Courses with lessons, quizzes and certificates, and then everything a course platform stops at: 1:1 booking, workshops and retreats, a CRM, email and text, and bookkeeping that keeps itself. One flat price, no percentage of a sale.
Thinkific is a course platform for creators selling online courses, communities and memberships, with unlimited courses on every plan and a hosted checkout.
| Feature | ColibriOS | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|
| 1:1 booking and scheduling | Yes. Booking with intake forms, waivers and paymentsServe | No. Live lessons over Zoom are listed; open 1:1 calendar booking with intake forms is not |
| Classes, workshops and events | Yes. Classes, workshops, retreats and events with ticketing and check-inGather | Partly. Live lessons over Zoom, 5 on Basic and unlimited from Start; in-person or ticketed events are not listed |
| Capacity and waitlists | Yes. Capacity, automatic waitlists and door check-inGather | Not stated. Not listed on their pricing or features pages |
| Memberships and class packs | Yes. Recurring memberships, class packs and member pricingGather | Yes. Memberships from the Start plan up; not included on Basic |
| Online courses | Yes. Courses with enrollment, student payments and portalsServe | Yes. Unlimited courses on every plan, with quizzes, assignments and certificates |
| Website on your own domain | Yes. Editable website on your own custom domainServe | Yes. Custom domain on every plan |
| CRM and email marketing | Yes. Full CRM, email campaigns, funnels and textingServe | Partly. Email marketing with pre-built sequences is included; a CRM with contact records, pipeline and texting is not listed |
| Bookkeeping and tax-ready books | Yes. Income tracked as it happens, expenses categorized, tax-ready year-end reportServe | No. Not listed on their pricing or features pages |
| Published pricing | Yes. $116, $297 and $597 a month, on the pricing page | Yes. Basic, Start and Grow are priced on the page; Plus is contact sales |
| Contract required | No. Month to month | No. Monthly or annual billing |
| Cancel yourself, online | Yes. Settings, then Billing | Not stated. Cancellation is not described on the pricing page |
Thinkific details checked August 2026 on Thinkific's own pages. Their plans change; if you see something out of date, tell us at hello@colibrios.com. A tier badge on the ColibriOS column shows the lowest plan that includes the feature; every tier contains the one before it.
Published on the pricing page. 30-day free trial, no credit card, month to month, cancel yourself in Settings.
Three published plans from $54 to $219 a month plus a contact-sales Plus tier, a 30-day free trial and no free plan, a 2.9% fee on sales through Thinkific Payments, and a branded mobile app add-on at $199 a month.
Source: Thinkific's pricing page, checked August 2026A comparison that says we win every row is not one you should trust. Here is where Thinkific genuinely does more.
Basic is $54 a month with unlimited courses and 10,000 students. If you sell courses and nothing else, no sessions, no events, no books to keep, Thinkific costs less than Serve.
Source, checked August 2026Thinkific has been a course LMS for over a decade: assignments, quizzes, drip schedules, completion certificates and a hosted checkout tuned for course sales. ColibriOS courses cover lessons, quizzes and certificates but are younger.
Source, checked August 2026A branded iOS and Android app is available as a $199 a month add-on and on select Plus contracts. ColibriOS is a web portal with no native app.
Source, checked August 2026Build a course from modules and lessons with video, files, text and downloads. Quizzes mark themselves, lessons can drip by date or by progress, and a certificate goes out on completion. Buyers pay through your own Stripe or PayPal and watch in a browser on any device. Courses are on Serve, the first plan, because the practitioners who teach already teach; a course can also be sold as an add-on to a session package or another course at a special price.
Discovery calls and 1:1 sessions book from your calendar with intake forms and waivers. Workshops, trainings and retreats take registrations with capacity, waitlists, deposits and door check-in. Memberships and class packs renew themselves. The student who bought the course, the client who booked the call and the person at the retreat are one record, with every payment and every email on it.
Contacts carry notes, tags, consent and a pipeline for leads. Newsletters and campaigns go out from your own sending domain with opens and clicks reported back; sequences run from a tag, so a lead magnet can lead to a course offer without you touching it. Texting runs from the same contact list.
Every course sale, session and ticket is income the day it lands. Connect your bank and expenses are categorized the way an accountant thinks. Profit by offer and a tax-ready year-end report are pages you open. Thinkific does not list bookkeeping; ColibriOS includes it on every plan.
No. Payment runs through your own Stripe or PayPal at the processor's standard rate and ColibriOS adds nothing. Thinkific lists a 2.9% fee on sales through Thinkific Payments in addition to the plan price.
Serve, at $116 a month. Courses with enrollment, student payments, quizzes, certificates and student portals are on every plan. Gather, at $297, adds group programs, workshops and retreats with capacity and waitlists, and recurring memberships.
Not if courses are all you sell: Thinkific Basic is $54 a month. ColibriOS is the cheaper option once you also pay for a scheduler, an email tool, a CRM and bookkeeping software, because those are included in the one price.
Yes. Lessons release by date or once the previous lesson is complete, quizzes are marked automatically, and a certificate is issued on completion.
Yes. A student is a contact, and a contact can book a call from your calendar, join a workshop or buy a package. Thinkific lists live lessons over Zoom but not open calendar booking.
Yes. Every plan includes a community with a feed, member profiles and announcements; Gather adds topic channels, member-only spaces and spaces locked to the students of a particular course.
Export your student list as a CSV and import it with tags and consent. Course video and files upload lesson by lesson into the course builder. Point your domain when the site is ready; nothing has to move in one day.
No native app. Students and clients use a web portal that works in any browser on a phone. Thinkific offers a branded app as a paid add-on.
Thirty days free, no credit card, and no call to sit through.
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