EdTech sells on cohorts and outcomes.

Thinkific is the middle-market workhorse. Deep Shopify integration via official app, strong API for custom flows, competitive pricing (49 to 499 per month for most brands). Best fit for brands 1M to 10M revenue running multiple courses with similar mechanics. Kajabi is all-in-one (LMS plus email plus landing pages plus commerce built in). Good for solo creators but often competes with Shopify for the commerce layer; brands running both Kajabi and Shopify end up with unclear ownership. Podia is simpler and cheaper (39 to 199 per month); best for brands under 500K revenue with 1-3 courses.

Teachable is solid but has thinner Shopify integration - Zapier is the main integration path which works for basic flows but breaks for complex institutional sales. Custom LMS (built on top of Thinkific's API, or fully custom) wins for brands above 5M revenue where specific cohort mechanics, branded UX, and deep data integration justify the engineering investment. Custom runs 12 to 20 weeks vs 4 to 6 weeks for platform integration, but the long-term flexibility compounds.

The decision typically hinges on two axes. Revenue scale (below 1M favor platforms; above 5M favor custom; 1M-5M favor platform plus custom extensions). Course complexity (simple self-paced courses fit platforms; cohort-based with live sessions, community, and custom assessments often outgrow platforms). Most EdTech brands start on a platform and migrate to custom around year 3 to 5 when revenue and complexity both outgrow platform constraints.

Institutional sales - to schools, universities, corporate L&D teams, training companies, and professional associations - drive 40 to 60 percent of revenue for mature EdTech brands. The buying process is different from individual sales: longer cycles (30 to 90 days), procurement involvement (purchase orders, net-30 or net-60 invoicing), bulk-seat volume discounts, and a seat-management workflow that individual sales do not need.

A proper institutional portal has four capabilities. Bulk-seat purchase flow where an admin specifies seat count and pays via invoice, purchase order, or credit card. Seat assignment workflow where the admin either uploads a CSV of student emails for immediate enrollment, or keeps a pool of unassigned seats that the admin distributes over time. Admin dashboard showing which students are enrolled, which have started the course, which have completed, and aggregate completion/time/score metrics. Reporting exports for L&D compliance and training program documentation.

Pricing structure. Volume tiers typically run: 10-24 seats at 20-25 percent off, 25-99 seats at 30-40 percent off, 100-499 seats at 40-50 percent off, 500+ seats at custom pricing. The seat-pricing discount is smaller than wholesale discounts in physical goods because course delivery has marginal cost near zero; the discount is a customer-acquisition tactic, not a cost-pass-through.