Kajabi vs Thinkific (2026): I Use Both But Don’t Recommend Them To Everyone

TL;DR: Kajabi or Thinkific – Which Platform Should You Choose?

I’ve been using Kajabi and Thinkific for years and they’re both excellent platforms built for different kinds of users.

I strongly recommend Thinkific to most beginners and even mid-tier professionals who want to offer a superior learning experience to their students and are okay handling email marketing separately.

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Kajabi is also great but it doesn’t offer the same depth in learning features. I recommend it to experienced professionals who want their courses, coaching and email marketing on the same platform.

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Use my Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison tool to quickly compare their features and decide which platform is right for you.

Note: This page contains affiliate links. If you purchase through links on this page, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you.

Read: The best online course platforms for modern sellers

I use Kajabi and Thinkific almost every week because I host multiple courses on these platforms for my own companies and for many of my clients.

These platforms are built for different end users, even if they appear to serve the same audience.

I recommend Kajabi when you need courses, coaching, email marketing, landing pages, funnels, and automation all under one roof. 

But Kajabi doesn’t match Thinkific’s in-depth learning experience features.

So, when you’re priority is designing a tailored learning experience for your students, I always recommend Thinkific (which means you’ll need separate tools for email marketing and automation).

In this detailed Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison, I’ll show you the differences between these platforms and help you choose the right one for your business.

Kajabi vs Thinkific: The Main Differences (2026)

Before I dive into the details, let me give you a bird’s eye view of how Kajabi and Thinkific differ from each other.

	Kajabi	Thinkific
Built for	Creators who need email marketing, automation, and courses, coaching – all in one place	Creators who prioritize learning experience depth over built-in marketing
Starting price	$143/mo (annual)	$74/mo (annual)
Free trial	30 days	30 days
Transaction fees	0% with Kajabi Payments. 2% (Basic), 1% (Growth), 0.5% (Pro) with third-party processors	0% with Thinkific Payments. Stripe surcharge varies by plan with third-party processors
Product types	Courses, coaching, communities, memberships, digital downloads, bundles	Courses, coaching, communities, memberships, digital downloads, bundles
Course creation	Good — standard course builder with video, text, audio, quizzes	Stronger — more content types, drip content, compliance tools, exams (Grow+)
Student evaluation	Quizzes, assessments	Quizzes, assignments, exams (Grow+), course compliance, completion certificates
Student learning experience	Clean, functional course player	More structured — progress tracking, compliance enforcement, certificates, discussion forums
Student mobile app	Yes — Kajabi app (shared) + branded app included on Pro	Yes — Thinkific app (shared) + branded app as $199/mo add-on
Coaching	Yes — but free calls route through full checkout flow	Yes — more direct booking experience
Community	1 (Basic & Growth), 3 (Pro) — with access groups	1 (Start), 3 (Grow), 10 (Expand) — with spaces and live events
Email marketing	Full suite — broadcasts, sequences, automation, tagging	Basic — welcome sequence, sales sequence, abandoned cart
Funnels	Yes — unlimited, fully customizable multi-step funnels	Yes — prebuilt templates, less customizable
Marketing automation	Advanced — behavior-based triggers, tagging, segmentation	Limited — preset triggers only
Analytics	Revenue, conversion, sales funnel reporting	Learner progress, engagement, revenue (enhanced on Grow+)
	Get a Free 30 Day Trial of Kajabi	Get a Free Thinkific Trial

Thinkific vs. Kajabi – Overview

I’ve been using both Thinkific and Kajabi for years. I still have live courses on both platforms which means I get to experience them regularly with all their benefits and flaws.

Let me break them down for you.

What is Kajabi?

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for creators, coaches, and entrepreneurs who sell their knowledge and expertise online. It replaces your course platform, coaching tool, community, email marketing, sales funnels, and automation suite with a single subscription.

I’ve used Kajabi for years, and the honest truth is that it’s overkill for beginners who only want to sell a course or two. If you’re not using the full feature stack, you’re overpaying. 

Kajabi doesn’t offer a trimmed-down plan for people who just need courses, so you’re locked into a higher price point whether you use half the tools or all of them.

This is why I don’t recommend it if you’re building your first course..

But for the right person, an experienced edupreneur who has an audience, Kajabi is genuinely hard to beat. 

If you’re a coach, consultant, or expert building a full value ladder with a free lead magnet, a paid course, a recurring membership, a community, and one-on-one or group coaching, and you want to run email marketing and automation alongside all of it, Kajabi is built exactly for that. 

It’s a platform for someone who has both the budget and the business model to consume everything it offers. 

For that person, it’s a dream.

What you can do with Kajabi:

• Build and sell online courses, coaching programs, and memberships from one dashboard
• Run email marketing campaigns, automated sequences, and follow-up flows without a separate tool
• Create sales funnels and landing pages that convert visitors into paying students
• Launch and manage a paid community with access groups and engagement tools
• Automate your entire sales and student onboarding process with behavior-based triggers
• Sell digital products, bundles, and subscriptions with built-in payment processing

Read: My detailed Kajabi review based on actual experience

What is Thinkific?

Thinkific is an online course platform built around one core goal: giving your students an excellent learning experience. As you read this article, I have six live courses on Thinkific for my companies Learning Revolution, leading Learning and Tagoras.

Unlike Kajabi,Thinkific doesn’t try to do everything. It focuses on doing the learning side better than almost anyone else.

I recommend Thinkific to beginners and mid-tier course sellers, coaches, and consultants because of how much control it gives you over the actual learning experience. 

It lets you build structured learning paths, add in-depth assessments and exams, set conditions on lessons so only qualified students can progress, and enforce compliance rules that Kajabi simply doesn’t offer. 

Its course player is cleaner, the student journey is more structured, and the depth of learning tools is noticeably stronger.

Thinkific does offer email marketing and funnels, but both are basic compared to Kajabi. 

It’s not an all-in-one platform and doesn’t pretend to be. The email and funnel features are enough for most beginners, but as your business grows, you’ll almost certainly need a separate email marketing platform alongside it.

In short, Thinkific is the platform most course sellers should start on and stay on until they’ve built a full product ladder and genuinely need Kajabi’s marketing power. 

And even then, switching means giving up the learning experience controls that Thinkific offers and Kajabi doesn’t match. That tradeoff is real, and it’s worth thinking about carefully before you move.

What you can do with Thinkific:

• Build and sell online courses with a structured, professional student learning experience
• Set lesson conditions and learning paths so students progress on your terms
• Run quizzes, assignments, exams, and issue completion certificates
• Launch a paid community with spaces, live events, and discussion tools
• Sell memberships, digital downloads, coaching sessions, and bundles
• Use built-in email sequences and funnels to convert and onboard students

Read: My detailed Thinkific review based on actual experience

Kajabi vs Thinkific Pricing: What Do They Actually Cost

Thinkific looks cheaper than Kajabi if you look at their pricing plans. But that’s a bit misleading.

Kajabi’s subscription cost covers courses (and other e-learning products) + advanced email marketing and automation.

Thinkific’s basic email features are fine as long as you have a small list and no advanced marketing needs.

But when you want to grow your list and use behavioral targeting for engagement, you’ll need to get Kit, Mailchimp, or ActiveCampaign depending on your goals.

That will push your total Thinkific + Email Software price far beyond Kajabi’s monthly subscription.

Of course, that still makes sense if you want thinkific’s much more sophisticated learning features compared to Kajabi.

But it’s something you should keep in mind when evaluating their prices.

Let me break them down a bit more.

Thinkific pricing

Thinkific has three main paid plans. No free plan since 2025, but you get a 30-day trial without a credit card.

Plan	Annual	Monthly
Basic	$36/mo	$49/mo
Start	$74/mo	$99/mo
Grow	$149/mo	$199/mo

I tell my clients to go for the Start plan, not Basic. Basic locks you out of memberships, certificates, bundles, and payment plans. 

Most serious course sellers need those from day one.

The number that catches people off guard is the Stripe surcharge. 

If you use your own Stripe instead of Thinkific Payments, Thinkific adds 5% on Basic, 2% on Start, and 1% on Grow on top of Stripe’s standard 2.9% plus 30 cents. 

At $3,000 a month in revenue on Basic, that surcharge alone costs $150 a month. Use Thinkific Payments and you pay the same rate as Stripe with no surcharge.

Kajabi pricing

Kajabi has three paid plans and no free tier. But you do get a 30-day trial.

Plan	Annual	Monthly
Basic	$143/mo	$179/mo
Growth	$199/mo	$249/mo
Pro	$399/mo	$499/mo

Start on Growth, not Basic. 

The 5-product and 2,500-contact limits on Basic are tighter than most people expect. You can hit both within a few months of actively marketing.

Kajabi charges no transaction fees if you use Kajabi Payments.

But if you use your own Stripe, Kajabi adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro per transaction. 

That 2% on Basic at $3,000 a month costs $60 a month, or $720 a year, purely from the processor choice.

What the total cost actually looks like

Thinkific’s headline price is lower. But it does not include full email marketing or advanced funnels, so most growing businesses add a separate email tool. Kajabi includes both at every plan level.

Monthly revenue	Thinkific Start + email tool	Kajabi Growth (annual)
Just starting out	$74 + $29 = ~$103/mo	$199/mo
$2,000/mo	$74 + $29 = ~$103/mo	$199/mo
$5,000/mo	$74 + $79 (larger list) = ~$153/mo	$199/mo
$10,000/mo	$149 + $109 = ~$258/mo	$199/mo
$30,000/mo	$149 + $179 + $49 funnel tool = ~$377/mo	$319/mo

If your revenue is under $5,000 a month, Thinkific plus a basic email tool is meaningfully cheaper. Above $10,000 a month with a real email list and active funnels, Kajabi Growth is cheaper and simpler to manage. 

For most of my clients, the inflection point is when they reach  somewhere between $3,000 and $5,000 a month.

For a full breakdown of what each plan includes, where the real costs show up, and a fee calculator you can use for your specific revenue level, read my detailed pricing guides:

• Thinkific Pricing (2026): What’s the Real Cost
• Kajabi Pricing (2026): Use Fee Calculator to Find Actual Cost

Kajabi vs Thinkific: Pros and Cons

I’ve given you a high level overview of both Kajabi and thinkific and explained their pricing models. Now before I jump into its features, let me give you a summary of their main strengths and weaknesses in my experience.

This would give you the right context when exploring their features later in the article.

Kajabi Pros and Cons

✓ Kajabi’s Strengths	What it actually means for your business
Everything lives in one place	Your courses, email list, funnels, landing pages, automations, community, and checkout all run under one login. You stop paying for four or five separate tools and stop debugging why your email tool is not talking to your course platform. For creators who fully commit to Kajabi, this consolidation alone often justifies the cost.
Email marketing that actually works for selling	Kajabi’s email tools can reach any contact in your database, not just existing students. You can build multi-step sequences triggered by behavior, tag contacts based on what they clicked or bought, and run broadcast campaigns to your full list. This is a real email marketing platform, not an afterthought.
Funnels that connect your whole business	Kajabi funnels link your lead magnet, email sequence, sales page, checkout, and post-purchase upsell into a single flow. You build it once, it runs automatically, and every piece is native to the platform so nothing breaks when one tool updates.
✗ Kajabi’s Weaknesses	What it actually means for your business
The contact and product limits on Basic are genuinely restrictive	2,500 contacts and 5 products sounds reasonable until you are actually building a business. A flagship course, a community, a lead magnet, and a coaching offer gets you to four products before you have launched your second campaign. Active list building through ads or a podcast will push you past 2,500 contacts within months. You then face an upgrade mid-momentum or start pruning contacts you spent money to acquire.
The learning experience is not as deep as Thinkific	Kajabi’s course builder covers the basics well, but it does not give you the assessment depth, compliance controls, or structured progression tools that Thinkific does. You cannot set conditions that prevent a student from accessing a lesson until they pass a quiz, run formal exams with randomized question banks, or enforce completion requirements the way Thinkific allows. For creators where the quality of the learning journey matters as much as selling it, this is a real gap.

Thinkific Pros and Cons

✓ Thinkific’s Strengths	What it actually means for your business
The learning experience tools are the best in this price range	Thinkific lets you set lesson-level conditions so students cannot skip ahead before they are ready, run assignments that require your review before a student progresses, issue certificates automatically on completion, and enforce compliance rules that protect both the student and your liability. For coaches and educators who care about outcomes, not just content delivery, this level of control is difficult to find at Thinkific’s price point.
Starts affordable and scales without forcing you up a plan	Thinkific Start at $74 a month gives you unlimited courses, memberships, certificates, bundles, and payment plans. Most course businesses run on Start for years without hitting a meaningful ceiling. You are not constantly being pushed toward a higher tier to unlock features that should have been included from the beginning.
Student management is genuinely useful	You can see exactly where each student is in a course, which lessons they have completed, how long they spent on content, and where they dropped off. On Grow you get full analytics across your school. For anyone running corporate training or cohort-based programs where learner progress matters, this reporting depth changes how you run your business.
✗ Thinkific’s Weaknesses	What it actually means for your business
Email marketing only reaches people already in your school	Thinkific’s email tools handle lead sequences for new prospects and abandoned cart recovery well. But Mass Email, the ability to broadcast to your student base, requires the Grow plan. More importantly, Thinkific’s email cannot reach contacts outside your school at any plan level. If you want to run a campaign to your full subscriber list or people who opted in from your website but never purchased, you need a separate email tool like Kit or ActiveCampaign. For most growing businesses, that is an additional $30 to $100 a month.
Funnels exist but will not replace a real funnel tool	Thinkific includes prebuilt funnel templates and they work for basic use cases. But you cannot customize the logic, build multi-branch sequences based on user behavior, or connect funnel steps to behavioral email triggers the way Kajabi does. As your marketing gets more sophisticated, Thinkific’s funnel tools will become the limiting factor and you will end up adding a separate tool anyway.

Kajabi vs Thinkific Features: What Can You Do With These Platforms

Let me now explain my experience with the core features in Kajabi and Thinkific. Again, this is based on what I’ve seen over the years.

So, if you find conflicting information online, do consider that many opinions on the internet are actually not grounded in real experience.

Mine is.

Feature #1: Learning Product Types

Winner: Draw

Both platforms let you create 

• Courses
• Coaching
• Communities
• Memberships
• Digital downloads
• Bundles. 

The product types look similar on paper but work differently in practice.

On Kajabi, every product type connects to your marketing tools from the moment you create it. A course automatically gets a checkout page, can be added to a funnel, and can trigger email sequences when someone enrolls or completes it. 

The product itself is one node in your broader marketing and sales system.

On Thinkific, products are built around the learning experience first. 

A course has more structural options like you can set it up as a self-paced course, a cohort with fixed start dates, a pre-sell before content is ready, or a draft for internal review. 

You can also set enrollment conditions, expiry dates on access, and course-level prerequisites before a student can even enter.

Kajabi added cohort courses in 2025, which lets you run time-gated programs with a group. Thinkific has had this functionality longer and gives you more controls around it.

For digital downloads, both platforms handle the basics. 

Thinkific lets you bundle downloads with courses cleanly. Kajabi treats them as standalone products more suited to lead magnets than complex curriculum add-ons.

Both platforms support memberships with recurring billing. Thinkific gives you more control over what content different membership tiers can access and when.

Feature #2: Learning Content Creation

Winner: Thinkific

This is where the platforms separate most clearly.

Kajabi’s course builder is clean and fast. You build sections and lessons, drop in video, text, audio, or quizzes, and publish. 

It covers everything most course creators need and the interface is genuinely easy to use. What it does not give you is control over how a student moves through that content.

Thinkific gives you that control. 

• You can lock lessons so a student cannot access them until they complete the previous one, pass a quiz with a minimum score, or meet a custom condition you set. 
• You can set a drip schedule so content releases on a fixed number of days after enrollment, or on a specific calendar date. 
• You can require a student to watch a minimum percentage of a video before the lesson is marked complete. 
• You can prevent students from downloading video unless you explicitly allow it.

Thinkific also supports more lesson types natively like video, text, audio, PDF, presentation, live lesson via Zoom, assignment, survey, quiz, and exam. 

Kajabi covers the core types but does not have a native assignment submission tool or a formal exam environment.

For edupreneurs running professional development programs, compliance training, or any course where you need to verify that students are actually engaged with the material, Thinkific’s content controls are much more powerful.

They’re actually a decisive factor for me

Feature #3: Coaching Features

Winner: Kajabi

Both platforms let you sell and deliver coaching sessions, but Kajabi has significantly upgraded its native coaching tools and is now the stronger platform for this specific use case.

Kajabi has a built-in scheduler called Kajabi Scheduler that handles availability windows, booking slots, buffer time between calls, minimum notice requirements, and automated reminders to clients before sessions. Coaching calls run through Kajabi Live, a built-in video tool, so you do not need Zoom or Calendly. After each call, the recording automatically uploads to the client’s Kajabi account so they can replay it without you manually downloading and resending anything. You can also add onboarding questions at checkout so clients tell you what they need before the call, set cancellation policies, build post-call upsell flows, and collect offboarding information. It is a complete coaching delivery system inside one platform.

Thinkific handles coaching as a standalone product. You set availability and connect an external calendar tool like Calendly for booking. The actual session runs through Zoom or a similar external tool. The booking experience is clean and the coaching product sits naturally inside the student dashboard alongside courses, but you are managing more moving parts compared to Kajabi.

If coaching is central to your business model, Kajabi’s native tooling is now genuinely better. Thinkific is still solid for coaches who are already using Calendly and Zoom and do not want to migrate those workflows.

Feature #4: Online Community

Winner: Draw

Both platforms have built communities into their core product rather than treating it as an add-on.

Kajabi’s community is built around access groups. You create a community, then add spaces within it for different topics or member segments. Members can post, comment, and interact within those spaces. 

You can gate specific spaces to members on specific plans or product enrollments. Kajabi also added direct messaging and a comment-to-DM automation that converts public post engagement into private conversations, which is useful for sales and support workflows.

Thinkific structures communities similarly with spaces inside each community, but goes further on the learning integration. 

You can link a community space directly to a course so students discussing lesson material stay in context. 

It also natively supports live events within the communities. Members can post, comment, react, and DM. Weekly digest emails go out automatically to keep inactive members re-engaging.

On plan limits, Kajabi Basic and Growth include one community each. Pro includes three. Thinkific Start includes one, Grow includes three, and Expand includes ten.

The practical difference is that Kajabi’s community is better connected to its marketing tools, making it easier to run sales and retention workflows from within community activity. 

Thinkific’s community is better integrated with the learning environment, making it more useful when the community is meant to support the course rather than exist independently of it.

Feature #5: Student Engagement and Evaluation

Winner: Thinkific

This is the area where Thinkific most clearly separates itself from Kajabi.

Thinkific gives you quizzes with pass/fail thresholds, assignments that students submit for your manual review before progressing, surveys for collecting feedback mid-course, and a formal exam environment through its Brillium integration on the Grow plan. 

You can randomize question banks, set time limits, and control how many attempts a student gets. Completion certificates issue automatically when a student meets the requirements you set. 

You can also require students to complete lessons in order, watch a minimum percentage of video, or pass an assessment before unlocking the next section.

Kajabi has quizzes and assessments but does not have a native assignment submission tool, a formal exam environment, or prerequisite controls at the lesson level. You cannot prevent a student from skipping ahead. Certificates exist but are simpler and less configurable.

For most course businesses selling to general consumers, Kajabi’s evaluation tools are sufficient. 

But if you’re running professional development, continuing education, compliance training, or certification programs where you need to verify and document that learning actually happened, Kajabi’s tools are not enough. 

Thinkific is the right platform for that type of program.

Feature #6: Email Marketing

Winner: Kajabi

Both Kajabi and Thinkific include email marketing features. But Kajabi is much superior and the clear winner in this area.

Kajabi’s email marketing is a full platform. 

• You can email any contact in your database regardless of whether they have purchased anything. 
• You can build broadcast campaigns, automated sequences triggered by behavior, and multi-step funnels with conditional logic. 
• If a contact clicked a link but did not buy, you can trigger a follow-up sequence automatically.
• You can tag contacts based on actions and segment your list for targeted campaigns. 

This is the same type of functionality you get from a dedicated tool like Kit or ActiveCampaign.

Thinkific’s email tools cover three specific jobs 

• A Sales Flow sequence that emails new leads who have not yet purchased a specific product
• Abandoned cart recovery through TCommerce
• On Grow, Mass Email broadcasts to your existing student base. 

You cannot reach contacts outside your school. You cannot build behavioral sequences based on what a contact clicked or how they engaged with your emails. You cannot segment your broader audience.

If you want to run any kind of outbound email campaign to people who have not yet bought from you, you need a separate email tool alongside Thinkific. 

That is an additional cost and an additional integration to manage.

Feature #7: Funnels and Automation

Kajabi’s funnel builder lets you map out a complete sequence from lead capture to sale to post-purchase upsell in one visual flow. 

Each step connects natively

• the opt-in page feeds the email sequence
• the email sequence drives to the sales page
• the checkout triggers the thank-you page and any upsell. 

You can branch the funnel based on whether someone purchased or did not, and trigger different automations from each outcome. 

Kajabi includes pre-built funnel templates for common scenarios like product launches, webinar registrations, and free trial offers.

Thinkific has funnel templates too and they work for basic lead capture and course promotion flows. 

What they do not have is conditional branching, behavioral triggers based on email engagement, or multi-step post-purchase automation. 

Thinkific’s funnels are better described as landing page sequences than true marketing funnels.

On automation more broadly, Kajabi lets you build automations triggered by 

• Enrollment
• Completion
• Purchase
• tag assignment
• form submission

It lets you connect those triggers to email sequences, tag changes, or product grants. 

Thinkific’s automations on Grow include Zapier actions and webhooks, which means you can connect Thinkific to external tools. 

But the automation logic lives outside Thinkific in whatever tool you connect it to, not natively within the platform.

Feature #8: Website and Landing Page Builders

Winner: Kajabi

Both platforms include a website builder and unlimited landing pages.

Kajabi’s website builder lets you build a full multi-page site with a blog, navigation, custom pages, and your branding. Every page connects to your products, checkout flows, and email opt-ins natively. 

On the Pro plan you get three separate websites under one account, which is useful if you run multiple brands. The builder uses a block-based editor and covers most design needs without touching code. The custom code editor on Pro opens up full HTML and CSS control.

Thinkific’s site builder works similarly. 

You get a homepage, custom pages, a course catalog, and landing pages for individual products. The design controls are solid and custom HTML and CSS editing is available on Start and above. 

You cannot build a full blog natively on Thinkific the way you can on Kajabi, which matters if content marketing is part of your acquisition strategy.

For landing pages specifically, both platforms give you purpose-built templates for course sales pages, opt-in pages, and webinar registrations. 

Kajabi’s landing pages connect more tightly to its funnel and email tools, so a visitor who opts in on a Kajabi landing page immediately enters your email system. 

On Thinkific, capturing a lead who has not yet enrolled requires connecting an external email tool via Zapier or the Thinkific app store.

Other Important Features

Affiliate marketing. Kajabi includes an affiliate program on Growth and above. Thinkific includes basic affiliate reporting on all plans. Kajabi’s affiliate tools are more developed, with a dedicated portal, commission tracking, and affiliate-specific landing pages.

Analytics. Kajabi tracks revenue, conversion rates by funnel and landing page, email open and click rates, and product performance. Thinkific’s analytics on Grow tracks learner progress, completion rates, engagement by lesson, and revenue. They measure different things because they prioritize different outcomes. Kajabi’s analytics help you sell more. Thinkific’s analytics help you improve the learning experience.

Mobile app. Both platforms have a shared mobile app where students access your school alongside other creators on the same platform. Kajabi includes a branded mobile app on Growth and above. Thinkific offers a branded app as a $199 a month add-on on any plan. A branded app means your school has its own listing in the App Store and Google Play under your name.

Integrations. Kajabi connects natively with Zapier, has an API on Growth and above, and integrates with major payment and calendar tools. Thinkific connects with Zapier on Grow and above, has an API on Grow, and has a dedicated app store with third-party integrations for tools like Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and Shopify.

Payments. Both platforms have their own native payment processor. Both support Stripe and PayPal as alternatives with a surcharge if you use them instead of the native processor. Thinkific Payments and Kajabi Payments both process at 2.9% plus 30 cents for standard US card transactions.

My Verdict: Kajabi vs Thinkific – Which Platform Is Right For You?

In most cases, I recommend Thinkific. 

The control it gives you over the student learning experience is difficult to match at this price point. 

• You decide who accesses what and when
• You enforce progression
• You verify that learning actually happened. 

That level of control is what separates a course from a transformation, and transformation is what gets you referrals, testimonials, and repeat buyers.

I personally use both platforms. 

But I use Kajabi more when I want that marketing control for my own business, and I have the product range and audience to justify it. 

Even then, I will tell you honestly that most people starting out will not use Kajabi to its full potential. You will be paying for email automations, funnels, and affiliate tools that you are simply not ready to use yet. 

Thinkific is the smarter starting point.

My recommendation is Thinkific unless you already need a full marketing system alongside your courses and the depth of the learning experience is not your primary differentiator. 

Both platforms are excellent. 

They just serve different business models and different stages of growth.

Let me share a few specific scenarios. Find the one closest to your situation and that is your answer.

If you’re a coach or consultant: Choose Kajabi. 

Native scheduling, built-in video delivery, automatic recording uploads, and post-call upsells all live in one place. You do not need Calendly or Zoom. 

Not Kajabi if: coaching is just a small add-on to a course business and you are already set up on Calendly and Zoom.

If you’re a beginner course seller: Choose Thinkific Start 

It costs less, the course builder is excellent, and you get memberships, certificates, and payment plans from day one without overpaying for marketing tools you are not ready to use yet. 

Not Thinkific if: You already have an email list and plan to market aggressively from launch — you will hit its email limitations fast.

If you have a proven product range and a full value ladder: Choose Kajabi Growth

If you are selling a course, a membership, a community, and coaching and you want email marketing and funnels to connect all of it, Kajabi is built for exactly this situation. 

Not Kajabi if: your value ladder only has one or two products — you will overpay for tools you are not using.

If your priority is the quality of the learning experience: Choose Thinkific

Lesson conditions, learning paths, assignments, exams, compliance tools, and completion certificates give you more control over how students actually move through your content. 

Not Thinkific if: You need marketing automation to drive enrollment — you will need to add and pay for separate tools as you grow.

If you are selling B2B or to corporate clients Choose Thinkific Grow 

Group orders, invoicing, white-label branding, and bulk enrollment make it the better fit for selling training to organizations. 

If the organization needs SCORM compliance, check out Thinkific Plus at custom pricing.

If you are on a tight budget and just starting out: Choose Thinkific Basic

Test demand, then move to Start once you are generating consistent revenue. Do not start on Kajabi Basic — the product and contact limits will frustrate you before you gain momentum. 

Not Thinkific if: you need email marketing and funnels from day one and cannot afford to add separate tools. Kajabi Growth consolidates everything into one bill.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Can you migrate from Thinkific to Kajabi later without losing your content? 

You can export your student data as a CSV from Thinkific. Your course content, videos, and community data do not export in a portable format, so you will need to rebuild your courses inside Kajabi manually. If you have a large course library, factor that migration time and effort into your decision before you commit to either platform.

Which platform is better for selling to corporate clients or businesses? 

Thinkific Grow is the stronger choice for B2B. It supports group orders, invoicing, bulk enrollment, white-label branding, and revenue sharing with partners. Kajabi is built primarily for direct-to-consumer sales and lacks dedicated B2B selling tools.

Does Kajabi or Thinkific work better with WordPress? 

Both integrate with WordPress, but in different ways. Thinkific is commonly used as a course delivery layer alongside a separate WordPress site, with links connecting the two. Kajabi includes its own website builder and blog, so most Kajabi users build their full site within Kajabi rather than alongside WordPress. If you already have a WordPress site you want to keep, Thinkific slots in more naturally.

Which platform has better SEO tools? 

Neither platform is a full SEO suite, but Kajabi gives you a blog natively, which Thinkific does not. If content marketing is part of how you plan to grow organic traffic, that matters. Thinkific lets you build basic pages and course landing pages on your own domain, but a blog requires an external setup. For SEO-driven growth strategies, Kajabi has a slight edge here.

Can you run a free community on either platform? 

Yes on both. Kajabi lets you create a community with free and paid access groups on any plan. Thinkific lets you offer a free community on all paid plans. Both allow you to gate specific spaces or content for paying members while keeping a public-facing free tier open.

Which platform handles student data and privacy compliance better? 

Both platforms are GDPR-compliant and store data securely. Thinkific gives you more granular control over student data at the learner level, including detailed progress tracking and engagement data by lesson. For organizations in regulated industries that need formal data processing agreements or advanced security controls, Thinkific Plus is the appropriate option, not either standard platform.

Is Thinkific or Kajabi better for selling low-ticket digital products at volume? 

Kajabi handles this better because its marketing tools, funnels, and email automation are built for converting volume. Thinkific can sell digital downloads but its marketing tools are limited, so you would need to drive traffic and conversions from external tools. If digital products are your primary business and not a course add-on, also look at Podia, which is purpose-built for this at a lower price.

Can students access Kajabi or Thinkific courses in multiple languages? 

Both platforms support multilingual course content, meaning you can upload lessons in any language. Thinkific’s interface translates into over 20 languages based on the student’s device settings. Kajabi’s interface is primarily English, though course content itself can be in any language. If you are building courses for a non-English speaking audience, Thinkific handles the student-facing experience more cleanly.

Which platform is easier to switch away from if things do not work out? 

Thinkific is easier to leave. Your student data exports cleanly via CSV, Thinkific Payments can be disconnected without major disruption, and the platform does not lock your contacts inside a proprietary email system. Kajabi is harder to migrate away from because your email list, automations, funnels, and course content all live inside Kajabi’s ecosystem. The more deeply you use Kajabi’s marketing tools, the harder the exit.

Do Kajabi or Thinkific offer nonprofit or education discounts? 

Thinkific offers a 50% discount for eligible registered nonprofits. Kajabi does not publish a nonprofit discount program. If you are building a course business through a registered nonprofit, Thinkific is meaningfully cheaper even before comparing features.

Jeff Cobb, Founder of Learning Revolution

Jeff Cobb is an expert in online education and the business of adult lifelong learning. Over the past 20+ years he has built a thriving career based on that expertise – as an entrepreneur, a consultant, an author, and a speaker. Learning Revolution is a place where Jeff curates tips, insights, and resources to help you build a thriving expertise-based business. Learn more about Jeff Cobb here.