Softwr

LMS · head to head

Thinkific vs UserGuiding

Thinkific logo

Thinkific

LMS

Create and sell online courses your way

From
$36/month
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite
UserGuiding logo

UserGuiding

Customer Success

No-code product adoption tooling priced on monthly active users rather than per seat

From
Free
Rated
-
Full reviewWebsite

The short version

  • Only UserGuiding has a free tier, so it costs nothing to try first.
  • Each has a real cost: Thinkific no free plan, 14-day trial only; UserGuiding pricing is by monthly active user, so a freemium product pays for a large population of users who will never convert, and a strong growth quarter produces a bill increase rather than a saving.
  • They diverge on capability: Thinkific covers Course builder, UserGuiding covers No-code flow builder.
  • Prices and features above were last checked on 1 September 2026.

Where they differ

Only the attributes on which Thinkific and UserGuiding actually diverge.

Attributes where Thinkific and UserGuiding differ
AttributeThinkificUserGuiding
Starting price$36/monthFree
Pricing modelUnknownPer month by monthly active users
Free tierNoYes
PlatformsWeb, MobileWeb, Chrome extension
CategoryLMSCustomer Success
Founded2012Unknown

Identical on both: user rating (Not yet rated).

What each one covers

Drawn from each product's published feature list. An absence here means we hold no record of it - not that the product lacks it.

Only in Thinkific

  • Course builder
  • Website builder
  • Quizzes
  • Certificates
  • Communities
  • Memberships
  • Marketing tools
  • Analytics

Only in UserGuiding

  • No-code flow builder
  • Onboarding checklists
  • Resource centre
  • In-app surveys and NPS
  • Session replay
  • AI assistant
  • Feature requests and roadmap
  • Segmentation

What people use each for

The jobs each tool is most often brought in to do.

Thinkific

  • Course creationnot UserGuiding
  • Membership sitesnot UserGuiding
  • Coaching programsnot UserGuiding
  • Corporate trainingnot UserGuiding

UserGuiding

  • A software company that needs onboarding flows shipped this month without taking engineering off the roadmapnot Thinkific
  • A product team replacing a stale help centre with in-app guidance where users actually get stucknot Thinkific
  • A team wanting to test whether a checklist raises first-week activation before investing engineering time in a real onboarding experiencenot Thinkific
  • A support organisation deflecting repetitive tickets with a resource centre and AI assistant inside the productnot Thinkific

Where each one falls short

Documented limitations, not opinions. Every one is a constraint you would hit in normal use.

Thinkific

  • No free plan, 14-day trial only
  • Transaction fees on third-party payment processors (5% on Basic tier)
  • PayPal only available on Grow plan ($199/month), not on Basic or Start
  • Limited customization on lower-tier plans
  • Cannot embed courses in external domains or iframes
  • Limited number of spaces per plan
  • Less interactive community features compared to alternatives
  • Features continuously moved to higher-priced tiers
  • Payment processing delays reported (up to 90 days)

UserGuiding

  • Pricing is by monthly active user, so a freemium product pays for a large population of users who will never convert, and a strong growth quarter produces a bill increase rather than a saving.
  • Flows are built as an overlay on your interface and break when the underlying markup changes, so every significant front-end release carries a maintenance task nobody owns.
  • Session replay and the AI assistant are gated to the Growth tier at double the Starter price, so the feature list that sold the product is not what the entry plan delivers.
  • Analytics are adequate for guidance performance but shallower than a dedicated product analytics tool, so most teams end up running it alongside Amplitude or Mixpanel rather than instead of them.
  • Complex single page applications and heavily componentised interfaces need careful element targeting, and teams report brittle selectors that fail silently rather than raising an error.

Pricing, plan by plan

Thinkific

$36/month
  • Basic$36/month
    • 1 course
    • Up to 500 students
    • Thinkific Payments (0% fees)
  • Start$74/month
    • Up to 3 courses
    • Up to 2,000 students
    • Third-party payment (3% fees)
  • Grow$149/month
    • Unlimited courses
    • Unlimited students
    • Third-party payment (0% fees)

UserGuiding

Free
  • Support EssentialsFree
    • Entry support-oriented tier
    • Limited monthly active users
    • Core in-app guidance
  • Starter$174/month
    • Billed yearly
    • Product tours, tooltips, hotspots and checklists
    • In-app surveys and NPS
  • Growth$349/month
    • Billed yearly
    • Higher monthly active user allowance
    • Session replay
  • Enterprise$undefined/month
    • Custom monthly active user volumes
    • Security review and single sign-on
    • Dedicated support and onboarding

Which should you pick?

Choose Thinkific if

  • You need course builder.
  • You work on Web, Mobile.
  • You also want website builder.
Thinkific review

Choose UserGuiding if

  • You need no-code flow builder.
  • You want to start without paying.
  • You work on Web, Chrome extension.
  • You also want onboarding checklists.
UserGuiding review

Questions people ask

Is Thinkific or UserGuiding better?
Neither clearly leads. Thinkific starts at $36/month and UserGuiding at Free, and user ratings are close enough to be indistinguishable. Choose on capability and platform support.
Which is cheaper, Thinkific or UserGuiding?
UserGuiding has a free tier; the other does not. Paid plans start at $36/month for Thinkific and Free for UserGuiding.
Does Thinkific or UserGuiding run on more platforms?
Thinkific runs on Web, Mobile. UserGuiding runs on Web, Chrome extension.
Can I use UserGuiding for free?
Yes. UserGuiding has a free tier, so you can try it without paying. Thinkific starts at $36/month.
What is Thinkific best used for?
Thinkific is most often used for course creation, membership sites, coaching programs, corporate training. Of those, course creation and membership sites are not what UserGuiding is typically brought in for.
What can Thinkific do that UserGuiding cannot?
Thinkific covers Course builder, Website builder, Quizzes, Certificates. UserGuiding covers No-code flow builder, Onboarding checklists, Resource centre, In-app surveys and NPS.

Answered from the vendors’ own pages

Thinkific: Does Thinkific have a free plan?

No. Thinkific does not offer a free plan but provides a 14-day free trial. Paid plans start at $36/month (Basic tier).

Source
UserGuiding: How is UserGuiding priced?

By monthly active users, not by internal seat. Starter is around one hundred and seventy four dollars a month billed yearly and Growth around three hundred and forty nine dollars, with a free tier and a quoted Enterprise plan.

Thinkific: Are there transaction fees on Thinkific?

Thinkific charges no transaction fees when using their built-in Thinkific Payments. Third-party payment processors incur 5% fees (Basic) down to 0% (Plus), plus 3.6% for Stripe with subscriptions.

Source
UserGuiding: Does it need engineering?

A one-time snippet install, then flows are built visually. Ongoing engineering involvement is usually needed only when interface changes break element targeting.

Thinkific: What payment methods does Thinkific support?

PayPal is locked to Grow plan ($199/month). Basic and Start plans do not support PayPal, limiting payment options for international creators and potentially reducing conversions.

Source
UserGuiding: How does it compare on cost to Pendo?

Materially cheaper at the published tiers, but the comparison changes if your monthly active user count is large relative to your revenue.

UserGuiding: Is session replay included?

Only from the Growth tier upward, not on Starter.

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