Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific vs a Custom Course Platform: What a $500,000 Course Business Pays in 2026
Kajabi, Teachable and Thinkific against a custom course platform for a $500,000 a year course business: published prices and fees read 27 October 2026, yearly totals, and when to build.
Nov 5, 2026
Short answer: a course business that moves $500,000 a year through its platform pays between $828 and $11,716 a year on Kajabi, Teachable or Thinkific, with one exception: Teachable's Starter plan charges a 7.5% transaction fee, which is $37,848 a year at that revenue. On prices read from each vendor's own page on 27 October 2026, the subscription is rarely the reason to leave. A custom course platform costs $15,000 to $50,000 for a first production version and has no per-plan limits, so the case for building rests on gates and logic, not on the monthly fee.
Published prices, side by side
The $500,000 revenue figure is our assumption for the example, not a vendor figure. Yearly cost is the annual-billed monthly price times 12 plus any platform percentage fee on $500,000, before card processing, which every route pays.
| Route | Plan, price and limits | Yearly cost at $500,000 revenue | Source, read 27 Oct 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kajabi Basic | $143 a month billed annually ($179 monthly); 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 2 admins; 2% third-party processor fee | $11,716 | kajabi.com/pricing |
| Kajabi Growth | $199 a month billed annually ($249 monthly); 50 products, 25,000 contacts, 11 admins; 1% fee | $7,388 | kajabi.com/pricing |
| Kajabi Pro | $399 a month billed annually ($499 monthly); unlimited products, 100,000 contacts, 26 admins; 0.5% fee | $7,288 | kajabi.com/pricing |
| Teachable Starter | $29 a month billed annually ($39 monthly); 5 products, 1 admin; 7.5% transaction fee | $37,848 | teachable.com/pricing |
| Teachable Builder | $69 a month billed annually ($89 monthly); 10 products, 1 admin; 0% fee with Teachable Payments | $828 | teachable.com/pricing |
| Teachable Growth | $139 a month billed annually ($189 monthly); 50 products, 5 admins; 0% fee with Teachable Payments | $1,668 | teachable.com/pricing |
| Thinkific Start | $82 a month billed annually ($109 monthly); unlimited courses, 10,000 students, 2 admins | $984 | thinkific.com/pricing |
| Thinkific Grow | $164 a month billed annually ($219 monthly); 10,000 students, 6 admins | $1,968 | thinkific.com/pricing |
| Thinkific Expand | $374 a month billed annually ($499 monthly); 10,000 students, 15 admins | $4,488 | thinkific.com/pricing |
| Custom course platform (KUMO Starter Build) | $15,000 to $50,000 once, typically 2 to 3 months; no per-plan limits; code and data in your own accounts | One-off build, then hosting and upkeep | KUMO published band |
| Larger custom build with payments, certification and integrations (KUMO) | $50,000 to $100,000 once | One-off build | KUMO published band |
| Ongoing engineering after launch (KUMO) | $5,000 to $10,000 per month, or less once stable | Optional | KUMO published band |
Want the number for your own scope? Send a short brief: what takes your team the most manual time, which systems are involved, roughly how many people touch it. A senior engineer replies within two working days with a band and the questions we would ask on a call. No call needed. Or get a range in a minute from the AI development cost calculator.
How to read these numbers. Subscription prices are the vendors' published list prices on the date shown, before taxes, overages, add-ons and seat growth. The custom-build figures are KUMO's published bands for the build only: hosting, model usage, third-party fees and ongoing engineering ($5,000 to $10,000 per month if you have no engineers) sit on top, and we say so wherever a total is compared. A standard tool is the right answer when your workflow fits it; configuration is enough when the gap is small; a custom build is justified only by a specific complexity named on this page, not by preference.
Kajabi's page shows its 2%, 1% and 0.5% figures as a third-party processor fee and 2.9%, 2.8% and 2.7% plus $0.30 as Kajabi Payments processing, so the totals above assume you use your own processor. The same page is not clear on the total billed per year, so the annual figure here is the displayed monthly rate times 12. Teachable's 0% carries an asterisk that the page does not define, and its FAQ says the 0% applies with Teachable Payments. Thinkific lists 2.9% for Thinkific Payments, which is processing, and states no platform percentage fee. Confirm the fee that applies to your payment setup before you rely on any total.
What the fee does over three years
Three years at $500,000 a year costs about $22,164 on Kajabi Growth, about $5,904 on Thinkific Grow and about $113,544 on Teachable Starter. The first two sit below the Starter band, so the monthly price alone does not justify a build. The Teachable Starter figure is the outlier: a 7.5% fee grows with every sale, which is why moving up a plan or off the platform is a question once revenue passes a few tens of thousands a year.
What moves the number
- Contacts and students. Kajabi's Basic plan lists 2,500 contacts and its FAQ sells further contacts in blocks of 25,000 for $125 a month. Thinkific lists 10,000 current students on Start, Grow and Expand.
- Admin seats. Teachable lists 1 admin on Starter and Builder and 5 on Growth. Thinkific Start lists 2 and Kajabi Basic lists 2, so a team that grows adds plan upgrades, not seats.
- Product limits. Kajabi Basic lists 5 products and Teachable Starter lists 5, which a catalogue of cohorts, bundles and corporate versions passes quickly.
- Rules the platform does not model. Cohort start dates, seat licences sold to employers, certificates that expire, prerequisites across courses and approvals by an instructor are the usual cases.
- Your own data. If enrolment depends on your CRM, billing system or HR tool, the sync is work somebody must build and keep running.
- Who builds and maintains it. Upwork's web developer cost page lists expert hourly rates of $50 to $200 and carries no date (read 27 October 2026), and hourly help adds up fast.
Three quotes for the same brief
Give each source the same brief: 3,000 active learners, plan-based access, certificates, sign-in with your existing account, seat licences for corporate buyers and monthly billing. A platform vendor quotes a plan and names the limit that applies. A freelancer quotes hours, often without a plan for hosting or handover. A senior product team quotes a fixed first version, says who owns the code and states the monthly cost after launch. Compare the three as a three-year total, because the cheapest first invoice is rarely the cheapest third year.
What the Starter band buys at KUMO
KUMO builds learning, membership and portal products for 10 to 100 person businesses that have no engineers of their own. A Starter Build ($15,000 to $50,000) is a launched first production version: learner sign-in, plan-based access, payments and billing, the course and progress screens your learners use, an admin area for your team, deployment into your own cloud account and a handover another engineer can continue from. Two to three months is typical, and the code is yours from day one. If you are moving off a hosted platform, no-code to custom explains how the move is staged so learners keep access, and AI workflow automation covers the sync between the platform and your other systems. Softr vs Bubble vs a custom client portal prices the same decision for client-facing portals.
KUMO's founders built Volopay's first production version as its founding engineers, and the FLIN case study walks through another production build from scoped brief to launch. KUMO has not published a course-platform case study, so the proof here is adjacent: production products with users, payments and permissions.
Costs after launch
A custom platform carries hosting in your own account, video delivery, monitoring, security updates and changes when your offer changes. Ongoing engineering is $5,000 to $10,000 per month, or less once the platform is stable. A hosted platform has its own after-launch costs: the upgrade when you hit a limit, contact blocks, and the hours spent stitching the platform to your other tools. Every route also pays the payment processor.
How to get a real number this week
Write down paying learners today, revenue per year, expected learners in 12 months and the two rules your courses need that your platform cannot model, then run them through the table above. Then book a free 30-minute call with an engineer, bring those figures and the systems the platform must connect to, and ask for a band and a three-year total. The AI development cost calculator gives a range for your own build in about a minute.
FAQ
How much does Kajabi cost? Kajabi's pricing page, read 27 October 2026, lists Basic at $179 a month ($143 a month on the annual option), Growth at $249 ($199) and Pro at $499 ($399). Plans differ by products, contacts and admin users.
How much does Teachable cost? Teachable lists Starter at $39 a month ($29 billed annually), Builder at $89 ($69) and Growth at $189 ($139) on its pricing page read 27 October 2026. Starter carries a 7.5% transaction fee.
How much does Thinkific cost? Thinkific lists Start at $109 a month ($82 billed annually), Grow at $219 ($164) and Expand at $499 ($374), with Plus on custom pricing, on its pricing page read 27 October 2026.
Kajabi vs Teachable vs Thinkific: which is cheaper? At $500,000 a year in revenue, Teachable Builder comes to about $828 and Thinkific Start to about $984 in subscription, while Kajabi Growth comes to about $7,388 with its 1% fee. Teachable Starter is the most expensive at about $37,848 because of its 7.5% fee. Compare plans by limits, not logos.
Is a custom course platform cheaper than Kajabi? On fees alone, rarely: Kajabi Growth costs about $22,164 over three years at $500,000 a year, against a $15,000 to $50,000 first build plus hosting and upkeep. A custom platform wins when you need rules, seat licences or integrations that no plan provides.
How much does a custom course platform cost in 2026? A first production version from a senior team costs $15,000 to $50,000 and typically takes two to three months. Builds with payments, certification and several integrations run $50,000 to $100,000. Ongoing engineering is $5,000 to $10,000 per month, or less once stable.
When should we move off Kajabi, Teachable or Thinkific? When you hit a contact, student or admin limit, when a rule you need sits outside every plan, when learners need a login tied to your own product, or when only one person understands the setup. Two or more of those is the time to price a move.
Last verified 27 October 2026. Kajabi, Teachable and Thinkific prices and limits from kajabi.com/pricing, teachable.com/pricing and thinkific.com/pricing, freelance rates from upwork.com/hire/web-developers/cost, all read on that date. Yearly and three-year totals are KUMO's arithmetic on those published prices and the stated revenue assumption. KUMO bands are KUMO's published prices.
The numbers in one file. The Build vs Buy Price Book, October 2026 has the published prices of 40 business tools read in October 2026, what they cost a 40-person company, and the four tests that say whether a custom build is worth it. Download the PDF (8 pages, free, no form).
