Big Cartel vs Thinkific
Big Cartel and Thinkific serve completely different online businesses. Big Cartel is for selling physical products, while Thinkific is for selling knowledge. The right choice depends entirely on what you're selling.
Best for: Independent artists and makers selling physical products like prints, jewelry, or crafts., Small businesses or solopreneurs wanting a simple, low-cost storefront with no transaction fees.
Best for: Entrepreneurs and subject-matter experts packaging their knowledge into courses., Businesses launching customer education or employee training academies.
Simple Selling for Creative Beginners
Big Cartel excels as a straightforward, commission-free platform tailored specifically for independent artists needing an easy start. We find the generous free plan perfect for testing the waters, but limitations in advanced features and reported issues with support response times make scaling challenging. Overall, this is an excellent, affordable choice for hobbyists or new sellers who prioritize simplicity over complex functionality.
Pros
- Permanently free Gold plan is available for starters ($0).
- No sales commission taken (0% transaction fees).
- Simple, intuitive, and easy to set up for non-coders.
- Designed specifically for independent artists and makers.
Cons
- Platform functionality is limited, especially for scaling (max 500 products).
- Customer support response times can be painfully slow, sometimes taking hours.
- Users report recent platform instability and bugs.
- Paid plans are considered high value for the basic feature set provided.
Solid all-in-one for knowledge businesses.
We find Thinkific is a robust platform for creators and businesses focused on selling courses and communities. Its core strength is combining creation, marketing, and sales tools in one reliable package. Overall, it's a strong choice for those ready to scale their expertise, though it may not suit the simplest or most custom tech needs.
Pros
- Intuitive drag-and-drop course builder for easy setup.
- All-in-one platform includes marketing, sales, and community tools.
- Reliable hosting with unlimited students and courses.
- Strong customer support and onboarding resources.
Cons
- Interface design can feel slightly dated in places.
- Deep customization of layouts may require more steps.
- Pricing details for higher tiers aren't always fully transparent upfront.
- No native, built-in CRM for direct sales workflow automation.
AboutBig Cartel
Big Cartel is an easy-to-use platform designed to help creatives turn their passion into profit. It’s where do-it-yourselfers go to become professionals.
This solution serves independent artists, bands, and makers of all types. Its diverse audience includes painters, jewelry makers, designers, printmakers, and photographers.
The goal is simple: give you the tools you need to sell your stuff and grow your shop. You’ll keep more of what you earn with straightforward pricing and no hidden fees.
AboutThinkific
Thinkific is an online course platform for creators, coaches, and businesses. 🚀 It lets you build and sell digital learning experiences. You can create courses with a simple drag-and-drop editor, add communities and memberships, and handle payments all in one place. It’s built for anyone wanting to share their knowledge and earn revenue from it.
Highlights
Feature Comparison
Features Overview
We highlight the main differences and pick a winner for each feature.
Core Purpose
Big Cartel sells physical goods. Thinkific sells knowledge and expertise.
Big Cartel is a straightforward e-commerce platform. It's built for artists and makers to list and ship physical products like art, jewelry, or crafts. Thinkific is a learning management system (LMS). It's designed to create, market, and sell online courses, communities, and digital downloads. The key difference is fundamental. Big Cartel handles inventory and orders for tangible items. Thinkific handles student enrollment and course delivery for intangible knowledge.
Pricing Model
Big Cartel has a free plan and low-cost tiers. Thinkific starts at a higher monthly subscription.
Big Cartel's plans range from $0 to $30 per month. The free Gold plan supports 5 product listings. Paid plans unlock more products and features. Thinkific's pricing starts at $74 per month when billed annually. This includes unlimited courses and students on all paid tiers. There's no listed free plan, only a 30-day trial. Big Cartel is significantly more affordable for small product businesses. Thinkific's cost reflects its all-in-one suite for knowledge commerce.
Ease of Use
Both are user-friendly, but for different tasks. Big Cartel is simpler for basic product listing.
Big Cartel boasts a four-step setup process. You can list your first product in minutes. The interface is minimal and focused on the essentials. Thinkific uses a drag-and-drop builder for course creation. It's intuitive but has more features to navigate, like building modules and setting up payment plans. Big Cartel wins on sheer simplicity for product sales. Thinkific offers more depth, which has a slightly steeper initial learning curve.
Course Creation
Thinkific is a dedicated course platform. Big Cartel has no course features.
Big Cartel does not offer any tools for creating or selling online courses. Its focus is entirely on physical product e-commerce. Thinkific provides a complete toolkit. You can build video-based courses, add quizzes, and create structured learning paths with its AI-assisted builder. This is a clear win for Thinkific. If selling education is your goal, it's the only option between the two.
Sales & Marketing Tools
Thinkific includes advanced sales funnels. Big Cartel has basic promotional tools.
Big Cartel allows you to offer discounts and run simple promos on paid plans. Abandoned cart recovery is only on the top Diamond plan. Thinkific bundles powerful commerce features. You get upsells, order bumps, coupons, and automated abandoned cart emails on all paid plans. Thinkific provides a more comprehensive sales engine for maximizing revenue per customer, which is crucial for course businesses.
Customer Support
Both offer human support. Thinkific has more robust options on higher tiers.
Big Cartel provides support from real humans. However, response times can be slow, and prioritized support is limited to the expensive Diamond plan. Thinkific also offers award-winning human support. Higher-tier plans include phone support, priority email, and for Plus customers, a dedicated success team. Thinkific's support structure is more scalable for growing businesses, while Big Cartel's can be a bottleneck.
Scalability
Thinkific scales infinitely for courses. Big Cartel caps at 500 products.
Big Cartel's product limit is 500 on the highest plan. If you outgrow this, you must migrate to another platform like Shopify. Thinkific imposes no limits on courses, students, or bandwidth. Its infrastructure supports businesses from one learner to hundreds of thousands. For long-term growth, Thinkific offers unlimited scalability. Big Cartel is best for small to medium product catalogs.
Analytics & Reporting
Thinkific offers deep learning analytics. Big Cartel provides basic sales reports.
Big Cartel's dashboard shows sales data and basic metrics. It's sufficient for tracking product performance. Thinkific delivers advanced analytics. You can track learner engagement, completion rates, revenue per student, and build custom dashboards. Thinkific's reporting is essential for optimizing educational content. Big Cartel's analytics are simpler, matching its e-commerce focus.
Big Cartel costs between $0 and $30 per month with 3 plans: Gold at $0, Platinum at $15/month ($144 annually), and Diamond at $30/month ($288 annually).
Let's explore the details of each plan to find the right fit for your creative business.
Gold
Price: $0/month (It's free) Best For: The basics to sell online Other Features:
- 5 product listings
- One image per product
- Access to 1 template
- Accept cards, PayPal, & more
- 5 product listings
- 1 image per product
- Access to 1 template
- Accept cards, PayPal, Afterpay, & more
- Big Cartel mobile app for iOS & Android
- 50 product listings
- 5 images per product
- Access to template library
- Offer discounts & run promos
- Shipment tracking
- 500 product listings
- 25 images per product
- Access to template library
- Prioritized tech support
- Abandoned cart recovery
Thinkific pricing: Thinkific offers tiered subscription plans starting at $74/month when billed annually. Pricing scales based on the number of active students, admin accounts, and advanced selling or integration features needed for your learning business.
Each plan includes a 30-day free trial to explore all AI-enabled tools and course-building features risk-free. Annual billing provides a significant discount over monthly payments, with professional-grade tiers tailored for scaling academies and large organizations through Thinkific Plus.
Thinkific also provides native payment processing via TCommerce to help you sell more effectively with no hidden transaction fees on its own processor. All plans include a 30-day free trial to get started.
Pricing Notes
- Big Cartel's free plan (Gold) is a permanent, free-to-use tier with 5 product listings.
- Big Cartel's paid plans (Platinum, Diamond) charge a flat monthly or annual fee with 0% commission on sales.
- Thinkific's pricing starts at $74/month (billed annually). The free plan is not listed; a 30-day free trial is available.
- Thinkific's pricing scales based on active students and admin accounts, especially for the enterprise-level Plus plan.
- Thinkific charges no transaction fees on its native TCommerce processor; standard payment gateway fees apply otherwise.
- Both platforms offer annual billing discounts to save on subscription costs.
Pricing Head-to-Head
User Reviews
Big Cartel's external reviews are sharply divided, reflecting a highly polarized user base, resulting in a low Trustpilot rating (2.3). Many long-term users express deep frustration, citing recent unreliable platform development and high prices for what they consider limited functionality and a basic service (max 500 products).
Recurring negative themes include extremely slow customer support response times, with some users waiting hours for basic replies. Conversely, independent artists and new sellers highly praise the platform for its simplicity and ease of use.
I have used Big Cartel for years and it works perfectly for my artwork. I appreciate the 0% commission on sales, only paying the monthly fee. Their customer service has been quick and helpful whenever I needed it.
Users consistently praise Thinkific's ease of use, particularly its straightforward course setup and content upload process 👍. However, some note that certain interface elements feel outdated and that customizing layouts can require extra steps.
Customer support responsiveness and the platform's reliability for hosting are frequently highlighted as positive. Recurring feedback points to the value of the all-in-one features for creators and coaches, though some mention that transparent, upfront pricing for all plan details would be helpful.
Setting up my course was incredibly simple. The drag-and-drop editor made everything visual. I had my first module live in under an hour.
Our Verdict
This isn't a close race—it's a choice between two different worlds. For selling physical products, Big Cartel wins. For selling knowledge, Thinkific is the clear champion. Big Cartel's superpower is its simplicity. You can list physical products and start selling in minutes, completely free. There are no hidden fees or commissions to eat into your profits. Thinkific's superpower is its all-in-one knowledge business engine. It combines course creation, community, and commerce into one scalable platform. You can turn expertise into a global academy. The deciding factor is what you sell. If you ship boxes, choose Big Cartel. If you deliver lessons, choose Thinkific. There's no overlap in their core functions. For the artist selling handmade goods, Big Cartel is the straightforward, affordable choice. For the expert turning skills into courses, Thinkific provides the complete toolkit to build and scale a business.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell online courses with Big Cartel like I can with Thinkific?
No, Big Cartel is designed for physical product e-commerce. It has no features for creating or selling online courses. For course creation, Thinkific is the dedicated platform.
Is Thinkific worth the higher cost compared to Big Cartel?
It depends on your business. Thinkific's pricing ($74+/month) includes unlimited courses, students, and advanced sales tools. Big Cartel's lower cost ($0-$30/month) is for physical product stores with different needs.
Which platform has a free plan, Big Cartel or Thinkific?
Big Cartel offers a permanent free plan (Gold) supporting 5 product listings. Thinkific does not list a free plan, but it does offer a 30-day free trial.
Can I sell physical products on Thinkific?
Thinkific is optimized for digital products like courses and memberships. While you could potentially offer digital downloads, it lacks the inventory, shipping, and order management tools needed for physical product e-commerce.
Which platform is easier to set up for a beginner?
Both are user-friendly. Big Cartel is arguably simpler for listing a few physical products. Thinkific's drag-and-drop course builder is also intuitive but involves more steps to structure a complete course.
Do both platforms charge transaction fees on sales?
Big Cartel charges 0% transaction fees on all plans. Thinkific also charges no platform fees, but standard payment processing fees (like Stripe's) apply to all transactions.
Ready to Choose?
Both tools have their strengths. Choose based on your specific needs.