Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific (2026): Best Course Platform for Creators

Last updated: June 2026

Picking a course platform is one of the most consequential tech decisions you’ll make as a creator. Get it wrong and you’re either bleeding money on features you don’t need or hitting walls at exactly the wrong time — 2,000 students in and no way to run an affiliate program.

This comparison focuses on the three platforms that come up in almost every creator conversation: Kajabi, Teachable, and Thinkific. I’ve verified every price, plan name, and feature limit directly from each official pricing page as of June 2026.

Here’s the short version: Kajabi wins on all-in-one depth, Teachable wins on entry-level price, and Thinkific hits a middle ground — better LMS than Teachable, cheaper than Kajabi, but with its own tradeoffs. Which one makes sense depends entirely on where you are in your creator journey.

Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific: Pricing Breakdown (2026)

Pricing changed significantly across all three platforms in early 2026. Here’s what they actually cost right now.

Kajabi Pricing

Kajabi restructured its pricing in January 2026 — the first major overhaul in nearly a decade. The Growth plan jumped from $159/month to $199/month (annual billing), and the Pro plan went from $319 to $399/month annually. There’s no free plan, only a 14-day trial.

One thing worth flagging: Kajabi’s affiliate program doesn’t unlock until the Growth plan ($199/month annual). That’s a meaningful constraint if you’re planning to build an affiliate network early. The Basic plan at $143/month also charges a 2% platform surcharge if you use your own Stripe account instead of Kajabi Payments — so what looks like $143 can quietly become more expensive depending on your payment setup.

See our full Kajabi review for a deeper look at whether the all-in-one value actually holds up.

Teachable Pricing

Teachable remains the cheapest way into a paid course platform. Their Starter plan at $39/month (or $29/month annually) gets you live, but it comes with a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale — and hard caps at 100 active students and 5 products. That transaction fee adds up fast once you’re generating real revenue.

The affiliate program unlocks at Builder ($69/month annual). That’s significantly more accessible than Kajabi’s requirement of $199/month. Teachable’s Growth plan also removes their branding and gives you 5 admin seats — useful if you’re working with a small team.

Thinkific Pricing

Thinkific sits between Teachable and Kajabi on price, and charges 0% transaction fees through Thinkific Payments on all plans. Every plan also supports unlimited published courses — which neither Kajabi’s Basic nor Teachable’s Starter can match.

One Thinkific catch: PayPal is locked to the Grow plan and above. If you need PayPal on day one — particularly for international audiences — the Start plan won’t work. All three plans include a 30-day free trial, which is more generous than Kajabi’s 14-day or Teachable’s 7-day window.

Feature Comparison: What Each Platform Actually Does Well

Course Building

All three platforms build standard online courses. The differences show up in the details.

Thinkific is arguably the strongest pure LMS of the three. Unlimited courses on every plan, plus assignments, exams (Grow and above), certificates, and compliance tools on the Start plan. If your product line is courses — and only courses — Thinkific gives you the most LMS depth per dollar.

Kajabi’s course builder is solid but its real differentiation is the surrounding ecosystem: email sequences, automated funnels, and checkout pages are all native to the platform. Teachable’s course builder is clean and beginner-friendly, but at the Starter level you’re capped at 5 products and 100 active students — which is a real ceiling for anyone with growth ambitions.

Marketing and Email

This is where Kajabi runs away from the other two. Every Kajabi plan includes unlimited marketing emails, unlimited funnels, unlimited landing pages, and built-in email sequences. You’re not paying separately for an email tool.

Teachable and Thinkific both handle email primarily through integrations. Neither platform is a native email marketing solution — you’ll need a separate tool like Kit or GetResponse. If you’re already running a standalone email stack, this isn’t necessarily a problem. But if you’re starting fresh, factor in that cost. Check out our breakdown of the best email marketing tools for creators if you need to budget that separately.

Kajabi’s argument — as laid out by LearningRevolution.net in April 2026 — is that it replaces a stack worth $270–$545/month (Kit + Leadpages + a funnel tool + a course platform). At $143/month for the Basic plan, that math works if you actually use all of it. The trap is paying Kajabi prices while running your old tools in parallel.

Community Features

All three platforms have added community functionality, but it varies significantly by plan. Kajabi includes 1 community on Starter through Growth plans, 3 on Pro. Thinkific’s Start plan gets 1 community with 10 spaces; the Grow plan bumps that to 3 communities with 20 spaces and removes the 5 live events per month cap. Teachable includes community features starting at the Builder plan.

None of these communities are standalone products — they’re features within a course ecosystem. If community is the primary product rather than an add-on, platforms like Skool or Circle are worth evaluating separately.

Transaction Fees: The Number That Actually Matters

This is where most comparisons go soft. Transaction fees compound. Here’s what you’re actually paying per platform at the entry level:

• Kajabi (Starter, $89/mo): No platform transaction fee using Kajabi Payments; 5% surcharge if using a third-party processor other than PayPal
• Teachable (Starter, $39/mo): 7.5% platform transaction fee on every sale, in addition to standard payment processing
• Thinkific (Start, $99/mo): 0% transaction fees through Thinkific Payments; third-party processor fees vary by plan

If you’re doing $3,000/month in course sales on Teachable’s Starter plan, that 7.5% fee costs you $225/month — pushing the effective platform cost to $264/month. At that revenue level, upgrading to Teachable’s Builder plan ($69/month annual, 0% fees) makes obvious financial sense.

Thinkific’s 0% transaction fees on all plans is a genuinely competitive advantage over Teachable’s low-end plans. The $74/month annual price for Thinkific Start is more expensive than Teachable Starter at $29/month annual, but once you account for transaction fees on any real sales volume, Thinkific is often cheaper.

Ratings and User Sentiment

Numbers don’t tell the whole story, but they’re a useful gut check.

Kajabi has 1,700+ reviews on Trustpilot with 90% of them above 4 stars, according to a detailed April 2026 analysis by Miha Cacic. The recurring praise is the all-in-one convenience; the recurring complaint is price — particularly after the January 2026 restructure that hit existing customers without grandfathering.

Thinkific holds a 4.5/5 rating on G2 with over 400 verified reviews (as of June 2026 per G2’s product page). That’s a strong score for a platform at this price point. Users consistently highlight the LMS depth and the 0% transaction fees as the main draws.

Teachable’s G2 score sits at 3.9/5 with 49 reviews — the lowest of the three platforms on G2. The Trustpilot score is even more telling: 3.1/5 from over 1,000 reviews as of March 2026, per Ruzuku’s cross-platform analysis. Common complaints center on the transaction fees on lower plans, student caps, and customer support responsiveness.

Who Should Actually Use Each Platform

Choose Kajabi if:

• You’re committed to going all-in on one platform and retiring your existing email/funnel stack
• You sell multiple product types — courses, coaching, memberships, communities — and want one admin panel
• You’re past the validation stage with an existing audience and revenue
• You need advanced marketing automation built-in (not patched in via Zapier)

Choose Teachable if:

• You want the absolute lowest barrier to launch and don’t mind the transaction fee at first
• You already have separate tools for email and marketing that you’re happy with
• You’re validating a course idea before committing to higher monthly spend
• You’re targeting the Builder plan ($69/mo annual) as your actual entry point — skip the Starter unless you’re in pure testing mode

Choose Thinkific if:

• You want an LMS-first platform with no transaction fees and unlimited course creation from day one
• You need to run multiple courses at launch (Teachable’s Starter caps at 5; Thinkific Start has no limit)
• You want the 30-day free trial to properly test before committing
• You’re a content-heavy creator who cares about video bandwidth limits (200 GB/month on Start, scaling up)

ToolStack Verdict: Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific

Bottom line: Kajabi and Thinkific tie on overall score but serve different buyers. Kajabi is the right call for creators who want one platform to run their entire business — no separate email tool, no separate landing page builder. Thinkific is the better pick if your business is courses-first and you want strong LMS depth without Kajabi’s all-in-one price. Teachable makes sense as a starting point, but its transaction fees make it a poor long-term choice at the Starter plan — budget for Builder from day one if you go that route.

→ Try Kajabi free for 14 days | Try Teachable free for 7 days | Try Thinkific free for 30 days

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?

Kajabi charges no platform transaction fees when you use Kajabi Payments. If you use a third-party processor like your own Stripe account, a platform surcharge applies: 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro. PayPal is exempt from this surcharge. Standard payment processing fees (e.g., Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30) apply regardless of which path you choose.

What is Teachable’s transaction fee?

Teachable’s Starter plan ($39/month, or $29/month annually) charges a 7.5% transaction fee on every sale. This drops to 0% on the Builder plan ($89/month, or $69/month annually) and above. The Builder plan also includes the affiliate program and community features. For most creators generating meaningful revenue, the Builder plan is the practical entry point.

Can you run a free course on any of these platforms?

All three platforms support free courses, but none offer a genuinely free hosting tier. Kajabi offers a 14-day trial, Teachable a 7-day trial with a 30-day money-back guarantee on annual plans, and Thinkific a 30-day free trial. After the trial period, a paid plan is required to keep your school active.

Which platform is best for beginners?

Teachable has the lowest barrier to entry at $29/month annually, and its course builder is widely considered the most beginner-friendly of the three. However, the 7.5% transaction fee on the Starter plan and the 100-student cap mean most creators will need to upgrade quickly. Thinkific’s Start plan at $74/month annually offers no student caps (up to 10,000), no transaction fees, and unlimited courses — better long-term value despite the higher starting price.

Does Thinkific have a free plan?

Thinkific removed its free plan in 2022. As of June 2026, the platform offers a 30-day free trial on all paid plans — the most generous trial window of the three platforms compared here. The entry-level Start plan runs $99/month billed monthly, or $74/month billed annually ($888/year).