Which Kajabi alternative is right for you depends on how much of Kajabi you actually need to replace. For some sellers, that means the whole platform. For others, it's only the course and community side, or simply just the way their customers pay.
In January 2026, Kajabi's advertised entry price moved to $179 a month, or $143 billed annually, and selling through Stripe began carrying a surcharge. This prompted some sellers to start reviewing their options.
This guide compares seven alternatives, sorted by that question: full replacements like Thinkific, Teachable, and Podia; community-first Skool and budget pick Systeme.io; and ThriveCart's cart-led bundle and the checkout-only Checkout Page.
Quick summary
- Which alternative fits depends on how much of Kajabi you need to replace: Thinkific, Teachable, and Podia replace it outright, Skool rebuilds it around community, and Systeme.io is the cheapest full replacement with a real free plan.
- Kajabi restructured its pricing in January 2026. The cheapest advertised plan is now Basic at $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually, capped at 2,500 contacts and 5 products.
- Using Stripe or another third-party processor on Kajabi now adds a surcharge of 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro, on top of normal processing fees.
- ThriveCart now bundles its Academy course platform with its cart and pitches itself directly against Kajabi. Checkout Page is checkout only: your content stays where it is, and its free plan covers up to $3,000/mo in sales.
We build a checkout product, so we see a particular slice of this search: sellers who like where their content lives but have hit a wall on pricing or checkout customization and flexibility. This comparison covers the whole landscape from that vantage point, and we’ll say plainly when an all-in-one platform is the better choice.
Why look for Kajabi alternatives?
Most people leave Kajabi over cost and fit, not quality. The entry plan is expensive relative to what a solo creator actually uses, hard product limits (contacts, funnels, admin seats) push you up a tier before revenue justifies it, and the website builder is more rigid than a dedicated site platform. Creators who mainly sell one course, or who already have a site and an email tool they like, end up paying for a suite they use a third of.
That said, Kajabi’s pricing is worth it for the right business. Courses, website, email marketing, funnels, podcasts, coaching, and a branded mobile app live in one login, and payments taken through Kajabi Payments carry standard card processing (2.9% + 30¢ on most plans) with no extra platform fee. For a creator who wants one bill and one dashboard for the whole business, it remains one of the strongest products in the category.
It is not the right fit for everyone, though, and the January 2026 pricing restructure is the reason this search got busy. Some of the top reasons sellers look for alternatives are:
- A higher entry price. Basic moved to $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually. The low-cost entry point is now a limited Starter plan (250 contacts, one product) that Kajabi barely advertises.
- Caps that kick in early. Basic allows 2,500 contacts and 5 products. An email list that outgrows 2,500 people forces you to choose the $199/mo (annual) Growth plan, whether or not you need its features.
- A surcharge for using your own processor. Payments through a third-party provider such as Stripe carry an added 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro. Sellers already using Stripe feel this directly.
- Feature gating. The affiliate program and advanced automations sit on Growth and above.
- Limited checkout control. Kajabi's checkout is capable but template-shaped. Sellers who want to fully restyle it, add custom fields with conditional logic, or test different offer structures tend to bump into its edges.
None of this makes Kajabi a bad product; the platform-fee model is common (see how Gumroad's fees compare for a percentage-based version of the same trade). It does mean the price of staying put changed, and that is worth a deliberate decision rather than a default renewal.
Kajabi overview
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for selling courses, coaching, memberships, and digital products. It hosts your video content, runs your website and email list, and processes payments, replacing what would otherwise be four or five separate subscriptions.
Current pricing, verified July 30, 2026 against kajabi.com/pricing. Trials run 14 days.
- Basic: $179/mo, or $143/mo billed annually. 2,500 contacts, 5 products.
- Growth: $249/mo, or $199/mo billed annually. 25,000 contacts, 50 products.
- Pro: $499/mo, or $399/mo billed annually. 100,000 contacts, unlimited products.
- Starter: 250 contacts and one product. Appears in the comparison chart without prominent pricing.
Kajabi still suits sellers who want their whole business in one login and sell enough to make $143 a month a rounding error. If you are deep in Kajabi's email automations, your students are used to its app, and the checkout has never bothered you, there is little reason to move. This article is for everyone else.
How to choose a Kajabi alternative
Start with one question before comparing features: how much of Kajabi do you actually need to replace? The answer sorts the market into three groups, and most bad platform switches come from picking a tool in the wrong group.
- Whole platform: you want courses, email, website, and checkout in one login, just cheaper or simpler. Thinkific, Teachable, Podia, and Systeme.io compete here.
- Course and community layer: the product you sell is really access to a group. Skool is built around exactly that.
- Selling layer first: the checkout is the piece you want to improve. ThriveCart leads with its cart and now bundles a course platform behind it, so it can replace Kajabi outright for some sellers. Checkout Page is checkout only, for content that already lives somewhere you like (Vimeo, YouTube, a members area, or Kajabi itself). Carts like SamCart sit here too; see our SamCart pricing breakdown.
With the group settled, five practical criteria separate the tools:
- Where your videos live. All-in-one platforms host them for you and meter storage or products by plan. Checkout tools assume they are already hosted and skip that cost entirely.
- Pricing model. Flat monthly (Thinkific, Teachable, Podia), free tiers (Systeme.io, Checkout Page), a lifetime license (ThriveCart still sells one), or percentage-based fees (Skool's Hobby plan takes 10% of sales). A percentage feels painless at $500/mo in sales and expensive at $5,000. If you would rather a platform act as merchant of record and handle sales tax for you, that is a different category again; our Lemon Squeezy alternatives comparison covers it.
- Payment fees. Add up three layers before comparing: the platform's transaction fee, the processor's rate, and any surcharge for bringing your own processor. The Stripe fee calculator helps you put real numbers on a month of your sales.
- Checkout control. Order bumps, one-click upsells, custom fields, embed options, and page-level styling vary more between these tools than any other feature area, and they are what move checkout conversion once traffic is steady. Platforms treat checkout as a settled template; checkout tools treat it as the product.
- Migration weight. Moving contacts and email automations is tedious but routine. Moving enrolled students with progress history is the hard part, and it is the strongest argument for replacing less rather than more.
One month at $5,000 in sales makes the fee layers concrete:
Platform | What you'd pay that month | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
Kajabi | $143 (Basic, annual), plus a $100 surcharge if you sell through Stripe | The surcharge disappears on Kajabi Payments |
Teachable | $375 in Starter fees, or $69 flat on Builder | Builder is the real price at this scale |
Podia | $250 in Mover fees, or $84 flat on Shaker | Shaker pays for itself before $2,000/mo in sales |
Skool | $500 on Hobby (10%), or $99 plus 2.9% on Pro | Pro already costs less by $2,000/mo in sales |
Systeme.io | $17 to $47, priced by contacts rather than sales | No transaction fees on any plan |
ThriveCart | $47 flat (Standard) | Or the $495 lifetime license |
Checkout Page | From $83 (Grow, annual) | Free and Launch cap at $3,000/mo in sales |
Percentage fees look small until the volume arrives. At $5,000 a month, every percentage plan costs more than its flat-fee sibling, and card processing (roughly 2.9% + 30¢ with most processors) comes on top in every case.
The fastest way to shortlist Kajabi alternatives is to decide what you are replacing, then compare only the tools built for that job. How we compared: we reviewed each platform's live pricing page and feature documentation in July 2026, including how to sell digital products with each. We have not run hands-on tests of the course platforms, and we make no claim to; where a judgment below is ours, it is labeled as one.
7 best Kajabi alternatives compared
The table sorts the seven by the question that should drive the choice: whether the tool hosts your course content or expects you to host it elsewhere.
Platform | Best for | Starting price* | Hosts your course content? | Better than Kajabi for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Kajabi (reference) | All-in-one with the most built in | $143/mo | Yes | The single-login business |
Thinkific | Pure course delivery | $40/mo | Yes | Course features per dollar |
Teachable | Fastest simple-course setup | $29/mo | Yes | Getting a first course live |
Podia | Budget all-in-one for solo creators | $42/mo | Yes | Simplicity at a lower bill |
Skool | Community-led courses and cohorts | $9/mo + 10% | Yes | Community engagement |
Systeme.io | Cheapest full replacement | Free | Yes | Cost, including a real $0 plan |
ThriveCart | Cart-first sellers who also want courses bundled | $47/mo or $495 once | Yes, Academy bundled | Conversion tooling and lifetime pricing |
Checkout Page | Selling content hosted elsewhere | Free up to 3K per month revenue | No, checkout only | Checkout customization on your own Stripe account |
1. Thinkific
What it is: a dedicated course platform. Course builder, quizzes, communities, and student management, with your videos hosted on the platform.
Thinkific is the closest like-for-like Kajabi replacement for course sellers, at less than a third of Kajabi's entry price. It leans harder into learning design than Kajabi does, with more flexible course structures, assessments, and completion tracking.
Pricing: no free plan, and trials run 30 days. Thinkific adds no platform fee on paid plans, and card processing through Thinkific Payments runs 2.9%.
- Basic: $54/mo, or $40/mo billed annually. Unlimited courses and students.
- Start and Grow: $82/mo and $164/mo billed annually. Add live lessons, memberships, and communities.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: unlimited courses on the cheapest plan, against Kajabi's cap of 5 products, and no surcharge politics around processors. Course-heavy businesses get more of what they pay for.
Where it falls short: email marketing. Kajabi's automations replace a standalone email tool; Thinkific's do not, so budget for an email platform alongside it. Funnels and landing pages are serviceable rather than strong.
2. Teachable
What it is: a course platform focused on getting a course live quickly, with a simple builder and built-in payment handling, including author payouts and tax form handling in its US payment system.
Teachable is the lowest-friction way to launch a first course, with the trade-off sitting in its entry-plan transaction fee. The builder stays out of your way more than any other tool here.
Pricing: no free plan, and trials run 7 days. Card processing is 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards.
- Starter: $39/mo, or $29/mo billed annually. 5 products, 7.5% transaction fee.
- Builder: $69/mo billed annually. 0% transaction fee, 10 products.
- Growth: $139/mo billed annually.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: a $29 entry point against $143, and a faster path from outline to published course. Good for validating a course business before committing platform-level money.
Where it falls short: the 7.5% fee on Starter means the cheap plan stops being cheap as sales grow ($75 on every $1,000). Email tooling is thin, and student caps apply until you pass $10k/year in sales on the platform.
3. Podia
What it is: an all-in-one for solo creators. Courses, digital downloads, coaching, webinars, a website builder, and email in one interface that stays deliberately simple.
Podia is the budget version of Kajabi's promise: everything in one place, priced for a one-person business. It trades depth for coherence, and for many solo sellers that is the right trade.
Pricing: two plans, with 2.9% + 30¢ card processing either way.
- Mover: $42/mo. 5% transaction fee, 50 products, and an email list capped at 100 subscribers.
- Shaker: $84/mo. No transaction fee, 500 subscribers, with paid email add-ons beyond that.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: roughly a third of the price for the same one-login shape, with unlimited-enough products and a website included. The interface is easier to hand to a non-technical assistant than any other platform here.
Where it falls short: the email subscriber caps are tight, and email is the reason many people buy an all-in-one. A list beyond 500 people means add-on costs that erode the price gap with Kajabi, so check the math on your actual list size first.
Community-first. One platform treats the group, rather than the curriculum, as the product.
4. Skool
What it is: a community platform with courses attached. Discussion feed, gamification, live calls, and a simple classroom, built around the idea that the group is the product.
Skool is the strongest Kajabi alternative when what you actually sell is membership in a community. Cohorts, accountability groups, and paid communities run better here than on Kajabi's community feature.
Pricing: two plans, both with unlimited members, courses, and videos. Trials run 14 days, and annual billing gives you two months free.
- Hobby: $9/mo, plus a 10% transaction fee.
- Pro: $99/mo, with card processing at 2.9%.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: engagement. Skool's feed and gamification keep members active in a way Kajabi's community rarely matches, and the $9 entry makes testing a paid community nearly free upfront.
Where it falls short: it is not a business platform. No real website builder, minimal email marketing, and a checkout that is deliberately basic. The 10% Hobby fee also grows with you; at $2,000/mo in sales, Pro's flat $99 already costs less. Treat Hobby as the trial and Pro as the price.
Budget funnel all-in-one. One platform competes on price above everything else.
5. Systeme.io
What it is: a funnel-first all-in-one: sales funnels, email marketing, courses, blogs, and affiliate management, with a permanent free plan.
Systeme.io is the cheapest full Kajabi replacement, and the only one here with a free plan that supports a real, if small, business.
Pricing: no transaction fees on any plan, and payments run through your own Stripe or PayPal at no extra platform cost. Annual billing gives you two months free.
- Free: 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, and one course.
- Startup: $17/mo. 5,000 contacts, 5 courses.
- Webinar: $47/mo.
- Unlimited: $97/mo.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: cost, by a wide margin. A seller doing everything Kajabi does at Basic tier could plausibly run it here for $17 to $47 a month, with email automation included rather than capped.
Where it falls short: polish and depth. Templates and course player look dated next to Kajabi or Thinkific, design flexibility is limited, and support depth reflects the price. It rewards sellers who value function over finish and frustrates the design-conscious.
Cart-first, with courses now bundled. The next tool leads with the checkout and ships a course platform behind it.
6. ThriveCart
What it is: a cart and funnel platform that now ships with a course platform attached. Since July 2026, every plan bundles ThriveCart Academy (previously sold separately) for courses, communities, quizzes, and video hosting alongside the checkout.
ThriveCart now positions itself directly against Kajabi as the cheaper bundle: a conversion-focused cart first, with courses and communities included on every plan. Its own pricing page benchmarks against Kajabi, SamCart, and Kartra.
Pricing: every plan carries a 30-day trial and 0% platform fees.
- Standard: $47/mo. Includes the Academy Starter plan: unlimited courses and students, up to 2,000 community members, and 100 GB of video storage.
- Pro+: $87/mo. Adds multiple order bumps, the affiliate center, dunning, sales tax automation, custom domains, and the larger Academy Growth plan (10,000 members, 500 GB).
- Lifetime: $495 for Standard, still sold through a link at the bottom of the pricing page. Monthly payments pass that figure at around 11 months.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: a $47 entry against $143, with courses included and the conversion tooling (one-click upsells, A/B testing, cart recovery) at the entry price rather than gated above it. You connect your own Stripe or PayPal, so there is no third-party surcharge, and the lifetime option has no Kajabi equivalent.
Where it falls short: the pieces Kajabi still owns are email marketing and a website builder; ThriveCart has neither. The Academy is also newer than Kajabi's course tooling, and Standard caps communities at 2,000 members. We compare its rivals in ThriveCart alternatives.
Checkout only, on your own stack. Checkout Page is the one tool on this list that hosts no course content at all. It assumes your content already lives somewhere you like and competes on how well you sell it.
7. Checkout Page
What it is: a no-code checkout, payments, and forms tool that runs on your own Stripe account. You build branded checkout pages and embed them on your existing site (including Kajabi, Framer, Webflow, and WordPress pages) or share them as hosted pages and payment links.
Checkout Page fits sellers whose content already lives somewhere they like, and who want a more customizable checkout than an all-in-one platform allows. That includes keeping Kajabi for delivery while replacing only its checkout.
Pricing: every plan takes 0% platform transaction fees. You pay Stripe's processing fees directly, with no surcharge for using your own Stripe account.
- Free: up to $3,000/mo in sales with 99% of features, with Checkout Page branding shown.
- Paid plans: from $24/mo billed annually, or $29 monthly. See Checkout Page pricing.
Where it fits vs Kajabi: full control of the checkout itself. Order bumps, one-click upsells, custom fields with conditional logic, product variants, subscriptions, payment plans, and complete styling, on pages you can test and change without touching your content platform. The free plan also makes it a $0 way to validate a paid product before committing to any platform's monthly bill.
Where it falls short: Checkout Page does not host courses, videos, or a members area, and it is not an email marketing tool. If you want lessons, community, and checkout in one login, the all-in-one platforms above are the better fit. It is the right tool when the selling layer is the thing you want to improve.
Ready to try the checkout-only route? Start Checkout Page for free: sell up to $3,000/mo with 0% platform fees, no card required.
Kajabi alternatives FAQ
What is the cheapest Kajabi alternative?
Systeme.io, whose free plan supports 2,000 contacts, 3 funnels, and one course with no transaction fees. Skool's $9/mo Hobby plan is close behind but takes 10% of sales. If you only need the selling layer, Checkout Page's free plan covers up to $3,000/mo in sales on your own Stripe account.
Is there a free Kajabi alternative?
Yes, two real ones. Systeme.io offers a permanent free plan that hosts a course and runs email for up to 2,000 contacts. Checkout Page's free plan handles the sales side, up to $3,000/mo, if your content is hosted elsewhere. Thinkific, Teachable, and Podia offer only trials, not free plans.
What is the best Kajabi alternative for course creators?
Thinkific, for most course-first businesses. Its $40/mo annual Basic plan includes unlimited courses and students, and its learning tools (quizzes, progress tracking, flexible course structure) go deeper than Kajabi's. Teachable is the faster launch if simplicity matters more than depth. Both need a separate email marketing tool, which Kajabi would have included.
Can I keep Kajabi and just replace its checkout?
Yes, and it is often the cheapest fix if your complaint is checkout flexibility rather than the platform. Checkout tools embed on Kajabi pages; Checkout Page supports Kajabi embeds directly, so course delivery stays where it is while checkout runs on your own Stripe account with full styling, custom fields, upsells, and bumps.
Does Kajabi charge transaction fees?
Not on payments through Kajabi Payments, where you pay card processing (2.9% + 30¢ on most plans) with no added platform fee. Using a third-party processor such as Stripe does carry a surcharge: 2% on Basic, 1% on Growth, and 0.5% on Pro, verified July 2026 against Kajabi's pricing page.
