Thinkific vs Kajabi: Which One Is Worth Your Monthly Bill?

Kajabi’s cheapest plan costs more than Thinkific’s mid-tier. That’s not a typo, and it’s the whole story here.

For most course creators, Thinkific wins because you’re paying for students and features you’ll actually use, not contacts you haven’t collected yet. Kajabi earns its bill only if you’re running full marketing funnels and need the contact management baked in. Here’s the math that makes the difference.

Prices verified September 2026.

Which one costs less to start?

Thinkific, by a wide margin. Its Basic plan runs $54/month (or $40/month billed yearly) and gives you unlimited courses and up to 10,000 students. Kajabi’s Basic plan starts at $179/month ($143/month yearly) and caps you at 2,500 contacts and 5 products.

That’s not a rounding error. You’re paying more than three times as much on Kajabi’s entry tier for fewer products and a contact ceiling that Thinkific’s Basic plan doesn’t impose at all, since Thinkific’s pricing works off student count, not a separate contacts bucket. If you’re testing whether course selling works for you at all, that gap matters.

What do the transaction fees actually cost you?

Both platforms let you avoid a platform-level cut if you use their own payment processor. Thinkific charges 0% platform fee through Thinkific Payments, just the standard 2.9% processing. Kajabi charges 0% platform fee through Kajabi Payments too, but its processing is layered: 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, dropping slightly on higher tiers.

Here’s the part Kajabi doesn’t put front and center: if you use a third-party payment provider instead of Kajabi Payments, you pay a surcharge on top — 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro. PayPal and Kajabi Payments dodge that surcharge, but anything else gets taxed for the privilege. Thinkific’s fee structure is simpler: 0% platform fee on its own payments, and fees vary by plan only if you go with Stripe or PayPal directly.

The surprising catch: contacts, not students

Thinkific’s three main plans all cap you at 10,000 students — Basic, Start, and Grow all share that number. The tiers differ on communities, spaces, administrators, and video bandwidth, not on how many people you can teach. That’s unusual, and it means you can run a fairly large course business on Thinkific’s cheapest plan without hitting a wall.

Kajabi works the opposite way. It caps you on contacts (a much broader bucket than “students,” since it counts your whole marketing list), and the caps climb fast with price: 2,500 on Basic, 25,000 on Growth, 100,000 on Pro. That ceiling isn’t a wall you slam into, though: go over, and Kajabi will sell you a block of 25,000 extra contacts for $125/month rather than force an upgrade, a decent release valve, but still an added cost.

Where Kajabi pulls ahead

Kajabi’s plans bundle a marketing suite that Thinkific doesn’t try to match at the same depth, and that’s the entire premise of Kajabi’s pricing. Every Kajabi tier includes unlimited marketing funnels, landing pages, email marketing, a contacts CRM, and more advanced automations, marketing isn’t an add-on here, it’s the product. Thinkific isn’t marketing-free: it includes email automation, landing pages, and a website builder on every plan, but it’s built first as a course-hosting platform with marketing tools layered on, not the other way around. If funnels, segmentation, and deep automation are your growth engine, paying more for Kajabi isn’t wasteful; it may be cheaper than trying to stretch Thinkific’s marketing tools past what they’re designed for. For a full breakdown of what you get at each Kajabi tier, see our Kajabi review.

Thinkific has its own gaps. PayPal checkout for buyers only shows up starting at Grow ($219/month monthly, $164/month yearly), and branding removal and API access wait until that tier too. Basic is genuinely basic.

Reader scenarios

A yoga instructor selling one course to 300 students, no email marketing to speak of: Thinkific Basic, easily. You’re not near the student cap, and you don’t need the contact-based pricing Kajabi charges for.

A consultant running a $2,000 cohort program with automated email sequences and a real sales funnel: Kajabi Growth is worth pricing out, because the marketing tools replace software you’d otherwise pay for separately. Just watch the 25,000-contact ceiling if your list grows.

A hobbyist testing whether a course idea sells at all, with under 100 people on a list: neither platform’s higher tiers make sense yet. Start on Thinkific Basic, or read our Podia vs Thinkific comparison if you want something even lighter for a first attempt.

Who should NOT choose Thinkific

If your business runs on deep marketing automation, contact segmentation, and funnel-building more than course delivery, Thinkific’s toolset covers the basics but won’t match what Kajabi builds in at every tier. Communities and coaching are available, but Thinkific’s core identity is course hosting with marketing support attached, not marketing automation as the main event. If that’s what you actually need, Kajabi’s higher-priced plans start to look reasonable rather than expensive; our Kajabi vs Teachable piece covers a similar trade-off from the other direction.

Also skip Thinkific if you need PayPal checkout on a budget: that feature doesn’t show up until Grow at $219/month, and Basic and Start buyers are stuck with card payments only.

Who should NOT choose Kajabi

Skip Kajabi if you’re pre-revenue or testing an idea. Paying $179/month before you’ve sold a single seat is a rough way to find out whether people want your course, and the contact cap means your list size, not your student count, decides when you have to think about upgrading or paying for extra contacts. If Kajabi’s tools tempt you but the price doesn’t, our Kajabi vs Podia comparison is worth a read before you commit.

Also skip Kajabi if you plan to use a payment processor other than Kajabi Payments or PayPal, that surcharge on third-party gateways adds up over time, and it’s an easy detail to miss on the pricing page.

Switch cost

Moving between these platforms means re-exporting your student list, rebuilding your course structure, and reconnecting payment processing from scratch. Neither platform advertises a one-click migration path from the other. Budget real time for this, not an afternoon.

FAQ

Does Thinkific have a free plan? No. Thinkific offers a 30-day free trial across all its plans, not a permanently free tier. Test your actual course content during that window before committing to annual billing.

Is Kajabi’s trial the same length as Thinkific’s? Kajabi’s pricing page doesn’t state its trial length, only that a free trial exists alongside a 30-day money-back guarantee. Confirm the current trial period directly on Kajabi’s site before you sign up, since this is the kind of detail that changes without notice.

Can I avoid transaction fees entirely on either platform? On Thinkific, use Thinkific Payments for a 0% platform fee (just standard processing). On Kajabi, use Kajabi Payments or PayPal specifically, any other processor triggers that extra surcharge layered on top of processing costs.

What happens if I outgrow Kajabi’s contact limit? You don’t have to jump a full tier. Kajabi lets you buy a block of 25,000 additional contacts for $125/month on any plan. It’s a reasonable patch, but it’s still an added recurring cost worth factoring into your budget.

Does the branded mobile app cost extra on either platform? On Thinkific, yes, it’s a paid add-on at $199/month regardless of which plan you’re on. On Kajabi, a branded mobile app is included on the Pro plan, and Kajabi itself values that inclusion at $199/month, so it’s effectively bundled rather than billed separately at that tier.

Which platform is cheaper for 10,000 students? Thinkific, without much contest. Its Basic plan already covers 10,000 students at $54/month, while Kajabi’s per-contact pricing means a list that size would push you well past Basic and likely into Growth or beyond.

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How we got these numbers. Prices and fees come straight from the official pricing pages of Thinkific, Kajabi, checked in September 2026. Where a value wasn’t published, the table shows “—”. Prices in this space change often — confirm on the provider’s site before you buy.