Shopify vs Thinkific
Features, use cases, pros and cons, and pricing side by side — and which one to pick.
Quick verdict: Pick Shopify to sell physical products across every channel; pick Thinkific to sell courses and communities.
Best for: First-time founders who want a store live fast, Brands selling both online and in person with POS
Read the full Shopify reviewBest for: Experts and coaches selling courses, memberships, coaching, or digital downloads, Training academies scaling professional education programs
Read the full Thinkific reviewCommission may apply at no extra cost
Shopify vs Thinkific: features compared
Compare key features side by side
Feature Comparison Summary
Which should you choose?
Choose Shopify if
- You're selling physical products online, in person, or on marketplaces.
- You want a checkout proven to convert and 21,000+ apps.
- You plan to scale to enterprise without switching platforms.
Choose Thinkific if
- You're selling courses, coaching, memberships, or digital downloads.
- You want community, lessons, and checkout in one learner login.
- You want a longer trial: 30 days versus Shopify's 3 days.
Shopify vs Thinkific: pros and cons
Shopify
Shopify pulls your store, checkout, payments, POS, and multi-channel selling into one admin, backed by Shop Pay's proven conversion lift and a 21,000+ app ecosystem. Expect costs and app subscriptions to climb as you grow. Overall, it's the safest default for anyone serious about selling online, from first sale to full scale.
Pros
- One centralized admin handles website, checkout, payments, POS, shipping, and marketing, so online and in-store sales stay in sync without juggling separate tools
- Shop Pay checkout converts up to 50% higher than guest checkout per an external April 2023 study, and products appear automatically to 250M+ pre-verified Shop app shoppers
- Sidekick AI lives directly in the admin to spot growth opportunities and automate tedious tasks, with no extra tool to manage
Cons
- Third-party transaction fees apply if you don't use Shopify Payments — 2% on Basic down to 0.2% on Plus — which cuts into margins on every sale
- POS Pro costs an extra $89/month per retail location on every non-Plus plan, a significant add-on for multi-location retailers
- The Basic plan has no additional staff accounts and limited checkout customization, forcing an upgrade as soon as you hire help
Thinkific bundles courses, community, and checkout on one platform, with flat per-site pricing that covers up to 10,000 students, verified security credentials, and a 4.5/5 G2 rating. The trade-offs: no free plan or refund guarantee, tier-gated features, and bandwidth caps. Overall, it's a strong pick for creators and teams serious about selling what they know.
Pros
- Courses, community, and checkout run on one platform with a single learner login, so you avoid stitching together a separate course builder, payment processor, and community app.
- Commerce goes beyond basic payments — subscriptions, payment plans, bundles, upsells, order bumps, multi-currency checkout, automated sales tax and VAT, and failed-payment recovery are all built in.
- Pricing is flat per site rather than per student — every self-serve plan covers up to 10,000 current students and unlimited published courses, so costs don't climb with enrollment.
Cons
- There is no free plan — only a 30-day trial — and Thinkific advertises no money-back guarantee.
- Video bandwidth is capped by tier at 100–400 GB per month, the main limit that scales with price, which can constrain video-heavy course catalogs.
- Important capabilities sit behind higher tiers — API access and webhooks start at Grow, Thinkific branding removal requires Grow, and SCORM, SSO, and HubSpot/Salesforce integrations are reserved for quote-based Plus.
Shopify and Thinkific in detail
Shopify
Shopify is an all-in-one commerce platform for building, running, and growing a business. It covers your website, checkout, payments, POS, shipping, and marketing from one admin. You can sell online, in person, on social, and through AI chat channels. It serves everyone from solo entrepreneurs to enterprise brands — Mattel and Glossier run on it.
Standout features
- Sell everywhere your shoppers are
- A checkout built to close sales
- Sidekick works inside your admin
- Go live in three steps
- Room to extend and grow
Use cases
- Launching a first store as a solo founder
- Running online and in-person sales from one system
- Scaling a small team into a full operation
- Expanding into international markets
Thinkific
Thinkific is an all-in-one platform for creating, selling, and running online learning. It covers courses, communities, memberships, coaching, digital downloads, and the checkout to sell them. It's built for experts turning knowledge into revenue, academies scaling training, companies running customer education, and associations powering member learning. Thinkific says 20,000+ teams use it, and customers have earned $4.23B.
Standout features
- Build courses learners actually finish
- Community that lives beside your lessons
- Sell more with built-in commerce
- AI that handles the busywork
Use cases
- Turn your expertise into revenue
- Scale a professional training academy
- Train customers and partners
- Build member education that renews
Pricing compared
List prices from each vendor's pricing page, before taxes and add-ons. Costs are per month.
| Pricing compared | Shopify | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| From (cheapest paid plan) | $39/mo Basic | $54/mo Basic |
| Free plan | No | No |
| Free trial | 3 days | 30 days |
| Money-back guarantee | Not stated | Not stated |
| Annual billing savings | Up to 26% | Up to 26% |
| Pricing model | Flat price | Flat price |
| Cost for 1 user | $29/moCheaper Basic plan, billed annually | $40/mo Basic plan, billed annually |
| Cost for 5 users | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) | $40/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Cost for 10 users | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) | $40/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Cost for 25 users | $29/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) | $40/mo Basic plan, billed annually · price per account (user limit not stated) |
| Plans | 4 | 5 |
| Prices checked | Vendor page checked Oct 14, 2026 | Vendor page checked Oct 14, 2026 |
| Price history | Tracking prices since Oct 1, 2026. No price change detected yet. | Tracking prices since Oct 1, 2026. No price change detected yet. |
- Cheapest plan that fits each team size. Per-user plans are multiplied by the number of users (respecting stated minimums and seat packs). Plans that include some users cost their base price plus the extra-user price for each user beyond those included. Flat-priced plans with no stated user limit are counted as one licence per user.
Cheaper for your team size
For 1 user (billed annually), Shopify costs $29/mo vs Thinkific at $40/mo.
Computed from published list prices on the dates shown. Excludes taxes, add-ons and promotions.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Can I sell online courses on Shopify?
Not natively. Shopify focuses on commerce and relies on its app store for course delivery. Thinkific builds courses, communities, quizzes, certificates, and learning paths directly into the platform.