Canvas LMS vs Thinkific
Canvas LMS and Thinkific are both online courses & LMS tools. Canvas LMS is aimed at enterprise, while Thinkific is aimed at creators and small businesses. Only Canvas LMS has a free plan.
Instructure's LMS for universities, schools and professional learning
Course platform with communities and memberships
| Pricing | Open source | Paid · $54 |
| Starting price | Not published | $54/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | No |
| Free trial | — | 30 days |
| Built for | Enterprise | Creators, Small businesses |
| Platforms | web, ios, android | web |
| Country | US · 2011 | CA · 2012 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Canvas LMS if
Universities, schools and education providers that want a widely adopted LMS with strong grading tools and a large app ecosystem.
- Clean, modern interface that students and faculty adopt quickly
- Huge LTI integration ecosystem and community
- Open source core under AGPLv3
Look elsewhere if: Companies running employee or customer training (Docebo, TalentLMS, 360Learning, Absorb LMS).
Choose Thinkific if
Course creators and businesses wanting a dedicated learning platform without fees.
- Free trial to start
- No transaction fees
- Solid learning features
Look elsewhere if: Creators wanting all-in-one marketing (Kajabi).
Canvas LMS vs Thinkific pricing
Canvas LMS
- Open source$0Self-hosted under AGPLv3 from GitHub
- Canvas Lite$0Free hosted account for individual educators teaching own class
- Canvas (hosted)CustomInstitutional license by quote from Instructure sales
Thinkific
- Basic$54/mo$40/mo billed annually; unlimited courses, custom domain
- Start$109/mo$82/mo billed annually; memberships, full commerce tools
- Grow$219/mo$164/mo billed annually; phone and priority support
- PlusCustom10,000+ seats, custom roles, enterprise integrations
Canvas LMS · Key features
- Course and module builder with prerequisites and mastery paths
- SpeedGrader for fast annotated grading with rubrics
- New Quizzes with question banks and multiple item types
- Outcomes and standards tracking across courses
- LTI 1.3 app ecosystem for Turnitin, Zoom, Panopto and more
- Free Student, Teacher and Parent mobile apps
Cons
- No public pricing; institutional contracts only
- Studio, Catalog and Career are sold as separate products
- The April 2026 breach and May outage raised security concerns
Thinkific · Key features
- Course builder with video, quizzes and assignments
- Communities and memberships
- Certificates and drip content
- Website and landing page builder
- 0% transaction fees
- App store and API
Cons
- Email marketing is basic
- Advanced features need Grow
- Design flexibility limited
Canvas LMS vs Thinkific: FAQ
Do Canvas LMS and Thinkific have a free plan?
Canvas LMS has a free plan. Thinkific has no free plan, a 30-day free trial.
Which is better for small businesses, Canvas LMS or Thinkific?
Thinkific lists small businesses as a core audience, while Canvas LMS is aimed more at enterprise.