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Kajabi serves as an expansive, all-in-one system conceived to optimize and energize your educational commerce activities. It highlights superior instruments for instructional design, a vigorous member interaction hub, and gratis, personalized mobile applications suitable for both iOS and Android. Furthermore, Kajabi presents a variety of extra utilities, covering provisions for weblogs, audio series, conversion pathway construction, and email promotion management.
On the other hand, Thinkific is a purpose-built platform that zeros in on enabling the crafting and vending of digital courses. It lays down a sturdy groundwork for curriculum creation, furnished with key sales instruments, a comprehensive catalog of external app collaborations, and a more attractively priced financial setup relative to Kajabi.
Kajabi alongside Thinkific represent a couple of the most prominent online course creation systems available presently, so it’s hardly surprising they frequently draw comparisons.
How exactly do Kajabi and Thinkific distinguish themselves from one another? More significantly, which platform truly excels for your specific educational offerings?
Within this detailed Kajabi versus Thinkific comparative analysis, our team will assess both systems regarding functionalities, ease of operation, and cost structures. We will pinpoint their respective advantages and disadvantages, additionally conveying our firsthand insights from utilizing both options.
Upon concluding this examination, you should possess a distinct comprehension regarding the platform more suitably aligned with your requirements. Let us begin exploring!
Kajabi and Thinkific are software-as-a-service systems designed to empower you in crafting and distributing digital educational programs and subscription-based communities. Both platforms are considered premium-grade tools, favored by numerous influential course designers and business owners for managing their information-based enterprises.
Kajabi presents itself as a comprehensive, integrated solution that equips users with the necessary instruments to oversee every facet of their operations, encompassing course development and dissemination, website construction, content publishing via blogs, sales pathway creation, and electronic mail outreach campaigns.
The core concept driving Kajabi is to consolidate all functionalities within a single ecosystem, thereby eliminating your need to integrate disparate applications or master their individual operations. Such a methodology significantly streamlines and accelerates your process of launching and managing your venture.
Kajabi’s homepage
Alternatively, Thinkific functions as a specialized platform, with its primary emphasis on the creation and dissemination of educational content. Consequently, you are empowered to design outstanding digital courses, present them with a high degree of polish, and cultivate interaction with your students.
It certainly incorporates built-in electronic commerce capabilities and some promotional features as well; however, you will not find instruments for managing blogs, constructing sales pipelines, or executing email marketing campaigns that can truly compare to dedicated, specialized applications in these respective domains.
Consequently, a considerable common ground exists alongside several crucial distinctions in their functional offerings. We will now explore the particular feature contrasts separating Thinkific from Kajabi.
A significant factor to weigh carefully when choosing a digital course system is its overall user-friendliness and simplicity.
Kajabi and Thinkific both offer an uncomplicated user experience, ensuring you will encounter a smooth acclimatization period.
Within each system, the user dashboard is uncluttered and contemporary, with a somewhat comparable navigational structure—specific instruments are organized into distinct categories, located on the side menu. Selecting an option there reveals the instrument and its functionalities on the main display.
Thinkific’s UI navigation
Kajabi’s UI navigation
Beyond this introduction, your next step involves acquainting yourself with the specific instruments, the various settings, and their operational characteristics.
Furthermore, a beneficial feature is that both platforms’ core utilities, for instance the website editor and the course creation module, incorporate intuitive drag-and-drop operations, which greatly simplifies their usage.
Nonetheless, Kajabi does present a marginally steeper path to proficiency. The rationale is clear: it provides a considerably broader array of functionalities than Thinkific does.
Kajabi addresses this potential hurdle through the seamless unification of its instruments. For example, a specific area exists for developing and overseeing automated processes, yet this automation capability is also embedded within diverse other components like educational programs, promotional deals, and sales funnels.
Furthermore, it incorporates an intelligent search function right on your administrative panel, enabling you to discover pertinent support documentation, look up particular functionalities, and navigate directly to that specific area within the system.
In summary, both systems are designed for intuitive operation, so concerns about a challenging learning period or general ease of navigation should be minimal.
 |
 | |
|---|---|---|
Rating | ||
Curriculum Builder |
Good |
Excellent |
Video Hosting |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Course Player Themes |
Multiple |
Single |
Mobile App |
Free + Branded |
Free + Branded |
Quizzes |
Intermediate |
Advanced |
Assignments | ||
Certificates | ||
Live Classes |
Native |
Zoom |
Interactive Video | ||
Community | Advanced | Basic |
Coaching | ||
Content Drip | ||
Course Compliance | ||
Gamification | ||
Copyright Protection |
Basic |
Basic |
Within this segment, we are going to delve more extensively into how these two systems function concerning the development of courses and the cultivation of student interaction.
We will initiate this by examining the course construction tools.
In terms of developing educational programs, both Kajabi and Thinkific empower you to rapidly establish your curriculum framework and integrate materials into your instructional units. Each system provides:
A significant advantage is that both course creation environments natively accommodate a wide array of content formats, such as video presentations, audio recordings, textual information, assessment quizzes, PDF documents, and embedded external content.
Nevertheless, Thinkific’s integration with third-party applications allows you to incorporate more sophisticated types of lessons into your educational programs.
For instance, leveraging the ThingLink application permits the inclusion of interactive video elements. Alternatively, utilizing the Adaptive SimpleSim application facilitates the addition of simulations designed for exam preparation.
Regarding content integration, you have the option to add materials individually or to upload your entire collection of content simultaneously. Should you choose the mass upload method, these systems will proficiently convert each separate file into an individual lesson unit.
Both systems also provide the functionality to repurpose a video already in use or to duplicate materials from a different instructional segment.
One particular benefit that Thinkific holds over Kajabi is its enhanced versatility in incorporating diverse content types within a single lesson. For instance, you can include several video files or combine an assessment with a video element within the same instructional unit.
Maintaining the active involvement of your learners is paramount for the triumph of any digital educational program. In this respect, both Kajabi and Thinkific are equipped with the essential instruments to encourage learning and active participation.
Both Kajabi and Thinkific enable you to design quizzes, and their functionalities are comparable to a certain degree. Each platform permits you to:
Nevertheless, Thinkific offers a pair of distinct benefits in this particular area. It provides the capability to bring in questions directly from Excel spreadsheets and to generate varied quizzes by drawing from an established question bank.
Moreover, Thinkific seamlessly connects with Brillium, a comprehensive examination system that accommodates a wider range of question formats, timed assessments, and other sophisticated evaluation functionalities.
Beyond quizzes, both platforms also facilitate the creation of assignments for students. While Thinkific provides a distinct lesson category for this purpose, Kajabi incorporates this functionality within its Quiz lesson framework.
Each system allows you to integrate an assignment submission portal into the lesson, evaluate student work, grant approval or request revisions, and provide constructive feedback to learners.
Kajabi’s manual grading feature for assignments
Finally, you are able to generate certificates to acknowledge course completion using either Kajabi or Thinkific. Both systems permit personalization of the certificate’s appearance and wording, and they can display relevant student and course details.
However, Thinkific holds a slight advantage in this aspect, presenting seven professionally crafted certificate templates, whereas Kajabi provides only a single standard template option.
Certificate templates in Thinkific
Both Kajabi and Thinkific provide the capability to release your course material incrementally, contingent upon a student’s enrollment date or a predetermined course commencement date.
The primary distinction between the two systems in this regard is that Kajabi enables you to dispatch automated email notifications to inform students about newly available content, a feature not presently offered by Thinkific.
In addition to scheduled content delivery, both systems permit you to manage access to particular materials based on the advancement of learners.
Kajabi gives you the ability to designate a specific lesson as a necessary precursor for a particular course section. Consequently, until the student successfully finishes that lesson, access to the subsequent module will remain unavailable.
Furthermore, there is a distinct configuration for quiz-based lessons, allowing you to establish them as compulsory for advancement to the ensuing instructional units.
Kajabi’s content locking feature
Thinkific similarly allows you to designate lessons as prerequisites, but its implementation differs somewhat.
When you identify a lesson as a prerequisite in Thinkific, it effectively restricts access to all subsequent lessons and modules that follow it. If the prerequisite is an assessment, the learner must achieve a passing score to officially complete that lesson.
Thinkific’s prerequisite lesson feature
A particularly useful capability Thinkific provides is the ability to stipulate a required video viewing percentage for course completion at the overall course level. In such instances, individual lessons are only considered finished once a learner has achieved the specified viewing threshold.
Real-time classes represent a crucial functionality for any course development tool, particularly for systems designed for group-based learning experiences.
Thinkific accommodates a distinct lesson format specifically for live instruction, enabling you to arrange a class and allow your students to participate in a live session directly through the course interface.
While Thinkific lacks inherent livestreaming features, it integrates effectively with Zoom to provide this functionality.
Kajabi, conversely, includes native live video functionalities directly within its system. You can conduct live broadcasts straight from the platform, and also record these sessions to incorporate them as video lessons within the course.
The quality of the live video delivery is outstanding, and it incurs no additional charges.
Kajabi’s live video experience
Once more, your learners will find the option to participate in a live session conveniently located within the course viewing area. Kajabi additionally offers the feature to dispatch a notification upon commencing the session, serving as a helpful reminder for your students to connect.
Nevertheless, neither system currently provides a mechanism for students to formally register for these live sessions and subsequently receive automated reminder notifications.
The Thinkific Communities functionality enables you to establish online community areas that present a polished and sophisticated appearance right from their inception.
You can effortlessly structure your community by utilizing spaces (which function like distinct topics), and both you and your community participants can initiate discussion threads incorporating text and visual media. Furthermore, you have the ability to schedule community events, although it does not offer native live video streaming capabilities.
A community built on Thinkific
Nonetheless, the community creation tool is somewhat deficient in features designed to foster engagement, rendering it most appropriate for fundamental course-related support forums.
Kajabi, in contrast, boasts a comprehensive and robust community development feature. The resulting community spaces appear refined and contemporary, and you can structure them effectively using access-based groups and circles (similar to subject categories), as well as generate posts containing diverse types of media.
A community built on Kajabi
Beyond discussion topics and individual posts, Kajabi’s Community Features further provide:
Therefore, regarding the construction of community environments, Kajabi possesses greater capabilities than Thinkific, enabling you to utilize it for establishing course-specific support groups, independent community platforms, and subscription-based community memberships.
Coaching represents a collection of functionalities within Kajabi designed for the creation and delivery of one-on-one as well as group-based coaching initiatives.
Here are the primary characteristics of Kajabi’s Coaching System:
Kajabi’s coaching features
Consequently, you have the ability to oversee every dimension of your coaching initiatives directly through Kajabi, positioning it as the clear preference if your search involves a dedicated coaching system. Thinkific currently does not offer any functionalities specifically for coaching.
Besides these educational aids, two distinct items are notable: Kajabi’s Automation tools and the diverse Thinkific Apps.
Kajabi Automations empower you to establish guidelines contingent upon triggers and defined actions, and these can be utilized to increase involvement in your courses.
For instance, it facilitates sharing extra materials when a learner unsuccessfully completes an assessment or dispatching a re-engagement message to a dormant student.
Thinkific’s application marketplace prominently displays the platform’s adaptability and potential for expansion. With more than 100 external applications, you can conveniently personalize and broaden Thinkific to suit your particular necessities.
As an illustration, the Wobo app can be used for adding digital workbook features, while the Pointagram app helps to gamify your course content.
The interface through which your students access course materials, often called the course player, is where they will invest the majority of their learning time, making its design a crucial element to consider.
Thinkific’s course presentation interface is thoughtfully constructed, featuring a side navigation panel for straightforward movement and a generously sized content display area to the right. It defaults to a light visual scheme, though users also have the option to select a dark mode for their viewing preference.
Furthermore, it accommodates a full-screen viewing option and permits learners to search within lesson titles, contributing positively to a superior overall user interaction.
A walkthrough of Thinkific’s course player
Kajabi, conversely, provides a collection of four distinct course presentation templates, which are designed to accommodate various educational formats, encompassing perpetually available courses, flagship programs, and subscription-based content repositories.
A walkthrough Kajabi’s course player
For instance, you might select the Momentum template if you are seeking a conventional presentation similar to Thinkific’s. Alternatively, the Premier template can be utilized to impart a more upscale appearance and sensation to your educational programs.
Ultimately, Kajabi enables considerable modification of the course player’s visual style, affording you complete command over the aesthetic of your courses.
Kajabi’s Premier theme in action
Concerning the experience on mobile devices, both Kajabi and Thinkific offer complimentary mobile applications, which simplify course access for students when they are away from their primary computers.
Moreover, both systems provide the option for you to obtain custom-branded mobile applications, released under your company’s name, with their respective teams managing the development and upkeep. These personalized branded applications support direct in-app transactions and involve an additional expense.
Both Kajabi and Thinkific perform admirably in the realms of course development and fostering student engagement. Their course construction tools are user-friendly and accommodate all essential content formats and educational functionalities.
The interfaces for course delivery are well-crafted, although Kajabi offers a wider selection of themes and greater customization possibilities. In contrast, Thinkific presents superior adaptability for integrating novel features through its support for external applications.
Beyond just course creation, Kajabi distinguishes itself with a more robust community-building feature set and integrated tools specifically designed for coaching programs.
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| |
|---|---|---|
Rating | ||
Hosting |
Unlimited |
Unlimited |
Custom Domain | ||
Site Themes | ||
Page Builder |
Advanced |
Intermediate |
Advanced Customization | ||
Blogging | ||
Podcast | ||
White-Labeling | ||
Change Site Language | ||
Modify Default Text |
Both Kajabi and Thinkific simplify the process of conceptualizing and erecting a fully operational online presence for your distinctive brand.
Each system comprehensively manages the fundamental requirements:
Having acknowledged these commonalities, let us now undertake a comparison and assessment of their specific site creation utilities.
Kajabi as well as Thinkific provide access to ready-made website designs that you can employ for the swift development of your online portal.
Kajabi offers a collection of eleven distinct website templates, each characterized by a crisp, contemporary aesthetic. You can implement these templates on your website with a single mouse click and conveniently modify configurations to align with your brand’s visual identity.
Kajabi’s website themes
Thinkific, in contrast, presents three primary website templates—named Empire, Vogue, and Vision—all of which are skillfully designed and offer several stylistic variations for your selection. Similarly, you possess the ability to personalize the settings to truly reflect your unique brand.
Nevertheless, Kajabi provides a broader spectrum when considering the design diversity and stylistic options of its available themes.
Thinkific’s site theme library
Both systems also grant you the ability to modify the selected themes by directly altering their underlying code. Furthermore, you have the option to acquire themes from external vendors or even conceptualize and develop your own unique themes for importation into your website.
Kajabi and Thinkific both feature an intuitive, visual page construction tool employing drag-and-drop functionality for creating and tailoring your web pages.
A variety of pre-designed page components are available, such as a prominent introductory section, a catalog of courses, comparative pricing displays, urgency-creating countdown clocks, and numerous other elements that can be integrated into your page designs.
Additionally, you can meticulously define the color schemes, background imagery, and various other visual characteristics of your pages, extending this control to the very top and bottom sections.
Kajabi’s page builder
Thinkific’s page builder
Nevertheless, Kajabi’s page construction tool is demonstrably more robust and furnishes a wider array of design possibilities.
It offers a more extensive selection of available page components, and you have the flexibility to adjust the layouts of these sections according to your preferences. You are able to introduce new content blocks, alter their placement and sequence, and adjust the dimensions and quantity of columns.
You can even develop a completely original section from the ground up by selecting from more than twenty accessible building blocks and combining them creatively to achieve your specific design objectives.
Thinkific, by contrast, employs more structured section designs; consequently, your choices are predominantly pre-fabricated sections, and you cannot modify them with extensive freedom. For instance, you cannot introduce new components or change the sequence of existing components within these page sections.
Kajabi’s page editor further includes personalization features such as adjusting spacing, incorporating motion effects, and managing which elements are displayed on mobile versus desktop views, capabilities that are not available with Thinkific.
In summary, Kajabi features a more comprehensive page construction tool, rendering it a more fitting choice for developing complete, feature-rich websites.
Thinkific does not provide any native tools for blogging or podcast distribution, which means you would need to integrate it with a separate content management platform like Squarespace.
Kajabi, conversely, is equipped with integrated blogging capabilities that permit you to create, publish, and oversee blog articles directly on your website.
You can compose blog entries, adjust search engine optimization parameters, sort your articles into categories, style your main blog display, personalize the blog’s side column, and feature subscription forms.
The system also simplifies the process of adding material to your blog articles. You are able to include a prominent image or video, compose the text within a straightforward editor, and insert various media components directly into your content.
In addition to its blogging tools, Kajabi also enables you to establish and manage a podcast by utilizing its built-in podcasting functionality.
This feature allows you to produce individual podcast episodes, store your audio recordings, and disseminate them across leading podcast platforms including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify.
Ultimately, you have the option to make your podcast freely available on your website or to include it as a component of your subscription-based community hosted on Kajabi.
Kajabi and Thinkific both furnish fundamental website construction instruments, encompassing website templates and an intuitive drag-and-drop page editor, although Kajabi’s page editor provides enhanced adaptability.
Furthermore, Kajabi incorporates native functionalities for creating blogs and distributing podcasts, whereas Thinkific lacks these and depends on integrations with external applications for such capabilities.
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|
| |
|---|---|---|
Rating | ||
Product Pricing Options |
Multiple |
Multiple |
Coupons | ||
Payment Gateways | Stripe + PayPal + Others | Thinkific Payments + Stripe + PayPal |
Checkout Process | ||
1-Click Upsells | ||
Sales Taxes | ||
Affiliate Marketing | ||
Marketing Funnels | Advanced | Very Basic |
Landing Pages & Popups | ||
Webinars | ||
Email Tools | Advanced | Very Basic |
Concerning sales and marketing endeavors, Thinkific primarily concentrates on providing payment processing and essential selling instruments such as checkout systems and discount codes, whereas Kajabi manages payment transactions and delivers comprehensive marketing functionalities.
Let us delve into the distinct features that each of these two platforms provides.
Both Kajabi and Thinkific permit you to set a single upfront cost, a repeating charge, or even an installment plan for the products you offer.
When it comes to subscription-based payments, both systems enable you to bill your clientele on a monthly, annual, or any other custom interval basis. Furthermore, you have the option to provide a complimentary trial period or to levy a specific initial payment.
The sole distinction in this area is that Kajabi allows for the creation of weekly or bi-weekly subscription models, a choice not presently offered within Thinkific.
Moreover, you are able to establish varied pricing structures for your educational programs and bundled offerings. This adaptability allows you to present, for instance, both a single payment option and an installment arrangement for the same course, or to create multiple access levels for your subscription-based online community.
Both systems additionally permit the generation of discount vouchers and facilitate the option of gifting courses to others.
However, Kajabi presents several distinct benefits:
Thinkific Payments serves as the standard transaction processing system in the US, UK, Canada, EU, and various other nations. It operates using Stripe’s infrastructure on the backend and applies an identical transaction cost as Stripe.
However, this system provides you with advantages like expanded payment choices (including Apple Pay, Google Pay, and deferred payment solutions) along with integrated management of sales tax.
Alternatively, you can integrate your personal Stripe and PayPal accounts, but this option will incur an additional charge ranging from 5% down to 0.5%, depending on your selected service plan.
Kajabi similarly features a supervised, Stripe-based transaction system known as Kajabi Payments, which accommodates digital payment methods and deferred payment alternatives, in addition to managing sales tax obligations.
Conversely, differing from Thinkific, Kajabi permits the utilization of your own Stripe and PayPal accounts without imposing any supplementary costs. Also, PayPal is compatible with ongoing subscription payments, a capability not found within Thinkific.
We will now shift our focus to the customer’s checkout interface.
Kajabi employs a streamlined single-stage checkout procedure, signifying that the customer provides their personal details and finalizes the payment transaction all on one consolidated page, only subsequently needing to establish an account.
The transaction completion page is professionally designed, and you possess the ability to thoroughly personalize it by incorporating components such as your brand emblem, a promotional video, specifics of the offer, client endorsements, and a satisfaction guarantee emblem.
The outcome is a payment finalization page that not only appears aesthetically pleasing but also demonstrates a high effectiveness in securing sales.
Furthermore, Kajabi offers a convenient pop-up transaction feature, which enables customers to swiftly complete their purchases without navigating away from the current page.
Thinkific similarly provides a streamlined single-stage payment procedure, where the customer inputs all necessary information and finalizes the transaction on one consolidated page. Its visual presentation is equally straightforward and uncluttered, although your personalization options are limited to incorporating your brand emblem and client endorsements.
Thinkific’s checkout page
Beyond the capability to design transaction completion pages, both systems allow you to integrate an additional purchase suggestion on the checkout page or present a single-click supplementary offer on the post-purchase confirmation page.
However, Kajabi also includes an incomplete purchase recovery feature, which enables you to monitor customers who abandon their transactions and dispatch an automated follow-up message to them.
In summary, Kajabi’s transaction management tools are more sophisticated compared to those offered by Thinkific.
Kajabi incorporates a utility named Sales Funnels that allows for the straightforward creation and automation of marketing sequences. This is a potent capability for developing comprehensive marketing initiatives from start to finish, and Thinkific does not offer a comparable feature.
The sequence construction tool includes pre-designed templates that you can choose, and it will then autonomously generate all the necessary stages for that particular sequence, encompassing landing pages and email marketing efforts.
Kajabi’s sales funnel blueprints
As an illustration, to introduce your educational program, you can employ the Product Launch sequence template, and Kajabi will proceed to generate the subscription page, the series of email communications, the video presentation pages, and the sales offer page.
In a similar fashion, you can opt for the Zoom Webinar template to organize online seminars, and Kajabi will configure the necessary landing pages, the event itself, and the associated email correspondence.
Kajabi funnel builder
You have the flexibility to further personalize any stage within your marketing pathway. You can alter your landing page designs, adjust the email communication series, or even incorporate additional steps into your sales sequence.
However, the most advantageous aspect is that all these modifications can be accomplished without exiting the sequence construction interface, resulting in an exceptionally positive user interaction.
Kajabi Funnels genuinely represents a transformative tool, and no alternative course platform offers anything comparable in terms of comprehensive features or intuitive operation.
In addition to complete marketing sequences, you can also design individual landing pages specifically for attracting potential customers and promoting your courses. Kajabi’s collection includes over forty professionally crafted landing page designs, all of which can be tailored using the platform’s page editing tools.
Furthermore, you are able to develop subscriber forms for your main website or your blog, and these can be implemented either as embedded forms within your content or as attention-grabbing pop-up displays.
Lastly, Kajabi’s Assessments capability allows you to design marketing-focused quizzes aimed at acquiring new leads and categorizing your website audience.
Regarding Thinkific, it has lately unveiled a new functionality for constructing marketing funnels.
This feature supports three distinct funnel structures—Free Lesson, Free Download, and Sales Page funnels. Upon selecting one of these, Thinkific automatically creates the corresponding landing pages, which you can subsequently personalize with your unique branding and informational content.
Thinkific’s funnel builder
However, this particular feature currently possesses some significant drawbacks, which render it not particularly effective in its present iteration:
Consequently, the experience of building funnels within Thinkific seems more like an elementary supplementary feature rather than a deeply integrated component of the platform, and you would likely achieve better results by employing a dedicated funnel construction tool.
Thinkific possesses rather rudimentary email marketing functionalities, as it only permits you to dispatch mass email communications to your enrolled students and does not facilitate automated email series.
Additionally, you cannot maintain your email subscriber list directly within Thinkific, necessitating the use of an external email marketing service such as ConvertKit.
Kajabi, conversely, offers a comprehensive email marketing toolkit that enables you to accomplish significantly more than simply sending individual email messages. You can establish automated email progressions to cultivate relationships with potential customers or to introduce a new product.
You can conveniently set a delivery timetable for your automated communications. For instance, you can configure your initial email to be sent instantly, the subsequent email on the second day, the third email on the fourth day, and continue in this manner.
A sample email sequence in Kajabi
Furthermore, Kajabi incorporates a tagging mechanism which provides a highly effective method for organizing your subscribers and executing automated processes.
However, the most advantageous feature is the ability to employ Kajabi Automations rules to initiate specific actions, such as applying or removing tags, launching a new email series, and presenting users with a tailored offer.
For instance, you could dispatch a relationship-building campaign to an individual upon their subscription to your newsletter. Subsequently, you could enroll them in a sales-focused campaign, and immediately following a purchase, you can transition them into an introductory onboarding series.
Creating an automation in Kajabi
In a similar vein, you can assign tags to users based on the specific lead generation offer they opt into and then deliver a customized email campaign designed to actively involve them.
As is evident, this synergistic blend of tagging and automation capabilities facilitates the complete automation of your email marketing activities.
In summary, Kajabi’s electronic mail marketing instruments are comprehensive, user-friendly, and should prove highly effective for the vast majority of content creators.
Both Thinkific and Kajabi provide the functionality to establish and oversee your own affiliate marketing initiative directly within their respective systems. Consequently, you can enroll affiliate partners, define commission percentages, monitor sales conversions, and determine commission payouts.
These affiliate partners also receive a dedicated, personalized interface where they can review their individual performance metrics.
Affiliates in Kajabi
Affiliates in Thinkific
Nonetheless, there are several actions achievable within Kajabi that are not currently possible in Thinkific:
Kajabi emerges as the distinct victor when compared to Thinkific regarding the breadth and depth of its sales and marketing functionalities.
It provides robust marketing capabilities such as automated sales sequences, comprehensive email marketing tools, and workflow automations, none of which are natively present within Thinkific.
Furthermore, Kajabi demonstrates superior functionalities in its selling instruments, including more versatile product pricing configurations, more customizable checkout processes, and broader payment handling options.
Both systems offer comprehensive data analysis and administrative functionalities, which will be the central focus of this particular segment.
Kajabi as well as Thinkific are equipped with robust analytical instruments. A variety of reports are accessible on both platforms, enabling you to monitor diverse performance indicators.
Here is a selection of the metrics that both platforms allow you to observe effectively:
Kajabi’s Subscription Metric report
Furthermore, the specific reports generated by both systems are exceptionally practical. They incorporate visual charts and organized tables that greatly simplify the task of data interpretation. They also include crucial functionalities such as data filtering capabilities, the option to select a personalized time frame, and the ability to download reports.
Thinkific’s revenue report
Kajabi and Thinkific both provide comprehensive instruments for overseeing your user base. Each platform enables you to:
Beyond these functionalities, Kajabi allows you to apply tags to users and establish distinct user groups, affording you greater adaptability and simplifying the overall process of user management. This capability is particularly vital within Kajabi, as it is structured to support effective email list organization.
Moreover, the Automations functionality can significantly streamline numerous administrative duties. For instance, if an individual upgrades to a premium service level, you can automatically terminate their previous subscription plan.
Using Automations to manage subscription upgrades
Finally, Thinkific includes a distinct feature named Groups, which streamlines organizing users into learning cohorts and overseeing their collective advancement. It also allows assigning a Group Analyst to supervise these users and retrieve their progress reports.
This functionality is quite advantageous if your plans include selling course packages to organizations or merely to construct cohort-style learning experiences.
Thinkific’s group progress report
Kajabi lacks a directly equivalent feature, and the alternative approach involves utilizing segments to gather users into collectives for management purposes. However, you cannot designate administrators specific to these groups, and the process is not as seamlessly integrated.
Both systems permit you to delegate varied responsibilities to your team personnel, though the specific permission levels are structured differently.
Kajabi’s Administrator designation is analogous to Thinkific’s Site Admin. Both these roles grant comprehensive platform access, with the exception of managing payment gateway integrations.
Kajabi Assistants are empowered to manage most aspects, excluding financial statements, whereas Support Specialists can oversee comment sections and manage student interactions. Within Thinkific, a singular role, termed Course Admins, covers these types of responsibilities.
In addition to these, Thinkific provides two further user roles:
User roles in Thinkific
Thinkific offers a significantly broader array of connections with external services when compared to the options available with Kajabi.
Using Kajabi, you receive direct, built-in integrations with widely-used email marketing systems such as ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Drip, and several others.
Kajabi’s email marketing integrations
You also have the capability to connect with data analysis tools (for instance, Google Analytics), subscription form providers (such as OptinMonster), and any other service that necessitates the insertion of a script snippet.
Finally, a Zapier connection is available to link Kajabi with applications that do not have direct, pre-built integrations.
Conversely, Thinkific features a complete application marketplace where over one hundred apps and integrations can be discovered.
In addition to fundamental integrations like those for email marketing platforms and Zapier, you can discover applications designed to introduce novel functionalities and improve the overall user interaction.
Thinkific’s app store
For example, while Thinkific does not inherently support note-taking capabilities, an application named BeastNotes is available for this specific purpose. In a similar vein, you can utilize Thinkific’s Shopify application to implement a comprehensive e-commerce shopping cart system.
Beyond these applications, Thinkific also provides access to a public Application Programming Interface (API) and single sign-on (SSO) functionalities, granting you even greater operational versatility.
Therefore, Thinkific clearly stands out as the superior option concerning integrations with external services. Indeed, it is the sole hosted course platform to cultivate such an extensive surrounding ecosystem of applications.
Both Kajabi and Thinkific provide outstanding client assistance, and our evaluations revealed their support teams to be both beneficial and quick to respond.
A positive aspect is that both systems offer support through electronic mail and real-time chat, ensuring you can readily seek assistance whenever necessary.
Nevertheless, Kajabi earns a slight advantage for offering continuous, round-the-clock chat assistance, whereas Thinkific’s chat support is accessible solely during standard United States business hours.
Kajabi offers 24X7 chat support
For individuals who favor self-service for solutions, both systems maintain extensive online help centers, replete with a wealth of instructional materials (both written articles and video tutorials) that address every feature within their respective platforms.
They also dedicate significant resources to user education. You will discover numerous complimentary courses and live instructional sessions designed to teach various facets of course development and promotional strategies.
Finally, both platforms host vibrant and active Facebook communities that you can become a part of for additional assistance and guidance from fellow users.
Kajabi and Thinkific each present several subscription options, though their pricing strategies differ significantly.
Kajabi offers four distinct subscription tiers, with costs ranging from $69 per month to $399 per month. Although no transaction charges are applied to any tier, they do impose restrictions on the quantity of active clients and permissible products for each subscription level.
For example, the Kickstarter tier permits the creation of only a single product, whereas the Basic and Growth tiers allow for 3 and 15 products, respectively.
Concerning functionalities, all subscription levels provide access to the majority of the platform’s capabilities. For instance, nearly all its key features, excluding partnership marketing, are accessible even on the Kickstarter tier.
However, due to the imposed limitations, the Kickstarter tier is primarily suitable for initial explorations. For dedicated content creators, a minimum of the Basic tier will be necessary.
Kajabi’s pricing plans
Conversely, Thinkific provides five distinct subscription levels, with prices spanning from a complimentary option to $499 per month. No transaction fees are levied on any of these plans. Additionally, it does not restrict the quantity of courses or the number of enrolled students on any of its paid subscription tiers.
Nevertheless, Thinkific adopts a varied strategy regarding feature accessibility.
For example, the ability to use a custom domain and offer discount codes becomes available with the Basic plan (at $49 per month), whereas functionalities such as memberships, live instructional sessions, and mobile application access are reserved for the Start plan (at $99 per month) and higher tiers.
Furthermore, if you require API accessibility or the option to eliminate Thinkific’s branding, you will need to subscribe to the Grow plan (at $199 per month).
Thinkific’s pricing plans
In general, Thinkific offers more budget-friendly and adaptable subscription options that can accommodate nearly any financial plan and set of needs.
Kajabi, conversely, presents a higher price point; however, it represents a worthwhile investment if your goal is to centralize various facets of your enterprise onto a unified system.
This comprehensive analysis has assessed both platforms concerning their functionalities, ease of operation, and cost structures. But what is the ultimate conclusion?
Kajabi stands out as the superior choice if you are seeking a comprehensive, integrated system for your digital course enterprise. Beyond course development and student interaction, it provides instruments for managing blogs, distributing podcasts, constructing sales pathways, and executing email marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, it is more adeptly designed for establishing subscription-based communities, interactive online forums, and personalized coaching initiatives.
Conversely, Thinkific emerges as a more fitting selection if your aim is an independent system chiefly for building and distributing digital courses. It possesses strong course authoring functionalities, a vast array of external applications, and more budget-friendly pricing plans.
Moreover, the system excels when establishing substantial online academies featuring numerous distinct courses (and multiple faculty members).
Our team trusts this Thinkific versus Kajabi analysis was helpful. Between these platforms, which better suits your situation, and what are the reasons? Please share your thoughts below.
The primary difference between Thinkific and Kajabi is their scope. Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that provides tools for course creation, website building, blogging, sales funnels, and email marketing. Thinkific is more focused on letting you create and deliver online courses. It does provide eCommerce functionality, but it hardly has any marketing tools.
It depends. Kajabi is better when looking for an all-in-one platform to manage all aspects of your business. It’s also a better option if you want to build memberships, communities, or coaching. Thinkific, on the other hand, is better if you just need a platform for just course creation and delivery.
Kajabi is better suited for membership sites because it supports more product types, including coaching and podcasts, and has a more powerful community feature. Additionally, it has better subscription management tools.
Regarding pricing, Thinkific has lower entry-level prices compared to Kajabi. It has a generous free plan, and the paid plan starts from just $49/month, and it offers unlimited courses and students, making it more affordable.
Daniel NicFounder, SellingOnliceCoursesGuide.comis an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
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Copyright © 2024 by SellCoursesOnline
Daniel Nic is an entrepreneur and digital education specialist who founded sellingonlinecoursesguide.com, a platform dedicated to helping creators and educators successfully navigate the online course marketplace. Through his website, he shares insights and strategies for developing, marketing, and monetizing online educational content. His work focuses on empowering course creators to build sustainable online businesses while effectively sharing their knowledge with students worldwide.
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