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

$179 a month. That’s Kajabi’s cheapest plan, before you’ve sold a single course.

Thinkific’s cheapest serious plan runs $54/month, or $40/month if you pay yearly. For most first-time creators, that gap alone answers the question. Kajabi wins later, if you’re already running a real business with multiple products and a list to match — but “later” is a specific, expensive threshold, and this article is about whether you should pay for it now.

Prices verified August 2026.

What a real creator scenario costs on each

Say you’re launching one course, maybe two, to a list under a few thousand people. On Thinkific, that’s the Basic plan: $54/month monthly, $40/month if you commit to annual billing. You get unlimited courses, room for 10,000 students, a community space, and five digital downloads and coaching products — plenty for someone testing whether this business works at all.

On Kajabi, the equivalent entry point is Basic at $179/month ($143/month annual), capped at 5 products and 2,500 contacts. That’s not a rounding error next to Thinkific’s number. It’s a different tier of commitment, and it assumes you already know you need Kajabi’s marketing stack, not just a place to host video.

The fee structure matters just as much as the sticker price. Thinkific charges 0% platform fee through Thinkific Payments, just the standard 2.9% processing. Kajabi also charges 0% platform fee via Kajabi Payments, with processing fees that actually drop as you move up tiers: 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, down to 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro. Both platforms charge extra if you skip their own payment processor. Kajabi adds a surcharge of 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro for using a third-party provider (PayPal and Kajabi Payments are exempt). Thinkific also charges a fee for using a third-party gateway instead of Thinkific Payments, and the exact rate varies by plan; the official pricing page doesn’t spell out the percentage, so check it directly before you commit to a payment setup.

What the price gap actually buys you

Kajabi’s higher floor isn’t pure padding. Even Basic includes a website, a community, and marketing tools baked into the product itself, not bolted on. Thinkific’s Basic plan is closer to a course hosting tool with a community feature attached, solid, but you’re not getting a full marketing suite until you pay more or plug in other software.

Where this bites: Thinkific’s branded mobile app costs an extra $199/month on top of whatever plan you’re on. That’s not a small add-on, it can nearly double your monthly bill on Basic. If a branded app is non-negotiable for you, run that math before you commit to Thinkific’s lower headline price, because the headline stops being the real price fast.

Kajabi’s annual discount is worth noting too: it’s 20% off versus paying monthly, which the pricing page quantifies directly, $432/year saved on Basic, $600 on Growth, $1,200 on Pro. Thinkific’s annual discount is steeper on paper, at 25% off monthly rates. Both platforms want you locked into a year; neither’s monthly option is the smart long-term move if you’re staying put.

For a deeper look at whether Kajabi’s price is justified for what you get, the Kajabi review breaks down who should actually pay for this. And if Teachable is also on your shortlist, Teachable vs Thinkific and Kajabi vs Teachable cover those match-ups directly.

The verdict

Thinkific for most creators starting out, especially anyone unsure their course will sell at all, the entry price is a fraction of Kajabi’s, and the student cap is generous even at the bottom tier. Kajabi if you’re past the testing phase: you’ve got multiple products, a real contact list pushing past a couple thousand people, and you want the website, funnels, and email tools running through one login instead of five.

The contact limit is the real trigger, more than the course count. Kajabi caps hard at 2,500 contacts on Basic, and outgrowing that means an upgrade whether you’re ready to pay for it or not. Thinkific doesn’t have a contacts figure to compare against; its cap is on students, 10,000 across all three named plans, which isn’t quite the same thing but gives you a sense of the ceiling.

Who should NOT choose Thinkific

Skip Thinkific if your business already runs on email marketing and sales funnels as much as course content. Thinkific’s plans are built around hosting and delivering courses well, not around being your CRM, you’ll likely bolt on separate email software eventually, and that’s its own monthly bill to plan for. If a branded mobile app matters from day one, the $199/month add-on changes Thinkific’s cost picture enough that Kajabi’s all-in bundle might actually come out comparable.

Who should NOT choose Kajabi

Skip Kajabi if you’re pre-revenue or testing an idea. Paying $179/month before you know if anyone will buy your course is a rough way to find out, that’s real money burning on a 14-day trial’s worth of runway. Skip it too if you only need course hosting: you’ll be paying for a marketing suite you’re not using, and the contact caps will feel tight fast if your list grows without matching revenue.

A coach with 200 students and one course? Thinkific Basic, without much debate, the price and the 10,000-student cap have room to spare. A creator running several products with an email list in the thousands, doing regular launches? Kajabi Growth, because the funnels and contact capacity are the actual product you’re buying, not just the course player. Someone still deciding if they even have a course worth selling? Neither yet, use the trial period on Thinkific, keep the bill low, and upgrade once revenue justifies it.

Switching later isn’t free, on either side. Moving off Kajabi means rebuilding funnels and email sequences somewhere else, not just re-uploading videos. Moving off Thinkific is comparatively lighter, but you’ll still lose community history and have to reconnect payment processing. Choose with next year in mind, not just this month’s bill.

FAQ

Does Thinkific have a free plan? No, there’s no free tier, only a 30-day free trial across all plans. That’s actually longer than Kajabi’s 14-day trial, which matters if you need more runway to test the platform before paying.

Is Kajabi’s higher price justified by better video hosting? Thinkific publishes its video bandwidth limits directly, 100 GB/month on Basic, up to 400 GB on Grow. Kajabi doesn’t publish the equivalent figures on its pricing page, so there’s no clean comparison to make here; check Kajabi’s current specs directly before assuming parity, since bandwidth limits are the kind of detail that changes between pricing refreshes.

Which platform is cheaper if I use PayPal instead of the platform’s own payments? Both platforms charge extra for using a third-party processor instead of their own. Kajabi’s surcharge is 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, 0.5% on Pro, with PayPal and Kajabi Payments exempt from it. Thinkific also charges a third-party gateway fee that varies by plan, but the exact rate isn’t published on its pricing page, so confirm it before you commit to a payment setup.

What happens if I outgrow Thinkific’s student cap? All three named Thinkific plans cap at 10,000 students, so growth past that likely means talking to sales about the Plus tier, which has custom, unpublished pricing. Budget for a quote conversation, not a self-serve upgrade.

Is annual billing worth it on either platform? Probably, if you’re confident you’re staying a year. Thinkific’s annual rate is 25% cheaper than monthly; Kajabi’s is 20% cheaper, with the savings spelled out on its own pricing page. Just don’t prepay a year on a business you haven’t validated yet.

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How we got these numbers. Prices and fees come straight from the official pricing pages of Thinkific, Kajabi, checked in August 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.