LearnWorlds vs Thinkific: prices, fees and limits
LearnWorlds opens at $29 plus $5 per paid enrollment; Thinkific at $54 with no platform cut. Certificates, SCORM, learner caps, and when neither fits.
Start the course you've been planning
Launch your first courseTL;DR. LearnWorlds runs $29 / $99 / $299 a month ($24 / $79 / $249 billed annually) with a $5 fee on every paid enrollment on the entry plan and none above it, allows 1,000 to 2,000 monthly active learners, and puts course certificates and 20 SCORM uploads on the $99 tier. Thinkific runs $54 / $109 / $219 ($40 / $82 / $164 annually), charges 2.9% through its own payment layer with no platform cut stacked on it, allows 10,000 current students on every standard plan, and gates completion certificates at $109, exams at $219 and SCORM at the custom-priced Plus. Neither has a free plan; both give you 30 days. What decides it is usually the shape of the fee, not the sticker.
These two are sold as the same thing — a school on your own domain — and priced on opposite theories. LearnWorlds puts a low number on the subscription and takes something from each sale. Thinkific puts a higher number on the subscription and then leaves your sales alone.
Which theory is cheaper for you is arithmetic, and it resolves faster than most people expect.
Who each is built for
LearnWorlds is built for someone who wants a wide platform at a low door and will pay per sale for it. $29 a month already carries courses sold on your own domain, an AI course builder with quizzes, unlimited video hosting, a built-in community and social network, and live 1:1 and group sessions through one connected meeting account. That is a lot of surface for the money. The rent on it is $5 per paid enrollment and a ceiling of 1,000 monthly active learners, and LearnWorlds says so on the card: the next step up is for “when you pass 1,000 learners or want to drop enrollment fees”.
Thinkific is built for someone who wants the fee question closed on day one. The $54 plan carries unlimited courses, quizzes, a custom domain and room for 10,000 current students, and Thinkific Payments takes 2.9% with nothing added on top. What the entry price does not buy is the certificate — that begins a tier higher, at $109.
The $5 changes shape with your price
A percentage moves with what you charge. A flat fee does not, and that is the entire character of LearnWorlds Starter.
Five dollars is roughly 17% of a $29 course, 10% of a $49 one, 2.5% of a $199 one and 1% of a $500 program. The plan never changes; the number simply means something different depending on what you sell. And it is additional rather than instead — LearnWorlds sells through your own Stripe or PayPal account, and its own pricing FAQ puts those at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction.
Two crossovers fall straight out of the published numbers. Against Thinkific Basic, which charges no platform cut at all, LearnWorlds Starter costs $29 + $5n while Thinkific costs $54 — they meet at five paid enrollments a month. Against LearnWorlds’ own next tier, $29 + $5n meets $99 at fourteen enrollments, or eleven on annual billing where $24 meets $79.
Both arrive early. Starter is a plan for something expensive that sells rarely, not for something cheap that sells often.
Side by side
| LearnWorlds | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly plans | $29 / $99 / $299, plus a Corporate tier | $54 / $109 / $219, plus a Plus tier |
| Annual (per month) | $24 / $79 / $249 | $40 / $82 / $164 |
| Platform fee on a sale | $5 per paid enrollment on Starter; none above it | None stated on top of processing |
| Payments | Your own Stripe or PayPal — LearnWorlds cites 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.9% via Thinkific Payments; third-party gateways add their own |
| Free plan / trial | No free plan; 30-day trial | No free plan; 30-day trial |
| Student allowance | 1,000 / 2,000 / 2,000 monthly active learners | 10,000 current students on Basic, Start and Grow |
| Admin seats | 1 / 5 / 25 | 1 / 2 / 6 |
| Certificates | From Pro Trainer, $99 | From Start, $109 |
| SCORM | 20 packages on Pro Trainer; unlimited on Learning Center | Plus only |
| AI | Included on every plan — 300 / 500 / 1,000 credits a month | Thinker, the teaching assistant, on Plus only |
Where LearnWorlds wins
- The door, and what stands behind it. $29, or $24 annually, is the lower entry, and it already includes unlimited video hosting, a built-in community and selling on your own domain.
- SCORM without a sales call. 20 packages at $99 and unlimited at $299. Thinkific keeps SCORM on Plus, which has no published price at all.
- AI on every plan. The course builder, assessments, emails and images are listed as included at every tier, metered at 300, 500 and 1,000 credits a month. Thinkific’s teaching assistant is a Plus feature.
- Seats, by a wide margin. Five admins at $99 and twenty-five at $299, against two at $109 and six at $219.
- The certificate arrives cheaper. $99 against $109 — and the same jump also buys the SCORM allowance and four extra seats.
Where Thinkific wins
- No cut on the sale, at any tier. There is no per-enrollment fee and nothing stacked on the 2.9% processing. Whatever you charge, the platform line is the plan price.
- Learner headroom. 10,000 current students on all three standard plans, against 1,000 monthly active learners on Starter and 2,000 on both tiers above it — including at $299, where LearnWorlds’ allowance does not move at all.
- Payments you do not have to assemble. Thinkific Payments at 2.9%, rather than bringing your own gateway and its 2.9% + 30¢.
- Nothing metered. No AI credits and no email credits to run out of. LearnWorlds meters both — 300/500/1,000 AI credits and 2,000/5,000/10,000 mass email credits a month.
- A cheaper top of the published range. $219, or $164 annually, against $299 and $249.
The third option: doing it inside Telegram
Both plans buy a destination: a site with your name, an account the student makes, a password they later reset. One case makes it useless — your readers already sit in a Telegram channel.
A Telegram LMS drops it. Lessons go into the bot’s own chat as blocks of text, image, video, audio and files. Two gates drive unlocking and apply together — a prerequisite marked done, and a scheduled date — so a drip and a completion path run on one course. Live teaching stays in the course too — meeting link on the lesson, recording added after. An AI tutor answers from your own lesson material, and Telegram’s protocol-level protection stops lessons being forwarded out.
Our cut is 0%, with no monthly floor first. The rail is the real cost: Stars cost a buyer $19.99 per 1,000 as a store pack or $14.10 at Telegram’s rate, and Telegram’s bot-developer terms pay out $13.00, so price on the payout. A withdrawal needs 1,000 Stars and each payment waits 21 days — what withdrawing Stars actually pays has the detail, and the Stars calculator converts a price into both figures.
Do not choose it if you sell on a certificate, a graded quiz or a SCORM package — none of the three exist here. Do not choose it if you must see who stopped at lesson two: students mark lessons done for their own unlocking, no roster reaches you. And not if buyers insist on a card, since Telegram policy leaves Stars as the only rail for digital delivery.
If… then…
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| One premium program sells a handful of times a month | LearnWorlds Starter — $5 an enrollment is 1% of a $500 seat |
| A cheap course sells often | Thinkific Basic — past five enrollments a month, Starter’s fee has passed $54 |
| A corporate buyer is asking for SCORM | LearnWorlds Pro Trainer publishes it at $99; Thinkific’s is on Plus, price on request |
| Your audience is heading past a few thousand people | Thinkific — 10,000 current students, where LearnWorlds stops at 2,000 |
| You want a community and video hosting inside the same plan | LearnWorlds includes both at every tier |
| Assignments and exams are how you grade | Thinkific — assignments from Start, exams from Grow |
| You need three or more people in the admin panel early | LearnWorlds — five seats at $99 against two at $109 |
| Your students already read you in a Telegram channel daily | Chat delivery removes the signup rather than restyling it |
| You need to issue a certificate, or know who finished | Either platform, not Telegram — neither exists on our side |
Where to start
Budget for the tier you will occupy in half a year, not the one on the signup screen. If you sell more than five enrollments a month, LearnWorlds Starter is already the wrong LearnWorlds plan, and the real comparison is Pro Trainer at $99 against Thinkific Start at $109 — two plans within $10 of each other, where LearnWorlds gives you more seats and published SCORM and Thinkific gives you five times the learner allowance.
And where the truthful answer is that your students already spend the day in one chat with you, test a single module there before either subscription starts renewing.
The one-product versions of this argument are Thinkific alternatives and, for the gentler all-in-one, Podia alternatives. The neighbouring pairs: Teachable vs Thinkific and Kajabi vs Thinkific. What the chat-delivered format asks of a student: selling courses on Telegram.
LearnWorlds plan prices, annual rates, the $5-per-paid-enrollment fee, monthly active learner allowances, admin seats, AI credit allowances, SCORM packages, the certificates tier, the community and video hosting included on every plan, trial length, the payment-gateway note and the VAT note: learnworlds.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Thinkific plan prices, annual rates, the 2.9% processing rate, trial length, course and student limits, admin seats and which tier carries quizzes, assignments, certificates, exams, SCORM and the AI teaching assistant: thinkific.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Star payout rate: Telegram’s terms for bot developers, section 6.2.4.
What people usually ask
- Is LearnWorlds cheaper than Thinkific?
- At the door, yes: LearnWorlds Starter is 29 dollars a month against Thinkific Basic at 54. But Starter adds 5 dollars on every paid enrollment and Thinkific takes no platform cut on top of its 2.9% processing, so the two meet at five paid enrollments a month. Above that, Thinkific Basic is the cheaper plan.
- What is the 5 dollars per paid enrollment on LearnWorlds Starter?
- A flat platform fee on each paid enrollment rather than a percentage, and it sits on top of whatever your own Stripe or PayPal account charges, which LearnWorlds itself puts at 2.9% plus 30 cents. Being flat, it bites hardest on cheap courses: 5 dollars is about 17% of a 29-dollar course and about 2.5% of a 199-dollar one. It disappears on Pro Trainer at 99 dollars a month.
- Which one gives me certificates on the cheaper plan?
- LearnWorlds, narrowly. Course certificates start on Pro Trainer at 99 dollars a month, and that tier also brings 20 SCORM uploads and five admin seats. On Thinkific, completion certificates start on Start at 109 dollars, exams on Grow at 219, and SCORM is reserved for the custom-priced Plus tier.
- How many students does each plan allow?
- They meter different things. LearnWorlds counts monthly active learners: 1,000 on Starter and 2,000 on both Pro Trainer and Learning Center. Thinkific caps current students at 10,000 across Basic, Start and Grow. If audience size is your constraint, Thinkific has far more headroom on a published price.
- Does either one have a free plan?
- No. Both run a 30-day free trial and both need a paid plan afterwards. LearnWorlds also states that its prices exclude VAT, which is added for EU customers who do not supply a valid VAT number.
- When is neither of them the right tool?
- When your students already read you in a Telegram channel every day and a course website is one more address to send them to. Delivering lessons inside the chat removes the signup and the login, but it costs you quizzes, certificates and any owner-facing view of who finished what, and course access can only be paid for in Telegram Stars.