Kajabi vs Thinkific for Coaches: 2026 Pricing and Features

Kajabi vs Thinkific comes down to what you actually sell. Kajabi is the better fit when your business runs on marketing: a website, funnels, email sequences and a newsletter, with courses, memberships and coaching products sold through them. Thinkific is the better fit when your business is a course school: structured lessons, quizzes, certificates, cohorts and thousands of students, at a lower starting price ($109 a month, or $82 a month billed annually, against Kajabi's $179 or $143). Neither was designed around running a 1:1 or small-group coaching practice week to week, with habits, check-ins and per-client plans, and that gap is why a third option belongs in this comparison.

We make Coachful, a coaching platform, so we have a stake in the answer. Vendor facts below come from what Kajabi and Thinkific publish, as listed in October 2026, plus what public reviewers report. We have not run paid accounts on either platform for this article, and we say plainly where each one beats Coachful.

What is the short answer by use case?

Choose by the shape of your offer, not by feature count. Here is the quick version before the detail.

• You sell a signature course to a large audience and want quizzes, certificates and cohorts: Thinkific. Its Start plan allows 10,000 current students and includes quizzes, certificates, live cohorts with Zoom and unlimited courses.
• You sell through funnels, email and a content engine (podcast, newsletter, lead magnets): Kajabi. Every plan lists unlimited funnels, landing pages and marketing emails, and its product menu covers newsletters and podcasts.
• You run a coaching practice where clients book sessions, sign agreements, follow a program and check in between calls: neither is the natural home. Coachful puts booking, payments, contracts, programs with habits and check-ins, courses, community, website and email behind one login, with one branded app for the client.
• You want the lowest entry price with no transaction fee on the platform's own payments: Thinkific is cheaper than Kajabi at entry, and both charge no extra fee when you use their own payment processor.
• You need PayPal: both Kajabi and Thinkific support it. Coachful does not.

If you are already leaning one way, our deeper reads are the Kajabi review and the Thinkific review.

How do Kajabi and Thinkific compare side by side?

Kajabi is a marketing-first creator platform with courses attached; Thinkific is a course-first learning platform with marketing attached. The table puts both next to Coachful on the things a coach feels every week.

How we weigh them: one login for the whole client journey, delivery between sessions, total stack cost, and setup effort (including Coachful's free white-glove build).

The pattern in that table holds through the rest of this guide. Kajabi and Thinkific are both good at selling and delivering content to many people at once. The coaching relationship itself, the part that happens between calls, is not what either was built for.

How much do Kajabi and Thinkific cost in October 2026?

Thinkific is cheaper at every self-serve tier except the top, where both land at $499 a month on monthly billing. Thinkific also raised prices by about 10% on August 13, 2026 (Start went from $99 to $109, Grow from $199 to $219), and its old Basic plan no longer appears on the public pricing page.

Thinkific's annual billing saves 25%. Kajabi's annual figures come from its pricing page's structured data, and the saving works out to roughly 20%. Over a year, the entry plans compare like this (simple arithmetic from the listed prices):

• Kajabi Basic: $2,148 a year billed monthly, or $1,716 billed annually.
• Thinkific Start: $1,308 a year billed monthly, or $984 billed annually.
• Kajabi Growth: $2,988 billed monthly, or $2,388 annually.
• Thinkific Grow: $2,628 billed monthly, or $1,968 annually.

Where the limits bite

Kajabi's Basic plan is the one to read carefully. Five products sounds like plenty until you count a flagship course, a membership, a coaching product, a lead magnet and a mini-course: that is the cap. The 2,500-contact limit includes free subscribers, so a lead magnet that works can push you toward Growth or toward the extra-contacts add-on ($125 a month per 25,000 contacts). Basic also ships with 0 AI credits; Growth gets 500 and Pro 1,000, with a $15 top-up for 500 credits that Kajabi marks as coming.

Thinkific's limits are gentler for a course business. Start allows 10,000 current students and unlimited courses, digital downloads and coaching or webinar products. The catches are elsewhere: Thinkific branding stays on until Grow, exams and question banks wait until Grow, API and webhooks wait until Grow, and the branded mobile app is a $199-a-month add-on on any self-serve plan.

For the full breakdown of each vendor's tiers, see our Kajabi pricing guide and Thinkific pricing guide.

Free trials and guarantees

Thinkific offers a 30-day free trial on every self-serve plan; its pricing data does not say whether a card is required. Kajabi's help center describes a standard 14-day trial with the card optional. If you do enter a card, Kajabi places an authorization hold and charges on the day the trial ends, and some features (bulk contact import, test emails, some automations) stay locked until a paid plan is active. Kajabi also lists a 30-day money-back guarantee on every plan.

What do payment and transaction fees add?

Both platforms push you toward their own payment processor by charging nothing extra when you use it and something extra when you do not. The difference is that Kajabi publishes its surcharge and Thinkific, as of October 2026, does not list the amounts on its pricing page.

To see what the Kajabi surcharge means in practice, take an example: a coach on Kajabi Basic who keeps an existing Stripe account and sells $20,000 of programs in a year pays an extra $400 to Kajabi on top of Stripe's own fees. On Growth the same sales cost an extra $200, and on Pro $100. Moving to Kajabi Payments removes the surcharge, which is the point of it.

Thinkific's checkout lists Apple Pay, Google Pay, Amazon Pay, Cash App and Link by Stripe, plus buy-now-pay-later through Afterpay and Klarna, and it sends automated abandoned-cart emails. For coaches selling higher-ticket programs, split payments matter: Thinkific lists payment plans on Start, and Kajabi's coaching page lists one-time or recurring payments with tiered packages.

Which is better for building and selling courses?

Thinkific is the stronger course platform. It was built as a learning tool and it shows in the details: a drag-and-drop course builder, video lessons, quizzes, assignments, surveys and downloadable files, self-paced, scheduled and cohort-based delivery, certificates, and AI tools for course outlines and quizzes. Grow adds exams and question banks; Plus adds SCORM and learning paths.

Kajabi's courses are good enough for most coaches and are tightly wired to its marketing. A course in Kajabi sits next to the funnel that sells it, the email sequence that follows up and the community where students talk. What it does not offer, per its published plans, is the assessment depth Thinkific lists (exams, question banks, SCORM).

Two practical points decide this for many coaches:

• Product caps. Thinkific Start has unlimited courses. Kajabi Basic has five products in total, so a growing catalog nudges you to Growth.
• Student caps. Thinkific Start counts 10,000 current students. Kajabi counts contacts (2,500 on Basic), which includes everyone on your email list, not only buyers.

Coachful also includes courses with modules, lessons, drip release and completion tracking, plus 48 course templates with quizzes, delivered into the client's branded home and app. It is not a course marketplace and it does not do SCORM or B2B training. If courses are part of a coaching offer rather than the whole business, our page on course hosting for coaches shows how they fit alongside programs.

Which handles websites, funnels and email better?

Kajabi does. Unlimited funnels, landing pages and marketing emails are listed on every plan, alongside a website builder, automations, a contact CRM, newsletters, podcasts and an ad network in its product menu. If your growth plan is "lead magnet, email sequence, webinar, sales page", Kajabi has every piece in one place.

Thinkific covers the basics. Its own platform summary lists AI-assisted landing pages, email automation and abandoned-cart emails, and a custom domain on Start. But its pricing tiers are organized around students, communities and bandwidth rather than funnels and campaigns, and on paper Kajabi's marketing side is broader. If sequences with branching are central to your business, check what Thinkific's current email automation covers during the trial before you commit.

Coachful sits closer to Kajabi here than to Thinkific. It includes a section-based website builder with a blog, custom domain, SEO settings and 30 designed homepage templates; booking, application, lead-magnet and checkout funnels with pixels and UTM tracking; a link-in-bio page that sells; and email lists, broadcasts and multi-step sequences with triggers, delays, branching and A/B splits. It does not run podcasts, a newsletter network or an ad network, and it is not a general website builder for non-coaching sites. We compared the two directly in Coachful vs Kajabi for funnels and email.

Can either one run 1:1 coaching and booking?

Kajabi can, within limits; Thinkific mostly cannot without a separate booking tool. Kajabi's coaching page in October 2026 describes coaching programs with defined timelines, milestones, session outlines and resource attachments, built-in session scheduling, a client dashboard, automated confirmations and reminders, and one-time or recurring coaching payments with tiered packages.

Thinkific lists coaching and webinars as a product type, and live cohorts run through its Zoom integration. Our September 2026 profile of Thinkific found that 1:1 coaching relies on external booking links rather than a native calendar, so most Thinkific coaches add a scheduler (our Calendly pricing guide covers what that adds to the bill).

What neither platform documents is the day-to-day machinery of a coaching practice:

• Coaching agreements with e-signature sent before the first call.
• A client record that holds goals, check-ins, habits, notes, intake answers, payments and sessions in one place.
• Habits and morning or evening check-ins that clients complete between sessions.
• A per-client status (thriving, active, quiet or at risk) so you know who needs a nudge.
• ICF credential tracking that counts coaching hours against ACC, PCC and MCC thresholds.

Coachful includes all five in the membership. Its booking pages handle availability rules, buffers, minimum notice and time-zone detection, with two-way Google, Apple/iCloud and Outlook sync, built-in video or auto-created Zoom, Meet and Teams links, email reminders, and SMS and WhatsApp reminders once messaging is enabled. You can sell paid sessions or session credits and ask intake questions on booking. See Coachful's scheduling and ICF hour tracking for detail.

How do communities, cohorts and live events compare?

Thinkific gives you more community room per dollar; Kajabi gives you fewer communities but ties them closely to marketing. Thinkific Start includes one community with 10 spaces and 5 live community events, rising to 3 communities on Grow and 10 on Expand. Kajabi includes one community on Basic and Growth and three on Pro.

For group coaching, Thinkific's live cohorts with Zoom and a group size of up to 50 on Start (100 on Grow, unlimited on Expand) are a real strength. Kajabi's coaching page mentions community integration for group coaching and announcements tied to a program.

Coachful's community includes a feed, group chat, direct messages and video events, and it creates cohort groups automatically when a client enrolls in a program, so a 12-week group program comes with its own space without extra setup. Group calls and webinars are included. Our group coaching software page walks through it. If community is your main product, our Kajabi vs Circle guide covers a dedicated community tool.

What does the client experience look like on each?

On Kajabi and Thinkific, the client experience is a student experience: log in, open the course or community, watch, discuss, maybe book a call. That works well for content. It works less well for coaching clients, whose real work is the habit they are building and the reflection they write between sessions.

On Kajabi, a client in a coaching product sees the program, its resources and the booking, inside your Kajabi site or the branded app if you are on Pro. On Thinkific, a client sees the course player and community, with the branded app as a $199-a-month add-on and Thinkific branding visible until Grow. Booking usually means leaving for another tool.

Public reviews are worth a look before you commit. As listed on Trustpilot on October 25, 2026, Kajabi held 3.4 from 2,347 reviews and Thinkific 1.8 from 868 reviews. Review scores mix billing complaints, support experiences and feature requests, so read the recent ones that match your use case rather than taking the average at face value.

In Coachful, the client opens one branded home (on the web or in the Coachful app with your branding) that shows the next session, their program and current week, tasks, habits, goals with progress bars, documents and the community. The habit tracker and check-ins are where between-session delivery happens, and every answer lands on the client record you see before the next call.

Which should you pick for which kind of coach?

Match the platform to the business you will run in a year, not the one you run today. Here is how the choice usually falls.

Pick Kajabi if...

Your business is audience-led. You publish a podcast or newsletter, run webinars and launches, sell several digital products and want funnels, emails and a website in one place. Kajabi suits business, mindset and confidence coaches who sell to an audience at scale. Budget for Growth if you expect more than 2,500 contacts or five products, and use Kajabi Payments or PayPal to avoid the extra fee.

Pick Thinkific if...

Your business is a course school. You teach a skill with assessments and certificates, run cohorts of up to 50 or more students, or sell training to companies (Grow adds B2B sales and invoicing; Plus adds SSO and SCORM). Thinkific suits career coaches with certification programs and educators who coach on the side. Expect to add a booking tool and, if you want one, pay for the branded app.

Pick Coachful if...

Your business is the coaching itself: 1:1 clients, small groups or multi-week programs where results depend on what clients do between sessions. That includes life, health, fitness, executive, relationship and ADHD coaches, and anyone replacing four to six tools (a booking tool, a contract tool, a course host, an email tool, a website builder and a habit app). If you coach health or fitness, keep in mind that coaching is not treatment: stay within your scope and refer clients to a licensed clinician for diagnosis or medical and mental health care. Coachful is not HIPAA-certified and is not meant for clinical records.

Niche pages: life coaches, business coaches, health coaches and fitness and nutrition coaching.

Is there a third option built for coaching?

Yes. Coachful is a coaching platform where one subscription covers booking, payments, contracts, program delivery with habits and check-ins, courses, a community, a website with funnels and email, and an AI assistant, with one login for you and one branded app for your client. It is built for coaches who deliver programs, not just sessions, and for solo coaches growing into a small team.

Where Coachful beats both

• Between-session delivery. Multi-week programs with weekly goals, daily tasks, habits, morning and evening check-ins, goals with progress bars and streaks. Neither Kajabi nor Thinkific documents habits or daily check-ins.
• The coaching back office. Agreements with e-signature, a full client record with an AI briefing per client, invoices per transaction plus manual invoices, and ICF hour tracking with an exportable client coaching log.
• Payments on your own account. Coachful takes a 0% platform fee; you pay only Stripe or Razorpay processing. One-time sales, subscriptions, payment plans, order bumps, coupons, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Stripe Tax are included.
• Total stack cost. One flat plan replaces the booking tool you would add to Thinkific and the contract and habit tools you would add to either. Current plans: Lite: $29/month for up to 5 clients; Solo: $49/month for up to 20 clients; Pro: $99/month with unlimited clients; Studio: $199/month with unlimited clients.
• AI that knows your practice. Michelle, the built-in assistant, works from your live practice data: it builds programs, drafts emails, summarizes recorded sessions and briefs you before calls. Questions and planning are included in your Coachful membership; confirmed builds and changes use AI credits. An optional AI Coach lets selected clients chat with an AI version of you between sessions, configured by you.

Here is a short walkthrough of how programs are built in Coachful:

Where Coachful does not beat them

• Large course schools. Thinkific's exams, question banks, SCORM, B2B sales and 10,000-student entry plan are built for a scale and type of training Coachful does not target.
• Media-heavy marketing. Kajabi's podcasts, newsletters and ad network have no equivalent in Coachful.
• PayPal. Coachful does not support it; both Kajabi and Thinkific do.
• Your own App Store listing. Coachful's client app carries your branding inside the Coachful app, not a separate listing under your own developer account.
• Enterprise CRM. There is no Salesforce or HubSpot integration (Thinkific Plus has both), no third-party plugins, and the affiliate program records payouts manually rather than sending them.
• Wearables. No Garmin, Fitbit, Whoop or Oura sync, and no stock exercise videos.

Why Coachful stands out: a free white-glove service. On every plan, you can open Create and choose "We'll build it for you", describe what you need (a website, funnel, sales page, program, course outline, email sequence, form, link in bio, lead quiz, webinar or automation), attach up to 8 reference links and 10 files, and the Coachful team builds it inside your own account, usually within about 24 hours. Nothing gets invented: no fake credentials, testimonials or prices, and gaps are left for you to fill. It does not include recording videos, logo design, ad management or ongoing marketing. One recent example: a somatic coach leaving Kajabi had the homepage and About page rebuilt and the contact form connected. Another: a real-estate and money coach got a year-long cohort program with an application form, an eight-page site and a free nine-day bootcamp funnel. More on how the white-glove build works.

To start: take the free trial, then send a white-glove request for your website or first program while you explore. Clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. Coachful's rating on Trustpilot is 4.5 from 21 reviews at the time of writing. For head-to-head detail, see Coachful vs Kajabi and the Thinkific alternative page.

How hard is it to switch away later?

Switching off either platform is manual work, so it is worth knowing before you build. Based on our September 2026 profiles, Kajabi exports contacts, subscriptions, sales and members as CSV files sent by email, course content is downloaded asset by asset, and data is removed 90 days after cancellation. Thinkific exports students and your email list to CSV, and course content is downloaded manually.

Coachful exports your full client data as a ZIP (roster, notes, check-ins, goals, habits, sessions and form responses) and exports courses. Moving in, your clients, programs and content are imported for you during onboarding. If your website lives on Kajabi today, our guide to moving a coaching website off Kajabi covers redirects and timing. For wider lists, see Kajabi alternatives for coaches and Thinkific alternatives for coaches.

Frequently asked questions

Is Kajabi better than Thinkific?

Kajabi is better for marketing-led businesses that need funnels, email and a website in one place. Thinkific is better for course-led businesses that need assessments, certificates, cohorts and a high student allowance at a lower price. For a coaching practice built on 1:1 or small-group work, Coachful fits more closely than either.

Which is cheaper, Kajabi or Thinkific?

Thinkific, at entry. Thinkific Start is $109 a month ($82 billed annually) and Kajabi Basic is $179 ($143 billed annually), as listed in October 2026. At the top self-serve tier, Kajabi Pro and Thinkific Expand are both $499 a month on monthly billing.

Does Thinkific charge transaction fees?

Thinkific charges no transaction fee when you use Thinkific Payments, which it describes as in line with other processors at 2.9%. Using Stripe or PayPal as a third-party gateway adds a per-plan gateway fee, and the amounts were not listed on the pricing page in October 2026.

Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?

Not on Kajabi Payments or PayPal. If you use another provider, Kajabi adds 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth or 0.5% on Pro on top of the provider's own fees. Kajabi Payments in the US runs 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic, 2.8% + $0.30 on Growth and 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro.

Can I book 1:1 coaching sessions in Thinkific?

Thinkific sells coaching and webinar products and runs live cohorts with Zoom, but our September 2026 profile found 1:1 booking relies on external booking links. Most coaches pair it with a separate scheduler, which adds a tool and a bill.

Do Kajabi or Thinkific have a branded mobile app?

Both do, at a cost. Kajabi's comparison table places the branded app on Pro ($499 a month). Thinkific offers it as a $199-a-month add-on, included on select Plus contracts. Coachful's client app carries your branding inside the Coachful app and is included in your Coachful membership.

How long are the Kajabi and Thinkific free trials?

Thinkific lists a 30-day free trial on every self-serve plan. Kajabi's help center describes a 14-day trial with the card optional, an authorization hold if you enter one, and some features locked until you activate a paid plan. Kajabi also lists a 30-day money-back guarantee.

What is Coachful's white-glove build service?

It is a free service on every Coachful plan: you describe what you want built (a website, funnel, program, course outline, email sequence and more), attach references, and the team builds it inside your account, usually within about 24 hours. It does not include video recording, logo design or ongoing marketing, and nothing is invented on your behalf.

Can I move from Kajabi or Thinkific to Coachful?

Yes. Export your contacts and student lists as CSV, download your course files, and Coachful imports your clients, programs and content during onboarding. The white-glove build can rebuild your homepage and key pages so the switch does not stall your marketing.

Does Coachful support PayPal or HIPAA?

No to both. Coachful takes payments through your own Stripe Connect or Razorpay account and is not HIPAA-certified, so it is not suited to clinical record-keeping or insurance billing. If you need PayPal, Kajabi and Thinkific both support it.