Kajabi vs.Thinkific, the battle between two leading online course platforms. Both offer a lot of value to their customers and they’ll help you create and market your course to your audience. 

There are similarities and differences among the two but, ultimately one will be the better choice for your business. What will determine that includes the features, services, and pricing that are the best fit for your organization.

Kajabi

Kajabi is an all-in-one platform on which to build your online business. It allows you to host your online courses, website, landing pages, membership sites, coaching, emails, podcasts, communities, coaching, etc., all in one place.

Instead of using and paying for different tools, you can build it all with Kajabi.

When you create something to sell, Kajabi calls that a “product.” Kajabi also offers what it calls “pipelines” which are individual sales funnels. Different price levels allow for a different number of products and pipelines. 

When creating a product on Kajabi you start by choosing a “blueprint.” This is a template of how to set up the specific product you want to create. You can choose options such as a mini-course, course, drip course, membership, coaching, or community. You can also choose a blank template if you already know how you want to set things up. 

You can also choose different themes and layouts that change the look of how your content is displayed to your students. This becomes more essential if you are maintaining a specific look or incorporating your brand.

The marketing tools are where Kajabi really stands out. Kajabi basically replaces your email service provider and allows you to send freebies, host on demand webinars, email sales funnels, and more. 

The convenience of having everything in one place makes for smooth business operations. The downside is that if there is a feature that doesn’t work well for your business, you’re stuck with it. 

Overall, reviews state that the platform is easy to use but can lack customization options a business might need.

Kajabi pricing

Like other online course platforms, you get a 14-day free trial to check out the platform before you choose one of their three paid plans.

Pricing starts at $119/month (billed annually) and it’ll get you three products, three pipelines, unlimited landing pages and marketing emails, one website and other features. Monthly plans are also available.

If the three products and pipelines are not enough for your business, there are two other options. The Growth plan is $149 per month, but you are allotted 15 products and 15 pipelines. It also gives you access to the affiliate program, plus it works with up to 25,000 email contacts.

The Pro version, which is $319 per month, is better suited for companies which need up to 100 products and pipelines. It also allows code editing, for the highest level of course customization.

For more on Kajabi, check out our full Kajabi review.

Thinkific

Thinkific is a course hosting platform that works mainly for online courses, but also includes membership sites and coaching programs. They help you create, design, and market your program to your audience.

It will host your course and landing pages and allow you to collect payments, including payment plans and monthly memberships. 

When you create a course on Thinkific you also start with a template. The templates are limited to just courses and they are classified as a mini-course, flagship course, and pre-sell. You can also choose a blank template for freeform building. 

There is only one layout for displaying the content and it is best suited to courses, which is fine since that is the focus of Thinkific in the first place. 

When you upload content, you first put it into your video library and move it to your course from there. This is handy if you want to use the same videos in different courses. 

Thinkific’s marketing tools are lackluster and you will need an additional email service provider to send freebies and build email sales funnels. 

Unlike Kajabi, it’s not an all in one platform but it does integrate with all of the other services you’ll need, such as your email provider and website. While that is likely more expensive overall, you’ll get to pick and choose the services that best fit your needs. 

They have good student support giving students access to replays, language controls, progress updates in the course, certificates, and other features.

Overall, reviews state that it’s easy to set up and use, but that the design needs to be updated. 

Thinkific Pricing

Thinkific has a free forever plan that gives you limited access to advanced features like quizzes and surveys. You also have restrictions on the number of courses you can create but this is a good free plan to give you as much time as you need to test drive the platform.

Paid plans start at $39/month (billed annually) which will help you start your education business with unlimited courses, an affiliate program, coupons, and other advanced features. Monthly plans are also available.

For more on Thinkific, check out our full Thinkific review. 

Pros and Cons of Kajabi

Before we choose between Kajabi vs. Thinkific, let’s look at the best features, and other features needing consideration.

• All-in-one platform, from courses to podcasts
• Wide variety of marketing tools
• Email integrations, including Mailchimp and Convertkit
• Build your own website
• Detailed analytics at your fingertips
• Build a community
• Integrates with Stripe and Paypal, for fast payments
• Multiple automation tools to streamline your work
• Create membership and subscription sites

Kajabi is a true, all-in-one solution for online learning (and more). Sometimes when a site markets itself as an “everything you need” answer, it can add complexity for users.  You should be aware of some potential downsides.

Pricing. If budget is a concern, the $119 or $159 monthly price tag may be too steep. 

Blogging features are lacking. Reviews point out the lack of blogging features (remember, this is an everything-in-one-place, including a blog). Other services, such as WordPress, offer far more features.

Integrations can get confusing. Because Kajabi integrates with so many options, some users find this overwhelming and difficult.

If you are still unsure if Kajabi is right for you, you can always take advantage of the 14-day free trial and test out the features for yourself. 

Pros and Cons of Thinkific

Thinkific offers a number of advantages for an online course platform, including:

• Unlimited number of courses
• Number of students is also unlimited
• Create drip content or evergreen, for ultimate scheduling flexibility
• Drag and drop editor makes it easier to use
• You don’t need your own website to use Thinkific
• Email integration option available
• Accepts over 100 currencies, so you can expand across borders
• No transaction fees
• Instant access to funds (assuming you enjoy getting paid right away)

While there are plenty of great features, keep in mind other aspects, such as:

Customer service complaints. Online reviews show less-than-favorable remarks regarding customer service. The chief concern is the length of time it takes to get a response.

Be prepared for your own marketing. Since Thinkific is not a marketplace where eager students can find you like other course platforms offer, you should be prepared to market your own course. 

No sales funnel integrations. While Thinkific does not directly integrate with sales funnel options, such as LeadPages or Clickfunnels, it does offer its own landing page designs. 

Although these are important for some businesses, don’t forget you can always start with the free plan and see how Thinkific works for your business needs.

Kajabi vs Thinkific – Which Online Course Platform is Better?

Both Kajabi and Thinkific would be a good choice to help run your online business. 

Kajabi is an all in one platform that will house your entire online business from website to membership community. If you are starting from scratch and don’t want to shop for, set up, and learn a variety of different softwares Kajabi might be the perfect fit. Where Kajabi really shines is with the marketing tools, especially compared to Thinkific.

Since it’s all in one, everything is already set up and working together. You can spend your time focusing on your business instead of your tech. 

Thinkific focuses on online courses and integrates with the other services you’ll need to run an online business. This service is better for established businesses that already have the main components of a business set up, such as an email service provider and website. 

If you like, and are comfortable with, the services you already have it doesn’t make sense to switch to an all in one platform that may or may not have all the bells and whistles you’re used to with your stand alone services.