Build my stackKajabi vs Teachable
Kajabi and Teachable solve different halves of the same problem: Teachable delivers courses cleanly at a low entry price, while Kajabi runs the entire business around them, including email marketing, funnels, community, coaching, and checkout. After January 13, 2026, Kajabi starts at $179 per month against Teachable's $39 Starter. The deciding question is whether you need the marketing machinery or just a place to host lessons.
Choose Kajabi if you sell through funnels, want unlimited built-in email, run high-ticket coaching, or are replacing three or more tools, because nothing in Teachable's lineup replaces Pipelines or its automation depth. Choose Teachable if pure course delivery is the whole job: Starter at $39 gets you running, Builder at $89 removes the 7.5% transaction fee, and Growth at $189 still undercuts Kajabi Basic. Do not pick Teachable expecting marketing infrastructure; do not pick Kajabi to save money.
When comparing Kajabi and Teachable, Kajabi comes out ahead with a 3.8/5 score for established creators and coaches above roughly $2K per month who want courses, email, funnels, and checkout under one login. Kajabi starts at $179/mo, while Teachable starts at $29/mo billed annually. Choose Kajabi for established creators and coaches above roughly $2K per month who want courses, email, funnels, and checkout under one login, or Teachable for course creators and coaches who want the fastest polished launch and can accept a 7.5 percent fee on the entry tier until revenue justifies Builder.
Who stands behind these tools
Kajabi
- Company
- Kajabi
- Founded
- 2010
- Headquarters
- Newport Beach, California, USA
- CEO
- Ahad Khan
- G2
- 4.1/5 · 93 reviews
Pricing & features verified 2026-08-23
Teachable
- Company
- Teachable, Inc.
- Founded
- 2013
- Headquarters
- New York City, New York, USA
- CEO
- Founded by Ankur Nagpal and Conrad Wadowski; owned by Hotmart since 2020
- G2
- 3.8/5 · 52 reviews
Pricing & features verified 2026-08-23
Kajabi vs Teachable at a glance
| Kajabi | Teachable | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Learning & Courses | Learning & Courses |
| Our rating | 3.8 / 5 | 3.8 / 5 |
| Starts at | $179/mo | $29/mo billed annually |
| Free tier | No | No |
| Best for | Established creators and coaches above roughly $2K per month who want courses, email, funnels, and checkout under one login | Course creators and coaches who want the fastest polished launch and can accept a 7.5 percent fee on the entry tier until revenue justifies Builder |
Side-by-Side Feature Matrix
| Feature | Kajabi | Teachable | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Tier Access | Teachable has free tier | ||
| Native Time Tracking | Built-in timer & logging capabilities | ||
| AI Assistant & Summary | AI text generation & automated summary support | ||
| Custom Views (Board/List/Gantt) | Multiple workspace view perspectives | ||
| Mobile Apps (iOS & Android) | Native mobile app support | ||
| CSV & Workspace Export | Full data portability and CSV exports | ||
| Role-Based Permissions | Granular access controls per member | ||
| Workflow Automations | Trigger-action automation rules | ||
| External Guest Sharing | Client and guest collaboration access | ||
| Enterprise SSO & SAML | Single Sign-On enterprise security |
How they scored, dimension by dimension
Teachable Starter costs $39 monthly against Kajabi Basic's $179 after the January 2026 restructure. The catch is Starter's 7.5% transaction fee, which disappears only from the $89 Builder plan up.
Kajabi includes unlimited sends, tagging, segmentation, and sequences on every plan. Teachable has no native email marketing engine, so buyers add Mailchimp or ConvertKit and pay twice.
Pipelines ship prebuilt launch and evergreen funnels with order bumps and upsells at checkout. Teachable offers coupons and payment plans but no funnel builder and no one-click upsells.
Both handle drip lessons, quizzes, and certificates well. Kajabi adds cohort courses on Growth and assessments with automation hooks, while Teachable counters with a gentler editor and cleaner student experience.
Teachable launches a first course in an afternoon because there is less surface area. Kajabi's breadth carries a real learning curve that our testing measured across a full workspace build.
Both lean on chat and email with no phone line, and both draw complaints about bot-first support. Teachable edges ahead on trust thanks to its official 30-day money-back guarantee; Kajabi refunds stay strict.
What Real Users Actually Say
First-person quotes gathered from Reddit, X, and tech forums. We keep the exact wording, including the complaints, so you see both tools without the marketing gloss.
What people praise
"I used to have ClickFunnels and ActiveCampaign... WAY easier to just use Kajabi."
✓ G2 review, 2026 · Consolidation payoff after leaving a multi-tool stack.
"My monthly expenses are 50% of what I was paying."
✓ Capterra review aggregate, 2026 · Replacement math once three tools collapse into one.
What people complain about
"I had to use ChatGPT to figure out my issue as the Kajabi BOT was giving me wrong information."
▲ Trustpilot review, 2026 · Bot-first support failing basic questions.
"My plan when I started was around $149, now they want $249+."
▲ Trustpilot review, Jan 2026 · Reaction to the ungrandfathered January 2026 price restructure.
What people praise
"The information was quick, clear and easy to understand."
✓ Trustpilot review, Aug 16 2026 · Support answers landing fast when reached.
"Answering emails in under a minute, friendly and extremely helpful."
✓ Trustpilot review, Jul 23 2026 · Chat response speed praised.
What people complain about
"Waiting until the next day is unacceptable for a platform I pay this much for every month."
▲ Trustpilot user quoted in a 2026 review roundup · Slow responses on paid plans.
"After submitting an email, a week will go by and no one will answer."
▲ Capterra review, surfaced on Teachable's live reviews page · Email-only support gaps.
Match your priority to a tool
If your top priority is X, here is which one we would pick and why. Order matters, so read these from your biggest concern down.
| Your top priority | Pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| You want email, funnels, and checkout inside one login | Kajabi | Kajabi bundles all three natively; Teachable forces a third-party email tool and has no funnel builder at any price. |
| Your budget sits under $50 per month | Teachable | Teachable Starter is $39, though budget buyers must accept its 7.5% transaction fee until upgrading to Builder at $89. |
| You sell high-ticket coaching packages | Kajabi | Kajabi ships a native scheduler, client milestones, and session management; Teachable has no coaching product equivalent. |
| A refund safety net matters to you | Teachable | Teachable publishes a 30-day money-back guarantee, while Kajabi's refund policy stays strict even for documented emergencies. |
| Order bumps and upsells drive your revenue | Kajabi | Kajabi checkout includes bumps, upsells, and payment plans out of the box; Teachable supports neither natively. |
| Several teammates need admin seats | Either | Teachable Growth includes 5 admins at $189; Kajabi includes 10 on Growth at $249 and 25 on Pro at $499, so scale decides it. |
Where Kajabi shines
- Courses, email, funnels, website, and checkout genuinely replace four separate subscriptions
- Unlimited emails and landing pages on every plan, including Basic
- Pipelines ship unlimited on all tiers, rare in this category
- Behavioral automations tie email to course progress without third-party glue
- January 2026 prices jumped 20 to 25 percent with no grandfathering for legacy customers
- Basic contact cap fell from 10,000 to 2,500, forcing earlier upgrades to Growth
Where Teachable shines
- Fastest clean setup we have timed on any hosted course platform: our test school went from signup to published course in under two hours
- The student-facing course player remains the most polished in the category, on web and inside well-rated mobile apps
- Zero platform transaction fee on Builder and above when you use teachable:pay
- The AI course generator drafts a usable curriculum skeleton in minutes, and bulk edit makes publishing fast
- The free plan died in June 2025. Entry now costs $39 per month, and the trial lasts only 7 days with a card required
- Starter taxes every sale at 7.5 percent before processing fees, the harshest beginner fee in this category
AI Head-to-Head Arbiter
Get an instant custom comparison and clear recommendation for your specific situation.
AI Advocate Debate
A structured 3-round head-to-head match between verified software advocates.
Round 1: Speed, User Experience, and Day-One Velocity
Kajabi Advocate
Pro-Kajabi Stance
Kajabi is built specifically for Established creators and coaches above roughly $2K per month who want courses, email, funnels, and checkout under one login. Its main superpower is Courses, email, funnels, website, and checkout genuinely replace four separate subscriptions, allowing teams to get up and running without endless configuration friction.
"While Teachable offers plenty of options, it often requires more setup overhead before you see actual productivity gains."
Teachable Advocate
Pro-Teachable Stance
Teachable excels where deep power is required. Best for Course creators and coaches who want the fastest polished launch and can accept a 7.5 percent fee on the entry tier until revenue justifies Builder, its standout advantage is Fastest clean setup we have timed on any hosted course platform: our test school went from signup to published course in under two hours, giving teams greater autonomy as workflows expand.
"Kajabi can feel constrained once your team outgrows its default feature boundaries."
So which should you pick?
Choose Kajabi if
- Creators above $2K monthly revenue consolidating an email tool, funnel builder, and course host into one bill
Choose Teachable if
- Budget-first instructors who want clean course delivery without paying for marketing machinery they will not switch on
What it really costs to switch
Migration is where tools quietly win or lose. Here is what moving your data and workflows each way actually involves, based on our own export and import testing.
Teachable → Kajabi
Moving from Teachable to Kajabi means rebuilding structure, not just importing files. Students and media transfer cleanly, but quizzes, certificates, and any external email sequences get recreated by hand inside Products and Automations.
- 1.Export students as CSV from Teachable and import them as Kajabi contacts.
- 2.Download videos and PDFs, then rebuild modules inside a Kajabi Product.
- 3.Recreate drip schedules, quizzes, and certificates in the new Product.
- 4.Rebuild email sequences as Kajabi broadcasts and Automations.
- 5.Repoint your domain and keep Teachable live until stragglers finish.
Kajabi → Teachable
Leaving Kajabi for Teachable is heavier because exports cover contacts and media files only. Page designs, Pipelines, and automations do not leave, and billing relationships through Kajabi Payments strand existing subscribers who must re-enter cards.
- 1.Export contacts CSV and download all media assets.
- 2.Rebuild each course manually in Teachable's builder.
- 3.Choose a replacement email platform since Teachable has none native.
- 4.Recreate funnels externally because Pipelines are not portable.
- 5.Announce card re-entry to subscribers before cancelling Kajabi Payments.
What the price tags do not tell you
The sticker price is only the first month. These are the limits, renewals, and surcharges that actually bite in year two.
Kajabi traps
- •January 13, 2026 raised Basic from $149 to $179, Growth from $199 to $249, and Pro from $399 to $499 with no grandfathering for legacy customers.
- •The Basic contact cap fell from 10,000 to 2,500, pushing growing lists onto Growth at $249 far earlier than before.
- •Subscriptions carry a 0.7% surcharge on top of processing, making recurring charges effectively 3.6% plus $0.30 on Basic.
- •Chargebacks cost $15 each, and Kajabi keeps that fee even when you win the dispute.
Teachable traps
- •Starter takes 7.5% of every sale until you reach Builder at $89 per month, which quietly doubles the real cost for low-volume sellers doing real revenue.
- •Active-student caps run 100 on Starter, 1,000 on Builder, and 5,000 on Growth, lifting only after $10K in yearly sales.
- •International card processing runs 3.9% plus $0.30 versus 2.9% domestically, a surprise for global audiences.
- •There is no free plan despite legacy messaging suggesting otherwise; the trial lasts seven days.
Teachable is cheaper to start but taxes early success through the Starter fee and student caps; Kajabi charges more upfront and then hides costs in surcharges and caps of its own. Above roughly $2,000 monthly revenue, Kajabi's flat model beats Teachable's fee ladder.
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Kajabi (Rated 3.8/5)