Teachable and Thinkific vs a custom platform: courses are not a community

A course can change someone's life. But a course is a path, and a community is the people who walk it with you, and those are two very different things to build.

Teachable and Thinkific are excellent at the first. Let's give them their due, then talk about what happens when members start needing each other.

What Teachable does well

Teachable calls itself "the platform for experts and businesses who take education seriously." You can sell online courses, one on one or group coaching, digital downloads like templates and guides, and memberships with recurring billing.

Students get a free iOS and Android app, and courses built on Teachable show up there automatically at no extra cost. Lesson comments are available on every plan, so students can talk right where they're learning. School owners can export user data to a CSV file.

As of November 2026, Teachable's plans are:

• Starter: $39 a month, or $29 billed annually, with a 7.5% transaction fee
• Builder: $89 a month, or $69 billed annually, with no transaction fee
• Growth: $189 a month, or $139 billed annually, with no transaction fee and the option to remove Teachable branding
• Custom: contact sales

Card processing fees still apply on top, starting at 2.9% plus 30¢ for US cards.

Who Teachable is great for: experts whose main offer is a course, a coaching package or a digital product, and who want to sell it without fuss.

What Thinkific does well

Thinkific describes itself as an all in one online course platform. Communities live inside its Learner Hub, with public and private spaces, live events, direct messages, push notifications and a community moderator role.

Every plan includes quizzes, completion certificates, Zoom sessions and paid memberships. From the Grow plan up, student engagement reports help you "see where learners get stuck and which lessons drive completion." That's genuinely useful.

Thinkific also offers a branded mobile app as an add on at $199 a month, and its help center says your organization is listed as the app developer.

As of November 2026, Thinkific's plans are:

• Start: $109 a month, or $82 billed annually
• Grow: $219 a month, or $164 billed annually
• Expand: $499 a month, or $374 billed annually
• Plus: talk to sales

There's no free plan, but there is a 30 day free trial.

Who Thinkific is great for: course businesses that want community and live sessions next to the content, plus companies and associations running structured learning.

Where a growing community starts to feel the limits

The course is the center of gravity. Both platforms are organized around products you sell. Community is a room attached to the classroom.

Teachable has been refreshingly honest about this. Its help center now says Community is in maintenance mode. "We're not adding new features to Community." "We're not actively fixing bugs reported in Community." It's no longer available to new schools, and Teachable suggests course comments, or linking out to a separate tool like Discord or Slack.

That's a fair call for a company focused on learning. For you, it means members live in two places, and you're stitching them together.

The app is for learners, not your whole team. Thinkific's help center notes that its branded app "does not support school administration," so owners and admins work from the web.

Seats and spaces are tiered. Thinkific's Start plan includes 1 community, 10 spaces and 2 admin seats. Teachable's Starter plan includes 1 admin seat and 5 products. As your team grows, so does the plan you need.

Pricing and features are theirs to set. Thinkific's terms say it may "modify, enhance, or discontinue features of the Services at any time in its sole discretion," and can change prices with 30 to 60 days of notice. In late October 2026, the pricing tracker PricingSaaS recorded Thinkific retiring its entry level Basic plan. Teachable's terms also say it may change plan prices from time to time. That's normal for rented software.

Export has edges. Both companies say they don't take ownership of your content. Thinkific's terms also note that "not all content (including videos uploaded by your users) may be available for download or export by you."

Picture a member. They finish module four late at night, proud and a little unsure of what comes next. They look around for someone who gets it. The course did its job. The community just wasn't there.

What a custom platform changes

At TNRM, we start with people, then process, and the platform comes last. We dig into your business, map your workflows, roles and outcomes, and design around how your members actually behave.

With a custom platform:

• Content, coaching and community become one experience under your brand.
• Each member's path is personal from day one, starting with onboarding that fits why they came.
• Everyone sees only what their role allows. Coaches, staff, members and the owner each get their own walled off view, with strict privacy and security on every layer.
• You see who needs you. Once a member opts in, the platform notices what people do, not only what they say. Did they show up, finish the step, go quiet? That view is for the owner only.
• One system can replace the stack. Billing, email marketing, onboarding, a support center, video hosting, community and coaching, plus your app in the App Store and Google Play.
• You own the platform, the code and the data. If you're coming from another platform, importing your community is available as an add on.

Anthony Trucks made this move with his coaching business, DarkWork, leaving Kajabi for a platform TNRM built from scratch under his own brand. It includes a concierge that greets new members, a content hub, journaling, live video coaching sessions that are transcribed and analyzed, and a community with blocking and reporting.

The honest trade off: a custom platform asks for more thought up front than signing up.

Who should stay on Teachable or Thinkific

Stay if the course is the product and community is a nice extra. Stay if you're still testing offers and want to sell this month. Stay on Thinkific if you want communities and live sessions next to your content and its structure fits how you teach. Stay on Teachable if you love simple selling and a free student app.

A great course on a great course platform is a beautiful thing. You only need more when your people start needing each other.

How they compare

If your members are starting to need more than lessons, we'd love to hear about them. Reach out to TNRM and let's talk about what your community could feel like.