Thinkific Vs Kajabi: The Showdown for Course Creators
If you’ve hunted for online course creation platforms, you must’ve come across Thinkific and Kajabi. These two sit at the top of the course creator market, but they bring different perks for creators.
While Kajabi packs course delivery, marketing, funnels, and a website builder into one integrated platform, Thinkific offers a simplified, yet no less powerful learning environment where you can integrate the marketing stack you prefer.
So, objectively speaking, which is the better choice?
The showdown in this blog post compares Thinkific against Kajabi in terms of features, pricing, support, and growth potential.
Read on to find out what would make more sense to you.
A Brief Overview of Thinkific
Thinkific is an online course platform for subject-matter experts to publish courses online without a complicated setup process. It comes with an intuitive interface to help you in all stages of course creation.
It also handles video hosting natively, and lets you add quizzes or discussions where they add value. Because the platform stays focused on instruction, you can fine-tune pacing, add community touchpoints, and roll out updates without much fuss.
Pros
- The UI keeps technical jargon to a minimum, allowing for fuss-free onboarding.
- Offers flexible course delivery options like self-paced, drip content, cohort-style live sessions, and more.
- Bundles a custom, Stripe-based payment gateway, “Thinkific Payments”, which simplifies the entire payment process for creators.
Cons
- Although basic customizations are plenty, you’ll pretty soon feel a lack of depth when you want your lessons to look and feel a certain way.
- Deeper branding control and advanced communities sit behind the higher “Grow” and “Plus” tiers.
- Thinkific marketplace apps and integrations are expensive.
Pricing
Via Thinkific
Thinkific's pricing plans have a 0% commission rate, but several of its advanced features are only available on the Premier plan.
- Basic: $49/month
- Start: $99/month
- Grow: $199/month
- Thinkific Plus: Custom Pricing: (Designed for large enterprises needing bespoke solutions.)
Note: With the annual plans, you instantly save around 25% over the monthly fees.
A Brief Overview of Kajabi
Kajabi is an all-in-one “knowledge commerce” tool designed to let you create, market, and sell everything from online courses to digital products and memberships. It gives you the tools for building websites, creating content, managing marketing and sales, and handling payments, all within a single platform.
Pros
- Offers native email, funnels, and checkout sequences to shorten the jump from idea to revenue.
- A ton of customizable templates to keep branding consistent across course pages, sales pages, and newsletters.
- There’s an excellent website builder that also lets you host your website on a whim.
Cons
- You cannot remove the Kajabi branding unless you’re on a higher pricing tier.
- Changes are published straight to production; there’s no staging sandbox for experimental redesigns.
- The feature set can feel overwhelming on day one, and third‑party integrations are fewer than on open‑ecosystem rivals.
Pricing
Via Kajabi
Kajabi pricing plans are based on usage limitations. This results in Kajabi's high prices compared to other online course creator platforms when the same features are provided.
The different pricing plans are:
- Kickstarter: $89/month
- Basic: $149/month
- Growth: $199/month
- Pro: $399/month
Note: Like Thinkific, you get a 20% discount if you opt for the annual plans. If you’re making money with the platform, annual plans do make sense.
Thinkific vs Kajabi: Which Is The Better Course Creation Platform?
Now that we have a cursory understanding of what both Kajabi and Thinkific offer, let’s delve deeper and compare the platforms’ top features.
1. Customization and site design
Our first focus is also probably what you’ll use the first time you launch either platform…site design and customization.
Page Builder
On Thinkific’s Site Builder, you start with a clean outline, then drag in “Smart Sections” such as Curriculum, Video, Countdown Timer, or Lead Capture. All of it snaps to the typography and color rules of your chosen theme.
The library is broad enough for a polished marketing page yet small enough that you’re not paralyzed by choice as a beginner.
To us, it’s perfect for shipping a course quickly.
Via Thinkific
Kajabi’s new site builder, Encore, takes the opposite road: abundance. It replaces the legacy editor called Premier and brings more than twenty content blocks (hero, pricing, FAQs, podcast feed, Instagram grid, and so on) that can be stacked in any order, resized with the 12‑column grid, and saved as reusable “sections”.
All plans allow an unlimited number of landing pages; that means you can A/B test headlines today and come up with a fresh webinar registration page tomorrow without hitting a cap.
Via Kajabi
Course website themes
Thinkific ships three responsive themes, each with three or four styles for a total of 12 theme and style combinations, that you can apply and customize to your Thinkific site.
Via Thinkific
That’s a dozen variants out of the box, and you can dip into the Liquid code editor if your brand guidelines demand pixel‑level tweaks.
Kajabi, on the other hand, comes with a growing template catalogue, which includes some great options like Streamlined Home, Kim, Rise, Serenity, Reach, and several others. Pick one, swap in brand fonts via the Style Guide, then override specific layouts in the code editor when you need something off‑menu.
Via Kajabi
Both platforms expose full theme code. It’s useful when you want, say, a parallax hero or a headless Stripe checkout, and both accept third‑party or self‑built themes.
Verdict
Go with Thinkific if:
- You value a simple, teach‑first approach,
- You want to stay on brand with minimal tinkering.
Choose Kajabi if:
- You’d rather have complete design flexibility,
- The freedom to publish as many landing pages as you need.
2. Course creation
Kajabi and Thinkific have only minute differences when it comes to course creation and delivery.
If you’re looking for comprehensive course creation tools, you will appreciate Thinkific's extensive library of course materials and flexible delivery choices.
On the other hand, if you want to promote your expertise without relying much on third-party tools, you will like Kajabi more.
Course builder
Both the platforms cover the fundamentals you need to get a course in front of learners: drag‑and‑drop lesson assembly, bulk uploads for video, audio, PDFs, gated or drip schedules, quizzes, and completion certificates.
In other words, the “first draft” of any curriculum can go live in an afternoon, without any extra plug‑ins.
Our two contenders share a handful of features for building courses:
- Drag‑and‑drop syllabus builder: Create modules, reorder lessons, and clone sections in seconds.
- Bulk media upload: Drop in large video libraries, slide decks, worksheets, or audio files.
- Progress controls: Lock lessons until prerequisites are met or release content on a drip timer.
- In‑lesson quizzes: Get multiple choice, multi‑select, basic feedback, and pass or fail gating.
- Auto‑issued certificates: Mark completion and add social‑share credibility
Via Thinkific
But that’s where the similarities stop.
Thinkific’s builder is designed for instructors who need a variety of lesson types or highly interactive activities.
Via Thinkific
A Presentation lesson lets you upload an existing PowerPoint or Keynote deck (as a PDF) and record slide‑by‑slide narration right inside the editor. That means you can turn a live workshop into self‑paced content without extra software.
Via Thinkific
Beyond the default lesson types, the Thinkific App Store lets you use tools like H5P interactive widgets or Adaptive SimpleSim’s exam simulators, so you can drop branching scenarios, games, or niche assessments into the curriculum with a few clicks.
Choose Thinkific if your teaching style relies on richer media, custom quiz engines, or simulations that go beyond standard video‑and‑quiz delivery.
Kajabi focuses on speed from “draft” to “on sale.” The same pane where you add videos, live sessions, downloads, quizzes, and certificates also plugs directly into Kajabi’s funnels, offers, and when-then automations.
That means you can set a launch discount, bundle the course with coaching, or trigger follow‑up emails without exporting data or switching tabs.
Via Kajabi
Because the interface is shared across courses, coaching programs, memberships, and communities, you learn one workflow and apply it to every digital product you sell.
Via Kajabi
Learning experience
A good course is nothing if it’s not delivered well.
Kajabi’s polished course player, consistent visual templates, and native ties to email automations help you maintain momentum. Students can transition from one lesson to the next with minimal friction, and triggered messages can nudge inactive learners back on track.
Via Kajabi
Thinkific approaches engagement from a pedagogical perspective. You get more lesson formats (presentations, surveys, discussions), structured grouping tools, and recommended live touchpoints (via Zoom) that support instructional design that adapts to the rigor of the content.
Via Thinkific
With Thinkific, you can also mix self-paced modules with scheduled sessions and a threaded community to achieve higher completion rates.
Quizzes, assessments, and certificates
Both platforms let you build in-lesson knowledge checks, including multiple choice, multi-select, short answer, and file uploads, and use the results to gate progress or trigger follow-ups.
Via Kajabi
In Kajabi, automations tied to quiz or assessment outcomes automatically deliver extra resources, tags, or reminder emails. This helps with tightening the learning-to-marketing loop.
Via Thinkific
Thinkific offers the everyday quiz tools plus scalable options for deeper evaluation. You can bulk-import large question banks and randomize draws, and for regulated or high-stakes testing, you can integrate Brillium to deliver timed, pro-level exams with rich analytics. It’s only available on upper-tier plans and requires a Brillium account.
Via Brillium
Certificates are available on both. Kajabi issues auto-sent completion certificates with limited visual customization (primarily logo/text fields and basic styling).
Via Kajabi
Thinkific lets you choose from multiple templates, bundles deeper design edits including fonts, colors, and background image, and supports external credentialing providers like Accredible if you need branded or verifiable certificates.
Via Thinkific
Online coaching
Kajabi treats coaching as a core product. You schedule availability, connect Google Calendar or other scheduling tools, host live calls, share session notes, and bundle coaching with courses or memberships, all within the same subscription footprint. That close integration reduces back-and-forth when selling premium packages.
Via Kajabi
Thinkific also supports coaching but uses external schedulers. A typical workflow looks like this: you block time in Calendly (or similar), drop the booking link into a course or page, or install a scheduling app from the Thinkific App Store.
The live calls then run through the connected tool, like Zoom, rather than a native coaching workspace. Clearly, Kajabi has the edge here with better coaching features.
Communities
Having even the best learning tools is wasted if there’s no sense of community, or a place to ask questions and interact with fellow learners. Thankfully, both Kajabi and Thinkific recognize that and offer reliable community features.
Via Kajabi
Each lets you set up spaces where members can post, ask questions, and interact with instructors.
Kajabi’s re-architected Communities layer now includes configurable Challenges (one-time or recurring), gamification elements (badges, levels), live rooms with video and chat, segmented access groups, and engagement prompts. What a fun way to keep learners engaged and make them keep coming back to your course!
Via Kajabi
Thinkific’s community features enable threaded discussions around courses, but advanced engagement mechanics like live chat, gamified challenges, and native live rooms generally need integration with external tools or apps; Thinkific’s own resources often recommend add-on tools for richer real-time interaction.
Via Thinkific
Verdict
Go with Thinkific if:
- You are looking for a variety of lesson types and granular assessment control,
- Simple navigation and Zoom-based live lessons beat in-platform video rooms for your teaching style, and
- You run regulated exams or need branded certificates via Brillium or Accredible.
Go with Kajabi if:
- You want pre-built pipelines and deep funnel automation out of the box,
- Replacing MailChimp or ConvertKit with a full ESP is a priority, and
- Richer affiliate features like a public sign-up page, and custom cookies are important to you.
3. Live sessions
If live touchpoints are central to your pedagogy, pay attention here.
Via Thinkific
Thinkific integrates directly with Zoom Meetings and Webinars. You can schedule a Live Lesson from the course builder, auto-notify enrolled students, and run the session without leaving the platform interface (though a Zoom license is still required). Additional scheduling layers, like Appointo, can simplify bookings but run via third-party apps.
Via Kajabi
Kajabi offers built-in live video streaming and recording across its products (courses, coaching, community live rooms). Recorded sessions can be dropped back into the course library, and email notifications tied to events make it easier to drive attendance without external webinar software.
Verdict
Kajabi is the clear winner here, as Thinkific has to rely on external platforms to schedule live sessions. But there’s a catch.
Kajabi's Live Video is only available with Course Products, a manually scheduled coaching program, and Coaching Products using Kajabi Scheduler. If you have connected Calendly or a custom link to help you schedule your program, you will not be able to Go Live with Kajabi.
4. Branded mobile app
Thinkific and Kajabi both now offer optional mobile apps (separate from their free, platform-branded learner apps).
Via App store
These apps show your courses, community spaces, and offers under your name in the Apple App Store and Google Play. These apps come with push notifications and in-app purchase support.
Via App Store
Implementation is handled for you. You will provide the brand assets and approve the listings, and the vendor will publish and maintain the app.
Here’s how app offerings from both compare:
Verdict
If your priority is content consumption on the go, Kajabi’s app serves students better today, as long as your course does not rely on in‑app discussions or quizzes for iPhone users.
On the contrary, if your course relies on community interaction and frequent push nudges more than offline media, Thinkific’s free Student App remains fully interactive across both iOS and Android.
5. Marketing and sales
You can't expect to grow your course's audience without adequate marketing. We consider it a super important feature too.
Kajabi, being more marketing-heavy, handles funnels, email, automations, payments, and affiliates.
Thinkific keeps those levers lighter and, for the most part, optional, which is not an issue if you already trust a ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, or HubSpot stack and simply need a reliable checkout beside your lessons
Let’s break down the sales and marketing tools both platforms offer:
Marketing funnels
Via Kajabi
Kajabi’s Pipeline Builder opens with a menu of pre‑built campaign templates, including webinar, product launch, evergreen challenge, freebie lead magnet, and more. Pick one, and the platform arranges matching landing pages, opt-in forms, email sequences, and offer objects.
You edit the copy and media inline, press publish, and the entire sequence runs itself. Because Pipelines syncs with Zoom and Kajabi Live, the tool also automatically starts events and drops registrants into reminder emails and post-webinar replays without extra tags or zaps.
Via Kajabi
Thinkific, on the other hand, calls its native builder Funnels and currently ships three templates: Free Lesson, Free Download, and Sales Page.
Each template produces a single landing page tied to a modest email auto‑reply. The layout is serviceable but relies on one default design, with limited styling controls and no way to add or rearrange pages inside the flow.
Via Thinkific
Most creators, therefore, pair Thinkific with a dedicated funnel tool or run ads directly to checkout and let Stripe or PayPal handle the heavy lifting.
The bottom line is that if your growth plan revolves around multi‑step launches, Kajabi’s deep funnel automation will feel like the better choice.
Email marketing
Thinkific’s native email suite covers broadcast newsletters and single‑step confirmations. There’s no segmentation, no visual builder, and no analytics beyond open rates.
Via Thinkific
Serious email workflows need integrations with AWeber, ActiveCampaign, or another ESP. This, unfortunately, means two dashboards and two bills.
Kajabi beats Thinkific here by shipping with a robust email marketing stack.
Via Kajabi
You get a drag‑and‑drop editor, list and tag segmentation, automated sequences, deliverability analytics, and templated “visual automations” that let you branch by behaviour (like opened, clicked, bought, didn’t buy). For many creators, this replaces Mailchimp or ConvertKit outright.
Automation
Complementing its strong email marketing suite, Kajabi also bundles a when‑then‑if automation engine that can branch by link clicks, lesson progress, or purchase events.
Via Kajabi
A failed quiz can trigger a remedial PDF; sixty days of inactivity can pull a win‑back offer; a tag can unlock a down‑sell coupon, and much more.
Via Thinkific
Thinkific introduced Email Automations in 2025, which brought abandoned‑cart nudges and basic nurture flows to its earlier broadcast‑only system.
The update helps, but segmentation is still rudimentary, and advanced logic remains the domain of external ESPs; connections that Thinkific supplies through direct integrations or Zapier.
Affiliate programs
If you are new to course creation, you have to take into account the possibilities for additional revenue in your online course platform.
Both platforms let you create an internal referral program, set commission percentages, and review payouts.
Via Thinkific
Thinkific unlocks affiliates on the Basic tier. It offers lifetime recurring commissions and a 90‑day cookie, which is straightforward but bare‑bones.
Via Kajabi
Kajabi reserves the feature for Growth and Pro plans; in return, you get a public affiliate sign‑up page, custom cookie windows, link generators for off‑site URLs, and the ability to track lead‑magnet opt‑ins as well as direct sales.
Verdict
Go with Thinkific if:
- You’re trying to keep costs low. Here, plans start at a lower base price and there’s no transaction fees
- You’d rather upgrade only when you can’t do without extras like better communities and enterprise features
Go with Kajabi if:
- You’re ready to pay more because of its marketing powers
- You want its built-in automation suite to replace separate subscriptions
- You manage a large product catalog and have a relatively large audience
6. Pricing
First, let’s look at the direct platform costs:
Annual pre‑pay drops each price around 20 to 25%, but the relative gap stays within the same range.
But this is deceptive, because as you build your business, you’ll be adding other integrations and features that cost extra. Not sure what we mean? Let us explain
Kajabi offers a marketing stack in every plan, with broadcast email, visual automations, funnels, and an affiliate dashboard, so the platform fee is close to your all‑in monthly cost. Thinkific keeps core LMS features cheap but expects you to add on marketing and engagement tools. In practice, that means one or more of these:
- Email service provider: ConvertKit Creator plan is $29/month for up to 1,000 addresses. It’s Creator Pro plan steps up to $59 at roughly 5,000 contacts.
- Live teaching: Both vendors rely on your own Zoom licence. Zoom Workplace Pro is $16.99/month (or $13.33 billed annually) per host; webinars add another $79/month if you need registration pages and Q&A
- Affiliate tracking: Kajabi includes it; Thinkific users often plug in Rewardful, which starts at $49/month.
- White‑label mobile app: These are identical add‑ons. $199/month from Kajabi’s Branded App team and the same $199/month for Thinkific Branded Mobile.
Transaction fees are a safe 0% on both platforms; you still pay standard card fees.
Verdict
If you’re on a budget, beginners who only need course delivery and a simple checkout, you can launch for less on Thinkific and layer in marketing later.
If you know you’ll use email automation, funnels, and an affiliate program from day one, you will find Kajabi’s higher flat fee cheaper than paying for three or four separate subscriptions.
So, Kajabi looks more expensive at the checkout, but once you price the typical “missing pieces,” it can end up equal or cheaper by the time you hit a few thousand subscribers. Thinkific remains the lower‑cost path if you’re happy curating and paying for your own marketing stack.
Thinkific vs Kajabi: Which One to Pick?
If the answer were so simple, you’d not be reading an article like this. However, we have hopefully made the difference clear: focus. Thinkific concentrates on the teaching part, and Kajabi on the revenue and growth part.
Start with the outcome you need most and work backwards from there.
Choose Thinkific when your top priority is the learning experience, or if
- You want granular lesson formats, slide‑plus‑audio presentations, interactive apps from the Thinkific Store, or exams through Brillium, and you’re happy to bolt on marketing tools you already have.
- You value every dollar. Plans open at $49/month, every tier carries 0% transaction fees, and you can upgrade only when you need advanced communities or enterprise features.
- Your growth model leans on content quality, word‑of‑mouth, or an existing mailing list rather than elaborate funnels and flash sales.
Thinkific’s classroom‑first philosophy means fewer distractions for instructors who’d rather perfect curriculum flow before messing with marketing.
Choose Kajabi when you need an all‑in‑one revenue platform, or if
- You’d like one login for page‑building, email sequences, sales funnels, live webinars, coaching calendars, and affiliate payout reports.
- You want pre‑built Pipeline templates and a native ESP that lets you launch campaigns without Zapier and extra SaaS subscriptions.
- Your budget is less of a constraint than time: the $149/month mid‑tier replaces several standalone services, and paying more to keep everything together is an acceptable trade‑off.
Kajabi’s strength is momentum. Courses, memberships, coaching, and communities converge into the same automation engine, so scaling the business rarely involves new tools.
Is There a Third Option? What to Do if Neither Kajabi nor Thinkific is a Perfect Fit
Even after sizing up Thinkific’s teaching power and Kajabi’s sales power, you might feel neither platform lands exactly where you need it.
Maybe the price is too high, the feature list still leaves gaps in your workflow, or you’d rather keep full control by assembling a lighter, custom stack instead of locking into either ecosystem.
Well, FreshLearn might be just what you’re looking for.
It is a Thinkific alternative and Kajabi alternative that unifies course delivery, growth automation, and customer support in one dashboard, without charging a premium for the privilege. The platform already powers more than 15,000 creator schools and advertises unlimited courses and students on every tier, all at 0% transaction fees.
Via Freshlearn
Here’s what Freshlearn does better:
Profit-friendly economics, right out of the gate
FreshLearn starts with a free plan (good for up to 25 sales) and then moves to paid tiers at $49, $79, and $149 per month. These levels undercut Kajabi’s mid-range while matching or bettering Thinkific on features.
Via Freshlearn
Every plan keeps unlimited enrolments, in-house checkout, and Stripe or PayPal payments at zero platform commission, so growth doesn’t drag hidden costs behind it.
AI-accelerated course building and validation
Instead of a blank curriculum screen, FreshLearn’s AI Agents generate course outlines, quizzes, and branded sales pages from a simple prompt, while a separate AI Course Idea Validator checks demand before you invest weeks in production. The result is a working course shell (plus launch copy) in minutes. That’s something neither Thinkific nor Kajabi currently replicates natively.
A complete product and marketing system
One subscription covers on-demand courses, workshops, digital downloads, paid communities, and soon 1:1 coaching. Email campaigns, visual automations, referrals, coupons, and a blogging CMS sit beside a drag-and-drop website builder, so creators can attract, convert, and nurture students without stitching together half a dozen external apps.
Via Freshlearn
Learner engagement built to scale
FreshLearn introduces gamification elements to improve the learning journey, like badges, question banks, certificates, and white-label mobile apps on top of its core platform.
Real-time analytics pinpoint drop-off points, while 24x7 live-chat support keeps creators from stalling mid-launch. This is a level of support many users say was missing on other platforms.
Done-for-you migration that preserves every asset
Switching from Kajabi, Thinkific, or another LMS doesn’t cost extra engineering hours when you’re on any annual FreshLearn plan. The easy migration system moves up to 10 full courses on No Brainer and 15 on No Brainer Plus, with larger catalogues handled on a personalized quote.
Via Freshlearn
All videos, student data, and SEO-friendly URLs come across intact, so you relaunch on FreshLearn without losing momentum.
Actionable analytics, unified in one dashboard
FreshLearn’s built-in reporting tools tell you of enrolments, watch-through percentages, quiz scores, revenue by product, and campaign attribution in a single live view.
Via Freshlearn
Filters highlight where learners face issues, while CSV exports and webhook streams feed finance sheets or BI tools. These are insights that might require separate apps (or Zapier chains) on competing platforms.
AI Course Idea Validator that clears your doubts before you film
Before you burn hours recording lessons, paste your topic into FreshLearn’s AI course validator. The AI drafts a wait-list landing page, then tracks sign-ups so you can measure demand in days, not months.
When the numbers look right, the same workflow spins your validated outline directly into the course builder.
Monetization levers built to scale revenue, not fees
Beyond one-off course sales, FreshLearn supports subscription communities, tiered memberships, digital downloads, order-bump add-ons, instalment plans, and coupon-driven promos, all processed through Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, or PayU at 0% platform commission. Creators keep full pricing control and can launch new revenue streams without changing providers or paying for extra plug-ins.
Thinkific Too Lean? Kajabi Too Costly? Freshlearn is Your Answer.
Choosing a course platform should feel like unlocking possibilities, not picking compromises. Thinkific gives you teaching depth, Kajabi supplies marketing muscle, and FreshLearn offers the perfect balance of the two.
Freshlern pairs robust pedagogy with built‑in growth tools and fair, flat pricing. Pick the path that matches your priorities today, knowing you can always level up or switch as your business evolves.
To know more about Freshlearn, schedule a demo today!
FAQs
Does FreshLearn charge transaction fees?
No. Every FreshLearn plan, free or paid, processes Stripe, PayPal, Razorpay, and PayU payments at 0% platform commission, so your margins stay intact.
How quickly can I migrate my courses to FreshLearn?
- Annual subscribers get white‑glove migration at no extra cost.
- Up to 10 courses transfer on the No Brainer plan and 15 on No Brainer Plus; larger libraries receive a custom quote.
- Videos, student records, URLs, and sales pages arrive intact, usually within 72 hours.
Which platform is easiest for absolute beginners?
Thinkific wins on out‑of‑the‑box simplicity, but FreshLearn’s AI course builder now lets first‑time creators generate an outline, quizzes, and sales page in minutes, flattening the learning curve even further.
What monetization options does FreshLearn support?
- One‑off course sales, masterclasses, and live cohorts
- Subscription communities and tiered memberships
- Digital downloads, order bumps, instalment plans, and coupons
Do I need a separate email service if I choose Kajabi, Thinkific, or FreshLearn?
Kajabi and FreshLearn both include full email automation suites, so an external ESP is optional. Thinkific offers basic broadcasts and abandoned‑cart nudges; for advanced drip campaigns, you’ll still want a dedicated email platform like ActiveCampaign or ConvertKit.
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