Skip to content
Menu

Kajabi review

Checkout & funnel software review Best of the category →

Kajabi is a real, established platform that is genuinely good for coaches and course creators who want one login for courses, community, email and checkout. For a paid-traffic seller it is the wrong tool and an expensive one: the checkout runs a single processor with no same-URL split testing or payment routing, and plans start at $179 a month.

By Marcus Reyes, Editor. Updated 27 September 2026.

Quick answer

ElasticFunnels is our top pick for most people. ElasticFunnels is the pick if you run paid ads and need to test whole checkouts under one URL while sending sales across several merchant accounts.

  • ElasticFunnels. Best for paid-traffic funnels where the landing page, the checkout and the sale stay on one customer record. From $97/mo.
  • SamCart. Best for sellers who want a hosted checkout on SamPay, Stripe or PayPal, with bumps and upsells on the Pro plan. From $79/mo.
  • ClickFunnels. Best for course creators, coaches and info-product sellers who want funnels, checkout, email and a member area in one hosted account. From $97/mo.
  • ThriveCart. Best for bumps and upsells on a monthly plan or a lifetime license. From $37/mo.
  • GoHighLevel. Best for agencies and paid-traffic sellers who want CRM, funnels and SMS together. From $97/mo.
  • Kartra. Best for coaches and course creators who want one login instead of a stack of tools. From $59/mo.
  • Paddle. Best for software, SaaS and digital-product sellers who want tax and compliance handled.
  • Checkout Champ. Best for high-volume direct-response brands that have outgrown a single processor. From $300/mo.
  • Gumroad. Best for creators selling a first digital product without a monthly fee. Has a free tier.
  • Kajabi. Best for established coaches and creators running their whole business from one dashboard. From $179/mo.
  • Lemon Squeezy. Best for software, SaaS and digital-product sellers who want tax handled for them. Has a free tier.
  • PayKickstart. Best for subscription sellers and affiliate-driven launches that want checkout, recurring billing and a referral program in one account. From $79/mo.
  • Systeme.io. Best for beginners and solo creators who want a truly free way to run funnels, email and courses in one place. Has a free tier.
  • CartFlows. Best for WooCommerce store owners who want a better checkout with order bumps, upsells and A/B testing without leaving WordPress. Has a free tier.
  • ClickBank. Best for direct-response digital and supplement offers that want a built-in affiliate army. From $49.95/mo.
  • Digistore24. Best for European and global direct-response offers that want a reseller plus a built-in affiliate network.
  • FastSpring. Best for SaaS and digital-product sellers who want worldwide tax handled.
  • FunnelKit. Best for WooCommerce stores that want an optimized checkout with order bumps and upsells plus a built-in CRM and email and SMS automation, without leaving WordPress. Has a free tier.
  • Konnektive. Best for high-volume direct-response and subscription brands that bring their own pages.
  • Sticky.io. Best for high-volume subscription and direct-response brands that route payments across many merchant accounts. From $499/mo.
  • Builderall. Best for budget-minded solopreneurs who want a whole marketing stack under one login and one bill.
  • BuyGoods. Best for experienced health and wellness affiliates and vendors who want a curated, high-payout marketplace.
  • Convertri. Best for solo marketers and agencies who run paid traffic and want the fastest-loading landing pages and funnels, with checkout, upsells and A/B testing built in.
  • JVZoo. Best for digital product and software launches built around JV partners, leaderboards, and fast listing.
  • MaxWeb. Best for experienced direct-response affiliates who want a curated CPA network with fast, reliable payouts. Has a free tier.
  • Ontraport. Best for established small businesses that want CRM, marketing and payments on one customer record. From $124/mo.
  • Perspective. Best for mobile-first lead generation, appointment and recruiting funnels run on paid social. Has a free tier.

You have probably met Kajabi the way most people do. A coach you follow mentions it, an ad promises it will turn what you know into a business, and the name keeps surfacing in every course-creator group you join. So the fair question is the one this page answers: is Kajabi the real thing, and will you regret paying for it?

The short answer to "is it real" is yes. The company has run since 2010, it is well-funded, and it says more than 100,000 businesses have earned over $12 billion in sales on the platform. Whether you regret buying it depends almost entirely on what you sell and how you find your customers, and that is where an honest review has to slow down.

What Kajabi actually is

It is one platform for running a knowledge business. On a single login you can build and sell online courses, run coaching programs, host a membership site and a community, send marketing emails, publish landing pages and funnels, and take payment through a built-in checkout. The pitch is that it replaces the five or six separate tools a solo creator would otherwise stitch together, and for its target customer that pitch is largely true.

That target customer is a coach, consultant, educator or creator selling their own expertise. If you sell courses, coaching, memberships or digital programs and you want them to live in one polished, branded place, this is built for exactly that job and does it well. Long-term users say the appeal is not any single feature but never having to reach for a third-party app to get something done.

Who it is not for

This site ranks checkout and funnel software for teams that point paid ads at an offer. Kajabi is not built for that reader first, and pretending otherwise is how people end up regretting the bill.

Three gaps matter if you live on paid traffic. The checkout runs a single payment processor, so you cannot spread volume across several merchant accounts, which is what nutra, supplement, subscription and other high-risk sellers need. There is no same-URL split testing, so you cannot rotate whole checkout variants under one campaign link the way an ad platform's optimisation prefers. And the checkout, while capable, is built for courses and coaching rather than cold traffic at scale. If those are your requirements, it will feel limiting no matter how much you pay. For a coach selling to a warm audience from email and social, none of it applies, and the single-processor checkout is perfectly fine. Match the tool to the job.

Its closest peer for the coaching and creator reader is Kartra, which folds the same pieces into one login and leans a little harder on funnels and checkout. If you want the paid-traffic platforms instead, they are the ones ranked in our best checkout and funnel software roundup.

The price is the real decision

Kajabi sits at the expensive end of its category, and it raised prices across every plan in January 2026. Basic now starts at $179 a month, or $143 if you pay for the year up front. The popular Growth plan runs $249 monthly, which works out to $2,388 a year before you have paid a cent in card processing. Pro is $499.

What softens that number is the fee model: the company takes no percentage of your sales. You pay the plan and standard card processing, 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic falling to 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro, and nothing more. For a higher-ticket coaching or course business doing real volume, a flat fee with no revenue share often works out cheaper than a percentage-fee storefront. For someone launching a first product with little revenue, it is a heavy fixed cost, and cheaper course tools will get you to a first sale for a fraction of it. The full breakdown is in our Kajabi pricing guide.

The support caveat

The most consistent long-term complaint is support, and it comes up even from people who otherwise like the platform. One customer of four years described the service as "horrendous", with the only channel a chat that is "mostly AI and useless" and replies arriving hours apart. If you rely on fast human help when a launch breaks at 11pm, factor that in before you commit to an annual plan.

So will you regret it?

You will regret it if you buy it to run paid traffic, if you are validating a first offer with no revenue yet, or if fast support is non-negotiable for you. You will not regret it if you are an established coach or creator with a real audience, you want courses, community, email and checkout in one place, and you would rather pay one predictable fee than assemble and maintain a stack. Start on a monthly plan, run a real checkout, a refund and an email sequence through it during the trial, and you will know whether it fits before the first full bill. If it does not, the paid-traffic platforms in our Kajabi alternatives are the ones to weigh next.

What works

  • Genuinely one platform for the whole business. Courses, coaching, a community, memberships, email, landing pages and a checkout run under one login, so you stop paying for and wiring together five or six separate tools.
  • Kajabi takes no cut of your sales. You pay the plan fee and card processing, and the checkout handles order bumps, one-click upsells and subscriptions, so a higher-ticket coaching or course business keeps more of its revenue than on a percentage-fee storefront.
  • It is established and well-funded. Kajabi has been operating since 2010 and says more than 100,000 businesses have earned over $12 billion through it, so a disappearance mid-launch is unlikely.
  • The pages, checkout and student experience look polished out of the box, with a large template library, so a solo creator can ship a professional-looking course or membership without a designer.

What to watch

  • It is expensive, and prices rose again in January 2026. Plans start at $179 a month, and the popular Growth plan is $2,388 a year before processing fees, which is hard to justify until you are already selling consistently.
  • Support is the most common long-term complaint. Customers who have been with Kajabi for four years say the first chat replies are mostly automated, and that a complex issue can take hours or days to resolve.
  • The checkout charges through one payment processor. Same-URL split testing and multi-MID routing are not included, so media buyers who rotate checkouts or spread sales across merchant accounts need a different tool for that work. A coach selling to a warm audience rarely needs either feature.
  • Running the whole business inside one platform is its own risk. An outage or an account issue can take your site, courses, email and checkout down at once. Long-term users point to that risk.
Kajabi's three pricing cards billed annually: Basic $143/mo ($1,716/year), Growth $199/mo ($2,388/year) and Pro $399/mo ($4,788/year), each noting 14 days free and a 30-day money-back guarantee, with feature bullets including courses, community and built-in checkout.
Plan prices. Kajabi's three pricing cards billed annually: Basic $143/mo ($1,716/year), Growth $199/mo ($2,388/year) and Pro $399/mo ($4,788/year), each noting 14 days free and a 30-day money-back guarantee, with feature bullets including courses, community and built-in checkout. Screenshot: kajabi.com,

What buyers keep saying

Research: unverified

Checkout flexibility

Experienced sellers like Kajabi pages but treat the native checkout as limited unless you customize it or plug in a dedicated cart.

“Their checkout page out of the box isn't super flexible. Again, there are 3rd-party templates to use and coding you can do. Some people use ThriveCart.”

u/ErikaFriday8 Reddit: What's kajabi like for selling?

What Kajabi costs

PlanMonthlyIncludes
Basic$1795 products and up to 2,500 contacts, with 1 website, 1 community and 2 admin seats. Unlimited page publishing, funnels and marketing emails. Yearly plan: $143/mo.
Growth$249A 50-product catalog and storage for 25,000 contacts, with 1 website, 1 community and support for 11 admins. Adds advanced automations, affiliate programs and removal of Kajabi branding. Annual price: $199/mo.
Pro$499Unlimited products and a 100,000-contact allowance, with 3 websites, 3 communities and 26 administrator accounts. Includes API access, a custom code editor and a branded mobile app. With yearly billing: $399/mo.

Monthly prices are $179 for Basic, $249 for Growth and $499 for Pro. Annual billing reduces them to $143, $199 and $399. The subscription has no platform revenue share. US Kajabi Payments rates run from 2.9% + $0.30 on Basic to 2.7% + $0.30 on Pro; supported third-party processors add 2%, 1% or 0.5% by plan. There is a 14-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Verified against the vendor's pricing page on 2026-09-29.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Kajabi cost?
It starts at $179 per month. See the plans above for what each tier includes.
Does Kajabi offer a free trial?
Yes. Kajabi offers a 14-day free trial, which asks for a card up front.
Is Kajabi built for high-volume paid traffic?
Kajabi connects a single processor by default, so sellers spreading volume across several merchant accounts will find it limiting.

What we read

From Kajabi

Other sources

3 discussions and reviews read for this page. Quotes are excerpts; open a link to read the original in context.

  1. [r1] What's kajabi like for selling? Reddit,
  2. [r2] Kajabi Customer Service Reddit,
  3. [r3] Anyone else looking to get off Kajabi because of the price increases? Reddit,

Changelog

  • 27 September 2026 – First published. Pricing and features verified against the vendor's own pages.

Written by

Last checked 2026-09-29

Comments

No comments yet. Questions and your own experience are welcome.

Leave a comment

Thank you. Your comment will appear once it has been reviewed.