Kajabi Vs Thinkific: Which Course Builder to Choose and Why?

Online courses have recently become extremely popular among educators, learners, and students. They are both suitable mediums for making money and sharing relevant skills with the learners. So, if you are an educator or a trainer, selling online courses could be a great source of passive income for you.

However, the question on which most people find them stuck is to decide which online course builder to choose and why? This is a tough choice considering the number of course builders available in the market. Nonetheless, Kajabi Vs Thinkific are two of the most well-known online course builders which strike everyone who wants to create an online course.

Kajabi Vs Thinkific both are cloud-based course design websites, each featuring an impressive number of course designers and students. They have a somewhat similar service at their core: software to create online courses. However, they have differences in terms of functionality, benefits, pricing, and other such features.

In this article, we will be comparing and contrasting the essential features of the two online course builders to help you make a better decision in terms of which course builder to choose.

So, let’s begin!

Kajabi Vs Thinkific: Definition

What Is Kajabi?

It’s essential to look at Kajabi and Thinkific in detail before getting into a Kajabi Vs Thinkific comparison.

Founded in 2010, Kajabi is one of the most popular all-in-one online course builders. With Kajabi, you can create interactive online courses to deliver it to students in a professional manner.

Moreover, you can also advertise your designed programs or courses and sell them much faster. The logic behind Kajabi is that it lets you build your entire course on a single platform.

In other words, you don’t require any extra plugins, tools, or software to create courses on Kajabi. Furthermore, you can also use Kajabi to create full-fledged websites, blogs, sell your products/services, or sell programs requiring a free subscription.

At present, more than 50 000 companies are using Kajabi for boosting their sales. From letting business owners create immersive programs to help them operate internet marketing automated systems, Kajabi is a one-stop solution for companies who don’t want to mix a course network, an ESP (email service provider), a lead monitoring app, etc.

On the other hand, Thinkific focuses mainly on its main features – course hosting and distribution. This ensures that Kajabi is the powerhouse of the online class hosting community. Thinkific is a perfect forum for those who wish to concentrate on developing courses and not on marketing.

What is Thinkific?

Thinkific was created in 2012 and is built for educators who want an out-of-the-box approach to producing instructional content. This means that you can develop and host online classes, create membership-based platforms that allow students access to a range of educational materials, and provide management and mentoring sessions. About 51,000-course designers are using Thinkific to educate students in around 190 nations.

Using the all-in-one application like Thinkific and Kajabi will help you bring your website up and running as soon as possible and if you want to keep your tech stack to a lower limit.

Thinkific is built so that you can develop your website, member platform, receive payments, and help all your students from your Thinkific dashboard.

While Thinkific only supports reminder emails, Kajabi provides email functionality to generate emails with animations, countdown timers, automation systems, and more. That being said, the bots aren’t as sophisticated as what you’re going to get using a digital marketing method.

Kajabi

Kajabi begins at $119 monthly when paid annually. You’ll get a 14-day free trial period to start experimenting with the app, so you decide whether you want to opt for a regular subscription.

The way Kajabi plans are organized depends on how many items you offer, how many friends you have, successful course participants, administrators, and additional perks.

• Basic: $149 a month

With applicable taxes, you can get the benefits:

1. 0% Transaction Fee: Keep all your earnings without any deductions.
2. 3 Products: Showcase and sell up to three unique offerings.
3. 3 Funnels: Design engaging customer journeys for each product.
4. Unlimited Landing Pages: Create as many landing pages as you need to capture leads.
5. Unlimited Marketing Emails: Reach out to your audience with limitless email campaigns.
6. 10,000 Contacts: Manage a substantial contact list to expand your reach.
7. 1,000 Active Customers: Serve a sizable customer base with ease.
8. 1 Website: Host your online presence with a single website.
9. 1 Admin User: Access and manage your account effortlessly.

• Growth: $199 per month

Along with the benefits of basic plans:

1. 15 Products: Showcase and sell up to fifteen unique offerings.
2. 15 Funnels: Design engaging customer journeys for each product.
3. 25,000 Contacts: Manage a substantial contact list to expand your reach.
4. 10,000 Active Customers: Serve a sizable customer base with ease.
5. 10 Admin Users: Access and manage your account with a team.
6. Affiliate Program: Expand your reach with an affiliate marketing program.
7. 24/7 Chat Support: Get assistance round-the-clock for your queries.
8. Advanced Automations: Streamline processes with advanced automation tools.
9. Ability to Remove Kajabi Branding: Customize your branding for a personalized touch.

• Pro: $399 per month

Take the benefit of basic and growth plans, along with:

1. 100 Products: Showcase and sell up to a hundred unique offerings.
2. 100 Funnels: Design engaging customer journeys for each product.
3. 100,000 Contacts: Manage a substantial contact list to expand your reach.
4. 20,000 Active Customers: Serve a sizable customer base with ease.
5. 3 Websites: Host multiple online presences effortlessly.
6. 25 Admin Users: Access and manage your account with a larger team.
7. Custom Code Editor: Customize your website with advanced coding capabilities to meet specific needs.

Kajabi’s most common rate is the $199 / month growth package. With this package, you’ll get services like 24/7 chat service, automated automation, and the use of their affiliate program features. Inside each stage of Kajabi, you would have limits on goods, pipelines, active participants, and contacts.

The Pro kit is the most common of the three for the group. It offers 100 goods, 40,000 promotional emails each month, five admin users, 10,000 active subscribers, three pages, 0 percent transaction costs, and much more.

Thinkific

Thinkific’s paying plans arrive at a much lesser price point – just $36 per month when payable annually. There’s also a free alternative for this course, but it’s pretty minimal, and most of the developers would choose to pay for at least the Basic Package.

Here are the choices for your Thinkific paid plan:

• Free:

Thinkific offers a lot of features for free. Check these out:

1. 1 Course: Create and offer a single course to your audience.
2. 1 Community: Foster engagement with a dedicated community space.
3. 2 Spaces per Community: Organize discussions and resources effectively.
4. 1 Administrator: Manage your course and community with ease.
5. Unlimited Students: Scale your audience without limitations.
6. 0% Transaction Fee: Keep all your earnings without deductions.
7. Email (30 days) and Chatbot: Communicate seamlessly with your students.
8. 100% Ownership of Content: Retain full control over your intellectual property.
9. Drag and Drop Course Builder: Design courses effortlessly with intuitive tools.
10. Easy-to-Use Website Themes: Customize your site’s appearance effortlessly.
11. Fully Integrated E-commerce: Monetize your courses seamlessly.
12. App Store: Access additional tools and integrations for enhanced functionality.
13. Course Quizzes and Surveys: Assess student progress and gather feedback effectively.
14. Thinkific Academy Course: Access comprehensive resources and training materials.

• Basic: $49 a month

For just free, you can enjoy:

1. Free access to our Accelerator Program: Propel your learning journey with expert guidance.
2. Unlimited Courses: Create and offer as many courses as you want.
3. 1 Community: Foster engagement and interaction among your learners.
4. 5 Spaces per Community: Organize discussions and activities effectively.
5. Email and live chat support: Receive prompt assistance whenever you need it.
6. Branded Mobile (Add-on): Extend your brand presence with a customized mobile app.
7. Custom domain: Establish a professional online presence with your own domain name.
8. Coupons & discounts: Attract and retain customers with special offers.
9. Affiliate selling: Expand your reach and boost sales through affiliate partnerships.

• Start: $99 a month

Enjoy the available benefits, along with:

1. 10 spaces per community: Organize discussions, events, and resources efficiently.
2. Assignments: Engage your learners with interactive tasks and assessments.
3. Bundles and add-on packages: Offer additional resources and perks to enhance the learning experience.
4. Memberships & payment plans: Provide flexible payment options to attract more students.
5. Live lessons: Conduct real-time sessions to connect with your audience.
6. Advanced course-building options: Customize your courses with advanced features and settings.
7. Advanced website code editing: Fine-tune your website design and functionality to suit your needs.

• Grow: $199 a month

Along with the benefits of the other plans, you can access to the benefits:

1. 3 communities: Build multiple interactive learning spaces for diverse topics.
2. 20 spaces per community: Organize discussions, events, and resources effectively.
3. 2 administrators: Share administrative duties with a trusted colleague.
4. Phone and priority email support: Access prompt assistance whenever you need it.
5. Remove Thinkific branding: Customize your platform to reflect your brand identity.
6. Thinkific Analytics: Gain valuable insights into student engagement and course performance.
7. Bulk student emailer: Communicate with your students efficiently.
8. Bulk enrollments: Simplify the enrollment process for large groups.
9. API access: Integrate with other tools and systems seamlessly.

You can test-drive Thinkific with a free plan, but you’ll quickly outgrow the plan until the site goes live. Thinkific’s most common rate is the $99 / month Pro plan. You’ll get more useful capabilities and configuration tools, such as randomized quiz banks, progress-based video entry, and task or assignment tools.

There is a fairly significant gap between these choices in that Kajabi has built-in branding functionalities, and Thinkific doesn’t. You’d have to opt for email and marketing tools to get the same functionality out of Thinkific.

Know that Thinkific has limits on email contact, so make sure to budget the cost of a digital marketing scheme, a third-party integration platform like Zapier, and the time to introduce and manage those workflows. With Thinkific, you have an infinite amount of pupils and classes on every payment package.

Kajabi

Kajabi pages come with a personalized domain, but you need to pay for the Growth Plan to eliminate Kajabi branding. Your custom domain helps you create a website where you can list all your classes, link your blog, share an “About” tab, etc.

There are unrestricted hosting and a bulk uploader for images, pictures, and other media. And a drag-and-drop editor is to create and configure the platform with integrated marketing software.

Kajabi sites are SEO-friendly out of the box, but you also get additional resources to set up your SEO domain. Auto-scaling technology is now possible to adapt to any number of guests and one-click targeting sequences that take advantage of Kajabi’s pre-built and flexible sales pipelines.

You may build three types of courses in Kajabi: mini-courses, courses, and evergreen drip-functional instruction.

Clicking the “Build” button on the Kajabi app will load a new product for you. Program modules/segments in Kajabi are named “Categories.” Every “class” will then have several “subcategories.” Within categories and subcategories, you will have posts that serve as course lectures.

And the sort of material that you will submit is videos and assessments/questions. You can also incorporate valuable tools and downloads for lectures. Kajabi has sophisticated robotics, too. This lets you send customized email updates to your students.

Marketing options are where Kajabi varies from the opposition. The system enables its own online advertising and pipeline development, offering you an all-in-one platform to set up and sell your program.

This strong marketing pipeline is part of the cause of higher prices.

Thinkific

Thinkific, on either hand, is a lesson-centric forum. You have several features to create an enticing path for your viewers. In Thinkific courses, you can use visual, questionnaire, interactive, text, survey, PDF, audio, download, lecture, test, and task.

Apps such as tests and surveys make it more trustworthy for approved courses. You can build course licenses in Thinkific using the native integration of Accreditable. You can also get the material of a drip-feed course for your students in Thinkific, equivalent to Podia or Teachable.

You may either use a course design or create a course from nothing. The models are pre-selling classes, flagship courses, mini-courses, and more. Like Kajabi, models are great for new developers who need assistance getting started.

There’s also a Bulk Importer if you have already produced material, such as images, audio, and Pdfs. These records are located in Thinkific, and you can use the drag-and-drop editor to put them in your path.

When designing courses, you get the most comparisons – both platforms make it simple to create elegant and stunning electives. The models are the most helpful for new course designers who need guidance to sort out the inner course layout, and that’s what you get for both Kajabi and Thinkific. The main change is that Kajabi lets you build a more varied range of items, but I think Thinkific still fits well for those who rely solely on courses.

Kajabi Vs Thinkific: Ultimate Comparison

Integrating

While both Kajabi and Thinkific offer the option to integrate with other applications, it is safer to use as few functionalities as possible to make the most of the capabilities as practical on the all-in-one platform.

With that said, you may consider yourself in love with one of these platforms, but you do need to use an integration or several. If you find yourself trying more than 2 or 3 integrations, these systems may not be the right choice for you.

There are two major stages of LMS integration: one-way integration and extreme two-way integration.

One-way incorporation is precise as the name implies: a one-way street from Thinkific or Kajabi to a separate method, such as ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, or Drip. This one-way connectivity is accomplished by using a third-party connector platform such as Zapier. This one-way integration can help quick solutions such as adding a new client to your mail server or activating an email on order.

Two-way integration helps the two processes to connect and to create an experience accordingly. Even if you’d use those two technologies, deep two-way integration provides a smooth experience for its customers that keeps them discovering and returning for even more.

Nor Kajabi neither Thinkific can provide deep two-way integrations to build this kind of learning environment for your customers.

Design Facilities

Kajabi has a built-in visual designer for interface and modification.

Kajabi loads a visual generator as you start customizing items like landing pages, category pages, and sites. It even gives you a few inspirational templates/themes. Kajabi ‘s graphic builder has many features, including accordions, clocks, photos, opt-in forms, clips, and much more.

Although this isn’t the case for Thinkific, it is pale compared to Kajabi ‘s architecture and customization versatility.

Thinkific has something called “Domain Themes,” and you have styles within each site theme. However, its reach is small. Part of the appeal of using sites such as Kajabi and Thinkific is that the layout is finished for you. To use the “rented” example again, this implies you’re moving in to adorn the Kajabi or Thinkific room you’ve got, rather than constructing it on your own from the ground up.

Thinkific provides three themes to pick from when it comes to layout, with 3-4 variations in each design. You can modify styles by picking colors, fonts, and images. You will also have the option to add special parts to the interface using their drag-and-drop tool.

Likewise, Kajabi provides two theme choices that you can further configure using its Premier Theme Platform. They have what they call “style presets” available on your website. These defaults give you a launchpad, and from there, you can add colors, pictures, and fonts to your brand.

If you don’t have a very particular brand or concept style, and you’re cool with using these models that could look like most websites, using Kajabi’s or Thinkific’s themes could be a perfect option for you.

Security

In today’s highly technologically oriented business climate, a certain degree of protection is expected. Information shared over the network, and a protected link demands a degree of security, which can be a deciding factor in choosing the safest technologies.

Kajabi ‘s network is rising in popularity over time. You have an easy-to-use technology that provides secure hosting, information protection, data export, complete scalability, etc. Getting these programs available as an all-in-one package is helpful and gives you cost savings when selling online classes.

The material of Thinkific must be bought and not indexed by search engines. Students with registered users can retrieve information from an active account. This hosting site helps you to get full video assistance. The video player is optimized for learning and includes speed limits, resumes, and any browser is allowed.

Kajabi provides better service in terms of security and hosting. The in-house tools and protection skills offer the business a clear edge in this area. The product has extra features and robustness.

Customer Support and Service

If you pay the price tag for both of these two sites, it’s worth considering their customer service. As of now, the support staff for both networks are cooperative. They try to solve one ‘s problems with total happiness.

When a provider provides help, there has to be a transparent customer service culture and an in-depth knowledge of technology’s most widely understood problems. It can also be a case of offering real-time expert assistance and a wide range of support articles for consumers to use for their technological problems.

The main distinction here, though, is customer service networks. Kajabi is fantastic at instant 24 * 7 chat service. But, Thinkific doesn’t have the help of a chat. So, in the case of the above, you’d need to give them an update. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of email thread monitoring.

Kajabi support technologies have over 100 supporting knowledge base (KB) posts with diagrams. These provide screenshots that go over all the various problems with help to the road to resolution—built-in search tools to find the most often searched supporting documents and the most important to your inquiry. The organization has a support staff available to take questions via email if you find a problem.

The Thinkific website has a somewhat close GUI to Kajabi’s for supporting documents. You have KB posts covering multiple fields that provide screenshots to navigate these widely recognized problems and a straight road to resolution. The use of this help website is very full and user-friendly.

Kajabi and Thinkific have similar channels of support. They have a common methodology and scheme as to how they offer assistance, but a draw is announced in this particular side-by-side contrast.

Marketing

Establishing an effective course is just half a job completed. The other half entails gaining traction with your online classes. It’s essential to sell your paid material, attract more students, and make money. When embracing a forum, it is critical that not all marketing is left to the consumer. You tend to focus on your main activities, and the remainder of the marketing process goes through the supplier.

Thinkific has simple targeting capabilities such as bundling courses and offering coupons for improved conversions. Kajabi does indeed have a rich networking toolkit with text, sales funnel, and many more features and manages payments with ease, making it a prominent industry leader.

Thinkific is a lot like Podia in an email marketing play. And here, we’ve addressed Podia’s simple email features. These systems have simple features of sending email updates to students. Unfortunately, you can’t run autoresponder projects.

Thinkific is a lot like Podia in an online marketing game. And here, we’ve addressed Podia’s simple email functionality. These systems have simple features of sending email updates to students. Unfortunately, you can’t run autoresponder projects.

In reality, all of these providers have successful marketing campaigns. In this case, Kajabi and Thinkific provide specific marketing options to support their efforts. In short, both offer excellent opportunities to support online courses and customize each course to specific markets.

Conclusion: Kajabi Vs Thinkific 2024

When you equate Kajabi Vs Thinkific, there are strategic benefits of using any of these frameworks. However, Kajabi has an overall benefit as it has built a fantastic forum for selling online courses.

Kajabi has a system and technologies where developers in education will make the best effort to get forward and thrive with this convenient and simple-to-master platform. If the cost is not an obstacle to getting a decent course hosting platform, go with Kajabi.

It’s going to give you everything from development to promotion and revenue under one roof. If the price is a concern, then go to Thinkific. This is so you will still combine it with external marketing applications of your choosing.

Coming to the selling side, if you’re a pro sales enclosure maker, then you should go with Thinkific. You will use the landing page creator of your choosing to create funnels to do this. If Kajabi ‘s sales funnel, builder helps make it easier for you, then go with it.

Kajabi is best for course designers searching for an all-in-one course creation and promotion tool and can pay for all those additional features. Thinkific, on the other hand, is better for course designers who already have websites, blogs, and promotional funnels and only want to make an excellent course.