Answers that mention Thinkific

For a two-person agency selling cohort/group programs, I’d strongly favor an all-in-one platform. You don’t want one person becoming the “integrations department.”

My shortlist

🥇 I'd pick Kajabi

For your specific model, Kajabi is probably the cleanest fit.

It combines landing pages/funnels, email sequences, checkout/payment, course delivery, community, and automations. Crucially for cohorts, you can drip content according to specific calendar dates, rather than merely “X days after purchase.” Kajabi Kajabi

That lets you build something like:

Ad / referral → application or webinar → nurture sequence → sales call → checkout → automated onboarding → cohort opens → weekly lessons → live sessions → completion → upsell

without stitching together five different systems.

For a two-person team, that reduction in operational complexity is worth a lot.

kajabi.com

When I'd choose HighLevel instead

I'd pick HighLevel if your agency thinks of itself primarily as a sales/marketing operation rather than an education business.

It's particularly strong if you need:

• CRM pipelines
• lead scoring
• SMS follow-up
• appointment booking
• sales-team workflows
• detailed funnel automation
• multiple client/business accounts

HighLevel now also has courses, community, email, funnels, payments and automation in one system. GoHighLevel GoHighLevel

The tradeoff is that I'd rather have my students inside Kajabi than HighLevel. Kajabi is built around the learner experience; HighLevel is built around the customer/sales journey.

gohighlevel.com

When I'd choose Circle

If the community is actually the product—for example, weekly cohort discussions, peer accountability, events, office hours, member networking—I'd seriously consider Circle.

Circle now combines community, courses, website/landing pages, payments and email marketing, so it's much more capable as an all-in-one than it used to be. Circle

circle.so

My recommendation by business model

• $2k–$15k+ cohort programs: Kajabi
• Cohorts + aggressive lead generation/sales follow-up: HighLevel
• Community/accountability is the main value: Circle
• Mostly self-paced courses: Thinkific
• Want to minimize software spend: Systeme.io

One thing I wouldn't do initially: build a Frankenstein stack like ClickFunnels + ConvertKit + Thinkific + Circle + Zapier. For a two-person team, the flexibility usually isn't worth the maintenance burden.

If you tell me your typical program price, number of students per cohort, and whether you sell via application/sales call or straight checkout, I can narrow this to one platform and tell you exactly how I'd set up the funnel + cohort workflow.

Circle now combines community, courses, website/landing pages, payments and email marketing, so it's much more capable as an all-in-one than it used to be.

without stitching together five different systems.

For a two-person team, that reduction in operational complexity is worth a lot.

For a first online course where you specifically want landing pages + automated emails + course hosting in one place, I’d focus on true all-in-one platforms rather than stitching together a website builder, email service, and LMS. Kajabi Automateed

Platforms worth considering

My shortlist for a first-time creator

• Choose Kajabi if your plan is: “I want this course to become a real business, I’ll run launches, build an email list, add products later, and I want fewer integrations.” Kajabi combines course delivery, landing pages, email automation, funnels, and payments in one system. Kajabi
• Choose Podia if you want the all-in-one approach but want a lighter, simpler tool.
• Choose Teachable or Thinkific if your priority is getting the course live quickly and you’re comfortable adding an email marketing tool later. Kajabi

A practical first-launch stack

If you have the budget:

• Course + website + funnels + email: Kajabi

If you’re validating the idea:

• Course hosting: Teachable/Thinkific
• Email list: a dedicated email tool later if needed
• Upgrade once sales justify the added complexity

Before choosing, I’d answer three questions:

1. Is this a $49–$199 self-paced course or a higher-ticket program/coaching offer?
2. Do you already have an audience/email list?
3. Do you want to sell through evergreen funnels or mostly through launches?

Those answers can change the best fit quite a bit.

For a first online course where you specifically want landing pages + automated emails + course hosting in one place, I’d start by looking at an all-in-one creator platform rather than stitching together separate tools.

My shortlist:

Kajabi Kajabi## My recommendation by scenario

Choose Kajabi if:

• You want one login for almost everything
• You plan to sell with:

• lead magnets
• email sequences
• webinars
• evergreen funnels
• upsells
• memberships/coaching later
• You don’t want to connect WordPress + email software + landing page software + course software yourself

Kajabi’s main advantage is that the customer journey (opt-in → email nurture → purchase → course access) lives in one system. Kajabi

Choose Thinkific if:

• Your priority is making a great student experience
• Your course is the product, not a larger marketing machine
• You’re comfortable adding an email tool later

Thinkific is often a good fit for educators who care more about course structure, assessments, and delivery than built-in sales funnels. Kajabi

Choose Teachable if:

• You want to get your first version live quickly
• You’re validating an idea
• You don’t need sophisticated automation yet

It’s simpler, but many creators eventually add separate email and marketing tools as they grow. Kajabi

A practical first-course stack

If you expect to sell under a few dozen courses initially:

• Course + checkout: Thinkific or Teachable
• Email: a dedicated email tool
• Landing page: simple website builder or the platform’s pages

If you’re building a serious creator business from day one:

• Course + landing pages + email + automation: Kajabi

A useful rule: don’t buy the biggest platform because it has the most features; buy the one that removes the most work from your launch.

If you tell me:

1. your expected course price ($50, $500, $2,000+),
2. whether you already have an email list, and
3. whether this is a one-time course or a future membership/coaching business,

I can narrow it down to one or two choices.

For paid evergreen funnels + email broadcasts + drip course delivery in one package, I’d start with Kajabi as the strongest all-in-one fit. It is specifically built around selling knowledge products and combines courses, marketing funnels, email campaigns, automations, checkout, and customer management in one system. Kajabi Kajabi

Recommended: Kajabi

kajabi.com

Why it matches your requirements

Kajabi’s funnel tools connect landing pages and email campaigns, and its email sequences can be added directly into funnels for automated follow-up. Kajabi Kajabi Its course and membership products are designed to live alongside marketing and sales tools rather than requiring separate course-hosting software. Kajabi

Typical setup I’d build

Lead generation

• Free guide/webinar/checklist landing page
• Email opt-in
• Tag subscriber by interest

↓

Evergreen funnel

• 5–10 day automated nurture sequence
• Sales page
• Checkout
• Upsell/downsell (optional)

↓

Paid course delivery

• Immediate welcome email
• Lessons released weekly or by schedule
• Completion reminders
• Upgrade path into coaching/community

↓

Broadcast engine

• Weekly newsletter
• Promotions
• Segmented announcements

Alternatives worth considering

HighLevel

Better if your business is more agency/CRM/lead-generation focused (multiple clients, pipelines, SMS, sales teams). Less course-centric than Kajabi.

Kartra

Strong all-in-one funnel platform with email, memberships, and automation. Good for marketers who think primarily in funnels.

Systeme.io

A lower-cost option that combines funnels, email marketing, and courses. Good if budget is the main constraint.

Thinkific + email platform

Good course experience, but you’ll usually add another tool for advanced evergreen funnels and broadcasts.

My shortlist by business type

• Creator/coaching/course business: Kajabi
• Marketing agency with clients: HighLevel
• Funnel-first marketer: Kartra
• Budget-conscious startup: Systeme.io
• Enterprise training/course delivery: Thinkific or similar LMS + dedicated marketing stack

If this is for one brand selling your own courses, I would choose Kajabi. If it’s for running funnels for clients, I’d lean HighLevel.

Systeme.io

A lower-cost option that combines funnels, email marketing, and courses. Good if budget is the main constraint.

Thinkific + email platform

Good course experience, but you’ll usually add another tool for advanced evergreen funnels and broadcasts.

My shortlist by business type

If you already have an ecommerce store selling physical products and you're adding courses, I’d think about this differently from someone starting a course business from scratch.

The key question is: where should the customer journey live?

The main options

For your particular model

I'd seriously consider Shopify + Thinkific if your existing ecommerce store is important.

Thinkific specifically supports Shopify along with integrations such as ActiveCampaign and Mailchimp, and its current sales tooling includes things like bundles, upsells, order bumps and promotions. Thinkific Thinkific

That gives you a structure like:

Shopify
→ physical products
→ bundles
→ existing customers
→ ecommerce checkout

Thinkific
→ courses
→ memberships
→ digital products
→ student experience

Email/automation
→ post-purchase sequences
→ abandoned-cart follow-up
→ physical-product → course cross-sells
→ course → physical-product cross-sells

The advantage is that you don't have to rip apart the ecommerce operation you've already built.

When I'd choose Kajabi instead

If your long-term business is becoming more like:

Physical product → educational content → course → coaching/membership → higher-ticket offer

then Kajabi becomes particularly interesting.

Kajabi combines courses, digital products, checkout, funnels, email automation, landing pages and customer/product automation in one system. Kajabi Kajabi

So you could have:

Customer buys product
→ automatically tagged
→ education email sequence
→ free mini-course
→ paid course offer
→ upsell/membership
→ ongoing product offers

That's a very clean physical product → knowledge product funnel.

The catch is that Kajabi isn't really intended to replace a full ecommerce platform like Shopify. For a store with a substantial physical-product catalog, I'd generally keep the ecommerce engine separate rather than trying to force everything into Kajabi.

One interesting budget option

Systeme.io is worth looking at if you want to minimize the number of subscriptions. It combines funnels, email, checkout and course delivery, with a free tier and relatively inexpensive paid plans. OnlineCourseTools SiteGrowth

I'd be more inclined to use it for a digital-first business than for an established ecommerce operation with a sophisticated physical-product store.

My architecture suggestion

If you already have meaningful ecommerce infrastructure, I'd look at:

Shopify → Thinkific → email automation

rather than migrating your whole business to an all-in-one course platform.

If you're willing to make the course/education business the center of the customer journey, then:

Shopify → Kajabi

with Shopify remaining the physical-product store and Kajabi becoming the education/marketing engine.

If you tell me what ecommerce platform you're currently using (Shopify, WooCommerce, etc.), roughly how many physical SKUs you have, and whether your courses are low-ticket ($20–100) or higher-ticket ($200+), I can narrow this down to the architecture that makes the most sense for your funnel.

For an ecommerce store that is adding digital courses, the best setup depends on whether your main business is still physical products or whether courses will become the main revenue engine.

Here are the strongest options:

My typical recommendation for an ecommerce brand

If you already have customers buying products, I would usually not replace your ecommerce platform. I would build an education layer on top:

Customer journey:

1. Product purchase

→

2. Automated email sequence

→

3. Free mini-course / education lead magnet

→

4. Paid course upsell

→

5. Membership, coaching, bundles, repeat product purchases

Example stack:

• Store: shopify.com
• Email + segmentation: klaviyo.com
• Course delivery: kajabi.com, thinkific.com, or a Shopify-compatible course app
• Automation: zapier.com or native integrations

If you want the simplest all-in-one

Choose Kajabi if:

• Your courses are high-margin ($100–$2,000+ offers)
• You sell expertise, transformation, coaching, or memberships
• You want fewer integrations

Kajabi includes course hosting, email marketing, funnels, checkout, and community tools in one system. Kajabi

If you want the strongest ecommerce engine

Choose Shopify + Klaviyo + course integration if:

• You have physical products
• You rely on ads, SEO, bundles, repeat purchases
• You need inventory, shipping, variants, and retail workflows

Shopify generally fits better when the store remains the center of the business, while course platforms tend to be stronger when education is the main product. Ruzuku

A few details would change the recommendation:

1. What platform is your store currently on (Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, etc.)?
2. Are your courses going to be a bonus with products, or a separate paid product line?
3. What price range are you thinking for the courses ($49, $199, $999+)?

1. What platform is your store currently on (Shopify, WooCommerce, Amazon, etc.)?
2. Are your courses going to be a bonus with products, or a separate paid product line?
3. What price range are you thinking for the courses ($49, $199, $999+)?

For what you’re describing—cohort-based workshops + pre-launch/waitlist funnel + automated email onboarding + checkout + course delivery—I’d look first at an all-in-one platform rather than stitching together a funnel builder, email platform, and LMS.

My shortlist

1. Kajabi — strongest "funnel → sale → onboarding" setup

Kajabi is probably the closest match if your business model is:

Content/ads → waitlist → nurture sequence → launch → checkout → automated onboarding → workshop → upsell

It combines landing pages, lead capture, email sequences, behavioral automations, checkout, and course delivery. Kajabi specifically supports automations based on things like purchases and course progress. Kajabi Kajabi

The advantage is that you don't have to constantly connect your funnel software to your course software.

I'd choose Kajabi if you're planning to sell repeatedly and build a broader education/coaching business around the workshops.

2. Podia — surprisingly good fit for cohort workshops

Podia is particularly interesting for your use case because it explicitly supports cohort-based courses, presales, future start dates, limited seats, waitlists, landing pages, email campaigns, and automated emails. Podia Podia Help Center

You could essentially build:

Waitlist landing page → automated welcome/nurture → launch emails → payment → future cohort start date → onboarding sequence → workshop

Podia's waitlist can collect prospective students before launch, and those people can receive campaigns before and during the launch. Podia Help Center Podia Help Center

It also lets you trigger campaigns when someone joins a waitlist, purchases/signs up for a product, registers for an event, or reaches course milestones. Podia Help Center

For a solo creator, this is probably the setup I'd investigate first if you don't need Kajabi's more elaborate marketing machinery.

3. Thinkific — excellent course infrastructure

Thinkific has landing pages, lead capture, checkout, sales funnels, and email automation. Thinkific Thinkific

The catch is that its email functionality can become more dependent on integrations for sophisticated marketing automation. Thinkific itself documents integrations with tools such as Kit, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Thinkific Thinkific Support

So I'd lean Thinkific when the learning experience and course infrastructure matter more than having your marketing machine entirely under one roof.

What I'd build for your business

If you're selling, say, a 4-week live workshop, I'd structure the funnel like this:

Traffic
→ free workshop/guide/webinar
→ waitlist landing page
→ 5–7 day pre-launch nurture
→ launch/open-cart sequence
→ checkout
→ automatic "you're in" onboarding
→ cohort starts on fixed date
→ weekly workshop/content
→ completion/follow-up
→ next-offer/advanced workshop

For Kajabi, I'd use the platform almost entirely natively.

For Podia, I'd also keep the stack mostly native, adding a dedicated email platform only if your segmentation/automation requirements become more sophisticated. Podia supports external email integrations if you eventually need that. Podia Help Center

My practical recommendation

• Want the most sophisticated marketing/funnel system: Kajabi
• Want the simplest all-in-one for cohort workshops: Podia
• Want stronger emphasis on the LMS/course experience: Thinkific

If you tell me your expected workshop price (e.g. $200 vs $2,000), whether the workshops are live on Zoom, and roughly how many students per cohort, I can narrow this down to the specific platform + funnel architecture I'd use, including the email automations.

1. Kajabi — strongest "funnel → sale → onboarding" setup

Kajabi is probably the closest match if your business model is:

Content/ads → waitlist → nurture sequence → launch → checkout → automated onboarding → workshop → upsell

It combines landing pages, lead capture, email sequences, behavioral automations, checkout, and course delivery. Kajabi specifically supports automations based on things like purchases and course progress. Kajabi Kajabi

The advantage is that you don't have to constantly connect your funnel software to your course software.

I'd choose Kajabi if you're planning to sell repeatedly and build a broader education/coaching business around the workshops.

2. Podia — surprisingly good fit for cohort workshops

Podia is particularly interesting for your use case because it explicitly supports cohort-based courses, presales, future start dates, limited seats, waitlists, landing pages, email campaigns, and automated emails. Podia Podia Help Center

You could essentially build:

Waitlist landing page → automated welcome/nurture → launch emails → payment → future cohort start date → onboarding sequence → workshop

Podia's waitlist can collect prospective students before launch, and those people can receive campaigns before and during the launch. Podia Help Center Podia Help Center

It also lets you trigger campaigns when someone joins a waitlist, purchases/signs up for a product, registers for an event, or reaches course milestones. Podia Help Center

For a solo creator, this is probably the setup I'd investigate first if you don't need Kajabi's more elaborate marketing machinery.

3. Thinkific — excellent course infrastructure

Thinkific has landing pages, lead capture, checkout, sales funnels, and email automation. Thinkific Thinkific

The catch is that its email functionality can become more dependent on integrations for sophisticated marketing automation. Thinkific itself documents integrations with tools such as Kit, Mailchimp, and Zapier. Thinkific Thinkific Support

So I'd lean Thinkific when the learning experience and course infrastructure matter more than having your marketing machine entirely under one roof.

What I'd build for your business

If you're selling, say, a 4-week live workshop, I'd structure the funnel like this:

Traffic
→ free workshop/guide/webinar
→ waitlist landing page
→ 5–7 day pre-launch nurture
→ launch/open-cart sequence
→ checkout
→ automatic "you're in" onboarding
→ cohort starts on fixed date
→ weekly workshop/content
→ completion/follow-up
→ next-offer/advanced workshop

For Kajabi, I'd use the platform almost entirely natively.

For Podia, I'd also keep the stack mostly native, adding a dedicated email platform only if your segmentation/automation requirements become more sophisticated. Podia supports external email integrations if you eventually need that.

My practical recommendation

For selling cohort-based workshops with a pre-launch funnel + automated email onboarding, you generally want a platform that combines:

1. Lead capture (waitlist, webinar/free workshop funnel)
2. Email automation (nurture, launch sequence, onboarding)
3. Checkout + payments
4. Cohort scheduling/drip delivery
5. Community + live engagement
6. Post-cohort upsells/alumni marketing

The best fit depends on whether your priority is marketing automation or cohort experience.

Option 1: Kajabi — best all-in-one stack

kajabi.com

Best for: Experts selling high-ticket workshops ($500–$5,000+), coaching programs, memberships, and repeat launches.

You can build:

• Landing page → lead magnet/free workshop → email nurture → sales page → checkout → onboarding sequence
• Automated emails based on tags, purchases, lesson completion, etc.
• Cohort-style products with scheduled content releases
• Community, coaching offers, upsells, and funnels in one system

Typical funnel:

Facebook/LinkedIn/Ads
        ↓
Free training / waitlist page
        ↓
7–14 day nurture sequence
        ↓
Enrollment open emails
        ↓
Checkout
        ↓
Welcome sequence
        ↓
Cohort begins
        ↓
Alumni offer / next cohort

Kajabi is strong because the marketing layer and course layer are connected. Kajabi Kajabi

Tradeoff: More expensive than course-only tools.

Option 2: Circle + email platform — best community-first cohort experience

circle.so

Best for: Workshops where the community interaction is the product.

Stack:

• Circle = community + lessons + cohort experience
• convertkit.com or activecampaign.com = email automation
• stripe.com = payments

Great for:

• Weekly live calls
• Peer accountability
• Discussion groups
• Office hours
• Member networking

Tradeoff: More moving parts than Kajabi.

Option 3: Maven — built specifically for cohort courses

maven.com

Best for: Cohort-based education as the core business.

Strengths:

• Cohort scheduling
• Live sessions
• Assignments
• Student interaction
• Cohort launch workflow

It is designed around the cohort model rather than adapting a traditional LMS. CourseStack Review SoloClientStack

Tradeoff: Less of an all-purpose marketing machine than Kajabi.

Option 4: Thinkific + funnel tool — flexible middle ground

thinkific.com

Pair with:

• clickfunnels.com
• convertkit.com
• activecampaign.com

Good if you want:

• Strong course delivery
• More control over marketing tools
• Lower cost than an all-in-one platform

My practical recommendation by business stage

For most solo creators selling cohort workshops, I would shortlist:

1. Kajabi if you want one system that handles the whole customer journey.
2. Maven + email platform if the cohort experience itself is the differentiator.
3. Circle + email platform if community and networking are central.

A useful decision question: Are your workshops primarily "a transformation delivered through live cohorts" (community-heavy), or "a product you market through funnels" (sales-heavy)? That usually determines the right platform.

For an enterprise training team needing funnels + scheduled email sequences + course portals + SSO, I would look less at a pure LMS and more at platforms that combine (or integrate tightly with) learning delivery, marketing automation, CRM, and identity management.

A shortlist to evaluate:

How I’d narrow it down

If you train employees internally

• Start with Adobe Learning Manager, Docebo, or Continu.
• Pair with your existing CRM/marketing automation if you need sophisticated nurture campaigns. Adobe Business Continu

If you sell training externally (customers, partners, certifications)

• Look at Thinkific Enterprise or Core dna.
• You’ll likely care more about landing pages, conversion funnels, enrollment automation, and branded portals. Thinkific Coredna

If “one platform only” is a hard requirement
Prioritize vendors that combine:

• LMS/course portal
• CRM/contact records
• email automation
• funnel/landing page builder
• payments or licensing (if applicable)
• SSO/SAML/OIDC
• API/webhooks

A common enterprise architecture is actually:

• LMS: Docebo / Adobe Learning Manager / Thinkific Enterprise
• CRM + funnels + email: HubSpot, Salesforce Marketing Cloud, Marketo, etc.
• Identity: Okta, Microsoft Entra ID, Auth0

That approach usually gives better governance than forcing one tool to do everything.

A few details would change the recommendation:

1. Is this primarily employee training, customer training, or selling courses externally?
2. Roughly how many learners (1k, 10k, 100k+)?
3. Do you already use Salesforce, HubSpot, Microsoft 365/Entra, or Okta?

Consider LearnWorlds first if you want one training-centric platform covering funnels, automation, branded course portals, and enterprise SSO. It supports SAML/OIDC SSO, white-label academies, SCORM, assessments, certificates, and HubSpot/email integrations. LearnWorlds LearnWorlds

• LearnWorlds: strongest fit for training + portal + SSO + CRM automation.
• Thinkific Plus: worth evaluating if sophisticated marketing funnels and integrations are especially important; its enterprise offering includes SSO, multi-site management, SCORM, and CRM integrations. Thinkific Thinkific
• Kajabi: better if marketing/funnels are the center of gravity, but I'd validate enterprise SSO/LMS requirements carefully.

For an enterprise training team, I’d shortlist LearnWorlds vs. Thinkific Plus rather than a creator-first platform.

Given those three requirements—cohort enrollments, automated pre-course funnels, and an alumni community—I’d narrow it to Kajabi vs. Circle vs. Thinkific.

My pick: Kajabi

I’d pick Kajabi if your priority is having the entire customer journey in one system:

Lead → pre-course nurture → enrollment → course/cohort → alumni → upsell/next program

Kajabi currently combines courses, communities, email, offers, landing pages, checkout, and automation. Its community product is directly connected to products, offers, emails, memberships, and billing, so you don't have to stitch together a marketing platform and community platform. Kajabi Kajabi

How I'd compare them

Circle would be my alternative if the community itself is the heart of the business. It supports scheduled courses, cohort-based courses, events, discussions, memberships, email marketing and workflows; its workflows can automatically place members into cohorts/spaces, send reminders, and re-engage inactive members. Circle Circle

Thinkific makes sense if you're more course/school-first. It now has communities that can be linked directly to course enrollments, plus its own funnel functionality for generating leads and nurturing prospects. Thinkific Support Thinkific Support Thinkific Support

The key distinction

I'd think about it this way:

• Kajabi: "We need a marketing + enrollment + course + alumni business operating system."
• Circle: "We are building a community that happens to contain courses."
• Thinkific: "We are building an online school that happens to have a community."

For the workflow you described, Kajabi is the closest match to the whole funnel rather than just the learning/community layer. Its current positioning explicitly connects funnels, automations, courses, communities and billing. Kajabi

If you tell me roughly how many cohorts/year, students per cohort, and whether enrollment is application-based or direct checkout, I can map the exact funnel I'd build in Kajabi vs. Circle and show where each platform would require workarounds.

How I'd compare them

Circle would be my alternative if the community itself is the heart of the business. It supports scheduled courses, cohort-based courses, events, discussions, memberships, email marketing and workflows; its workflows can automatically place members into cohorts/spaces, send reminders, and re-engage inactive members.

If your priority is one integrated system for cohort enrollment → pre-course nurture → course delivery → alumni community → re-engagement/upsell, I’d pick Kajabi.

My shortlist

Why I'd choose Kajabi

Kajabi now explicitly supports cohort courses, including date-based delivery, while its core platform combines courses, landing pages, email sequences, funnels, payments, automations and community. Kajabi Kajabi Kajabi

That maps unusually well to the lifecycle you're describing:

Lead → waitlist → automated pre-course sequence → cohort enrollment → scheduled course → community → alumni → next offer

The particularly important piece is that the community isn't a separate product. Kajabi ties community access to products/offers and can trigger automations based on member behavior. Kajabi

So you could, for example:

• Capture a lead with a webinar/application/lead magnet.
• Put them into a 3–6 week pre-course email sequence.
• Open enrollment for a specific cohort.
• Automatically give purchasers access to the cohort.
• Drip content according to the cohort calendar.
• Put the cohort into its own community space.
• At graduation, move them into an alumni community.
• Trigger an alumni nurture sequence.
• Offer the next cohort, advanced program, membership, or coaching.

That's the sort of workflow where integration matters more than having the absolute best individual course feature.

When I'd choose Thinkific instead

I'd pick Thinkific over Kajabi if you're running a more substantial education operation rather than primarily a creator/marketing business.

Thinkific has live cohorts, self-paced/blended learning, learning paths, prerequisites, certificates and a fairly sophisticated community layer. Its Communities can be connected directly to course enrollments, and its newer community experience supports private spaces and scheduled events. Thinkific Thinkific Support

It also now has Thinkific Funnels for lead generation, nurturing and enrollment. Thinkific Support

So I'd frame it:

Kajabi = marketing + sales + course + community operating system

Thinkific = learning + cohort + community operating system with increasingly good marketing

And Maven?

Maven is compelling if the cohort itself is the product. Its marketplace and tooling are specifically oriented around cohort-based courses, rather than being a general-purpose creator business platform. Maven Maven

But for the exact combination you gave me—automated pre-course funnels + cohort enrollment + long-term alumni community—I'd rather own the whole customer lifecycle in Kajabi than build around Maven.

My pick: Kajabi.

If you tell me roughly how many cohorts/year, cohort size, price point, and whether alumni access should be paid or lifetime, I can give you a much more concrete Kajabi vs Thinkific vs Maven recommendation, including the exact funnel architecture I'd use.