Kajabi vs Thinkific: Which One Is The Best For Course Creators in 2025?

If you’re exploring options for an online course platform in 2025, you’re likely considering Kajabi and Thinkific. Both are popular choices, but recent changes might influence your decision. 

Kajabi has announced a price increase across all its plans, effective January 13, 2026, which could impact your budget. On the other hand, Thinkific has retired its free plan, now offering only a 30-day free trial.

With these recent changes, deciding between Thinkific and Kajabi can be tricky. That’s why we’ve put together this comprehensive Kajabi vs Thinkific guide to help you make the right choice.

Also, we have thrown in Klasio, if you are open to exploring new options.

Kajabi vs Thinkific: Quick Comparison

Feature	Thinkific	Kajabi
Course Creation	Intuitive platform with clear onboarding; easy and powerful drag-and-drop course builder	Intuitive platform with training materials and straightforward instructions within the app; easy and powerful drag-and-drop course builder
Learning Experience	Offers tools like quizzes, certificates, content dripping, and locking, but doesn’t intrinsically support live streaming or coaching	In addition to Thinkific’s features, it allows you to hold coaching and live video sessions to improve the learning experience
Student Assessment	More options for assessing students; integrates with Brillium for advanced assessments	Only supports quizzes and assignments within a course
Communities	Limited community-building and engagement tools	Excellent tools: access groups, live streaming, group challenges for strong engagement
Memberships	Allows recurring revenue through course + community membership packages	Same as Thinkific — allows recurring revenue through memberships
Marketing & Sales	Basic website/landing page builder and coupons, but limited email marketing and funnel tools	Includes automated funnels, email marketing suite, and opt-in forms
Integration	Integrates with many third-party tools	Integrates with many third-party tools
Pricing	Affordable for small businesses	More expensive but feature-rich

Now, let’s talk about the difference between Thinkific and Kajabi in detail.

Both Offer AI Tools, But Kajabi’s AI Is More Marketing-Focused, While Thinkific’s AI Is More Learning-Focused

You’ll find AI assistants on both platforms ready to help simplify your course creation process. When you start creating a course or any other product on either Kajabi or Thinkific, you’ll see options to generate outlines and landing pages using AI based on descriptions you provide.

Kajabi takes this a step further with Creator Studio, an AI content repurposing tool that transforms your course videos into various types of marketing content. 

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After you’ve added videos to different modules in your course, you can use Creator Studio to create weeks’ worth of Facebook posts, newsletters, community announcements, and blog content. You can even upload videos from your device and repurpose them using this feature.

Thinkific also includes impressive AI capabilities, particularly its AI quiz generator that creates quizzes for your students based on your course content. The platform also offers an AI captioning tool that automatically adds closed captions to videos in the speaker’s language, making your content more accessible.

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Klasio Also Offers an AI Course Outline Generator

Just like Kajabi and Thinkific, Klasio also offers an AI course outline, course content, and a blog content generator. 

With Klasio’s AI course outline generator, you simply write your prompt, and it will generate your course outline.

On top of that, Klasio also offers AI to refine your course content and blogs. As Klasio believes in your originality and creativity, you can only use the AI tools to improve your content, not generate it from scratch.

Winner: Tie

Thinkific Provides Better Live Learning Options Than Kajabi

Course creation and content delivery are where both platforms truly shine. Both Kajabi and Thinkific give you efficient ways to package and monetize your knowledge with standard features like drag-and-drop builders, content dripping, assessments, and certificates.

However, when it comes to providing advanced learning experiences, the cost factor becomes crucial. 

While Kajabi does offer built-in live video and coaching features, accessing their advanced Cohort Courses feature requires upgrading to at least the Growth plan at $199/month annually ($249/month if paid monthly).

Thinkific, on the other hand, provides excellent live learning capabilities through seamless integration with industry-standard tools like Zoom. This offers unlimited session length, professional-grade video quality, and advanced features like breakout rooms with individual recording capabilities. 

You can access these features starting from Thinkific’s Basic plan at just $36/month annually. This means that for the same price as Kajabi’s Growth plan ($199/month), you could have Thinkific’s top-tier Grow plan ($149/month) plus a professional Zoom account, giving you more flexibility and often better functionality for live learning experiences.

The cost difference becomes even more significant when you consider that Thinkific’s approach lets you choose best-in-class tools for each function, while Kajabi locks you into their ecosystem at premium pricing for advanced features.

Klasio Offers Live Teaching Capabilities for Free

Unlike Kajabi and Thinkific, Klasio offers a very generous free plan that includes a live cohort, where you can teach live. Similar to Thinkific, you’ll need to integrate with Zoom or Google Meet to do that.

Apart from the live cohort, you can also create and host webinars with Klasio.

Winner: Thinkific and Klasio

Thinkific Has More Features for Assessing Students Than Kajabi

If thorough student assessment is crucial to your course success, Thinkific takes the lead here. The platform offers more options for evaluating your students’ progress and understanding.

Thinkific’s assessment capabilities include various question types and formats that go beyond basic quizzes. The platform also integrates with Brillium, a professional exam solution that enables you to add advanced question types and sophisticated assessment features to your courses. 

This integration is particularly valuable if you’re offering certification programs or need to meet specific educational standards.

Kajabi, while solid for basic assessment needs, primarily supports quizzes and assignments within courses. The assessment tools are functional but not as extensive as what Thinkific offers.

Klasio Also Offers Decent Student Assessment Options

Klasio provides a solid middle-ground approach to student assessments, featuring customizable quizzes, assignments, and progress tracking tools that rival both Kajabi and Thinkific. 

Klasio supports various question types, including multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer formats, with automated grading to save instructors’ time. 

While it may not have Thinkific’s professional exam integrations or Kajabi’s ecosystem, Klasio’s assessment tools strike an excellent balance between functionality and ease of use.

Winner: Thinkific

Kajabi is Better for Sales and Marketing Than Thinkific

This is where the fundamental difference between Kajabi and Thinkific becomes most apparent. If you’re looking for a platform that can handle your entire sales and marketing operation, Kajabi is the clear winner.

Kajabi’s marketing suite includes fully automated sales funnels designed for different use cases, a comprehensive email marketing system, and various opt-in forms to capture leads. The platform treats marketing as an integral part of your business, not an afterthought. 

With Kajabi, you get a full-featured email marketing suite that includes automation sequences, segmentation options, and detailed analytics. You can create complex email funnels that nurture leads and convert them into paying customers, all without leaving the platform.

On the other hand, Thinkific provides the basics – you can build websites and landing pages, add coupons to your courses, and access some email marketing functionality. 

However, these tools are more fundamental compared to Kajabi’s sophisticated marketing automation capabilities. 

While you can send emails to your students and prospects through Thinkific, you’ll likely need to integrate with a dedicated email marketing platform like Mailchimp or ConvertKit for more advanced campaigns and automation sequences.

Klasio Offers Basic Marketing Tools for Simple Course Sales

Klasio takes a minimalist approach to marketing, focusing on essential tools rather than comprehensive automation. 

Klasio provides coupon creation capabilities where you can set unique codes, usage limits, and expiry dates to track promotional effectiveness. Built-in analytics help you monitor engagement, sales, and student behavior, while custom payment processing ensures global accessibility.

So, if you are a beginner course creator who doesn’t want to complicate your business process with advanced marketing features, Klasio can be a good option.

Winner: Kajabi

Thinkific Offers More Third-Party Integrations Than Kajabi

Kajabi and Thinkific platforms recognize that you probably use various tools to run your business, so integration capabilities matter.

Thinkific has historically offered more third-party integrations, maintaining an open ecosystem approach that aligns with its philosophy of letting you choose your preferred marketing tools. The platform connects with popular applications and services, giving you flexibility in building your tech stack.

Kajabi offers fewer native integrations, but this aligns with its all-in-one approach – the idea is that you need fewer external tools because more functionality is built in. 

Klasio Offers All the Essential Third-Party Integrations

Instead of overwhelming you with an extensive third-party tools marketplace, Klasio keeps it simple with all the necessary third-party integrations. 

Klasio offers seamless connections with core services, including Zoom and Google Meet for live class integration, Mailchimp for email marketing, and Google Analytics and Meta Pixel for analytics tracking. 

Klasio also offers Cloudflare Turnstile for security and OneSignal for push notifications.

Winner: Thinkific

Thinkific is More Affordable, But Kajabi Offers More Product Options

Pricing is where you’ll see the most significant difference between Thinkific and Kajabi, and it reflects their different philosophies.

Thinkific Pricing: 

• Basic: $36/month (billed annually) – Unlimited courses, 1 community, 5 digital downloads.
• Start: $74/month (billed annually) – Everything in Basic plus unlimited live lessons, memberships, and digital downloads.
• Grow: $149/month (billed annually) – Everything in Start plus 3 communities, remove branding, API access.
• Thinkific Plus: Custom pricing for enterprise needs.

Kajabi Pricing:

• Kickstarter: $71/month (billed annually) – 1 product, 250 contacts, 1 website
• Basic: $143/month (billed annually) – 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website
• Growth: $199/month (billed annually) – 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 1 website
• Pro: $399/month (billed annually) – Unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 3 websites

Thinkific is clearly more budget-friendly, especially for creators just starting out. 

However, Kajabi’s higher price point includes significantly more built-in functionality. Also, Kajabi offers more products than Thinkific, such as newsletters, podcasts, communities, and more. 

When you factor in the cost of separate email marketing platforms, funnel builders, and other marketing tools you might need with Thinkific, Kajabi’s pricing becomes more competitive.

Klasio Offers Competitive Pricing with Strong Value for Beginners

Klasio positions itself as an affordable alternative to both Kajabi and Thinkific, with pricing that’s particularly attractive for new course creators. 

Klasio offers four main plans: Hobby ($49/month), Growth ($79/month), Business ($149/month), and custom Enterprise pricing. What makes Klasio especially compelling is its completely free plan that includes one course for up to 50 students with basic features, plus a 14-day money-back guarantee across all paid plans.

Compared to Kajabi’s starting price of $71/month and Thinkific’s $36/month, Klasio’s Growth plan at $79/month sits in the middle but offers impressive value. For that price, you get 25 courses, 10,000 students, unlimited video uploads, and 100 webinars – significantly more generous limits than competitors at similar price points. 

Klasio also includes AI assistant features, mobile apps for students, and essential integrations like Zoom, Google Meet, and Mailchimp across all paid plans.

One of Klasio’s standout features is its branded mobile app for students, which is included across all paid plans starting from just $29/month. 

This represents exceptional value when compared to competitors. Kajabi includes a branded mobile app, but only on their higher-tier plans starting at $199/month. Thinkific doesn’t offer a native branded mobile app at all, instead relying on mobile-responsive web design.

Klasio’s lifetime pricing option also provides exceptional long-term value for creators who want to avoid recurring monthly fees. 

Winner: Klasio

Choose Kajabi If You Want an All-In-One Solution, Choose Thinkific If You Want to Focus on Course Creation, and Choose Klasio If You’re a Beginner Creator Starting Out

Kajabi is ideal for established creators who already have multiple successful product lines with a large following. 

On the other hand, Thinkific works best for established course creators who only want to focus on teaching. The platform is strong for educators who need advanced student assessment capabilities and prefer Thinkific’s open ecosystem approach that integrates with best-in-class third-party tools.

And finally, choose Klasio if you’re a beginner or small business owner who wants professional features without the complexity or high costs of enterprise platforms. Klasio is perfect for creators who value simplicity and want a branded mobile app for their students without paying premium prices. 

Klasio suits those who prefer zero commission structures to keep 100% of their revenue, need lifetime pricing options to avoid recurring fees, and want AI-powered course creation tools without overwhelming feature sets. 

Both Kajabi and Thinkific offer free trials, while Klasio provides a completely free plan to get started. The best way to decide is to test the platforms yourself, create a sample course, and see which interface feels most natural for your workflow and business goals. 

Remember, the “best” platform is the one that aligns with your specific needs and helps you achieve your course creation goals most effectively.

FAQs

What are the disadvantages of Thinkific?

Thinkific’s main disadvantages include limited built-in marketing tools that require third-party integrations for advanced campaigns, basic email marketing capabilities compared to dedicated platforms, and the lack of a native branded mobile app for students.

Is Kajabi suitable for beginners?

No, Kajabi is not suitable for beginners. It can be overwhelming for complete beginners due to its extensive feature set and higher learning curve, though it does provide comprehensive onboarding and training materials. 

Why is Kajabi so expensive?

Kajabi is more expensive than competitors because its pricing reflects an all-in-one approach, bundling marketing automation, email, sales funnels, live video, and business tools into one platform. It positions itself as a complete business solution rather than just course hosting, which justifies the premium for creators needing extensive built-in functionality.

What is the best platform to sell online courses for beginners?

Klasio is the best platform to sell online courses for beginners. Klasio offers the best balance of professional features and affordability, with a free plan to get started and comprehensive tools including AI assistance, branded mobile apps, and zero commission fees.