How to Create Your First Online Course in Thinkific: A Step-by-Step Guide

TL;DR: How to Create Your First Course in Thinkific (2026)
1. Sign up: Start the 30-day free trial and build your course before you pay.
2. Pick a plan: Basic ($40/mo billed annually) covers one-time prices and free courses. Choose Start ($82/mo) if you need payment plans, subscriptions, bundles, certificates, or assignments.
3. Connect payments: Use Thinkific Payments to avoid the extra fee Thinkific adds when you bring your own Stripe account.
4. Build the course: Create an outline (the AI outline generator helps), add lessons, then set drip, pricing, and the after-purchase flow.
5. Publish: Pre-sell with a Pre-order status or publish, then edit the sales page Thinkific creates for you.
6. Market it: Add a Free Lesson Funnel, a launch coupon, and abandoned cart emails.

Best for: First-time course creators who want an all-in-one platform with a short learning curve.
Watch out for: The 10,000 active student cap below Plus, the Stripe surcharge, and PayPal only from Grow.

Try Thinkific free for 30 days

Thinkific is one of the easiest places to build and sell your first online course. The course builder, sales pages, checkout, and student area all live in one dashboard, so you can go from a rough idea to a published course without stitching tools together.

This guide walks through the whole process the way I would set it up today, from picking a plan to publishing your sales page.

Along the way, I flag which features need which plan, the settings that trip up first-time creators, and the marketing tools worth turning on before launch.

Note: This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase through links on this page, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Why Build Your First Course on Thinkific?

Thinkific is one of the most established online course platforms. The biggest reason I recommend it for a first course is the short learning curve.

The course builder works by drag and drop, Thinkific creates a sales page for every course automatically, and the admin dashboard keeps everything in one place.

Thinkific also hosts your videos, runs checkout, and gives students a clean course player and a free mobile app. A first-time creator can launch without paying for separate video hosting, a landing page tool, or a payment plugin.

Thinkific isn’t perfect for everyone, though. Creators who run their business on funnels and email automation usually get more from Kajabi, as I explain in my Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison. If you plan to build a community first and a course second, read my Skool vs Thinkific breakdown before you sign up.

What to Prepare Before You Open Thinkific

Thinkific makes the technical side easy. The slow part of a first course is the thinking and the recording, so gather these pieces before you start the trial and you’ll use the free month far better.

What to prepare	Why it matters	Tip
A one-sentence course promise	Shapes your outline, sales page headline, and SEO title	Write it as an outcome, such as “Edit wedding photos in Lightroom in half the time”
A rough outline of 3 to 6 chapters	Speeds up the AI outline generator and keeps the course focused	List the steps a student needs to reach the promise, in order
At least the first chapter of content	Lets you test the course player and the student experience	Record the rest after your first sales come in if you plan to pre-sell
A price and an offer structure	Decides which Thinkific plan you need	Payment plans and subscriptions need Start or higher
Brand basics (logo, colors, a course image)	Makes the sales page and course player look like your business	Use the same colors on your sales page, course player, and course image
A domain (optional)	Lets your school live at courses.yourdomain.com	Your Thinkific subdomain works fine while you build

Setting Up Your Thinkific Account

Account setup takes about 15 minutes. Create your account, get familiar with the dashboard, pick a plan, and connect payments.

1. Sign Up and Start Your Free Trial

Go to the Thinkific website and start the 30-day free trial. Enter your name, email, and a password, or sign up with your Google account. Thinkific asks a few questions about your business and then drops you into your new admin dashboard.

Thinkific dropped its free plan in 2024, so the trial is now the only way to test it for free. Starting the trial requires a credit card. Build your full course during the trial and decide on a plan once you know which features you need.

2. Find Your Way Around the Admin Dashboard

The admin dashboard is home base for everything you build and sell. The left-hand menu groups the tools by job, and the home screen shows a setup checklist that walks you through your first course.

Here are the areas you’ll use most for a first course.

• Setup checklist: A step-by-step list on the home screen. Follow it in order and you’ll avoid skipping payments or publishing.
• Products: Courses, communities, digital downloads, and coaching products. Most of this guide happens under Products > Courses.
• Sales and Marketing: Bundles, coupons, funnels, email, and affiliates.
• Students: Enrollments, progress, quiz results, assignments, and reviews for every learner.
• Design your site: Theme, site pages, and course sales pages.
• Settings: Site details, domain, payments, and integrations such as Zapier.
• Analytics: Revenue, enrollments, and completion rates once students start buying.

Thinkific has one of the cleanest dashboards I’ve tested across Thinkific alternatives. Most creators find their way around within an hour.

3. Choose a Thinkific Pricing Plan

Every paid plan includes unlimited courses, video hosting, a site builder, and email. The plans differ in how you can charge, which learning tools you get, and how many communities you can run. Use the table below to match your first course to a plan.

Your first course needs	Minimum plan	Why it matters
A free course or a one-time price	Basic	Covers most first courses and pilot launches
Payment plans, subscriptions, or bundles	Start	Lets you split a higher price or sell a membership
Completion certificates, assignments, or private courses	Start	Matters for professional training and coaching programs
Live Zoom lessons inside the course	Start	Useful for cohort courses with weekly calls
More than 5 digital downloads	Start	Basic caps downloads at 5
PayPal at checkout or no Thinkific branding	Grow	Matters if your audience prefers PayPal or you sell to companies
SCORM files, learning paths, or the Thinker AI assistant	Plus	Built for training teams and larger academies

Here’s how the plans compare on price and features. To see what each plan costs at your expected sales, run your numbers through my Thinkific pricing calculator.

Two limits deserve attention before you commit. Basic, Start, and Grow all cap your school at 10,000 active students, and only Plus lifts that cap. Basic also allows only one community, so choose Start or Grow if you plan to sell a separate paid community later.

My advice for a first course is to start on Basic with a one-time price, or Start if you plan to offer a payment plan. Upgrading takes a few clicks, and you keep everything you’ve built. For a full breakdown of every plan, read my Thinkific pricing guide.

4. Connect Payments and Basic Settings

Before you can charge for a course, Thinkific needs a payment processor. Go to Settings and connect one of the options below.

Payment option	Available on	Extra Thinkific fee	Best for
Thinkific Payments	All plans	None (card processing still applies)	Most creators, since it unlocks abandoned cart emails and avoids the surcharge
Your own Stripe account	All plans	5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow, none on Plus	Creators who already run their business through Stripe
PayPal	Grow and Plus	Depends on your setup	Audiences who prefer PayPal at checkout

Thinkific Payments is the default choice for most first courses. Setup takes a few minutes and keeps your payouts, checkout, and abandoned cart emails in one place.

While you’re in Settings, check three more areas.

• Site details: School name, site URL, and the email address students see. Connect a custom domain here when you’re ready.
• Learning content: Course player colors, fonts, theme, and logo.
• Branding: The option to remove Thinkific branding from your site, available from Grow.

None of these settings blocks you from building, so feel free to skip ahead and come back before launch.

Creating Your First Course in Thinkific: 8 Steps

With your account ready, open Products > Courses and start your first course. Thinkific now runs two course builders. Sites created on or after January 28, 2026 get the new course builder by default, while older sites keep the classic builder as Thinkific rolls the new one out in phases.

The new builder treats each lesson as a blank page where you mix text, images, video, PDFs, and quizzes, and saves your changes automatically. Thinkific still labels the new builder as beta, and you can’t move a course between the two builders. The steps below work in both, and I note the differences where they matter.

Step 1: Create Your Course Outline

Click to create a new course and follow the setup checklist if you want a guided path.

In the classic builder, Thinkific first asks you to pick a course template. Each template comes with a suggested structure.

• Pre-sell: Validate an idea and collect pre-orders before you record.
• Mini-course: A short course for a lead magnet or a low-priced first offer.
• Flagship course: The main, full-length course.
• Webinar replay: Sell or give away a recorded webinar.
• Membership resource library: A library of resources for a membership.
• Blank: Start from scratch.

Name your course next. The name appears on your sales page, course card, and checkout, so describe the outcome in plain words instead of something clever.

Thinkific then asks you to build the curriculum. Chapters work as the main modules of your course, and lessons hold the content inside each chapter. In a photography course, for example, “Mastering Camera Settings” could form one chapter with separate lessons on aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

If structure feels hard, the AI outline generator asks about your topic, audience, and learning outcomes, then drafts chapters and lessons for you. Here’s the outline it created for a sample course called “How to Create a New Course.”

Treat the AI outline as a first draft. Drag chapters and lessons into a better order, delete anything generic, and add the lessons only you can teach. For a first course, I aim for 3 to 6 chapters that each move a student one clear step closer to the promise on the sales page.

For help drafting scripts, slides, and quiz questions, see my roundup of AI content creation tools for Thinkific.

Step 2: Add Lessons and Course Content

With the outline in place, start filling each lesson. Click a lesson to add content, or click a chapter and choose Add Lesson to create a new one.

Thinkific supports the lesson types below. Assignments and live Zoom lessons need Start or higher.

Lesson type	Use it for	Practical tip
Video	Core teaching and walkthroughs	Keep most videos under 10 minutes so students can finish a lesson in one sitting
Text	Written lessons, summaries, and instructions	Add a short text summary under each video for students who skim
PDF and downloads	Worksheets, checklists, and templates	Give every chapter one practical worksheet
Audio	Podcast-style lessons and meditations	Students can listen in the mobile app
Quiz and survey	Knowledge checks and feedback	Use a short quiz at the end of each chapter
Assignment (Start and up)	Students upload work for your review	Best for coaching-style courses with feedback
Live lesson (Start and up)	Scheduled Zoom sessions inside the course	Good for cohort courses and office hours
Embedded or multimedia content	Tools, forms, or pages hosted elsewhere	Use it for Typeform surveys, Canva embeds, or interactive tools

The classic builder also offers presentation and exam lessons. In the new builder, exams appear as “coming soon,” and every lesson can mix several content types on one page.

Quizzes deserve a closer look because they keep students moving. The quiz builder supports single-answer and multiple-answer questions, with images, video, or audio in each one.

Scroll down in any lesson to find its settings. On a quiz, you can require a passing grade, pull questions from a randomized bank, and make the quiz a prerequisite before students move on. Prerequisites work well for compliance training or skills that build on each other.

For large batches of files, the classic builder’s Content Uploader, formerly called the Bulk Importer, lets you add many videos, PDFs, and audio files at once. Thinkific turns each file into a lesson, and you drag them into the right chapters. The uploader saves hours if you’re moving a course from another platform.

Step 3: Configure Course Settings and SEO

Open the course’s Settings tab once your content is in. The basic settings let you change the course name and URL, choose the instructor, hide the course from your course catalog, and turn text copying on or off. Private courses, which only enrolled students can find, need Start or higher.

The rest of the settings shape what students see.

• Course image and description: The card students see in your catalog and dashboard.
• Course player appearance: Light or dark theme, colors, fonts, logo, and how lessons appear in the sidebar.
• Progress and completion: A completion message, a custom completion page, and completion certificates (certificates need Start or higher).
• SEO: The SEO title and meta description for your course page.

Don’t skip SEO. Write the title around what a student would type into Google, such as “Lightroom Course for Wedding Photographers,” and use the description to state the outcome and who the course is for. Thinkific sales pages can rank, and those few minutes cost nothing.

Step 4: Add a Drip Schedule (Optional)

A drip schedule controls when each lesson or chapter unlocks. Turn it on in the course settings, and Thinkific offers three ways to release content.

• Based on each student’s enrollment date, such as one chapter per week after they join.
• Based on a course start date you set for each student.
• On a fixed calendar date for everyone, which suits live cohorts.

Drip suits cohort courses, challenges, and programs where students need time to practice between lessons. Skip it for self-paced courses, since most buyers expect immediate access and locked lessons can trigger refund requests.

Step 5: Set Your Course Price

Next comes pricing, the step that turns your course into something you can sell online. Open the Pricing tab and choose how students pay.

Pricing option	Minimum plan	Best for
Free	Basic	Lead magnets, mini-courses, and onboarding courses
One-time payment	Basic	Most first courses
Payment plan	Start	Courses above a few hundred dollars, split into monthly payments
Subscription	Start	Memberships and courses with ongoing new content
Phased subscription	Plus (with Thinkific Payments)	An upfront offer that rolls into a recurring subscription

Thinkific also lets you add more than one price to the same course. A course could carry a full price plus a three-payment option for buyers who want to spread the cost, and each price gets its own checkout link.

Setting the number itself is harder than setting it up. A few approaches work well for a first course.

• Price on the outcome: A course that saves a business owner hours a week or helps someone land a job can charge far more than a hobby course.
• Check your niche: Look at what other creators charge for similar courses, then position yours above or below based on depth and support.
• Start with a smaller offer: A low-priced mini-course or a tripwire offer builds a list of buyers you can later sell a flagship course to.
• Add live support for a premium tier: Group calls or feedback on assignments justify a higher price for the same core content.

For a deeper look, read my guide on how to price online courses and see how a first course fits into your value ramp. If you plan to add one-on-one coaching as a premium tier, my online coaching price calculator helps you set an hourly or package rate.

Step 6: Customize the After-Purchase Experience

The moment after purchase shapes whether a student starts the course, and starting predicts finishing. Thinkific lets you choose where buyers go next through an after-purchase flow.

Go to Products > Courses, open your course, and click the After purchase tab. Click Add flow, name it, tick the price it applies to, and choose a destination.

Destination	What it does	When to use it
Thank you page	Shows a custom message and optional upsells	You have a second product, such as an advanced course or a template pack
Course player	Drops students straight into the first lesson	You want students to start learning right away
Community	Sends students to your Thinkific community	Your course relies on discussion or accountability
Custom URL	Redirects to any page you choose	You want buyers to book an onboarding call or fill in a survey

For example, if you sold a beginner photography course, the thank-you page could offer an editing presets pack or an advanced course at a buyer-only discount. After-purchase flows need Thinkific’s built-in checkout and payment integration to work.

Step 7: Set the Publish Status

The Publish tab controls who can see and buy your course. Thinkific gives you three statuses.

• Draft: Hidden from buyers while you build.
• Pre-order: Students can buy now and see the course as “coming soon” in their dashboard. They get no access to lessons until you publish.
• Published: Students can buy, enroll, and start learning.

Pre-order works well for validating an idea before you record everything. Two catches deserve attention. Payment plans and subscriptions start charging at purchase, even before the course opens, and access duration starts at payment. Set a duration longer than the gap to launch, or students could lose access before the course opens, as Thinkific’s pre-sell guide warns.

Step 8: Build Your Course Sales Page

Every Thinkific course gets a sales page. Thinkific creates a basic version for you, and you’ll want to improve it before you send traffic, since this page does more selling than anything else. My guide to landing pages that convert covers the copywriting side.

Open the page builder from the course’s publish screen, or go to Design your site > Site pages. The default page includes a banner, curriculum, call to action, and footer. Click Add section in the left panel to add more.

The section library covers what a course sales page needs, including pricing options, bonus material, a countdown timer, FAQs, instructor bios, lead capture forms, testimonials and logos, upsells, checklists, image galleries, and video.

Drag sections into any order and click one to edit it. In the banner section, for example, you can change the heading, background color, image or video, size, alignment, and call-to-action button. The preview updates as you type.

Theme settings apply to the whole site, with three theme styles, site colors, desktop and mobile typography, and a favicon. Switch themes under Design your site > Theme library, and preview every page on desktop and mobile before you publish.

A strong first sales page covers five things in order. Lead with a headline that states the outcome, then show who the course is for, the curriculum, proof such as testimonials or credentials, and a clear price with a guarantee. For ideas, browse these Thinkific course examples.

Marketing Features to Sell Your First Thinkific Course

A published course still needs buyers. Thinkific includes a set of marketing and engagement tools that cover the basics of a launch without extra software. Here’s what each one does and where to find it.

Feature	What it does	Plan needed	Learn more
Funnels	Free lesson and sales page funnels built for you	All plans	Thinkific Funnels
Coupons	Fixed or percentage discounts, with or without a code	All plans	See below
Abandoned cart emails	Automatic reminders to buyers who leave checkout	All plans (with Thinkific Payments)	See below
Email marketing	Broadcasts and automated emails to students and leads	All plans	Thinkific email
Communities	Discussion spaces for your students	All plans (1 on Basic and Start, 3 on Grow)	Thinkific Communities
Bundles	Sell several courses and communities as one package	Start	Thinkific review
Digital downloads	Sell or give away PDFs, templates, and files	All plans (5 on Basic)	Thinkific Digital Downloads
Mobile app	Students learn in the Thinkific app, with a branded app as an add-on	All plans	Thinkific mobile app

Sales Funnels

Thinkific Funnels builds a ready-made sales path around one course. Go to Marketing > Funnels, pick a funnel type, and answer a few questions about your audience and course. Thinkific then writes the pages and copy for you.

• Free Lesson Funnel: Gives away one lesson to collect leads, then offers the full course, a discounted recapture offer, and a follow-up email.
• Sales Page Funnel: Turns your course page into a longer, AI-written sales page that leads to checkout.

Thinkific retired its Free Download Funnel in August 2024. To give away a PDF or template as a lead magnet now, use Thinkific Digital Downloads with a free price instead. My guide to lead magnet ideas has plenty of options.

Funnels have real limits. The steps stay fixed, Thinkific offers no funnel analytics, and free lesson leads don’t trigger Zapier. For a first course, the Free Lesson Funnel still gives you a working lead-to-sale path in about an hour.

Discount Coupons

Coupons help you run a launch discount, reward your email list, or close a sale with someone on the fence. Open Coupons in the admin dashboard and click New coupon.

Name the coupon, set an optional expiry date, and choose between a fixed amount or a percentage off.

Apply the coupon to one product or your whole site, and add a code so only people with the code get the discount. For a launch, I like a percentage discount with a hard deadline of 5 to 7 days, since a clear end date gives fence-sitters a reason to decide.

Abandoned Cart Emails

About 70% of online shopping carts get abandoned, according to the Baymard Institute. Thinkific’s abandoned cart emails go out automatically when someone starts checkout and leaves without paying.

The feature runs through Thinkific Payments, which gives you one more reason to use it over your own Stripe account. Personalize the subject line and heading to match your voice, and add a marketing consent box at checkout to grow your email list.

Track click-through and click-to-open rates in the email dashboard. If clicks stay low, test a stronger subject line or mention the guarantee in the email.

Build a Learning Community

A community gives students a place to ask questions, share wins, and learn from each other, which keeps them coming back to the course. Go to Products > Communities and start a new community.

Name the community and choose how members get access, such as right after checkout or through enrollment in a course.

Thinkific’s setup checklist then walks you through the rest.

• Set up your profile.
• Publish a welcome post.
• Customize appearance, SEO, pricing, after-purchase flow, and publish status.
• Set community access rules.

Click Publish community when you’re ready. Every plan includes communities, with one on Basic and Start, three on Grow, and unlimited on Plus. For a deeper look, read my Thinkific Communities review.

Course Bundles

Bundles package several courses and communities into one product at a single price. Find them under Sales > Bundles on Start or higher.

Bundles make more sense once you have a second course. A common setup pairs your flagship course with a community and a smaller bonus course at a price below buying each one separately.

Thinkific Course Launch Checklist

Run through this list before you share your sales page. Each item takes a few minutes and prevents the most common first-launch problems.

Check	Where in Thinkific	Why it matters
Payment processor connected	Settings > Payments	Without one, students can’t pay
Test purchase completed with a 100% coupon	Your live sales page	Confirms checkout, enrollment, and welcome emails work
Preview the course as a student	Course builder > Preview	Catches broken videos, locked lessons, and drip mistakes
Completion settings and certificate checked	Course > Settings	Students know what finishing looks like
After-purchase flow set	Course > After purchase	Buyers land somewhere useful instead of a generic page
Sales page checked on mobile	Design your site > Site pages	Many buyers will see the page on a phone
SEO title and description written	Course > Settings > SEO	Helps the course page show up in search
Custom domain connected (optional)	Settings > Site	Builds trust and keeps your brand consistent
Funnel, coupon, or email ready for launch	Marketing	Gives your first visitors a reason to buy now

Common Mistakes With a First Thinkific Course

• Building everything before selling anything: A pre-order or a pilot cohort tells you whether people will pay before you spend weeks recording.
• Picking a plan for features you won’t use yet: Start on the lowest plan that supports your pricing model and upgrade when you need more.
• Connecting your own Stripe account on Basic: The 5% surcharge adds up quickly. Thinkific Payments avoids it.
• Leaving the default sales page as it is: Thinkific’s starter page works as a template, not a finished page. Rewrite the headline and add proof.
• Making the first course too long: A focused course that students finish produces better testimonials than a long one they abandon.
• Forgetting the student cap: Basic, Start, and Grow cap your school at 10,000 active students. Creators who plan big free courses should check how Thinkific counts students before launch.

Final Thoughts on Creating Your First Course in Thinkific

Thinkific remains one of the fastest ways to get a first course online. The builder stays out of your way, the sales page comes ready to edit, and checkout, hosting, and the student app come included. Most of your time will go into the content, which is where it belongs.

My advice is to keep the first version simple. Start the trial, outline the course, publish one strong chapter, and pre-sell or launch with a coupon. Add a community, bundles, and funnels once real students show you what they want.

If you get stuck, Thinkific’s help center has video and written tutorials for every step. To compare Thinkific with other options before you commit, see my Teachable vs Thinkific and Podia vs Thinkific comparisons, or my roundup of Thinkific alternatives.

Frequently Asked Questions About Creating a Thinkific Course

How long does it take to create a course on Thinkific?

Setting up the account and course structure takes an afternoon. Recording and editing content takes the most time and depends on the course length. Many first-time creators publish one chapter, pre-sell the course with a Pre-order status, and record the remaining lessons while the first students wait.

Can I create a course on Thinkific for free?

Not anymore. Thinkific retired its free plan in 2024, so the 30-day free trial is the only way to build without paying. Building the full course during the trial works fine. Free courses are still possible on every paid plan, which helps if you want a free course as a lead magnet.

Which Thinkific plan is best for a first course?

Basic works for a free course or a single one-time price. Choose Start if you want payment plans, subscriptions, bundles, certificates, assignments, or private courses. Grow adds PayPal, branding removal, and phone support. Most first-time creators start on Basic or Start and upgrade later without rebuilding anything.

Does Thinkific host course videos?

Yes. Thinkific hosts your videos on every plan, so you don’t need Vimeo or YouTube. Each plan includes a monthly video bandwidth allowance, with 100 GB on Basic, 200 GB on Start, and 400 GB on Grow. Upload videos directly into lessons or add many at once with the Content Uploader.

Can I sell a Thinkific course before it is finished?

Yes. Set the course status to Pre-order, and students can buy it and see it as coming soon in their dashboard. They get no lesson access until you publish. Payment plans and subscriptions start charging at purchase, so set any access duration longer than the time until launch.

Can Thinkific create a course with AI?

Thinkific’s AI outline generator drafts chapters and lessons from your topic, audience, and learning outcomes on every plan. The new course builder can also generate quizzes. Thinker, the AI teaching assistant that answers student questions inside the course player, needs the Plus plan. Creators still write and record the lessons themselves.

Does Thinkific take a cut of course sales?

Thinkific charges no transaction fee when you use Thinkific Payments, though standard card processing fees apply. Connecting your own Stripe account adds a surcharge of 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, and 1% on Grow, with none on Plus. For most first courses, Thinkific Payments costs less.

What is the difference between the new and classic Thinkific course builder?

The new builder, the default for sites created on or after January 28, 2026, lets you mix text, video, images, PDFs, and quizzes in a single lesson and saves changes automatically. The classic builder uses separate lesson types and offers exams and presentations. Courses can’t move between the two builders.

How many students can I enroll in a Thinkific course?

Basic, Start, and Grow each allow up to 10,000 active students across your whole school, and Plus sets a custom limit. A first course rarely hits the cap. Creators who plan large free courses or corporate training programs should talk to Thinkific about Plus before they grow past it.

Can I move a course from another platform to Thinkific?

Yes. Moving a course usually means downloading your videos and files, then adding them in bulk with the Content Uploader, which turns each file into a lesson. Plan to rebuild quizzes and sales pages by hand, and export your student list from the old platform before you cancel it.

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.