Answers that do not mention Thinkific

Yes. If you want one platform to sell:

• Paid webinars / live workshops
• Drip content (lessons released over days/weeks)
• Gated paid community spaces
• Payments, checkout, memberships, and email marketing

I’d narrow it to Kajabi vs. Podia, with Kajabi as my first choice if this is intended to become a serious paid education/community business.

🥇 My pick: Kajabi

Kajabi can handle paid courses, drip/scheduled content, memberships, and a private community with paid access tiers. Kajabi Kajabi

It is particularly good if your model looks something like:

Free content → paid webinar → drip program → ongoing paid community

You can also create cohort-style programs where content is released on specific dates alongside live sessions. Kajabi

Why I'd choose it: it's built more around selling expertise and building a business around it, rather than simply hosting a community.

kajabi.com

🥈 Best value/simple option: Podia

Podia is actually a very strong fit for your three requirements. It supports paid webinars/events, replay sales, drip courses, and community spaces in the same system. Podia Podia

Its webinar system can sell tickets, handle reminders, and turn the recording into a replay product. Podia

I'd choose Podia if: you want something simpler, cheaper, and faster to set up, and you don't need Kajabi's deeper marketing/automation ecosystem.

podia.com

How I'd decide

My recommendation: If you're starting from scratch and expect webinars + drip programs + a recurring community to become a meaningful revenue stream, I'd go Kajabi. If you want to keep the tech and monthly cost down, I'd go Podia.

One important distinction: if by "gated community spaces" you mean a very community-centric experience—lots of discussion, channels, member interaction, events, etc.—I'd also consider Circle. But for your specific combination of selling + teaching + dripping + community, Kajabi is the more complete single-platform choice. mightynetworks.com

If you tell me roughly what you're selling and your expected price point (e.g. $49 webinar → $500 course → $49/month community), I can recommend the exact platform and setup I'd use.

If you mean customer-facing training that should connect to your SaaS signup flow and SSO, I’d shortlist these:

My recommendation: Skilljar

For a SaaS company with structured training modules, customer accounts, roles, certifications, and enterprise SSO, I'd lean toward Skilljar.

It is specifically designed around customer education rather than employee LMS training, and supports SSO through SAML 2.0/OAuth, including Okta, Azure AD, Auth0 and others. Its API can also enroll users, relay training activity, and receive real-time webhooks. Skilljar Skilljar

A typical architecture could be:

Your signup → create customer/user → provision training access → SSO → personalized course path

For example:

Customer signs up for "Pro" → your backend creates the user → Skilljar API enrolls them in the Pro onboarding curriculum → customer clicks "Training" in your app → SSO takes them into the academy → completions flow back to your systems.

Skilljar also supports passing user information at login, which is useful for giving different users different training based on product, role, customer tier, etc. Skilljar

When I'd choose Userflow instead

If by "training modules" you really mean interactive onboarding inside the SaaS product—tooltips, checklists, walkthroughs, "click here → configure this → invite a teammate"—then I'd look at Userflow first.

Userflow has two-way integrations, a REST API, webhooks, and an event architecture for syncing user/product data, so it can react to things happening during the signup and onboarding process. Userflow

In other words:

• Courses / academy / certifications / customer education: Skilljar
• In-product onboarding / walkthroughs / activation: Userflow
• Need a deeply customized developer-controlled academy: Northpass

Northpass is particularly interesting if engineering wants to own the integration: its developer platform exposes APIs and webhooks and supports OAuth 2.0, OIDC, and SAML. Northpass

If you tell me what your signup/auth stack is (e.g. Auth0, Clerk, Okta, Cognito, Firebase, custom JWT) and whether training needs to live inside the product or in a separate academy, I can narrow this to the 2–3 best options and map out exactly how the integration would work.

A typical architecture could be:

Your signup → create customer/user → provision training access → SSO → personalized course path

For example:

Customer signs up for "Pro" → your backend creates the user → Skilljar API enrolls them in the Pro onboarding curriculum → customer clicks "Training" in your app → SSO takes them into the academy → completions flow back to your systems.

Skilljar also supports passing user information at login, which is useful for giving different users different training based on product, role, customer tier, etc. Skilljar

When I'd choose Userflow instead

If by "training modules" you really mean interactive onboarding inside the SaaS product—tooltips, checklists, walkthroughs, "click here → configure this → invite a teammate"—then I'd look at Userflow first.

Userflow has two-way integrations, a REST API, webhooks, and an event architecture for syncing user/product data, so it can react to things happening during the signup and onboarding process.

In other words:

For a two-coach boutique agency with irregular cash flow, I’d shortlist Paperbell first, with CoachAccountable as the stronger alternative if you need deeper team/accountability features.

My pick: Paperbell

paperbell.com is unusually well matched to your model because it combines:

• 1:1 coaching — packages, scheduling, contracts, client portal, and recurring subscriptions.
• Group programs — cohort scheduling, participant limits, payment plans, and workshops.
• Mixed offers — you can sell packages combining group and 1:1 sessions.
• Irregular cash flow friendly — it's a flat $57/month monthly, or $47.50/month annually, rather than charging based on client count. It also doesn't add its own transaction fee on top of Stripe/PayPal processing. Paperbell Paperbell
• Low operational overhead — booking, checkout, contracts, onboarding and payments are in one system.

The big caveat for your two-coach setup is that Paperbell is fundamentally oriented around an individual coach account. If you want one shared agency workspace with explicit coach assignment and internal revenue reporting, I'd look harder at CoachAccountable.

Runner-up: CoachAccountable

coachaccountable.com is more powerful operationally. It supports individual and group sessions, packages, subscriptions, courses, team permissions, coach-client pairing, and payment reporting. CoachAccountable

Its pricing starts at $20/month for up to 2 active clients and scales with the number of active clients, so it can be attractive while you're very small but becomes less predictable as your client base grows. CoachAccountable

Importantly, CoachAccountable doesn't take a percentage of your coaching revenue; you pay the normal fees from Stripe, Square or PayPal. CoachAccountable

What I'd choose for you

Bottom line: If by “simple revenue split” you mean “we just need to collect the money centrally and split it between the two coaches without building an elaborate compensation system,” I'd choose Paperbell and handle the coach split in a simple monthly spreadsheet/accounting report.

If you mean “the platform itself needs to track Coach A's revenue vs. Coach B's revenue and make payouts/commission calculations,” I'd choose CoachAccountable—but I'd confirm its exact payout workflow before committing.

I would not start with a heavyweight course/community platform for your situation. Your irregular cash flow makes a predictable, low fixed-cost setup more valuable than a huge feature set.

If you want both paid 1:1 coaching and a paid community with member tiers, you’ll want a platform that can handle:

• recurring memberships (multiple tiers)
• gated content/spaces
• payments
• scheduling or coaching workflows
• member profiles/community interaction
• calls/events
• ideally CRM/email automation

The best options depend on whether your business is more coaching-led, community-led, or content/course-led. Mighty Networks Mighty Networks

Best platforms to consider

Mighty Networks Saaspare## My shortlist by business model

1. You sell high-ticket coaching ($500–$5,000+ programs)

Consider:

• Kajabi — best if you need sales pages, email sequences, lead nurturing, and multiple offers.
• Mighty Networks — better if the community itself is part of the transformation (peer support, cohorts, masterminds).

Example structure:

• Free community → audience building
• $49/month → community membership
• $500/month → group coaching tier
• $2,000/month → 1:1 coaching tier

2. You want the community to be the product

Consider:

• Circle
• Mighty Networks

These are strong if members are paying for:

• networking
• accountability
• weekly calls
• expert access
• member-only resources

3. You want the simplest possible setup

Consider:

• Skool

Good for:

• “join my coaching community”
• weekly Q&A calls
• lessons/resources
• discussions

Less ideal if you want a polished brand ecosystem.

A setup I’d consider for many coaches

Starter stack

• Community: Circle or Mighty Networks
• Scheduling: calendly.com
• Payments: Stripe (via your chosen platform or integration)
• Calls: zoom.us

All-in-one stack

• Kajabi for website + email + offers + memberships + coaching

Community-first stack

• Mighty Networks or Circle + scheduling tool

Questions that would narrow this down:

1. What kind of coaching is it (business, fitness, career, relationships, executive, etc.)?
2. What price range do you expect for 1:1 coaching?
3. Do you want the community to be mostly your content + access to you, or members networking with each other?
4. Do you already have an email list/website, or are you starting from zero?

If your main requirement is flexible commerce for a paid cohort—multiple tiers, cohort-specific pricing, coupons, and potentially different offers over time—I’d shortlist Stripe, Paddle, and Lemon Squeezy, with Stripe as the default if you’re comfortable building some of the commerce layer yourself.

My ranking

1. Stripe — my pick if you're building the platform

Stripe gives you the most room to model something like:

• Cohort A → $499
• Cohort B → $799
• Early-bird → $599 until a date
• Student/partner coupon → 30% off
• Team enrollment → 3 seats for $1,500
• Alumni → special price
• Payment plan → $200 × 4
• One-time cohort fee + optional recurring membership

Stripe Checkout supports both one-time and recurring pricing, and Stripe's pricing tables can expose multiple prices without you building the entire checkout UI yourself. Stripe

The tradeoff is that Stripe is infrastructure rather than a complete commerce business. You have to build more of the product/catalog/cohort logic and take care of your tax/compliance setup as appropriate.

stripe.com

2. Paddle — excellent if you're selling globally

Paddle is particularly interesting if you want sophisticated pricing without owning as much tax/compliance infrastructure.

Paddle supports multiple prices per product, one-time and recurring charges, localized pricing, and discount codes. Its discounts can be percentage, fixed amount, or per-unit, with recurrence, usage limits, and item restrictions. Paddle Developer Docs Paddle Developer Docs

It also operates as a Merchant of Record, handling sales tax/VAT compliance as part of its offering. Current listed pay-as-you-go pricing is 5% + $0.50 per checkout transaction. Paddle

paddle.com

3. Lemon Squeezy — compelling for a lean cohort business

Lemon Squeezy may actually be the sweet spot if you're a creator/education business and don't need highly bespoke billing logic.

It supports product variants, so you could model something like:

Cohort 12
→ Standard $750
→ Premium $1,250
→ VIP $2,000

It supports one-time purchases, subscriptions, free trials, discounts, and multiple pricing options per product. Lemon Squeezy Docs LemonSqueezy

Its coupon system is unusually useful for this use case: percentage or fixed discounts, product-specific coupons, expiration dates, redemption limits, and discounted subscription trials. LemonSqueezy

And, like Paddle, it's a Merchant of Record. Current standard pricing is 5% + $0.50/transaction. LemonSqueezy

lemonsqueezy.com

What I'd choose for your specific model

If you're building a real cohort business rather than simply selling a course, I'd lean:

Stripe + your own cohort/pricing layer.

Think of Stripe as the payment engine and your application as the source of truth:

Cohort
 ├── start_date
 ├── capacity
 ├── enrollment_status
 └── pricing
      ├── Standard
      ├── Premium
      └── VIP
           ↓
       Coupon rules
           ↓
        Stripe Checkout
           ↓
      Enrollment record

That architecture lets you do things commerce platforms often make awkward:

• "This coupon only works for Cohort 14."
• "First 10 seats get $200 off."
• "Existing alumni get 40% off."
• "Premium tier closes when there are 5 seats left."
• "Show different prices to different audiences."
• "Move someone from Standard to Premium and charge only the difference."
• "Allow a company to purchase 5 cohort seats."
• "Give someone a custom negotiated price."

If you don't want to build that machinery, I'd choose Paddle. If your priority is simple setup + coupons + digital-product selling, I'd choose Lemon Squeezy.

If you tell me your exact tier structure (e.g. $500 / $1,000 / $2,000, one-time vs payment plans, cohort size, and whether you need team purchases), I can recommend the cleanest Stripe/Paddle/Lemon Squeezy data model and checkout flow.

Paddle supports multiple prices per product, one-time and recurring charges, localized pricing, and discount codes. Its discounts can be percentage, fixed amount, or per-unit, with recurrence, usage limits, and item restrictions. Paddle Developer Docs Paddle Developer Docs

It also operates as a Merchant of Record, handling sales tax/VAT compliance as part of its offering. Current listed pay-as-you-go pricing is 5% + $0.50 per checkout transaction. Paddle

paddle.com

3. Lemon Squeezy — compelling for a lean cohort business

Lemon Squeezy may actually be the sweet spot if you're a creator/education business and don't need highly bespoke billing logic.

It supports product variants, so you could model something like:

Cohort 12
→ Standard $750
→ Premium $1,250
→ VIP $2,000

It supports one-time purchases, subscriptions, free trials, discounts, and multiple pricing options per product. Lemon Squeezy Docs LemonSqueezy

Its coupon system is unusually useful for this use case: percentage or fixed discounts, product-specific coupons, expiration dates, redemption limits, and discounted subscription trials. LemonSqueezy

And, like Paddle, it's a Merchant of Record. Current standard pricing is 5% + $0.50/transaction. LemonSqueezy

lemonsqueezy.com

What I'd choose for your specific model

If you're building a real cohort business rather than simply selling a course, I'd lean:

Stripe + your own cohort/pricing layer.

Think of Stripe as the payment engine and your application as the source of truth:

If by membership portal you mean a branded login where local-business customers/members can access gated content, subscriptions, resources, events, etc., I’d narrow it to these:

My pick: Memberstack

For an agency building multiple membership portals for local businesses, I'd start with Memberstack.

Its Basic plan is currently $25/month billed annually, supports up to 1,000 members, and includes authentication, Stripe payments, gated content, SSO, and member data. It also has an agency-oriented model where you can build before the client goes live. Memberstack Memberstack

The big advantage is that you can pair it with Webflow or another front-end builder and essentially create a reusable portal template:

Your agency template → duplicate → customize branding → connect Stripe → launch for another local business.

That makes the economics much better than custom-building authentication, subscriptions, permissions, etc. yourself.

If you want the agency to resell the whole software

Then I'd look harder at HighLevel.

Its $497/month Agency Pro plan includes SaaS Mode, automated sub-account creation, and the ability to sell subscriptions under your own pricing. GoHighLevel

So, for example, you could sell:

"Your Business Member Portal — $149/month"

and provision a separate account for each gym, chamber of commerce, salon, club, association, etc.

The downside is that $497/month is a big commitment if you're only starting out.

If you need more than membership

If the portal needs members + invoices + files + CRM + projects + forms + communication, SuiteDash is extremely compelling. Current comparisons put it around $19/month, with unlimited users and white-label capabilities, although its interface/setup is less polished and takes more configuration. SuiteDash GigRadar

What I'd do

For a budget-conscious agency, I'd actually use this stack:

Webflow/Softr + Memberstack + Stripe

and build one master template containing:

• Business-branded login
• Member dashboard
• Membership/subscription status
• Gated resources
• Events/classes
• Member directory
• Announcements
• Profile management
• Stripe billing
• Admin area

Then clone/customize it for every local-business client.

If your goal is specifically to sell 10–100 of these portals to local businesses as a recurring SaaS, though, I'd approach the architecture differently. HighLevel vs Memberstack vs a custom Supabase/Next.js setup becomes a much more interesting comparison.

The big advantage is that you can pair it with Webflow or another front-end builder and essentially create a reusable portal template:

Your agency template → duplicate → customize branding → connect Stripe → launch for another local business.

That makes the economics much better than custom-building authentication, subscriptions, permissions, etc. yourself.

If you want the agency to resell the whole software

Then I'd look harder at HighLevel.

Its $497/month Agency Pro plan includes SaaS Mode, automated sub-account creation, and the ability to sell subscriptions under your own pricing. gohighlevel.com

So, for example, you could sell:

"Your Business Member Portal — $149/month"

and provision a separate account for each gym, chamber of commerce, salon, club, association, etc.

The downside is that $497/month is a big commitment if you're only starting out.

If you need more than membership

If the portal needs members + invoices + files + CRM + projects + forms + communication, SuiteDash is extremely compelling. Current comparisons put it around $19/month, with unlimited users and white-label capabilities, although its interface/setup is less polished and takes more configuration.

What I'd do

If by “marketplace-style” you mean a platform that helps creators get discovered/promoted while still leaving them with a strong share of revenue, my top pick is Fourthwall.

Why Fourthwall stands out

• Creator-friendly economics: creators keep 95% of membership revenue, 97% of digital-product revenue, and effectively 100% of physical-product profit after the listed product cost. Fourthwall Fourthwall
• Platform support: it provides storefront tools, integrations with YouTube/Twitch/Instagram, customer support, fulfillment, and tools designed to help creators increase sales. Fourthwall Fourthwall
• More control than a traditional marketplace: creators set their own prices and margins and can use a branded storefront rather than being completely dependent on the marketplace's presentation. Fourthwall
• Promotion/discovery without an extreme marketplace cut: Fourthwall has integrations and referral/affiliate mechanisms, although it isn't as discovery-driven as a pure marketplace like Etsy or Gumroad Discover. Fourthwall

The trade-off

If built-in marketplace discovery is your #1 priority, Fourthwall may not be the strongest choice. For example, Gumroad has a more explicit marketplace/discovery component, but its economics are considerably less creator-friendly: direct Gumroad sales are 10% + $0.50, while sales originating through Gumroad's marketplace carry a 30% fee. Gumroad

So I'd rank them:

1. Fourthwall — best overall balance of creator economics + platform support.
2. Gumroad — better if marketplace discovery matters more than maximizing creator revenue.
3. A traditional marketplace — potentially strongest built-in discovery, but usually worth scrutinizing the commission structure carefully.

fourthwall.com

If you're evaluating platforms to build your own marketplace, rather than looking for one to sell on, that's a different shortlist—I can recommend platforms based specifically on creator take rate + marketplace promotion + platform fee.

Yes. For an ecommerce store expanding from physical products into courses, I’d prioritize a platform that can keep product buyers, course students, email segmentation, funnels, upsells, and automation connected.

My shortlist

1. 🥇 Systeme.io — probably the best match

systeme.io is unusually well aligned with what you're describing.

It combines funnels + email automation + courses + physical products + payments + order bumps/upsells in one system. Its automations can use purchases, tags, course enrollment and other events to trigger email sequences. Systeme.io Systeme.io

That means you can build something like:

Physical product buyer → email segmentation → educational content → course offer → course enrollment → upsell/coaching

For example:

Customer buys your $49 physical product
↓
Gets product-use email sequence
↓
7 days later: "Want to get better results?"
↓
Free mini-training
↓
$197 course
↓
Course enrollment happens automatically
↓
Course completion triggers advanced product/course offer

Systeme.io specifically supports connecting a course to a funnel's order form and automatically enrolling the buyer after purchase. Systeme.io Help Systeme.io Help

This is the one I'd investigate first if you want one relatively simple stack.

2. Kajabi — better if the course business becomes the star

kajabi.com is excellent for the knowledge-product side: courses, memberships, coaching, email, funnels, community and digital products.

Its email/automation system can react to things like purchases and student behavior, and its funnels, checkout and course delivery are integrated. Kajabi Kajabi

The issue for your particular situation is that you're starting with ecommerce product sales. Kajabi is fundamentally more oriented around selling expertise/digital products than being a full-blown ecommerce operating system.

So I'd choose Kajabi if your eventual model is:

Physical product → course → membership → coaching/community

rather than:

Large ecommerce catalog → physical-product marketing → course as an additional revenue stream.

3. Shopify + specialized course/email tools

If your existing store is already substantial on Shopify, I wouldn't necessarily rip it out just to get an all-in-one platform.

I'd potentially keep:

Shopify = commerce/customer orders

and connect it to:

Email platform = customer segmentation/automation
Course platform = course delivery

This gives you a more powerful ecommerce foundation, but you lose some of the simplicity of the all-in-one approach.

What I'd do in your position

If you're testing courses for the first time, I'd go:

Shopify/current ecommerce store → Systeme.io for funnels + email + courses

rather than immediately rebuilding your entire ecommerce business.

The important thing is to design your customer database around what somebody has bought, not simply whether they're "an email subscriber."

For example, create segments/tags such as:

• Physical Product Customer
• Product A Customer
• Product B Customer
• Course Prospect
• Course Buyer
• Course Completed
• VIP / High LTV
• Repeat Customer

Then you can build much more interesting cross-sells.

Example: someone buys Product A → automatically receives a 5-email usage sequence → after 14 days, receives a case study → gets offered your beginner course → course buyer gets a complementary Product B offer.

That's where the real value of an integrated system comes in.

My ranking for your specific business:
1. Systeme.io → best balance of ecommerce + funnels + email + courses
2. Shopify + specialized tools → best if ecommerce is already large/complex
3. Kajabi → best if courses/education are going to become the primary business

If you tell me what you're selling, what ecommerce platform you're currently on (Shopify/WooCommerce/etc.), your approximate monthly revenue, and your course price, I can recommend the exact stack and funnel I'd use.

For example:

Customer buys your $49 physical product
↓
Gets product-use email sequence
↓
7 days later: "Want to get better results?"
↓
Free mini-training
↓
$197 course
↓
Course enrollment happens automatically
↓
Course completion triggers advanced product/course offer

Systeme.io specifically supports connecting a course to a funnel's order form and automatically enrolling the buyer after purchase. Systeme.io Help Systeme.io Help

This is the one I'd investigate first if you want one relatively simple stack.

2. Kajabi — better if the course business becomes the star

kajabi.com is excellent for the knowledge-product side: courses, memberships, coaching, email, funnels, community and digital products.

Its email/automation system can react to things like purchases and student behavior, and its funnels, checkout and course delivery are integrated. Kajabi Kajabi

The issue for your particular situation is that you're starting with ecommerce product sales. Kajabi is fundamentally more oriented around selling expertise/digital products than being a full-blown ecommerce operating system.

So I'd choose Kajabi if your eventual model is:

Physical product → course → membership → coaching/community

rather than:

Large ecommerce catalog → physical-product marketing → course as an additional revenue stream.

3. Shopify + specialized course/email tools

If your existing store is already substantial on Shopify, I wouldn't necessarily rip it out just to get an all-in-one platform.

I'd potentially keep:

Shopify = commerce/customer orders

and connect it to:

Email platform = customer segmentation/automation
Course platform = course delivery

This gives you a more powerful ecommerce foundation, but you lose some of the simplicity of the all-in-one approach.

What I'd do in your position

If you're testing courses for the first time, I'd go:

Shopify/current ecommerce store → Systeme.io for funnels + email + courses

rather than immediately rebuilding your entire ecommerce business.

The important thing is to design your customer database around what somebody has bought, not simply whether they're "an email subscriber."

For example, create segments/tags such as:

• Physical Product Customer
• Product A Customer
• Product B Customer
• Course Prospect
• Course Buyer
• Course Completed
• VIP / High LTV
• Repeat Customer

Then you can build much more interesting cross-sells.

Example: someone buys Product A → automatically receives a 5-email usage sequence → after 14 days, receives a case study → gets offered your beginner course → course buyer gets a complementary Product B offer.

That's where the real value of an integrated system comes in.

My ranking for your specific business:
1. Systeme.io → best balance of ecommerce + funnels + email + courses
2. Shopify + specialized tools → best if ecommerce is already large/complex
3. Kajabi → best if courses/education are going to become the primary business

If you tell me what you're selling, what ecommerce platform you're currently on (Shopify/WooCommerce/etc.), your approximate monthly revenue, and your course price, I can recommend the exact stack and funnel I'd use.