We will be doing a full comparison on two of the most popular online course platforms Thinkific and Kajabi.
This isn’t going to be a typical comparison in which we take a look at the features and the technical components of each platform.
We’re not just only going to discuss which platform is better but we’re going to discuss which platform is better for you.
So if you’re feeling overwhelmed when thinking about which online course platform you’re going to use then this post is for you. We’re going to compare both platforms using specific components that each of them offers.
So first we’ll be looking at the pricing, then we’ll be comparing the course look and feature, marketing and sales, their website builders, and the amount of analytics and support that you get in each platform.
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Before we get into the review we want to make a promise and that promise is by the end of this post you’ll have a better understanding of what each of these online platforms offers.
This way, you’ll be able to confidently make a decision on which online course platform you’re going to use with that being said let’s take a look at each one of these platforms and try to figure out which one is better for you.
Pricing Plans
Pricing between Kajabi and Thinkific is very different.
Kajabi is a more premium and all-in-one platform while Thinkific is very beginner-friendly and allows you to grow and upgrade your plans as your business grows.
So as you can see the first and basic plan on Kajabi starts at 120 dollars per month.
Within that plan, you have access to three products and three pipelines.
Products, where you’re able to create your online course membership site or mini-course and pipelines, where you actually build pipelines or funnels to sell that product.
There are a couple more things that are included in the Kajabi basic plan but most importantly is that you have access to 10,000 contacts and 1000 active members.
That means you can only have up to 1000 people within your online course or coaching program.
If you exceed that amount then you have to upgrade to the second plan.
Thinkific on the other hand has a very flexible and beginner-friendly pricing structure.
They actually offer a completely free plan and they’re the only online course platform that does this.
So this is a huge plus for Thinkific.
So if you’re just starting out or you want to test an idea then you can start with the free plan on Thinkific and upgrade when you need to.
And also you’re able to get unlimited students on the free Thinkific plan.
So that means you can enroll as many students as you would like on this free plan and on the Kajabi basic plan you have access to unlimited marketing emails and you’re not able to do email marketing until you get into the basic plan.
This is where you can start emailing customers.
But we’re going to talk a little bit more about emails and email marketing later on in the post.
The main takeaways here are that on the basic plan which is just 50 per month.
You’re able to have unlimited courses and students.
So courses would be the same thing as products in Kajabi.
As you can see even in the Pro plan you only have access to 100 products and most likely you’re not going to need 100 products but Thinkific offers unlimited products and unlimited students for just 50 dollars per month.
Even in the pro plan you still have a limit of 20,000 active members and 100,000 contacts but in Thinkific you get the option of unlimited courses and students just in their basic plan.
Because of Thinkific’s flexible pricing and the fact that you’re able to create an online course or product for zero dollars and then be able to have an unlimited amount of students enrolled in that course, Thinkific pricing is overall better than Kajabi.
Here is the latest Kajabi Pricing.
You can also have a look at the latest Thinkific Pricing Plans.
Next, we’re going to take a look at the course look and features.
Course Customization
The ability to customize your course content is very different on Kajabi and Thinkific.
In Kajabi if you wanted to add course content such as a PDF or an assessment, you would head over to whichever chapter or post you wanted to edit and from here you would click the edit button.
From there you have only the options of uploading video audio or an assessment.
In Thinkific if you wanted to add a lesson or course content then once you click the add lesson button you would quickly see that you have a lot more options than you do on Kajabi.
You’re able to do a survey, a presentation, an exam, downloadables and you can even do a live zoom call.
Course Player
Next is the actual course player, on Kajabi you have options to change the theme in which your course player would look like and you’re able to do a lot more customization on your course player when compared to Thinkific.
You have a similar sidebar on the left-hand side of your course player on Thinkific but you’re not able to do as many customizations such as fonts and headings and different colors.
Now I personally think that the Kajabi course player looks better than the Thinkifics.
This is just a minor detail and shouldn’t be a deal-breaker by any means.
What’s important is that your course content is good.
Thinkific allows you to add more materials and add more features into your course content which is far more important than how your course player looks.
So because of that Thinkific wins in the component of course look and features.
Sales & Marketing
It may seem right now that Thinkific is the no-brainer and is miles apart from Kajabi, but when it comes to marketing and sales this is where Kajabi really sets itself apart.
In one of the most popular all-in-one course platforms, Kajabi you have several powerful tools that you can use for sales and marketing.
One of them is called pipelines.
In pipelines, you have access to pre-built templates in which you can follow to get new customers to your Kajabi product.
The best part about these funnels or pipelines is that not just only that they’re pre-built but you have a pipeline for any situation or any objective that you would like to have.
For instance, if you’re doing a product launch, if you’re doing a free book giveaway, if you’re a coaching client, or if you wanted to give away something for free or just a simple sales page, there’s a pipeline for everything.
While in the most basic plan you only have access to three of these pipelines.
If you don’t have much experience in marketing and sales then this could be really helpful in building awareness getting leads and getting new customers.
Kajabi also has a built-in email marketing software so that means you don’t necessarily have to get a separate or an external email service provider.
You can send all your emails right from the Kajabi platform.
Unfortunately on Thinkific, there’s really no equivalent services or software to compare to these tools that are included in Kajabi.
So that means you would have to get a separate email service provider and build funnels or pipelines all on your own in Thinkific.
Because of Kajabi’s powerful all-in-one software such as email marketing and pipelines Kajabi wins in marketing and sales.
Website Builder
Next, we’ll be looking at both the website builders for Thinkific and Kajabi.
Kajabi by far offers more features and customizations in its website builder.
If you don’t have a website, you’re able to create a fully functioning website all in Kajabi.
And you have access to a lot of different themes in Kajabi.
So you can really make your website your own and create a very modern-looking website if you don’t already have one.
Thinkific’s website builder is very limited when compared to Kajabi.
You’re able to create a website but it’s mostly just a very basic website and it’s useful if it’s a place where you’re just hosting your courses.
But if you already have an external website then you can just link it to your courses on Thinkific.
Due to the fact that your website builder is included in every Kajabi plan and the ability to create unlimited pages, Kajabi is definitely the better option if you need a responsive and modern website builder.
Data Analytics
Next up we’ll be looking at a very important but often overlooked feature in any online course platform, the amount of data or analytics that you have access to customer information and data.
Analytics is valuable to understand what your customers thinking, where they’re dropping off, and how you can optimize your product to have the best customer experience.
Think if it does a really good job at providing that data so under advanced reporting you can see your revenue.
You can see your orders, your enrollments, and your student engagement.
From here you’ll be able to see how much of your course or content, your student has watched and you’ll be able to see where students are dropping off.
How many students actually enrolled in your course and haven’t even watched one lecture.
You can also see how long it takes a student to complete a course and you even have access to granular data such as how many people viewed your pdf, how many people viewed your text, your quiz, etc.
All of this information is useful because if you want to have a successful online course, coaching, or membership site.
You always want to make sure that you’re optimizing and improving for your student’s success because if your students are successful then your product will be successful.
You’re able to see some high-level information on Kajabi but you’re not able to get as granular and as detailed as you get on Thinkific.
Because of that Thinkific is the clear winner when it comes to the quality of analytics.
Customer Support
When it comes to the support Kajabi is definitely the winner.
Kajabi is a higher-priced and premium online course platform. Therefore they’re able to offer a lot better support.
Every new Kajabi user is assigned a customer success call and in that call, you’re able to get really personalized advice and that could really be helpful especially if you’re new to online courses or new to the Kajabi platform.
Payment Procesing
When it comes to checkout and payment processing both of these platforms do very well.
The only difference is that Thinkific has a less optimized checkout page.
To get paid, both of these platforms accept Stripe and Paypal.
Okay so let’s recap, when it comes to Pricing Thinkific wins with their flexible zero dollar plan. Anyone can start enrolling students in their online course membership site or coaching program.
Thinkific offers a lot more features that you can include in your course content.
Kajabi’s marketing and sales tools are well ahead of Thinkific and any other online course platform for that matter.
Kajabi also has a very powerful and modern website builder.
When it comes to providing valuable analytics and data, Thinkific takes the cake.
Checkout and payment processing are mostly the same for Thinkific and Kajabi.
Kajabi offers more personal support so when we total these scores it looks like there’s nothing really to set Thinkific and Kajabi apart.
To really answer the question what is the best online course platform? In reality, there’s no clear-cut answer to which online course platform is the best.
A better question to ask is which online course platform is best for me at this time?
If you’re a beginner to online marketing and online courses or you’re in the phase of testing out an online course coaching or membership site idea then Thinkific may be a better option for you.
You can start from the zero or 50 dollars per month plan and start promoting and selling your online courses and get consistent students enrolling in your course.
Then you can always upgrade to the higher versions of Thinkific.
In this way, you’re not wasting money per month and the money that you’re saving, you can use to market and get new students into your course.
If you have some experience in online marketing or you already have a decent following, go with Kajabi.
Make sure that you can justify paying the higher monthly plan because you’re more certain when you launch your online program that you’re going to be able to have revenue, to be able to pay for your monthly plan.
We hope that the post was helpful for you but most importantly we hope that we were able to deliver on our promise, that you have a better idea of which online course platform is best for you.
Check out another comparison between Thinkific and Kajabi.
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