Ubunya vs Thinkific
Thinkific sells courses. Ubunya runs the programme around them.
Thinkific is one of the strongest course builders: lessons, quizzes, certificates, a storefront and checkout, with community and live features available as add-ons. Ubunya is built for organisations whose courses sit inside a cohort: people apply, are admitted into an intake, attend sessions, pay in instalments and graduate together.
The short answer
Choose Thinkific if
- You sell self-paced courses to individuals by card.
- You want a storefront, coupons and upsells.
- Community is a nice extra, not the centre.
Choose Ubunya if
- Your courses run as cohorts with start dates and class times.
- You admit people through applications.
- Learners pay offline, in instalments or through an employer.
- You need attendance, certificates with a public check and impact reports.
Thinkific and Ubunya at a glance
- Price
- Thinkific: About $36–49/month and up
- Ubunya: One plan agreed with you, paid by invoice in your currency. Every feature is included.
- Fee on payments
- Thinkific: 0% on paid plans, plus Stripe
- Ubunya: 0%
- Best for
- Thinkific: Selling self-paced courses
- Ubunya: Running cohort programmes
- Community
- Thinkific: Add-on
- Ubunya: Included
Feature by feature
| Feature | Ubunya | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| Community feed, categories and polls | Communities add-on | |
| Courses, lessons and progress | Best in class | |
| Points, levels and leaderboards | ||
| Live sessions | Live rooms in the browser, with breakout groups and recording | Live lessons and Zoom |
| Admissions | Application forms with a review queue | |
| Cohorts | Intakes with seats, dates and class times | Drip schedules, not intakes |
| Attendance | Online and in person, with QR check-in | |
| Certificates | Issued on completion, with a public check page | |
| Small groups | Squads inside each cohort | |
| Impact reporting | Impact reports and follow-up surveys | Course analytics |
| Payments made outside a card checkout | Bank transfer, M-Pesa, UPI, Pix, card and cash recorded, with receipts and balances | Card checkout; manual enrolment |
| One payer for many learners | An employer or sponsor pays for several learners | Bulk sales on higher plans |
| WhatsApp and SMS | WhatsApp and SMS reminders and announcements | |
| Email broadcasts and automatic sequences | Basic, with integrations | |
| Phone app | Installable app under your own name and logo | Branded app add-on |
| Web address | ubunya.com/yourname, or your own domain | |
| Developer access | Public API, MCP server and CLI | API on higher plans |
| Fee on what learners pay | 0% | 0% on paid plans, plus Stripe |
Thinkific details as of November 2026, from Thinkific pricing, SchoolMaker: Thinkific pricing and published reviews. Prices and fees change, so check Thinkific's site before you decide.
What Thinkific really costs
The plan price is only part of the bill. Here is what each platform costs a month when 200 learners each pay $50 ($10,000 a month), on the cheapest plan that can sell memberships, billed yearly where offered: the plan, the platform's fee, and card processing where it is charged separately.
| Platform | Monthly cost | How it adds up |
|---|---|---|
| Skool Pro | $372 | $82 plan (yearly) + 2.9% Skool fee |
| SchoolMaker | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Thinkific | $386 | $36 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| LearnWorlds Pro Trainer | $429 | $79 plan (yearly) + 0% + Stripe |
| Kajabi Basic | $493 | $143 plan (yearly) + 0% + Kajabi Payments |
| Mighty Networks Launch | $629 | $79 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Whop | $630 | $0 plan + 3% community fee + 2.7% + $0.30 |
| Circle Professional | $639 | $89 plan (yearly) + 2% + Stripe |
| Disco | $749 | About $399 plan + Stripe |
| Teachable | $889 | $39 plan + 5% Teachable fee + card processing |
| Skool Hobby | $1,008 | $7.50 plan (yearly) + 10% Skool fee |
| Maven | $1,350 | $0 to list + 10% of each sale + Stripe |
| Patreon | $1,350 | 10% platform fee + 2.9% + $0.30 |
| Discord | $1,600 | 10% fee + about 6% desktop processing |
| Ubunya | Your plan | One plan by invoice and 0% on learner payments. Learners pay you directly, by bank transfer, mobile money, card or cash, so nothing passes through Ubunya. |
Worked from each vendor's published prices in November 2026. Fees change and card rates vary by country, so check before you decide.
Cohorts, not just a membership
Thinkific organises learning by course, with drip schedules that release lessons over time. Ubunya starts from the programme: you open an intake with a start date, seats and class times, people apply, your team admits them, and they move through the cohort together until graduation.
Every learner has a record that follows them: which intake they joined, which sessions they attended, what they paid and which certificate they earned. When a funder or board asks how the last cohort went, the answer is already there.
If you only need an open membership that anyone can join with a card, Thinkific may be all you need. If you admit people into programmes that start and finish, that structure is what Ubunya is for.
Getting paid the way your learners pay
Thinkific charges no transaction fee on paid plans, but learners pay through its card checkout. Many of the organisations we work with are paid by bank transfer, mobile money such as M-Pesa, UPI or Pix, a company cheque, a card on their own machine (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) or cash at the first session, often in instalments.
Ubunya records each payment against the learner's fee account, issues a receipt, shows the balance and reminds people before an instalment is due, by email, WhatsApp or SMS. Nothing is taken from what your learners pay: Ubunya charges 0%.
When an employer pays for ten staff, one payer covers all ten seats and gets one invoice, while each learner still has their own place in the cohort.
Attendance and certificates that prove the work
Thinkific tracks course completion, not attendance at live or in-person sessions. In Ubunya, people who join a live session are marked present automatically, and for in-person days staff can tick a register or learners can scan a QR code at the door, even on a weak connection.
Completion rules can require attendance as well as lessons. When a learner finishes, their certificate is issued with a public check page, so an employer can confirm it is genuine.
Reaching people where they already are
Thinkific sends email and in-app notifications. Ubunya sends class reminders on WhatsApp with "I'll be there" and "Can't make it" buttons, and the answers appear on the attendance list. Announcements can go by email, WhatsApp, SMS and the in-app bell at once.
Each community also gets its own installable phone app under its own name and logo, so learners open your programme, not someone else's brand.
Where Thinkific is the better choice
No platform suits everyone. Thinkific does these things better than Ubunya:
- One of the best course builders and storefronts.
- A large app store and many integrations.
- Published prices with a free plan to start.
Moving from Thinkific to Ubunya
- Request a community. We set it up with your name, logo and colours, at ubunya.com/yourname or on your own domain.
- Import your members from a CSV export, with their names, emails and phone numbers.
- Recreate your programmes and courses. Lesson videos can be uploaded or embedded, and we can help with the move when we agree your plan.
- Invite members to sign in. Their history starts in Ubunya from the next intake.
Questions
How much does Thinkific cost?+
Thinkific's paid plans start at roughly $36 to $49 a month, billed yearly or monthly, with 0% transaction fee on paid plans and Stripe's card fee on top. Community, branded app and some features are add-ons or higher tiers. Check thinkific.com for current prices.
Does Thinkific support cohorts?+
Thinkific can drip lessons on a schedule and run communities as an add-on, but it doesn't manage intakes with seats, class times, admissions, attendance or offline fees. Ubunya does.
What's a Thinkific alternative for training organisations?+
If your courses are part of a cohort programme with applications, attendance and fees paid by bank, mobile money or an employer, Ubunya covers the whole programme in one place.
Other comparisons
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