9 Best Kajabi Alternatives and Competitors in 2026 (Cheaper, Tested)

Kajabi is one of the most powerful all-in-one platforms for building and selling online courses.

But at $179 to $499 per month, it’s a huge investment especially if you’re validating your first course and aren’t ready to commit that kind of budget.

But high pricing isn’t the only limitation that’ll push you to one of the Kajabi competitors.

After using and testing it for over 2 years now, I faced some serious limitations that were hard to ignore:

• Transaction fees when using a third-party payment processor
• Strict product limits on the Basic and Growth plans
• Being locked into Kajabi’s ecosystem of tools which can be painful when you want to migrate later or want to use best-in-class marketing tools
• Basic course assessment features

When you add it all up, it’s not hard to see why many creators, coaches, educators and info businesses choose to explore other options.

After testing 27 online learning tools and digital business platforms, the best Kajabi alternatives and competitors are Systeme.io, Thinkific, Circle, EzyCourse, Teachable, LearnWorlds, Mighty Networks, Kartra and Podia.

In this guide, I’ll compare each platform to Kajabi, highlight where it performs better, and help you find the right alternative for your business.

Best Kajabi alternatives: my quick summary

Choose Systeme.io if you want an all-in-one digital business platform but without the high price tag. Go with Circle if you want a robust online community software to build your memberships. Choose Thinkific if you want a specialized course creation platform with stronger online learning tools.

Why look for Kajabi alternatives?

I’ve used Kajabi for my own projects for over two years, and I still consider it one of the strongest all-in-one platforms for selling courses, coaching and memberships.

But that doesn’t mean it’s the right fit for everyone. As I’ve found, Kajabi comes with some pricing and usage limitations that can make it harder to justify, particularly as your business grows. These are some of the reasons creators, myself included, start looking at alternatives.

1. It’s one of the most expensive platforms to get started with.

Kajabi has one of the highest starting prices in this category. Its Basic plan costs $179 per month, or $143 per month when billed annually. There’s no free plan either to help you validate your first offer.

That makes it a fairly expensive commitment, especially if you’re still building your audience or haven’t established consistent sales. For a deeper dive, read my Kajabi pricing review.

2. The Basic plan comes with some restrictive limits.

Even at its starting price, Kajabi puts fairly tight limits on what you can build and how much of your audience you can manage.

The Basic plan gives you just 5 products, 2,500 contacts, 1 website and 1 community. Launch one course and one community and you’ve used two of your five product slots.

And upgrading isn’t exactly cheap. The Growth plan increases your limits to 50 products and 25,000 contacts, but it also raises your subscription cost to $249 a month.

3. You pay extra for using your own Stripe account.

Kajabi also makes payment processing more expensive if you choose to connect your own Stripe account instead of using Kajabi Payments.

Depending on your plan, Kajabi adds an additional 2% transaction fee on Basic, 1% on Growth and 0.5% on Pro, on top of Stripe’s standard processing fees.

That’s an additional cost to consider, especially if you already have a Stripe account and would rather keep using it to manage your payments.

4. Some important growth tools are locked behind higher-tier plans.

Kajabi gives you a website, landing pages, email marketing and other tools to grow your business. However, not all of these capabilities are available on every plan. For example, its affiliate program isn’t included in Basic. You’ll need to upgrade to Growth to access it.

That means creators who want to build an affiliate network and have others promote their products must pay more, even if they don’t necessarily need the other features that come with the higher-tier plan.

5. Moving away from Kajabi can be a major undertaking.

Perhaps one of Kajabi’s biggest drawbacks is how much of your business you end up building around it.

Your website, landing pages, sales funnels, email marketing and payment setup can all live within the platform. That’s convenient when everything is working well, but it also means leaving Kajabi isn’t as simple as cancelling your subscription and moving on.

You’ll need to think about migrating your website, rebuilding your funnels, moving your email marketing setup and figuring out what happens to your existing customers and subscriptions. In other words, the more of your business you build around Kajabi, the more work it can take to move elsewhere.

6. Its assessment tools are fairly basic for serious online learning.

Kajabi does a good job of helping you create and deliver online courses, with video lessons, scheduled content releases, live sessions and progress tracking. But it falls short when it comes to assessment.

Its built-in quiz tool gives you four question types: multiple choice, checkboxes, short answer and file upload. Some questions are graded automatically and others you review by hand, but that’s about as far as it goes.

If you’re building structured programs, professional training or an educational academy, you may find that limiting, especially if you want question banks, timed exams, matching or fill-in-the-blank questions and more flexible grading.

Kajabi alternatives compared

Not every Kajabi alternative offers the same combination of features. Some focus on course creation and online learning, others specialize in community building, while a few offer a similar all-in-one experience at a lower price.

I’ve compared the leading alternatives against Kajabi across pricing, transaction fees and what you can sell. This should help you see where each platform offers better value, and if it’s a better fit for your business.

Platform	Price	Transaction fees	Products and limits	Community	Marketing and sales tools
Kajabi	$179 to $499/month ($143 to $399 billed annually)	0% on Kajabi Payments (plus 0.7% on subscriptions); 0.5% to 2% with your own Stripe	Courses, coaching, digital downloads, memberships, communities, podcasts and newsletters. 5 products on Basic, 50 on Growth, unlimited on Pro.	1 community on Basic and Growth, 3 on Pro.	Unlimited emails (2,500 to 100,000 contacts), website, unlimited landing pages and funnels, automations (advanced from Growth), upsells, order bumps, coupons and a blog. Affiliates from Growth.
Systeme.io	Free plan; $17 to $97/month ($170 to $970 a year)	0% on every plan	Courses, physical products (with shipping and inventory), bookings and communities. 1 course on Free, 5 on Startup, 20 on Webinar, unlimited on Unlimited.	1, 5, 20 or unlimited communities by plan, with unlimited members.	Unlimited emails, websites, funnels, blogs, automations, A/B tests, upsells, order bumps, coupons, affiliates and SMS on every plan (more of each on higher plans). Evergreen webinars from the Webinar plan.
Thinkific	$109 to $499/month ($82 to $374 billed annually)	0% on Thinkific Payments; a gateway fee with Stripe or PayPal in some countries	Unlimited courses, digital downloads, coaching and webinars on every plan, plus memberships. Up to 10,000 current students.	1, 3 or 10 communities (10 to 200 spaces) by plan.	Site builder and landing pages, email automations (bulk email from Grow), order bumps, upsells, coupons, bundles, abandoned cart recovery, affiliate reporting and Zoom webinars.
Circle	$129 to $499/month ($89 to $419 billed annually)	2% on Professional, 1% on Business and Scale, 0.5% on Circle Plus	Paid community memberships, courses and live events. No digital downloads or coaching products.	The core product: unlimited members, 20 to 100 spaces by plan.	Website builder with landing and sales pages, coupons and bundles, workflows from Business. Email marketing is the paid Email Hub add-on ($99/month at 10,000 contacts).
EzyCourse	$97 to $699/month ($59 to $299 billed annually)	0% on every plan	Unlimited courses on every plan; 5 digital products on Essential, unlimited above. Also coaching, appointments, events, memberships, audio and video libraries, and physical products.	2 communities on Essential, 5 on Pro, unlimited above, with unlimited members.	10,000 to 500,000 emails a month, unlimited email sequences, website builder, automation workflows, coupons, order bumps and upsells. Affiliates and a blog from Pro.
Teachable	$39 to $189/month ($29 to $139 billed annually)	7.5% on Starter, 0% on Builder and Growth	Courses, coaching, digital downloads and memberships. 5 products on Starter, 10 on Builder, 50 on Growth, with unlimited students.	From Builder (not on Starter).	Site builder, coupons, upsells, order bumps and cart recovery on every plan. Built-in email marketing and affiliates from Builder.
LearnWorlds	$49 to $299/month ($44 to $249 billed annually)	$5 per course enrollment on Starter, none above	Courses, learning paths, live sessions and bundles; subscriptions and memberships from Pro Trainer. 1,000 active learners a month on Starter, 2,000 above.	A built-in community on every plan.	Website builder, landing pages and a blog, 2,000 to 10,000 mass emails a month, page funnels (15 on Starter), coupons, order bumps and affiliates. Automations from Learning Center.
Mighty Networks	$95 to $425/month ($79 to $354 billed annually)	2% on Launch, 1% on Scale, 0.5% on Growth	Paid memberships, courses (on-demand, cohort, live and challenges) and events. Paid one-time events from Scale.	The core product: unlimited members and spaces on every plan.	1 to 3 landing pages, promo codes, member upsells and automations. No built-in email marketing; Kit integration from Scale.
Kartra	$59 to $549/month ($52 to $429 billed annually)	5% on Essentials, 0% above	Digital and physical products (shipping rates, no inventory tracking), memberships and courses. 1 product and 1 membership on Essentials, unlimited above; 500 to 25,000 contacts.	No standalone community: comment forums inside membership sites.	Email and SMS, websites and landing pages, funnels, page A/B tests, upsells, order bumps and coupons on every plan. Webinars from Starter; automations and affiliates from Growth.
Podia	$49 to $179/month ($42 to $150 billed annually)	5% on Mover, 0% on Shaker and Earthquaker	Courses, digital downloads, coaching, community and webinars. 50 products on Mover, 150 on Shaker, unlimited on Earthquaker.	25, 100 or unlimited spaces by plan, with unlimited members.	Email broadcasts and automations (100 to 1,000 subscribers), website, landing pages, blog, coupons and payment plans. Upsells and affiliates from Shaker.

The 9 best Kajabi alternatives and competitors

In this section I’ll dive deep and show you how these 9 platforms measure up against Kajabi. I’ll also show you if they’re worth the money and what to expect when you choose them.

1. Systeme.io: best cheap all-in-one Kajabi alternative

Systeme.io is the best Kajabi alternative if you want an affordable all-in-one platform that supports digital product creation and a full marketing toolkit. 

Like Kajabi, Systeme.io lets you create and sell digital products such as courses, downloadables, webinars, communities and coaching programs. On top of that, it gives you a complete marketing stack to sell them featuring: a sales funnel builder, email marketing, automation, lead management and checkout tools.

But unlike Kajabi, Systeme.io is far more affordable across the board and has a generous free plan that lets you launch your digital business without any upfront investment. 

It also doesn’t charge you any transaction fees unlike Kajabi which imposes 0.5% to 2% surcharge fees when you use a third-party payment gateway.

Here’s how Systeme compares to Kajabi and why it’s a compelling alternative if you want an all-in-one digital business solution.

Systeme.io is cheaper and gives you more usage per dollar than Kajabi

Kajabi is expensive for starters. Its entry level plan costs $179 per month. And at this price tag, you can only create up to 5 digital products, 1 website, and have up to 2,500 contacts.

So if you launch 1 course and 1 community, you’ve already used two of your five product slots.

Meanwhile, Systeme.io’s cheapest tier (the Startup plan) costs $17 per month, and it gives you more usage limits of up to 5 courses, 5 websites, 5 blogs, 5 communities and 5 CRM pipelines, plus 5,000 contacts.

That is twice Kajabi’s contact allowance and five of each object type rather than five objects in total, for less than a tenth of the price.

It gets better as you scale.

Systeme.io’s most expensive plan costs $97 per month, which is still $82 cheaper than Kajabi’s entry tier, and it provides full access to its tools with unlimited usage.

And if you’re not ready to spend anything at all, the free plan gives you 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 published course with up to 500 students, 1 website, 1 blog, 1 community and a custom domain. 

Systeme.io charges no transaction fees and lets you choose from up to 9 payment gateways

Kajabi charges a surcharge fee on every sale whenever you use a third-party payment processor like Stripe instead of its native Kajabi Payments. 

This ranges from 2% on the Basic plan, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on the Pro plan. And that’s on top of Stripe’s own fee of 2.9% + $0.30.

And that’s on top of Stripe’s own fee of 2.9% + $0.30.

If you think about it, it’s as if Kajabi is penalizing you for using your own Stripe account other than their own.

To be fair, Kajabi Payments itself is a decent product. Its base rates are competitive with Stripe’s, from 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic to 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro, with Apple Pay, Google Pay, Klarna, Afterpay and sales tax calculation included. Its full rate card, including the surcharges Kajabi does not advertise, is broken down separately.

However, after doing some digging I realized Kajabi Payments has a serious shortcoming that only becomes apparent when you decide to leave.

If you migrate to another platform, you can’t export active subscriptions to your new payment processor . Your active membership subscribers have to re-enter their payment information on your new platform, which can lead to massive churn.

Meanwhile, Systeme doesn’t charge any transaction fees across its plans. 

The only fees you’re going to pay for are your payment processor’s rates.

Additionally, unlike Kajabi which locks you into three payment options, Systeme supports nine including: Stripe, PayPal, Flutterwave, Mercado Pago, Razorpay, Mollie, GoCardless, Secure and Pay, and Xendit.

Both have a strong marketing stack, but Systeme goes further with pipelines, A/B testing and webhooks

Both platforms let you build marketing funnels and attach automation rules, but Systeme gives you more tools to improve performance and connect the rest of your business.

Its funnel builder includes A/B testing, deadline funnels, and webhooks to external applications. 

With A/B testing you can compare different page designs, headlines, or offers so you can understand which variations convert more. 

Deadline funnels run per visitor rather than to a fixed date, so an evergreen offer stays evergreen instead of resetting when someone reloads the page.

Systeme also gives you Pipelines, a Kanban-style board that moves leads through stages you define. Selling coaching at $2,000 a seat, that board shows you which of eleven conversations stalled and where prospects drop.

Kajabi approaches funnels differently. Its Funnels feature is polished, beginner-friendly, and ships with prebuilt templates that generate the pages and the email sequence together, so you launch faster with less setup.

However, its funnel builder is less flexible. It doesn’t support split testing at funnel level, so you set up A/B tests page by page. It has no funnel synchronized webhooks, deadline funnels, and lead management tools like Pipelines.

Systeme.io pricing at a glance

• Free Plan: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, 1 course with 500 students
• Startup Plan ($17/month, or $170/year): 5,000 contacts, 10 funnels, 5 courses with unlimited students
• Webinar Plan ($47/month, or $470/year): 10,000 contacts, 50 funnels, 20 courses, 10 evergreen webinars
• Unlimited Plan ($97/month, or $970/year): unlimited everything, plus sub-accounts and free migration

Systeme.io Pros and Cons

2. Thinkific: best dedicated course platform

Thinkific is the best alternative to Kajabi if you want a dedicated course platform with stronger assessment, advanced student progress tracking, and tools that can support more formal learning experiences.

While Kajabi excels as a business platform for creators, Thinkific is built around the education side of it. It gives you more control over how you structure lessons, evaluate learners, and expand from selling individual courses to running training programs for teams, organizations, and institutions.

Thinkific has more lesson and assessment types than Kajabi

Start with lesson types. Thinkific supports more of them than Kajabi, including presentations, multimedia lessons, live sessions (via Zoom), and PDFs as standalone lesson types. This flexibility lets you diversify how you deliver content instead of forcing everything into a video-plus-text mold.

It also has more ways to assess learners allowing you to know how well they’ve understood your content and also get feedback. You can create quizzes, exams, assignments and surveys. 

Kajabi’s quizzes, on the other hand, are more basic, with four question types and no exams or surveys.

Thinkific Plus handles team and enterprise training

One thing I loved about Thinkific is that apart from providing a great online learning tool for small creators and educators, it also offers a more robust solution for large businesses and institutions who want a more tailored and advanced software platform.

Plus is Thinkific’s stack for enterprises, training institutions and large organizations. It provides a more comprehensive solution that features:

• SSO integration
• SCORM compliance and learning paths
• CRM integrations
• Custom roles and multiple administrators
• A branded mobile learning app
• Bulk student import and enrollment
• Enterprise-grade security

Meanwhile, Kajabi’s course creation tools are primarily tailored for creators and coaches who don’t require sophisticated learning management tools. 

Kajabi’s community is stronger than Thinkific’s

Both platforms let you build online communities around your teaching programs. But Thinkific’s community builder still has a long way to go. It feels barebones, with limited engagement tools.

There’s no gamification of any kind, video conferencing relies on third-party tools like Zoom, and even writing community posts is a pain because the post editor offers limited formatting for rich text. If community is central to your business model, you’re better off integrating an external solution like Circle or Heartbeat.

Thinkific pricing at a glance

• Start ($109/month, $82 billed annually): unlimited courses, unlimited downloads, 200 GB bandwidth, live cohorts, certificates, assignments, memberships
• Grow ($219/month, $164 billed annually): 3 communities, 400 GB bandwidth, branding removal, API access, B2B group orders
• Expand ($499/month, $374 billed annually): Thinkific’s top self-serve plan for larger schools
• Plus (quote only): SSO, SCORM, learning paths, custom student limits, 7,500+ GB bandwidth

Thinkific Pros and Cons

Also read: Thinkific vs Kajabi, Thinkific alternatives, Thinkific review

3. Circle: best for paid communities

Circle is a stronger alternative to Kajabi if your education business is built on group-based learning, masterminds, and coaching programs. While Kajabi offers decent community features, Circle provides more sophisticated tools for access, engagement, and membership management.

Circle is built around the community, Kajabi around the course

Unlike Kajabi, Circle is built around a community experience. It integrates courses, live events, discussions, and resources into a social network so for learners, everything is available in one place instead of being split between a course portal and a separate community tab.

 This design supports a broader range of community-led learning models including:

• Cohort-based learning with embedded chat and live events
• Group coaching with member-only resources and live sessions
• Ongoing memberships with topic-based discussion areas and private group spaces

You’re not forced to center your offer around a course. You can lead with conversation, collaboration and live calls and still offer pre-recorded content later.

Meanwhile, Kajabi community platform feels secondary and is offered as a separate digital product, tacked onto the main course experience. This model works fine if your main offer is a course and you want to embed a private space where students can interact.

Circle gives you more control over branding

When it comes to customization and branding, Circle gives you much more room to build something unique that feels like your brand

You can:

• Apply custom branding and styling across your entire community
• Use your own domain without Circle branding
• Upgrade to Circle Plus for a fully branded mobile app
• White-label email notifications 

However, in Kajabi communities, you’re stuck with a rigid layout. Customization is mostly cosmetic. You can change colors, fonts, add a logo and banner image. But you can’t white-label everything unless you’re on its Growth and Pro plans which let you remove the “Powered by Kajabi” branding at the footer.

Circle scales live events further than Kajabi

Both platforms let you natively host live events, send reminders and allow members to RSVPs.

But Circle offers more scalability letting you add more livestream attendees and hosts  on its Custom plan based on your needs. 

Meanwhile, in Kajabi the experience is capped to 200 attendees.

If your business relies on live delivery like running large coaching sessions, live training, community calls, or Q&As Circle gives you an edge.

Kajabi bundles email marketing, Circle sells it as an add-on

Both Circle and Kajabi offer built-in email marketing and workflow automation tools. In Kajabi these features are deeply embedded into its platform. 

On the surface, this feels like the best deal ever as you won’t need to buy separate tools for that. But it also limits you if you prefer or already have in place specialized platforms like Kit, ActiveCampaign, or MailerLite.

Meanwhile, Circle’s email marketing tool is an optional addon. You can decide to use it, or you can plug in external tools if you prefer them instead.

Circle’s AI agents support your members for you

AI is becoming a huge thing in online coaching and educational businesses. And Circle is making huge strides towards it. 

Recently, they’ve introduced AI agents to streamline member experiences. You can train custom AI agents on your internal resources like (guides, FAQs, onboarding content) and use them to support members inside your community.

These agents can handle:

• Personalized onboarding
• Support requests
• Billing and access issues
• Resource recommendations based on user behavior

It’s still early, but it’s clear that Circle is building toward smarter, more scalable communities. You can check out my in-depth Circle guide to explore everything it offers. I’ve also written a detailed Circle vs Kajabi to see how both tools stack up against each other.

Circle pricing at a glance

• Professional ($129/month, $89 billed annually): unlimited members, with caps on spaces, moderators and livestream capacity
• Business ($219/month, $199 billed annually): adds workflow automation, API access and branding removal
• Scale ($499/month, $419 billed annually): higher limits for larger communities
• Circle Plus (quote only): highest limits, AI agents, SSO, branded apps
• Email Hub: add-on from about $99/month at 10,000 contacts; included at 10,000 contacts on Circle Plus

Circle Pros and Cons

Also read: Circle vs. Kajabi or Circle review

4. EzyCourse: best value all-in-one platform

EzyCourse is one of the few platforms I’ve used that genuinely competes with Kajabi’s all-in-one setup. Plenty of tools claim to do so but very few ACTUALLY offer good online learning tools together with a solid marketing tech stack.

Take the marketing-first all-in-ones like: Systeme.io, GoHighLevel, and Kartra as an example. They have an exceptional marketing stack for funnel building, email marketing, automation and checkout.  But on the other hand, they struggle to offer good online learning infrastructure.

Which is why, Kajabi charges a premium price for their subscription. It takes the learning side seriously and keeps a strong marketing stack behind it, so you never have to choose between selling well and teaching well.

Meanwhile, EzyCourse excels on both, and on the teaching side it goes further than Kajabi does. You get 13 lesson types, SCORM compliance, graded assignments with file uploads, surveys, and coaching programs with a strong tracking and feedback model.

Behind that sits the marketing toolset featuring: branching email automations with split testing, affiliates, an AI site builder, and checkout across nine payment gateways. 

Not to mention that you get many of these features for as little as $59 a month (billed annually) with 0% transaction fees on every plan.

Where EzyCourse beats Kajabi

These are the areas where EzyCourse goes further than Kajabi.

• Sell more than just courses: Kajabi already supports courses, coaching, communities, podcasts, newsletters, and memberships. EzyCourse expands on that with appointments, events, physical products, audio and video libraries, and paid private or group chats. If you want to grow beyond courses without adding another platform, EzyCourse gives you more flexibility.
• Supports SCORM courses: If you’ve already invested in SCORM training content, EzyCourse lets you upload and deliver SCORM 1.2 and 2004 packages while tracking learner progress, scores, completion, and pass or fail status. Kajabi doesn’t support SCORM, so existing SCORM libraries need to be rebuilt as native lessons before they can be delivered.
• Coaching programs with strong client tracking: Both Kajabi and EzyCourse let you sell coaching. The difference is, EzyCourse offers a stronger client tracking and feedback tools. It lets clients submit assignments, upload files, complete exercises, and receive feedback inside the coaching program. Coaches can track progress over time instead of relying on email or external apps. Kajabi includes coaching products but with limited feedback and tracking features.
• Built for teams and multiple instructors: If you run your business alone, this feature won’t matter much. But if you’re working with instructors, assistants, developers, or business partners, EzyCourse gives you dedicated user roles with separate permissions. What I liked most is the Revenue Partner role. You can assign an instructor or partner a percentage of sales for specific products, and EzyCourse automatically tracks their earnings in one place instead of forcing you to calculate commissions in spreadsheets. Kajabi supports admin users and multiple instructors, but revenue sharing typically has to be managed outside the platform.
• More payment gateway options: EzyCourse supports Stripe, PayPal, Paystack and several regional payment gateways, making it easier to sell internationally if Stripe isn’t widely available in your market. Kajabi primarily focuses on Stripe and PayPal, so creators in certain regions may have fewer payment options.
• Multi-level affiliate marketing: EzyCourse supports traditional affiliates, student affiliates, and multi-level affiliate programs. If automatic payouts through Stripe Connect are available on your plan, commissions can be distributed without manual calculations. Kajabi includes affiliate management, but it focuses on a standard single-level affiliate model.

EzyCourse pricing at a glance

EzyCourse is one of the best-value all-in-one platforms I’ve reviewed. Even on its entry-level plan, you get unlimited courses, unlimited students, built-in email marketing, automation, communities, coaching, and 0% transaction fees. Most platforms either limit the number of products you can create or require you to upgrade before you unlock those features.

Compared to Kajabi, the value is easy to see. Kajabi’s entry-level plan limits the number of products you can sell, while EzyCourse lets you create unlimited courses from its Essential plan.

• Essential ($59/month billed annually, $97 monthly): 2 communities, 1 coaching program, 5 digital products, 10,000 emails a month, 1 TB video
• Pro ($139/month annually, $199 monthly): 5 communities, 5 coaching programs, 50,000 emails, 3 TB video
• Unlimited ($199/month annually, $399 monthly): unlimited communities and coaching, 100,000 emails, 5 TB video, branded iOS and Android apps included
• Elite ($299/month annually, $699 monthly): 500,000 emails, 10 TB video, all current and future add-ons

EzyCourse Pros and Cons

5. Teachable: easiest for first-time course sellers

Teachable has been around almost as long as Kajabi. Both platforms let you build and sell online courses. So it’s safe to say they have a lot of features in common.

However, Kajabi has evolved into a complete business operating system while Teachable has stayed focused on course creation and hosting. 

Sure, Teachable added some marketing tools, but they’re fairly basic. The website builder, email automation, and funnel builder are limited and you’re better off with third party platforms for marketing and sales features.

And when you look at it, it is for a good reason. Teachable removes friction at every stage of the course business, from creating curriculum and improving the student experience to handling international payments and tax compliance. 

Instead of overwhelming you with dozens of business tools, Teachable keeps the course creation workflow simple, making it easy to upload content, organize lessons, and publish products. With its drag-and-drop curriculum builder you can upload multiple files at once, organize lessons in bulk, and set up your course faster.

Students get a clean, distraction-free learning experience with its intuitive course player, while creators don’t have to worry as much about the operational side of selling globally since Teachable Payments supports multiple currencies, and automatically handles sales tax and VAT calculation and remittance in supported countries.

Where Teachable beats Kajabi

• A more focused course creation and learning experience: Teachable is built around the course itself, and that focus shows in the details. Its curriculum builder supports bulk uploads, making it faster to organize large libraries of videos, PDFs, and downloads, while its clean course player gives students a distraction-free way to consume materials. Creators also get deeper visibility into student behavior through video heatmaps that show where learners watch, skip, or rewatch content. Kajabi doesn’t provide those insights natively.
• Global payments that work in countries Kajabi doesn’t support: This is one area where Teachable has a meaningful advantage over Kajabi. Teachable Payments is available in 41 countries, compared to 25 countries for Kajabi Payments, giving creators access to a broader native payment infrastructure. Beyond availability, Teachable handles much of the complexity of global selling: it supports 35+ local payment methods, automatically displays prices in local currencies, and calculates, collects, and remits sales tax, VAT, and GST across 45+ markets. For creators selling digital products internationally, those built-in payment and compliance tools can remove a significant amount of operational overhead.
• Mobile learning app: Teachable’s mobile app is more focused on course consumption. Students can access their purchased courses, watch lessons, track progress across devices, download content for offline viewing, and continue learning without leaving the app.
• Strong integration ecosystem: Teachable works well for creators who prefer to use their own tech stack. It offers native integrations with tools like Kit, Mailchimp, Zapier, Segment, Google Analytics, and Deadline Funnel, making it easier to connect your course platform with your existing tool set. 

Teachable pricing at a glance

• Starter ($39/month, $29 annually): 5 products, 1 admin, unlimited students, 7.5% transaction fee
• Builder ($89/month, $69 annually): 10 products, unlimited students, 0% transaction fee, affiliate program
• Growth ($189/month, $139 annually): 50 products, 5 admins, unlimited students, course certificates, branding removal
• Custom (quote only): flexible products, students and admin seats, a dedicated success manager and migration help

Teachable Pros and Cons

Also read: Teachable vs. Kajabi

6. LearnWorlds: best LMS for trainers and academies

LearnWorlds is the ideal Kajabi alternative for corporate training, accreditation bodies, learning institutions and teams. 

Compared to Kajabi, it offers stronger student tracking, assessment tools and course engagement tools. You get an interactive course player, advanced quizzes, graded exams, self-assessments recorded as audio or video, text assignments and video submissions from students.

If you think about it, LearnWorlds offers features that compete with LMS vendors on the teaching side while still pricing like a creator tool. Most corporate LMS platforms charge per seat, so your bill climbs with every learner. Meanwhile, LearnWorlds charges a flat monthly fee and adding students does not raise it.

Where LearnWorlds beats Kajabi

• Interactive video player: Instead of treating video as something students simply watch, LearnWorlds lets you turn it into part of the lesson. You can embed quizzes, buttons, transcripts, navigation points, overlays, and prompts directly inside the video, encouraging learners to participate rather than passively consume content.
• Stronger assessment tools to evaluate learning: Kajabi includes quizzes, but LearnWorlds offers a much broader toolkit. You can create graded exams, assignments, question banks, audio and video self-assessments, and even ask learners to submit video responses. If your goal is to evaluate competence instead of tracking lesson completion, LearnWorlds gives you considerably more flexibility.
• SCORM and HTML5 support for professional training: This is one of the biggest reasons educators and corporate trainers choose LearnWorlds. You can import SCORM-compliant and HTML5 learning packages created in professional authoring tools, making it possible to reuse existing training materials instead of rebuilding every course from scratch. Kajabi simply isn’t designed for that type of instructional content.
• In-depth reporting: Kajabi does an excellent job helping you understand your business through sales, revenue, and marketing analytics. LearnWorlds shifts the focus to the learner. Its reporting lets you monitor progress, assessment results, engagement, completion rates, and overall learning performance, making it much easier to identify where students are succeeding or struggling.
• AI that supports instructional design: Both platforms use AI to speed up course creation, but I found LearnWorlds’ implementation more useful. It helps generate course outlines, learning activities, assessments, and structured educational content, making it feel like an assistant for designing better learning experiences rather than simply helping you write faster.

Where Kajabi still wins is community and ease of use. LearnWorlds’ community tools are basic, and its depth comes with a steeper learning curve than Kajabi’s.

LearnWorlds pricing at a glance

LearnWorlds costs far less than Kajabi at every level. Starter charges $5 for each course enrollment; Pro Trainer and above drop that fee and add unlimited courses, subscriptions and payment plans.

Here’s a quick look at the plans:

• Starter: $49/month ($44 billed annually), plus $5 per course enrollment
• Pro Trainer: $99/month ($79 billed annually)
• Learning Center: $299/month ($249 billed annually)

LearnWorlds Pros and Cons

7. Mighty Networks: best for social learning communities

Mighty Networks is the stronger alternative to Kajabi for creators who want to build a thriving community around their courses, memberships, or coaching programs. While Kajabi includes community as one of many features, Mighty Networks is built around a community with courses, cohorts and live events layered into the experience.

Like Kajabi, you can create multi-lesson courses, drip content, host live events, sell memberships, and charge for access. But on Mighty the community is the product, and the moment members log in they land in an activity feed of posts, polls, questions and profiles instead of a depressing course dashboard.

Everything runs on what Mighty calls Spaces, and each one is its own room with modular configuration to include various content formats like a feed, chat, events and resource libraries. 

One thing I liked about Mighty Networks is how well it helps members connect with one another. Instead of expecting members to find each other on their own, its People Magic AI can automatically recommend relevant people they can connect with based on shared interests, goals, location, and activity. 

Where Mighty Networks beats Kajabi

• People Magic AI and People Explorer: Most community platforms leave member discovery to chance. Mighty Networks actively helps members find one another through People Explorer, then goes further with People Magic AI by recommending relevant members based on shared interests, goals, location, and activity. It can even facilitate double opt-in introductions, something Kajabi doesn’t currently offer.
• Network spaces: Every Space can have its own feed, chat, events, courses, and members, allowing you to separate cohorts, masterminds, memberships, alumni groups, or regional communities without creating disconnected experiences. Members can move between Spaces inside one network, while each group develops its own conversations and culture.
• Live events feel like part of the community: Both platforms support native live sessions and integrate with Zoom, so you aren’t forced into one meeting platform. Mighty Networks goes further by placing events directly inside the community experience. Members discover upcoming sessions from their Spaces, RSVP without leaving the platform, continue discussions afterward, and on higher-tier plans can host larger native livestreams.
• Cohort learning is available across every plan: Both platforms support self-paced courses, but Mighty Networks is built around learning with other people. Cohort programs are available on every plan, making it much easier to combine courses, discussions, live sessions, and group accountability without paying for Kajabi’s higher-tier subscriptions.
• The mobile community app: Mighty Networks offers a mobile community app that you can also use to deliver your programs. Members can receive notifications, join discussions, attend events, and participate from dedicated iOS and Android apps. If you upgrade to Mighty Pro, you can even launch a fully branded mobile app under your own name, giving your community a permanent place on members’ home screens.

Where Kajabi still wins is marketing. Mighty Networks’ marketing tools are much thinner than Kajabi’s, and connecting an email tool like Kit needs the Scale plan ($215 a month).

Mighty Networks pricing

• Launch: $95/month ($79/month billed annually), with a 2% transaction fee on every sale
• Scale: $215/month ($179/month billed annually), which halves the fee to 1% and adds more automations, API access and third-party integrations
• Growth: $425/month ($354/month billed annually), with a 0.5% fee, advanced automations, priority support and migration services
• Mighty Pro: custom pricing for fully white-labeled native apps and enterprise support, reportedly from around $2,000/month with multi-year terms

Mighty Networks Pros and Cons

8. Kartra: most advanced marketing tools

Of all the platforms I tested, Kartra stood out as the most compelling all-in-one alternative for advanced sales and marketing automation features.

Kajabi’s marketing tools are decent, but Kartra’s funnel builder, page builder, webinar hosting and video management are more robust.

Let’s start with its funnel builder.

Kartra can build sophisticated marketing funnels while in Kajabi you’re limited to simple linear setups.

Both platforms offer visual funnel builders, but Kartra’s is easier to use and far more dynamic.

It feels more like a visual flowchart. You can drag and drop steps, rearrange them freely, and create non-linear funnels with branching logic.

Even better, it lets you map different traffic sources to specific funnel paths. For example, you can send traffic from social media and search engines to different paths which is better for personalization.

Kartra also includes built-in funnel simulation. You can model revenue projections and test different scenarios before launching. 

Meanwhile, in Kajabi you can’t drag and rearrange funnel steps. You’re stuck with a static, linear setup.

You can trigger a funnel from a user action (like filling out a form), but it doesn’t let you control entry paths based on traffic source which limits personalization and segmentation.

If you care about design flexibility, Kartra gives you more to work with out of the box. It comes with over 99 professionally designed templates and a large library of prebuilt sections you can drag into any part of your page.

Its builder also gives you more design control. You can drag and drop elements into your page, change background, add padding or effects like box shadow, rounded corners, animations or parallax scroll. And if you know a thing or two about code, you can style ‘em via CSS or edit the entire page source code.

Kajabi’s page builder lets you create decent web pages but has limited customization options. For example it doesn’t let you modify individual sections using code or add advanced effects like parallax. It offers barely any section templates that you can add to your page. But you can use its custom Widgets functionality which lets you add more design appeal to your pages. 

But they’re available as an addon costing $5 to $27 per month to use 3 to 25 widgets on your website.

When it comes to webinar hosting and video content management, Kartra gives you an edge.

That’s not surprising, considering it’s owned by the same people behind WebinarJam and EverWebinar, two of the most reputable webinar hosting platforms.

You can run live, scheduled, on-demand, or evergreen webinars directly from your Kartra dashboard for up to 5,000 attendees. But it goes further to boost engagement in a live session by enabling you to launch polls, share files, present slides, run Q&As, and a live chat. 

In Kajabi you’re limited to a basic video stream for up to 200 attendees, screen sharing, live chat, and breakout rooms. That’s fine if you’re doing simple live coaching. But not enough if you’re selling through webinars or teaching live at scale.

Kartra has a better video management system. You can upload videos into a centralized content library, organize them into playlists, tag them for tracking, and reuse them across funnels or membership areas. Even better, Kartra lets you embed opt-ins or call-to-action buttons directly inside your videos. You can trigger automations based on how much someone watched or whether they clicked, which turns your videos into interactive sales tools.

Kajabi doesn’t offer anything close. There’s no video library. Every video lives inside a product or a course module. If you want to reuse a video across multiple products or pages, you’ll need to upload it again or manage it manually.

Kartra pricing at a glance

Kartra isn’t cheap, but the pricing reflects what you’re getting. An all-in-one marketing platform with built-in tools for email marketing, funnels, membership sites, helpdesks, checkout systems, and automation. You won’t need to patch together multiple tools, which can save time and reduce integration issues.

Here’s a simple breakdown of Kartra pricing:

• Essentials: $59/month ($52 billed annually). Up to 500 contacts, 1 product, and a 5% transaction fee.
• Starter: $119/month ($99 billed annually). Up to 2,500 contacts, unlimited products and 1 custom domain, with 0% transaction fees.
• Growth: $229/month ($189 billed annually). Up to 12,500 contacts and 3 domains. Adds more advanced automations, bandwidth, and email volume.
• Professional: $549/month ($429 billed annually). Up to 25,000 contacts and 5 domains. Includes priority support, advanced analytics, and full feature access.

Kartra Pros and Cons

See how Kajabi and Kartra compare in detail.

9. Podia: simplest all-in-one for courses, downloads and coaching

Podia is the Kajabi alternative I recommend to creators who want the same core products (courses, digital downloads, coaching and a community) without paying for marketing tools they will never use.

I used Podia for three months while comparing it with Circle, and what stood out is how little setup it needs. Every product sits in one dashboard and sells through one checkout. Read my full Circle vs Podia comparison for the details.

Podia costs less than Kajabi and has looser product limits

Kajabi Basic costs $179 a month and caps you at 5 products. Podia’s Mover plan costs $49 a month and allows 50 products; Shaker ($99) allows 150 and Earthquaker ($179) removes the limit. Every plan also handles sales tax in 230 countries and lets you charge in more than 20 currencies.

The catch is fees and email. Mover takes 5% of every sale, so moving to Shaker pays for itself once you sell more than about $1,000 a month. And each plan includes a small email list (100, 500 or 1,000 subscribers), so a growing newsletter will outgrow it quickly.

Podia’s course builder covers what most Kajabi creators use

Courses are standalone products with drip scheduling built in, and you can customize the notification students get when new lessons unlock.

Podia supports quizzes and video embeds, and it can issue a certificate of completion when a student finishes your course.

When I tested it, live sessions ran through its Zoom integration rather than a built-in streaming tool. That is how most coaches I know already run calls on Kajabi anyway.

Selling digital downloads is where Podia beats Kajabi

If you sell templates, PDFs, ebooks or cheat sheets, Podia is the most streamlined option on this list. You can bundle downloads with courses or a membership, sell them once or by subscription, and add upsells from the Shaker plan up.

Podia’s marketing tools are simpler than Kajabi’s

Podia includes email broadcasts and automations, landing pages and a built-in checkout with Stripe (PayPal from Shaker). Kajabi’s funnels and automations go much further, and Podia’s page builder felt dated in my test, with no templates. But it gets the basics done, and you will not need a separate email tool to start.

Podia pricing

• Mover: $49/month ($42/month billed annually). 50 products, 500 videos, 25 community spaces, 100 email subscribers and a 5% transaction fee.
• Shaker: $99/month ($84/month billed annually). 150 products, 1,000 videos, 100 spaces, 500 email subscribers, 1 assistant, affiliate marketing, upsells, PayPal and Zapier, with no transaction fees.
• Earthquaker: $179/month ($150/month billed annually). Unlimited products, videos and spaces, 1,000 email subscribers and unlimited assistants, with no transaction fees.

Podia Pros and Cons

The bottom line: choose Podia if you sell courses, downloads or coaching on a modest budget and want everything in one simple dashboard. Skip it if your community is the product; Circle and Mighty Networks are far stronger there.

Every plan includes unlimited customers and a 14-day free trial with no card required. There is no free plan.

Best free Kajabi alternative

Systeme.io is the only platform on this list with a free plan, and it’s a real one: no card, no expiry and no transaction fees. It includes:

• 2,000 contacts and 3 funnels
• 1 course
• A website, a blog and a community
• Digital and physical products, with shipping and inventory

What it caps is scale: one course and three funnels. When you outgrow it, Startup costs $17 a month ($170 a year) for 5,000 contacts and 5 courses, still with no transaction fees.

Every other pick offers a free trial instead: 7 days on Teachable, 14 days on Circle, EzyCourse, Mighty Networks, Kartra and Podia, and 30 days on Thinkific and LearnWorlds. Kajabi itself has no free plan, only a 14-day trial.

Cheapest Kajabi alternatives

The sticker price isn’t the whole story, because some cheap plans take a cut of every sale. Here is what each entry plan really costs if you sell $1,000 a month, counting the platform’s own fee but not card processing, which you pay everywhere.

Platform	Entry plan	Monthly	Billed annually	Fee on your sales	Real cost at $1,000 in sales
Systeme.io	Startup	$17	$170 a year	0%	$17
EzyCourse	Essential	$97	$59/month	0%	$97
Podia	Mover	$49	$42/month	5%	$99
Kartra	Essentials	$59	$52/month	5%	$109
Thinkific	Start	$109	$82/month	0% on Thinkific Payments	$109
Teachable	Starter	$39	$29/month	7.5%	$114
Mighty Networks	Launch	$95	$79/month	2%	$115
LearnWorlds	Starter	$49	$44/month	$5 per enrollment	$49 plus $5 per enrollment
Circle	Professional	$129	$89/month	2%	$149
Kajabi	Basic	$179	$143/month	0% on Kajabi Payments	$179

The cheapest way in is Systeme.io: $17 a month, or nothing at all on its free plan. Further up, low sticker prices shrink once their fees kick in: at $1,000 a month in sales, Teachable Starter costs more than Thinkific Start. Each fee disappears on the next plan up, and the upgrade pays for itself above about $670 a month in sales on Teachable (Builder, $89), $1,000 on Podia (Shaker, $99) and $1,200 on Kartra (Starter, $119).

Which Kajabi alternative should you choose?

Kajabi is still a strong all-in-one platform. But if you want better value or a sharper tool for one job, here is my pick for each situation:

If you…	Choose	Runner-up
Want Kajabi’s all-in-one setup for far less	Systeme.io	EzyCourse
Mainly sell courses and want better assessments	Thinkific	LearnWorlds
Sell a community, cohort or membership	Circle	Mighty Networks
Want courses, coaching, email and branded apps for one price	EzyCourse	Systeme.io
Are launching your first course	Teachable	Podia
Run corporate training or need SCORM	LearnWorlds	Thinkific
Want a social network around your teaching	Mighty Networks	Circle
Sell through funnels and webinars	Kartra	Systeme.io
Sell downloads and coaching on a small budget	Podia	Teachable
Want to start for free	Systeme.io	None of the others has a free plan

Also read:

• Kajabi review
• Kajabi pricing review and indepth breakdown
• Best online community software platforms
• Best course creation tools
• Best membership site platforms
• Kajabi vs Thinkific
• Circle vs Kajabi
• Kajabi vs Kartra

Kajabi competitors and best alternatives: FAQs

What is the best Kajabi alternative for online course creators?

Thinkific. It offers quizzes, exams, assignments and surveys, where Kajabi’s quizzes have four question types, adds presentations, live sessions and standalone PDFs as lesson types, and hosts unlimited courses on every plan, including the $82 entry tier (Start, billed annually). Note that it meters current students and video bandwidth instead, with 10,000 current students on every plan below Thinkific Plus.

Is there anything better than Kajabi?

It depends on what you sell. For courses, Thinkific has more lesson and assessment types. For communities, Circle and Mighty Networks are stronger. For value, Systeme.io does most of what Kajabi does from $17 a month, with a free plan. Kajabi still wins if you want courses, funnels, email and community in one polished platform and can pay $179 a month.

What are the best platforms like Kajabi?

Systeme.io, EzyCourse and Kartra are the closest all-in-one platforms like Kajabi: each combines products, a website, email marketing and checkout. Thinkific, Teachable, LearnWorlds and Podia are similar for courses, and Circle and Mighty Networks for communities.

Which Kajabi alternative is the most affordable for beginners?

Systeme.io. Its free plan includes 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, one course, a website, a blog and a community, with no card required and no expiry. Paid plans start at $17 a month for 5,000 contacts.

Is there a Kajabi alternative that supports physical product sales?

Yes: Systeme.io, Kartra and EzyCourse all sell physical products. Systeme.io handles shipping and tracks inventory, Kartra sets shipping rates by country but does not track stock, and EzyCourse lets you mark orders as shipped or delivered. Kajabi has no native physical products: its help centre points you to Shopify Buy Buttons or Zapier.

What platform is better than Kajabi for community-based learning?

Circle and Mighty Networks. Circle organises your community into Spaces (forums, chats, events, resource libraries and courses) and ties bundles of them to paywalls through access groups. Mighty Networks feels like a private social network, with cohorts on every plan and native mobile apps.

Does any Kajabi alternative offer better AI course creation tools?

LearnWorlds. You set topics, instructional style, audience level and tone before generation, and the output needs light editing. Kajabi’s generator works from a title and a description only.

Are there Kajabi competitors that include email marketing and funnels?

Kartra and Systeme.io include full email marketing, funnels, automation and affiliate tools in the subscription. Teachable and Thinkific send sequences but have no funnel depth. Circle charges separately for email through Email Hub, $99 a month at 10,000 contacts.

Which Kajabi alternative gives the best value for money?

Systeme.io. At $97 a month you get unlimited contacts, funnels, courses and automations. Kajabi’s Pro plan costs $499 a month, or $399 billed annually, and still meters you at 100,000 contacts.

Is Kajabi worth the money?

For a creator earning under $2,000 a month, no. Kajabi Basic at $179 a month ($143 billed annually) takes 29% to 36% of $500 in monthly sales before processing fees, and caps you at 5 products and 2,500 contacts. Above roughly $5,000 a month, with funnels and community both in daily use, the bundled price starts making sense.

Kajabi is too expensive, what should I switch to?

It depends on which part of Kajabi you actually use. Kajabi Basic is $179 a month ($143 on annual billing), and you’re paying for courses, email, funnels, a website and community all in one place. If you only use one or two of those, you’re overpaying.

What I’d look at, by need:

• Everything Kajabi does, for less: Systeme.io. It has a free plan, and the paid plans are $17, $47 and $97 a month, with courses, funnels and email included.
• Mostly courses: Teachable ($39 a month and up, unlimited students on every plan) or LearnWorlds ($49 a month and up, though Starter adds $5 per enrollment).
• Courses plus digital downloads, kept simple: Podia, from $49 a month. Watch the 5% fee on the Mover plan.
• Community first: Circle or Skool. Skool is great if you want a complete community membership builder, with the community, courses and business tools you need to grow a paid membership. It’s simple and easy to set up, but I’d recommend the Pro plan ($99 a month with a 2.9% fee), because it’s the only plan that’s worth it. Hobby is $9 a month but takes 10% of every sale.

Which is better, Thinkific or Kajabi?

Thinkific for teaching: more assessment and lesson types, unlimited courses on every plan and no fee on Thinkific Payments, from $109 a month ($82 billed annually). Kajabi for marketing: funnels, email and a stronger community, from $179. Read my Kajabi vs Thinkific comparison.

Which is better, Kajabi or Teachable?

Teachable for course creation, commerce and international selling: it remits US sales tax, EU VAT and GST and pays creators in markets Kajabi cannot reach. Kajabi for marketing, funnels and community. Read my Teachable vs Kajabi review.

Is Circle or Kajabi better?

Circle if the community is the product, Kajabi if the courses are. Circle gives you Spaces tied to access groups and paywalls, moderation tooling and unlimited members from $89 a month billed annually. Kajabi gives you a better course builder and a full marketing stack from $179.

Is Stan Store better than Kajabi?

For selling simply from a link-in-bio page, yes: Stan Store’s Creator plan costs $29 a month and includes a course builder, with email flows and broadcasts on Creator Pro ($99). Kajabi is far stronger for structured courses, communities, funnels and full websites.