Thinkific is a solid course platform. But hidden Stripe surcharges, no native gamification, basic community features, and aggressive billing practices make creators look elsewhere. Tenant.so gives you courses and community without the gotchas.
Thinkific advertises 0% transaction fees, but if you connect your own Stripe account, they add a surcharge on top: 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, 1% on Grow. On a $10,000/month course business, that is $500–$1,200/year you did not expect.
To close your Thinkific account, you must delete ALL course content first. For established creators with dozens of courses, this is a massive friction barrier designed to keep you locked in.
Users report being auto-enrolled into annual plans after free trials instead of monthly. Unexpected charges of hundreds of dollars are a recurring complaint — Thinkific sits at 2.5/5 on Trustpilot.
Thinkific has no built-in points, badges, streaks, or leaderboards. You need third-party integrations like Pointagram or Incentli, adding cost and complexity.
Thinkific added community features recently but they are basic and tiered by plan. No real-time chat, no forums, no custom reactions. It is a course platform with community bolted on.
Advanced quiz features like question banks and passing scores require the Grow plan at $199/month. CSS/HTML customization requires Start at $99/month. Important features keep getting paywalled.
Data sourced from Thinkific's official pricing and support pages as of April 2026.
| Feature | Tenant.so | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Community Spaces | Feeds, chat, forums, private spaces | Basic community (tiered by plan) |
| Real-time Chat | Built-in chat rooms | No |
| Online Courses | Full LMS — video, quizzes, certificates, drip content | Courses, quizzes, certificates, drip content |
| Email Marketing | Included — templates, segmentation, scheduling | Basic email automation + AI copy generation |
| Events | RSVP, calendar sync, reminders, attendance | No native events |
| Gamification | Points, streaks, leagues, badges, leaderboards, 9 levels | No native (third-party integrations only) |
| AI Assistant | Jarvis — RAG-powered, trained on your course content | AI email copy + subject lines only |
| Automation | 14 triggers with conditional logic | Email automation + abandoned cart |
| Platform Transaction Fees | 0% | 0% (but Stripe surcharge: 1–5% on top of processor fees) |
| Stripe Surcharge | None | 5% (Basic) · 2% (Start) · 1% (Grow) |
| Access Control | Public/private spaces, group-level permissions, paywalled content | Course-level access |
| Customization | Themes, wrappers, custom reactions, upvoting subsystems | CSS/HTML editing (Start plan+) |
| White Label | From day one | Remove branding on higher tiers |
| Affiliate Program | Built-in | Limited (higher plans) |
| Analytics & Reporting | GA4, Google Search Console, Chart.js throughout | Course analytics |
| Custom Dashboards | Liveboards with custom widgets | No |
| Mobile App | Planned | No native app |
| Integrations | Growing | 100+ via App Store + Zapier |
| Financial Calculators | 60+ built-in | No |
| Migration / Import | CSV and JSON import for members, courses, content | No easy export — must delete content to cancel |
| License Key System | Built-in generation + management | No |
No Stripe surcharges, no hidden processing add-ons. Thinkific says 0% but adds 1–5% on top of Stripe fees depending on your plan. Tenant.so means zero.
Points, streaks, leagues, badges, leaderboards, and a 9-level progression system built in. Thinkific requires third-party plugins like Pointagram that cost extra and add complexity.
Real-time chat, forums, feeds, private spaces, custom reactions, upvoting subsystems. Thinkific's community is basic and tiered. Tenant.so's community is the product.
Jarvis learns from your course material and answers student questions automatically. Thinkific's AI writes email subject lines. Teaching tool vs. marketing tool.
Built-in event system with reminders and attendance tracking. Thinkific has no native event support.
Import your members, courses, and content via CSV or JSON. Thinkific makes you delete everything to leave. Tenant.so makes it easy to arrive.
BRRRR analysis, mortgage calculators, net worth trackers, debt payoff tools. Built in for finance, real estate, and business communities.
We believe in honest comparisons. Here is where Thinkific has an edge.
Thinkific has been refining course delivery for years. The drag-and-drop builder, assessment tools, and drip scheduling are polished and reliable.
Thinkific's App Store plus Zapier gives you access to hundreds of tools. Tenant.so's integration library is still growing.
All paid Thinkific plans include unlimited courses and students with no caps. Straightforward scaling for course-only businesses.
Themes, wrappers, liveboards, custom reactions, upvoting subsystems, granular gamification. No CSS hacking required — customization is built into the platform.
Tenant.so charges 0% and means it. No Stripe surcharges, no surprise annual billing, no paywalled features on higher tiers.
Real-time chat, forums, feeds, private spaces, gamification, and AI assistant. If community engagement drives your business, Tenant.so was built for it.
Points, streaks, leagues, badges, leaderboards, and a 9-level progression system built in. No third-party gamification plugins to pay for and maintain.
60+ built-in financial calculators make Tenant.so a natural fit for communities focused on investing, real estate, or entrepreneurship.
Thinkific's AI writes email copy. Tenant.so's Jarvis answers student questions from your actual course content. Marketing vs. teaching — different tools entirely.
Request early access and build courses with real community, built-in gamification, and AI — no hidden surcharges, no content deletion to leave.
Already on another platform? Send us your export file and we will build a custom import function for your data. No one gets left behind.
“We were paying for Circle at $129/month, ConvertKit at $79/month, Zapier at $49/month, and a separate course host. That is over $3,000 a year before transaction fees. When Circle announced another price increase and started charging extra for media storage, we decided to build the platform we actually wanted. Tenant.so is what happens when you stop stitching tools together and build the whole thing from scratch.”
Jameson Brandon
Founder & Lead Developer, Terminal Blank