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Thinkific vs. Kajabi: Which platform is right for you?
Thinkific and Kajabi are learning commerce platforms that help businesses sell online courses, memberships, virtual community access, digital downloads, and other learning-based products. As Thinkific and Kajabi are so similar, this page will compare the features, strengths, and weaknesses of both platforms to help you decide which is best for your business.
Summary
Key takeaways:
- Kajabi is more expensive. Their cheapest plan is $143 per month, compared to Thinkific’s lowest-priced plan at $36 per month
- Thinkific is best suited for companies, large businesses, and teams, while Kajabi is well-suited for solo creators
- Thinkific has more integrations, making it easier for your tech stack to evolve as your business grows. Kajabi’s all-in-one platform can make it hard to leave or customize as your business grows.
Winner by category:
- Best for scalability: Thinkific (Unlimited courses, students, and enterprise-grade features, tools, and security)
- Best for teaching and learning: Thinkific (advanced assessments, integrated AI features, course creation tools, student reviews, and more)
- Best for budget: Thinkific (saves you up to 74% annually)
- Best for solo-marketers: Kajabi (if you don’t already have an email tool)
Pricing: Kajabi is more expensive
Thinkific is cheaper than Kajabi at every comparable plan level. Across paid plans, Thinkific costs significantly less per month and per year. Both platforms offer free trials.
| Plans | Thinkific | Kajabi | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific Basic vs. Kajabi Basic | $36/mo $432 billed annually | $143/mo $1,716 billed annually | 74.83% |
| Thinkific Start vs. Kajabi Growth | $74/mo $888 billed annually | $199/mo $2,388 billed annually | 62.81% |
| Thinkific Grow vs. Kajabi Pro | $149/mo $1,788 billed annually | $399/mo $4,788 billed annually | 62.66% |
Top features
How do Thinkific and Kajabi compare overall?
Choosing a learning commerce platform comes down to the features that directly impact revenue, scalability, and learner experience. Tools like digital downloads, community spaces, AI-powered creation, unlimited courses, and automated operations determine how easily you can launch, market, and grow without hitting limits.
This comparison is designed for educators, experts, academies, and businesses deciding between Thinkific and Kajabi who want to understand which platform offers more flexibility, fewer restrictions, and better long-term value.
| Feature | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Starting Price | $36 a month after free trial | $143 a month after free trial |
| Free trial | 30-day trial | 14-day free trial |
| Create courses with any content type | ||
| Host live webinars with many attendees (free or paid) | With limitations | |
| Host personal or group coaching sessions (free or paid) | With limitations | |
| Offer digital downloads (free or paid) | Limited by plan | |
| Expert customer support | Limited to specific hours/by plan | |
| Community spaces | Limited by plan | |
| Private instructor community | ||
| Email automation | ||
| AI-generated email flows to help sell your digital learning products | No | |
| Built-in course reviews | No | |
| Automated tax collection | ||
| App integrations | 90+ in Thinkific App Store | Limited |
| Unlimited students | Limit of 1000 (capped by plan) | |
| AI course outline generator | Built into the backend | Free tool |
| AI quiz generator | Manual | |
| Branded mobile app | $199/month | $199/month |
| Easy migration process |
Fit summary
Thinkific gives academies, training businesses, and learning institutions more flexibility than Kajabi by including essential tools without restrictive caps or heavy plan limitations. Additionally, Thinkific features an AI-integrated ecosystem that automates content creation, quiz generation, and student feedback directly within your workflow — no third-party hopping required. For businesses that want to grow learning revenue without outgrowing their platform, Thinkific is the better choice. Thinkific is also significantly more affordable than Kajabi, something to consider when choosing your learning commerce platform.
“Overall last year we had about 8% revenue growth. This was the first real significant growth in revenue that we had seen, and we really attribute it to people liking the fact that there is a more formal platform. It’s not an onerous process. All they need is a name and email.”
— Michael Beird
Course creation
How do course creation tools compare with Thinkific vs Kajabi?
An easy-to-use, yet flexible, course builder is one of the most important features of a learning commerce platform because it lets people focus on teaching and growing their business, not learning complex software.
Kajabi offers a course builder with all the core tools needed to create online courses, but new users — especially solopreneurs and teams — may need time to learn how the system works.
Thinkific’s robust course creation tools are designed for growing learning businesses, academies, and corporate teams that need simplicity, flexibility, and speed. Thinkific allows users to build complete courses with a minimal learning curve, making it easier to launch quickly and scale. As a result, Thinkific provides a more approachable course creation experience that supports stronger student engagement and long-term retention.
| Course Creation Capabilities | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| No design or technical experience required | ||
| Create courses with any content type | ||
| Downloadable content | ||
| Assignments | Up to 100 MB | Up to 10 MB |
| Recurring live lessons with Zoom | ||
| AI course outline generator | Built into the course builder | Free but separate tool, not built-in |
| Embed many types of multimedia content | ||
| AI video script generation |
Fit summary
Thinkific is the better fit for businesses that want flexible, engaging course creation without limits. With built-in AI tools, support for rich multimedia, larger assignments, and recurring live lessons, it makes it easy to create high-quality learning experiences at scale. Kajabi is better suited for simpler courses, but offers less flexibility for advanced or interactive learning.
“We needed something that could grow with us and support diverse learner needs. Thinkific Plus offers a dynamic system that evolves with each learner’s journey.”
— Nic Knorr (100,000+ enrollments and 75+ courses)
Learning experience
Does Thinkific or Kajabi offer a better learning experience?
A strong learning experience directly affects engagement, completion rates, and word-of-mouth growth. When learners can easily follow their progress and stay motivated, they’re more likely to finish courses and recommend them to others.
Thinkific is designed to maximize learner engagement and course completion. Features like built-in progress pages and intermission screens guide learners through each module, helping them track progress and reducing drop-off throughout the course.
While Kajabi offers a clean, modern course design that looks polished and engaging, it focuses more on appearance than on built-in learning mechanics that actively support learner progress and completion.
Here’s a closer look at the learning experience features Thinkific and Kajabi offer.
| Learning Experience Features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Easy course navigation | ||
| Optimized for all devices | ||
| Student progress tracking | ||
| Course completion certificates | ||
| Student course reviews | No | |
| Student engagement surveys | ||
| Sell memberships to a learning community | ||
| Live events | ||
| Discussion spaces | ||
| Direct messaging | ||
| Mentions and threaded replies | ||
| Member profiles | No | |
| In-app and push notifications to bring your audience back | ||
| Third-party app integrations | None for the student experience |
Fit summary
Both Thinkific and Kajabi cover core learning experience features like course navigation, mobile optimization, progress tracking, certificates, and live events.
However, success is measured by student results, not just sales. Thinkific’s tools — like active learner intermission screens and robust assignment feedback — are designed to drive completion and retention rates, whereas Kajabi’s platform is optimized primarily for the initial sale.
For businesses focused on long-term engagement, feedback, and repeat participation — not just content delivery — Thinkific provides a more complete and scalable learning and community experience.
“We asked our clients how they enjoyed the training that we had rolled out through Thinkific, and the feedback we received was that they enjoyed the content. Another thing that was valuable to them was adjusting to different learning styles. So we had the visual content and the audible content, and then we could also produce an attachment available for download at the end for reference down the road.”
— Ania Mueller, Manager, Delivery and Client Relationships
Sales and marketing
What’s the difference between Thinkific and Kajabi for selling and marketing?
Both Thinkific and Kajabi include built-in sales and marketing tools to help you attract learners and grow revenue.
Kajabi offers native email and funnel tools that work well for getting started quickly, but customization and extensibility are limited.
Thinkific provides more flexibility, combining AI-powered landing pages, email automation, and access to 90+ integrations — including ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp, Shopify, and Salesforce — making it a stronger choice for businesses that want to scale and customize their marketing stack.
Let’s take a closer look at Thinkific and Kajabi’s sales and marketing tools.
| Sales features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Create free, paid, and time-limited courses | ||
| Customizable payment plans and offers | ||
| Instant access to your funds | ||
| Coupons and promotions | ||
| Subscriptions | ||
| Bundle multiple products | ||
| Streamlined checkout | ||
| Order bumps | ||
| Built-in payment processor | ||
| B2B selling options (group orders, invoicing, and more) | ||
| Integration with e-commerce tools | ||
| Abandoned cart emails | No |
| Marketing features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Search engine optimization | ||
| Email automation tools | ||
| AI-powered landing pages | ||
| AI-generated email flows | No | |
| Bulk email students | ||
| Marketing integrations | 90+ | Limited to 10 |
| Affiliate marketing | ||
| Branding and customization across digital products and pages |
| Design customization features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Compatible with existing websites | ||
| Customizable course landing pages | ||
| Advanced CSS/HTML editing | On $99/month plan (Thinkific Start) | On $399/month plan (Kajabi Pro) |
Fit summary
When it comes to sales and marketing, Thinkific is the stronger choice for businesses that want powerful sales and marketing capabilities without being locked into a single ecosystem.
Kajabi works well for individual creators or experts who value simplicity over flexibility and don’t need advanced integrations or customization.
“To expand our reach, we extended access to our Academy beyond our existing customers. Strategically, we diversified our marketing channels, encompassing SEO, Paid search, Paid social, organic social and various others. Recognizing the paramount importance of a robust and reliable LMS to facilitate our substantial growth, Thinkific became the clear choice.”
— Srikar Chitturi, Full Stack Marketer (5,400+ students worldwide, 8+ online courses, 20+ countries reached with Thinkific)
Mobile app
How do Thinkific and Kajabi support mobile-first learning?
Both Thinkific and Kajabi support mobile-first learning through dedicated mobile apps. While Kajabi’s app was once a key differentiator, Thinkific now offers multiple mobile app options, giving businesses more choice based on size and branding needs.
| Mobile app capabilities | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Thinkific Mobile is included in Start plans and above $199/month for the Branded Mobile app | Branded app included in their Pro Plan only (which costs $499 per month) |
| Available on iOS | ||
| Available on Android | ||
| Support for communities | ||
| White-labeled app | ||
| In-app purchases | No |
Fit summary
Both Kajabi and Thinkific offer two mobile app options to support business needs. If you’re looking for a mobile app designed for solo creators and small businesses, Kajabi’s app experience might be right for you.
Thinkific’s mobile app offerings are best if you’re an academy or more established business looking for either full app ownership or a hands-off experience. Thinkific’s mobile app offers course and community access through a shared Thinkific-branded app, while Branded Mobile delivers a fully white-labeled app experience. For $199 per month, Thinkific will build, publish, and maintain a custom mobile app with your branding and a dedicated App Store presence.
“About 45% of our users visit horse IQ [our course] through their mobile devices, and it was really easy to set up the Thinkific-branded mobile app.”
— Elizabeth Lawhorn, Director of Competition Development (486% revenue growth since joining Thinkific, 1000+ students across more than 59 countries)
Support
How do Thinkific and Kajabi support you as your business grows?
Choosing a course platform requires reliable support and strong data security, especially as your business grows. Both Thinkific and Kajabi provide access to experienced professionals, active user communities, and responsive support teams.
As you grow, and your learning platform becomes mission-critical, Thinkific offers more security and support options, including a G2 award-winning support team, to ensure your success. Since it offers more support options, Thinkific is better suited for growing academies, training institutions, and larger learning businesses.
| Support features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Multiple support options | ||
| Private instructor community | ||
| Access to experts | No | |
| Dedicated customer support team |
Fit summary
Thinkific is the better choice for educators and businesses that need hands-on support as their learning platform grows. In addition to multiple support channels, self-serve support features (like a comprehensive knowledge base and webinars), and a private instructor community, Thinkific provides direct access to experts and a dedicated customer support team, making it well-suited for complex setups, scaling programs, and mission-critical learning initiatives.
Kajabi is a good fit for solo creators and small teams who want standard support without expert guidance. While it offers multiple support options and a community, it does not include access to experts, making it better for simpler use cases where advanced support is less critical.
“When Epoch Education (119,000+ enrollments, 50+ courses with Thinkific) was planning a course that would welcome over 3500 participants at once, they turned to Pia, from Thinkific’s customer success team, to answer all their technical questions and even had her on standby for the launch, just in case.”
Security
How do Thinkific and Kajabi handle security and data protection?
Security is one of the most important factors when it comes to choosing a learning commerce platform.
Thinkific combines secure architecture, encryption, access management, and strong compliance practices to keep data safe while supporting privacy and regulatory requirements. Thinkific’s platform is SOC2, GDPR, CCPA, and PCI-DSS compliant, and automatically activates SSL encryption for all Thinkific sites, providing a high level of protection for both customer and learner personal data.
While Kajabi has an official privacy policy, it is tough to find more detailed information on their security and privacy standards and certifications on their site besides the information found below.
| Security features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| 99.9% uptime and 24/7 monitoring | ||
| Secure cloud hosting and daily backups | ||
| Dedicated sandbox site | No | |
| SOC2 compliant | ||
| GDPR/CCPA compliant | ||
| SSL encryption |
Fit summary
Thinkific and Kajabi both prioritize platform security, data protection, and compliance with industry standards.
Thinkific’s extensive security features emphasize built-in encryption, strict access controls, continuous monitoring, and regular vulnerability testing, offering strong protection for growing education businesses, academies, training companies, and large corporations.
Like Thinkific, Kajabi also delivers strong security and privacy compliance, including SOC 2 and GDPR/CPRA support, along with SSL encryption. However, Thinkific’s emphasis on transparent employee security practices and advanced controls, as well as having a dedicated sandbox site, makes it especially suitable for businesses that need scalable, enterprise-grade safeguards.
Site administration
What’s the difference between Thinkific and Kajabi when it comes to managing learners?
Effective site administration makes it easier to manage learners, maintain control as you scale, and ensure a consistent learning experience.
Overall, Thinkific offers more advanced site administration tools designed for scaling learning businesses. Features like learner segmentation, group management, detailed progress reporting, and admin controls make it easier to manage large or diverse student audiences while maintaining visibility and control.
| Site administration features | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Single sign-on (SSO) | ||
| Multi-factor authentication | ||
| Archive courses and bundles | No | |
| Student progress reports | ||
| Bulk enrollment | ||
| Analytics | Advanced analytics and reporting | Limited |
Fit summary
Thinkific and Kajabi both cover essential site administration needs, including single sign-on (SSO), multi-factor authentication, bulk enrollment, and student progress reports. These features make it easy for administrators to manage access and oversee learners at a basic level on either platform.
Thinkific goes further with stronger administrative control and analytics. It allows admins to archive courses and bundles — a key feature for managing large or evolving catalogs—and provides advanced analytics and reporting, giving businesses deeper insight into learner behavior and program performance.
Kajabi offers core admin tools but more limited analytics. While it supports enrollment and progress tracking, its reporting capabilities are less robust, making it better suited to simpler setups where detailed operational insights are not critical.
“Getting instant access to the data that’s meaningful to us is a huge benefit of working with Thinkific.”
— Philip Michieli
Migration and onboarding
What migration tools and support are available with Thinkific vs. Kajabi?
Migrating to a new learning commerce platform from your existing platform can be an overwhelming process. However, Thinkific and Kajabi both offer solutions to make the experience as seamless as possible.
Thinkific makes it easy to migrate your existing courses and content using tools like the Content Uploader, which lets you import and organize video lessons, text, and other media quickly. It also supports bulk student import and enrollment options, allowing you to bring your learners with you during your transition to Thinkific. With Thinkific Plus, you have access to a dedicated Launch Specialist who provides 1:1 onboarding and launch support.
Kajabi does not offer free in-house migration services, but does offer paid migration options. Additionally, if you’re migrating from an existing Kajabi site to a different or new site, or from an outside platform, you will need to go through the migration process manually.
Let’s compare some of the migration features available with both Thinkific and Kajabi:
| Migration tools and support | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|
| Single sign-on (SSO) | No | |
| Bulk Content Uploader | ||
| Enterprise API access | ||
| 1:1 onboarding and launch support | No | |
| Import SCORM-compliant content | ||
| Dedicated customer success team | Manually | |
| Third-party app integrations | Limited |
Fit summary
Thinkific is best for growing businesses, training organizations, and enterprises that need a smooth, scalable migration experience. With bulk content uploads and enrollments, SCORM compliance, robust integrations, and hands-on onboarding through Thinkific Plus, it’s well-suited for teams moving large course libraries, existing learners, or complex learning programs with minimal disruption.
Kajabi is best for solo creators, entrepreneurs, or smaller teams migrating simpler course setups. While it offers API access and onboarding support on higher-tier plans, the lack of bulk content tools, no SCORM-compliance, limited integrations, and more manual processes make it better suited for straightforward migrations rather than large-scale or enterprise transitions.
Keap, a combined CRM, marketing automation, e-commerce, payments, and analytics platform, was able to migrate and transition to Thinkific Plus within 48 hours. As Philip Michieli, Keap’s Curriculum Developer, explains, “Being able to produce content in a significant number of ways and just Thinkific’s overall ease of use was something that was very pleasant when switching over.”
Frequently asked questions
Who benefits most from using Thinkific instead of Kajabi?
Thinkific is designed for experts, academies, and companies that want to grow a learning business and scale their learning experiences over time. It gives teams the flexibility to create multiple learning products, manage learners, and expand their offerings without strict limits. Kajabi is often chosen by those looking for a simple platform that combines content delivery with built-in marketing tools.
Is there a significant price difference between the two platforms?
Yes, pricing can vary significantly between the two platforms. Thinkific plans start at $36 per month after the trial period, while Kajabi’s entry plan starts at around $143 per month. The right choice often depends on the features your business needs and how you plan to grow your learning products over time.
Do these platforms include AI tools to help create courses?
Both Thinkific and Kajabi offer AI-powered tools designed to help streamline content creation. Thinkific includes AI features that help customers generate course outlines, create quizzes, and support content development directly within the course-building workflow. Kajabi also offers AI tools that help with creating course outlines and other content ideas.
How do these platforms support learner engagement and completion?
Both platforms provide tools designed to support learner engagement, such as video lessons, quizzes, and progress tracking. Thinkific focuses on structured learning experiences that help guide learners through courses with clear progression and feedback tools. Kajabi offers a visually polished course environment and tools that support delivering digital learning content.
Can I connect my existing marketing and software tools?
Yes. Thinkific connects with a wide range of third-party applications through its app store, making it easier to integrate tools you may already use for email, analytics, ecommerce, or automation. Kajabi includes several built-in marketing features and also supports integrations with selected external tools.
Are there options to provide a mobile app experience for learners?
Yes. Both platforms allow learners to access content through mobile apps on iOS and Android devices. Thinkific offers a branded mobile experience and a customizable white-label option for businesses that want a fully branded learning environment.
What level of reporting and administrative control is available?
Thinkific includes reporting tools that help you track learner progress, engagement, and sales performance. These insights help businesses understand how their learning products are performing and make improvements over time. Kajabi also includes reporting tools for tracking enrollments, sales, and course activity.
What happens if I need to migrate my existing content from another platform?
Thinkific provides resources and tools to help customers move their existing learning products and learner data to the platform. Customers on higher-tier plans may also receive onboarding support to help guide the transition process. Kajabi also provides resources to support customers moving their content to the platform.
Our customers have earned $4.23 billion with Thinkific
Talk to one of our team members to discover how Thinkific’s award-winning platform can help you drive revenue and retention.
