For experts
Thinkific Alternatives for Live Classes and Paid Workshops
By Masterclass.tv 8 min read
Short answer. The best Thinkific alternative for live classes is a platform where the live room, the ticket and the replay are one product. For single paid classes and workshops, Masterclass.tv sells the seat, runs a room for 1,000 people on Pro and keeps selling the recording. For a live community, Mighty Networks fits. For a full course business with live sessions on the side, Kajabi fits. If your income is mostly self paced courses, Thinkific may still be the right home.
Thinkific earned its reputation on self paced courses. You upload lessons, set a price and it handles the checkout, the student area and the certificates of completion. A lot of instructors run a healthy business that way for years. The question about alternatives tends to come up the first time a live session outsells the course: a two hour tax season workshop, a monthly portfolio review, a Saturday cooking class. Suddenly the course platform is the least important tool in the stack, and the meeting app is doing the real work.
Does Thinkific have live classes?
Yes, through Zoom. Thinkific's pricing page lists a Zoom Meetings and Webinars integration on the Start plan and above, described as unlimited Zoom sessions with bookable calendars and attendance tracking. The Basic plan does not include the Zoom integration and caps coaching and webinars at five, plus five live events inside communities. There is no live room built into Thinkific itself, so the stream, the chat and the recording live in your Zoom account.
That setup works. It also means two bills, two logins for students, and a recording you have to download and upload again if you want to sell it afterwards.
Why instructors look for a Thinkific alternative for live classes
- Live depends on a second subscription. Zoom's own limits, license and webinar add on apply on top of the Thinkific plan.
- No single class ticket. To sell one workshop you package it as a course, a bundle or a coaching product. A 39 USD class goes through the same setup as a 600 USD program.
- Replays need a second offer. People who missed the night want the recording. On Thinkific that is a new lesson, a new product or a manual upload into the existing one.
- The entry plan leaves live out. If you only want the live side, you still need Start or higher to get the Zoom integration.
- No buyers you did not bring. Thinkific runs your own school. Nobody browses it looking for a class to join tonight.
None of that is a problem for a course library. It only matters when live sessions are what people pay for.
Thinkific alternatives for live classes compared
| Platform | Best for | Live room | How it charges | Brings new buyers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Masterclass.tv | Single paid live classes and workshops | Built in, 1,000 on Pro, 5,000 on Studio, upvoted Q&A | 25 percent per ticket, Pro 99 USD a month or 49 USD billed yearly | Yes, class schedule, categories and All Access viewers |
| Mighty Networks | Communities and memberships that go live | Native livestreams, 100 viewers on Launch, 1,000 on Growth | 79 to 354 USD a month plus 2 to 0.5 percent per sale | No, your own audience |
| Kajabi | A full course business with site, funnels and email | Built in live video for up to 200 people | From 143 USD a month billed yearly, no platform fee with Kajabi Payments | No, your own audience |
| Maven | Premium cohort courses | Live sessions inside a cohort | Reported at 10 percent of enrollments, 200 USD minimum price | Some, through its course catalog |
| Thinkific | Self paced courses and memberships | Zoom integration on Start and above | Plan price, 0 percent fee with Thinkific Payments | No, your own audience |
Prices come from each vendor's public pricing page except Maven, whose pricing page did not load for us, so its numbers come from third party reviews. Check every site before you move, because plans change several times a year.
Is there a cheaper alternative to Thinkific for live teaching?
For live teaching, usually yes. Thinkific publishes its prices only per region and billed yearly. FreshLearn reported in 2026 that US prices rose about 10 percent, to roughly 40 USD a month for Basic, 82 for Start and 164 for Grow on yearly billing. Since the Zoom integration starts on Start, live classes on Thinkific cost about 82 USD a month plus your Zoom plan.
On Masterclass.tv the Pro plan is 49 USD a month billed yearly, with the room, the ticketing, the replay and certificates included, plus 25 percent of each ticket. A teacher who sells one 49 USD workshop a month to 30 people pays less here. A teacher who sells 300 seats a month to an audience they already own will usually pay less on a flat plan, where the platform takes nothing per sale. That is the honest tradeoff, and the numbers on our pricing page let you work it out for your own calendar.
The best Thinkific alternative for each kind of live teaching
Masterclass.tv, for single paid classes and workshops
Each class is its own event with a page, a ticket and a start time shown in the buyer's time zone. You go live from the browser or any streaming app with a stream key. Attendees post and upvote questions, so you answer the ones most people want answered. The replay publishes on the same page and keeps selling to people who missed it, and every attendee gets a certificate with a public verification page, which matters when a professional expenses the class. The class also appears on the public schedule and in its category, so viewers who never heard of you can buy a seat. See how it works on the sell live classes online page.
Mighty Networks, for a community that goes live
If your students pay a monthly membership and the live session is one part of it, Mighty Networks has native livestreaming, a feed and member profiles. Its pricing page lists 100 viewers per stream and 20 streaming hours a month on Launch at 79 USD, up to 1,000 viewers on Growth at 354 USD. Selling a single event means building a paid Space for it. We compare both sides in detail on our Mighty Networks alternative for paid live classes page. If your store runs on Podia, see the Podia alternative for paid live classes.
Kajabi, for a course business with live sessions on top
Kajabi bundles a website, funnels, email marketing and products, and its built in live video holds up to 200 people inside a course or coaching product. It is the most complete package and also the most expensive, starting at 143 USD a month billed yearly. If you mainly want the live room, read the Kajabi alternative for live classes comparison first.
Maven, for premium cohorts
Maven suits multi week cohort courses priced in the hundreds of dollars. Its reported 200 USD minimum makes it a poor fit for a one evening workshop. Our Maven alternatives for live workshops post covers the options below that price.
Can you run Thinkific and a live class platform together?
Yes, and it is the setup we see most often. Keep the evergreen course on Thinkific, where it already sells, and run the live sessions on a platform built for them. Mention the next live class inside your course, send students the class page, and point live attendees who want more toward the full course afterwards. Live tickets and course sales then come from two places, so it helps to track every creator payout in one place when you work out which side of the business is growing.
How do I move my live classes off Thinkific?
- List your live sessions. Note which Zoom sessions people paid for separately and which were part of a course. Only the first group moves.
- Create each class. Copy the title, the outcome, the length and the price. The event page and checkout are ready once you save.
- Connect payouts. Link your payout account once in the studio.
- Tell your students. Email your Thinkific list the class link, and add it to the course welcome lesson.
- Teach and let the replay sell. After the class, the recording sits on the same page for late buyers.
Who should stay on Thinkific
Stay if most of your revenue is self paced courses, if you sell bundles and memberships to an audience you already own, or if your live sessions are a free bonus for course students rather than something you sell. Thinkific's 0 percent platform fee with its own payments is hard to beat at volume, and moving a large course library has a real cost. The case for an alternative is strongest when live is the product: you teach live at least monthly, you charge per session, and you want the recording and the room to work without a second tool.
If that sounds like your business, start with one test class for a room of 100 and see whether the schedule brings you buyers you did not have before. The for experts page shows what the studio includes, and the guide to the best platforms to sell live classes covers the wider field.
