Thinkific Alternatives After the Price Rise - AXL
5 Thinkific alternatives, after the price rise
What each replacement charges, which tools it removes, and how AXL connects learning to the rest of the customer journey.
The short version:
- Same category: Kajabi - unlimited marketing email included, not bought separately
- Smallest sticker: Teachable Builder - $89, and no cut of your sales
- An agent that finishes: AXL - your agent can build and edit, not only read
Why people leave Thinkific
- The price rise: About 10% on Basic, Start and Grow from 13 August 2026, with Expand unchanged (support.thinkific.com, checked 21 August 2026).
- No nurture email: Reviewers report no sequence to leads who have not bought, so most creators run an external tool alongside (learningrevolution.net/thinkific-email).
- Basic locks out too much: Memberships and completion certificates start on Start, and Basic includes one site admin (thinkific.com/pricing, checked 21 August 2026).
- The agent only reads: API and webhooks start at Grow. Thinkific MCP is Plus only, read-only and still rolling out, so it might not appear on every account (support.thinkific.com, checked 21 August 2026).
The five, in one table
| Platform | From | Cut of your sales | Metered on | Agent access | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thinkific (yours) | $54 | 0% on Thinkific Payments; 5% down to 0.5% with your own provider where applicable | Feature tier | No nurture sequences reported | Plus only, read-only, rolling out |
| AXL | Free; $49 Starter | 0% | Eight usage meters, same overage rates | Included allowance by plan, then $0.0006 per email | Included on every plan |
| Kajabi | $179 | 0% on Kajabi Payments; 2% down to 0.5% with an eligible third-party provider | Contacts, products | Unlimited | Every plan, drafts only |
| Teachable | $39 | 7.5% Starter, then 0% | Active students | Reported basic | REST API from $189 |
| Kartra | $59 | 5% Essentials, then 0% | Contacts, 500 → 25,000 | Unlimited from Starter | No first-party MCP |
| Skool | $9 | 10% Hobby / 2.9% Pro | Flat | None reported | No public API found |
What each one is good at
AXL: if an agent should run it
Closes the two gaps Thinkific users pay third parties to fill: broadcasts and automations on the CRM's own filter grammar, and an API plus ~1,100 agent operations on every account. Start free, paid plans from $49/month, 0% of revenue.
Limits: no SCORM at all, a smaller integration catalogue, and no learner app we will claim. AXL vs Thinkific →
Kajabi: the same category, email included
Unlimited marketing email, funnels and landing pages on every tier, plus podcasts and an agent on all plans. Basic is $179, Growth $249 and Pro $499 a month (kajabi.com/pricing).
Limits: more than three times the entry price, contacts metered from 2,500, and agent writes that land as drafts.
Teachable: the smallest budget
The lowest credible entry price for a course business, with a learner app and BackOffice (2% to 2.8%) for author payouts and international tax. $39 / $89 / $189; Starter takes 7.5% (teachable.com/pricing).
Limits: active students capped at 100 / 1,000 / 5,000, no REST API below $189, and the same email weakness.
Kartra: the whole stack on one bill
Unlimited email from Starter plus pages, checkout, memberships, video, affiliates and a helpdesk. It answers a reported $121 to $424 monthly Thinkific stack. $59 / $119 / $229 / $549 (kartra.com/plans-and-pricing).
Limits: contacts become the meter at 500 / 2,500 / 12,500 / 25,000, and there is no first-party MCP server.
Skool: if the cohort is the product
Community mechanics and built-in discovery at a price nothing else matches, with unlimited members, courses and live calls on both tiers. $9 Hobby at 10% or $99 Pro at 2.9% (skool.com/pricing).
Limits: no public API or email marketing found, and no graded assessment to replace what Thinkific gave you.
Your reason for leaving, and where it points
| Leaving because… | Pick |
|---|---|
| The renewal price went up | Teachable Builder at $89, or AXL Starter at $49: both are 0% |
| You are tired of paying for email separately | AXL or Kartra: both include it |
| You need an API without buying the Grow tier | AXL: included on every account |
| You want podcasts and a branded learner app | Kajabi |
| The group is what students actually pay for | Skool |
Where AXL fits, and where it does not
It fits the Thinkific user whose real bill is three subscriptions and whose real complaint is that a course platform cannot market.
It does not fit compliance training. SCORM is the clean loss: Thinkific has it on Plus and we do not have it anywhere.
Moving off Thinkific
- Students and contacts - CSV or XLSX, with field mapping
- Sales pages - Cloned from their URLs
- Course outlines - Rebuilt, quickly, by an agent
- Progress, quizzes, posts - Move nowhere
- SCORM - Cannot move at all
If your renewal fell before the rise, the old price holds until the next one.
How much did Thinkific go up in 2026?
Thinkific raised Basic, Start and Grow by about 10%, its first subscription increase since 2022. New monthly prices are $54, $109 and $219 from 13 August 2026. Expand stayed at $499. Existing non-profit and discounted accounts were exempt. Thinkific's own pages were checked on 21 August 2026.
Try the replacement before your renewal lands.
Import the students and rebuild one course while the old account still runs. Start free; paid plans start at $49 a month, with included usage and published overage rates.
Thinkific pricing and plan details were checked on its official pages on 21 August 2026. Spot an error? Tell us and we will fix it within a week.