Thinkific vs Kajabi: Which is Best?

So you’re curious about how Thinkific and Kajabi stack up to each other. I will talk about the similarities and differences so you can make the ultimate decision on which is better for you. We’ll start with price, since that’s one of the top factors for most businesses. Then we’ll show similarities and highlight some of the differences between the two so you can determine which is the winner for you between Thinkific vs Kajabi.

Thinkific vs Kajabi: Pricing

First of all, price shouldn’t be the absolute decider here because while Kajabi and Thinkific are both online course platforms, Kajabi also does so much more. If you just need something for online courses, Thinkific may be your best bet, since Thinkific offers a plan that is completely free to start off with, and won't complicate things by offering so many additional features. That said, the two course platforms have a much different approach so Kajabi may be the better choice for your needs.

Does Kajabi offer a free plan?

Kajabi doesn’t offer a free plan, instead, it allows you the option to try any plan for 14 days. If you like what you see, you just pay that monthly price thereon out. If you don’t, however, there is a no pressure money-back guarantee for the first 30 days of signing up. Also, you can upgrade your plan at any time in case you need more than what your initial plan offers.

If you are planning on signing up for a Kajabi free trial, you can get a 30 day free trial from a Kajabi affiliate. I am an affiliate and give 3 bonuses to my referrals to help them get off to a running start during the first 2 month.

What’s Thinkific’s refund policy? 

Thinkific does not provide refunds, so if you change your mind at any point, you’re SOL (short of luck).

Here is the comparison of the different pricing levels without plan details (more will be given below in another section):

What are Thinkific's pricing tiers?

Thinkific: 

• Free Plan: $0/month

• Basic: $49/month

• Pro: $99/month

• Premier: $499/month

      Bonus: Growth Package (included in Premier, $50/month when added to Pro)

What are Kajabi's pricing tiers?

Kajabi:

• Basic: $149/month

• Growth: $199/month

• Pro: $399/month

      Bonus: Kajabi Access addition for $99/month for any plan

Note that on both platforms, all payments, including the add-ons, qualify for 20% off when billed annually. Check out this article for a full review of Kajabi pricing. 

Final word on pricing

One difference between these two online course platforms is that Thinkific scales back the features you get in each plan a lot more, while Kajabi offers mostly the same functionality in each plan, but scales the quantity limits in the plans.

There are two features that really stick out to me as a reason to upgrade in Thinkific from the free plan to the basic plan, wanting to use your own domain, and wanting to drip content. If you are looking to have different pricing options like payment plans or subscriptions, you will need to upgrade again into the pro plan.

There are also other monetary costs to consider that we’ll discuss when covering the differences between the two (such as email marketing or sales funnels). Not to mention the difference in how seamlessly Kajabi integrates multiple features and aspects of business in one.

My verdict on price is if you are looking for a simple online course platform, Thinkific will win on price. If you are looking for more than that, like more flexible online courses or marketing tools, then Kajabi wins on price.

You will need to look at the key features you plan on using and if you are looking for more of an all in one online course platform, Kajabi wins on price.

Thinkific vs Kajabi: Plan Details

There are some comparisons to be made between the platforms overall, but we think it best to discuss each of the plans offered in greater depth so you have a better idea of what you’re getting with each one. After that, we’ll go into greater depth of the similarities and differences between the two. Here are the details of each of the plans.

Thinkific Plans

Thinkific Free

This plan offers a limited amount of courses but with unlimited students, a free website (not with a custom domain), and one site admin account. In addition, it offers the free features of an easy drag-and-drop course builder, full e-commerce platform, easy-to-use website templates, email and phone support, as well as Thinkific’s app store.

Thinkific Basic

This plan offers the free plan features but does not limit the number of courses you can create. It still gives you only one site admin, but grants you access to more features that help you launch your first course: live chat support, a custom domain, coupons and promotions, scheduled content dripping, one-to-one student email, and Thinkific Academy Basic courses.

Thinkific Pro

This is the most popular plan choice. In addition to the free features, unlimited courses, students, and content, it offers two site admin accounts, priority support, private and hidden courses, subscription and flexible pricing, completion certificates, single communities, live lessons, advanced course building, and Thinkific Academy Pro courses. 

Thinkific Premier

This plan is for most advanced users. It offers all features of the other plans, unlimited courses, students and contents, five site admins, the Growth Package (mentioned above) as well as the following features: an onboarding call and launch preparedness review from Thinkific’s team  and 15 Group Analysts.

Thinkific Growth Package

This add-on comes included with the Premier plan but can be added to Pro for $50/month more. Here are all the benefits it provides:

• Groups. This feature allows you to sell your courses at a larger scale (to cohorts or “organizations” as Thinkific puts it).

• Remove Thinkific branding from your website and student course player.

• Advanced Segmentation.–Organize student communications, reporting, and progress tracking in a better way through bookmarks and search filters.

• Public API. Developers and programmers can easily access and manage your website.

• Webhooks. Course data can be sent to any tools you would like to use.

• Communities. You can make communities around content for increased customer loyalty

• Infusionsoft integration. If you have subscribed to this marketing solution, you can easily boost course sales.

• ActiveCampaign Integration. If subscribed to this email marketing and CRM (customer relations management) tool, you can manage contacts for sales and marketing.

• Import students through .CSV or XLS files from other platforms or databases.

• Send out emails in bulk through your dashboard.

• Enroll students into courses through a Zapier subscription and integration.

• Brilliums exams integration allows you to make customized exams (as long as you have a subscription).

• Add or remove students en-masse from courses or bundles.

Kajabi Plans

Kajabi Basic

This plan includes three products (online course, membership site, coaching packages, podcasts) and three funnels. You get unlimited landing pages and marketing tools (emails, events, automations), and are limited to 10,000 contacts, 1,000 active members, and one website with one admin user. You also get access to Kajabi University, all the website and landing page templates you could ask for, and quizzes and surveys. You can use your custom domain but Kajabi branding is required in your email delivery.

Kajabi Growth

This plan includes the same as the Basic plan but at a larger scale: fifteen products, fifteen pipelines, and unlimited landing pages and emails. Here, though, you have access to 25,000 contacts, 10,000 members, and one website with ten admins. There are some additional features you get access to, the ability to remove Kajabi branding from email delivery, advanced automation for emails, 24/7 chat support, and the affiliate program.

Kajabi Pro

This plan includes everything from the Growth plan, but instead of fifteen products and fifteen pipelines, you get one hundred of each. Also, your contacts are now upped to 100,000, you can have double the active members at 20,000, and three websites with twenty-five total admins. Should you need to make changes to the code of your courses or websites, that is also now available with the Pro plan.

Kajabi Access

This add-on allows you to get one-on-one mentoring (six total sessions with a Customer Success Manager) to help you get the most out of Kajabi. It also doubles the numbers of your plan as to products pipelines, contacts, members and more. For the Basic and Growth plans, this unlocks the custom code editor. Finally, you have the option to get your questions answered via the virtual Hero Hub, which is essentially office hours with the Customer Success team.

Now that we’ve wrapped up the actual plans and features they include, let’s dive into the overall differences and similarities between the two platforms.

Thinkific vs Kajabi: Comparisons

As can be seen in the plan detail section, Thinkific and Kajabi have similarities in offering an online course platform, and the ability to sell online courses, but Kajabi offers many more features that, depending on your needs, may be very useful to you. The most notable to me are marketing tools. If you are going to be selling and online course, you will need an email marketing platform.

Thinkific vs Kajabi: Similarities (with some differences)

Both platforms allow you to design a website. While Thinkific themes are limited to three themes and three to four styles, Kajabi has multiple themes you can choose from. From there, you can customize your site using the chosen theme. One other difference between the two here is that email marketing is already built-in with Kajabi. Thinkific requires you to set up a third-party solution.

Both platforms are designed to create courses and or membership sites. Thinkific is more simplistic which makes it easier for beginning course creators. Kajabi, on the other hand, has a more in-depth set of tools to allow you to create and sell courses in a variety of ways.

Thinkific vs Kajabi: Differences (with some similarities)

Two simple but unique features for both are blogs and certifications. With Kajabi, you can create a blog and easily integrate it into your website. Thinkific does not have this functionality. While you can improvise with the Custom Pages feature, it’s a bit more challenging to work with.

Thinkific wins in the area of certifications, which are built into the platform. Kajabi does not offer these certifications. If certifications are desired, you must go through a third-party to get these for your students.

Kajabi has a mobile app, so your members can easily reach your course content and receive notifications from you. There are even more features like picture-in-picture, so you can have the video playing in the background, and casting, so your students can see your content on a bigger screen. Your students can interact with you from any platform with Thinkific, but it’s not quite the same as a mobile app.

Kajabi outshines Thinkific when it comes to sales tools: email marketing, CRM (Customer Relations Management) software, and sales funnels . All of these integrate seamlessly into the platform already. If you want these with Thinkific, you have to get a third-party subscription, some of which can integrate (MailChimp, Infusionsoft, AWeber), but others which cannot. For an indepth look at kajabi's email marketing tools, check out this post.

Thinkific wins in the security department, as it offers Single Sign-On (SSO), Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA), and cloud-updated SSL certificates (what makes a website secure and encrypted). While Kajabi does offer the cloud updated SSL encryption and is compliant with international law (GDPR) like Thinkific, it does not offer SSO or MFA.

Kajabi wins on support. Kajabi offers 24-hour technical and customer support via chat. Thinkific does offer this, except for the free plan (email or phone call only). Kajabi provides a go-to database of information on all aspects of business called Kajabi University. While Thinkific does offer access to experts, these come as another hidden cost. Kajabi University is included in your plan.

So, who wins Thinkific vs Kajabi?

Thinkific and Kajabi are competitors in the online course platform arena, if you are selling on an online course, they should be on your radar and there are other course platforms out there. Which is right for you really depends on how you have built your online business. Kajabi goes way beyond being an online course platform, they provide a website builder, marketing features, blog, podcast, coaching product and more. So what do you need?

Do you already have everything in your business set up and just need to add an online course platform? Or could you benefit from having so many features seamlessly integrated together in one platform saving you time and money?

I find a lot of value in having so many of my business needs taken care of by one platform. Kajabi works very well for me and what I need. So much so that I am an affiliate for them and do what I can to tell others about it.

The best way to know if Kajabi is going to be right for you is to try it out. I can offer you a 30 day free trial and give all my referrals 3 bonuses to support them in their first 2 months. If you want to try out Kajabi, click the button below to learn more about how I will help you out.

JD

Kajabi Expert