Migration
Moving from Podia to Thinkific
The common trigger is outgrowing a simple storefront. Podia publishes no group or B2B seat-selling workflow and no certificates, while Thinkific opens group and B2B selling plus invoicing from Grow and certificates from Start. Podia's Mover plan also takes a 5% transaction fee; Thinkific Payments takes none. The trade is Podia's bundled website builder and email marketing, which Thinkific does not include. This is still a migration project: inventory, written export answers, then a careful cutover.
Why teams consider this move
Three registry facts drive most of these switches. None of them is about export tooling, which we do not claim either way.
- B2B seat selling. Podia publishes no group or seat-selling workflow for companies at any plan. Thinkific opens it from Grow, with invoicing included.
- Certificates. Thinkific lists completion certificates from Start. Podia's plan grid does not include them.
- Fees. Podia Mover takes a 5% transaction fee; Shaker and Earthquaker drop it to 0%. Thinkific Payments takes no platform fee at any plan.
Plan mapping and the cost delta
Map your Podia plan to the Thinkific tier that matches your real needs, then run the yearly math including fees.
| Platform | Entry plan | From (annual billing) | Platform fees on the entry plan | Runs on |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific | Basic | $40/mo | 5% only with your own gateway | Hosted (SaaS) |
| LearnWorlds | Starter | $24/mo | $5 per course sale | Hosted (SaaS) |
| Teachable | Starter | $29/mo | 7.5% transaction fee | Hosted (SaaS) |
| Podia | Mover | $42/mo | 5% transaction fee | Hosted (SaaS) |
| LearnDash | Essentials | $259/year license | No platform fee | Your WordPress site |
A creator on Podia Mover ($42 per month) selling $2,000 a month pays $504 a year in subscription plus about $1,200 a year in transaction fees, near $1,704 total. Thinkific Basic ($40 per month on annual billing) with Thinkific Payments takes no platform fee, closer to $480 total, but you lose Podia's bundled website and email tools and need to price those separately. Run your own numbers in the cost calculator.
Apply the checklist to your Podia storefront
Follow the full LMS migration checklist and adapt it here.
- Inventory. Count products, email subscribers, community spaces and active payment plans, plus any custom domain and website content built inside Podia.
- Ask both vendors in writing. Request a sample export from Podia for each object type and ask Thinkific what it imports and in what format. Ask separately how you will replace Podia's bundled email marketing.
- Run the reconciliation test. Build a fictional dataset, export it, import it into a Thinkific trial, and compare object counts before and after.
Cutover order
Rebuild and verify before touching anything live. Recreate the catalog in Thinkific, set up Thinkific Payments so you actually escape the fee, replace Podia's website and email marketing with a separate tool, and run the reconciliation test on fictional data. Keep Podia live and billing throughout.
Only when the destination is proven do you migrate customers, point your domain, and announce the change.
Frequently asked questions
Can I sell B2B seats on Podia before I move?
Will I need a new email marketing tool after leaving Podia?
Does Thinkific charge a transaction fee like Podia?
Keep deciding
LMS migration checklist: what really moves, and what you rebuild
A migration matrix by object type, courses, learners, progress, subscriptions, with what to inventory and what to demand from each vendor in writing.
Thinkific vs Podia: scale courses or bundle your whole storefront
Thinkific scales courses and B2B seats with no platform fee; Podia bundles website and email but caps products, videos and subscribers. See the split.
Selling training seats to companies: the buyer-to-learner workflow
The buyer-to-learner path for B2B seat sales, with named roles and the three things vendors blur: purchase orders, payment, and seat allocation.
Course platform pricing calculator: Thinkific vs LearnWorlds vs Teachable, Podia and LearnDash
Selling courses? Compare the yearly cost of Thinkific, LearnWorlds, Teachable, Podia and LearnDash from your sales, students, admin seats and transaction fees.