CourseLit vs Thinkific (2026): which should you pick?
As of Nov 13, 2026, Thinkific grades higher than CourseLit: 2.4 against 2.2 out of 4.0.
Checked Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 · graded Nov 9, 2026 and Nov 13, 2026 by ToolGPA
CourseLit grades higher on value for money. Thinkific grades higher on features and platforms. They get the same grade on the free plan and ease of use.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
CourseLit
Open-source course, download and community platform
Thinkific
Course, community and membership platform for experts and academies
Which one is for you
Pick CourseLit if
- Fits if you want an open-source course platform
- Works for developers happy to self-host
Look elsewhere if
- Skip it if you need finished features, as communities and email automations are beta
- Tight if you self-host, as there is no chat or email support and no automatic updates
- Watch out: self-hosting limits you to one school, and unlimited storage needs your own S3
- Watch out: single sign-on and API access are Enterprise cloud only
Pick Thinkific if
- Fits if you want a month to build your course before paying anything
- Works for academies selling seats to companies as well as to people, on Grow at $164
Look elsewhere if
- Pricey if you're starting small, as there's no plan under Start at $82 a month billed yearly, or $109 monthly
- Not for you if your students expect an app, unless you'll pay $199 a month more
- Skip it if you need SSO or SCORM, which only come with the custom-priced Plus plan
- Watch out: Stripe and PayPal carry an extra Thinkific gateway fee in some countries
- Tight if you're on Start, with 2 admins, 1 community and 10,000 current students
How we grade them
| 2.2GPACourseLitFair | 2.4GPAThinkificFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BPro is $12 a month billed yearly ($15 monthly), about 60% of the cheapest quarter's $20. The free Self-Hosted plan needs your own server. | CStart, now the cheapest plan, is $82 a month billed yearly with unlimited courses, and Thinkific takes no fee on sales through Thinkific Payments, whose 2.9% is card processing. So $2,000 of sales costs $82 a month, just past this category's dearer quarter at $79. Stripe or PayPal can add a fee in some countries. |
| Free plan and trial | CA 14-day trial of the hosted plans with no card, per the docs. The self-hosted version is free but you run it. | CNo free plan, but a 30-day trial of the whole platform, as long as any in this category. The listing doesn't say it needs a card. |
| Features | CCourses, downloads, a website and blog, email automations, communities, quizzes and payments. Communities and automations are beta. | BDrag-and-drop courses with quizzes and drip, a community with spaces and events, a site builder, email automation, checkout with order bumps and sales tax, and B2B group orders on Grow. Nothing in the listing shows a gap in the core job. |
| Ease of use | CThe hosted plan needs you to build the school; self-hosting adds server work. No store rating is on record. | CNo App Store rating on record. It's drag-and-drop, but you're building a course, a site and a checkout, so there's some setting up before you sell. |
| Platforms and integrations | CWeb only, with no integrations listed on the vendor pages. | BWeb, with Zoom, Stripe, PayPal, Zapier, HubSpot and Salesforce, and an API on Grow. Students get no app unless you buy the branded one for $199 a month. |
| Best for | open-source courses and a site | a course business with a 30-day trial |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: CourseLit and Thinkific. How we grade
Price against what you get
CourseLit starts at $12 a month and scores 2.0 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Thinkific starts at $82 a month and scores 2.7.
Thinkific scores higher, and starts $70 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other course and community platforms on the chart, 8 score higher than CourseLit for less, and 2 score higher than Thinkific for less.
Features, ease of use and platforms, averaged
What paid plans start at, a month (each step along is roughly double) →
- The best score at each price
- Has a free plan
- No free plan
Where they differ
- CourseLit is open source and self-hostable, according to its own site.
- CourseLit also covers email campaigns and digital downloads.
- Thinkific also covers invoicing.
At a glance
| CourseLit | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free trial | Free trial |
| Starts at | $12 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly) | $82 per month, billed annually ($109 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | None | None |
| Free trial | 14-day free trial of the hosted plans; the docs say no credit card is required. | 30-day free trial of the whole platform |
| Web | ||
| Made by | CodeLitDev Pvt Ltd | Thinkific |
| Price read from | courselit.app | thinkific.com |
| Checked | Nov 13, 2026 | Nov 9, 2026 |
Worth knowing
CourseLit
- Communities and email automations are labeled beta on the vendor's site.
- The self-hosted plan has no chat or email support and no automatic updates or maintenance.
- Self-hosting limits you to one school, and unlimited file storage needs your own S3-compatible storage.
- Single sign-on and API access are only on the Enterprise cloud plan.
Thinkific
- There is no free plan; the 30-day trial is the only way to try it.
- Stripe and PayPal carry an extra Thinkific gateway fee in some countries that varies by plan; Thinkific Payments charges 2.9%.
- Start, Grow and Expand cap current students at 10,000, and Start allows 2 admins and 1 community.
- SSO, SCORM and the AI teaching assistant are only in the Plus plan, which is priced through sales.
Key features
CourseLit
- Courses and downloads
- Build courses with images, videos and files, offer them free or paid, and sell ebooks and other downloads from your own site.
- Website and blog
- A free website with a no-code page builder and an integrated blog for articles.
- Email automations
- Send marketing emails to your audience from inside the platform. The vendor marks this feature as beta.
- Communities
- Free or paid communities where members share text, images and video. The vendor marks this feature as beta.
- Graded quizzes and payments
- Graded quizzes, payment gateway integration and custom domains are listed on every plan, including self-hosted.
- Self-hosting
- The source is open, and the docs say server costs run about $5 to $20 a month on AWS or DigitalOcean.
Thinkific
- Course builder
- Drag-and-drop courses with video, quizzes, drip schedules, discussions and compliance rules; assignments and certificates start on Start.
- Communities
- Standalone communities with topic spaces, live events and paid memberships: 1 community on Start, 3 on Grow and 10 on Expand.
- TCommerce checkout
- Thinkific Payments with order bumps, gifting, buy now pay later, payment plans, abandoned cart reminders and automated sales tax.
- Site builder and email
- Branded websites and landing pages on a custom domain, members-only pages, and email automation with pre-built sequences.
- B2B selling
- Grow adds group orders so companies can buy bulk seats, and invoicing to bill and collect from business buyers.
- Branded mobile app
- Your own iOS and Android app with push notifications, sold as a $199 a month add-on and included on some Plus contracts.
Plans
CourseLit
Self-Hosted$0
Run CourseLit on your own server: one school, unlimited products, no support or automatic updates.
Pro$12
per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly)
Hosted by CourseLit: unlimited schools, products, communities, pages and file storage, with chat and email support.
Enterprise$20
per month, billed yearly ($25 billed monthly)
Everything in Pro, plus single sign-on, API access and premium support.
Thinkific
Start$82
per month, billed annually ($109 billed monthly)
Live cohorts with Zoom, certificates, assignments, memberships, bundles, upsells, payment plans, an HTML and CSS editor, 2 admins.
Grow$164
per month, billed annually ($219 billed monthly)
No Thinkific branding, 3 communities, group orders and invoicing for B2B buyers, API and webhooks, phone support, 6 admins.
Expand$374
per month, billed annually ($499 billed monthly)
10 communities with 200 spaces, 1,000 GB of video a month, unlimited group sizes, email white-labeling, 15 admins, revenue sharing with 10 partners and launch support.
PlusCustom
AI teaching assistant, SSO, SCORM and learning paths, HubSpot and Salesforce integrations, 10,000+ user seats and a dedicated success team.
Ways to pay less
CourseLit
- Annual discount
Lower monthly price on yearly billing
The pricing section shows Pro at $12 a month billed yearly instead of $15, and Enterprise at $20 instead of $25.
Thinkific
- Annual discount
Save 25% with annual billing
Thinkific's pricing page lists 25% off for annual billing: Start $82 a month instead of $109, Grow $164 instead of $219, Expand $374 instead of $499.
Common questions
Which is cheaper, CourseLit or Thinkific?
As of Nov 13, 2026, CourseLit is cheaper to start with: $12 a month, against $82 a month for Thinkific. CourseLit starts at $12 per month, billed yearly ($15 billed monthly), and Thinkific starts at $82 per month, billed annually ($109 billed monthly).
Which has a free plan, CourseLit or Thinkific?
As of Nov 13, 2026, neither CourseLit nor Thinkific has a free plan. Both have a free trial.
More comparisons
How this page was made
- The verdict at the top follows a fixed rule. When both tools are in the same category and either is in our top three for it, the verdict follows that ranking: the higher-placed tool is our pick. The top three weigh who each tool suits as well as its grades, so a pick can go against the GPA. Otherwise the page does not pick one and says which grades higher: the higher GPA first; on a tie, the one with a free plan, then the one that starts cheaper in dollars a month, counted the same way for both; if they are still level, what the choice depends on.
- The grades are our own, from each tool’s review or report card. The GPA is their average.
- Prices, plans and platforms come from each tool’s listing. The table above says where each price was read and when.
- The differences and the answers to the questions are worked out from those listings.