Teachable, Kajabi, Podia, Thinkific: the email question, side by side
Every result for this question is one course platform comparing itself to another, so the email answer is buried in a wider pitch. This is the one table: what each platform includes, what it automates, and what it costs to get more, with nothing folded in about hosting, video or checkout fees.
Read off each course platform's own pricing and help pages, in a browser, between 6 and 12 September 2026. The connection column is read off each email platform's own integrations directory or Teachable's App Hub, the same data the platform pages use. We have not run any of these four products ourselves.
The table
| Platform | Bundled email contacts | Built-in automation | External tool connects directly | Cost to get more |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teachable | Not confirmed. No published contact cap, because Teachable does not email leads or non-buyers at all, at any plan. | No sequence | 4 of 14: Kit, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, AWeber | Not applicable. There is no allowance to add to inside Teachable; the only route to emailing leads is an external tool. |
| Podia | Mover 100, Shaker 500, Earthquaker 1,000 subscribers. | Automates | 4 of 14: Kit, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, AWeber | Shaker to Earthquaker is $84 to $150 a month, billed yearly. Podia says more can be added at any tier but does not publish that per-contact rate. |
| Kajabi | Basic 2,500, Growth 25,000, Pro 100,000 contacts. | Automates | 4 of 14: MailerLite, Kit, ActiveCampaign, AWeber | Basic to Growth is $143 to $199 a month, billed annually, and buys 10x the contacts plus the multi-step automation builder in the same move. |
| Thinkific | Not confirmed. No Thinkific page we read states a contact or monthly send limit. | Automates | 4 of 14: MailerLite, Kit, ActiveCampaign, AWeber | Basic to Grow is $40 to $164 a month, billed annually, and buys the one-off broadcast (Mass User Email), not more contacts, since no cap is published to raise. |
Sources: each platform's own pricing page, linked on its own guide below. The connection counts come frombest email marketing for Teachable, extended here to the other three course platforms.
The two that publish a cap, and the two that do not
Podia and Kajabi both state a bundled contact number, and they land far apart: Basic 2,500, Growth 25,000, Pro 100,000 contacts against Mover 100, Shaker 500, Earthquaker 1,000 subscribers. That is not a fair fight on the number alone, because Kajabi's plans cost roughly three times Podia's at the equivalent tier. Teachable and Thinkific publish no cap at all, for opposite reasons: Teachable's email is transactional only, so there is nothing to email leads with in the first place, and Thinkific simply does not state a limit anywhere we read.
What each one actually automates
Teachable
No automated sequenceTheir own docs tell you to get one
One-off emails to students, and that is the ceiling. There is no automated sequence, so a new student hears from you only when you sit down and write.
Podia
Automates a sequenceGenuinely enough to start
Real triggered automation, and it is not locked behind a higher tier. What is capped is the number of subscribers, at 100, 500 or 1,000 depending on plan.
Kajabi
Automates a sequenceEnough, until the logic gets complicated
Trigger-based automation is included, which covers a welcome sequence comfortably. The deeper conditional logic sits on higher plans.
Thinkific
Automates a sequenceOne sequence, and it sells rather than welcomes
Email Automation is listed on every plan, Basic included, but it offers one sequence: a Sales Flow aimed at leads who have not bought the product you pick. The plain one-off email to everyone is the part that costs more, because Mass User Email is listed on Grow and above.
The question this table cannot answer
None of this tells you whether to stay on the built-in tool or add a dedicated one. That depends on your list size, whether you need to email people who have not bought yet, and whether you would rather pay the course platform more or maintain a second connection. Each platform's own page below works through that sum for its plan prices; the general version, covering when a dedicated tool adds anything at all, is ondo you need a separate email tool.
Read the one that matches your platform
Course platform email, answered
- Which course platform includes the most email contacts for free?
- Kajabi and Podia are the two that publish a number, and they are not close: Kajabi's Basic plan includes 2,500 contacts against Podia's Mover plan at 100. Teachable and Thinkific publish no contact cap at all, for the opposite reasons: Teachable does not email non-buyers, and Thinkific simply does not state one.
- Which course platform has the best built-in automation?
- Kajabi and Podia both run real, trigger-based, multi-step sequences, Kajabi's conditional logic only above the Basic plan. Thinkific includes one automated sequence on every plan, a Sales Flow aimed at leads, but nothing else. Teachable has none that we could find.
- Do the same email platforms connect to all four course platforms?
- Mostly the same three. Of the platforms this site compares, MailerLite, Kit, ActiveCampaign, AWeber connect directly to Kajabi, and MailerLite, Kit, ActiveCampaign, AWeber to Thinkific. Teachable and Podia both connect directly to Kit, ActiveCampaign, GetResponse, AWeber. Every other platform we checked, and there are 10 of them for Teachable alone, would need Zapier or does not connect at all.
- Should I pick a course platform based on its email, or its email based on my course platform?
- If you have not picked a course platform yet, this is a real input: Kajabi and Podia both let you run for a while on the built-in tool alone, Teachable does not. If you have already picked, read that platform's own page above and use /find to see which dedicated tool fits your list size and budget.