When it comes to launching your class, the platform you choose can make all the difference. In 2023, Thinkific stands as a well-established leader in the space, while Flowclass emerges as an up-and-coming contender, specifically designed for educators focusing on offline and live courses.
Flowclass simplifies the process of launching classes, offering a quick, easy setup that’s perfect for educators who want to avoid complicated online setups. On the other hand, Thinkific caters to a broader audience with an extensive range of online tools.
If you’re an educator seeking a straightforward solution for launching your class, Flowclass is a strong contender. In this concise blog post, we’ll compare Flowclass and Thinkific across key dimensions to help you make an informed decision.
In the following comparison between Flowclass and Thinkific, we will focus on these key points:
- Target Audience: Who are the typical users of each platform?
- Ease of Use: The user-friendliness and learning curve of each platform.
- Course Creation & Management: The functionality and ease of creating and managing courses.
- Site Design & Customization: The flexibility and options for website design and personalization.
- Sales & Marketing Features: The tools available for course promotion, student recruitment, and sales generation.
- Payment Processing & Payouts: How each platform manages financial transactions and payouts to course creators.
- Integrations & Compatibility: The ability of each platform to integrate with other tools and services.
- Customer Support: The reliability and responsiveness of each platform’s customer support and available resources.
- Pricing: The cost structures and plan options of each platform.
- Community Features: The features available for fostering a community among students.
1. Target Audience
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Offline and Live Class Educators | Flowclass is specifically designed for educators who conduct offline and live classes. It focuses on streamlining the process of launching classes and managing student enrolments. | While Thinkific can be used for live classes, its feature set is more oriented towards fully online courses. |
| Online Course Creators | Flowclass can be used by online course creators, but its main strength lies in serving educators who conduct live and offline classes. | Thinkific is a comprehensive platform for creating, marketing, and selling fully online courses. |
| Individual Tutors & Corporate Trainers | Flowclass is an ideal choice for individual tutors and corporate trainers. Its simple setup and management tools make it easy for solo educators to launch and manage their classes. | Thinkific can also be used by individual tutors and corporate trainers, but the platform might offer more features than needed for solo educators. |
| Education Centers | Flowclass is well-suited for education centers offering offline and live classes. It provides the necessary tools to manage multiple classes and student enrolments efficiently. | Thinkific is a good fit for education centers that offer a range of online courses. Its comprehensive features support the creation and management of a wide variety of courses. |
Flowclass stands out for educators focusing on offline and live classes due to its streamlined, easy-to-use platform. On the other hand, Thinkific offers a broader set of features catering to fully online course creators. Therefore, the choice between Flowclass and Thinkific depends on the specific needs and teaching style of the educator.
2. Ease of Use
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Setup Simplicity | Flowclass offers a quick and simple setup process. All settings can be accessed within 5 clicks. | Thinkific also has a straightforward setup, but with more features, it might take slightly longer to get started. |
| Course Creation | Flowclass focuses on making course creation easy. The built-in AI can generate course descriptions, simplifying the process for educators. | While Thinkific offers a robust course creation toolkit, some users may find the multitude of options slightly overwhelming. |
| Student Management | Flowclass has a minimalistic design that makes managing student enrolments and course schedules straightforward and efficient. | Thinkific provides comprehensive tools for student management, but the sheer breadth of options may require a steeper learning curve. |
| Platform Navigation | The Flowclass platform is designed to be intuitive and easy to navigate, even for non-tech-savvy users. | Thinkific’s platform is user-friendly, but the larger number of features might make navigation slightly more complex. |
Winner: Flowclass
With its focus on simplicity and efficiency, Flowclass emerges as the winner in the Ease of Use category. It is ideal for educators who desire a straightforward and intuitive platform for launching and managing their classes.
While Thinkific offers a robust set of features, the simplicity and user-friendliness of Flowclass make it particularly appealing for educators conducting offline and live classes.
3. Course Creation & Management
Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Course Creation Simplicity | With Flowclass, course creation is straightforward. Educators can easily set up their classes with the help of the built-in AI. | Thinkific also offers a user-friendly course creation process, but with a wider range of options that could be slightly overwhelming for some users. |
| Time Slot Management | Flowclass shines in managing time slots for offline and live classes. This is a key feature for educators offering in-person or live online classes. | Thinkific, while robust in its course management features, lacks specific tools for managing time slots for live or offline classes. |
| Course Management | Flowclass offers a streamlined course management system, making it easy to manage enrolments and course schedules. | Thinkific provides comprehensive tools for course management, but its wider range of features might require a bit more time to navigate and manage. |
Winner: Flowclass for timeslot management, Thinkific for comprehensive course management
Flowclass’s strength lies in its focus on managing time slots for offline and live classes, a feature that is particularly valuable for educators who run scheduled classes rather than self-paced online courses. It simplifies the process of setting class schedules and managing enrolments, saving educators valuable time and reducing administrative hassle.
On the other hand, Thinkific offers a comprehensive suite of course management tools that can cater to a variety of teaching styles, especially for those offering fully online, self-paced courses. While it lacks specific tools for managing time slots, its broader range of features might make it a preferable option for educators whose teaching model doesn’t heavily rely on scheduled classes.
In conclusion, the choice between Flowclass and Thinkific in terms of course creation and management largely depends on the specific needs and teaching model of the educator.
4. Site Design & Customization
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Design Simplicity | Flowclass offers a single, simplistic template that’s designed to be perfectly responsive. This makes the platform extremely user-friendly, even for non-tech-savvy users. | Thinkific provides a range of design templates, but with more customization options, the setup may require more time and technical know-how. |
| Customization Options | While Flowclass’s customization options are currently limited, its focus on simplicity and responsiveness ensures educators can create an effective, user-friendly online presence. | Thinkific offers a more extensive set of customization options, allowing educators to create highly personalized and unique course websites. |
| Mobile Responsiveness | Flowclass automatically creates mobile-responsive versions of its websites, ensuring students can easily access courses from any device. | Thinkific also creates mobile-responsive websites, guaranteeing ease of use and accessibility for students on various devices. |
Winner: Thinkific for advanced customization options
Flowclass stands out for its simplicity and perfect responsiveness, making it a great choice for educators who prefer an easy-to-use, effective platform. However, for those who desire more advanced customization options and are comfortable with a more complex setup process, Thinkific might be the better choice.
5. Pricing
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Flowclass offers a free plan for tutors and freelance trainers launching their courses. It includes 1 published course page and unlimited student applications. | Thinkific offers a free plan that includes 1 course, 1 community, 2 spaces per community, and unlimited students. |
| Low-tier Plan | The Starter Plan costs $6.9/month (or $5.75/month if billed annually) and includes 3 published course pages, automatic payment confirmation with Stripe, and SEO optimization. | Thinkific’s Basic Plan costs $36/month (or $29/month if billed annually) and includes unlimited courses, 1 community, 5 spaces per community, custom domain, and coupons & discounts. |
| Mid-tier Plan | The Growth Plan costs $24.9/month (or $20.75/month if billed annually) and includes 20 published course pages and the use of your own brand in notification emails. | Thinkific’s Start Plan costs $74/month (or $59/month if billed annually) and includes unlimited courses, 1 community, 10 spaces per community, and assignments. |
| High-tier Plan | The Pro Plan costs $199.9/month and includes 100 published course pages, customizable student enrollment form, and promotion options. (Coming soon) | Thinkific’s Grow Plan costs $149/month (or $119/month if billed annually) and includes unlimited courses, 3 communities, 20 spaces per community, and 2 administrators. |
| Transaction Fees | Flowclass does not charge any transaction fees. | Thinkific does not charge transaction fees on its paid plans, but it does on the free plan. |
Winner: Flowclass
Flowclass offers more competitive pricing options and the added benefit of no transaction fees across all its plans. It provides a greater value for educators, particularly those who are just starting out or operate on a smaller scale. While Thinkific has a robust set of features across its pricing tiers, its higher cost and potential transaction fees on the free plan make Flowclass a more affordable choice for many educators.
6. Payment Processing & Payouts
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Payment Processing | Flowclass supports a wide range of payment gateways, including offline payments. This flexibility makes it easy for educators to accept payments in the way that best suits their business model. | Thinkific handles online payments well through various gateways but lacks support for offline payments. |
| Offline Payments | Flowclass stands out in this category with its ability to process offline payments. It provides an integrated email flow for receipt upload verification, making offline payment management simple and efficient. | Offline payment processing is not a feature available in Thinkific, limiting its flexibility for educators who want to accept offline payments. |
| Payouts | Flowclass has a straightforward payout process, allowing educators to easily manage and receive their earnings. | Thinkific also has a clear payout process, but it’s more oriented towards online transactions. |
Winner: Flowclass
Flowclass takes the lead in Payment Processing & Payouts due to its flexibility in accepting both online and offline payments. This along with an integrated email flow for receipt upload verification makes it a winning choice for educators seeking a versatile payment processing solution.
7. Sales & Marketing Features
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Course Promotion | Flowclass provides basic tools for course promotion, including SEO optimization for each website it creates. It’s constantly evolving and expanding its features in this area. | Thinkific offers a comprehensive suite of marketing tools, such as email marketing integrations, affiliate programs, and promotional capabilities. |
| Student Recruitment | Flowclass is improving its student recruitment capabilities, with features like the built-in AI to generate course descriptions that appeal to potential students. | Thinkific provides advanced features for student recruitment, such as customizable course landing pages and a range of student engagement tools. |
| Sales Generation | Flowclass supports a range of coupon types and discount options to help educators drive sales. It’s also developing more advanced features for sales generation. | Thinkific offers advanced sales generation features, such as bundled courses, memberships, and advanced pricing options. |
Winner: Thinkific
Thinkific leads in Sales & Marketing Features due to its comprehensive suite of tools for course promotion, student recruitment, and sales generation. However, Flowclass is rapidly evolving its capabilities in these areas, making it a promising contender for educators who value simplicity and are looking forward to the platform’s future developments.
8. Integrations & Compatibility
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Email Marketing Tools | While Flowclass is in the process of expanding its integrations, it currently offers basic compatibility with some email marketing tools. | Thinkific seamlessly integrates with a wide range of email marketing tools, making it easy to manage email campaigns. |
| Analytics Tools | Flowclass provides basic analytics tools and is working on improving its support for third-party analytics platforms. | Thinkific offers robust integration with various analytics tools, allowing educators to track and analyze their course performance effectively. |
| Third-Party Apps | Flowclass supports integration with a limited number of third-party apps but is continuously working to increase its compatibility. | Thinkific boasts a wide range of third-party app integrations, including popular productivity, marketing, and customer support tools. |
Winner: Thinkific
Thinkific outperforms Flowclass in the Integrations & Compatibility category due to its comprehensive suite of third-party integrations. This allows educators to seamlessly connect their courses with various tools for email marketing, analytics, and more. However, Flowclass is actively expanding its integrations, hinting at potential improvements in this area in the future.
9. Customer Support
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Support Responsiveness | Flowclass prides itself on its responsive customer support. They’re always ready to provide personalized instructions, assistance, and guidance. | Thinkific offers reliable customer support, but it might not provide the same level of personalized assistance as Flowclass. |
| Support Resources | Flowclass offers detailed guides for every page and setting, in addition to direct customer support. | Thinkific provides a comprehensive help center with resources and guides, but the level of personalized guidance may not match that of Flowclass. |
| Extra Support | Flowclass goes an extra mile by offering setup and marketing consultancy support, making it easier for educators to succeed. | While Thinkific has a robust support system, it does not specifically offer marketing consultancy or similar extra support services. |
Winner: Flowclass
In terms of Customer Support, Flowclass stands out for its responsive customer service and the extra support it offers, including setup and marketing consultancy. This added level of support can make a significant difference for educators, particularly those new to online teaching or those looking to enhance their marketing efforts.
10. Community
| Flowclass | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Community Size | Flowclass is a growing community and although smaller in size, it provides a close-knit community where users can share their experiences and learn from each other. | Thinkific boasts a larger community, providing more opportunities for networking and learning from a diverse set of educators. |
| Community Engagement | Flowclass’s smaller community size fosters a stronger sense of engagement and collaboration among its users. | Thinkific’s larger community provides a wide array of experiences and insights, but the level of personal engagement may vary. |
| Support Within Community | In the Flowclass community, users can expect a high level of support and personal interaction due to its smaller size. | With Thinkific, there’s a broader base of users to seek advice from, but the support may not feel as personalized due to the larger community size. |
Winner: Flowclass
Thinkific stands out for its larger community size, providing more networking opportunities and a wide range of experiences. However, Flowclass shines in terms of community engagement and support, offering a close-knit community where users can easily interact and support each other.
Conclusion
Choosing the right platform to host your courses is a critical decision that can significantly impact your teaching business. There are many platforms available, but the key is to select one that aligns with your teaching style and course format.
For educators who primarily offer fully online, self-paced courses, Thinkific could be an excellent choice. It provides:
- A wide array of features tailored for online course creation and management.
- Advanced customization options.
- Extensive integrations.
- A large community of users.
However, if your teaching model includes live, hybrid, or offline classes, Flowclass is the platform designed with your needs in mind.
Flowclass excels in:
- Managing time slots for live and offline classes.
- Streamlining the process of student recruitment, applications, and payments.
- Reducing administrative burdens.
- Letting you focus on delivering quality education.
Flowclass is more than just a platform; it’s a partner in your teaching journey. It’s designed to adapt to your teaching style and course format.
While Thinkific offers a wide range of features, they may not all be necessary for educators running live, hybrid, or offline classes. With Flowclass, you get features that are tailored to your needs, without paying extra for tools that you might not use.
The choice is yours. If you’re an educator conducting live, offline, or hybrid classes and you’re looking for a platform that simplifies student recruitment, applications, and payments, why not sign up for a free Flowclass account?
Start creating your course page today. Empower your teaching journey with Flowclass.
