Podia vs Thinkific: fees, caps and certificates
Podia bundles site, email and courses from $49 with a 5% fee on the entry plan; Thinkific opens at $54 with none. Where each wins, and when neither does.
Start the course you've been planning
Launch your first courseTL;DR. Podia is the all-in-one — website, blog, community spaces, email and a product catalogue — at $49 / $99 / $179 a month, or $42 / $84 / $150 billed yearly ($504 / $1,008 / $1,800 a year, about 14–16% off), with a 5% fee on Mover and none above it, and Stripe or PayPal charging 2.9% + 30¢ on top of every plan. Its courses carry quizzes, completion certificates and unlimited students at every tier, while email is capped at 100 / 500 / 1,000 subscribers. Thinkific is the course platform on its own — $54 / $109 / $219 ($40 / $82 / $164 annually), 2.9% through Thinkific Payments with no platform cut, unlimited courses, 10,000 current students, and an assessment ladder that puts certificates at $109, exams at $219 and SCORM on the custom-priced Plus. Neither has a free plan; both give 30 days.
This pair is easy to mis-frame as cheap versus expensive. It is really narrow versus wide. Thinkific sells one thing and builds it deep. Podia sells six things and builds them to a reasonable depth, which for a lot of creators is the depth they need.
Who each is built for
Podia is built for someone whose product line is wider than a course. Every plan includes courses, digital downloads, coaching, live and in-person events, a community, a website with a blog and landing pages on a custom domain, built-in checkout with sales tax across 230 countries and 20+ currencies, and email up to a small list. You are buying a whole small business’s software in one line item.
Thinkific is built for someone whose product is the course and who wants the classroom to be serious. No blog, no email tool, no coaching product — instead an assessment ladder that goes quizzes, assignments and certificates, exams, then SCORM, plus a teaching assistant on the top tier. If your buyer cares what “completing the course” formally means, this is the shape that answers them.
Where the fee decides it, and where it does not
Podia’s 5% only exists on Mover, and it is the row people underweight. Three crossovers fall out of the published numbers, all computed on the monthly rate for both sides, with processing set aside as roughly level — Podia’s processors take 2.9% + 30¢, Thinkific Payments takes 2.9%.
Against Podia’s own next plan, Mover’s $49 plus 5% meets Shaker’s flat $99 at $1,000 of monthly sales. Against Thinkific Basic, which has no platform cut, $49 plus 5% meets $54 at just $100 of monthly sales — two $50 sales clear it, so for almost anyone actually selling, Basic is the cheaper of the two.
But if a completion certificate is part of what you sell, the comparison is not Basic. It is Podia Mover at $49 against Thinkific Start at $109, and the 5% has to run to about $1,200 of monthly sales before it eats that $60 gap. Podia Shaker, at $99 with no platform fee, still sits below Thinkific Start with certificates already in the box — though only by $10, and on annual billing Shaker’s $84 is $2 above Start’s $82.
So the fee flips the answer only when the certificate does not matter to you.
Side by side
| Podia | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Site, blog, email, community and a product catalogue | A course platform |
| Monthly plans | $49 / $99 / $179 | $54 / $109 / $219, plus a Plus tier |
| Annual billing | $42 / $84 / $150 a month ($504 / $1,008 / $1,800 a year) | $40 / $82 / $164 a month |
| Platform fee on a sale | 5% on Mover; none on Shaker and Earthquaker | None stated on top of processing |
| Payment processing | Stripe or PayPal at 2.9% + 30¢, on every plan | 2.9% via Thinkific Payments |
| Free plan / trial | No free plan; 30-day trial, no card to start | No free plan; 30-day trial |
| Catalogue limits | 50 / 150 / unlimited products; 500 / 1,000 / unlimited videos | Unlimited courses on every plan |
| Students | Unlimited customers and students | 10,000 current students on Basic, Start and Grow |
| Assessment | Quiz lessons and completion certificates with the courses | Quizzes on all; assignments and certificates from Start; exams from Grow; SCORM on Plus |
| Beyond the course | Email to 100 / 500 / 1,000 subscribers; community spaces 25 / 100 / unlimited; blog, landing pages, coaching, events | The teaching assistant and SCORM on Plus |
Where Podia wins
- The floor, with the certificate already inside it. $49 against $54 paid monthly, and the thing Thinkific charges $109 for is included from the first plan. The price half of that holds only on monthly billing — annually, Thinkific Basic is $40 against Mover’s $42 — but the certificate half holds either way.
- Everything else in the same subscription. A blog, landing pages, community spaces, coaching, events and digital downloads. Assembled separately those are three or four bills, and Thinkific does not sell most of them.
- No student ceiling. Unlimited customers and unlimited students, where Thinkific stops at 10,000 current students on all three standard plans.
- A trial you can start without a card. Podia says so on the pricing page; Thinkific’s 30 days is the same length but the page does not make that promise.
- The cheaper top of the range. $179 a month against $219, and $150 against $164 on annual billing. Earthquaker undercuts Thinkific Grow on either basis.
Where Thinkific wins
- No platform cut anywhere. Not on the entry plan, not above it. Past about $100 of monthly sales, Basic costs less than Mover, and the gap widens with every sale after that.
- Depth of assessment. Assignments, exams and SCORM are a ladder Podia’s plans do not name. If a buyer wants a compliance-grade course, this is the only side of the table with an answer.
- A named AI teaching assistant. Thinker, on Plus. Podia’s pricing page lists no AI assistant at all.
- No catalogue counters. Unlimited courses at every tier, against Podia’s 50 and 150 products and 500 and 1,000 videos on the lower two plans.
- Somewhere to go with a corporate deal. The Plus tier exists, priced through sales, with SCORM behind it.
The third option: doing it inside Telegram
Both products sell a place to send people. If they are already somewhere — a channel they open several times a day — that place is a detour, and this decision has a third answer in which you buy neither.
A Telegram LMS puts the course inside the bot’s chat. A student taps, pays in Stars, and lessons arrive as messages: text, images, video, audio, files. The next one opens when the previous is marked done, when its scheduled date arrives, or both. Live sessions keep their meeting link and recording inside the same course. An AI tutor answers from your lessons rather than general knowledge and hands the student to you when it cannot. Telegram’s protocol-level protection keeps lesson messages from being forwarded out.
Our commission is 0% and there is no monthly floor to clear first. The rail is where the money goes: Stars cost a buyer $19.99 per 1,000 as a store pack or $14.10 at Telegram’s rate, and pay a creator $13.00 under Telegram’s bot-developer terms. What withdrawing Stars actually pays sets out the 1,000-Star minimum and the 21-day hold; a Stars calculator does the sum for whatever you charge.
Skip it if a certificate or a quiz score is part of what you sell, and skip it if you rely on Podia’s student progress dashboard — there is no owner-facing roster here at all. Skip it if buyers arrive from search, because there is no page to land on, and if they pay by card, because Telegram policy allows only Stars for digital delivery.
If… then…
| If | Then |
|---|---|
| You sell more than a course — downloads, coaching, events | Podia. Thinkific does not carry the other four |
| Sales are past roughly $100 a month and fees decide it | Thinkific Basic. Mover’s 5% has overtaken the $5 price gap |
| A completion certificate is part of the offer | Podia at $49 — on Thinkific that starts at $109 |
| Compliance training needs SCORM or formal exams | Thinkific: exams on Grow, SCORM on Plus |
| Your list is your business and it is under a thousand people | Podia’s email is included; over that, buy an email tool regardless |
| You expect more than ten thousand students | Podia — Thinkific’s standard plans cap there |
| Your buyers already read you in a Telegram channel | Chat delivery cuts the signup, not just the styling |
| You need to see who finished, or hand out a certificate | Either platform, not Telegram — we have neither |
Where to start
Write down two numbers before comparing feature grids: your monthly sales, and whether a certificate is part of the promise. Those two settle almost every version of this. Below $100 a month with no certificate, Podia Mover is the cheapest way to be selling this week. Above it, Thinkific Basic is. With a certificate in the promise, Podia stays ahead until roughly $1,200 a month. All three figures compare monthly rates on both sides.
And if the truthful picture is that your students already sit in a chat with you daily, put one module there and read the completion numbers before renewal day.
The single-product versions of this argument are Podia alternatives and Thinkific alternatives. The neighbouring pairs: Teachable vs Thinkific, Podia vs Kajabi and Kajabi vs Thinkific. The chat-native format itself, end to end: selling courses on Telegram.
Podia plan prices — the monthly rate and the discounted annual rate — the 5% Mover fee, the 2.9% + 30¢ processor rate, the 30-day trial with no card required, email subscriber caps, product, video, space and assistant limits, and the list of what every plan includes: podia.com/pricing, checked September 2026. Podia course features — quiz lessons, completion certificates, scheduled start dates, unlimited students, video and audio lessons and the student progress dashboard: podia.com/online-courses, 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
- Which is cheaper, Podia or Thinkific?
- Paid monthly, Podia opens lower at 49 dollars against Thinkific's 54, but Podia's entry plan takes 5% of every sale and Thinkific takes no platform cut on top of its 2.9% processing. The two meet at about 100 dollars of monthly sales; above that Thinkific Basic costs less. Podia's own next plan, Shaker at 99 dollars, drops the 5% and overtakes Mover at about 1,000 dollars of monthly sales. On annual billing the floor flips outright: Thinkific Basic is 40 dollars a month against Podia Mover's 42.
- Does Podia charge a transaction fee?
- On Mover, yes: 5% of each sale. Shaker and Earthquaker have no Podia fee. On every plan your payment processor, Stripe or PayPal, charges its own standard 2.9% plus 30 cents, which Podia says is not associated with Podia.
- Which one includes certificates on the cheapest plan?
- Podia. Its courses come with quiz lessons, completion certificates, scheduled start dates and unlimited students on every plan, starting at 49 dollars a month. Thinkific has quizzes on all plans, but assignments and completion certificates begin on Start at 109 dollars and exams on Grow at 219.
- Does Thinkific do email marketing?
- No, that is not what it sells. Podia includes email in the subscription but caps the list by plan at 100, 500 and 1,000 subscribers. If your list is bigger than that, neither product is your email tool and you are paying a separate vendor either way.
- How many products and students does each allow?
- Podia allows 50 products and 500 videos on Mover, 150 and 1,000 on Shaker, unlimited on Earthquaker, with unlimited customers and students throughout. Thinkific allows unlimited courses on every plan but caps current students at 10,000 on Basic, Start and Grow.
- When is neither of them the right answer?
- When your buyers already read you inside a Telegram channel and the website is a stop on the way rather than the destination. Chat delivery removes the signup, but there are no quizzes, no certificates and no student progress dashboard on that side, and digital course access can only be paid for in Telegram Stars.