Kajabi Review 2026: Pricing, Fees and Is It Worth It

Kajabi sells itself as one bill for an expert business: courses, communities, newsletters, coaching, memberships and podcasts, with email, websites and checkout on the same account. For someone building or selling AI courses, the question is narrower.

Does the bundle replace tools you already pay for, and what does it cost once the list grows?

This review answers both with numbers. Toolradar data: we evaluated 69 online course platforms, and 42% of them are free, freemium or open source.

Kajabi is not in that free group, because all three of its plans are paid and the standard trial runs 14 days. The online course platforms ranking covers the wider field.

This page stays with one vendor and the three rivals that price the same job.

Methodology: every price here is verified on the vendor's own pricing page in October 2026, and the cost scenario is computed from those prices. The scenario is one AI course at $297 with 150 sales a year, which is $44,550 in gross sales, with 2,500 contacts and one admin. Card processing is left out of every total, because each platform charges it on top.

Kajabi is a hosted platform for selling courses, memberships, coaching, digital downloads and podcasts from one account. Email marketing, landing pages, funnels and a contact CRM sit in the same product. It is aimed at established experts who already have an audience and want to stop stitching tools together.

The product is closer to a marketing suite with a course builder attached than to a plain course host.

Each plan sets the limits that matter. Basic allows 5 products, 2,500 contacts, one website, one community and 2 admin users.

Growth lifts that to 50 products, 25,000 contacts and 11 admin users. Pro removes the product cap, allows 100,000 contacts, three websites, three communities and 26 admin users. Marketing emails, landing pages, funnels and access groups are unlimited on every plan, so the contact count and the admin seats are the limits to watch.

Setup runs from one dashboard for the course, the sales page, the email sequence and checkout. That convenience has a setup cost. There are more pieces to configure than on a course-only platform, and the page builder and automations are where a first-time user will spend the most time.

The trial lets you test that setup before you pay.

The standard Kajabi trial runs 14 days. During the trial, bulk contact import, editing site-wide email templates, sending test emails from templates and several automation actions stay locked, including sending emails and certificates, one-time coupons, granting offers and registering event contacts.

Activating a paid plan ends the trial immediately, so finish any contact import before you choose a plan.

If you mainly need a site, the website builder ranking compares dedicated tools you could pair with a course platform, and the screen recording tools ranking covers the lesson-recording side.

Kajabi publishes three paid plans in USD, each shown monthly and billed yearly. Basic is $179 a month, or $143 a month billed yearly, which comes to $1,716 a year and saves $432. Growth is $249 a month, or $199 billed yearly ($2,388 a year, saving $600).

Pro is $499 a month, or $399 billed yearly ($4,788 a year, saving $1,200). The Kajabi pricing page lists these figures, and annual billing is 20% off the monthly price.

The step-ups are where budgets move.

Going from Basic to Growth adds $56 a month billed yearly, or $672 a year. Growth to Pro adds $200 a month, or $2,400 a year. A creator who outgrows the 2,500-contact cap pays that step even if the course catalogue stays small.

The table below prices one AI course at $297 with 150 sales a year, 2,500 contacts and one admin.

Each row is a full year's cost, and Systeme.io, which shows no annual price on its pricing page, uses monthly billing.

Card processing is excluded from every total.

Kajabi Basic costs $888 a year more than Teachable Builder in this scenario.

That gap buys the email, landing pages, funnels and community. Teachable's plan cards do not list email or funnel tools, so Kajabi is the one that bundles them.

Systeme.io Startup is the cheapest line in the table, $1,512 a year below Kajabi Basic at monthly billing.

Annual billing gives two months free. Its 5 courses and 10 funnels are a smaller allowance, and the next step up is Webinar at $47 a month once the list passes 5,000 contacts. Podia has no plan in the table that covers 2,500 contacts.

Its top plan, Earthquaker at $150 a month, caps subscribers at 1,000.

Teachable Starter looks cheapest on its subscription, at $348 a year, but its 7.5% fee adds $3,341 on this scenario.

Starter only beats Builder below $6,400 of annual sales, the point where its 7.5% fee equals the $480 yearly subscription gap.

Prices and fees for each rival are on its own pricing page: Teachable, Podia and Systeme.io.

Our Teachable review goes deeper on that platform's tiers.

Kajabi suits an established expert or small team that already sells from an email list and wants courses, email, funnels and a community on one invoice. For that buyer, the bundle is the value, and Basic is the entry point while the list stays under 2,500 contacts.

Skip it for a first AI course.

A solo seller with one course and no list pays for suite features they will not use. Teachable Builder covers the course alone, and Systeme.io Startup covers a small list at $17 a month. Teams that train staff at scale should read the LearnWorlds review, which covers the course-and-LMS side of the market.

If lead capture is the real need, the form builders ranking is the better place to start.