Thinkific vs Kajabi: Which Is Better in 2026?

At a glance

	Thinkific	Kajabi
Best for	Course businesses that plan to grow	Creators who want marketing and courses in one system
Starting price	$82 / month (Start, billed annually)	$143 / month (Basic, billed annually)
Month-to-month price	$109 / month	$179 / month
Next plan up	Grow, $164 / month billed annually	Growth, $199 / month billed annually
Free plan or trial	No free plan; 30-day free trial	No free plan; free trial and 30-day money-back guarantee
Entry plan limits	Thinkific branding stays; no analytics or bulk email	5 products and 2,500 contacts
Payment fees	No extra gateway fee with Thinkific Payments	2% fee on third-party gateways on Basic
Built-in marketing	Course-focused; connects to your email tool	Email marketing, landing pages and funnels
Community and live	Communities and live cohorts on every plan	Communities and coaching programs

Thinkific is the better fit for course businesses that want strong learning tools at a lower entry price, while Kajabi suits creators who want email, landing pages, funnels, coaching and courses in one login. Both are hosted platforms with checkout, communities and free trials, so neither is a bad choice. The decision comes down to how much of your business you want the platform to run, and what you will pay for that.

We rate Thinkific 4.7 out of 5 and Kajabi 4.6, first and second on our ranked list of the best online course platforms. Here is how they compare on the things course sellers weigh most.

Who each platform is built for

Thinkific is a course platform for creators and training businesses that want room to grow. Every plan covers courses, live cohorts, quizzes, certificates, memberships and a custom domain, plus at least one community. It focuses on the learning side and connects to the marketing tools you already use.

Kajabi puts courses, coaching, communities, email marketing, landing pages and checkout in one system. It is designed for creators who want to run the whole business from a single login and stop paying for a stack of separate tools.

Winner: depends on your stack. Thinkific if you already have email and a website you like, Kajabi if you want to replace them.

Course building and the student experience

This is Thinkific’s home ground. Quizzes, certificates, live cohorts, memberships and bundles are part of every plan, so you can build a structured program with assessments and a completion certificate from the start. Communities sit inside the same platform, which helps cohort courses where students learn alongside each other.

Kajabi covers the course basics well and adds coaching programs, which suit creators who sell one-to-one or group coaching next to a course. Its strength is less in the depth of the course builder and more in how the course connects to everything else you sell.

Winner: Thinkific. It puts more of its effort into the learning experience, and the course tools on its entry plan are broad.

Marketing, email and funnels

Kajabi’s main selling point is that marketing lives inside the platform. Email campaigns, landing pages and funnels sit next to your products, so a new lead can move from a free download to a sales page to checkout without leaving Kajabi. That removes the integration work and the separate bills that come with a multi-tool setup.

Thinkific is course-focused. It connects to outside email tools, and bulk email to students arrives with the Grow plan. If you already run a mature email program elsewhere, that is a strength, because you keep it intact. If you are starting from nothing, you will need to buy and connect more pieces.

Winner: Kajabi. Built-in email, landing pages and funnels are the reason it exists, and they are included from Basic.

Community, cohorts and coaching

Both platforms include communities. Thinkific adds live cohorts on every plan, which suits programs that run on a schedule with a group of students starting together. Kajabi pairs its communities with coaching programs, which suits creators whose revenue leans on calls and personal guidance.

Winner: Thinkific for cohort courses, Kajabi for coaching-led businesses. Pick the one that matches where most of your revenue comes from.

Pricing and total cost

Thinkific starts lower. Start costs $82 a month on annual billing or $109 month to month. Kajabi Basic costs $143 a month on annual billing or $179 month to month, the highest entry price on our list. Annual billing saves real money on both, so a sensible path is to start month to month while you test and switch to annual once the course is selling.

Raw price is not the whole story. Kajabi’s price includes email marketing and funnels, so compare it with Thinkific plus the email tool and page builder you would pay for alongside it. If you already own those tools and plan to keep them, Thinkific is clearly cheaper. If you would cancel them, the gap narrows.

Payment fees also differ. Thinkific charges no extra gateway fee when you use Thinkific Payments. Kajabi Basic adds a 2% fee if you use a third-party gateway, so plan to use Kajabi’s own payments on that plan. Card processing fees apply on both.

Winner: Thinkific. It costs less to start, and it costs less overall unless you would otherwise buy separate marketing tools.

Plan limits and room to grow

Thinkific’s Start plan keeps Thinkific branding and leaves out analytics and bulk email. Most growing businesses move up to Grow at $164 a month on annual billing to get those.

Kajabi Basic caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts. A creator with several courses, a coaching offer and a growing list can hit those limits quickly. Growth raises the cap to 50 products for $199 a month on annual billing.

Winner: Thinkific. Its upgrade costs less, and Kajabi’s 5-product cap on Basic is the limit growing creators hit first.

Ease of setup and daily use

The setup work looks different on each platform. With Kajabi, most of it happens inside one system: you build the product, the landing page, the email sequence and the checkout in the same place, and there are no connections to maintain between tools. The trade-off is that you are learning a larger system, and moving your email list and automations into it takes real time.

With Thinkific, the course side is focused and quicker to learn, but you also maintain the link to your email service and any outside sales pages. When something breaks between two tools, you are the one who has to find it.

Winner: Kajabi for creators starting from scratch, Thinkific for creators with a working stack. Fewer tools is simpler only if you were not already happy with the ones you have.

Trials and risk

Thinkific offers a 30-day free trial on paid plans. Kajabi offers a free trial on every plan plus a 30-day money-back guarantee, which gives you a second safety net after you start paying. Neither has a free plan.

Winner: Kajabi, narrowly. The money-back guarantee lowers the risk of committing after the trial ends.

Which should you choose?

Choose Thinkific if your business is built around the course itself, you want cohorts and assessments, and you already have email and a website that work. Choose Kajabi if you want one login for courses, coaching, email and funnels and are ready to move your list into it. Use the trial to build one real module and one real sales page on each, then decide with your own numbers.

A fair test takes about a week on each platform. Upload the same module with a video, a worksheet and a quiz. Build the same sales page, buy the course with a real card, and watch the lessons on a phone. Then estimate twelve months of sales and add up each platform’s plan price, payment fees and any outside tools you would keep. The cheaper option on paper is not always the cheaper option once your real stack is included.

Pros and cons

Thinkific

Kajabi

Which should you choose?

Frequently asked questions