Check out the different user roles in Thinkific, which have different levels of access and functionality!
All plans have unlimited Students. Unlimited Affiliates and Community Moderators are available on paid plans. Unlimited Seat Managers are avalable on Grow plan and above. The number of Site Admins, Course Admins, Group Analysts and Revenue Partners vary per plan. Take a look at our Plan Comparison page for more details.
In this article:
Site Owner
The Site Owner has the highest level of permissions within your Thinkific account. They will have access to all functionality available on the account and have the ability to transfer account ownership if needed. There is only one Site Owner per Thinkific account. The Site Owner user account is also always assigned as a Site Admin. In order to maintain access to your account, make sure that you have access to the email address associated with the Site Owner.
Site Admin
A Site Admin has all the same level of permissions as a Site Owner with some exceptions:
- They cannot transfer account ownership. This means they cannot edit the Site Owner's email address or password details.
- They cannot update your Thinkific site subscription.
- They cannot set up payment integrations
- You have the option to hide the financial information from them.
Course Admin
Course Admins have limited access to your Thinkific account. They can:
- Create new courses
- Create new instructors
- Edit existing courses to which they are assigned as Course Admin
- View student progress for courses to which they are assigned as Course Admin
- Access Engagement Dashboard insights for their assigned Course or Group
Learn more about the Course Admin role
Group Analyst
Group Analysts have limited access to your Thinkific account. They can:
- View and export student progress for assigned groups
- View student names and emails for assigned groups
- Access Engagement Dashboard insights for their assigned Course or Group
Learn more about the Group Analyst role
Community Moderator
The Community Moderator role can be assigned to users in a specific community to allow them to help moderate that community and the spaces within it. Along with the permissions assigned to their existing user role, moderators are granted additional permissions within the community, including:
- Pin posts to the Community Homepage
- Create, edit, and delete their posts
- Delete posts of other members
- Create and edit live events created within the Community
Moderators are easily identified within the community by a Moderator badge (visible beside their name in both their profile and on their posts and comments within the community).
Note that the Community Moderator role for all communities is automatically assigned to:
- the Site Owner
- Site Admins
- Any External Partners you may be working with on your site.
Learn more about the Community Moderator.
Seat Manager
The Seat Manager role is automatically assigned to any user who makes a Group Order purchase. Once the group order purchase is successfully completed, the user will have access to the Admin Dashboard, customized for Seat Managers.
A Seat Manager can do the following when accessing their Admin Dashboard:
- View the number of seats purchased, claimed, and still available, self-enroll in a seat and buy more seats as needed.
- Generate, retrieve, and share sign-up links. These links must be used by learners to enroll in the product purchased for them.
- View details of students who have enrolled/claimed a seat. This includes the students':
- Name
- Email address
- Date created/enrolled
- Date last signed in
- User role type
- Enrollment status
Learn more about the role and its permissions here: Seat Managers.
Affiliate
An Affiliate can earn percentage or dollar commissions for promoting your courses! They will have access to basic account settings like a Student as well as an Affiliate Dashboard which includes:
- General Affiliate Information (includes commission rate)
- Affiliates links
- Financial Reports (commission breakdown)
- Settings (Payout email address)
You can see more details on Affiliates here:
- How to Use Affiliates
- An Introduction the Affiliate Menu (For Affiliates)
- Managing Affiliate Payouts
Revenue Partner
Revenue Partners also known as Product Payees allow you to share a percentage of your earnings with a third party. Revenue Partners do not have any custom details available in their account and have access to basic account settings like Student accounts.
Learn more about Revenue Partners
Student
Students have access to:
- Student Dashboard (where they can see/access all courses they are enrolled in)
- Course Player (where they view course content)
- My Account basic settings including:
- Profile (Name, email, Custom Fields, timezone)
- Password
- Certificates
- Notifications (Enable/disable Weekly Reminder and Discussion reply emails)
- Billing (Credit card and subscription details)
- Order History
Learn more about The Thinkific Student Experience
External Partners
If you have hired an external agency, freelancer, or developer to help build out your Thinkific site, we want to ensure that you have control over their access.
Using our Partner Portal, Partners can request access to your Thinkific site, allowing you to approve or deny external requests. Once a Partner is approved, they will be assigned a Partner role. This provides a safe and efficient way to work with external partners, without needing to share your login credentials.
The External Partner user role has the following permissions:
- Can access everything on your Thinkific website
- Can assign user roles
- Can not transfer account ownership
- Can not set up or edit payment integrations
- You have the option to hide the financial information from them
Learn more about External Partners.
Assigning a User Role
The Site Owner and Site Admins can assign user Roles. You can assign a role while creating a new user or after they already exist in Thinkific.
Learn more about How to Assign a User Role