlimited Courses 3 Communities (20 spaces per community) 2 Administrators Unlimited Students Phone and priority email support Branded Mobile (Add on)
Grow	$199/month $1,788/year	Access to the Accelerator Program Unlimited Courses 3 communities 20 spaces per community 2 administrators Unlimited Students Phone and priority email support Branded Mobile (Add on)

LearnDash has a more economical premium plans. However, Thinkific offers a free plan and ability to pay monthly.

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Features

Initial Setup 

LearnDash’s setup wizard focuses on setting up the plugin based on your needs and requirements. It includes courses, payment, and other settings.

On the other hand, Thinkific takes time to introduce you to the platform and teach you to create courses and communities and to market and sell them.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Setup Wizard	✅	✅

Thus, setup wizard of Thinkific is more comprehensive.

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Course Builder 

Thinkific, being a SaaS product, has a front-end builder by default. On the other hand, you will require a premium add-on to create courses from the front-end in LearnDash. The rest of the features are quite similar.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Drag and Drop Builder	✅	✅
Front-end Builder	✅ (Premium Add-on)	✅
Unlimited Courses and Lessons	✅	✅
Course Dashboard	✅	✅
Course Attachments	✅	✅
Download Materials	✅	✅
Course Preview	✅	✅

Thinkific offers front-end builder by default. You’ll have to pay to use it on LearnDash.

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Quiz Builder 

LearnDash supports a total of eight question types compared to Thinkific’s two. It also provides more control and settings for each quiz.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Unlimited Quizzes	✅	✅
Multiple Question Types	✅ (8, Includes Survey)	✅ (2)
Quizzes Import and Export	✅	✅
Randomize Questions	✅	✅
Quiz Duration	✅	❌
Limit Quiz Attempts	✅	❌
Quiz Hints	✅	❌
Answer Explanation	✅	✅
Quiz Leaderboard	✅	❌
Email Notification	✅	❌

Thus, LearnDash has an better quiz builder overall.

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Built-in Order & Payment Support 

Thinkific supports more payment gateways than LearnDash out of the box. It also has options for course subscription and revenue sharing.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Built-in Order System	✅ (Stripe Connect)	✅ (PayPal, Stripe)
Course Subscription	✅	✅ (Via Enrollment Duration)
Revenue Sharing	✅	✅

Thinkific has a slight edge over LearnDash when it comes to built-in order and payment gateways.

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Sales and Ecommerce 

As a WordPress plugin, LearnDash has more options when it comes to third-party e-commerce integration. The options are limited on Thinkific.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
WooCommerce	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
WooCommerce Subscriptions	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
Shopify	✅ (Via Zapier)	✅
Stripe	✅ (Built-in)	✅ Built-in)
PayPal	✅	✅ (Built-in)
Razorpay Integration	✅	(Via Zapier)
Easy Digital Downloads	✅	❌
Paid Membership Pro	✅	✅ (Via Zapier)
Restrict Content Pro	✅	❌

LearnDash has more options when it comes to third-party e-commerce integration.

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Certificate Builder

LearnDash and Thinkific have approached certificates differently on their respective platforms. Thinkific offers pre-made templates with rigid content sections, while LearnDash lacks templates but offers more customization.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Drop and Drag Builder	✅	❌
Certificate Blocks	✅ (4 Custom Blocks)	✅ (7 Sections)
Pre-built Certificate Templates	❌	✅ (7)
Unlimited Certificates	✅	✅
Certificate Dashboard	✅	✅
Auto Attach Certificate to Email	❌	❌
QR Verification for Certificate	❌	❌

Pick LearnDash if you can work the design yourself. Pick Thinkific if you prefer premade templates.

Masteriyo has premade templates with extensive customization options if you want the best of both worlds. It also supports advanced features like QR verification.

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Gradebook and Analytics 

LearnDash has a more advanced grade book add-on that allows users to evaluate learners with a custom grade system and track their records. This feature is not available on Thinkific.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Gradebook	✅	❌
Course Analytics	✅ (Available as ProPanel)	✅

Gradebook features is available on LearnDash but is mission on Thinkific.

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Live Sessions 

You can host live interactive sessions on both LearnDash and Thinkific. The two have respective calendars that let users track these sessions and other course events.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Calendar	✅ (Event Calendar)	✅  (Google Calendar, Calendly)
Live Interaction	✅ (Zoom, Google Meet, GoToWebinar)	✅ (Zoom, Google Meet, GoToWebinar)

Both LearnDash and Thinkific have enough options for hosting live sessions.

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Course Protection and Security 

LearnDash and Thinkific both offer similar protection and security measures for course materials and user data.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Course Content/Video Protection	✅	✅
Password Strength Checker	✅	✅
Google reCAPTCHA	✅	✅
Email Verification	✅	✅

It is a tie.

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Student Engagement 

LearnDash and Thinkific allow you to send out automated emails to students based on different course events. Students can also review courses after completion.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Q&A Section	❌	❌
Review System	✅	✅
Course-wide Announcement	❌	❌
Notification System	✅	✅

Student engagement options are same across LearnDash and Thinkific.

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Course Control and Access 

Features like course preview, course prerequisites, content drop, and course bundle are available on LearnDash and Thinkific. That said, LearnDash has course retakes and challenging exams that are not available on Thinkific.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Course Preview	✅	✅
Course Prerequisites	✅	✅
Content Drip	✅	✅
Course Retakes	✅	❌
Challenging Exams	✅	❌
Course Bundle	✅	✅
Course Expiration	✅	✅

For course control and access features, LearnDash has more features than Thinkific.

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User Roles and Membership 

Thinkific has a social login feature built-in, which you don’t get on LearnDash. Other features are shared across the two LSM platforms.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Unlimited Instructors and Students	✅	✅
User Import and Export	✅	✅
Bulk Course Enrollment	✅	✅
User Profile	✅	✅
Social Login	❌	✅
Multiple Instructor	✅	✅
Membership Site	✅	✅

Other than social login on Thinkfic, the two platforms have similar user and membership features.

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Design and Customization 

Thinkific has a limited number of native themes. Though LearnDash doesn’t have a native theme, it is compatible with most WordPress themes, giving users more options.

Thikific even has white labeling, which only a handful of proprietary LMS platforms offer.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Native Theme	❌	✅
White Label	❌	✅
Webhooks	✅ (Zapier)	✅ (Zapier)
Advanced Email Automation	✅	✅
Shortcodes	✅	✅ (Sections)

Thus, Thinkific has a better design and customization options than LearnDash.

If you want white labeling but are keen on using WordPress, check out Masteriyo, which offers it along with all other LMS features.

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Support and Documentation 

You can leverage multiple support channels when you run into a problem with either LMS platform.

	LearnDash	Thinkific
Live Chat	❌	✅
Documentation	✅	✅
Video Tutorials	✅ (YouTube, Academy)	✅  (YouTube, Academy)
Live Walkthrough	✅	❌
Facebook Community	✅	✅

LearnDash and Thinkific offer similar support channels.

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LearnDash vs Thinkific: Which should you choose? 

Here’s a summary of everything discussed so far. To give you a broader sense of the competition, we’ve also included Masteriyo in the comparison chart. 

Feature	LearnDash	Thinkific	Masteriyo
Pricing	4 ⭐	4  ⭐	5  ⭐
Initial Setup	4.5  ⭐	5 ⭐	5  ⭐
Course Builder	5 ⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Quiz Builder	4.5 ⭐	2.5 ⭐	4.5 ⭐
Certificate Builder	4⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Live Sessions	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Course Protection and Security	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Student Engagement	4⭐	4⭐	5⭐
Built-in Order and Payment	4 ⭐	4.5⭐	5⭐
Sales and Ecommerce	5⭐	3.5⭐	5⭐
Gradebook and Analytics	4.5⭐	2.5⭐	5⭐
Course Control and Access	4.5⭐	3.5⭐	4.5⭐
User Roles and Membership	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐
Design and Customization	4.5 ⭐	5 ⭐	5⭐
Support and Documentation	5⭐	5⭐	5⭐

To conclude, LearnDash and Thinkific each have strengths and weaknesses. Thinkific is a good option for individuals who can to create simple courses without worrying about technical details. On the other hand, LearnDash offers more for individuals and business that are serious about online course business.

Before you make the ultimate decision, we suggest looking into other alternatives, as there are a lot of new promising LMS in the market. One such platform is Masteriyo, which has all LMS features and even more flexible pricing.