Is $69/Month Worth It for Course Creators? Full Honest Verdict
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform for digital product businesses. You can sell courses, memberships, coaching programmes, podcasts, communities, digital products — and manage everything from a single dashboard.
The key word here is all-in-one. Most platforms make you pick a role: Teachable for courses, Stripe for payments, ConvertKit for email, Circle for community. With Kajabi, you get all of it native to the platform. Payment processing is built-in. Email marketing is native. Community features are native. The student experience is unified.
I've been using Kajabi for about 18 months now. Before this, I was managing 5 different tools and paying ~$400/month in total. I switched to Kajabi Basic at $69/month and immediately felt less scattered.
Build structured courses with video lessons, text modules, quizzes, progress tracking, and completion certificates. Supports drip-feed scheduling so students unlock content weekly. The interface is genuinely intuitive — I set up a 5-module course in under 2 hours including all video uploads.
Create tiered access levels with different content for each membership tier. Recurring billing is handled natively. We use this for our VIP membership and it cuts down our admin work compared to Teachable's approach.
Integrated appointment scheduling for 1:1 coaching sessions. Clients book directly in the platform, you connect your Zoom or Google Meet, and payment is processed automatically. This alone saves me 5 hours per month handling calendar back-and-forth.
Built-in social feed, discussion groups, challenges, and events. Your students don't need to go to Discord or Mighty Networks. The engagement is lower than a dedicated community tool, but the convenience is huge — your audience stays inside Kajabi where they're already buying.
Native email sequences, broadcasts, and automations. No need to connect Mailchimp or ConvertKit. Build automated welcome sequences, course completion emails, and offer sequences. Deliverability is solid. Open rates are typical for the industry (20-25% for educational content).
Drag-and-drop page builder with pre-built sales funnels (webinar registration, free trial, product launch). Not as powerful as ClickFunnels' template library, but good enough for most creators. Conversion tracking is built-in.
Stripe and PayPal integration without extra fees beyond processing. One-time payments, recurring subscriptions, payment plans — all handled natively. This is the feature that justified switching from Teachable for us. No juggling payment processors.
Revenue dashboards, course completion rates, engagement metrics, funnel conversion tracking, and student lifetime value. The analytics are detailed enough to spot trends (e.g., which course module has the highest drop-off rate) without being overwhelming.
A 5-module advanced course with weekly drip-feed, a free email welcome sequence, Stripe payment processing, and an integrated Kajabi Community space for student discussion. We migrated our existing 200+ students from Teachable.
Setup took one afternoon. The migration from Teachable was painless — Kajabi has a built-in import tool. Our students logged in, saw the new interface, and honestly reacted better to it. The Kajabi dashboard feels more premium than Teachable's.
The biggest win: we immediately cut our monthly subscription cost from $400 to $69. We were previously paying for Teachable ($99), Mailchimp ($20), Circle community ($39), and Stripe separately. Kajabi consolidated all of that. The math is simple.
The biggest challenge: Kajabi's built-in tools are 80% as powerful as dedicated tools. The email marketing isn't as sophisticated as ConvertKit. The community engagement features aren't as rich as Mighty Networks. But the integration means I don't need those dedicated tools. I'm trading 20% less power for 90% less admin work and a lower total cost.
Honestly? For most course creators, that trade-off is excellent.
One more thing: Kajabi's customer support is responsive. I had a technical question about custom domain setup and got a helpful response within 4 hours. That's not universal across course platforms.
| Feature | Basic ($69/mo) | Growth ($199/mo) | Pro ($399/mo) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Products/courses allowed | 3 | 15 | Unlimited |
| Funnels/landing pages | 3 | 100 | 100 |
| Email contacts | 1,000 | 25,000 | 100,000 |
| Community spaces | 1 | 10 | Unlimited |
| Affiliate programme | No | Yes | Yes |
| Custom domain | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Native checkout | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Basic ($69/mo) — Start here if you have 1-2 products and under 1,000 email subscribers. You can always upgrade. The 3-product limit is the main constraint, but that's fine for most creators.
Growth ($199/mo) — Move here once you hit 1,500+ email subscribers or you're ready to launch an affiliate programme. The 25,000 contact limit covers most mid-size creators. This is the sweet spot for most people.
Pro ($399/mo) — Only if you're running a serious multi-product business with 50k+ monthly revenue. You probably don't need this unless you're already scaling hard.
Cost comparison: Kajabi Basic ($69) vs Teachable ($99) + Mailchimp ($20) + Stripe = Kajabi saves you $50/month immediately. If you factor in admin time and reduced tool friction, the ROI is obvious.
| Feature | Kajabi | Teachable | Thinkific |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course builder ease | Excellent | Excellent | Very good |
| Email marketing native | Yes, solid | No, integrate 3rd party | Yes, but basic |
| Community features | Built-in (moderate) | None | Built-in (strong) |
| Coaching/scheduling | Native | Via 3rd party | Via 3rd party |
| Payment processing | Stripe, PayPal native | Stripe, PayPal native | Stripe, PayPal native |
| Landing pages | Built-in (moderate) | No | No |
| Price (entry) | $69/mo | $39/mo | Free plan available |
| Total cost (with email) | $69/mo (all-in) | $39 + email tool ~$20-30/mo | Depends on email choice |
Kajabi wins on: Integration and all-in-one nature. You don't need a separate email tool or scheduling tool. Total cost per month is lower once you factor everything in.
Teachable wins on: Entry price ($39 vs $69) and course builder polish. If you only care about courses and don't need email/community, Teachable is lighter weight.
Thinkific wins on: Community features (significantly better than Kajabi) and a free tier for beginners. If community engagement is your priority, Thinkific might be better despite the extra email tool cost.
For most creators selling multiple products with email marketing, Kajabi is the strongest choice.
Intuitive builder, strong video delivery, excellent student experience.
Solid automation and deliverability, but less sophisticated than ConvertKit.
Premium interface, fast performance, seamless course progression.
Excellent all-in-one value, but cheaper options exist for single-tool needs.
Responsive and helpful, though sometimes slow during peak hours.
Excellent choice for serious course creators and coaches.
Test it free for 14 days. No credit card required. Set up a course, build a sales page, and experience the all-in-one workflow.
Start Your Free TrialAffiliate Disclosure: We may earn a commission if you sign up through our links. This doesn't affect our review — we test every tool personally and share only our honest take.