Kajabi vs Teachable: Coaches Replace Their Tool Stack With Hopper
Compare Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, and Hopper on course tools, marketing, pricing, and migration. See why Hopper suits coaches replacing a tool stack.
By the Hopper team
If you want one place for your courses, community, and storefront at a flat price, we built Hopper for exactly that, and it is where we would start. If you only need a lighter course host and already run your marketing elsewhere, Teachable is the simpler pick. Kajabi sits between them as a marketing-heavy all-in-one. Pricing, marketing tools, and community decide it.
TL;DR:
- Teachable lets you combine video, text, audio, and downloads within one lesson, making it useful for courses with varied lesson formats.
- Kajabi bundles funnels, landing pages, email, and checkout, but contact caps can force a higher tier as your list grows; verify current pricing before committing.
- Hopper costs $58 monthly with a 1% transaction fee or $108 with no transaction fee, and both plans include unlimited members, products, hubs, and communities.
- Move one product first, then test billing and member access before transferring the rest; payment details need care to avoid duplicate charges or interrupted access.
Table of Contents
- How do Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, and Hopper compare at a glance?
- How do they handle course creation and content formats?
- What about design, customization, and the student experience?
- How do sales, marketing, and payments compare?
- What does each platform really cost, and what does migration involve?
- How do integrations and extensibility work?
- Which platform is easiest to learn, and what support can you expect?
- Which platform should you pick? A decision guide
- How we tested and what supports these claims
- What do customer stories tell us about moving platforms?
- What limits do member counts and plans put on growth?
- What are the steps and timeline for moving from Kajabi or Teachable to Hopper?
- Why consolidating usually beats a stack of best-of-breed tools
- Hopper: one flat-rate home for your courses, community, and storefront
- FAQ
- Sources
How do Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific, and Hopper compare at a glance?
Here is the short version, drawn from our own plan details and from public comparisons. Where a cell says "Not compared here", we did not have a figure we could stand behind, so we left the claim out.
| Platform | Best for | Pricing model | Community and engagement | Migration support |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hopper | Coaches who want a course host, community, and storefront in one plan | $58 per month with a 1% transaction fee, or $108 per month with 0% | Built-in hubs with discussions and async coaching | Migration from Kajabi and Circle |
| Kajabi | Creators who want built-in funnels and checkout | Tiered monthly plans | Marketing and funnel focus | Not compared here |
| Teachable | Solo educators who want a simple course builder | Tiered monthly plans | Course-first delivery | Not compared here |
| Thinkific | Creators who want a stable course host | Tiered monthly plans | Course management focus | Not compared here |
Hopper
- Best for coaches and creators replacing a stack of course host, community tool, and link-in-bio page.
- Standout: unlimited members, moderators, and products, with a native iOS and Android app at the flat price.
- Pricing and migration in one line: flat plans, and we help you move off Kajabi or Circle without rebuilding.
Kajabi
- Best for creators who want website, funnels, email, and courses bundled together.
- Standout: configurable site and funnel templates, per public comparisons.
- Pricing in one line: tiered plans, so features and contact limits shift as you move up.
Teachable
- Best for solo educators who prioritize an easy course builder.
- Standout: flexibility inside each lesson and a hosting-first workflow.
- Pricing in one line: tiered plans; check the current page before you commit.
Thinkific
- Best for creators who want a steady course host with room to integrate other tools.
- Standout: solid course management and ecosystem support.
- Pricing in one line: tiered plans with flexible levels.
How do they handle course creation and content formats?
This is where Teachable earns its reputation. It treats the lesson as the unit of work, so you can mix video, text, audio, and downloads inside one lecture without much ceremony. If your course is a long series of varied lessons, that flexibility is real, and it is the clearest reason people pick it over Kajabi.
Kajabi builds courses as products inside a larger business system. You get a polished path from landing page to checkout to lesson, but the course builder is one tool among several, so you spend time deciding how the pieces connect. Thinkific sits closer to Teachable in spirit: a dependable course host with solid content management.
Our approach is different because a course is rarely the whole business. Inside a Hopper hub, the Library holds content. You can price each item on its own or bundle items into a membership. The same content then lives next to the community, so a replay can be dropped into a discussion thread instead of re-uploaded somewhere else. For a deeper look at the consolidation idea, see our piece on what an all-in-one course platform is.
What to weigh when you choose:
- Speed to publish matters if you launch often and keep lessons simple.
- Per-lecture flexibility matters if each lesson mixes several formats.
- Reuse across products matters if you sell the same content as a course, a bundle, and a membership.
- A shared library matters if you want replays and live sessions to land in one searchable place.
Pro Tip: Build one real lesson in each trial before you decide. Include a video, a download, and a quiz or prompt, then see how many clicks it takes to publish and to reuse it in a second product.
What about design, customization, and the student experience?
Customization splits into two questions: how much you can brand the public site, and how much control you have over what students see inside. Kajabi leans toward the first, with configurable site and funnel templates that suit creators who want the storefront and the course to look like one brand. Teachable keeps the student view cleaner and simpler, which some educators prefer because there is less to maintain.
The mobile question matters more than it used to. Many platforms gate a branded app behind their top tier. On Hopper, the native iOS and Android app comes with the flat plan, so members can use the app without you paying extra for it.
Student engagement features to compare:
- Quizzes, certificates, and completion tracking, which reward learners who finish.
- Community spaces with threads, reactions, and native video, which keep members returning between lessons.
- A public landing page that shows the hub and every published product, so people join or buy in one place.
- Async coaching sessions, which let you give feedback on your schedule rather than live.
Prioritize deep customization when your brand is the product, for example a premium program where the look and feel signal quality. Prioritize a simple student view when your content carries the value and you would rather spend design hours on lessons. Our view is that software should feel like a place, not a tool, and that shapes how we think about the student side.
How do sales, marketing, and payments compare?
Kajabi's strength is that marketing is built in. Funnels, landing pages, email, and checkout live in one system, which is attractive if you do not want to wire up separate tools. Teachable and Thinkific focus on delivery and leave more of the marketing stack to you, which suits creators who already have an email platform and a landing page builder they like.
Independent analysis points the same way. According to Zapier's comparison, the choice often comes down to whether you want a unified all-in-one platform or a lighter host that fits into an existing stack. Creators with a working marketing setup tend to prefer the lighter host, while those who want to consolidate lean toward the all-in-one.
Where Hopper fits: we include a built-in storefront that replaces tools like Stan Store and Linktree, so you can sell courses, programs, and memberships from one page. Payment is where fees show up.
What to compare on the marketing side:
- Funnel and landing page depth, and whether you need them inside the platform.
- Payment gateway options and how transaction fees apply on each plan.
- Coupons, payment plans, and affiliate support for the offers you actually run.
- Email automation, which many creators handle separately once the course is live.
If you do plan to run automation after launch, a clear setup timeline helps, and this email nurture setup plan is a practical outline. Landing pages deserve the same care; this guide on creating a landing page that converts covers the basics.
The broader market is worth keeping in mind too. Statista tracks online education as a growing worldwide market, which is the context behind how many creators are choosing platforms right now.
The takeaway: a built-in marketing stack saves setup time, but only if you would actually use it. Do not pay for funnels you will replace with tools you already own.
What does each platform really cost, and what does migration involve?
Entry price is only part of the story. What you watch is how cost scales with members, contacts, and sales. Kajabi plans run higher and come with contact caps, which can push you up a tier as your list grows. Skool, a common companion tool, limits you to one community per account. Hopper stays flat at two prices, with unlimited members and products.
Here is our own pricing, stated exactly:
| Plan | Monthly price | Transaction fee |
|---|---|---|
| Hopper Base | $58 | 1% |
| Hopper Pro | $108 | 0% |
Illustrative scenarios can help you compare the plans. Estimate your expected sales, then compare each plan's price and transaction fees using the current terms. The better fit depends on your sales volume and how the fees apply.
Pricing signals to watch when you compare:
- Caps on contacts or members that trigger a tier jump.
- Transaction fees that apply on lower plans.
- Features that sit behind the top tier, such as a branded app.
- Whether migration help is included or sold separately.
Migration is the part many creators postpone. We help move clients and payments off Kajabi and Circle so you do not rebuild from scratch. For a closer look at the cost side, see our guide to finding a Kajabi alternative.
How do integrations and extensibility work?
Most course platforms lean on Zapier to connect to the rest of your tools, and that is fine for simple automations like adding a buyer to an email list. It gets fragile when a workflow has many steps, so direct integrations are worth preferring for anything you cannot afford to break. Zapier's own community resources, including its GitHub presence, document example automations if you want to see what is possible.
What to check before you commit:
- Which tools you need to connect: email, calendar, accounting, and your payment processor.
- Whether the connection is direct or runs through Zapier, since the second adds a point of failure.
- Whether the platform offers API access for custom workflows.
- What exports cleanly: student lists, content files, and payment details.
On migration, the pieces that usually move are your content, your students, and your payment relationships. Students and content are the straightforward part. Payment details take the most care, because you do not want any member billed twice or left without access during the switch. For most creators we suggest a staged migration over a hard cutover: move one product first, confirm everything works, then move the rest. Reserve a straight cutover for a small business with a handful of products and a quiet week.
Which platform is easiest to learn, and what support can you expect?
Ease of use depends on how much you are asking the tool to do. Teachable is the quickest to learn because it does less: you build a course and publish it. Kajabi has the steepest learning curve of the group, since you are setting up a site, funnels, email, and courses together. Thinkific falls in the middle.
Hopper is organized around hubs, each a self-contained space for one business with discussions, a library, async sessions, and a landing page. That structure means you learn one model and reuse it under a single account.
Support differs by platform and plan, and it is worth checking current hours and channels before you buy. Live chat around the clock is a different experience from business-hours email, and it matters most when something breaks during a launch.
Who needs what:
- Creators launching often, or running time-sensitive sales, need responsive support.
- Creators with a stable, quiet catalog can usually work on their own.
- Anyone moving from another platform should ask whether paid migration or onboarding is available.
- Teams with several admins benefit from a simple interface that new people pick up quickly.
If you are weighing the tool-consolidation question, our overview of the best course platforms for coaches and creators shows how cutting five tools to one changes the daily workload.
Which platform should you pick? A decision guide
Here is how we would match the platform to the creator:
- Solo educator with a simple course: Teachable, because a clean course builder is all you need.
- Creator who wants funnels and email inside the same tool: Kajabi, because marketing is built in.
- Coach selling courses plus a paid community: Hopper, because the library, hubs, and storefront live together.
- Established coach outgrowing Kajabi or Circle: Hopper, because the flat price and 0% fee on Pro hold steady as volume rises.
Before you buy, ask these five questions during a trial:
- Does the platform help with migration, and what does that cover?
- What are the payment fees on the plan you would actually use?
- Is a native mobile app included, or locked to a higher tier?
- Does it have community tools, or will you pay for a second product?
- Do you need built-in funnels, or will your existing tools do the job?
Pro Tip: Run an export test before you commit. Export a student list and a lesson, then check that nothing important is trapped inside the platform.
How we tested and what supports these claims
We built this comparison from public platform pages, third-party comparisons, and our own product knowledge. Where a figure came from outside our own plans, we linked it, and where we did not have one we left the claim out rather than guess.
We checked key areas on every platform, including building a course, setting up a sales page and checkout, running a payment flow, and planning a migration. We judged each on ease of use, features, pricing, and support. Hopper is our own product, so we state our plan prices exactly and describe other platforms only through public sources.
The author, Cedrik, writes about coaching and course businesses, and the Hopper proof points here come from our plan details and migration work.
What do customer stories tell us about moving platforms?
Case studies on competitor sites tend to highlight revenue growth, but the stories that teach the most are about what people stopped paying for and stopped managing. Our own examples follow that pattern.
One user, Daniel Lim, cut costs by moving his stack onto Hopper. The savings came from replacing several separate subscriptions with one flat plan, not from any change in his audience or pricing. Coaches who have moved their businesses off Kajabi onto Hopper say the incumbents felt expensive, dated, and heavier than the job required.
When you read any platform's success stories, look for three things. First, check whether the result came from the platform or from the creator's own marketing. Second, check what the creator was paying before the move. Third, check how long the migration took, since a story that skips the transition is hiding the hardest part. A good case study shows a business that got simpler, not just bigger.
What limits do member counts and plans put on growth?
Member and contact limits are the quiet cost of tiered pricing. Kajabi plans carry hard contact caps, so growth pushes you into a higher tier even when your needs have not changed. Skool, often paired with other tools, limits you to one community for one business per account. Circle prices by tier and adds per-seat costs.
On Hopper, members, products, hubs, and communities are unlimited. You can also run unlimited hubs under one account and one plan. That matters if you run more than one brand, or plan to.
When you check any platform, look for these limits:
- Caps on members, contacts, or students at each tier.
- Limits on how many communities or sites one account can hold.
- Per-seat charges for team members and moderators.
- Features reserved for the top plan, such as a branded app.
The practical test is to price your business at double its current size. If the plan you would need then costs far more than today's, the pricing model is working against your growth.
What are the steps and timeline for moving from Kajabi or Teachable to Hopper?
Every migration is different, so treat this as a typical shape, not a promise. Timing depends on how many products and members you have, and on how carefully you stage the payment move.
- Audit what you have. List your courses, members, offers, and payment plans. This helps prevent surprises later.
- Set up your hub. Create the hub, add your branding, and build the library structure.
- Move content. Upload videos, audio, and downloads, and rebuild your lesson order inside the Library.
- Move members and payments. This is the delicate step, and where our migration help applies. Start with one product to confirm billing and access work.
- Test as a member. Log in as a student on desktop and on the mobile app before you announce anything.
- Announce and cut over. Tell members what is changing, then retire the old platform once everything checks out.
A small business with a few products can often finish in a couple of weeks, while a large catalog deserves a longer, staged plan. Our write-up on Kajabi alternatives for coaches covers more of what to expect.
Why consolidating usually beats a stack of best-of-breed tools
I started out believing the best coach had the best tool in every slot: one for courses, one for community, one for checkout. It sounds sensible, and it falls apart in practice. Every extra tool is another login, another bill, and another place where a member can get lost between the sale and the first lesson.
My recommendation is simple. Consolidate when your business is run by one person or a small team, because your scarcest resource is attention, not features. Keep separate tools only when one of them does something you truly cannot get elsewhere and your revenue depends on it.
I have seen the effect of consolidating in the numbers. A coach I know dropped several subscriptions for a single plan and recovered money each year, plus the hours they used to spend patching tools together.
One caveat: plan the migration before you fall in love with the idea. Moving payments badly is the one mistake that costs you members, so stage it and test it.
— Cedrik
Hopper: one flat-rate home for your courses, community, and storefront
Most creators we talk to are not short on tools. They are tired of paying for five of them. Hopper replaces the stack with one place built around hubs, each holding your discussions, a content library, async coaching sessions, and a public landing page that shows everything you sell.
What you get:
- Base at $58 per month or Pro at $108 per month, both listed on our pricing page.
- Unlimited members, products, hubs, and communities.
- Unlimited hubs for different businesses under one account.
- A built-in storefront that replaces Stan Store and Linktree.
- A native iOS and Android app at the flat price.
- Loyalty pricing, so members pay less the longer they stay.
- Migration help if you are coming from Kajabi or Circle.
If you are weighing a move, the quickest next step is to look at the plans at Hopper and join the waitlist to talk through your migration.
FAQ
What are the downsides of Kajabi?
Kajabi's plans cost more as you grow and carry contact caps, which can push you into a higher tier. It also bundles a lot, so creators who only need a course host may pay for tools they never use. Check current pricing before you commit.
Is there anything better than Kajabi?
It depends on what you need. For a lighter course host, Teachable is simpler, and for coaches who want courses, community, and a storefront at a flat price, we built Hopper for that. Match the platform to your business, not to the longest feature list.
How much does Kajabi cost a month?
Kajabi uses tiered monthly plans, and the price rises with the tier and your contact count. Because plans change, confirm the current figure on Kajabi's own pricing page. For comparison, our plans are $58 and $108 per month.
How much does Teachable cost per month?
Teachable also uses tiered monthly plans, and the exact price and fees depend on the tier you pick. Check its pricing page for the current numbers. Pay attention to transaction fees on lower tiers, since they affect your real cost.
Which is better for a new creator, Kajabi or Teachable?
If you only need to host a course, Teachable has the gentler learning curve. If you want funnels and email in the same tool, Kajabi covers more ground. Run a short trial on both before you decide.
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