SamCart vs Kajabi

Kajabi vs SamCart for an existing course

Two products are left, and they answer different questions. SamCart is the pay step you put in front of lessons that already have a home. Kajabi is the account that holds the lessons, the member community, the broadcasts and the pay step together.

Kajabi's comparison describes SamCart as a product aimed at the moment of payment. The same page lists upsells, order bumps, subscriptions and offers on Kajabi's checkout. SamCart's comparison says email connects to ConvertKit, ActiveCampaign, Mailchimp and other email tools, so the broadcasts stay in the tool you already send from.

SamCart's Kajabi article says a completed purchase can enroll the buyer in a Kajabi course immediately. The charge is recorded on the SamCart side. Members still open the lessons in Kajabi. You add the cart when the pay step is the piece you want to change, and you leave the course player where people already sign in.

Kajabi's homepage groups courses, coaching, communities, memberships, email, funnels and checkout under that account. It fits a seller who is still paying for a separate course site, a separate email tool and a separate cart, and who wants those jobs in the dashboard they teach from.

Where the bump is included

SamCart's pricing page puts the bump, the upsell after checkout, and checkout A/B testing on Pro, together with everything already on Core. Core is the checkout, the pages and the courses app. That courses app sits beside the pay step. Kajabi is the account that includes the member community with the lessons.

Kajabi's comparison page is the source for its checkout list: upsells, order bumps, subscriptions and offers. People who have sold there for a while say the page is hard to reshape. A public discussion points to outside templates, custom code, or a cart such as ThriveCart placed in front of the course. That thread is about how much of the page you can change. SamCart publishes its own upsell percentages in its marketing. What separates the two for this choice is which plan includes the bump, and what that plan costs.

Support is the other note that keeps coming up among people who have stayed with Kajabi. A support thread describes the first reply as a short automated checklist, such as refreshing the app, before a harder problem reaches a person.

The two price lists

A seller whose margin comes from the bump is comparing SamCart Pro with Kajabi Basic. Core is the SamCart subscription when the offer stops at the first payment. Paying yearly on Core takes 25% off that monthly price.

The SamCart pricing breakdown and the Kajabi pricing breakdown each go through that product's plans.

Card fees on each processor

The subscription is the first bill. The processing fee applies to every sale after that.

SamCart's pricing page calls the SamPay line the processor rate, with no platform fee added on SamPay. Kajabi's pricing page says you keep what you earn. A processor other than Kajabi Payments adds the percentage in the last row, on top of that processor's own bill. The 2% add-on applies on Basic. Growth and the top plan step down to 1% and 0.5%.

Paying both subscriptions

You can run both, and you pay two subscriptions. The Kajabi plan hosts the course. SamCart Pro is the cart that enrolls the buyer after payment. Those two bills sit side by side. You pay both so checkout can carry an add-on and a second offer, and so you can test that page, while students keep watching lessons in Kajabi.

How a buyer gets in

With SamCart in front, the buyer pays on the SamCart page. The help article says enrollment into the Kajabi course happens as soon as that payment completes. The receipt, and later renewals when the offer is a subscription, sit with SamCart. The student opens Kajabi to watch.

With Kajabi alone, the buyer pays on Kajabi's checkout. The comparison page puts the add-on, the follow-up offer, the subscription and the offer on that page. The same account sends the email and hosts the community. The lesson opens there too.

My take

If the lessons already have a home, and the extra revenue is that add-on plus the second offer, I would use SamCart for checkout and leave the course where it is.

If you still want to cancel the separate email tool and the separate course site, I would pay for Kajabi and use the checkout that comes with the account.

Kajabi includes the bump on Basic and on the plans above it. Once you need more products than Basic includes, the plan is Growth.

Neither product can test a checkout while the ad URL stays the same, and neither splits the first sale across merchant accounts you own. A coach who already has an email list, a webinar, or a community can use either product for that audience. The checkout split testing guide covers a test that has to keep the ad URL fixed.

The SamCart review and the Kajabi review cover each product alone. Cart shoppers can read SamCart vs ThriveCart. If the shortlist is full platforms, read ClickFunnels vs Kajabi or Kartra vs Kajabi.