About 2 months ago, I looked into different course platforms.
I compared their pricing, integrations, and features.
Since then, I have been introduced to a few more platforms for courses.
But none have hit all the marks as much as ThriveCart Learn.
If you follow my articles, you will remembered that when I compared Thinkific, Teachable, and MemberVault, I came to the conclusion that neither was better than the other. It all depended on what it was you were looking for in terms of features and integrations.
About 2 weeks after I published that article, ThriveCart introduced ThriveCart Learn.
It's a course platform built into ThriveCart.
The main questions I had to check were once again:
- Ease of development of course content
- Ease of landing page creation (as well as other pages such as purchase checkout page and thank you page)
- Customer experience
- Integrations
- Pricing
This time, I knew exactly what I was looking for. And this tool hit a win in every category.
Ease of development
The structure of creating courses, modules, and lessons is basically the same. Only I have more flexibility in the page structure and design.
Videos are embedded and not hosted in the app and have to be uploaded to a platform such as YouTube or Vimeo. This can be viewed as a pro or a con depending on your needs and your target audience. (If you target audiences who have filters on their Internet, you may need to ensure they have access to your video hosting platform).
In addition, because this platform is still under development, quizzes are not yet available. And there is no option for community discussions.
Both of these features are better in Thinkific.
There is, however, more flexibility and control over the drip sequence of your content - directly on the platform and also integrated with your email service provider.
Also, you have way more control over the course page itself. From the navigation bar at the top, to the course headings and sub headings on the left.
Ease of page creation
Hands down, this platform is better.
It gives me full control over how I structure my pages. The landing page, the checkout page, the thank you page - are all part of the process of the regular ThriveCart experience. You just connect to the course you're selling and the platform does the rest.
You also have more control over the course pages themselves, including embedding HTML directly into the page.
The one page you can't control, at the moment, is the sign up page to the school. I'm not sure why that is, but I'm guessing they will improve this as they go.
The default is neutral. But it would be great if it could be branded.
I'd also add, that the other platforms have a very confusing and limited ability when it comes to the landing page, checkout page, and thank you page.
Either because it's part of an entire site or because they limit your design options. The navigation is confusing and the overall experience as a creator was just frustrating!!
Customer experience
As with most online courses, the user journey is pretty straight forward. But because we're using ThriveCart technology, we have more control over abandoned carts, refunds, drip sequences and opening specific modules, lessons, and even courses to specific customers based on various variables.
Learn+ gives the option to create bundles at special prices and even more advanced sequencing based on segmentation and tagging.
And coupons are built into the original system.
This means that the customer experience is completely in your hands and can be truly customized based on your the specific needs of each segment.
Integrations
One of the features I love most about ThriveCart in general is their ability to integrate with so many other platforms.
Email providers, other membership sites, multiple payment processors, and of course Zapier.
This level of integration gives you full control over your content and your students.
You can basically do almost anything with this platform.
It's one of the reasons I love it so much.
Pricing
Any way you look at it, the ROI for ThriveCart Learn is higher than any of the other platforms. At least for now.
ThriveCart is currently selling for a one time fee of $500 for the basic package. This package includes Learn, all the integrations, drip sequencing, coupons, and upsell and downsell options.
If you want bundling and more advanced features you'd need to get Learn+ which is an extra $195.
If your course sells for $50, you'd make back the cost after 10 sales for the basic plan and 14 sales for Learn+.
If you were using Thinkific or Teachable, you'd need to get their growth plan to get all of these features. These start at $99/month. So after 5-7 months you'd have covered the cost of ThriveCart Learn.
If you want to offer lifetime access to your students, you need to consider that this means a lifetime of payments to whichever platform you are using.
Other advantages
ThriveCart Learn+ gives you the ability to work with teams. That means you can have a group of people each developing their part of a course. You can have a designer working on the course or have your VA manage your students.
Bundles are another amazing advantage in Learn+. You can create a bundle of courses including existing and future courses based on different variables.
Summary
I think it's pretty clear why I've chosen this platform over all the others.
Hopefully, I will get around to creating a walkthrough of ThriveCart Learn in the near future.
Oh, and since ThriveCart doesn't have a free version to play with (what a shame), I've created this snazzy walkthrough for you so you can get a feel of how easy it is.
Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions about this platform.
Note: this article contains affiliate links. The opinions expressed are my own. It costs you nothing extra to use these links. I just make a bit of cash on the side so I can continue to do this research 😉. And I only recommend tools I highly believe in and have used myself.
