Maven vs Thinkific
We give Maven a 2.2 GPA and Thinkific a 2.4, out of 4.0. Maven grades higher on the free plan. Thinkific grades higher on value for money and features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
Thinkific
Course, community and membership platform for experts and academies
How we grade them
| 2.2GPAMavenFair | 2.4GPAThinkificFair | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | DNo subscription, but Maven keeps 10% of each sale, so $2,000 of sales a month costs $200, past where this category's dearest tenth starts ($143). The fee shrinks when sales do, and it pays for a listing on Maven's marketplace and its Student Growth Program. | CBasic is $40 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 $40 a month, the middle of this category. Stripe or PayPal can add a gateway fee in some countries. |
| Free plan and trial | BNothing to pay to start: no subscription, and you can publish and sell, with free Lightning Lessons to build a list. Selling isn't free, though: the 10% is graded under value, and paid offerings start at $200. | 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 | CCohort courses, workshops, self-paced cohorts, free Lightning Lessons, automated emails, a cohort community and Zoom scheduling with recordings. It does the live-cohort job fully, but that's a narrower job, with prices from $200 and refunds set by Maven. | 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 | CNo App Store rating on record. Maven handles the page, checkout and emails, but a live cohort takes a lot of running, and courses are reviewed before they're listed. | 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 | BWeb, with Stripe, Zoom, Zapier, Klarna and webhooks for wiring it to other tools. No phone or desktop apps listed. | 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 | live cohort courses taught by working experts | a full course business with a long free 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: Maven and Thinkific. How we grade
Price against what you get
Maven has no paid plan and scores 2.3 out of 4 on features, ease of use and platforms. Thinkific starts at $40 a month and scores 2.7.
Thinkific scores higher, and starts $40 a month higher: the question is whether the extra is worth that to you. Of the other course and community platforms on the chart, none scores higher than Maven for less, and none scores 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
- Maven is free. Thinkific starts at $40 per month, billed annually ($54 billed monthly).
- Maven has a free plan. Thinkific does not, though it has a free trial.
- Maven also covers surveys and email campaigns.
- Thinkific also covers invoicing.
At a glance
| Maven | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free | Free trial |
| Starts at | Free | $40 per month, billed annually ($54 billed monthly) |
| Free plan | No fee to teach. Maven keeps 10% of what each student pays as a platform fee, and Stripe's processing fees come out as well. | None |
| Free trial | None listed | 30-day free trial of the whole platform |
| Web | ||
| Made by | Maven Learning, Inc. | Thinkific |
| Price read from | help.maven.com | thinkific.com |
| Checked | Oct 17, 2026 | Oct 17, 2026 |
Who each one suits
Maven
- Working professionals teaching live courses alongside a day job
- Experts without a large audience who want marketplace traffic
- Courses that companies reimburse, with team and invoice purchases
Thinkific
- Experts selling courses who want a long free trial before paying
- Academies selling seats to companies as well as to individuals
- Course businesses that already run a website elsewhere
Worth knowing
Maven
- Maven keeps 10% of every sale, and Stripe fees (2.9% + $0.30 for US cards) come out too; refunds return Maven's fee but not Stripe's.
- Paid offerings must be priced at $200 or more, and courses are reviewed before they are listed on the marketplace.
- Experts are enrolled in the Student Growth Program by default, which can discount a course by up to 30%; opting out is by email.
- Maven, not the expert, decides refunds: students get a full refund up to the course's halfway point.
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%.
- Basic, Start and Grow cap current students at 10,000, and Basic allows 1 admin and 5 digital downloads.
- SSO, SCORM and the AI teaching assistant are only in the Plus plan, which is priced through sales.
Key features
Maven
- Cohort courses and workshops
- Sell multi-week live courses, one-day workshops, self-paced cohorts, resources and coaching from one expert profile and landing page builder.
- Free Lightning Lessons
- Short free live sessions that collect sign-ups and feed them into the email list for a paid course or workshop.
- Built-in email campaigns
- Pre-written automated emails go to waitlisted, applying and dropped-off students, and announcements email the whole cohort.
- Cohort community
- Each course comes with channels for announcements, discussion, intros and questions, plus project submissions and course content in one place.
- Zoom and calendar scheduling
- Connect a Zoom account to create meeting links for every session, auto-record them and publish recordings to students.
- Marketplace listing and promotion
- Reviewed courses appear on Maven's discovery site, and the Student Growth Program runs sales, referrals, affiliates and ads for a share of revenue.
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 Basic and Start, 3 on Grow.
- 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
Maven
Teach on Maven$0
No subscription. Maven keeps a 10% platform fee on each sale and pays the rest to your Stripe account; paid offerings start at $200.
Thinkific
Basic$40
per month, billed annually ($54 billed monthly)
Unlimited courses, 1 community with 5 spaces, 5 digital downloads, 1 admin, 100 GB of video a month, coupons and order bumps.
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.
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
Maven
No public discounts listed.
Thinkific
- Annual discount
Save 25% with annual billing
Thinkific's pricing page lists 25% off for annual billing: Basic $40 a month instead of $54, Start $82 instead of $109, Grow $164 instead of $219.
