Teachable vs Thinkific vs Kajabi: Best Platform to Sell Your Course in 2026

If you want to sell a course instead of taking one, three platforms dominate: Teachable, Thinkific, and Kajabi. All three host your videos, handle payments, and give you a storefront. They differ in price, polish, and how much of your business they try to run. Here is the comparison.

What you get at a glance

Teachable is the course platform most creators start with. It handles course hosting, checkout, and student management with minimal setup. The focus is squarely on selling courses and coaching products.

Thinkific is the closest competitor, with a similar course-first approach and a reputation for slightly more design flexibility. It also offers a genuinely usable free plan, which makes it popular with creators testing an idea.

Kajabi is the all-in-one option. Beyond courses, it includes email marketing, landing pages, a website builder, and automation. The pitch is that you can run your whole business on one platform instead of stitching together five tools.

Pricing and fees at time of writing

Teachable has a free plan with transaction fees, and paid plans start near $39 per month with lower fees. Higher tiers remove transaction fees and add features like affiliate management.

Thinkific also offers a free plan, and paid plans start around $49 per month with no transaction fees on paid plans. The free plan is more generous than Teachable's, which matters if you are validating an idea.

Kajabi starts around $149 per month, with no free plan and no transaction fees. It is by far the most expensive, but it replaces tools you might otherwise pay for separately: email software, funnel builders, and a website host.

The fee question matters. A platform that takes a cut of every sale can cost more than a higher monthly price once you are selling steadily. Always do the math on your expected volume.

Ease of use

Teachable is the simplest to launch on. Upload videos, set a price, publish. The defaults look decent, and the checkout flow is smooth. Creators who want to start selling this week tend to pick Teachable.

Thinkific takes a little more setup but rewards it with more control over how your course site looks. The drag-and-drop builder is flexible without requiring code. Good middle ground between simplicity and customization.

Kajabi has the steepest learning curve because it does the most. Setting up email sequences, pipelines, and automations takes time. But once configured, it runs a lot of your marketing on autopilot, which is the whole point.

Marketing and sales features

Teachable includes coupons, upsells, and an affiliate system on higher plans. It covers the basics well but expects you to bring your own email tool and website for serious marketing.

Thinkific offers similar sales tools plus solid integrations with email platforms and marketing apps. It plays well with a stack of other tools rather than replacing them.

Kajabi is in another league here. Built-in email marketing, landing page templates, sales pipelines, and automation mean you can run launches without extra subscriptions. If marketing is your bottleneck, Kajabi's toolkit is the argument for its price.

Who each platform fits

Teachable fits first-time course creators who want to launch fast and keep things simple. If your audience is already warm and you just need a reliable place to sell, it is hard to beat for getting started.

Thinkific fits creators who want design control and a free plan to start on. It is also a strong pick if you plan to keep your existing email and marketing tools and just need a great course home.

Kajabi fits established creators treating courses as a business, not a side project. The price stings until you add up the subscriptions it replaces. If you are already paying for email software, a funnel builder, and a website host, Kajabi can actually save money.

The verdict

Best for launching your first course fast: Teachable. Simple setup, smooth checkout, and a free plan to start. The path of least resistance from idea to first sale.

Best free start with room to grow: Thinkific. The most generous free plan and no transaction fees on paid tiers. Great if you want to validate before spending.

Best all-in-one business platform: Kajabi. Expensive, but it replaces an entire marketing stack. Worth it when your course revenue covers the bill and you want everything under one roof.

One practical tip: start where you are, not where you hope to be. Moving platforms later is annoying but doable. Paying for a premium all-in-one plan before your first sale is the mistake to avoid.

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