Thinkific’s August 2026 Price Increase: What It Actually Costs You
On August 13, 2026, Thinkific raised prices across every paid tier and retired its free plan. The Basic plan jumps from $49 to $69 per month, Start moves from $99 to $129, and Grow climbs from $199 to $249. Existing customers get 90 days at old pricing before the new rates kick in on renewal. If you sell more than $2,000 per month on Basic, you now pay the increase plus the 5% transaction fee Thinkific added in 2025.
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What changed on August 13, 2026 and who it hits
Thinkific pushed three changes in one announcement, and they compound in a way the announcement soft-pedals.
The pricing hike. Every tier went up 25% to 30%. Basic moved from $49 to $69 monthly (or $36 to $49 annually). Start went from $99 to $129 monthly ($74 to $99 annually). Grow went from $199 to $249 monthly ($149 to $199 annually). The Plus tier stays custom-quoted but internal reports suggest a similar bump.
Free plan retired. The one-course free tier is gone for new signups. Existing free users have 60 days to upgrade or export their content before the account moves to read-only. This closes what was the main on-ramp for hobbyist creators testing course ideas.
Annual billing is now the default. Monthly billing still exists but is buried in the checkout flow, and monthly rates are roughly 40% higher than annual. This is a common tactic to lock creators into longer commitments before they can measure results.
The change hits three groups hardest: creators on the free plan (forced to pay or leave), Basic tier creators doing over $2,000 per month (paying both the higher subscription and the 5% transaction fee), and anyone on monthly billing who was using it as a flexibility hedge.
The increase stacks on top of fees Thinkific already added
This is the part most creators miss when they read the announcement.
In April 2025, Thinkific added a 5% transaction fee on the Basic plan. Not a payment processor fee, a Thinkific fee, on top of the roughly 2.9% + $0.30 that Stripe charges every card sale in the US. Basic creators pay both.
Start and Grow customers got a 2% and 1% transaction fee respectively at the same time. Plus was the only tier that stayed at 0%.
So the actual cost of Thinkific in 2026 is not the subscription line item. It is subscription plus platform transaction fee plus Stripe. And the August increase raised only the first of those three.
Separating platform fees from processor fees matters here. Processor fees (Stripe, PayPal) are unavoidable and roughly the same everywhere. Platform fees are a choice the platform makes about how much of your revenue to keep for themselves. Thinkific used to take 0%. As of July 2026, they take 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow, on top of the higher subscription.
Your new annual bill at k, k and k a month in sales
Numbers make this concrete. Here is what Thinkific costs across a year at three common revenue levels, using annual billing (the cheapest option) and the 5% transaction fee on Basic.
Scenario 1: $2,000/month in sales on Basic. Subscription: $49 x 12 = $588. Thinkific transaction fee: 5% of $24,000 = $1,200. Stripe processing: roughly 2.9% + $0.30 per sale, call it $720 assuming $50 average order. Total year one cost: $2,508. Take-home from $24,000 gross: $21,492.
Scenario 2: $5,000/month in sales on Start. Subscription: $99 x 12 = $1,188. Thinkific transaction fee: 2% of $60,000 = $1,200. Stripe processing: roughly $1,800. Total: $4,188. Take-home from $60,000 gross: $55,812.
Scenario 3: $10,000/month in sales on Grow. Subscription: $199 x 12 = $2,388. Thinkific transaction fee: 1% of $120,000 = $1,200. Stripe processing: roughly $3,600. Total: $7,188. Take-home from $120,000 gross: $112,812.
Before August 13, those same scenarios cost $2,088, $3,588 and $5,988. The increase alone adds $420, $600 and $1,200 per year at those three tiers. If you were on the free plan doing $2,000/month, your new floor is $2,508 per year.
Five platforms that cost less after the change (side-by-side table)
Here is what you actually pay across the main alternatives, at a $5,000/month sales level, as of July 2026. All numbers assume annual billing where offered and standard Stripe processing.
| Platform | Entry plan (annual, per month) | Platform transaction fee | Year 1 total at $5k/mo | Take-home from $60k |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific Start (Aug 2026) | $99 | 2% | $4,188 | $55,812 |
| Teachable Basic | $39 | 5% + $0.10/sale | $5,268 | $54,732 |
| Podia Mover | $33 | 0% | $2,196 | $57,804 |
| Kajabi Kickstarter | $55 | 0% | $2,460 | $57,540 |
| Zanfia Basic | $25 | 0% | $2,100 | $57,900 |
| LearnWorlds Starter | $24 | $5/sale | $7,788 | $52,212 |
Two things jump out. First, Thinkific is now the second-most-expensive option in this group for a creator at $5k/month, beaten only by LearnWorlds’ flat per-sale fee at that volume. Second, the platforms with 0% platform fees (Podia, Kajabi, Zanfia) all deliver more take-home than any transaction-fee platform, even when their subscription is higher.
Kajabi Kickstarter at $55/month deserves a mention because Kajabi historically anchored the “premium” end of the market at $149/month. The Kickstarter tier launched in 2024 as a response to Thinkific and Teachable, and it is now cheaper than Thinkific Start on total cost.
Zanfia is the outlier on entry price at $25/month billed annually ($29 monthly). It bundles courses, communities and paid newsletters into one subscription, so a creator who was paying Thinkific plus Circle plus ConvertKit is consolidating three bills. Zanfia charges 0% platform commission as of July 2026, so the only cut is Stripe’s standard 2.9% + $0.30. Zanfia is also rolling out native email campaigns and one-click post-purchase offers this summer, which closes two of the historical reasons creators used to stack extra tools on top.
The full pricing details for each platform: Thinkific, Teachable, Podia, Kajabi. Verify before switching; competitor pricing changes often.
Stay or switch: the three questions that decide it
Migration is real work. Rebuilding your course library, redirecting URLs, moving students and rebuilding sales pages typically takes 40 to 80 hours over two to three weeks. Do not switch on principle. Switch when the math clearly wins.
Question 1: how much do you sell per month? Under $1,000/month, the differences are small in absolute dollars ($200-400/year), and migration effort is not worth it. Between $2,000 and $10,000/month, the gap is $500 to $2,500/year and switching pays back in the first year. Above $10,000/month, you are leaving $2,500+ per year on the table, and this compounds. A creator at $20,000/month who stays on Thinkific Start pays roughly $6,000 more per year than the same creator on any 0% platform.
Question 2: how much of your infrastructure is Thinkific-specific? If you use Thinkific’s built-in checkout, native video hosting and default themes, you can migrate in a weekend. If you have deep custom code, custom subdomains configured through Thinkific’s DNS, or third-party integrations wired into Thinkific webhooks, budget more time. Get an export of your student list, course content and sales data before you decide. Every platform on the list above accepts CSV imports.
Question 3: what else are you paying for that a consolidated platform would absorb? If Thinkific is your only tool, comparing subscription to subscription is fair. If you also pay for Circle ($89/month), ConvertKit ($29-99/month), a webinar tool ($99/month) or a Vimeo Pro subscription ($20/month) that would come “free” with an all-in-one, the true comparison is Thinkific-plus-stack versus consolidated-platform. That math often flips the answer even for creators under $2,000/month.
The specific stack question is worth its own frame. Kajabi and Zanfia both include email in the consolidated bundle (Zanfia’s email campaigns are launching this summer as part of the 2.0 release). Podia includes email and a light community feature. Thinkific does not include email or community and expects you to bring your own tools, which is fine when the platform costs $49/month and less fine when it costs $69 plus 5%.
If you decide to stay, at least switch to annual billing before your monthly renewal. That alone saves roughly 30% versus the new monthly rates. If you decide to switch, do the migration in the 60-day window before your free plan converts or your renewal hits, not after. Platforms with 0% platform fees ($25-55/month entry) will save the average $5k/month creator between $1,600 and $2,100 per year compared to Thinkific after August 13, and that gap widens every year you grow.
