The short answer
Kajabi made us the most money. Thinkific cost us the least. Teachable gave us the fewest headaches. But the margins were closer than you’d think — and the “best” platform depends entirely on whether you’re selling one course or building a course business. We launched the same 32-module course on all three platforms, drove identical traffic, and tracked every metric for 12 weeks. Here’s what the data actually showed.
Why we tested all three
We’ve been running StackCrisp for eight months, and our audience keeps asking us about course platforms. “I want to create a course — which tool should I use?” is in our inbox weekly. We couldn’t answer honestly because every comparison we found read like a feature list copypasted from each platform’s pricing page.
So we built a course. A real one — 32 video modules, 8 worksheets, 3 quizzes, and a certificate of completion. The topic was “SaaS Tool Selection for Small Teams” (right in our wheelhouse). We priced it at $197. Then we put it on Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi simultaneously, split our email list into thirds, and tracked everything for 12 weeks from January through March 2026.
This isn’t a hypothetical. This is our actual data.
How we tested
We kept everything identical except the platform:
- Same course content: 32 video modules (average 12 minutes each), 8 downloadable PDFs, 3 graded quizzes, 1 completion certificate
- Same pricing: $197 one-time payment, no payment plan
- Same marketing: Each platform got its own landing page, but the copy, design, and email sequence were identical (for tips on building high-converting course sales pages, see our Unbounce vs Leadpages test)
- Same audience: We split our 4,800-person email list into three random groups of 1,600
- Same traffic: Each platform’s landing page got roughly equal paid ad spend ($400 each from Facebook Ads)
What we measured:
- Conversion rate (landing page visitors → buyers)
- Revenue per platform (total sales × $197 minus platform fees)
- Completion rate (students who finished all 32 modules)
- Support burden (student questions about the platform itself, not the content)
- Setup time (hours from account creation to published course)
- Actual cost (subscription + transaction fees + our time)
Teachable: Solid, simple, slightly boring
Setup was the fastest. From account creation to published course: 4.5 hours. Teachable’s interface is clean and obvious — upload video, write description, set price, publish. Our operations lead had the entire course built and tested in one afternoon. Thinkific took 7 hours. Kajabi took 11 (more on that later).
The student experience is clean. Teachable’s course player is simple in the best way. Students watch a video, scroll to the next module, watch the next video. There’s a progress bar. It works. We got exactly zero “how do I navigate this course” questions from Teachable students. Zero. Compare that to Thinkific (4 questions) and Kajabi (6 questions about navigation alone).
Video hosting is included and reliable. Teachable hosts your videos on their infrastructure. Upload a 2GB video file and it just works — no Vimeo Pro subscription, no AWS S3 configuration, no CDN setup. Over 12 weeks, we had zero video playback issues reported by students. This matters more than people realize; nothing kills a course faster than buffering.
The checkout converts well. Teachable’s native checkout page is optimized. It shows the course name, price, and a clean payment form. Our conversion rate on Teachable was 3.8% — highest of the three. We suspect the checkout simplicity (no upsells, no cross-sells, just “buy this course”) reduced friction.
Now the downsides.
You’ll outgrow it. Teachable is excellent for selling individual courses. The moment you want to bundle courses, offer a membership, sell coaching packages, build a community, or run a tiered subscription — you hit walls. Their “coaching” feature is basically a Calendly embed. Their “community” is a glorified comment section. Kajabi handles all of that natively.
The fees add up. Teachable charges a transaction fee on every sale unless you’re on the $599/month Pro plan. On the $59/month Basic plan, that’s $1 + 5% per transaction. At $197 per sale, that’s $10.85 per sale going to Teachable. Over 12 weeks with 37 sales, that’s $401.45 in transaction fees alone — on top of the $177 in subscription fees ($59 × 3 months).
Customization is limited. Teachable’s landing page builder is fine but not flexible. We couldn’t match it exactly to our StackCrisp branding without accepting compromises. The fonts, the spacing, the layout — all slightly off. Kajabi let us build a landing page that looked like our website.
The failure story: In February, we tried to set up a “buy 2 courses, get 1 free” bundle promotion. Teachable’s bundle feature exists but it’s clunky — you can only create bundles from existing courses, you can’t set bundle-specific pricing rules, and the student sees a confusing list of included courses rather than a coherent package. We abandoned the promotion after 45 minutes of frustration. Lost revenue from what would have been a compelling offer? Probably $400-$600.
Thinkific: Feature-rich, budget-friendly, slightly rough
The free plan is genuinely useful. Thinkific’s free tier lets you create 1 course with unlimited students. No transaction fees on the free plan. No time limit. For someone testing whether they can sell a course at all, this is the best deal in the market. Our course would have fit on the free plan (though we used the Start plan at $99/month for this test to get features parity).
The course builder is powerful. Thinkific gives you more control over the learning experience than Teachable. You can create prerequisite modules (must complete Module 1 before unlocking Module 2), drip content on a schedule (new module every Monday), and build more complex learning paths. For our linear 32-module course, this was overkill. But for someone building a multi-track curriculum with electives and prerequisites, Thinkific is the better builder.
Transaction fees are lower (or zero). On the Start plan ($99/month), Thinkific charges 0% transaction fees. You only pay your payment processor (Stripe: 2.9% + $0.30). Over 32 sales at $197, that saved us roughly $347 compared to Teachable’s Basic plan fees. For a low-volume course creator, this difference alone can make Thinkific the cheaper option.
Now the tradeoffs.
The student experience is less polished. Thinkific’s course player works but looks dated. The UI feels like it was designed in 2019 and hasn’t been updated since. Students reported the video player as “clunky” compared to Teachable. Four students emailed us asking how to navigate between modules — something that should be immediately obvious.
Video hosting on the free/cheap plans is limited. Thinkific’s Start plan includes 50GB of video storage. Our 32-module course used 18GB. Fine for one course, but if you’re building a library, you’ll hit the ceiling fast. Teachable includes unlimited video hosting on all paid plans. Kajabi includes unlimited hosting and bandwidth on all plans.
The landing page builder is frustrating. Thinkific uses a section-based page builder where you add pre-designed sections (hero, features, pricing, testimonials) and customize them. The problem: the sections don’t always align properly, spacing between sections is inconsistent, and the mobile preview doesn’t match what actually appears on phones. We spent 3 hours fighting the landing page builder before accepting “good enough.”
The failure story: During our second week, a student reported that their quiz answers weren’t being saved. They’d complete a 15-question quiz, hit submit, and get a blank score. We investigated and found that Thinkific’s quiz module has a known issue with certain browser extensions (ad blockers, specifically) that prevent form submissions from completing. The fix: tell students to disable ad blockers. Not a great look for a $197 course. We added a “please disable ad blockers” notice, but 3 students had already given up. That’s $591 in potential revenue lost to a browser extension compatibility issue.
Kajabi: The expensive Swiss Army knife
It does everything. This is Kajabi’s selling point and it’s legitimate. Courses, memberships, coaching, community, email marketing, landing pages, website builder, blog, checkout, affiliate management, analytics — it’s all built in. No integrations needed for most use cases. We could theoretically run our entire StackCrisp operation on Kajabi: our blog, our email list, our courses, our community. We don’t, because we’ve already built our stack (documented in our Asana vs Monday and Notion vs ClickUp comparisons), but for someone starting from scratch, Kajabi eliminates the need for 5-8 separate subscriptions.
The marketing tools are legit. Kajabi’s email marketing, automation pipelines, and landing page builder are genuinely good — not “good for a course platform” but actually competitive with dedicated email tools (we’ve compared dedicated tools in our ConvertKit vs Mailchimp and beehiiv vs Kit breakdowns). We built an email nurture sequence, a post-purchase onboarding flow, and an abandoned cart recovery email — all natively in Kajabi. No Zapier needed (though we’ve documented our automation setup in our Zapier vs Make comparison for teams that need cross-platform workflows).
The pricing is aggressive. Kajabi’s pricing is the highest in this comparison — starting at $149/month for the Basic plan. But that includes zero transaction fees, unlimited courses, unlimited landing pages, email marketing, and a website. If you’re currently paying for a course platform ($59–$99) + email marketing ($25–$50) + landing page builder ($25–$50), Kajabi at $149 might actually be cheaper.
Revenue was highest despite the price. Kajabi generated $7,486 in revenue over 12 weeks from 38 sales at $197 each. Teachable generated $7,289 from 37 sales. Thinkific generated $6,304 from 32 sales. The difference came down to two factors: Kajabi’s abandoned cart recovery emails recovered 4 sales that would have been lost, and the landing page converted better on mobile (we suspect Kajabi’s responsive design is better optimized).
Now why we almost didn’t choose it.
The learning curve is steep. Kajabi is not a tool you figure out in an afternoon. Our setup took 11 hours — compared to 4.5 for Teachable and 7 for Thinkific. The interface is powerful but overwhelming. There are 8 top-level navigation items, each with 3-5 sub-sections. We watched 3 hours of Kajabi tutorial videos before we felt confident enough to build the course. For a non-technical course creator, this learning curve could be a genuine barrier.
It’s expensive if you’re not using all of it. If you only want to sell one course and already have email marketing and a website, Kajabi at $149/month is $50–$90/month more expensive than Teachable or Thinkific for the same course-selling capability. You’re paying for features you don’t use.
The mobile app is limited. Kajabi’s student mobile app exists but it’s read-only for courses — students can watch videos and download materials but can’t take quizzes or submit assignments. Teachable and Thinkific both offer full-featured mobile experiences. For courses that rely on quizzes or interactive elements, this is a gap.
The failure story: In week 6, Kajabi’s email pipeline silently stopped sending our nurture sequence to new leads. We discovered it 5 days later when we noticed a gap between lead magnet downloads and course page visits. The cause: we’d accidentally set a “wait condition” to 999 days instead of 9 days while editing the pipeline. Kajabi didn’t flag this as unusual — it just accepted it. We lost an estimated 40-50 leads who got no follow-up emails for 5 days. At our conversion rate, that’s roughly 2 lost sales ($394). Entirely our fault, but the interface didn’t help us catch it.
Feature comparison table
| Feature | Teachable | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Builder | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Video Hosting | ✅ (unlimited) | ✅ (50GB on Start) | ✅ (unlimited) |
| Quizzes | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Certificates | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Drip Content | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Landing Pages | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Email Marketing | ❌ (basic) | ❌ | ✅ |
| Website Builder | ✅ (basic) | ✅ (basic) | ✅ (full) |
| Blog | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Community | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Coaching/Calendar | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Membership/Subscription | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Affiliate Management | ✅ (Pro plan) | ✅ (Pro plan) | ✅ |
| Mobile App (student) | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ (limited) |
| Payment Plans | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Custom Domain | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| 0% Transaction Fees | ❌ (5% on Basic) | ✅ (Start plan+) | ✅ |
Pricing comparison table
| Tier | Teachable | Thinkific | Kajabi |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | — | Free (1 course, 0% fees) | — |
| Entry | $59/mo (Basic — 5 courses, $1+5%/sale) | $49/mo (Basic — 1 course, 0% fees) | $149/mo (Basic — 3 products, 0% fees) |
| Mid | $159/mo (Pro — 50 courses, 0% fees) | $99/mo (Start — 5 courses, 0% fees) | $199/mo (Growth — 15 products, 0% fees) |
| Upper | $599/mo (Pro+ — unlimited, 0% fees) | $199/mo (Grow — 50 courses, 0% fees) | $399/mo (Pro — 100 products, 0% fees) |
Pricing reflects published rates as of April 2026. All three platforms frequently offer 14-30 day free trials and occasional promotional discounts.
The real cost (what we actually spent)
| Cost Category | Teachable (12 weeks) | Thinkific (12 weeks) | Kajabi (12 weeks) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Subscription | $177 ($59/mo × 3) | $297 ($99/mo × 3) | $447 ($149/mo × 3) |
| Transaction fees | $401 (5% + $1 × 37 sales) | $0 | $0 |
| Stripe processing | $222 (2.9%+$0.30 × 37 sales) | $192 (2.9%+$0.30 × 32 sales) | $228 (2.9%+$0.30 × 38 sales) |
| Setup labor | ~$90 (4.5 hrs × $20/hr) | ~$140 (7 hrs × $20/hr) | ~$220 (11 hrs × $20/hr) |
| Support time (our labor) | ~$20 (0.5 hrs) | ~$60 (3 hrs) | ~$100 (5 hrs) |
| Total cost | $910 | $689 | $795 |
| Revenue | $7,289 | $6,304 | $7,486 |
| Net revenue | $6,379 | $5,615 | $6,691 |
Thinkific was cheapest to run. Kajabi made us the most money. Teachable was the middle ground with the least operational hassle.
Where Teachable wins
First-time course creators who want to launch fast. If you’ve never created a course before and the idea of learning a complex platform makes you procrastinate, Teachable is the answer. You can go from “I have an idea” to “people are buying my course” in a single day. The setup is intuitive, the student experience is clean, and you won’t need to watch tutorials.
Creators selling 1-3 courses. If your business is “I have a course and I sell it,” Teachable does exactly that without asking you to also build a website, manage an email list, or create a community. It’s focused. That focus is a strength when you don’t need the other stuff. Pair it with a standalone website builder for your main site — or if you want something faster to design with, Framer is also worth considering — and you’ve got a lean, capable stack.
People who hate technical complexity. Teachable’s interface is the simplest of the three. Fewer buttons, fewer menus, fewer decisions to make. Our most tech-averse team member could build a course on Teachable without asking for help. That’s worth something.
Where Thinkific wins
Budget-conscious creators. Thinkific’s free plan and zero transaction fees on paid plans make it the most affordable option for creators who are just starting or running low volume. If you sell 10 courses a month at $100 each, the difference between Thinkific’s 0% fees and Teachable’s 5% is $50/month — $600/year. That’s meaningful.
Creators who need advanced course features. Prerequisite modules, complex drip schedules, student progress tracking, advanced quizzes — Thinkific’s course builder has the most granular control over the learning experience. If you’re building a serious educational product (not just “watch these videos”), Thinkific is the best builder.
Teams with existing marketing stacks. If you already use ConvertKit for email, WordPress for your website, and Stripe for payments, Thinkific integrates cleanly and stays out of your way. It doesn’t try to replace your existing tools — it just handles the course part.
Where Kajabi wins
Creators building a business, not just a course. If your plan is “sell courses, build a membership, run coaching, grow an email list, and eventually create a community” — Kajabi handles all of it in one platform. The all-in-one approach isn’t hype; it genuinely reduces the number of tools you need to manage and the number of integrations that can break. For teams already running multi-tool stacks, we’ve documented the integration challenges in our n8n vs Zapier comparison.
High-volume sellers. Kajabi’s 0% transaction fees and built-in abandoned cart recovery become more valuable as your sales volume grows. At 100 sales/month, the abandoned cart recovery alone could add 10-15 additional sales — that’s $1,970-$2,955 in recovered revenue that Teachable and Thinkific would leave on the table unless you integrate external email tools.
Creators who want professional branding. Kajabi’s website and landing page builder is the most customizable of the three. You can build a site that genuinely looks like a custom-coded product, not a template. For creators where brand perception drives sales (coaches, consultants, premium educators), this matters.
Our verdict
For this specific test, Kajabi won. It generated the most revenue ($6,691 net), the built-in marketing tools recovered abandoned sales, and the all-in-one approach saved us from managing multiple subscriptions. If we were building a course business — multiple courses, a membership, coaching — Kajabi would be our choice without hesitation.
But we’d pick Teachable for a single course. If StackCrisp was only ever going to sell one course, Teachable’s simplicity, fastest setup, and cleanest student experience would win. The $312 net revenue difference between Teachable and Kajabi over 12 weeks doesn’t justify the learning curve and higher monthly cost for a single-product creator.
Thinkific is the value play. Lowest total cost, zero transaction fees, and the most powerful course builder. The tradeoff is a less polished student experience and a landing page builder that will test your patience. For creators on a budget or those with existing marketing tools who just need a course engine, Thinkific delivers the most features per dollar.
For creators who also need to manage finances around their course business, we’ve shared our experience with accounting tools in our FreshBooks vs QuickBooks and Xero vs Wave comparisons. Course income is still income — it needs to be tracked properly.
FAQ
Which platform is best for a first-time course creator?
Teachable. It’s the fastest to set up, the simplest to use, and the student experience requires zero explanation. You can literally build and launch a course in one afternoon. Thinkific is close behind, but the slightly more complex interface adds friction for beginners. Kajabi’s 11-hour setup time and steep learning curve make it overkill for a first course.
Can I migrate my course from one platform to another?
Yes, but it’s painful. All three platforms let you export course content (videos, text, quizzes). The painful part is rebuilding the course structure, reconfiguring drip schedules, recreating landing pages, and migrating student records. We estimate 1-2 full days of work to migrate a 30-module course between any two of these platforms. Plan for downtime during migration and don’t delete your old account until the new one is fully tested.
What about transaction fees — how much do they actually matter?
A lot, at scale. On 100 sales/month at $197 each ($19,700 revenue): Teachable Basic ($59/mo) charges $1,085/month in fees. Thinkific Start ($99/mo) charges $0. Kajabi Basic ($149/mo) charges $0. That’s a $986/month difference between Teachable and Thinkific. The Teachable Pro plan ($159/mo, 0% fees) closes this gap but costs $100/month more than Thinkific. Do the math for your expected volume before choosing.
Do I need Kajabi if I already have email marketing and a website?
Probably not. If you’re happy with your current email tool (we’ve compared options in our ConvertKit vs Mailchimp and Brevo vs MailerLite breakdowns) and your website is already built, you’re paying for Kajabi features you won’t use. Thinkific or Teachable as a standalone course platform — connected to your existing stack via integrations — is more cost-effective.
Which platform has the best student experience?
Teachable, by a small margin. Its course player is the cleanest and most intuitive. Students never asked us “how do I navigate this?” on Teachable. Thinkific is functional but looks dated. Kajabi is polished but the mobile app limitations (no quizzes, no assignments) hurt the experience for students who learn on their phones — which is roughly 30% of our students.