Running an online course business comes with its challenges. You need a platform that helps with delivering online courses but also supports marketing, sales, and student engagement.
Both Kajabi and Thinkific are popular choices for course creators, but they work in different ways.
The problem is that these platforms may lock important features behind expensive plans. It may be cheaper, but it lacks built-in tools that make you rely on extra software just to run things. This can lead to unexpected costs, frustration, and wasted resources.
Choosing between these popular platforms depends on what you need most: a fully built-in system with marketing tools or a flexible platform where you add your own sales tools.
In this guide, we’ll break down their features, pricing, and limitations to help you make the best choice for your course business. We’ll also introduce you to an alternative that offers everything you need in one simple, affordable plan so that you can sell online courses with ease.
Why Your Platform Choice Matters
Choosing the wrong platform can slow down growth and increase costs. Some online course platforms require expensive third-party tools, while others have steep learning curves.
You should consider these key factors before deciding:
- How quickly can you set up and launch an online course?
- Does it offer built-in tools or require extra software?
- Can it handle follow-ups, student reminders, and payments automatically?
- Does it support memberships, discussion groups, or live coaching?
- Is it a one-time fee or a monthly subscription?
Each of these factors plays a big role in your success. In the next section, we’ll compare Kajabi and Thinkific. We’ll also analyze another great alternative, CustomerHub, to see how they measure up.
What Is Kajabi?
Kajabi is a full-scale business platform that allows users to create, market, and sell courses under one system.
Unlike many online course platforms that only focus on content delivery, Kajabi includes marketing tools, email automation, and a built-in CRM. This makes it a popular choice for creators who want an all-in-one solution.
Key Features
- Develop engaging courses with multimedia content
- Build exclusive member areas
- Launch and manage podcasts from the platform
- Design and send marketing emails with customizable templates
- Implement pre-built, automated marketing funnels
- Accept and manage payments through Kajabi Payments (accept payments via credit/debit cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay)
Kajabi is best for course creators who want an all-in-one system without needing separate marketing and sales tools. However, its pricing is higher than Thinkific's, making it better for businesses that plan to scale.
What Is Thinkific?
Thinkific is a course-creation platform that focuses on customization and flexibility. It offers a course-building system that gives creators more control over the learning experience.
Key Features
- Build communities with exclusive members-only content
- A branded mobile app for learners to access content anytime
- Deliver personalized coaching sessions and live webinars
- Thinkific's in-house payment and selling solution to manage transactions
- Improve learner engagement with quizzes generated by AI
- Integrate with various apps from the Thinkific App Store for customization
Thinkific is good for creators who want full control over course content but don’t need built-in marketing tools.
Since it requires third-party integrations for sales and automation, it’s best for users who prefer to use separate tools for marketing rather than an all-in-one system like Kajabi.
CustomerHub: The Plug-And-Play Alternative
While Kajabi and Thinkific dominate the conversation, most course creators overlook a powerful, simpler alternative—CustomerHub. Unlike its competitors, it is built for ease, automation, and scalability without the tech headaches.
Key Features
- No coding or tech expertise is required; start selling in minutes!
- Guided steps, prerequisites, and progress tracking for a smooth student experience
- Sell courses, memberships, and subscription-based content from one dashboard
- Built-in community tool for updates, discussions, and engagement
- Connect with over 7,000+ apps via Zapier, including CRMs and email platforms
- Manage subscriptions, renewals, and one-time purchases effortlessly
- Works across all devices for easy student access
- Unlimited chat support and Done-for-You (DFY) setup services
- Organize and deliver content without complex settings
Designed for coaches, consultants, and digital entrepreneurs, CustomerHub makes it effortless to sell memberships, courses, and digital products from a single platform. It offers a quicker setup, seamless automation, and hands-on support to those who want to launch fast.
Features Breakdown: Kajabi vs Thinkific
When launching an online course creation business, you need a platform that fits your teaching style, marketing strategy, and growth plans. Kajabi and Thinkific are two of the most popular choices, but they cater to different business models.
If you are weighing the differences, this breakdown will help you find the best fit for your business.
Course Creation
Kajabi offers pre-built course templates that allow you to set up a mini-course, coaching program, or signature course. You can select a layout, upload your content, and customize the structure to fit your teaching style.
Kajabi’s AI tools help organize course materials, suggest content structures, and generate lesson ideas. It also allows you to accept payments within the platform without needing a third-party payment processor, which helps simplify your opt-in forms and checkout flows.
You don’t want to spend weeks figuring out integrations, setting up email marketing tools, or tweaking your website builder when you could be selling your course instead.
If you prefer to start from scratch, Thinkific offers drag-and-drop creation tools that let you create and arrange lessons and chapters as needed. It also includes an AI-powered outline generator that suggests a logical sequence for lessons.
Thinkific allows you to automatically issue completion certificates to students once they finish a course. With Thinkific’s mobile app, students can access course content anytime, and users can watch videos, complete lessons, and track student progress on any device.
Marketing and Sales Tools
Thinkific's AI-powered landing page generator allows you to create a compelling, visually engaging page. It automatically connects to your learning products, email lists, and checkout system.
Thinkific also helps you maximize revenue with TCommerce, a suite of built-in features designed to increase your sales. It lets you create seamless product upsells, payment processing, and optimized checkout experiences.
Kajabi provides a landing page builder that allows you to design and customize professional-looking pages without needing external tools. Its landing pages integrate with your marketing campaigns, email sequences, and product offers to help speed up your sales process.
The drag-and-drop builder lets you add forms, videos, countdown timers, and customer testimonials to create a compelling and high-converting page. Kajabi includes a sales funnel builder based on high-performing strategies used by successful businesses.
Student Engagement and Community Features
Kajabi provides a built-in community-building feature where you can host discussions, share updates, and facilitate interactions without external social media groups. It offers various engagement tools to boost interaction, including built-in live video sessions, direct messaging, and product progress reports.
Compared to specialized online learning platforms, Kajabi's gamification options are relatively basic. Features like badges or advanced leaderboards are limited, which might affect engagement for some user groups.
Thinkific also provides a built-in community feature that allows you to create dedicated community spaces for your students to interact, share knowledge, and support each other's learning journeys.
Students can set up personal profiles within Thinkific communities. The @mention feature allows community members to tag each other in conversations.
Thinkific communities support mobile and desktop push notifications to keep students updated with new discussions, course updates, and replies to their posts.
Integrations With Third-Party Tools
Thinkific allows you to integrate with third-party apps like Salesforce, ActiveCampaign, and MailChimp. Through its Thinkific App Store, you can explore additional tools to improve robust marketing, sales, and course delivery.
If you need more control over data and workflows, Thinkific also provides a powerful API that allows you to customize the student experience and integrate it with existing tools and custom applications.
Kajabi also lets you connect with a variety of third-party platforms to manage payments, basic email marketing capabilities, analytics, and automation all in one place.
The platform supports Stripe and PayPal in accepting payments from students worldwide. It connects with leading email marketing platforms to automate email sequences, nurture leads, and engage with students.
If you need to connect Kajabi with apps that aren’t natively supported, Zapier allows you to automate tasks between Kajabi and thousands of other platforms. If you're offering a free lesson, Kajabi makes it easy to gate content and trigger follow-ups automatically.
Customer Support and Pricing Plans
Let’s compare the two platforms’ customer service and pricing options.
Kajabi
Kajabi offers four pricing tiers to accommodate businesses at different stages of growth.
- The Kickstarter plan costs $89 per month and is suitable for those setting up their online business with essential tools.
- The Basic plan, at $149 per month, includes everything needed to start selling courses, memberships, and digital products.
- The Growth plan, priced at $199 per month, is the most popular option. It offers more features to help expand your business and grow sales.
- The Pro plan costs $399 per month and includes advanced tools for automation, analytics, and customization.
While Kajabi bundles everything together, many users end up paying for features they don’t need or use. Its advanced automation features are only accessible in the Growth and Pro plans. If you’re on the Basic plan, you won’t have access to these tools.
Custom branding is also restricted to Growth and Pro tiers, which can make it difficult to create a fully branded Kajabi website for your business.
Customer support is another limitation, as 24/7 assistance is not available in the Basic plan. If you encounter technical issues or need urgent help, you may not get the immediate support you need.
Thinkific
Thinkific is more affordable than Kajabi, but many critical features are missing unless you pay extra or integrate third-party tools.
- The Basic plan costs $49 per month and has essential tools to start selling courses.
- The Start plan costs $99 per month and has more features to grow student engagement and sales.
- The Grow plan costs $199 per month, and it has advanced tools to scale and sell more.
- Thinkific Plus offers a custom pricing plan that includes enterprise-level features, advanced integrations, and personalized support.
Thinkific’s lower price point is attractive, but most marketing and sales tools are limited to higher tiers.
If you’re on the Basic plan, you won’t have access to key features like memberships, payment plans, and live lessons. This can make it harder to implement more advanced sales strategies without upgrading.
Customer support is also tier-based, with only email and chat support available in lower plans. To get access to a dedicated support team, you’ll need to be on the Grow plan or higher.
CustomerHub Has Better Pricing!
CustomerHub keeps things simple, affordable, and fully accessible from day one. For just $79 per month after a 14-day free trial, you get unlimited products, unlimited users, and unlimited multimedia. No confusing tiers, hidden fees, or upgrade restrictions.
You also don’t have to worry about missing out on robust course creation tools or getting locked into expensive plans to access the features you need.
Instead of paying for features you’ll never use or dealing with frustrating limitations, CustomerHub gives you a comprehensive solution designed to help you launch, sell, and grow without the hassle.
No confusing pricing tiers—just a single plan, free for 14 days. Start your free trial today!
Want to know more about CustomerHub? In the next section, we’ll break down its key features and why it’s the best alternative to Kajabi and Thinkific.
Keep reading to see how it can help you sell courses, memberships, and digital products effortlessly.
What Makes CustomerHub Better Than Kajabi and Thinkific?
Kajabi is a solution with built-in email marketing, sales funnels, and automation, suitable for coaches, entrepreneurs, and digital product sellers. Thinkific, on the other hand, is designed for educators and course creators who prioritize structured learning experiences.
While these platforms offer useful features, they are not always the best fit if you're looking for a simple, scalable, and seamless way to sell courses and digital products.
When choosing a course platform, you need a solution that makes it easy to create, sell, and scale your business without unnecessary complexity.
Launch Faster With Plug-and-Play Simplicity
Getting your course or membership site live shouldn’t take weeks of setup and technical know-how. CustomerHub makes it easy to launch quickly, even if you have no experience with online platforms.
The dashboard is simple to navigate, so you can focus on your content instead of figuring out complicated settings.
Unlike Kajabi, which requires time to master, or Thinkific, which often needs third-party tools to fill in gaps, CustomerHub is built for non-techy entrepreneurs who want to start selling without the hassle.
Everything is ready to go, so you can launch in days, not weeks!
Sell More With Built-In Sales Pages
Having a great course isn’t enough. You need a platform that helps you convert visitors into customers.
Kajabi includes sales funnels, but they take time to set up and optimize. Thinkific focuses on course delivery, leaving you to figure out marketing features on your own.
CustomerHub makes selling easier with pre-designed, high-converting sales pages. You don’t have to build anything from scratch; just add your content, and your sales page is ready.
A simple checkout process ensures your customers complete their purchases without distractions, so you never lose a sale due to a complicated checkout experience.
Single Platform for Memberships, Courses, and Digital Products
If your business involves more than just courses, Thinkific might feel limiting. It’s designed for structured learning, which means you might need additional tools to handle memberships and other digital products.
CustomerHub gives you the flexibility to sell courses, memberships, and digital products from a single platform. Your customers get access to everything in one learning management system.
Built-in progress tracking and private customer feeds help keep members engaged, which also reduces churn and increases lifetime value.
Better Onboarding Experience
Your first interaction with a new customer sets the tone for their entire experience. Kajabi and Thinkific provide access to content, but neither focuses heavily on helping customers navigate the platform.
CustomerHub simplifies onboarding by guiding customers through a structured welcome sequence. Instead of leaving them to figure things out on their own, you can personalize their experience with custom welcome pages and step-by-step instructions.
This structured flow ensures a smooth introduction and gives learners the confidence to explore your online courses without hesitation.
Connect With 7,000+ Apps
Many platforms lock you into their ecosystem, which makes it difficult to integrate with the tools you already use.
CustomerHub offers quick integration with over 7,000 apps through Zapier, allowing you to connect with your favorite email platforms, CRMs, and payment processors.
Rather than being forced to switch tools, you can keep your existing setup and plug CustomerHub into your workflow. It gives you control over all the details that matter to your business.
Get Personalized Support & Hassle-Free Setup
Switching platforms or setting up a new system can feel overwhelming. With Kajabi and Thinkific, direct support is often locked behind higher-tier plans.
You’re left digging through help articles, waiting for email responses, or upgrading just to access real support. This forces you to pay for features you don’t need just to get assistance.
With CustomerHub, you’re never left figuring things out alone; you’ll always get unlimited chat support and personalized guidance.
If migrating from another platform feels like too much work, DFY setup services help handle the transition for you.
You can focus on building online courses and growing your business while CustomerHub takes care of the setup without the added cost of upgrading for support.
Affordable Pricing That Grows With Your Business
For many businesses, pricing is a deciding factor. Kajabi’s plans are expensive, and you may end up paying for features you don’t need. Thinkific’s free plan is limited, and unlocking key features requires upgrading to higher tiers or adding extra integrations.
CustomerHub offers a cost-effective solution at $79 per month, with unlimited products, users, and multimedia without the need for expensive add-ons. You can focus on growing your business without worrying about hidden fees or limitations.
Create & Sell Without Upgrade Headaches—CustomerHub Keeps It Simple!
Many solutions promise powerful features. But once you start using them, you often find hidden costs, missing tools, or limited support that make it harder to scale.
Complicated pricing tiers may even restrict access to essential features, which forces you to upgrade when you least expect it.
CustomerHub takes a different approach. Instead of confusing tiers and extra fees, you get everything you need in one simple plan for $79 per month after a 14-day free trial.
You can create and sell unlimited courses, memberships, and digital products with built-in automation and quick integrations. Plus, unlimited chat support and DFY setup services guarantee that getting started is stress-free, without the frustration of getting multiple upgrade options.
If you want a hassle-free, scalable solution without restrictions, CustomerHub is built for you. Say goodbye to tiered limitations and tech frustrations.
Start your free 14-day trial today and start selling online courses with ease!
FAQs About Kajabi vs Thinkific
What is the difference between Kajabi and Thinkific?
Both Thinkific and Kajabi allow you to create and sell online courses, but they serve different types of users.
Kajabi includes marketing automation, website hosting, and email marketing, making it an ideal choice for entrepreneurs looking for an all-in-one platform. However, its pricing is on the higher side, with many advanced features locked behind premium tiers.
Thinkific focuses more on course delivery with strong customization options. It has introduced built-in email automation features, including customizable email templates and automated sequences. These are helpful if you prioritize educational flow and strong student assessment tools.
How much does Thinkific cost per month?
Thinkific offers several pricing tiers, starting from $49 to $199/month. The higher the tier, the more advanced tools and support you receive, including integrations, memberships, and improved sales features.
What is cheaper than Kajabi?
Since Kajabi starts at $89 per month, many creators look for more affordable alternatives. Thinkific is one of the most popular lower-cost options, and platforms like Podia and Teachable also offer competitive pricing.
Another great alternative is CustomerHub, which is designed for ease of use and includes built-in automation, membership tools, and a more budget-friendly setup.
Do people make money on Thinkific?
Yes, many course creators generate a steady income on Thinkific by selling digital products, memberships, and awesome online courses. Since most Thinkific plans come with no transaction fees, you get to keep more of your profits.
