Thinkific or Kajabi? Neither—Here’s the Smarter Alternative for Digital Entrepreneurs

Platforms like Kajabi and Thinkific are everywhere, and they do a lot of things well. But they’re not the only option—and for many creators, they’re not the smartest option.

If you want more control, better margins, and a stack you actually own, building on WordPress + Smart Creator Press (smartcreatorpress.com) is often the better, more cost-effective move.

Let’s break down why.

1. The Subscription Trap vs. Real Ownership

Hosted platforms: convenient—but expensive forever

Kajabi and Thinkific are “walled gardens.” They host your site, courses, checkout, and emails in one place. Convenient, yes. But that convenience comes with two big downsides:

1. Locked-in monthly fees

   • Kajabi’s paid plans currently range from about $89/month up to $399+ per month, depending on features and limits. LitExtension+1

   • Thinkific’s paid plans run from about $49/month to $199/month, plus an enterprise tier. FreshLearn+1
     Over a year, that’s $600–$4,000+ just in platform fees, before ads, tools, or contractors.

2. You’re renting your business home

   • Your courses, memberships, and funnels live on their servers, in their ecosystem.

   • If you ever leave, you’re rebuilding a lot from scratch—designs, automations, checkouts, member areas, etc.

WordPress + Smart Creator Press: own the foundation, upgrade the tools

WordPress is different. It’s open-source software that powers roughly 40% of all websites. You can host it anywhere, move it anytime, and customize it endlessly. TechRadar

Then, instead of bolting together 10 different plugins, Smart Creator Press (SCP) acts as your all-in-one membership, LMS, and funnel engine inside WordPress:

• Sell memberships, courses, and digital products from your own site

• Build sales funnels, checkout flows, and upsells without extra funnel software

• Offer live sessions and real-time support to students

• Drip content, control access by progress, track goals and habits

• Deliver secure video, audio, and files from your own environment smartcreatorpress.com

You still own the house (WordPress), but SCP turns it into a modern, creator-optimized smart home—without locking you into someone else’s gated community.

2. Let’s Talk Money: Why WordPress + SCP Is Usually Cheaper

For most creators, the math is eye-opening.

Typical all-in-one platform costs

Industry comparisons show that hosted LMS platforms and “creator platforms” often cost $99–$200 per month or more, which adds up to $1,200–$2,400 per year—and that’s just the platform subscription.

Stack that over multiple years and multiple brands, and it becomes a serious fixed cost on your business.

Typical WordPress + SCP costs

A realistic WordPress setup for a creator usually looks like this:

• Managed WordPress hosting: ~$5–$25/month (depending on traffic & features)

• Domain name: ~$10–$15/year

• Smart Creator Press license: roughly a couple hundred dollars per year

That often puts your annual cost in the low hundreds, not thousands—with comparable or better functionality.

Over three years, the savings can be several thousand dollars, which you can redirect into:

• Ads and audience growth

• Better video/audio equipment

• Team support (VAs, editors, community managers)

In other words: less money on tech overhead, more money into the stuff that actually grows your revenue.

3. Feature Parity (And Then Some): SCP vs. Big Platforms

One of the biggest myths is: “I need Kajabi/Thinkific because WordPress is too basic.”

That used to be true if you only used bare-bones plugins. But modern WordPress stacks—especially with tools like Smart Creator Press—go toe-to-toe with the big platforms.

What Smart Creator Press gives you

From the SCP feature overview: smartcreatorpress.com

• Memberships & tiers (free, paid, trial, lifetime)

• Courses & digital products (one-time, subscription, bundled)

• Centralized member dashboard

• Sales funnels, checkouts, and upsells

• Content dripping & progress-based access

• Secure delivery of videos, audio, PDFs, etc.

• Goal and habit tracking to keep members engaged

• Tight integration with other “Smart” plugins like:

  • Smart Quiz Builder – for assessments & lead quizzes

  • Smart Forum Builder – for communities

  • Smart Events Calendar – for events and live sessions Lifetimo

That means with WordPress + SCP, you can run:

• An online course academy

• A membership site

• A digital product shop (templates, downloads, bundles)

• Live cohorts and group programs

• A community hub and event calendar

• Funnels with order bumps and upsells

All from one plugin ecosystem—without cobbling together 10 random tools or paying multiple SaaS subscriptions.

4. Flexibility and Customization: Your Brand, Your Rules

On hosted platforms, you’re always playing inside someone else’s sandbox:

• Limited theme options

• Restricted layouts and customizations

• Opinionated checkout flows and member area designs

• Integrations that depend on what they support

With WordPress, you’re plugging into the largest website ecosystem on the internet, with thousands of:

• Themes (including ultra-flexible options like Astra, Avada, and more) TechRadar

• Page builders (Elementor, Gutenberg, Kadence, etc.)

• SEO plugins (Rank Math, Yoast, SEOPress)

• Marketing tools (pop-ups, quizzes, analytics, social proof, etc.)

Smart Creator Press sits on top of this ecosystem, so instead of being boxed into “Kajabi-style” or “Thinkific-style,” your site can look and feel like your brand, down to the last pixel.

This is especially important for:

• Coaches & personal brands who want a very distinct style

• Agencies or multi-brand creators running several sites

• Niche creators with unique customer journeys

5. Portability & Future-Proofing

Here’s a question most creators don’t ask until it’s too late: “What happens if I outgrow my platform—or it changes in a way I don’t like?”

Hosted platforms can:

• Change their pricing

• Add transaction fees

• Remove features you rely on

• Pivot their product direction entirely

If that happens, moving is painful.

With WordPress, your site is not tied to any single company:

• You can migrate to a different host with a simple backup/restore process

• You can change plugins, themes, or layouts without starting from zero

• WordPress.com itself even highlights how easy it is to import content from other providers and move between WordPress setups. WordPress.com

Smart Creator Press enhances this, rather than replacing it. If SCP ever stopped being right for you (or you wanted to shift how you sell), you still own:

• Your content

• Your database

• Your design

• Your customer relationships

That’s a dramatically safer long-term play than building everything inside someone else’s SaaS silo.

6. “But Isn’t WordPress Harder?” – The Real Story

This is the main (and fair) objection.

WordPress does have more moving parts than a one-login hosted platform. You’ll need to:

• Choose a host

• Install WordPress

• Install Smart Creator Press and connect your payment gateway

• Choose a theme or builder

However, a few things have changed:

1. Managed WordPress hosting is now beginner-friendly
   Many hosts offer one-click installs, guided setup, and even AI-assisted site builders tailored to WordPress. TechRadar+1

2. SCP is designed specifically to reduce “plugin overwhelm”
   SCP’s whole premise is: “Too many plugins, too many integrations, too complex, too expensive” is the old way.
   Instead of 8 different tools (LMS, funnels, membership, quiz, events, forums…), you run your business on a single integrated suite.

3. Once it’s set up, you’re not “teching” every day
   The vast majority of your time goes into:

   • Creating lessons

   • Coaching clients

   • Hosting live calls

   • Writing emails & content
     …not fiddling with your platform.

And if you really don’t want to touch the setup, you can always hire a WordPress specialist for a one-time build—then enjoy lower monthly costs and more control for years.

7. Who Should Seriously Consider WordPress + Smart Creator Press?

This combo is especially powerful if you are:

• A coach or consultant who wants:

  • Courses + memberships + group programs + high-ticket funnels …without paying enterprise SaaS pricing.

• A digital product creator selling:

  • Templates, PDFs, Notion systems, audio/video vaults, or bundles from your own storefront.

• A community-driven creator building:

  • A hub with courses, resources, events, and forums all under one login.

• A multi-brand or multi-offer entrepreneur running:

  • Several sites, micro-brands, or niche funnels, where SaaS pricing would multiply quickly.

If your goal is long-term, scalable, owned infrastructure, WordPress + SCP is almost always the more strategic move.

8. The Bottom Line

Kajabi, Thinkific, and other hosted platforms aren’t “bad.” They’re just expensive apartments: nice amenities, but the rent never stops, and you can’t knock out walls or change the floor plan.

WordPress + Smart Creator Press is more like buying a home and renovating it exactly the way you want:

• You own the land (your site, hosting, and content)

• You choose the layout and style (themes, builders, design)

• You install powerful systems (SCP for memberships, courses, funnels, events, quizzes, communities)

• And you do it all at a fraction of the ongoing cost of big SaaS platforms.

For creators, coaches, and digital product businesses who think beyond the next 6–12 months, the question isn’t:“Is WordPress as convenient as Kajabi?”

It’s:“Do I want to build my business on rented land—or on a foundation I truly own and control?”

If you’re ready for the second option, WordPress + SmartCreatorPress is one of the smartest, most cost-effective ways to do it.