Podia vs Thinkific: Which One Is Worth Your Monthly Bill?
Podia wins for most first-time creators. Thinkific wins the moment you’re already selling steadily and don’t want to hand over 5% of every sale.
Picture a creator selling one course, a modest email list, no community features needed yet. On Podia, that’s the Mover plan: $49/month, or $42/month paid annually, with a 5% platform fee on every sale on top of standard card processing. On Thinkific, the comparable plan is Basic: $54/month, or $40/month annually — and it charges 0% platform fee if you use Thinkific Payments, just the 2.9% processing. Read those two fee structures twice, because they flip the “cheaper” answer depending on how much you actually sell.
| Podia | Thinkific | |
|---|---|---|
| Entry plan | Mover | Basic |
| Monthly price | $49/month | $54/month |
| Yearly price | $42/month | $40/month |
| Free option | No free plan (discontinued). 14-day free trial, no card required. Refunds: contact support within 72 hours of the last payment; no partial refunds on annual plans. | No free plan. 30-day free trial on all plans. |
| Transaction fee | Platform fee: 5% on Mover; 0% on Shaker and Earthquaker. Payment processing applies on every plan on top of this: Stripe or PayPal charge 2.9% + 30c (varies by country); Podia does not receive the processing fee | 0% platform fee on Thinkific Payments (2.9% processing); third-party gateway fee varies by plan when using Stripe or PayPal directly |
| Key limit | 100 email subscribers included, 50 products, 500 videos, 25 spaces. No affiliate marketing, upsells, PayPal, Zapier or assistant seats | Unlimited courses, 10,000 students, 1 community, 5 spaces, 5 digital downloads, 5 coaching/webinars, 1 administrator, 100 GB/month video bandwidth, email and chat support, affiliate reporting, no revenue sharing with partners, no PayPal checkout for buyers |
Prices verified September 2026.
What the price gap actually buys you
Podia’s Mover plan is the cheapest entry point in raw monthly cost, but that 5% platform fee is the detail that changes everything once sales pick up. Sell a few thousand dollars a month and that cut adds up fast — faster than the $5/month difference in list price suggests. Thinkific’s Basic plan costs a bit more upfront but drops the platform fee to 0% on its own payment system from day one, so your fee exposure is just processing costs, no ramp-up required.
Where Thinkific pulls ahead structurally: student cap. Basic, Start, and Grow all include 10,000 students, identical across three tiers, which is unusual generosity for an entry plan. Podia doesn’t publish a student cap at all; its constraints are on products, videos, and spaces instead, and customers are unlimited on every tier.
Where Podia pulls ahead: the climb to PayPal and affiliate marketing is shorter and cheaper. Mover doesn’t have either, same as Thinkific’s Basic. But Podia unlocks both at Shaker, $99/month, while Thinkific holds PayPal checkout for buyers until Grow at $219/month. If PayPal or affiliates matter to your launch plan, that’s a real gap in list price between the two platforms’ second and third tiers, and it favors Podia by a wide margin.
The surprising one: Thinkific’s branded mobile app isn’t included anywhere in the plans above, it’s a separate $199/month add-on, regardless of which tier you’re on. That’s a bigger monthly bill than the Basic plan itself, tacked onto something you might have assumed was baked in at the top tier. Check that before you assume “Grow” gets you a full mobile experience.
Which plan for which creator
A coach with one course and a small list, no affiliates yet: Podia’s Mover, and eat the 5% until volume justifies Shaker. A creator planning affiliate partnerships and PayPal at checkout from day one: Podia’s Shaker, since Thinkific makes you pay for Grow to get both. A teacher who’s already selling at real volume and wants to stop losing a percentage to platform fees on every sale: Thinkific’s Basic, where the 0% platform fee starts on the entry tier instead of costing an upgrade.
If you’re also weighing Teachable in this decision, the fee math plays out differently there too, see Podia vs Teachable: Which One Actually Saves You Money? and Teachable vs Thinkific: What Does Your Course Actually Cost? for that angle.
Who should NOT choose Podia
Skip Podia if PayPal at checkout or affiliate marketing are non-negotiable on day one and you’re only willing to pay entry-tier prices. Mover has neither, and moving up to Shaker for both means an extra $50/month. Skip it too if you’re already selling at real volume and don’t want a platform fee at all; Thinkific’s Basic gives you 0% platform fee from its cheapest tier, while Podia only drops to 0% once you’re paying for Shaker. And if you’re selling at real volume already, run the numbers on that 5% Mover fee before you sign up, it may make Shaker’s $99/month look cheap by comparison.
Who should NOT choose Thinkific
Skip Thinkific’s Basic or Start plans if your buyers expect PayPal, it’s absent until Grow, and that’s a checkout friction problem you can’t paper over. Skip Thinkific generally if you want affiliate payouts and PayPal bundled cheaply; Podia gets you both by its second tier, Thinkific asks $219/month. And don’t assume the mobile app is included at any tier, budget for it separately if you want one.
If you’re deciding between Podia and Kajabi instead, the trade-offs are different again, see Kajabi vs Podia: Which One Is Worth the Monthly Bill?. And if you want the deeper dive on Podia alone, there’s Podia Review: Is It Worth the Monthly Bill?.
The verdict
Podia for most creators starting out, because the fee structure is simple to reason about even with the 5% cut on Mover, and the path to PayPal and an affiliate program is cheaper: Shaker at $99/month gets you both, versus Thinkific’s Grow at $219/month. Thinkific if you’re already selling steadily and want 0% platform fee starting on its entry tier, or if you need PayPal at checkout or multi-partner revenue sharing, pay the higher Start or Grow price for those, and it’s worth it. Neither is the pick if you’re not selling anything yet; both have free trials, so use them before either shows up on a statement.
FAQ
Does Podia’s 5% fee apply on every plan? No, it’s only on Mover. Shaker and Earthquaker drop the platform fee to 0%, so if that fee bothers you, moving up a tier removes it entirely rather than just reducing it.
Can I avoid PayPal fees on Thinkific by using Thinkific Payments instead? Thinkific Payments charges 0% platform fee plus 2.9% processing, but that’s a separate question from buyer-facing PayPal checkout, which is only available as a payment method starting on the Grow plan. You can accept cards without PayPal on Basic or Start; you just can’t offer PayPal as a buyer option.
Is the free trial actually free, no card required? Podia’s 14-day trial explicitly requires no card. Thinkific offers a 30-day trial across all its published plans, which is longer, though check the current signup flow since these terms shift.
What happens to my student list if I switch platforms later? Podia lists migration help on its plans directly: up to 50 products on Mover, up to 150 on Shaker and Earthquaker. Thinkific’s published pricing page doesn’t spell out migration help for Basic, Start, or Grow, so budget real time either direction and don’t assume a white-glove import.
Are the email subscriber limits on Podia a hard cap? No, the 100/500/1,000 numbers are included amounts, not caps. You can buy more subscribers on any plan, though Podia doesn’t publish that add-on price, so ask support before assuming a number.
Which platform is cheaper if I pay annually? Podia’s Mover drops to $42/month annually; Thinkific’s Basic drops to $40/month annually, close enough that the platform fee difference matters more than the sticker price at this tier.
How we got these numbers. Prices and fees come straight from the official pricing pages of Podia, Thinkific, checked in September 2026. Where a value wasn’t published, the table shows “—”. Prices in this space change often — confirm on the provider’s site before you buy.