Thinkific vs Graphy: Which Online Course Platform Is Best for Your Ecommerce Brand?

Thinkific and Graphy are two leading platforms for selling online courses — but which one works best if you’re already running an ecommerce business?

To help you decide, I’ve spent hours comparing their pricing, integrations, customization options, marketing features, and more — specifically through the lens of an ecommerce store owner.

As a result of my testing, Thinkific is the clear winner if you already have an online store and want to sell digital products seamlessly.

Graphy still offers solid features, but it’s better suited for solo creators, especially those building a new audience from scratch.

Thinkific vs Graphy: Quick Verdict

In this review, I’ll show you exactly why Thinkific comes out on top — breaking down both platforms by pricing, ecommerce compatibility, branding, marketing, and more.

Quick Comparison: Thinkific vs Graphy

Here’s a side-by-side comparison of key features:

Best for Pricing: Thinkific Wins on Long-Term Value

Thinkific’s Pricing (USD):

What stands out: No transaction fees across all plans — even the free one. That’s a big deal when you’re selling courses at scale.

Thinkific’s pricing is also predictable. You know exactly what you’re paying each month, without worrying about a percentage of each sale disappearing.

This becomes even more important if you’re scaling to higher-ticket courses or launching bundles, where fees would otherwise eat into your profits.

Another advantage with Thinkific is its flexibility across plans. You can start on the free tier and gradually upgrade only when your revenue justifies it.

That’s perfect if you’re testing digital products while still focused on physical sales from your store. You’re not locked into high monthly fees while you experiment.

Graphy’s Pricing (USD):

Graphy’s lower monthly costs look attractive at first, but fees on the lower tiers add up fast. If you’re charging $300/course and selling 100 per month, even a 5% fee is a $1,500/month expense.

Also, the fact that essential features like removing branding or custom domains only unlock on higher plans makes the lower tiers feel more like trial runs.

You’ll likely find yourself needing the $199/month Business plan to access the same branding freedom that Thinkific offers at a lower price point.

Plus, Graphy’s pricing can be more difficult to scale if you’re operating with tight margins.

Ecommerce founders already deal with shipping costs, ad spend, and inventory — stacking transaction fees on top of that puts pressure on your bottom line unless your course pricing is premium.

The Winner:

Thinkific wins if you want to avoid ongoing transaction fees.

Graphy may seem cheaper short term but can cost more as you scale.

Best for Ecommerce Integration: Thinkific

As someone managing an ecommerce site, tech compatibility matters. You don’t want to duct-tape tools together.

Thinkific Integrates Seamlessly With:

• Shopify (official Thinkific app)
• Stripe, PayPal
• Zapier (connects to 1,000+ tools)
• ActiveCampaign, ConvertKit, Mailchimp
• Google Analytics + Meta Pixel

You can bundle digital products with physical ones and keep all your data under one roof. Plus, Thinkific’s checkout works well across funnels, landing pages, and popups.

Thinkific’s Zapier support alone opens the door to endless possibilities.

You can automatically tag email subscribers when they buy a course, send SMS reminders, trigger Slack alerts for VIP buyers, or sync purchase data to your CRM — all without writing a line of code.

If you’re using Shopify, this is where Thinkific really shines. The native Thinkific-Shopify app means you can display your courses in your existing product catalog, run upsells, and even use Shopify’s robust checkout.

That creates a unified experience for your customers and makes fulfillment easier for you.

Graphy’s Setup:

• Internal payment gateway (Stripe, Razorpay, or PayPal)
• No Shopify or WooCommerce app
• No Zapier support
• CRM is included, but not customizable with third-party tools

If you want a simple setup without extra tools, Graphy gets you live quickly.

But if you need to run cross-sells, segment customers, or automate retargeting campaigns, Thinkific fits better.

Graphy’s closed ecosystem limits your options. If you outgrow the built-in CRM or email tools, it’s tough to swap them out.

That becomes a pain when you’re trying to do more complex segmentation or tie your email flows into your ecommerce events, like abandoned carts or upsells.

Without Zapier or deep integration support, you may also need custom development just to bridge basic automations — which adds both cost and maintenance overhead. That’s not ideal if your team is small and your time is limited.

The Winner:

Thinkific is best for ecommerce businesses that already have tools in place and need a course platform that plugs into their stack.

Best for Branding and Design Control: Thinkific

Your ecommerce brand likely has its own aesthetic and trust factor. That branding should carry into your digital product experience.

Thinkific Offers:

• Full white-label branding (custom domain, no logos)
• Custom themes and CSS access
• Visual editor for course pages
• Clean, minimal templates

This gives you full control. If you want your course to look and feel like your main site, Thinkific makes it easy.

Thinkific’s theme library is user-friendly, and the visual editor gives non-developers the power to tweak layouts, fonts, and colors to match your brand.

For more advanced control, you can go under the hood and adjust the CSS or even use the Theme Importer to create a custom course site from scratch.

You can also preview changes in real-time and build out a site that feels like a natural extension of your ecommerce store.

Whether you’re matching brand colors, uploading custom imagery, or integrating typography from your main site — you’re not locked into rigid templates.

Graphy Offers:

• Custom domain support (on Pro plan and up)
• Some branding limitations on lower plans
• Templates available, but customization is limited
• Branded mobile app included (a unique bonus)

Graphy’s standout feature is the mobile app — especially if your audience is mobile-first. You’ll get a custom-branded iOS/Android app starting from their $199 plan.

But there are trade-offs. On the lower-tier plans, your course site may still show Graphy branding, and the templates don’t offer as much creative control.

You’ll get a clean design, but options like full-width banners, advanced layout editing, or animation effects are limited or require workarounds.

If you want your course platform to mirror the look and feel of a premium ecommerce site, you’ll likely hit a ceiling with Graphy unless you’re on the top plan.

For many ecommerce founders, that limitation makes it harder to maintain visual consistency across your sales ecosystem.

The Winner:

Thinkific wins for branding flexibility.

Graphy wins if having a mobile app is more important than deep design control.

Best for Marketing Tools: Graphy’s All-in-One Stack

Getting someone to buy a $300 course is harder than selling a $20 t-shirt. Your marketing tools need to be strong.

Thinkific’s Marketing Approach:

• Integrates with popular email platforms (ConvertKit, Mailchimp, Klaviyo)
• Built-in coupons and affiliate management
• Basic landing pages
• Integrates with ClickFunnels, Leadpages, Unbounce

You’ll likely use Thinkific with your existing tools. That’s great for marketers who want to build advanced funnels.

This approach works well if you already use Klaviyo for ecommerce email, or you’ve got landing pages built with Leadpages.

It gives you complete flexibility — you’re not boxed into any one system and can optimize every step of your funnel using the tools you already love.

However, it also means more moving parts. You’ll need to set up automations yourself and connect platforms via tools like Zapier.

For experienced marketers, that’s a benefit — for beginners, it may add setup time.

Graphy’s All-in-One Tools:

• Webinars (live and automated)
• Lead magnet builder
• Built-in email marketing
• CRM to manage leads
• Affiliate and upsell tools

Everything is under one roof. If you don’t already use external tools, Graphy simplifies your stack.

Graphy’s real strength lies in its ease of use. You can create lead magnets, run live webinars, and manage upsells all within one platform — without juggling integrations.

It’s ideal for creators and solopreneurs who want results without needing a full marketing tech stack.

The CRM also helps you track student behavior, segment users based on engagement, and send follow-ups directly. This can speed up your time-to-launch if you’re selling your first course and want to keep your overhead low.

The Winner:

Graphy wins for creators who want a bundled, no-code marketing engine.
Thinkific wins if you already have marketing tools and want flexibility.

Best for Mobile Access: Graphy by a Mile

Thinkific doesn’t include a mobile app unless you’re on their enterprise plan.

Graphy includes a fully branded mobile app (iOS and Android) on the Business plan.

That’s a game-changer if your audience learns on the go — fitness coaches, skincare experts, language tutors, etc.

With mobile learning on the rise, having a branded app can dramatically boost engagement. Students can access content, take quizzes, and participate in community discussions without needing to log into a desktop site. That’s a serious UX upgrade, especially if your audience is mobile-first.

Graphy also handles app development and updates for you — no need to hire a developer or manage the app store submission process. It’s all handled within your subscription, which saves both time and money.

The Winner:

Graphy wins for mobile-first businesses. You get an app fast, no custom dev work needed.

Real-World Case Studies

Thinkific in Action:

• A fitness equipment brand launched a $99 course on home training using Thinkific, selling via their Shopify store. They made $12,000/month in added revenue within 2 months.
• A beauty ecommerce brand built a “Skincare Fundamentals” course using Thinkific and Klaviyo. It added over 3,000 email leads and helped increase product subscriptions by 22%.

These businesses didn’t need to change their stack — they just layered Thinkific onto their existing store and email flows.

That’s the big upside when you already have traffic and customers — Thinkific simply adds a high-margin product to your business.

Both brands also used Thinkific’s coupon and bundle features to run promotions and upsells during seasonal sales. They kept full branding control, avoided transaction fees, and built long-term customer value without tech headaches.

Graphy in Action:

• An Instagram influencer in India launched a makeup course and used Graphy’s webinar feature to close $20,000+ in sales in 3 months.
• A regional tutoring brand used Graphy’s mobile app to launch prep content and achieved 15,000 app installs in just six months.

These stories highlight how well Graphy works for personal brands. The influencer’s success came from combining Instagram Reels with Graphy’s lead magnet and webinar features — all without needing outside tools.

For the tutoring brand, the mobile app was a game-changer.

It allowed them to build daily habits with their users, increase lesson completion rates, and create push-notification campaigns for new content — something that’s much harder to pull off with just a web platform.

Final Verdict: Thinkific vs Graphy

If you’re running an ecommerce store and want to add digital products, go with Thinkific. You’ll keep more of your revenue, integrate with your tools, and maintain full brand control.

Thinkific is especially ideal if you’re already using tools like Shopify, Klaviyo, or Zapier.

It slots right into your existing setup, giving you the flexibility to launch, test, and scale digital products without being forced into a new ecosystem or paying platform fees on top of your store’s operating costs.

Graphy, on the other hand, has a clear advantage if you’re starting with nothing but an audience — especially on platforms like Instagram or YouTube.

It handles everything in one place, from CRM and lead magnets to live webinars and mobile apps, which means less time configuring tools and more time publishing content and selling courses.

Choose Thinkific if:

• You’re already running an ecommerce store and want to add high-margin digital products
• You need full control over branding, integrations, and checkout experience
• You want to avoid transaction fees and work within a system you already use

Choose Graphy only if:

• You’re starting from scratch without a store
• You’re an influencer or coach focused on mobile learning
• You want everything bundled (CRM, webinars, email) in one place

But for serious ecommerce brands already operating online, Thinkific is the better business decision. It gives you more control, fewer fees, and smoother scaling as your digital product line grows.