Private and Hidden Products

Our Private and Hidden product settings allow you to control who can access your products, and how visible your courses, bundles, memberships, and communities are on your site.

Private Products

Private products are ideal for cases where you want your landing page to be public for marketing or informational purposes but don't want users to be able to enroll in the course, bundle, membership, or community directly. When a product is set to Private, the Thinkific checkout is completely blocked, which means that you have full control over enrollments.

This could be useful when:

The product isn't ready for enrollment yet - you may still be working on the content, but that's no reason not to have your landing page out there and ready to share for some pre-launch marketing!
Your product is currently unavailable - If you want to run your course, bundle, membership, or community during a specific time period, or for a maximum number of users, you can change the product status to private during those time periods when it is not available for enrollment. During those in-between times, you can even pre-fill spots for the next group of users from people who have emailed you from the product landing page.
You only accept users who meet specific criteria - In some cases, you may need to speak to a person before they enroll in the product to make sure it's suitable for them (for example: Imagine selling a programming course to somebody who's never used a computer).

Products set as "Private" will still have a product card on your site, so visitors will be able to access them from the site landing page. However, the product won't have the usual "Buy" or "Enroll" button. Instead, visitors will see a message encouraging them to email you and request access.

By default, visitors will see "Interested in this [product type]? Email us at example@thinkific.com". The email that will be displayed is your site's support email, which can be set in your site settings.

If you would like to customize this message, see Customize Default Site Text on Your Landing Pages.

How to Set a Product to Private

Make a Course Private

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Courses
Navigate to the specific course you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There, you'll see the option there for Private
Select the checkbox, save your changes, and that's it!

Make a Community Private

Communities will only have a Private setting available for the purchase access type.

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Communities
Navigate to the specific community you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There, you'll see the option there for Private
Select the checkbox, save your changes, and that's it!

Make a Membership Private

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Memberships
Navigate to the specific membership you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There, you'll see the option there for Private
Select the checkbox, save your changes, and that's it!

Make a Bundle Private

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Bundles
Navigate to the specific bundle you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There, you'll see the option there for Private
Select the checkbox, save your changes, and that's it!

How to Give Your Users Access to a Private Product

To give a user access to a course, bundle, membership, or community that is set as Private, you can manually enroll them from your Admin Dashboard. Here's how to do that.

Important Considerations for Private Products

When a course is set to Private, the checkout is completely blocked so you do not need to set your course pricing for this particular course.
Price will not be displayed for Private products.
You cannot have a Free Preview for a Private product.

Hidden Products

Hidden products are the best way to control who is able to access information and content. Products set as Hidden will not appear as a product card on your site landing page, and are only accessible with a direct link to the landing page. From the landing page, they will be able to buy or enroll in the product as usual.

You can use this feature when:

Your course, bundle, membership, or community is for a specific group of people - your product may only be intended for certain people - for example, the employees of a company for whom you've specifically tailored the content. Simply hide the product so that only they have access.
You want to offer some bonus content - looking to offer some complimentary extras as a bonus to people who've bought another of your products? Put it into a hidden product! You can then make sure that only those people receive the direct link.
The course has a prerequisite - sometimes, users need to have completed another of your courses before starting the next. Make the course that has a prerequisite hidden - you can even customize the course completion email for the prerequisite course to include the direct link to the next one! Learn how to Send a Course Completion Email.

How to Make a Product Hidden

Make a Course Hidden

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Courses
Navigate to the specific course you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There will be a checkbox for Hidden
Select the checkbox, and Save your changes.

Make a Community Hidden

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Communities
Navigate to the specific community you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There will be a checkbox for Hidden
Select the checkbox, and Save your changes.

Make a Membership Hidden

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Memberships
Navigate to the specific membership you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There will be a checkbox for Hidden
Select the checkbox, and Save your changes.

Make a Bundle Hidden

From your Admin Dashboard, navigate to Manage Learning Products
Select Bundles
Navigate to the specific bundle you want to edit
Click on the Settings tab
Under Basic Settings , there is a section for Access
There will be a checkbox for Hidden
Select the checkbox, and Save your changes.

The URL shown in the basic settings of your product is what you can send to users that you'd like to allow to enroll in the product. It will take them directly to the landing page, where they can click on the usual "Buy" or "Enroll" buttons.

Important Considerations for Hidden Products

A Hidden product is not indexed by Google and won't show up in search engines. However, if the product was previously published before it was set to Hidden, it may show up in search engine results; as it takes time for search engines to recrawl your site for any updates.

You can learn more about that here: How do I stop Google from indexing my site?

Summary of Features

If you aren't sure whether you want to set your product to Private or Hidden or both, check out our summary of features below!

Private	Hidden
Your landing page is public for visitors to find	Your landing page is only accessible with a direct link
Your checkout is completely blocked and you will need to manually manage enrollments	Your checkout is available for users to enroll on their own
Your landing page is indexed by search engines	Your landing page is not indexed by search engines

If you are downgrading your account to the Free plan, you will no longer have access to the Private and Hidden settings for your products. Any products you have set Private or Hidden will remain Private or Hidden, and you will not be able to set them back to Public. We recommend setting any Private or Hidden products back to Public before downgrading.

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