Many people have turned their passion for a hobby or expertise in a particular field into a business. How? With knowledge and skills-sharing platforms like Kajabi.
According to Kajabi, 75 million people use the platform for course creation, podcast subscriptions, coaching sessions, and exclusive membership sites. Why? It’s a one-stop shop for knowledge creators. In addition to creation, you can market and sell these digital products on the same platform.
Before you add to the millions of users, let’s find out if the hype matches the reality.
This Kajabi review will dive into the platform’s key features. We’ll explore the advantages and disadvantages of an all-in-one solution and dissect the pricing structure to determine whether Kajabi is right for you.
We’ll also share other platforms that give Kajabi a run for its money.
What is Kajabi?
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that helps users turn their expertise into diverse income streams. Everything you need to create, market, and sell online courses, podcasts, coaching, and memberships is available in one place.
In addition to hosting digital products, you can design websites or landing pages, create marketing campaigns, and process payments.
Best of all, you don’t need coding or technical experience. Anyone, regardless of technical expertise, can use the Kajabi platform. This includes course creators, coaches, marketers, and online entrepreneurs.
Since 2010, Kajabi has helped millions of people build sustainable online businesses. Users have earned over $8 billion in revenue through the platform.
Main features of Kajabi
Kajabi offers subject matter experts several ways to package and monetize their knowledge.
1. Course builder
The eLearning industry is poised for explosive growth, with a projected value of $325 billion by 2025. Online courses offer lucrative opportunities to people with in-depth knowledge of a particular field.
Course builders help you design online classes about anything you’re knowledgeable or passionate about, whether it’s examination prep, foreign language, or knitting.
Kajabi’s course builder is easy to use. You can create online courses on the platform using customizable templates or start from scratch with the AI assistant, which builds the bones of the course (outline, modules, and even lesson content) for you. Simply follow the on-screen instructions to name, describe, price, and flesh out the course.
Kajabi supports various content types to help you create engaging and dynamic courses.
- Audio
- Video
- Text
- Assessments
- Downloadable files
You can create two types of courses: evergreen and cohort-based courses. Evergreen courses involve self-paced learning where individual students complete your course at their convenience. Cohort courses involve students taking scheduled classes together.
2. Podcasts
Podcasts have risen in popularity in recent years. From financial to entertainment topics, audiences can’t get enough of this audio content.
Podcasts offer listeners a convenient way to access content while engaging in other activities. The format is conversational, facilitating authenticity and connection. That is critical for knowledge creators who want to build credibility.
Forecasts show that there will be 650 million global podcast listeners by 2027. It’s no wonder everyone, including Kajabi, is jumping on the podcast trend.
First off, you can’t record podcast episodes on Kajabi. So, you’re better off with a dedicated platform if that’s your only product. What Kajabi does is give you a centralized location to host, distribute, and monetize your podcasts.
Creating a public or private podcast is simple. Follow the on-screen prompts to create a podcast page and episode (i.e., upload your audio file). Alternatively, you can import published podcasts to Kajabi by pasting the RSS feed links.
Kajabi distributes your podcasts to the Apple, Google, and Spotify directories. It generates an RSS feed link you use to connect with these directories (Kajabi shares instructions on how to do this). Once connected, the platform automatically creates an icon link on your podcast page, allowing customers to access the podcast through their preferred directory.
3. Coaching
Kajabi’s coaching product allows users to create and manage in-person and virtual coaching sessions. You can schedule and deliver live sessions, share coaching material, and track progress.
Key features include:
- Live video
- Session scheduler
- Content uploads
Creating a coaching program is simple. From the dashboard, click the product menu and select coaching. Follow the on-screen instructions to name and describe programs and sessions.
Inside a session, you can create an agenda, upload video, audio, or text resources, include a meeting link, and make relevant notes.
4. Community
Online communities are a great way to boost customer engagement, improve loyalty, and generate revenue through exclusive content.
Kajabi’s community platform offers three interactive features to build active and vibrant communities:
- Challenges: one-time or recurring challenges members can participate in
- Circles: chat rooms where members interact and discuss topics
- Meetups: schedule or host in-person or virtual events
Your communities can be free or paid. Every member must be assigned an access group to receive content. You can have a general group where everyone can participate and paid groups where specific members can access exclusive content.
Kajabi Community integrates with the courses and coaching products, giving students and clients dedicated spaces to interact and collaborate.
5. Landing page builder
Once you’ve created a digital product, it’s time to market and sell it. Landing pages are vital marketing tools. They have the sole purpose of capturing and converting target audiences.
Kajabi makes landing page design easy with template categories for sales, podcasts, opt-in, and lead generation. You then customize these templates using a drag-and-drop editor.
Kajabi offers unlimited landing pages, allowing you to create pages for various courses, coaching programs, podcasts, and communities. It’s also integrated with your products and payment processing.
6. Marketing automation
Another marketing tool Kajabi offers is email. You can create and automate email marketing campaigns for all your products. You can choose between email broadcasts and email sequences. The email visual editor allows you to customize email templates according to your branding guidelines.
In addition to email automation sequences, Kajabi has pre-made funnels for webinars, product launches, sales pages, and coaching campaigns.
You can preview the template to see what pages the funnel will build you. Once you’ve created the funnel, the overview page allows you to edit the funnel to fit your business needs.
7. Payment processing
Transaction processing is simplified with Kajabi’s in-built payment gateway. The platform accepts:
- Credit/debit cards
- PayPal
- Stripe
- Apple Pay
- Google Pay
- Afterpay
- Klarna
Kajabi supports one-time, subscription, and multiple payment schemes, allowing you to offer various types of courses, coaching sessions, and community packages.
The best part about the payment processing features is the 0% transaction fee. That means you keep every dollar from your sales.
Other noteworthy features are:
AI Creator Studio accelerates content creation by generating course outlines, lesson content, and marketing copy for landing pages, emails, blog posts, and social media.
Analytics track business performance, from student/client process (e.g., completion rates) to marketing metrics (e.g., conversion rates). These provide detailed insight into what content resonates with your customers.
CRM organizes your contacts in one place and manages customer interactions and relationships by tagging, segmenting, and filtering users along various criteria.
Next, we have a detailed Kajabi pricing review.
Kajabi pricing structure
Kajabi offers four pricing levels.
The Kickstarter plan costs $71 per month. You get:
- 0% transaction fee
- 1 website
- 1 digital product
- 250 contacts
- 7,500 marketing emails
- Unlimited landing pages
- AI (creator studio)
As the name suggests, it gives you enough to kickstart your online business, making it ideal for novice creators.
The Basic plan costs $119 per month. You get:
- 0% transaction fee
- 1 website
- 3 digital products
- 10,000 contacts
- Unlimited marketing emails
- Unlimited landing pages
- AI (creator studio)
- 3rd party integration
This plan is perfect for small businesses.
The Growth plan costs $159 per month. Users get:
- 0% transaction fee
- 1 website
- 15 digital products
- 25,000 contacts
- Unlimited marketing emails
- Unlimited landing pages
- AI (creator studio)
- 3rd party integration
- 24/7 live chat support
- Affiliate marketing program
This plan is suitable for scaling businesses.
The Pro plan costs $319 per month. User get:
- 0% transaction fee
- 3 websites
- 100 digital products
- 100,000 contacts
- Unlimited marketing emails
- Unlimited landing pages
- AI (creator studio)
- 3rd party integration
- 24/7 live chat support
- Affiliate marketing program
- Custom domain & branding
This plan is suited for established businesses looking to simplify business processes.
There is a 14-day free trial on all plans and a 20% discount on annual billing.
If the price is an entry barrier, remember that Kajabi is multiple products rolled into one: website builder, course builder, podcasts, memberships, marketing, and payment processing. You don’t have to worry about integrating and managing separate products.
That said, most creators on review platforms like G2 agree that Kajabi is one of the most expensive online course platforms. This is one of the major drawbacks of Kajabi, which forces users to seek other alternatives.
Pros of Kajabi
There are many reasons why happy customers love Kajabi.
All-in-one solution
An all-in-one platform simplifies business processes. You don’t have to integrate and manage separate tools for courses, podcasts, video hosting, communities, marketing, and payment processing. It’s all in one place.
Having everything centralized streamlines operations so you can focus on creating great content. You can also tailor your offerings by bundling different products to appeal to a wide range of customers.
For instance, you can pair courses with communities to boost student engagement.
A comprehensive solution also improves user experience. Your students or clients don’t need multiple products to engage with your content.
Easy to use
Kajabi is incredibly user-friendly. Whether you’re new to digital products or an experienced creator with limited time, Kajabi makes it easy for users to get your online business up and running.
The drag-and-drop editor and step-by-step navigation guide you through the creation process. You don’t need coding skills or technical knowledge, even when setting up automation. You can build landing pages, courses, and funnels in a few clicks.
Artificial Intelligence
Kajabi accelerates course creation through an AI assistant. The AI can generate course outlines, lesson content, and marketing copy.
You can also use the Creator Studio to repurpose over 40 types of marketing content, including video clips, community posts, emails, blogs, mini-courses, and more.
Flexible sales tools
Price is often an entry barrier for many customers. Having flexible payment options makes your products affordable and enables you to attract a broader target audience. A split payment for a course series doesn’t have the same sticker shock as a one-time $300 tag.
Kajabi offers one-time, subscription, and multiple payment options. Depending on your product, you can create various pricing plans for different customer segments.
For instance, you can activate one-time payments for your courses and subscriptions for your exclusive community.
Robust customer support
Kajabi offers users various support options. From your dashboard, you can access the help desk, where you can send an email, start a live chat, or schedule a webinar.
24/7 live chat is only available on the growth and pro plans, though. Other users can access this service between 6 a.m. and 5 p.m. Pacific Time. Outside of these hours, the help center has step-by-step written guides and video tutorials to help use the app.
Kajabi also has daily live webinars for educational and Q&A sessions. Topics vary from marketing to product-building workshops. On-demand webinars are also available through Kajabi University, a resource with hundreds of videos to help you run a successful business online.
Finally, there’s a Facebook community called Kajabi Heroes, where you can get help from a group of experienced users.
Cons of Kajabi
No software is perfect. Here are the things customers don’t like.
Price
On the one hand, an all-in-one platform is cost-effective. You don’t have to purchase and manage separate tools for courses, podcasts, video hosting, communities, marketing, and payment processing. It’s all in one subscription.
However, $71 per month is a high entry barrier for new creators, especially when similar platforms offer similar features at a lower price.
Here’s a price comparison of Kajabi alternatives.
| Platform | Lowest Price | Mid-range Price | Highest Price |
| Kajabi | $71/month | $159/month | $319/month |
| GetResponse | $48/month | – | – |
| Thinkific | $49/month | $74/month | $199/month |
| Teachable | $49/month | $119/month | $199/month |
| Podia | $39/month | – | $89/month |
As you can see, Kajabi is the most expensive platform, even though all these tools allow you to create, market, and sell digital products.
It’s not just the price that’s prohibitive. When comparing platform pricing, the level of features determines the value for money. Kajabi has plan limits for several products, including the number of digital products and contacts.
For example, you only get one website on all plans except the most expensive one. You can double your plan limits with Kajabi Access. However, that’s an additional $99 monthly.
The basic plan also limits you to only one product (e.g., one online course) and one community.
Limited customization
A jack of all trades is a master of none. An all-in-one tag comes at the expense of specialization. Kajabi’s templates are high-quality, but there aren’t many of them.
For instance, there are 11 Kajabi website templates. You can find custom templates on the Template Marketplace, but these cost extra.
If you prefer more control over design, Kajabi can be restricting or expensive.
The platform’s white labeling abilities are also limited. A custom domain isn’t available to users on the Kickstarter plan. Moreover, you must be on the Growth or Pro plan to enjoy custom branding (i.e., removing the powered by Kajabi tag on your website).
Kajabi supports partial email white labeling. So, while your marketing emails come from your domain, transaction emails go through Kajabi.
You can get a branded mobile app on any Kajabi plan. However, this is an add-on that starts at $89/month.
Limited payment gateways
Kajabi’s payment processor accepts various payment forms, including credit/debit cards, digital wallets, and buy now pay later services. However, these options are only available to users with registered businesses in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Other users are limited to payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, and Google Pay. It becomes difficult to grow your business if these options are not familiar or accepted payment methods. Users with country-specific payment gateways also face restrictions.
Final verdict: Where does Kajabi stand?
To understand Kajabi’s value proposition, let’s list the primary products you need to create and host an online class.
- Web hosting (starts at $11.99/month – Hostinger)
- Video (starts at $12.00 – Vimeo)
- Webinars (starts at $13.33/month – Zoom)
- Email marketing (starts at $9/month – MailerLite)
- Marketing funnels (starts at $81/month – ClickFunnels)
- API integrations (starts at $19.99/month – Zapier)
That’s six different tools to learn and manage, costing $147.31 monthly. Kajabi offers these in one platform for $71 per month.
You could argue that you can get these products for free. True. You can build an entire website for free on WordPress. It’s free to create and host video lectures on YouTube videos. Several email marketing software have free plans.
The problem with freemium plans is they come with user restrictions and limited customization. As you grow, you must upgrade to paid plans for better service. That becomes inefficient and expensive since you’re dealing with different platforms.
So, is Kajabi pricing worth all the money?
Many Kajabi reviews like the one below say yes.
That said, Kajabi isn’t the only all-in-one solution. And while $71 sounds like a bargain if you consider all the tools you could have paid for ($147), it feels crazy when you consider other Kajabi alternatives that give you more value at a lower price point. So, let’s talk about that next.
Alternatives to Kajabi
A comparable Kajabi Alternative is GetResponse. GetResponse is an award-winning digital marketing software that offers course-building services. Our AI-powered course creators enable users with no coding or design skills to create, market, and sell unlimited courses on one platform.
Enter a prompt about your course, and the builder will generate seven modules. Alternatively, you can build your course from scratch using the course navigator.
In addition to course building, you can access our robust email marketing features, including signup forms, conversion funnels, and marketing automation. E-commerce integrations enable the sale of courses through popular payment gateways like Stripe and PayPal. Plus, we don’t charge transaction fees.
Moreover, our webinar feature allows you to build an audience and promote your course to potential buyers.
GetResponse is cheaper than Kajabi, too. We have just one plan, which costs $56.58 for 1,000 contacts and 500 students. The price increases based on the number of contacts and students, but everyone gets access to the same robust features.
Another popular alternative to Kajabi is Thinkific. Users can create, market, and sell online courses from scratch or using predefined course templates. Other digital products include downloads, community, memberships, coaching, and webinars.
Thinkific supports marketing efforts with a landing page builder, email templates, and sequences. Through Zapier, you can integrate your existing marketing and email automation software.
You also have control of payments with Thinkific’s built-in payment processor. It supports free, paid, bundled, and limited-time pricing packages.
Thinkific is cheaper than Kajabi, with plans starting at $49 per month.
Other comprehensive course-building platforms are Teachable and Podia. While these platforms are also cheaper than Kajabi, they charge 5% to 10% for transactions.
In closing
Kajabi is well-loved by customers for good reasons. Creating professional-looking courses, coaching sessions, communities, and podcasts is easy with guided step-by-step navigation and AI-enabled tools.
The brand’s biggest selling point is it is an all-in-one solution. Users can market and sell the digital products they make on the platform. That simplifies business processes, allowing knowledge creators to focus on what they do best.
If you find the cost prohibitive (and many do), consider Kajabi’s alternative, like GetResponse. You get the same features, ease of use, and efficiency at a lower price.